Following your dreams is f%^&ing hard!
As a kid, I dreamed of traveling the world and telling stories, but there was no clear path to making this happen. I had role models who gave me insights into what living your dream life looked like, but no industry connections for telling stories. So, when I started down my path of living my dream life, I looked to my greatest roll models to figure out how they were able to live their dream lives.
My Mom: a stay at home mom (very privileged for this and beyond grateful)
My Dad: the founder of a $1M+ construction business
Together, they fostered a loving childhood deeply rooted in chasing your dreams.
My Mom's slogan, "never clip my wings" was often repeated to us and my Dad as a we grew up. She was filled with ideas and creativity that she needed to itch. The good news for my brother and I, it almost always had to do with a new meal or game.
My Dad wasn’t very vocal about is dreams, or vision, but he woke up at 4:00 am every morning, packed his lunch, and headed out the door by 4:30 am, or 5:00 am, depending on if he was going to the gym. Working all day building his business. Returning home sometime between 6 pm, or 7pm. Without knowing it, my Dad modeled the work ethic it takes to be successful.
I gave up all of my worldly possessions and moved onto a bicycle so I could become a student of storytelling.
How does this relate to following your dreams and how freak'n hard it is?
Well, my Mom's dream was to be a stay-at-home Mom and my Dad wanted to build a business he was proud of. So, I grew up watching these two model what it means to chase their dreams. While their dreams were different than mine, and yours, their actions gave me permission to chase my goals.
That permission to chase my dream is critical.
Why?
Well, if you don’t give yourself permission to chase your goals, you are not going to be okay with: 👉the criticism from others when you start
👉the fortitude to push through failures
👉accepting rejection as a not for me
These hurdles you have to jump over can be debilitating. When I graduated college and decided to be homeless so I could pursue a photography career, my friends and family were shocked. Often their words were not kind and stated I was throwing my life away.
From the outside, there is no question it looked like it.
However, I figured I would give this dream life I had visualized as a 12 year old a chance. I knew I would fail and that if I worked hard enough, I could push through.
Turns out, 8 years of being homeless is what it took for my to start living my childhood dream of traveling and telling stories.
Three years into chasing my dream life, I bought this van (with a loan from my Dad that I had to repay with interest) and slept on the floor in a sleeping bag. No shower, no running water, for 18 more months.
Don't let me fool you into thinking everything is sunshine and rainbows. It wasn't.
As a kid, I thought:
👉 people who owned magazines were rich
👉 it was fun to huddle on the bathroom floor for "slumber party" when the power was shut off
👉 playing with the display toys in Target and never bringing them home was normal
Only now do I realize those were sacrifices my parents made to chase their dreams.
Turns out, their actions wore off on my more than anyone could imagine because:
👉 I was homeless, by choice, for 8 years building my career as a storyteller
👉 lived on rice and vegetable soup cooked on a hand-me-down Coleman grill
👉 turned down a full-time teaching gig to live in a car and become a student of storytelling
While the journey has been f%^&ing hard! Building my career has culminated into something larger than I could have ever imagined. All of those sacrifices have been worth it now that I am on the other side.
However, if I had not given myself permission, stuck with my vision, and pushed daily for years, I don’t think I would be were I am at today. In fact, I know I wouldn’t be. Most likely, I would be a teaching math in Watsonville, CA.
The point at which I stated to feel like I had made it.
Photo 1: My Dad and I road tripping to Alaska so I could film my first documentary, Climbing For Furley, which is now on PBS.
Photo 2: My Mom and I in Antarctica. She was my plus one when I headed there for an assignment covering avian flu and cruise ships
While at the start of my storytelling career my Mom and Dad had questioned me so hard about the path I was on I often avoided having conversations with them, these two moments are the catalysts for me and my family connecting over what it is I had dreamed of doing.
After these trips together, they got a glimpse into how I work and the joy it brings me.
So, I challenge to you sit down with a notebook and ask yourself a questions:
What is your dream life (write this out as detailed as possible)?
What does “giving yourself permission” really look like?
How long would you be willing to sacrifice to see your dream life come to fruition?
About Dalton:
Dalton Johnson is a photographer, filmmaker, and writer.
Over the last 10 years, Dalton’s creative work has taken him to every continent, above the arctic circle, and below the antarctic circle.
His travels are documented in a free, weekly newsletter called UnBound, which is written for those daring to build their dream life.