Today is the last day of 31 Days. I’ve already published 31 posts in the series, 31 Dreams From The Street.

I introduced the series.

I interviewed 25 people and shared what they would do with their lives if they didn’t have to worry about money.

I spent a day resting and reflecting.

I spent three days sharing random observations from the street. That is, The Day I Wanted to Quit 31 Days, Rejections from the Street, and Notes from the Street.

And yesterday, I shared my dreams.

It’s safe to say ALL of us are ready to close up shop on this series. Can I get an amen?

But something’s missing.

Before we call it a day, I want to give YOU a chance to share how YOU’D answer the question “If you didn’t have to worry about money, what would you do with your life?” 

Because I honor you. I respect you. I appreciate you, my reader. And I know every one of you has a dream, something you’d love to do with your life if you didn’t have to worry about money at all.

So if you feel led, take this opportunity to share. Take this opportunity to dream big. Take this opportunity to be bold, to put yourself out there.

Put it in writing.

Make it be known.

Share your answer to the question I’ve asked all month long.

I’m opening up the mic. For you. Because after all this? Someone’s ready to be brave. Someone needs to be brave. You know who you are.

So let’s do this.

I’d love to hear what you’d do with your life if you didn’t have to worry about money at all.

GO. And be brave.

I’ll meet you, whoever you are, in the comments.

 

 

 

*This is the final post from a month-long 31 Days series titled Dreams from the Street. If you’d like to read the rest of the series, click here and you’ll be brought to the series landing page where all 31 posts are listed and linked. You can follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/AmyBPederson, and I’d LOVE to connect on Facebook at facebook.com/AmyBPederson! I’m so glad you stopped by. Make yourself comfortable and take a peek around the place. You’re welcome back anytime.

I didn’t plan to write this post. But as I interviewed people for this month’s series, I realized it wasn’t fair to ask so many people to be brave without being brave myself. So mid-way through the month, I decided I would wrap the series with a post titled “My Dreams” and another titled “Your Dreams.”

Today, I’m sharing my dreams. I’m answering the question…

“If you didn’t have to worry about money at all, what would you do with your life?”

Before I get started, let me acknowledge that this is little unfair. I’ve had all month to process the question, hear 25 answers, and get my brave on. And I’m sure I’ll take a lot more time to answer than most of the people I interviewed. One more note…I’m going to answer this month’s question from both angles. That is, as if I had an unlimited abundance of money AND if money held no currency and I could spend my life as I wished.

So here we go!

(Expect this to be fairly unfiltered and unedited.)

Practical and Not-So-Practical Spending

I’d definitely take care of some practical and not-so-practical matters. I’d pay off our house, cars and anything else that hindered. I’d save 100% of projected college costs for our three children as well as all of our nieces and nephews. I suppose I’d put some money aside for three weddings, too!

I’d payoff my parents’ house, and would take my family of origin on a Walt Disney World vacation. And I’d take my husband’s family of origin to a dude ranch for that vacation my father-in-law’s dreamed of.

I’d move south and buy plane tickets to come visit family and friends whenever we wanted. And I’d make life easier for myself by hiring a personal chef or having meals pre-made for our family. Oh yeah, I can’t forget – I’d hire someone who LOVES cleaning to clean my house. Because I hate it. 🙂

That’s all good and fun. Everyone has things they’d buy and save for if they had an unlimited source of money. But those things don’t ultimately light the fire inside us. After we paid off the bills and saved for our future, we’d still have to spend our lives somehow.

So let’s move on to the good stuff, the stuff of the heart, the stuff we’d DO with our lives if we didn’t have to worry about money.

