Podcast Episode 25: Dream Big, Live Big! - Extraordinary Women Magazine

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Hello Everyone and welcome to Episode 25 of the Be the Real You Podcast.

I’m Sharri Harmel, Business and Life coach, and creator of Be the Real You Magazine we’re launching on April 1^st! as well as courses and all things related to the authentic and real you.

Today we’re going to talk about dreaming and living BIG and why it’s easy to dream big, but so very difficult to live big. The digital magazine Be the Real You, that I’m launching on April 1^st is a perfect example of my BIG dream! More on that later.

For now, let’s enter dreamland. It’s a lovely place, isn’t it? I think we all become completely jazzed seeing ourselves inside our dreams, one year, five years, even ten years from now.

I love it in that place because I’m an idea generating nut. I use Clifton Strengths Finder with all my one-to-one clients because it’s honestly amazing.

Three of my top five strengths are futuristic, strategic and ideation. Now you know where the ideas come from. I should really start a company and call it The Dream Creation Lab.

I can see it now…I’d have dreams just popping out for people as they line up at the door to share their strengths, passions and ideas and receive some dream ideas in return. I imagine it something like the movie “Inside. Out.”

All those customers would leave my lab with a dream created just for them and walk out feeling absolutely fabulicious!

Well, that feeling would last for a while. But then, like it always does, reality sets in. Back home or at the office, these women will look around their lives and realize that the dream idea I gave them is so very wonderful, but they have no idea how to make it happen, or actually believe it could happen.

Does this sound like you? Can you relate to absolutely loving imagining about all your dreams for the future coming true? And yet wonder how to make it all happen?

Like I said in the opening, Dreaming Big is most often easy. It’s the Living Big that is hard.

Living big requires that today, you ask yourself, what am I doing?

It requires that you prioritize your goals for each day, because TIME is a limited commodity. Living Big requires you to constantly be self-aware enough to ask yourself whether you are making choices that each day bring you a little closer to your big dreams

and if not, make the needed adjustments.

In my course Recapture Your Joie de Vivre, there was one week THAT we dove into a discussion on time. We talked about how it is so interesting that we look at time in the future as though we have unlimited moments, months and even years.

Yet, each day, we pride ourselves on being over scheduled and honestly even over scheduling our kids!

But when I asked the course participants, are you consumed with busyness or are you actually accomplishing something? Something shifted.

Our culture has changed so much that regardless of whether we are thirty or fifty, we look at our futures as some sort of abstract place with all the time in the world to get there.

So, what happens is that you notice you’re not working towards your dreams, but you’ve convinced yourself that you’ll get to it someday, just not today.

Now, logically we all know this isn’t true. There are no guarantees of any future moments, beyond the breath you have just taken…. but why do we choose to Dream Big and yet Live Small?

Is it fear? Is it self-sabotage? Is it resignation? Everyone has a different answer, but I’m here to talk about how to get yourself moving towards that dream today!

If you have your dream, I’m going to assume you know what you want. If you don’t, go back to brainstorming what you love to do (your passions), what you are naturally good at (your strengths and talents) and see what ideas come up. Don’t let your logical mind judge them yet. Let the ideas, even if a little out there, just be.

Once you have your ideas of what you want, find other people who are doing it, and doing it well.

Whether you want to start a business, create work of art or even a social program, find and connect with people who have successfully launched similar projects, started businesses, sold their art, women who are basically doing something on your list of possibilities.

I promise you that you’ll learn much more about talking with people than you will doing a stagnant google search.

For example, I interviewed Loni Brown, founder of Entirely Eco for the first issue of the magazine. Some specific things that Loni shared resonated with me, but you might get a completely different take away, given your life situation and issues. That’s why talking to people is invaluable.

So, reach out to the people you find and see if you can arrange a conversation. Honestly, you can’t talk to too many people. You’ll get loads of valuable information. Check out if there are any Fb groups in the spaces you are considering and join them. Find people on LinkedIn. Use Google but then set up times to talks. Basically, you are mining for information and making connections that might be helpful as you build your dream.

Just by taking action to connect with people, you’re creating energy around your dream. And to make things happen you need energy. The easiest way for me to think about energy is using the comparison of the slow cooker versus a chef’s kitchen. That slow cooker just sits on your kitchen counter. You don’t need to check on it, you don’t even need to be in your home while it’s slowly cooking your food. And frankly, nothing amazing comes out of slow cooker.

A chef’s kitchen in contrast is filled with action and that is where life changing meals are created. I’m totally into Discovery+ and last weekend I watched Erin French, the chef and owner of the Lost Kitchen in Maine. She’s amazing as are all the women on her team- yep it is a kitchen filled with women. Erin not only created a restaurant concept that was aligned with who she is and what she loves, but when preparing for an evening of guests, there is a hub of activity. That energy is what makes beautiful things happen. I’m sending in my postcard to try to snag a reservation for 2021, because I want to be a part of that energy.

Which brings me to the conclusion of the ingredients needed to live big. Surround yourself with people who are choosing to do the same thing. People who have dreams and are creating the energy to make those dreams come alive. Truly energy is catchy, and I want to surround myself with likeminded women who aren’t going to settle, who aren’t going to imagine someday dreams. I want to be around women who step into their real selves and create a life so they too can Be the Real you. AND I WANT YOU TO JOIN ME.

I have news I want to share with you!

On April 1^st, my new digital magazine Be the Real You is going live!

This magazine is for women who are ready to step into their big dreams

And to do that, you have to be real, be authentic….so you have the BIG life you deserve!

Articles will range from Interviews with successful women business owners, mindset tips, and conversations on topics such as honoring and valuing your time, ways to override any self-confidence and self-esteem issues that often get in our way as women, as well as fun ways we as women can embrace joy and truly BE the Star in our own life!

This has been in the works for a while and I’m so incredibly excited to share it with you!

I call it the women’s authenticity movement, because it is really about you being who you truly are, deciding what it is you really want in this lifetime and then doing it.

Someone asked me if it’s just for businesswomen…. not at all, though creating and running your own business is a focal point.

It’s for ALL women who are ready to be and live as their real and authentic selves.

So, subscribe on sharriharmel.com and let’s make the women’s authenticity movement BIG!