Have you ever held a secret dream close to your heart?

Maybe a romantic dream, of meeting the most perfect partner … maybe a dream of winning Lotto and finally being able to walk away from a thankless role … maybe, of being free …

I’ve held onto many dreams throughout my life, not all of them healthy – such as a “wrong” person in a relationship magically becoming the “right” person (they did not). And not all of them exactly a serious dream, more a whimsical thought (for the record, I didn’t purchase any pygmy goats for my backyard, but I did heavily research them, and it did seem like a fantastic idea).

But there is one thing I have consistently dreamt of, and I think it actually is at the heart of most of our dreams. Freedom.

As I have grown and matured, I think it’s fair to say that my perception of freedom has also grown and matured. It’s gone from being completely focused on financial freedom, to freedom of choice. And while I’ll probably never let go of the dream of winning Lotto, my goals now are to nurture this dream to have a work life balance that I am passionate about. Writing is something I love, working out the thoughts in my head to put them to paper is something I find rewarding, almost soothing (only when completed I might add).

So, for me, as I approach the 20th anniversary of having my own business, it helps me to know what I dream of, as it helps me shape the next 20 years to be something I enjoy. It helps me to focus on what I want to do for work, the clients I want to have, who I want to write for and what I want to write about.

For our friends in the Ukraine, freedom is certainly their dream, and it is certainly a very scary path to achieve that dream. But they know what they are fighting for, for their freedom. For those in Russia, we are wishing that they were able to enjoy freedom of information, so that they too could dream of peace and perhaps it could be achieved. For anyone who is fighting for their rights, they are perhaps dreaming of the freedom to be themselves, to be free of judgement or persecution. And for those who are fighting a broken heart, they too dream of being free of the pain they feel, to be in a relationship where they are free to love without fear.

Dreams come in all shapes and sizes, but the ones we hold dear to our hearts are the ones we know are worth fighting for. And it just seems to me that it all comes down to being free, to being able to choose what you want to do, to being able to love freely, to passionately pursue that which makes you happy and keeps you safe. Sure, I might dream of financial freedom, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t want to work – it means that I want to be able to choose the balance that makes me happy – and that is in writing.

And I love writing for you, thank you for helping me keep my dream alive, for helping me understand what it is I really love. The world is full of people with very big and very important dreams, and big and important battles. Please make sure that you also listen to your dreams, and you fight for the freedom to be who you want to be in this world.

Abby x •