MISSIONS

If I didn’t have to worry about money at all, I’d let my husband continue doing whatever type of work and/or leisure fulfilled him, and I’d pursue missions however it fit best with our family life. In an ideal world (a.k.a. an imaginary world), I could travel back and forth to Haiti and/or Africa whenever I wanted. Perhaps I’d spend a day. Perhaps I’d spend a few days. Perhaps I’d spend a week. Perhaps I’d spend a couple weeks. I’d find a safe place to call home, and I’d just love on the people all day. I’d develop relationships and pour into their lives to the max. If a school needed to be built, WE’D build it. If teachers needed pay, WE’D provide it. If clothes, food or shelter were needed, WE’D make it happen. Above all else, we’d educate, empower, and foster faith in people so they knew any mountain could be moved. Somehow, miraculously, I’d involve my family in all that. And every single one of them would love it. And I’d bring teams back and forth from the USA so everyone would have the opportunity to serve and love without the hindrance of money.

(I never said these dreams had to be completely realistic, right?)

BACK AT HOME

So I’d be doing all that abroad, but back at home, there’d be life. Life abundant, but not too busy.

First off, I’d create a lifestyle that was supportive to the max. It wouldn’t just be me, my husband and our kids in our own little world. We’d have a whole community of love around us. Everyone would be all in. We’d be for each other and do anything for each other at any time. (Hence, the reason I’d be able to travel so much.) Need child care? Need dinner? Need help cleaning the disgusting toilets? Need a break? Need a date night with your husband? Need someone to talk to at any given moment? Someone would be there to help. And we’d be there to help others, too. It’d be community at its best, working for the greater good of everyone.

(Not sure any of this could ever happen? Yep. I hear ya.)

While the kids played and went to school and did all the awesome-kid-growing-up community things they did, I’d write. I’d write and I’d write and I’d write some more. I’d publish a gazillion books, as many as I could. If I thought of a book, I’d write it. And then I’d hire the best editors I could. Why not? would be the theme of my life. Why not. I’d make those books beautiful, lovely, glorious, delightful, and full of all the heart I could muster. They’d make people cry. They’d make people feel known and understood. I’d distribute those books to the people who needed them most. And I’d love those people as much as I loved the people in Haiti and Africa. Those people? They’d be my people. All of them. Every single one. They’d know they were cared for, they’d know they were heard, they’d know they were seen, and they’d know they were loved. I’d educate, empower, and foster faith in those people so they knew any mountain could be moved.

None of it would be fabricated. All of it would be real.

In this make-believe dream, I could actually make my dream a reality…

To be dirty during the day and dressed up at night.

It might be possible.

 

 

 

*This post is a part of a month-long 31 Days series titled Dreams from the Street. If you’d like to read more from my series, click here and you’ll be brought to the series landing page where all 31 posts are listed and linked! You can follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/AmyBPederson where I’ll tweet links to all 31 posts using hashtag #write31days, and I’d LOVE to connect on Facebook at facebook.com/AmyBPederson! I’m so glad you stopped by. Make yourself comfortable and take a peek around the place. You’re welcome back anytime.

It wasn’t nearly as easy to gather interviews for this month’s series as I originally imagined. When I conceived 31 Dreams From the Street, I assumed most people would be all in, that most people would jump at the chance to answer a simple question that allowed them to dream big.

But I was wrong.

I told you up front that I expected to be stretched outside of my comfort zone. I told you up front that I’d experience some level of rejection.

But I had no idea I’d experience the level of rejection that I did.

Apparently this question was loaded, more than I knew.

“If you didn’t have to worry about money at all, what would you do with your life?”

This month, I successfully interviewed and featured 25 individuals. All 25 individuals answered my question. All 25 individuals shared their first name and allowed me to take their photograph. All 25 individuals gave me permission to feature them on my blog.

This month, I unsuccessfully approached an additional 20 individuals. (Yes, that means that when all is said and done, I had to get extraordinarily brave 45 times this month!)

Here’s a listing of the 20 rejections from the street:

Non-English Speaking

• A mamasita wearing a beautiful headwrap
• A man collecting aluminum cans in a grocery cart

Chatted Up A Storm, Gave Me Their Full Name, but Refused to Be Interviewed

• A window washer who took my blogging business card and said he was going to hire me to take pictures for his daughter’s wedding, because if I “have a camera like that, [I’m] a professional.”

