185: How to Pursue Big Dreams: Ask Yourself These 5 Questions 

See the show notes for this Episode here.

This transcript has been automatically generated.

Bonnie Christine:
Hey there. Welcome back to The Professional Creative and Happy New Year. I am recording this right at the beginning of the year and I have all of those New Year feelings. You know, the ones that feel like a blank slate and they're exciting and you're thinking about what this year will hold for you. So I have a question for you. How would you answer if I asked you, hey, what's your biggest creative dream? You know, take a moment and most of you will know right off the bat, but maybe you need to think and really hold on to that thought. Because today, as we jump into the new year, I also want to talk about something really close to my heart, and that is how to go about pursuing really big dreams. You know, achieving big dreams is really only made possible by asking yourself the right questions that guide you along the way and then just be willing to put in a little bit of work along the way.

Bonnie Christine:
And so in this episode, I'm gonna be sharing 5 really powerful questions that will help you not only fine tune your vision, but also stay inspired to pursue that big dream this year. So are you ready to begin? I'm Bonnie Christine, and this is where all things creativity, design, business, and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tiny town tucked right inside the Smoky Mountains running a multi 7 figure business, doing the most creative and impactful work of my life. But when I first set out to become an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer. Fast forward to today, I'm not only licensing my artwork all over the world, but also teaching others how to design their creative life and experience the same success. I'm here to help you spend your life doing something that lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that also creates an impact, changes people's lives, gives you all of the freedom you want, and is wildly profitable. Welcome to The Professional Creative Podcast.

Bonnie Christine:
The most important creative dreams can, for whatever reason, be the easiest to push to the side. They tend to drum up all kinds of thoughts and feelings for us, like imposter syndrome and overwhelm. As creatives, we really carry a seed for what's possible, and then we can also often envision what that seed looks like as a full grown tree. But for so many of us, including myself, it's a struggle to stay consistent in the planting and the watering and the nurturing of that dream. It's difficult to see all the growth stages. You know, it takes a long time for a tree to grow. But also it's like we don't really know what that growth looks like and that can just hold us back. We can so easily kind of hold that seed, see the big tree, see the big goal come to fruition in mind.

Bonnie Christine:
And then months just tend to go by. And we notice the dream kind of slipping into the background. But here's the thing about seeds. Okay. They can lie dormant for years years years years. But as soon as you put them in fertile soil and give them the nutrients that they need, they will begin to sprout. And that's what I want to help you do today. If you find yourself saying things like, I don't have the time.

Bonnie Christine:
This isn't the right time. I don't have the financials to do what I want to do. Or I'll wait until things even out a bit before I start. Or maybe you're like, you know, where did the time go? Any number of these things can just derail us from prioritizing the dream. It's almost like procrastination through our inner dialogue. So how do we set ourselves up for success? Well, I have a really special invitation to a free event that we're working on, and I'm gonna share it with you towards the end of the episode. So stay tuned. But for now, I wanna take a moment for you to imagine what could December of 2025 look like for you? You know, it could look like this feeling of I did it.

Bonnie Christine:
I accomplished this enormous goal fearlessly and consistently. And in order for that to be what's true for you in December 2025, it's time to get started on it today. Maybe your goal is to design your very first repeating pattern or host your very first art show or learn a new program that you've been wanting to learn or start a new business that you've been dying to start. Or perhaps it's fill your garden bed with the abundance of vegetables and herbs and flowers. Maybe you want to sign a contract to become a fabric designer or maybe you want to finally complete the draft of your book proposal. So in December, if you could say, my goodness, my big creative goal, the one that I thought was impossible is complete. And now you get to enjoy as it really grows and flourishes into taking you into a brand new season of your life. And you, now as an accomplished creative, are more confident in your ability to face challenges and conquer new goals than ever before.

