Tiny Victories Keep the Dream Alive

Positively Life After Fifty had a tiny victory today and I just had to write about it to celebrate! This is the site I built in the summer of 2013 when I began a podcast with the same name. I thought it would be easy; buy the website name, build the site, and get started podcasting. Boom. Done.

(Pssst…scroll down to jump ahead to the tiny victory.)

But then life hit. Boom. Hard. I went back to work teaching…a very stressful year.
Then I got sick, couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, really stressed. Yet my students all needed my help, as did my own family. Not many victories, but hugs from the kids sure helped.  

My job took a turn again for the worse. I loved the kids, but the pressure, along with the insomnia, was crushing my spirit. I began to rethink what was most important in life, and put in for early retirement.

Acknowledge all of your small victories. They will eventually add up to something great. 

Kara Goucher

Meanwhile my podcast equipment was STILL gathering dust in the corner of the living room, and my website was in a sad state of atrophy. 2013 turned into '14, ’15 and even '16. I began to think my dream was going to sadly fade away like Christmas poinsettias in January.

Maybe when I retire, I thought, I can revive this dream of having a thriving website and podcast. Or… maybe I should just let it go. I seriously thought about giving up, I didn't think it mattered to anyone. But I couldn't.

Have you ever had a hard time letting go of your dreams? That's surely normal. After all, we've nurtured some dreams for a lifetime and invested in them with our hopes and plans. They’re like our children. No? Okay, well, at least they're like our favorite pets. We don't want to give up, but life happens and before you know it:  Boom. Done. No more dream. I was close to giving up. After retirement, I was too busy to focus on the website, write or produce a podcast. But I now realize that just as many tiny victories adds up to something great, so can many small coincidences lead us back to the path to those lost dreams. Small coincidences like a comment a friend made, that got you believing in yourself again. Or finally reading that book you've been putting off for so long, (for me it was FINISH by Jon Acuff. Wow!) Or even getting enough sleep, so you have a brain that actually works again. Small, unrelated coincidences have a way of helping us get back on the right path, the path that leads to revived dreams.

 Small, unrelated coincidences have a way of helping us get back on the right path, the path that leads to revived dreams.

Positively Life After Fifty

So what's my tiny victory today? It's that little lock in the browser bar at the top of your screen. Seems like a small victory, but not for me.

You see, as I'm rebuilding this old website, one problem has eluded me. Security. No more! TODAY, with the help of an online tech guy who replaced some missing code, I FINALLY got my “lock” along with the “s” in the “https://” in my web address! You can now visit my site without getting that scary message, “This website is not secure!”

And best of all? YOU are now safe to sign up for my newsletter and get updates and all the great freebies that I will be making in the future. (Your name and email address will be safe, never shared.) You can sign up right now, on this page. I look forward to hearing from you!

Here's hoping you can celebrate a tiny victory, or two, of your own this week and move one step closer to your dreams!