Since as early as I can remember, there were two places I’ve always dreamed of going- New York, the big city my cousin’s I never met from PR lived in and Italy.
I heard many stories about New York and watched many television shows about it. I would daydream in physics class of me in NYC riding the subway, wearing classy fall attire, walking to the neighborhood stores for coffee and groceries LONG before my booty ever got there.
I finally went when I was 24 and every year after that until my husband shut that party down (but that’s another story).
Italy on the other hand, I didn’t know anything about. I just knew about a painting.
My grandma had this three panel painting of Venice in her “fancy” living room (the one with the couch covered in plastic and the long vinyl strip of carpet from the front door to the dining room). We didn’t get to hang in there for too long.
I don’t know what happened to that painting. I think it may have been one of the many things she lost during Hurricane Andrew, but all I have to do is close my eyes and I can still see the gondolas, the water, the buildings in the background.
I can almost feel the vinyl protecting the carpet under my feet.
My dreams of Italy have not gone away, but they definitely were put on the backburner as I grew up and went through college, took care of myself on a school teacher salary, got married, and started raising my kids while putting our oldest through college.
I still see that vision when I want to, but I started to realize, that’s all I’ve been able to see since I was a little girl- the painting…
-not me IN the painting
-not me getting on a plane and flying 12 plus hours or arranging a place to stay in a foreign country,
-and definitely NOTme making the money necessary to afford a family trip to Europe.
And that’s why to this day, I’ve made no more effort to follow that dream than I did when I was 6 years old.
I can envision the end result all I want- a gondola floating in the water- but if I can't see myself in that gondola, if I can’t see myself taking the steps necessary to get to Venice, I won’t ever set the intentions or determine the goals, or take the actions to get there.
Period.
Can you see yourself doing the things it takes to get where you want to be?
The ugly things? The scary things? The things you were always certain you CAN’T do?
You need to start in your mind first.