Hey Friend! Is there something your heart yearns to do but you’re ignoring it?
Pick Up That Dream, Dust it off,
and Start Living It!
Also check out the bonus video and FREE resources below to help you live life more abundantly.
Hey Friend, welcome to The View From My Kayak series! It isn’t just about kayaking. It’s about having courage to make your dreams come true even when you are scared, feel weak, are unsure, doubt yourself, and are in it alone. I share how I overcame obstacles and ventured out on my first few kayak excursions. There were victories, mishaps, danger, and glorious moments as well as some great life-lessons learned along the way. In the end I climbed the mountain of doubt and gained confidence and achievement. I hope to inspire you to go after your own dreams and make them happen. Life is too short to only wish for the life you long for. Instead, pick up that dream, dust it off, and start living it.
This is the first of 13 articles. See the end of this article for links to additional articles in this series.
What is your dream?
Do you have a passion tugging at your sleeve for attention? Some set-aside dream that wants to be brought back to life? Some ambition, yearning, or adventure that needs fulfilled?
Do you long to pick that love up but can’t see when or how that might ever happen? I’m here to encourage you to pick up that dream, dust it off, and start living it!
Sure, there will be obstacles that get in the way to pursuing your dreams. You can overcome them and find great fulfillment in doing the thing you love even if you are scared and feel like you can’t do it.
Sometimes you just have to make it happen one courageous step at a time. That’s what I did and I’m here to encourage you to do it too! I’ve created a planning worksheet to help you through the steps I followed and I’d love to share it with you! You can grab it at the end of this article.
For now I’ll tell you about my dream and what I did about it. And it wasn’t stuffing it back into its box. It was time to give that dream wings. Is it time to give your dreams wings too?
My big dream
As a young single woman, I bungee jumped, cliff dived into the Snake River, went rock rappelling, and ran whitewater rivers. But when I became a wife and a mother my nerve waned. Sanity settled in my bones and I realized I couldn’t risk NOT being there for my family.
Crazy Adventure took a back seat to Lovely Life. I am today a happy, breathing, LIVING wife and mother. But, there is that part of me, that adventurous girl, that thinks wistfully of my bungee-jumping, cliff-diving, river-running days with yearning.
However, I did find adventure that filled my senses that was more sensical as a mother with a family: hiking, biking, and kayaking.
We like to say we are a “hiking, biking, kayaking” family.
We had hiked, biked, and kayaked in Lake Tahoe, Maui, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, California, Grand Teton National Park, and Utah. It was glorious!
But my kids came clean with me: they don’t love kayaking like I do.
Neither does my husband!
…But I can’t get enough of it.
This was a big problem for me. I wanted to kayak – a lot! It was not only tapping me on the shoulder but pulsing through my heart and mind with fierce insistence. But I couldn’t find anyone to go with me. And it was hard to get away with small kids at home.
My kayaks gathered dust and were moved from one storage place to another over the years, seeing water only once or twice a summer.
My family went with me when I’d ask. But it’s not very fun to go when they start checking the time just as I’m getting started.
When I’m on the water in my kayak I feel like breaking out into John Denver’s song You Fill Up My Senses (Annie’s Song).
I love…
the flashes of light dancing on the water.
…the way the world reflects back its colors on the glass surface of the lake.
…the soft lapping sound of the water against the hull and the way my paddle pulls through the water leaving a swirling eddy behind me.
…the color of the water! Sometimes blue, sometimes, green, sometimes turquois.
…the breeze smelling of wilderness.
…the sun warm on my face.
…the stillness and quiet penetrating and calming my nerves.
It’s pure heaven and ultimate bliss. I can’t get enough.
Anytime we pass a body of water, I sigh and say out loud, “Right there, I want to go kayaking right there!” My family teases me and says, “We know, Mom, we know.” Every shimmering lake, winding river, and reflective pond just begs to be explored!
Make it happen
There are lots of reasons why I hadn’t gone kayaking much up to that point in my life – let alone gone alone.
Do any of these obstacles sound familiar as you’ve contemplated chasing your own dreams?
- I can’t afford the gear.
- I can’t leave my little kids for hours and hours.
- I can’t find anyone to go with me.
- It is sometimes just easier to NOT go than wrangle my kids and all the equipment needed, not to mention deal with attitudes (it’s boring!) and packing lunch and snacks.
- I’d be lonely going by myself, maybe even a little nervous!
