MUSINGS: CRAFT YOUR LIFE FROM DAYDREAMS

hi everyone, welcome to my second installment of musings! we’re leaving monday for a two week trip to the east coast and the anticipation has got me thinking…

i love traveling.  when i have a trip on the books it’s just about all i can think about.  it consumes me, i can spend hours daydreaming about what i’ll see, eat, wear.  the people i’ll meet, the people i love who i’ll visit.  i get excited for the smells, sounds and tastes that will be new to me.  the airports, trains, planes, taxis, and hotel beds, i love it ALL.  but the thing i love most is the feeling i get when i’m in the midst of it.  i feel somehow more alive, more myself, more open to what life brings me.  

traveling, for me, is that thing that really moves me.  it’s what stirs the creativity inside me, it feeds the adventurous part of my spirit, it expands my sense of self to encompass the entire world rather than my tiny little at-home world.  i feel most like myself when i’m away from home and outside of my comfort zone, if that makes sense.  it’s one of the most fulfilling things that i do.  

and so i wonder, why not more?  

what is it that moves you, that really makes you feel ALIVE?  is it a part of your everyday life?  should it be?  in writing this i’m reminded that we’re truly responsible for crafting our lives, shaping daydreams into realities.  so, i’m going to be spending more time day dreaming and more time crafting.  here’s to all of us having the lives of our wildest imaginations!  xx- sarah

* is that graphic not killing you with awesomeness?  we have aileen cheng to thank for that!  best. designer. ever. 

MUSINGS : TAKE SMALL STEPS

hi everyone!  as promised, i’m going to start sharing some of my random thoughts, life lessons, and general contemplations about whatever comes up.  this series is going to be called musings, at least until i think of something better (WHY ARE TITLES THE HARDEST THING EVER?!).  and if you have anything specific you want me to ramble on about, you know where to find me!  {here, silly!}

today i want to talk about something that’s been on my mind lately, and what i’ve realized has opened up a world of doors for me.  i used to look at a goal or ambition and become insanely overwhelmed thinking about all of the daunting details involved with achieving it.  i’d get so defeated that i’d often give up before i started.  point A to point B would often seem SO far away and almost impossible to imagine getting to. what i’ve learned since then is that the best way to get where you want to go (or become who you want to be) is one small step at a time.  

for example, i spent all of my 20’s wishing i knew how to cook, wanting to be one of those people that could swoop into a kitchen and whip up something incredible with whatever was on hand.  but i didn’t see a direct route to become that person, so i was overwhelmed and just sort of accepted that it wasn’t meant to be.  i thought maybe i just wasn’t that person.  but i’ve since realized that that person didn’t wake up one day, breeze into the kitchen and throw together an amazing meal.  they started at a beginning somewhere and took who knows how many steps to become kitchen fluent before they EVER just spontaneously threw together an incredible dish.  and after my fair share of time in the kitchen following recipes, browsing cookbooks, experimenting (and failing) i am now proudly a person who can improvise in the kitchen!  {more after the jump}

so my advice is this: whatever it is you want to accomplish, forget about how long it will take you to get there, don’t focus on everything that will be involved in doing so, and instead sink all of your energy into doing any small thing that will get you closer.  

do you want to be a person who travels the world?  start a savings account, create a vision board of photos of the places you want to go, start journaling and write about the places you want to visit, get a part time job and squirrel those extra pennies away for your travel adventures, subscribe to a travel magazine, plan a garage sale to get rid of some of your stuff and put the proceeds into your piggy bank.  just tackle something every day that moves you in that direction. focus on the small things you can do to get you onto that flight to nepal. don’t worry about the big picture, life/momentum/the universe will take care of the rest. i promise, one day you will wake up and realize YOU ARE that person that travels the world.  

what do you think?  have you experienced similar anxiety when looking at a something you want to accomplish/become and then let that anxiety paralyze you?  what have you done to move past it?  thanks everyone, i hope you like this new series!  more soon.  xx- sarah