Think Living Your Dream Is Impossible?

yo yooooooo!! What up, what uppp?!

Today’s post is by Sensophy strategist, Iris Barzen. She’s one of our secret weapons here and we’re *mega-pumped* to help get her wisdom into your life.

Here’s a fun little story about how she came to be such an integral part of our team here.

Enjoy,
Jacob (in Bali)

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The team behind the screen. Sensophy Studios LLC. #wds2013

Have you ever found yourself backing out of an incredibly opportunity, because the “You can’t do this, don’t embarrass yourself” voices were taking over?

How many times have you not done something, because you assumed it would be impossible?

I wanna share the story of how I started working for Sensophy, because it’s full of moments where I could have played small and not done something, but because I did it anyways, I’m now making my living with Sensophy. I hope that reading this story might inspire you to challenge your ideas of what’s possible so you can step up and play bigger.

Picture this: I’m a 20 year old college student, frustrated with the future society’s standards had in store for me. I was desperately searching for meaning, for someone to show me that there was another way of living that would make more sense than striving for a career & money. That’s when I found out about personal development blogs, and one of the first ones I subscribed to was Sensophy.

One day, as I was perusing the internet trying to figure out WTF I should do with my life, a Sensophy email popped up in my inbox.

I clicked on it and *boom*, a major opportunity presented itself: Jacob was offering us a coaching scholarship – all you had to do was fill out an application and he’d choose someone.

“Wow”, I thought to myself. “This sounds incredible. He helps people find their purpose and that’s exactly what I need right now. It would feel so good to have someone I can talk to about all this.”

And then the negative mind chatter set in. “There are probably thousands of people on this list. Why would he choose you? What would make you interesting enough to have him want to work with you? Don’t make a fool out of yourself, just hit delete and move on.”

As my mouse hovered over the delete button, I remembered something I had heard in a PhilosophersNote a few days back. Brian had said that we must always challenge our assumptions, because we simply can’t foresee how the dots are gonna connect in the future.

So far I hadn’t really implemented much of what I had learned from him, so I decided now was just as good of a time than ever. I filled out the application form and poured my heart into it. I sent it, not believing that anything would come out of it.

A few days later, I had an email from Jacob sitting in my inbox, titled “You won :)”

I thought it was a joke. It wasn’t. Mind. Blown. That day I decided that challenging your assumptions was the shit, and that I would remember this wisdom any time I’d assume something couldn’t be done.

Here are a few other assumptions I have challenged since then:

“I’ll have to get a job as a waitress because there’s no way I can do what I love just yet.” Turns out Sensophy was hiring.
“Holy crap, I can’t add value to Sensophy, why would Jacob hire me?” Turns out he did, and turns out I can.
“My job at Sensophy is just a side gig, I won’t ever be able to support myself from that.” Today it’s been a little over a year since I started working as an intern. I’m now able to fully support myself through my position as Sensophy’s strategist & coach, which we created to best use my strengths and passions.

So now, how does this apply to you? How can you start challenging some of your assumptions that are holding you back? I made you a nice little video about that. 🙂

Watch it to learn why it’s so important to challenge our assumptions, and how you can start doing that today.

The moral of the story

When I was filling out the application for the coaching scholarship, there was no way for me to predict that I’d become such a big part of Sensophy. Jacob didn’t even know he wanted to hire somebody. And I didn’t know that strategizing and coaching where things I was good at, and neither Jacob nor I knew that Sensophy would develop in a way where those skills proved to be really valuable.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” – Steve Jobs

I couldn’t predict how the dots would connect, and that’s awesome. It means that we don’t always have to know how things are gonna work out from the get-go, we can simply move in the direction that feels right and go from there.

Whatcha think?

The habit of challenging my assumptions is one of the best ones I ever got into. We can’t live our dreams if we’re not willing to challenge our assumptions and get out of our comfort zone.

What’s one thing you’re assuming can’t be done? Maybe it’s quitting your corporate job, or working less hours so you have more time for your girlfriend. Maybe you’re 100% sure you could never come up with the money to go to WDS (another assumption I successfully challenged, see picture above :)).

Let us know your assumption in the comments below, and tell us one thing you’re going to do today to challenge it and prove yourself wrong. We’d also love to hear your story: Have you ever made the impossible possible in your life?

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