Dreams to Reality
Last year one of the large themes we had at Skimbaco Lifestyle was
Live a Little and I had a weekly feature of ways to enjoy life in a small way.
Join us this year making our big dreams reality. 2013 is all about allowing yourself to dream big, make plans to achieve the big dreams, and have guts and strength to go after the big dreams. One of the things I have learned in my journey making my dreams reality is that sometimes you have to forget about your pride. I’m going to tell you a long story of something I have always been embarrassed of, even though now I realize I could be proud of myself for being able to put my pride aside when focusing in making my big dreams come true. I encourage you to look at the big picture and think of the long term benefits of things and yes, even sacrificing the “enjoy now” every now and then. Sounds almost “anti-skimbacoish” to abandon the carpe diem, but let me explain.
Don’t let your pride hold you down
I met my husband in Germany in 1997 and he had to go back to the United States after us dating only for one month. It was very obvious for both of us that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together since day one, but being young and from the opposite sides of the world, it sort of seemed impossible how we could make this work. Remember that this was 1997 – no Skype calls, we sent love letters via regular mail. Let’s just say that if long distance dating isn’t fun nowadays, it really sucked 15 years ago. I was absolutely determined to leave for the US for the first time in my life and I needed to save enough money for the flights and to live there for 3 months. My savings were gone with my adventure in Germany, and I decided to leave Germany to go back to Finland in hopes of getting a better paying job. I was young, but I had been building my resume since I was 15 years old, and it was very impressive for my age; advertising, business-to-business PR, consumer PR and even working in technology field, and in retail for companies like Mulberry. I had worked through the entire college and gotten my first PR job straight out of high school and I was very proud of it all. I was proud, period. However, when I went back to Finland, I didn’t move back to the city, the living cost would have just eaten my salary, so I moved back to my small hometown to live in my grandmother’s house.
Many saw me as a failure coming back after being gone for a few years. My plane landed on a Saturday, and on Sunday I was having a dinner with my family, including my sister’s boyfriend, and I announced I was ready to work anywhere and do anything to save up the money in three months. My sister’s boyfriend said his mom was a manager in a shampoo factory… a phone call later, I had a job, and
I started working in a shampoo factory the next day bottling shampoo. Cinderella-story in the making?
I only worked in the shampoo factory for two weeks until I received a job in a local hotel. It was only a few steps up. In the hotel I worked as a marketing secretary. Before starting my shift at 8AM I often had been cleaning rooms already an hour. After 4PM I went back to cleaning rooms. On Friday and Saturday nights I was a bartender in the hotel nightclub. I worked during Christmas, I took the New Year’s Eve shift. It was the toughest three months of my life until then, and not just for the work. It was because I had to completely swallow my pride and be willing to work in a place I had very little interest working in. And not just work – but be so good at anything I did that they let me take on additional jobs within the company. It ended up being a great experience nevertheless, and I even took the hotel in a national travel fair and got great press for them in a national newspaper, something they had never done before. Like said – I completely swallowed my pride to take the job, but I did my job in a way I was able to live that moment to the fullest and be proud of my performance. The important thing here is… I didn’t want to get too comfortable where I was and I never lost focus why I was doing it all, although three months was a long time of also listening my family and friends telling me how crazy I was throwing my life away and chasing dreams that would never come true – or many begging me just to stay where I was. When after the three months the hotel offered me a permanent position and asked if I could stay, I said no, and boarded on my flight to NYC instead.
Join us!
Join us this year in making your dreams into reality. This year our team is inspired dreaming big dreams, and systematically finding new solutions how we can make big dreams into reality by implementing small changes in our every day lives. We are not just dreamers, we are doers. Join us. You can also
subscribe to my secret email where I give even more insight how I am igniting change not just in my life, but also yours.
from dreams to reality, live life to the fullest
Lolli @ Better in Bulk
Thank you for sharing your story! I would love to join you in making dreams come true this year. :)
Enjoy Life Oils
Let’s do it!!!
Melinda
you should be proud, you worked hard and got far in life. you did nothing illegal, unethical or embarrassing, own those grunt work badges :)
Enjoy Life Oils
I do :) You should never be ashamed of hard work.
Erica
What an amazing story. I feel the exact same way. I’ve always been proud of my accomplishments, but I am never too proud to do what I have to do to get where I want to go. Love it!
Enjoy Life Oils
We have to do whatever it takes sometimes! Thanks for popping in and commenting :)
Theresa
You are amazing!!! Everyday I enjoy see your beautiful photos, reading your status updates and hearing about all the amazing place you see! Thank you!
Enjoy Life Oils
Thank you so much Theresa!
Annie @ Mama Dweeb
Katja, you really do inspire me!! Thank you for sharing your life online and encouraging others to LIVE. This year the words are “FOCUS, HONESTY, and TRUTH.” I am living my life for my family and my God and doing it with honesty. I am so excited!
Enjoy Life Oils
Thanks Annie!
Dresden (@DresdenPlaid)
You are so amazing. LOVE this
Enjoy Life Oils
Thank you Dresden!
adrienne shubin
What an inspiring post and great reminder to us all to always work hard and do our best no matter what. Big dreams don’t become reality without working hard and putting forth one’s best possible effort.
Enjoy Life Oils
Life isn’t easy all the time… and it’s OK. I rather live hard times and work hard through them than never accomplish my dreams and have the Big Dreams come true, and so many of them already have giving me confidence to go after even bigger dreams!!
Uusi Aamu
Siis tämä tuli kuin tilauksesta. Kiitos.
Janine
I’m not sure what you aren’t proud of – the types of jobs you took? I think no matter what the job, if you work hard and be the best you can you should have a sense of pride. And it’s obvious you are a better person for it.
Congrats! Great post :)
Enjoy Life Oils
Taking the jobs that I wasn’t proud of and making the best out of them was probably one of the biggest lessons in life for me.
Naomi
As usual, you had the goal and went for it. I’m not surprised!
Enjoy Life Oils
Anything to make dreams come true!
Kelly {the Centsible Life}
I adore this story. It just goes to show you that a no matter what other people think we should stick to our dreams and goals. :)
Enjoy Life Oils
Yes, you should always stick to what feels right in your heart!
Jessica @FoundtheMarbles
You may not be cleaning hotel rooms or bottling shampoo, but your work ethic hasn’t changed since those three months many years ago, my friend.
Enjoy Life Oils
Thank you :) I truly believe what ever you do, do it well, and there is always something to learn even from the things we don’t like or want to do.