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It’s Not the Dream by Nan S. Russell
I met Michael Kroth last summer when I spoke at a Boise SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) luncheon. Our work and messages on living your life’s potential with passion seemed to intersect. He subscribed to my eColumn and I signed up for his newsletter. I’ve been enjoying his messages ever since and was honored when Michael asked me to be a “guest” this month and write an article for you. Here goes … . ~ ~ ~ The dream was not about building a cabin in the Montana wilderness overlooking the peaks of Glacier National Park, off the power-grid, where grizzly bear, mountain lions, elk, moose, and wolves share the land. The dream was about love.
The seed was planted thirty years ago when my husband and I fell in love, talking of someday living in a cabin in the mountains. The cabin dream became a symbol about what mattered to us; about spending more time together; about family and friends; about nurturing our love and awakening our spirits; about intangibles that called to our hearts when tangibles clogged our heads. It represented the future we wanted to create together.
Along the way of getting married, raising a family, and making a life, that dream was a driving force in my life. But, so was my career. Climbing the corporate ladder to Vice President for multi-billion dollar QVC, I thrived on the challenge, the excitement, and the creativity of my work. I managed hundreds of people and millions of dollars. Yet behind the achievements, the nice paychecks, and the challenging work, something was missing. Of course, I couldn’t see it then. But, when I was honest with myself, I could feel it.
Still … for twenty-five Christmases there was always a tribute to our Montana dream. Sometimes hand-made, sometimes store-bought, the cabin gift marked our continued commitment to our future vision, as each year we further refined our dream.
We added dream parameters: settling in northwestern Montana; moving by fifty; bringing meaningful work with us. We added dream dirt: twenty acres we couldn’t quite afford to buy or pass up. We added dream fertilizer: trips to learn the community, financial goals, and building plans. Along the way, we added dream magic: persistence, determination, and passion.
Yet, as much as I fantasized the “good-life” dream of Montana, I remained seduced by the increasing influence, perks, and financial well-being my growing career brought. Life was full; full of things like answering emails, listening to voice mails and finishing projects. The people I cared about most were becoming one more task on my to-do list; one more interruption to pressing deadlines, where taking care of self didn’t make the list.
You see, along life’s way, I managed somehow to lose my way. I got so caught up in the things that didn’t matter that I couldn’t see the things that did. Even my wonderful marriage showed signs of stress, as my angry outbursts became a frequent visitor, and extra strength Excedrin was added as a staple to my diet.
Still … Montana called my name. The dream-voice emerged louder and louder. And when it finally captured my attention, I noticed something missing in my life, the part called living. When I paused long enough to be honest with myself, I noticed the part of me that I knew as “the real me” was missing, too.
So in July 2002, my husband, Dan, and I left the suburbs of Philadelphia and moved to northwestern, Montana. I left a successful career to pursue a new dream to become a writer living in and working from the mountains I loved.
Today, that dream is flourishing, and I wonder sometimes why I didn’t do it sooner. My second book, Hitting Your Stride: Your Work, Your Way, was just released. And my first book, Nibble Your Way to Success debuted in March 2007.
My career insights column, Winning at Working (www.winningatworking.com) appears in over eighty publications, and my life reflections column, In the Scheme of Things (www.intheschemeofthings.com) is published in six states and Canada, and has been included in several anthologies: Chicken Soup for the Shopper’s Soul, Cup of Comfort for Weddings, Classic Christmas, and Letters to my Teachers.
It took twenty-five years for us to build our “cabin” and create our Montana life. Not the construction, which took three and a half, but weaving together the life-structure to enable us to live and work from this remote Rocky Mountain region. During that time, I learned the difference between dreaming and dream-doing.
I learned a dream must be nurtured, protected and grown despite setbacks, struggles, frustrations and naysayers. I learned how difficult it is to move a dream forward when life’s challenges diminish time and energy, pulling us like gnats against what feels like the status-quo-vacuum. I learned a dream happens by choice, not by chance. Unlike wishes that stay wishes, I learned a dream can be molded and developed by taking one tiny step, then another and another. And it can even be added to or modified without losing the dream’s core.
But mostly, I learned it’s not the dream that matters, but its pursuit. It’s the dream-doing that changes lives, builds confidence and opens a bigger dream-box of possibility. It’s the dream-doing that builds the life you want.
Nan S. Russell
Living her dream in the mountains of Montana, Nan is the author of a new book, Hitting Your Stride: Your Work, Your Way (Capital Books; January 2008). She is also the weekly host of “Work Matters” on webtalkradio.net, as well as a sought-after speaker. Nan is President of MountainWorks Communications, a company she founded to support her passion for helping organizations build winning cultures, and helping people bring the best of who they are to the world, realize their dreams, and live their life’s potential.
—————————————————————————————— This Newsletter has been published by Creating Change, Inc.
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