Never Give Up on Your Dreams

I started having kids at the time when the majority of the people my age were pursuing their dreams and working to graduate from college. I’ve been working on graduating from college since I graduated High School, but since I had a child two years after graduating High School, the amount of time it will take to get my degree has increased. When my daughter turned 2, I saw a lot of people my age posting on social media about graduating with their Bachelor’s degrees. It was really difficult for me to view that knowing that I still have a long road ahead of me before I will have my Bachelor’s degree. Because I have kids, I have to complete school at a slower pace, which will result in me not receiving my Bachelor’s degree until my daughter is 8 years of age. It is almost demotivating to think about the amount of time that I will be going to school – especially being somebody who has never enjoyed school that much in the first place. However, I will not quit.  I love to refer to a quote by Earl Nightingale when the road ahead seems long and hard: “Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” I have dreamed of receiving my Bachelor’s degree and I feel that it is important to do so. However, there are days where I feel like it’s not worth it and I may as well not worry about ever getting a degree because it’s going to take too long, but that time will pass anyway. The road may be long, but I’ll be traveling down a road either way with time passing by. One road may be easier, but will it be more worthwhile?

            It has been said that, “God could not be everywhere, and so He gave us mothers”. Mothers are one of our greatest teachers and examples. I am a Mother now and I have come to realize the importance of that sacred responsibility that I have been blessed with. Mothers truly do take on a special role from God and that role should be appreciated. And the same goes for Fathers. We have been given this sacred responsibility and gift to love and care for God’s precious children. As a parent on an entrepreneurial journey, I must never forget my duty as a Mother first. No matter where my life takes me or how successful I become, I am a Mother first. That is the same for all parents out there. We must remember the importance of our family and make sure that they are placed high on our priority list. Sometimes the work we do as parents doesn’t feel as rewarding and fulfilling as professional work might, but as parents, we are accomplishing some of the most sacred work there is. We must never forget that.

            Our relationships with our family our crucial, but our relationship with our Father in Heaven is one of the most important relationships that we need to maintain. We can establish and enhance this relationship by praying to our Father each and everyday and then be inspired by Him by reading the scriptures. We need His guidance in our lives, in both our personal and professional lives. Managing our time in this crazy world can be very difficult. I know that as long as we keep our priorities in line, everything will fall into place. If we always put God first then God will help us to accomplish every needful thing. He loves us and we need to love Him more than anything else. We need to make Him our highest priority and by so doing, we can align the rest of our priorities as needed, and be capable of more than we ever thought possible.

            As we journey through this life we will face many challenges and difficulties. As entrepreneurs we seek to be the best, we yearn for success in our endeavors. Jeffrey R. Holland gave a talk at a BYU Devotional in 1983 titled, “However Long and Hard the Road”. In it he examines how “we speak about excellence a great deal…by definition, excellence does not come easily of quickly…It is simply a truism that nothing very valuable can come without significant sacrifice and effort and patience on our part…You will face some delays and disappointments at this formative time in your life and feel that no one else in the history of mankind has ever had your problems or faced those difficulties. And when some of those challenges come, you will have the temptation common to us all to say, “This task is too hard. The burden is too heavy. The path is too long.” And so you decide to quit, simply to give up. Now to terminate certain kinds of tasks is not only acceptable but often very wise. If you are, for example, a flagpole sitter then I say, “Come on down.” But in life’s most crucial and telling tasks, my plea is to stick with it, to persevere, to hang in and hang on, and to reap your reward.” Don’t quit when the going gets tough. You are capable of great things and most importantly: you have God on your side. With the Lord, you can do remarkable things.