How to pursue dreams

and lead an artist life

Hi there!

Have you ever written a book or do you dream about writing one?

If you have written one already, the likeliness that you still hold a dream of writing another is high, so I’ll address the dream part of the artist life in this essay.

If it resonates with you, don’t hesitate to spread it far and wide with the mission to inspire more creatives to pick a dream and start taking action.

When we have dreams about making certain things (like HUGE creative projects such as a book), we tend to retreat into containment first.

Why?

Because we know that dreams take time and that they usually require loads of energy, discomfort and risk. To pursue dreams require conscious EFFORT and that is scary as hell.

To realise a dream is a huge undertaking, because what if the process will be harder than we imagine it will be? Worse; What if our efforts won’t bear fruit and we’ll feel like failures with a dream further away than ever?

Truth is:

All dreams tend to be harder to realise than we imagine them to be. This is just a fact about anything that matters. A hard to swallow fact, which makes us feel weak in the knees for even daring to dream the dream in the first place.

There’s usually a lot of risk involved in dreams too. Because should the dream realise itself it means whatever equilibrium or comfort we have today will be thrown out of balance. What would that mean for our own reality? And for our loved ones?

As mothers the risk surrounding dreams is even greater, because suddenly there’s the element of “How will the children be impacted?” and “Am I selfish for pursuing my own dreams when I should* surrender?”.

*By the way, the should is italicised to highlight the conditioning mothers have to endure involving their whereabouts

Most dreams get put on hold due to external noise turned internalised truth.

We allow the noise to influence us into inaction, telling ourselves “I’ll do it later when the time is right”.

But the thing is: The time is never right. There will always be circumstances putting a dream to the back end of the priority list.

Just think about it… How many things do you have lingering in the back of your mind with the label “One day”.

I am quite proactive when it comes to dream-chasing and yet I’ve got LOADS of “One day” stuff living rent-free in my mind. In some way I’m grateful that I’ve got so many of them, because it gives life and purpose on a deeper level.

A sense of direction when I feel lost in the habits of the daily grind.

Whenever I feel like I can’t see the end of the tunnel I resort to day-dreaming about those “One day” things, contemplating on which one I may pursue first and when I will decide that the time and place is right to go for it.

The key here is the active choice.

We must decide when the time and place is right to pursue knowing that it may never come to reality.

The art of pursuing is for the artist is like the air we breathe.

It’s absolutely essential. As creative and artists it’s up to us to dream up things from nothing and turn them into reality one step at the time.

So if you dream of writing a book;

Start by making a decision that the right time and place will never come. When this reality has internalised as truth, as opposed to the imagined superior alternative of waiting and hoping for it to one day appear, you’re already a step closer.

Now you’re faced with the truth that you are the active agent in making the dream happen. And it’s up to you to now take the next step in getting started.

• Stop waiting for permission

• Stop waiting for the perfect circumstance

• Dare to take the risk

Or you will be left in the slow death of unfulfilled artistic passion.

Thank you for reading!
Elin xx

1:1 mentoring for starving mother-artists

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I wrote a book!

I decided to write a book last September and trust me when I say that I have questioned that decision every day for the past 8 months. But despite the huge undertaking, I did it and I’m now living in the blurry post-realisation phase when the e-version is out in the world and I’m still gathering my emotions and energy again for the last push of the physical copies too.

The book (Embroidery Wanderlust) is a part memoir, part education treat about modern hand embroidery and how you can look at your surroundings through a new lens. If you’re into art and travel, you may love it.

Come and check out the e-book VIA THIS LINK