Dreams

Have you ever wanted something so bad that it kept you up at night, and kept your heart racing during the day?

For over 20 years, I have dreamt of traveling the world to teach leadership with John Maxwell. My dream started to come to light when I realized a few years ago that I could join his team. Being on John's team has helped me become a better person, a better leader, and has challenged me to think bigger than myself and do bigger than myself. I got the opportunity to travel to Paraguay with John and about 50 other members of our team. I was going to be part of a transformation effort to train hundreds of thousands of people in Paraguay. The anticipation of the trip was so intense that I have been waking up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night thinking about what my mentor told me; These people are going to be so hungry for what we have to offer and we are going to make a tremendous impact. The thoughts of tasting significance made my heart beat out of my chest. It's intense.

That opportunity was supposed to start yesterday. Instead of getting on a plane to Paraguay, I instead was hunkered down in my closet, with my husband and our cats, waiting for Hurricane Irma to hit. We were forecasted to be in the direct path of the storm and it was projected to be a category 3 when it hit our area. The pressure of this week has been surreal. As I am preparing for a dream come true, I was also like many Floridians preparing to make the decision to stay in our house or to evacuate. Everything around us was pandemonium. People were panicking, the store shelves were empty and there was no gas to get out.

So, instead of chasing my dreams, I ended up chasing my fears for a little while. Would we lose everything? Did we make the right decision to stay? Would the looters come to our house? As it turns out, facing my fears is a humbling experience. It’s allowed to look at some things and prioritize them. It’s allowed me to do a lot of reflection. I know that God has some bigger plans for me this week. It's already happening. I've had some incredible things happen in the last 48 hours. I only allowed myself to hurt for a little while. I need to stop thinking about me and feeling bad for myself that I am not in Paraguay with my team. It's not about me. It's about something bigger than me. The team is going to be fine, without me on the ground with them. They will transform Paraguay. And I will get the opportunity to travel to the next country. There are so many important lessons that are being revealed to me because of this storm. The biggest lesson is that sometimes our dreams don’t get to happen the way we hope they will. We can’t let this break our passion to pursue our dreams. When our dreams are challenged, we need to be energized to continue pursuing our dreams. Who knows, maybe there will be a larger opportunity for me in the next country. I am ready!