When I was 20 I dropped out of college.
I went to work full time in a restaurant. I was one of the best servers that they had and I quickly made my way to bartender and all of the best shifts. A year went by. Nothing had changed in my life in that year.
I would wake up late, go to work, make some cash, go out and spend that cash at the bar, party until 2am and then repeat.
I was keeping my head just above water in terms of bills that HAD to be paid- rent, food, bar tab- and drowning in credit card debt and a car loan for a car that had been stollen and wrecked.
I wasn’t very good with money. I remember I once pawned my video camera, which I loved, so that I could buy a new outfit for a date I was excited for. 🤦♀️
(He didn’t even tell me I looked nice, then we went to his sister’s graduation dinner where he totally ignored me and his grandma told me that her grandson needed a nice girl to take care of him. Dodged a bullet there!)
I never got my camera back out of the pawn shop… ☹️
At 23 I was watching my friends get ready to graduate college and embark on their “real” careers. While I was still waiting tables and totally lost.
For as long as I could remember I wanted to work on movies and TV shows. I didn’t want to be an actress, I wanted to Produce or Direct. It was my passion.
Yet there was a little voice in my head that said, “You need to major in something that you can actually make a living doing. That’s a pipe dream.”
So I didn’t pursue it, and ended up dropping out of college because I didn’t have a direction.
One day my restaurant approached me and offered me a promotion to management! I was doing a very good job and they wanted me to start to move up the ladder. I was extremely appreciative, except I didn’t want that job.
I was already older than most of the other servers who worked there and the drama that younger people brought was too much for me to handle then, let alone in 30 years when I was 50 years old still dealing with young adults.
I knew that if I said yes to that job, then that was as good as my life was going to get.
I quit the following day and enrolled in Film School.
I had no idea where or how I was going to get the money to pay for it, I just knew that it was in my heart to do.
I graduated a year early, with honors, and was hired on AMC’s The Walking Dead season 2 within a month of graduating. My second gig was on American Idol and the rest is history.
Had I pursued my passion from the start, I would have saved many years of floundering around and wasting my time.
Which is why you cannot wait any longer to take action on your BIG life’s goals!
I get it, it’s scary. There’s a lot of inner negative thoughts that happen around going for your big goal.
Think about it, do you ever second guess yourself or worry about making the right moves when you are doing something that you don’t really care about? No! You don’t, you just do it.
Why?
Because it’s not something that you want so badly that it scares you. That when you think about it your palms start to sweat a little. That gives you butterflies in your belly.
We carry around this self-doubt about things that we really truly want. Because if we fail at what we really want then somehow we aren’t worthy anymore.
I got news for you.
YOU WILL NOT FAIL!
That’s a bold claim, I know.
When you are going after something that you truly want in your heart of hearts, and you decide that you will achieve it, you WILL find a way.
Think about a time when you were on rock bottom. There were things that you had to do in order to get yourself through it. And you did? Why? Because failing wasn’t an option.
Go after your BIG dreams with that same grit and determination and you will not fail.
I believe in you! Now get into action and make your BIG Dream a reality!
XOXO
Shay Kent
PS: If you would like support in making your dreams come true, consider learning more about my 90 day signature program Unleash The Unstoppable Woman Within. Email shay@shaykentcoaching.com for more info.
