When The Odds Are Against You

Have you ever had a year that just seems to be a bit more intense than other years of your life? Because let me tell you, 2016 has been exactly that for me. But through it’s high highs and low lows I’ve learned a whole lot about what being brave looks like to me. Some of it has been crazy hard but my favorite thing about pain is the redemption on the other side of it. And I’m excited that part of this year’s redemption is getting to share with y’all some of what I’ve learned!

I want to share part of my backstory because it has a lot to do with how I’ve found new bravery in this year – I grew up in Minnesota and moved to Nashville five years ago to pursue music. For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to be a ‘famous’ singer. When I was little I constantly dreamt of the fame and fancy parties that I would someday get to partake in just because I could sing. (Disclaimer: I was not born some child prodigy who was amazing at singing. I sounded like every other 6 year old girl. Also fame isn’t my main goal anymore but that’s a story for another time:)) With extremely high hopes, my optimistic self always half-expected some random person to walk up to me, tell me he owns a huge label, and wanted to make me a star. Unfortunately (but also fortunately) that’s not how it works.

As I was looking for colleges, I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to do other than sing so I figured it made sense that I would go to Nashville and do just that. As you can imagine, being one singer/songwriter in a city filled with the best of them has its ups and downs. One day it feels like you’re an inch away from success but most days it feels like you’re millions of miles away from it.

Now the cool part! Drumroll…..

For the past month, I’ve started to see these dreams actually start to become a reality in the coolest ways that make it all worth it. This month there has been a commercial on TV for “The Voice” and guess what. My newest song is playing in the background of the commercial!!!!! Millions of people have actually heard my voice on their TV and that completely blows my mind. Since then I’ve seen more opportunities open up and I’m getting to live out what I could only imagine my whole life.

I say this to encourage you to do the thing that seems totally impossible and feels like a crazy dream to you. Yes, there have been countless hard days where I’ve felt like I must’ve lost my mind in order to pursue something where all odds were against me and I’m sure there will be more in the future. But despite all of that, there is absolutely nothing else I would rather do. It sounds cliche and it may be a bit naive, but from firsthand experience, there is no better feeling than being brave and going after your dreams. So what if the odds are stacked against you?! It makes it that much more exciting when your dreams start to unfold.

Often when you work for something that is worth pursuing, it’s hard and you don’t get as much encouragement and affirmation from the world as you’d like to hear. But it doesn’t mean you are following the wrong dream and doesn’t mean it won’t happen for you.

So today be brave and let yourself know you have the power to follow your passions. Grab a piece of paper and start writing down the things you’ve always wanted to do, big or small, and soak in the fact that whatever you wrote down that may look like a crazy far-fetched dream, can be your future reality. In all honesty, it would’ve been much harder for me to write an encouraging piece on being brave and following your dreams a couple months ago. I felt a bit burnt out. I felt exhausted from pursuing a dream that I wasn’t sure would ever come to fruition. But today I want to tell you, it’s all worth it. And I stand 100% behind all of these words.

-Anna Mae