Bonnie Christine:
That sounds pretty good. Right? This can absolutely be your reality, and I'm gonna tell you how to get started with it today. You know, my big creative dream really began in the spring of 2009. I wanted to become a fabric designer, but I didn't know how. I had no formal training. I had no roadmap. I had tons of self doubt. I had no reason to believe that I should be able to make this happen.

Bonnie Christine:
That dream felt so big and so scary and so overwhelming and so far away. I didn't know where to begin. So for 6 months, I just kept thinking about that dream. I did nothing out of being paralyzed and overwhelmed. It seemed literally impossible for me to break through this wall of overwhelm and just start moving. And so what changed? Well, I woke up one morning and it hit me like a ton of bricks how much time had passed. And so I made a promise to myself that I would do one thing every day no matter how big or how small to work towards becoming a fabric designer. I didn't have to know what all the things were.

Bonnie Christine:
I didn't have to know what those middle stages look like. I just had to know what my very next step was gonna be. And that was always pretty clear. So my first one thing was simply researching how to get started. That was it. And the next day, I asked another question and that led me to an answer that prompted another question and so forth and so forth. And so research was a huge part of it. And it's and it's what taught me what needed to be done.

Bonnie Christine:
So these are the questions that helped me turn this overwhelming dream into small actionable steps. So I wanna share them with you. Okay? So the first one is, who can I look to for support? Big dreams are rarely achieved alone, and that's a really good thing. But it also feels really vulnerable to share them. And so you have to share them at the right time with the right people. You know, it requires us to share our dreams with people that we trust, to name it and take ownership of it. And sharing our dreams, like I said, it's just vulnerable and also requires a lot of courage. When I first began to pursue my dream, I only told my husband and my mom.

Bonnie Christine:
Giving that dream time to really take root, I was careful with who I gave it to because I knew these two people could support me but also help hold me accountable. And then as I grew more confident, I began to share it with more of my friends. And then finally, I began to share it publicly. And this is where, like, the real magic began because now I had a lot of people who knew about it, which helped hold me accountable. People would begin asking me about my progress and ask me how it was going, and that was motivating. But we need more than just emotional and mental support. I think having someone to support our skill set and mentor us and teach us is also incredibly important. So one of the most impactful experiences in my journey has just been consistently looking for the person who has gone before me, who knows what I've what I'm trying to accomplish, who can kind of pave the way or make it easier, and then just follow them.

Bonnie Christine:
Sometimes it's reverse engineering what they've done. Sometimes it's reaching out to see if I could learn from them. Sometimes it's by taking a course or joining a mastermind. But that consistent thread, always looking to the person who's kind of already done what I'm looking to accomplish, and then learning from them as best as I can has really helped my entire career kind of just go more smoothly and more quickly. The conversations we've had, the challenges we've worked through together, the support we've given each other helps me see new possibilities for my own creativity and my own business. It helps me push to think bigger, to take bolder action, and to really believe in the potential of my work in ways that I really hadn't before or couldn't without the guidance. So ask yourself, who can I tell first? And then, who can I reach out to for support or inspiration? Who can I learn from? Number 2 is, what can I commit to? One of the most challenging parts of pursuing a big goal is really getting honest with yourself about your bandwidth. Allowing a big dream to be big, but not to be afraid of taking those steps that are really small sometimes.

Bonnie Christine:
So sometimes you've just got to choose one small action or one small kind of, frame of time that will help move you towards your goal. I think oftentimes when we start on a big goal, we kind of want all the time in the world to put towards it. We wanna clear our desk and clear our mind and have, you know, 3 solid days to jump into it. And that's what I'm saying, won't necessarily come for so many of us. You've gotta just start. Even if it's just for 15 minutes, starting is the hardest part. And you don't need all of that other stuff. You don't need to, you know, clean out your drawers and clean your space and get through your current to do list.

Bonnie Christine:
All you need to do is dedicate 15 minutes today to starting. And I would argue that every single one of us has 15 minutes in a day that we can put towards a big goal. We're just doing something else with it currently. Right? So the size of the task really doesn't matter. It's the consistency. It's the habit creation of making consistent effort and showing up every day no matter what that builds momentum. So ask yourself, what is my bandwidth and what is one small step that I can actually take today when you hear this? Okay. Number 3 is where will I cultivate this dream? I think it's important to think about the environment that supports your dream, and it's one of the most powerful ways to set yourself up for success.

