Anytime we see a new icon emerge on the scene, whether it is in film, music or art we are left captivated and in awe of the success it bathes in.
We’re either intimidated by what we see and claim it to be a bespoke fantasy that is unattainable for us or increasingly inspired to emulate their level of success within our own lives.
We see the glossy exterior and polished finished of a masterpiece that is released to us, the audience.
Sorry to burst your bubble here, but the truth is… you’re not seeing the full picture. You’re not seeing the years, sometimes decades of groundwork it took to build it upon.
In the past year after graduating from university, I have gone through the highs and lows of graduate life – the constant job rejections, the self doubt and the stress and anxiety of where my life is going.
It hasn’t been easy. I’ve always been someone who’s great at being visionary and making it happen. However, in the past year, that ability has been questioned and doubted within myself. Almost like I felt like it was no longer a part of me.
It’s incredibly difficult when you have a set vision for your life and you start bringing it to life but suddenly your circumstances look like a complete train wreck and then it feels completely out of reach. Which leaves you end up sitting there questioning yourself “How you could I have been so on track… yet so far off track?”
It’s uneasy territory. It left me in the shadows of self doubt and on a shaky, turbulent ground of faith, to the point I didn’t even feel confident in being creative anymore. Anytime I would write or record anything or want toe edit content I would be crippled with anxiety that would start taking over my body. So I would quit and opted to play it safe instead which meant applying for jobs that were safe to make a good salary and leaving my creative hobbies to gather dust in the corner.
After countless failed attempts of trying to play it safe and getting nowhere, I decided to sign a contract with God that I’d invest in myself and my visionary pursuits for a year, wholeheartedly this time. I mean, what did I have to lose? No other doors were opening for me and honestly, I was starting to take it as a sign of maybe I was meant to do the thing I was scared of.
One of the conditions of this contract was that I would start investing in my creative ability which included scheduling one day a week for creative inspiration. For some strange reason I seem to think I’m not creative when I literally co-create my life with The Creator (what is more creative than that?!). One of my favourite things to do is watch architecture documentaries. I just love the visionary aspect of designing something and bringing your vision to life in extraordinary ways, I think because it is literally an example of faith in such a human way – having this crazy vision inspired by either elements of nature, culture or a concept and bringing it to to life in such an sublime way. Lately, I’ve been into BBC Two’s The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes and I realised that I’m so captivated by the explanation of the design but completely zone out when it comes to the presenter Piers explaining the engineering aspect of the homes and the contractor’s dilemmas. Then I came to the realisation that this is exactly how God works in our lives.
I am the architect. I know exactly what my empire looks like because I designed them. I spent years on these designs. I know the blueprints like the back of my hand. However… all I know is how it’s supposed to look and function. I have no idea what type of concrete works best or how to form the structural groundwork of the building. That’s God’s job, he’s the contractor – He knows exactly how to build solid foundations and what materials work best (I mean he’s been doing this for a pretty long time and invented them, I clearly didn’t!). I’ve never built an empire So, just because things genuinely look like a pile of crap with the concrete taking ages to set and the walls aren’t even painted (heck, the walls aren’t even up properly!) doesn’t mean your vision is invalid. You just have to trust the contractor’s word that this is the best method to build the most solid foundation.
Sometimes it can genuinely feel like God forgot about our dreams and they’ve turned to shit. But the truth is, if you feel that vision deep in your heart, and absolutely nothing will shake it off you then it’s most likely it’s from God and hey, that means he totally co-signed to be the contractor to make it happen. Have faith that this is all part of the process, you can’t build empires without the essential groundwork. Sometimes that looks like nothing we expect, but he knows what we’re doing because admittedly we’ve never built this empire before, what expertise and resume do we have? But He’s the one behind the greatest empires known to man. And having that behind you, is pretty much unstoppable if you ask me.
Espire21 