It’s Okay If Your Dream Doesn’t Look The Same As The People You’re Inspired By

I’m inspired by so many people online. I love seeing snippets of their lives and reading the words and insights that they share. I think one of the biggest struggles of being human is figuring out what our dreams really look like. Knowing our purpose and where we want to be heading in life is something so many of us can be battling with along the way, and looking to the people who inspire us can be a great way to figure it out.

What I’ve learned though is that our dream doesn’t always look the same as the people we’re inspired by - and that’s a good thing. If our dreams and goals and ambitions come too much from outside sources, they’ll feel empty and disappointing if and when we reach them. We’re the sum of everything that has happened so far in our lives, and that includes all the things we’ve consumed and all the lives we’ve watched, both online and offline, and been inspired by. But sometimes, if we dig a little deeper, we can see that what we’re inspired by isn’t always their practical life choices, but instead the intentions and values behind the decisions that they make.

For example, I am so inspired by Elise and Scott Grice over at Hey Sweet Pea, but I know that my dream and vision for my life doesn’t match the practicalities of theirs. They live their life on the road, which looks awesome, but I know that I’m such a homebody and am so much more suited to a solid base with some adventures and travels mixed in now and again. What really inspires me about them is their vision for building a contagiously happy life and business, and that’s something I work crazy hard to do each and every single day. We can sometimes struggle with the fear that maybe we’re chasing the wrong goals, and that it isn’t okay to have the big dreams for our life that we do. And then we may look to the people we’re inspired by and wonder whether or not we should be following their path instead. But deep down we know that the only way to live a whole and fulfilling life is to chase our own dreams every step of the way.

So today’s post is just a little reminder from me to you to dream big and give yourself permission to shape your own vision for your life. When people reach big milestones in their lives and you worry that you should be chasing the same, ask yourself if it’s something you really want from your life. It’s okay to be whoever it is you are. There is no one-size fits all rule for how ambitious, brave, or risk-taking we should be. Sometimes what looks like a tiny dream from the outside can be the most fulfilling for the person who’s building it. Stay inspired by the awesome people around you, both online and offline, but know that it’s okay if your dream doesn’t look exactly the same as theirs.

Keep on building your big beautiful life, and remember that you never, ever, need permission from anyone else to define what that big beautiful life looks like to you.

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Jen Carrington