song: good togegther by honne
read time: 4 mintues
i had to write to today. i technically don’t have time to write — i have websites to design, instagram feeds to manage, and phone calls to take — but i had to write, because i had a revelation today and i can’t help but feel like one of you may need this revelation too.
some of you may know what i do, some of you may not know what i do. whichever camp you fall in — don’t worry, my friends fall in both those camps too. my bio says it all — i’m a jill of all trades. i’m an idea person. i come up with ideas everyday and most days i think to myself, “dang! i should do that!”
there’s potentially so much history to this article, but i know that no one wants to read the chronological history — so i’ll break everything down as quickly as possible in order to get to the revelation.
ready — here it is in fragments:
2012. moved back home from tulsa. looked for a job. couldn’t find one. worked for my mom. started coast to coast central with my bff. my mom fired me. needed money. decided to start a business doing social media for brands. learned squarespace. launched third story apartment. got a client. kinda made money. coast to coast was growing. third story was surviving. 2013 rolled in. coast to coast kept on growing. took a group of strangers to ecuador on a humanitarian trip. got one or two new clients for third story. still on survival mode. possibly still living at the line of poverty. 2014. wrote down some goals. landed a massive client with third story. third story took off. coast to coast started struggling. 2015. third story is making all my dreams come true. started traveling (a lot). met my yearly income goals by june. coast to coast died in the middle of the world. yeah. literally. we quit everything. took time to rest. continued championing it with third story. dreamed a little. named the dream “wild hearts wknd”. pre-launched the dream. 2016. launched wild hearts wknd. moved to south america. wild hearts started growing. third story was still growing… and now you’re all caught up.
okay, hopefully that documentation wasn’t too long and painful. but, in case you didn’t catch the repetitive theme that has been going on in my life over the past 4 years — i’ve always had two things, two projects, two businesses. and thus far, in my experience, one business has always had to take the back burner. one business has always flourished while the other was just… surviving.
i am no small dreamer. you can ask anyone. i believe that i can do anything i think of. i tell myself, no joke, “i’m lindsey eryn clark — i can do anything i want.” (if you think that’s weird, i just dare you to go try it… you’ll find yourself doing more than you thought was possible.) i love wild hearts co. with all my heart and believe that it will be an empire one day that encompasses so much more than a tour of wknds. but then, there’s third story — that i love equally. it’s my opportunity to make other people’s ideas come to life. i’ve always believed in both endeavours and i’ve always known that i was supposed to be doing both things. and, yes, while third story started off as merely a form of producing income — it’s become something that i’m passionate about. i love working with brands and help them create solutions and pathways to meet their goals. i don’t want to give up either of them.
lately, i’ve been feeling this tension — because, right now, both businesses are flourishing. ironic, right? that i would feel tension, when what i want is happening. obviously, seeing both businesses flourish is the dream. but because of the past four years, i’ve been conditioned to think only one can grow.
can i tell you what’s been going on in my head? and, gosh, i’m trusting you with this — it’s vulnerable, it’s real, it’s raw. but i want to share — because that’s what friends do.
okay, so if i can be honest with myself and you— i’ve been preparing to self-sabotage myself. the past few days, i’ve been going through this process— thinking, “well, wild hearts has to grow— so it’s impossible for third story to grow at the same time. so what can i do to pull back from third story?”
like whaaat!
who thinks like that? (okay, don’t answer that — cause i actually think it might be a lot of us. but that’s just a guess.)
i had a real coming to Jesus this morning — because the thought came to me, “who says!” who says that you can only be successful at one thing at a time? who says that all your dreams can’t flourish at the same time?
if those are the rules that society gave us, if those are the mindsets that my past has given me — then i’m going to break them. because, who’s to say that i can’t do all those things?
because when it comes down to it, this is what i believe:
EVERYTHING COMES FROM HIM (GOD). EVERYTHING HAPPENS THROUGH HIM. EVERYTHING ENDS UP IN HIM. ALWAYS GLORY! ALWAYS PRAISE! [romans 10.36]
everything comes from God, everything happens through God. facts are facts— with my God, all things are possible. so if i really believe that, then why can’t i defy my past and have two (or more) businesses flourishing at once?
i can’t help but feel like i am not the only one who needs this revelation— maybe your thing isn’t seeing two businesses flourish at one time. maybe it’s something different. maybe, you’re a mama feeling like you don’t know if you can juggle being raising a newborn and a house full of rascals while blogging. or, maybe you are fresh out of college and you’re not sure if you can pursue your dream and make a living at the same time.
as humans, i think we are conditioned to choose. choose option A, B, or C. but what about D, all of the above?
i am speaking to myself here, too — but if we are really going to start living the lives of our dreams, if we are really going to become all that we were meant to, if we are really going to launch all of the ideas that are burning inside of us — we need to stop thinking that we have to choose. we need to stop making assessments of what is possible based off our previous capacity, our previous skillsets, our previous connections, and our previous experiences.
if we’re really going to do this and wow the rest of the world — then we need to do a couple things starting with this:
- don’t let your past experiences define your future. your past is your foundation, it’s not your ceiling. your past has prepared you for your future, not the other way around. your past has given you the knowledge, the experience, the know-how, the grit, and the courage to make something happen in your future. your future is defined by what you see as possible, not by what has already happened.
- stop thinking you have to choose. you can do it all. the ideas burning inside you, the ones that won’t leave you alone were not given to you to tease you. they were given to you so could live them out. all your ideas will fit together in due time, but it’s like a puzzle. you build the borders of the puzzle first, the obvious pieces. then you fill the insides. so, for you, start with the obvious. then keep adding when it makes sense and when it fits. in the same way you don’t force puzzle pieces together, but you hold some pieces on the side knowing that the fit precisely into one corner — the same is with your dream. some dreams, you hold, waiting for the perfect time. that’s okay. it doesn’t mean you can’t live it out at some point. It’s just waiting for the perfect time that it fits into all your other dreams.
- you can do all things through christ who strengthens you. you want do great things? remind yourself of this: I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS ME! yeah, it’s the famous Bible verse — but we need to stop treating it like a cliché and start telling ourselves this on the reg. don’t desaturate this truth. the verse from philippians says we can do “all” things, not just “some things”. i don’t know about you, but i plan on taking that verse and holding God accountable to fill in the gaps so that i can do all the things i dream of.
let’s hold each other accountable, shall we? i won’t choose what dreams i run after, if you don’t. with everything in me, i believe that if we chase our dreams with everything in us— we’ll see a ripple effect of beauty in the world. if we truly believe in creativity and that we are creative beings, then there is no limit for us. there is a way to accomplish everything that we dream of and we just have to find the right way to build it.
so, to the weary soul who doesn’t know if they can juggle more than one thing at a time — don’t give up yet. k? you have it in you. you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.
