How to reality test your fears

Dear readers,

If you’ve been following me for a while now, you know that a daily spiritual practice I love to follow to begin my day intentionally is to draw an oracle card, Today, I drew card 23 from The Passion Pack, Reality Test.

“Don’t buy into the myth that being passionate about your work is a dream obtainable by only a few,” the card guides me. “Reality test your own and/or others’ beliefs or fears. Look for examples of people who are earning an income from pursuing their passion. Talk to people already working in areas they are passionate about or doing the job you want to do.

Who could you talk to?

What “facts“ do you need to check out?

How could you test your reality further?

Today, for example, I was reading about the Oscar award-winning actor Adrien Brody when he revealed that his first love was painting. Early in his career, Adrien applied to go to art school but he wasn’t accepted and was instead admitted to study acting. Recently he returned to painting but he still combines this passion with the one that currently pays his bills. Adrien’s story provides a good reality test that you don’t have to buy onto the myth that you can only do one thing to be successful, happy, or do what you love.

Similarly, Anthony Hopkins, also an award-winning actor, returned to painting to help him swap his addiction to alcohol with a new obsession. He was surprised himself to find that he was exhibiting and selling in art galleries. It was something he said he never imagined would ever happen.

This is another great example of reality testing the belief that you may have that you have to be formerly qualified or trained to be successful. It’s also evidence of the power of love and doing something that you are interested in, obsessed by or just cannot wait to do.

I talk more about how to combine your passions in my book Midlife Career Combo. I also cover the topic of new beginnings. In the last two years, so many of us have experienced new beginnings of careers that we may have left voluntarily or were forced to. Either due to health mandates, lockdowns or because economies changed. But during these times of loss new seeds also sprouted.

I’ve shared some of the success stories of my clients in other posts. Clients like NAOMI BARTON. Naomi enjoys a career combo. After leaving her career in teaching during the first wave of Covid, she is now an audiobook narrator, author and producer. She is the author of An Unexpected Journey: a Covid-19 Tale.

Naomi’s story of midlife career change in the wake of Covid-19 is so inspiring and I know it would be a great help to many people who dream of self-employment but think it is something that only people with great wads of money, or more courage than a lion, could ever do. You can read the post here>>

Recently I was contacted by a person to appear in an interview series that she is putting together a 7-day video-chat series called, “Women Succeeding from Scratch: Re-engineering your life, love and career in your forties.” 

It got me thinking about some of the changes in my own life coming up as I inch closer to my 60s. Yikes! There, I said it! During the pandemic, I started writing a book I’ve entitled Who Stole Our Joy. The theme is about what it felt like to be going through this pandemic as The Joyful Artist—a highly sensitive person, creative and therapist as so many of our freedoms were eroded. I’m sure it’s a story many can relate to. In fact, people have asked me to please, please write this book.

And while I found my joy in opening my art gallery and creating art workshops and having Play Dates with people recently I felt my joy waning. To say that the last two years have been nothing short of stressful for so many people doesn’t even begin to capture the trauma. But I wanted to be rebellious by showing up for love, not fear,

In this video, I share how, and why, I created an art gallery from home during the lockdowns, empowered my life and created more joy.

My partner would like to make a move. Having grown up in Uraguay, a Spanish speaking country, he’d like to go somewhere other than New Zealand. Somewhere they speak Spanish and the culture is vibrant. Right now, we’re exploring the South of Spain. It’s an exciting thought—but of course, not without its uncertainties. But then if the last two years have taught us anything, very little can be predicted. We would keep a smaller home where in New Zealand as our families are here. But we are committing to change.

I once read, for great things to happen we have to burn our ships. And so the beautiful home where we have lived for eight years is on the market. We don’t know exactly where we are going, or what we will do, but once again I am inspired by my muse Madame Clicquot, whose champagne is one of my favourites, it’s time to again act with audacity. A willingness to take bold risks. It’s the same risk-taking we took when we made the bold leap from Wellington.

In Feb 2021 our home was featured in New Zealand House and Garden. As the article notes, It takes courage to transform a vision into reality. Check out the article and be inspired by our story of reinvention. You’ll see some of my art and see how I gave my vision for my art gallery an early plug, before it was even created! It’s here, Art@rangitane where I hold my fun and fabulous art workshops. I hope you can make it for my upcoming Easter Workshops>>

Did you enjoy this post?

You might like:

HOW TO FIND JOY DURING TIMES OF CHAOS

HOW TO DISCOVER YOUR DESTINY

I PULLED THE PLUG ON MY SAFE, SECURE ROLE DURING COVID

HOW TO CHOOSE LOVE, NOT FEAR

Here are some more things you might like:

Uplifting Art by Cassandra
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Interesting interviews: Listen to my best interviews on topics like overcoming obstacles, finding joy in adversity, following your passion to prosperity.

Online Courses: 

Find Your Passion and Purpose with my best-selling self-paced course made for busy people >>

Play Dates: Online Creativity Workshop >>

Have fun, explore, enrich your life 

Keynote speaking: Hire me to speak to your organization or team about Resilience, wellbeing, innovation, and motivation.

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