- I don’t live near the great destinations.
- I doubt I could really do it on my own – do I have what it takes? Or am I just a lot of talk?
- Maybe it’s selfish of me to pursue this dream.
What obstacles are in your way, keeping you from living your dream?
Eventually, my kids were older. We had a little more spending money to afford the gear to make it possible. And finally I was just tired of WISHING I could go kayaking, WANTING to go, feeling RESENTFUL that I wasn’t going, and HURT that no one wanted to go with me.
Sometimes you have to just make your own sunshine!
I determined to make it happen. I didn’t know how, but the water was calling me with an intensity that I couldn’t ignore. I figured out ways to get out in my kayak, even if that meant going solo until I found paddling friends. And in the process, I felt power and peace. I also felt scared and intimidated, unsure and sometimes crazy.
In this series The View From My Kayak, I’ll share how I overcame obstacles and ventured out on my first few kayak excursions. There were victories, mishaps, danger, and glorious moments as well as some great life lessons learned along the way. In the end I climbed the mountain of doubt and uncertainty and gained confidence and achievement. I went after my dreams even though it scared me and I lived to tell about it!
I hope to inspire you to go after your own dreams with courage and creativity to make them happen. Life is too short to only wish for the life you long for. Instead, pick up that dream, dust it off, and start living it!
I also give helpful, kayak-specific information to help you if you ever want to start kayaking yourself and to give you a glimpse at some great kayaking destinations in Utah in case you ever want to go there.
Hey Friend, what is calling you? What is holding you back from doing the thing that you love, that you have dreamed about doing? What steps can you take to come just that much closer to making your dreams come true? Get creative and courageous and take one step to get you closer to living your dream. You’ll be so happy you did and the momentum may propell you farther than you thought possible.
Grab your FREE printable Dream Planning Worksheet here!
I’ve created this FREE Big-Dream Planning Worksheet to help you brainstorm, plan, and accomplish your dreams. It’s my gift to you when you sign up to receive notes of inspiration from me in your inbox. Leave your first name, email address and click the subscribe button.You’ll be pursuing your dreams in no time!
Read the rest of the articles in this series:
- Pick Up that Dream, Dust it Off, and Start Living It! My Story of Choosing to Live My Dream.
- First Solo Kayak Trip: 3 Steps to Start Living Your Dream
- Close Call to Catastrophe and What I Learned When Things Went Wrong .
- Payson Lakes in the Fall: Finding Places of Connection and Wholeness
- 3 Life Lessons I Learned Paddling Provo River Alone for the First Time
- Paddling Utah Lake: Getting Un-Stuck in Life
- Kayaking the Great Salt Lake: Paddling through a Sea of Clouds
- I Blame Them for this Crazy Obsession
- Chasing the Sun to Sand Hollow Day 1: Why Sand Hollow is One of the Best Kayak Destinations in Utah
- Getting Past Panic at Sand Hollow Reservoir
- Chasing the Sun to Sand Hollow Day 2: The Joy of Being Surprised by the Unexpected
- The One Thing That Makes it Possible to PursueYour Dreams
- Life Seasons: Six Things You Can Do Right Now When Your Dream Feels Out of Reach
Hey Friend!
Do you want to live life more abundantly?
You’re not alone. I’ve got great news for you. Watch the video for a virtual hug and words of encouragement from me. You’ve got this!
Yes! Please send the Abundance Toolkit to me.
Hey Friend, do you want more ABUNDANCE in your life? Start with the Abundance Toolkit.
The ABUNDANCE TOOLKIT can help you make the changes you want to live life more abundantly.
It’s my FREE gift to you. Just grab it here.
Yes! Please send the Abundance Toolkit to me.
The Abundant Toolkit is my gift to you when you sign up to receive inspirational notes from me in your inbox (don’t worry! I’ll only send great stuff and never send spam!). When you sign up you’ll have access to my private Gifts for You Collection here at my website where I keep the Abundance Toolkit and a whole lot of other awesome resources to help you live life more abundantly.
What’s in the Abundance Toolkit?
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13 page printable workbook.
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3 tools to help you identify and apply principles of abundance in your life right now.
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Questions to help you determine where you’re out of balance with abundance.
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Specific and personal actions you can take to live life more abundantly starting today.
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In #2 in this series First Solo Kayak Trip: Feeling like a Superhero I share my Super Woman Kayaking Experience – going solo for the first time. I did it! Yay go me!
