Why Your BIG Creative Dream Isn't Moving... Yet

Hello and welcome back, Creative Souls. In this post, we're going to talk about why your big dream isn't taking shape just yet. This is all about how to get the wheel turning.

I am living, breathing proof of this experiment because I have had a job in the creative industry for two decades now. No secrets, no lies - I am 41 and I began my career in the creative industry at 21 and really, truthfully, a whole lot earlier than that because, you know… I've been creative since I was a baby. I'm kidding. Mostly. Okay, seriously, let's get into it.

There's this idea that you've certainly heard: that hindsight is 20/20. How is that helpful? The idea that if I knew then what I know now, wouldn't that have been helpful? But I didn't, so I don't. So, thanks for that.

We're going to take that concept today and actually make it a little bit more useful. I'm in a position to guide you through this because I've got a lot of hindsight after 20 years in the creative industry and going through a lot of roadblocks, a lot of mile markers, and a lot of growth. The idea today is to get the wheel turning. You have this big, beautiful vision. Sometimes the creative vision feels bigger than you. That bigness can sometimes make us stop before we even get started. If we are not willing to look at the small steps along the way, we will never reach the big final finish at the end.

I want to make a long story short for you today and share a little bit about the small, seemingly insignificant steps that I took in my journey that got me to where I am; because now that I'm here, I can look back at those steps and see how important and valuable they were. Then I'm going to help you do the same with your own creative vision from wherever you stand in it right now.

If you don't know, I have an immersive theater here in beautiful Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and my husband and I write, produce, and perform in our own shows. It's a dream. It's the dream. It's the dream I dreamt up some 20 odd years ago. But this is how it started. I really, truly was a creative all through my childhood and teen years. It was in my teen years that I decided that I wanted to produce works for the stage. As I got out of high school, I did not know what to do with myself. I didn't know how to tackle that dream. I didn't really want to go to school more. I was kind of burnt on school and felt like it wasn't the thing that was going to let me have all this creative freedom anyhow. So I didn't jump right into college. Instead, I was like, I just want to do it now. I just want to do it. But of course, it wasn't really happening. So I was working a bunch of stupid jobs I didn't want to work.

Here's the first important step that I didn't really acknowledge or realize how important it was at the time: when I got a job. Are you ready for this big dream? Fitting dance shoes at a dance store. So dreamy.

Now, why was that so important? Because it was a step into the industry, in even a tiny way. It was a step being in the dance arena. Back then, my dreams were really in the dance realm. I I hadn't really stretched my theatrical wings yet. (Didn't know that was going to happen. It happened later.)

There I was. I was in a dance-like environment all day. I was talking to dance people all day and it was starting to build up energy in that momentum. It was really important, and it was not my dream job, but it was a really significant step in the right direction. Of course, I can see that now.

Here's the second step that, again, felt okay, but certainly not the dream: I took a job training to become a ballroom dance teacher. Was ballroom dance my dream? Nope. Not at all. Not even a little bit. Never really had or expressed an interest in it. Didn't think it was a thing I was really going to care about. But the opportunity became clear to me and I took a job because it would put me in a dance studio. Dance store, dance studio, big dream, performance company. We're getting closer. I took the job thinking that ballroom dance is never really going to speak to me. I was wrong. I actually fell madly in love with the technique and the skills and the romance behind partnership dance. To this day, it’s one of the core elements of my professional creative career. So I took that job in faith that it's a little bit closer. It's not it, but it's closer. and I worked there with my then-boyfriend, now husband, for about four years.

We finally decided, okay, let's do it. Let's open our own studio, the thing we've been talking about. Even then, we knew the studio was a stepping stone. It wasn't us having a full-on professional full-time theater production company. It was us teaching students all the ballroom dance steps that we knew. But it was a step closer because it was our own. Here's how we did it, because we didn't have the financial wherewithal to just go get a big retail contract and take on a big beautiful retail space, build it out, and yada yada. Back then it was a little easier to buy a home and we bought a small home with a basement. We literally were shopping for basements and we turned that basement into our first dance studio, our home studio, because that was the way we could financially fathom having our own business - to just have that one bill, the rent or the mortgage that we were going to have to pay anyways, right? That's how we did it. Not the dream, but a step closer.