Bonnie Christine:
So the spaces that we create can really inspire us. Now don't let this be a way to procrastinate though. You do not need everything to be perfect. Let me repeat that. You do not need to set up a special space or have everything perfect to start. But if you think about the longevity of the goal and the progress, I think setting up yourself for success really helps create the habit. So what I mean by this is if you are wanting to draw every day, maybe you set your sketchbook and pens out by the coffee maker, so that you see it every single morning. Or if you're choosing a moment in the afternoon, maybe you pair it with your afternoon tea, and you make that your special time to complete your one thing a day.

Bonnie Christine:
Maybe you have a dedicated workspace at your desk filled with cues like visual cues or vision boards or notes that will help not only remind you to take action, but also help keep you motivated and inspired. Maybe your place needs natural light, or maybe you like to work in the middle of the night, or maybe you want to surround it with something beautiful like plants or flowers. Just by being intentional and having a little bit of fun picking out the space and how you're going to structure it in your day, you just need a plan. So the space that you choose and the time of the day that you choose should just be easy. You should be able to remind yourself easily of it. There should be no barrier to entry and a way for you to just set yourself up for success. So the question to ask yourself is, where do I want to lay the groundwork for my dream to come true? And how can I set myself up for success? Are you tired of spending hours crafting the perfect email only to be met with crickets in your inbox? Or worse, having your emails land in your subscribers' spam folders, I've been there, which is why I switched to Kit as my email service provider years ago. Kit is the email marketing platform built by creators for creators.

Bonnie Christine:
With Kit, you can easily create and send beautiful personalized emails that your subscribers are not only going to open, but actually love. Their drag and drop email editor makes it super easy to design emails that look professional without needing any coding skills. And the powerful automation tools make sure that you're sending the right message to the right person at just the right time. But that's not all. Kits tagging and segmenting tools let you send targeted messages based on your subscribers' interests and behaviors. So for example, on my email list, I've got people who are interested in buying my fabric for their projects, and others who wanna learn how to design their own fabric. Thanks to Kit's tagging system, I can send relevant content to both groups without worrying about bugging the other with something that they're not interested in. Kit also helps you grow your email list easily.

Bonnie Christine:
You can build out landing pages and forms to turn subscribers into customers. And, you know, we're always talking about growing that email list. With kit. You can start adding subscribers within a day of focused effort. It's that easy to set up, create a landing page, add an opt in and start growing your list. In fact, your first 10,000 subscribers on kit are 100% free. Kit offers some fantastic features beyond email marketing as well. They have an extensive creator platform that allows you to easily recommend other creators that you love, fostering collaboration and community.

Bonnie Christine:
And if you're looking to monetize your content, Kit makes it simple to turn your newsletters into a source of income as well. You can offer premium content to your subscribers, helping you build a sustainable business while sharing your passion with others. So if you're ready to take your email marketing to the next level, head on over to bonniechristine.com/resources, and sign up for that free trial of Kit today. Their support is incredible, and you'll see firsthand how the platform can grow with you from one subscriber to, I don't know, 500,000. Again, that's bonniechristine.com/resources to check out Kit today. Now number 4 is what is your why? It's really easy to get caught up in daily tasks and to do's and deadlines and challenges along the way. But when you stay connected to the bigger picture, which is your purpose, you remain focused and motivated. And that's why it's so important to really understand your why.

Bonnie Christine:
Why do you have this dream? Knowing your why will help you navigate obstacles and make better aligned decisions and then create work that feels really authentic and fulfilling. Now for me, my why is really centered around helping others discover their own creativity and build lives they love through their work. Let me say that again. My why is centered around helping others discover their own creativity and build a life that they love through their work. So when I first started out, I faced plenty of challenges. There were times that I felt stuck or unsure, but I kept coming back to my why. I knew that I wanted to help others experience the joy of creating and that my work could make a difference in their lives. And that helped me push through.