Straight-Up Rejections

• A mom and her little princess in the Disney store
• A hipster guy on a bike
• A dude selling hair straighteners
• A blue-haired girl in Hot Topic
• A construction worker
• Another construction worker
• A guy watering mums
• Manager at a bank
• Assistant manager at a bank
• A woman getting her shoes shined
• A young lady working the Taco Bell drive-thru

Allowed me to Conduct a Full Interview, but Refused Name and Photograph

• A woman with multiple piercings who just wanted to move to Tahiti and surf all day
• A rico-suave Jewish Orthodox dude who worked in a beauty store and would worship God all day
• A family guy and his son who’d “have a happy, healthy family”
• A man who was laid off from General Motors after 21 years of employment, then laid off from a die cutting company after 11 years of employment
• A dude who’d “be worry free”
• A woman who’d open a clinic and shelter for women who have escaped sex-trafficking

When I conceived the series, I should’ve expected to run into a few non-English speaking individuals. It’s happened before when I’ve approached random strangers for the blog. All I can say is…maybe it’s time to learn Spanish?!

But all the other rejections? I didn’t quite understand.

I knew rejections were inevitable. But the frequency at which I was rejected was much higher than I anticipated.

At least, I’m a fairly benign person. At best, I’m a friendly, approachable person. There’s not much about me that comes off as threatening as far as I can see. And to be completely honest, I don’t think I was asking for a lot. I was asking for an answer to one question, a first name, and a photograph. I would’ve taken an alias name if needed. Heck, I would’ve even taken the photograph from a distance, or pictures of hands, feet, anything just to get a picture that represented the interview.

Still, I was rejected 20 times.

I wondered why so many people rejected me straight up. “Not today,” was the most memorable answer from that group.

Trust is the issue, I suppose.

I wondered why many people talked to me and even answered my question, sometimes at length, but wouldn’t share their first name and/or wouldn’t allow me to take a photograph. My favorites from this group were two gentlemen I interviewed who also shared their FULL NAMES with me, but wouldn’t allow me to take a photograph.

Privacy is the issue, I suppose.

Trust and privacy.

Trust and privacy.

Trust. And privacy.

To be completely honest, I’m not sure why I’m sharing these rejections. I haven’t made any brilliant conclusions that will change the course of history and humankind from here on out. But the rejections prove we’re all human, don’t they?

All I know is that I was shocked at the number of rejections I got.

Some people are highly vigilant about privacy. I get it. Some people have trust issues. I get it. But I wasn’t asking for the world. I wasn’t asking for every detail of their private lives. I wasn’t asking for last names or middle names or maiden names. I wasn’t asking for anything except an answer to one question, a first name, and one photograph.

I wondered if some people thought I was an undercover reporter and was going to flash their photograph and story all over the television screen.

After wanting to quit the series mid-month, my approach rate reduced significantly. I no longer assumed people would say yes to my interview. So I only approached when I had a good hunch they might say yes. I didn’t want to experience more of this rejection, whatever form it took.

None of us want to be rejected. None of us want to be taken advantage of. None of us want to be played, or used up by another human being.

But I find it curious that in order to build and restore trust, in order to develop relationship, in order to live our lives fully, in order to make peace with issues from the past and embrace the dreams we have for our future, we have to get a little vulnerable and take a chance on the unknown.

So do we trust? Or do we not?

Are we willing to engage others simply in order to live more authentically? Or not?

Do we want to connect? Or not?

Are we open to taking chances in life? Or not?

We each decide, don’t we?

After writing this post, I’m feeling a little torn about what I think. I’m not 100% clear as to what I was supposed to learn from those 20 rejections, except that we have issues with trust and privacy in our culture. If I had approached you randomly on the street, would you have answered? Why or why not?Let’s chat. I’d love to engage in some dialogue about this!

 

 

 

 

*This post is a part of a month-long 31 Days series titled Dreams from the Street. If you’d like to read more from my series, click here and you’ll be brought to the series landing page where all 31 posts are listed and linked! You can follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/AmyBPederson where I’ll tweet links to all 31 posts using hashtag #write31days, and I’d LOVE to connect on Facebook at facebook.com/AmyBPederson! I’m so glad you stopped by. Make yourself comfortable and take a peek around the place. You’re welcome back anytime.

