"HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS"

This is just a little post that I would like to write to document my own journey with trying to pursue an "artful" lifes. This is for my own documentations and of course, for your reading pleasures!

So I started this wonderful journey a few times before in my life (ever since I was 16 years old). But it has been off and on because I had a lot of other distractions in my life. Plus I was very young and when you are young you tend to change your mind a lot about what you want to do, who you want to be, and where you see your life heading when you get older.

I had my heart being a fashion designer, but my parents (very conservative) obviously said "NO."
Fashion school would have cost them $80,000+ a year (estimated by the school counselor, from the school that I wanted to go to). Obviously the cost includes tuition, room and board, and living expenses....but that is a whole lot of $$$. So I decided that I was going to go the back door route...Business School.

Okay, long story short, I never forgot the little whispers in my heart and my love for anything artsy. So a few Bachelors degrees later (I couldn't decide on just 1 major because my heart was yearning for something more, but I didn't realized at the time that I was very unhappy). I wasn't doing what I wanted to do and I was doing what my parents wanted me to do...very BIG mistake. You should never try to please someone else by doing something that would put you in a situation that would make you miserable. And No, that is not being selfish, that is called loving yourself. God has 2 rules for us to live by for a perfect world; and that to "love thy neighbors, and love thy self." So why aren't we listening to the truth?

Okay, so fast forward a few years and a few different careers later, I am really unhappy and so stressed out because I feel like I was cheating myself out of being happy. All of the different careers that I have try doing, just left me more and more unhappy because it was not fulfilling to my soul. Plus, I hated the corporate world because people were so mean and cut throat. People who I though were my friends and had my back, ended up back stabbing me and selling me out.

So to make a long story short and fast forward a few more years again...I got married to a wonderful man who loves me unconditionally. I am such a lucky girl. It wasn't until this point in my life that I started to dig deeper and ask myself the very simple, yet difficult question...What is it that makes me happy? I have been traveling around the world, dabling in so many different careers trying to find myself...when truthfully, the answer has always been in my heart. I felt like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz with my ruby red slippers and clicking my heels, repeating "there is no place like home," "there is no place like home." And "Home is where the Heart is."

YES!!!! I felt like I won the lottery when one night, out of a dream I felt like I finally found the answer to what my heart has been waiting for...no not true love (I already got that, remember????), my dream job. Finally I figured it out...here is the secret to finding your dream job, which is the same process that has taken me years and years to finally realized it:
1. What is it that makes you happy
Think back to a time in your childhood...the part that you remember being the happiest.
2. What did you use to do a lot of when you were a kid that makes you happy.
3. Understand your personality trait. Do not lie to yourself. Dig very deep, and the answer may not be very apparent at first, but if you really listen to your heart, you will find the answer within.
4. Are you an Introvert or an Extrovert, or Both?
Introverts don't really like to be around other people, so home businesses might be best for you. But they are also not always self motivators, so running a biz by yourself might not be ideal. So you might want to partner up with a trusted friend/family.
Extroverts are usually self motivators and they love to be around other people...so maybe a home business is not the best idea for you because you need to be around other colleagues. But maybe you could partner up with an Introverted person and run the sales part while they do the business and paperwork part...hmmm...this is a thought!!
If you are both an introvert and an extrovert, then you have the best of both worlds...but sometimes the dual personality can conflict one another. Plus you don't always control which personality is more dominant at a certain time.

5. What are you good at?
6. What do you enjoy doing (with your free time)?
7. What do you enjoy doing that you don't consider to be a chore?
8. Is what you do special, can everybody do what you do?
9. Do you deserve to be happy?

These are some of the questions that I used to constantly contemplate to get to where I am today. Just remember, you can ANYTHING that you put your heart and head to! That is the secret to success. Never doubt yourself! Don't just believe you can do something...but know that you can make it happen (if you want it bad enough).