Bonnie Christine:
This purpose began to be my anchor during tough times and reminding me that the work I was doing was worth the effort and it can be done for you the same. This reminds me, just this week, I was looking to pull some of our stories from past students who've taken the Surface Design Immersion course. And I pulled them all together. These are stories, success stories, and testimonials, and feedback that we've gotten positive from the course. And I started to pull them into a Google Doc PDF, and it was a 185 pages long. And I thought, it's just like that's not lost on me. And that's just from the last 2 years. So I was only pulling 2023 2024 stories, and it was a 185 pages long of stories that students have sent us of their success.

Bonnie Christine:
And I'm like, this is why I do everything that I do, and it makes all the hard moments worth it. It makes all the overwhelm or the questioning or the hard days so incredibly worth it. And so now I'm keeping that PDF at my fingertips. That's a side note, but it made me think of it. Just so that anytime I'm having a hard time, I can come back to my why. So your why can evolve and change, and it can also go beyond your creative goals. It's the reason behind the goals. So take a moment and think about it and and don't put too much pressure on yourself.

Bonnie Christine:
When I think about my goal at the very beginning, it might have even sounded a little selfish, like maybe I just needed to pay the bills. Maybe I wanted to see prove to myself that I could. Maybe I wanted to prove to other people that I could. And then it slowly evolved and developed. And so your why today doesn't have to be, you know, impact the world and leave this enormous legacy. It can be really simple, like just something that will remind you in the hard moments why you're doing it in the first place. And then as you grow and develop, it can evolve with you. My why has changed many times over the years.

Bonnie Christine:
So the question to ask yourself is, what is driving the goal? And what do I want to see come to fruition based on the work that I'm doing? Okay. And the 5th question, number 5, is, am I ready to let go of perfection? As you pursue this really big dream of yours, you will make mistakes. You will waste time. You will waste money. You will, go down rabbit holes that in hindsight, you won't have needed to go down. But here's the thing. The only way to get better at anything is to just keep showing up and experimenting. And yes, sometimes making things that don't turn out the way that you expected.

Bonnie Christine:
Every time you create, you are learning, you're growing, you're sharpening your skills. 1 year in particular, at the beginning of my journey, I made over 100 patterns just to practice and explore all the different ways that there were to learn how to design. I didn't share any of them publicly And some of them I never will. Probably the majority of them. But those pieces gave me really the freedom to play and to make mistakes and to make work that I didn't like and also figure out what I did like. And it made me fall in love with the creative process. So whatever it is for you, for me, it was pattern making. For you, it could be any number of things.

Bonnie Christine:
How can you give yourself permission to just play and explore and experiment? Maybe you need to make a 100 of the thing with no pressure to show it or share it, just permission to do the work and really enhance your skills by doing so. This gave me the freedom to grow as a creator. And you know what? They moved me towards accomplishing my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer, meaning there's no way I could have skipped that. And it was just part of the process that helped me perfect my approach. So every line, every color choice, every pattern you create, or whatever it is for you, has something to teach you. The key is to keep showing up and making progress, even when the results aren't maybe exactly what you thought they would be. So ask yourself, am I ready to graciously allow myself to learn and grow along the way? Now, as you begin to pursue your dream, you might encounter this common roadblock, feeling like you don't have enough time. So let me encourage you.

Bonnie Christine:
You're not alone. I feel this way all the time as well. It's easy to get caught up in the demands of everyday life and feel like there's no room left for your creative pursuits. But I remember feeling like I didn't have any time. But between working and raising a family and managing my daily responsibilities, my dream of becoming a fabric designer felt like it was slipping further and further away. Then I realized that we all have the same 24 hours in a day. It's not a matter of having enough time. It's choosing how I prioritize my time.