 

 

 

*This post is a part of a month-long 31 Days series titled Dreams from the Street. If you’d like to read more from my series, click here and you’ll be brought to the series landing page where all 31 posts are listed and linked! You can follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/AmyBPederson where I’ll tweet links to all 31 posts using hashtag #write31days, and I’d LOVE to connect on Facebook at facebook.com/AmyBPederson! I’m so glad you stopped by. Make yourself comfortable and take a peek around the place. You’re welcome back anytime.

Meet Darlene.

We met on the airplane, on the way to the blogging conference I’m at this week. When I boarded the plane and went to find my seat, there was Darlene, right next to me. I had a hunch she was headed to the blogging conference, so I asked and by golly, I was right!

Darlene is owner, interior designer and blogger at Fieldstone Hill Design. Little did I know, I’d sat down next to a conference speaker! Darlene is slated to speak TODAY on the topic “You are a Master Designer: Finding Your Personal Style.” Wish the woman well, will you?! And by the way, she has a master’s degree in OPERA performance. Talk about a fascinating woman, right?

Darlene and I chatted non-stop, from the second I sat down until we picked up our luggage at baggage claim. (And we’ve connected at the conference a few times since we arrived.) Let me tell you, there’s something special about this woman. In the not-so-quiet rumbling of the little plane that took us from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Greenville, South Carolina, we shared our God-sized dreams, the secrets of our hearts, with one another. Don’t ask me exactly WHY I trusted and connected with this woman quite literally out of the gates, but I did. I saw her heart, and I’m pretty sure she saw mine, too.

So I asked Darlene one question. “If you didn’t have to worry about money, what would you do with your life?”

This was her response.

Darlene would live a whole lot of love if she didn’t have to worry about money.

1) When it comes to her husband and three children, They’d “all be together all the time as a family.”

2) She’d travel with her family, see the world, and “let the world be our educational oyster.” Darlene would specifically love to travel to Italy, Switzerland, Hawaii, Tahiti, and Brazil. She’d definitely bring her kids, but would also bring a nanny along so they’d be free to go out for date nights and enjoy a little adult time together. (I hear ya, girl!)

3) Darlene would “decorate her house exactly as [she] wants to.” Even though she’s an interior designer and could do it herself, she might even hire someone to help.

4) Darlene would keep homeschooling, but would “hire more tutors” for her kids.

5) She’d set regular spa appointments and would “definitely add that into her life more.”

6) And Darlene would “give without limits.” She’d love to do some “audacious giving” as she felt led. (Yet another reason I love this woman.)

So what can we learn from Darlene?

Darlene and I connected. I mean really connected. We had a 30-40 minute plane ride to converse, so my interview with Darlene was longer than any other this month. We had time to engage in deep and meaningful ways. And there was conversation beyond “the question of the month.”

One thing I’ve learned and will be expanding on as I wrap the 31 Days series later this week, is that we need TIME with people. We need TIME to hear people out. We need TIME together, in community, if we want to arrive at a place of vulnerability. If we really want to share our hearts, support, and encourage others in their lives and dreams, we must have TIME to pour into their stories.

Thank you, Darlene, for reminding me of this beautiful truth. All of you, the whole of you, is beautiful. Thank you for sharing your dreams, for letting me enter in to your private and vulnerable spaces. I’m the lucky girl who just happened to get a seat next to you on the plane. Thank you for your love, and for inviting me in to the beautifully designed home of your heart.

Today I want to challenge you. Who have you been vulnerable with lately? Find an opportunity and open up, just a little. You might just be pleasantly surprised at the outcome.  

 

 

 

*This post is a part of a month-long 31 Days series titled Dreams from the Street. If you’d like to read more from my series, click here and you’ll be brought to the series landing page where all 31 posts are listed and linked! You can follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/AmyBPederson where I’ll tweet links to all 31 posts using hashtag #write31days, and I’d LOVE to connect on Facebook at facebook.com/AmyBPederson! I’m so glad you stopped by. Make yourself comfortable and take a peek around the place. You’re welcome back anytime.