My friend Anne-Sophie recently asked me: Have you ever built the wrong dream?

What a sobering concept, huh? Different than dreaming “too small.” Or having a BIG dream but not being ready to go for it yet. Flat out building the wrong dream? Nobody had ever asked me that before.

And as soon as she asked me, two distinct times in my life immediately came to mind:

First was when I realized I wasn’t building a dream at all, I was building a nightmare. I had somehow buried myself in overwhelming credit card debt, I was working 3 side jobs to supplement my failing business {an energy healing practice}, I was going bankrupt, and I was on the fast track to losing my home.

I supposed the good thing about nightmares is they tend to shake us awake! You’ve probably heard me share that story before and I don’t regret any of it because it was a huge turning point in my life, which steered me in a whole new direction.

But I wasn’t quite done building the wrong dream yet.

The second time actually looked pretty “successful” on the outside. I had started another business {this time a boutique internet marketing firm} and accumulated a full clientele. I had regular clients and recurring income. I was set up to work from anywhere, so I got to run my business from home or while traveling. I designed my service offerings myself, so technically I got to do the work I chose to do. But guess what…I burnt myself out. Big time.

I was doing work that I was good at. <– Big mistake!

Good at can be a damn trap if you’re not careful. Good at doesn’t pull you out of bed every morning ready to take on the world. The opposite – it makes you want to pull the covers over your head and hit snooze after a while. It’s efforty. It’s code for tolerate. And tolerating has an expiration date.

That’s what happened to me. I started getting sluggish and slow. And since I was paid for deliverables, not hours, I spend more time drudging through the world. Less time for life. Resistance grew, joy diminished, and finally, my body got sick.

It was another pivot point, though! {Always the optimist, this one}

All those years building the wrong dream made me realize just how important it is to build the right one. So, what’s the right one? The one that’s real and true and pure inside of you. The one that feels natural, like breathing. Yet also exciting, like butterflies.

So much more to say about this, which is why I would love for you to listen in in on this exact conversation I had with the lovely Anne-Sophie Dumetz. She interviewed me as part of the “She’s a Changemaker” series {really honest, raw, truthful, conversations with female Changemakers}, which you can get access to right here.

My interview is already live, and there are more amazing conversations coming {all free} so now is a great time to get in on it.

Click here to listen in!

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entrepreneur, follow your dreams, goals, January 2016 Issue, online business, starting a business, women in business