Bonnie Christine:
Meaning, I remember thinking like, okay, me, you and Oprah all have the same 24 hours in a day. We're just all using it radically different. So what do I need to do about my day to structure it differently, to prioritize my dream? I wasn't spending time on the things that mattered the most, and it wasn't until I consciously decided to make time for progress on my biggest goal that things began to shift. I began just carving out small pockets of time here and there, early in the morning, during nap time, in the evening, where I could focus solely on my dreams. Again, sometimes it was only 15 minutes, but even those small windows of focused effort really began to add up and snowball. This is not easy, and I had to let go of some things that weren't as important. But by prioritizing the time that I was working on my goal, I started to see real progress. So when you shift yourself from saying I don't have time to I'm choosing how to spend my time, You take back control and you can begin to prioritize what truly, really matters.

Bonnie Christine:
Now it's your turn. You have the power to create space for your dream, even in the busiest of seasons. It's really all about intentionally choosing to do it. Here's a recap. Achieving big dreams is having the right questions to ask yourself along the way. Who can I look to for support? What can I commit to? Where will I cultivate this dream? What is my why? Am I ready to let go of perfection? By asking yourself these questions, you shift your perspective, you make space for big things to come true. You surround yourself with encouragement and accountability. You build momentum with small tasks.

Bonnie Christine:
You create a workspace where your dream can really grow and anchor yourself when doubts appear and give yourself room to truly achieve your goal. Often, the biggest challenge isn't whether the dream is possible, but whether you believe it's worth pursuing. I'll give you a hint. It absolutely is. Your dream carries potential not just for you, but for the entire world of people around you. Every step you take towards your dream and your goal is a reality that brings more beauty, more creativity and more meaning into the world. So if you're ready to begin this year pursuing your biggest creative dreams, I want to invite you to something really super, duper special that I'm so excited about. I'm inviting you to a brand new event called Pattern Week, where I'm hosting 5 live lessons plus q and a sessions, and it's all starting today.

Bonnie Christine:
Yesterday, January 9th. I'm going to teach you how to transform your doodles or your drawings into digital repeating patterns in Adobe Illustrator. And by the end of pattern week in just 5 days, you're going to have your design on a real tangible product. But let me tell you why I'm hosting this. I remember the overwhelm. I remember looking at my dream of becoming a surface pattern design and with zero knowledge, asking Google how to become a fabric designer. It took me so much longer to make my first repeating pattern, 11 months to be exact, because I didn't have someone to show me how to do it. And I want to be that person for you.

Bonnie Christine:
In just 5 days, I want to help you achieve what took me 11 months to learn. I'm going to teach you everything you need to know to get up and running in Adobe Illustrator as simply as possible. I'll show you how to incorporate found objects like leaves and strings into your designs. I'll walk you through my favorite process for creating a custom color palette and layering pattern designs. Finally, I'm going to show you how to export your new pattern and create something beautiful, like your own fabric or wallpaper or stationery or gift wrap. We're going to have so much fun. I'm also giving away over $4,000 worth of prizes, bonus cheat sheets, all my secret resources to help you along the way. And you also get to connect with creatives from all over the world pursuing their big dreams just like you.

Bonnie Christine:
And the best part, are you ready for it? It's free. So if you're ready, head on over to bonniechristine.com/patternweek. When it's free, I mean, it's free. There are no strings attached. There's no offer being made at the end. I'm not trying to sell you anything. It is free. I'm doing it so that we can all come together in likeness and creativity and get this year started off to the best start possible.

Bonnie Christine:
So your big dream is just worth it. Okay? This journey, it's gonna have it ups and its downs, but each step brings you closer to making that dream a reality. And I would love for you to take this step with me. You have everything that you need to begin, and I'm right here ready to help you. So thank you so much for taking the time to listen today. I will see you in pattern week. Again, join us at bonniechristine.com/patternweek. My friends, create the beauty that you want to see come alive in the world.

Bonnie Christine:
And remember, there's room for you.