Speaking Tree: Unlock your real power

To plan your best life, cast off the limitations you feel the world has placed upon you…. If you want to spend your days making art, your challenge might be to figure out how to pay your bills while leaving maximum time and energy for the creative work…. What you don’t want to do is sell yourself short and decide that art isn’t something you’re meant to do. Once we know what we love doing and are great at, we will start to find new ways to make it happen.

A friend of mine who teaches women to be welders and pipefitters told me the story of a student who loved horses and wanted to spend her life with them. She trained as a veterinary assistant and got her dream job in a practice that mainly treated horses. She soon realised that she was spending time with horses in the worst moments of their lives, and… was earning not much more than the minimum wage….

After getting clearer on her dream, she trained as a tradesperson, a pipefitter. Now she works six months a year and has the other half-year off to spend with her horses on her ranch….

Your path doesn’t have to be straight…. George Clooney… before he became an actor, he tried out for the Cincinnati Reds baseball team but didn’t make it. Then he sold shoes. Then he sold insurance…. Those jobs weren’t missteps – they were steps. Whatever you’re doing right now, you’re going to enjoy it a lot more and bring more passion to it if you remember that this is your path.