We did that for quite a while, and because we took that step, it gave us a little bit of business growth and a lot more faith. From there, we moved into our first retail space where we had a bigger studio outside of our own home. Not the dream, but we were at that time producing Pro-Am shows. (shows based on our students) - not full-time professional shows, but we're getting closer. I'm learning how to do theater contracts. I'm learning how to produce a show from start to finish. I'm learning how to bring money in doing it.

And then we realized, you know what? I think we're ready. Let's get closer to the dream. We decided it would be ideal to move to a tourist town where we could run the same show long-term because, no joke, it's not cheap to produce a show. If we can run it for long-term, professional show, that could be really good. We literally moved states to make the next step of the dream. Now, that's not a small step. It's a big one, but it was an important one. Even still, it didn't quite get us there.

At that time, we moved here to Eureka Springs. And tada, big dream! No, I'm just kidding. We actually ended up with a small studio, small but kind of expensive retail space. We were back to teaching students, still not having a professional company. But we didn't give up.

We produced our first professional show and ran it for one month. Just one little month… but we proved to ourselves in that small step that we could do it, that there was money to be made, that there were creative opportunities for us. Even then, still it took several more years of realizing we could run a show for more than one month a year. We could run more than one show in a year. All of these things that seem now like. duh, they weren't clear then because we hadn't taken the steps.

Now, 20 years into this career, I am living it. I have a full-time immersive theater and we produce about four shows a year. It's a creative dream. It's what I want to do. If I could have just done this and magically put myself into that way back in my early 20’s or even late teens, you bet I would have - but I would have never been ready because each of those small steps were so essential.

I used to kind of wallow and pine. Why can't I just have it? Why isn't it just there yet? How come it's not happening?

If you've done some of those things with your big dream, I encourage you to step back and look at some of the small steps that you've already made leading up to now. If you feel like you're sitting at the starting line and you haven't even begun yet, then this next exercise is going to carry you through.

Back to the idea that hindsight is 20/20. I've got 20 years of hindsight and it's really helpful. So use my 20 years of hindsight to help fuel your creative journey.

There's a really beautiful quote that I want to share that is so much more beautiful than that hindsight saying. Same idea, though.

“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” - Saurin Kirkagard, Danish philosopher

Here's the exercise for you today. It's called 10 years from now. 10 years from now, you, my darling, are living inside of the big dream. You've done it. Hooray! Confetti! You've done it. Now, the 10-years-from-now you, the you 10 years from now, has a lot more confidence than you do right now, and they have the vision of how all of those steps along the way helped them get there. What you have right now is the idea that some of these little steps that maybe don't even feel that desirable are really important steps along the way. This is all about getting the wheel turning.

For me, taking that first job fitting ballet shoes was paramount. What did that have to do with me having a full-time immersive theater where I write scripts? I'm not fitting ballet shoes anymore. It snuck me into the back door of the industry. It built momentum. So, the 10-years-from-now you is going to close their eyes. It's you right now, by the way. You're going to close your eyes and look backwards. your 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 now. See what are the actions that were taken, however small or seemingly insignificant that helped you arrive to that big dream vision that you have. I'm not saying it has to take 10 years, but the 10-years-from-now you is wiser and has accomplished the thing, the big dream. So whether you prefer to just close your eyes and daydream this, or if you're more of a journal keeper, you can write it down, but either way I'd like you to take at least 10 minutes and go through this exercise. Put yourself fully into the experience of being inside of that big dream and backtrack. What are some of the steps that happened along the way to launch you there? Go all the way back to right now, to today and go, what is that step that I either won't take because it's either not that desirable or doesn't seem that important?

I want you to confidently take that step knowing that it is the first step on that staircase to the dream that you're going to be living. I thoroughly, strongly believe that it is your responsibility to share your creative visions with the world. Inside of your creative visions are love, and joy, and beauty, and it is selfish of you to keep them to yourself. It is your service to the world to share them.

So take the small step, however small it may be, and get yourself started on that big dream.

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Now, my darling, go do your creative work.