The unexpected power of being specific about goals and dreams
When I was in my early teens, I had a recurring daydream. I lived in a beautiful apartment in a great city, though the details were blurry. The feelings weren’t. Even without specifics, the daydream left me feeling happy and fulfilled. In it, I drove a Jeep, travelled internationally, and even lived abroad, though I couldn’t quite name the cities.
Back then, I wasn’t reading self-help books or mapping out a career. I was simply living. Yet now I wonder: was it serendipity that I bought a Jeep years later? Was it chance that I eventually lived in several cities and moved from Kuala Lumpur to Canberra?
Sometimes, the path begins before you even realise you’re walking it.
If you can dream it, you can do it.
In my thirties, as my business partner and I were building a training and development business, an idea surfaced: why not start a magazine? There was no human resource publication in the market and we decided it was a good time to launch one. That’s how HR Matters came to be. We ran this print magazine for eight years, securing advertising on our very first issue. From quarterly issues, we moved into running executive briefings and then HR breakfast roundtables. That magazine was the start of so many new opportunities and global connections I never could have imagined.
LinkedIn was just beginning then. I joined the platform on a whim and stayed long enough to build global relationships. As I’m writing this, it still amazes me that I could reach out to strangers across the world with an idea and they’d say yes to a conversation.
Avoiding the work … until I didn’t.
Fast forward to 2015 – 2020. In my forties, after decades in the training and development industry, I somehow managed to avoid developing programs of my own. I supported other facilitators, other courses, other people’s ideas. It was good work, but it was never mine.
Fear, uncertainty, and dread kept me at arm’s length from training and public speaking. I convinced myself I wanted nothing to do with it.
Until I found a reason to do so.
Building the business, and eventually, a voice.
When I began running my own businesses (I’ve built three), I had to learn marketing, branding and communication by doing them. Bootstrapping leaves no room for shortcuts. It demands curiosity, risk-taking, iteration and a surprising amount of patience.
The more I learned to promote my services, the more I understood the power of visibility — not just for the business, but for myself. I needed to be known. I needed to be credible and authentic. I needed to be seen and for the things I wanted to be known for.
And as I shared my journey and lessons learned online through posts and long-form articles, people responded. They reached out, emailed, messaged, and shared their stories. It showed me that what I was doing mattered. It also showed me there was room to go further.
So I began coaching and consulting, helping others with building their writing skills, with developing an online presence, with exploring how to build their visibility. Then I started meetups (you may have heard of my Thrive Meetups). I started developing short courses and webinars. Small, concrete steps that still gave me the freedom to exit if needed. I was experimenting, learning and slowly — almost quietly — expanding.
The first workshop.
As my digital presence grew, so did the number of people asking for help. I realised I was repeating the same guidance — helping others articulate who they were, build credibility and speak more confidently about their work.
I noticed a pattern of confusion, fear of visibility, fear of speaking up, and fear of being seen. And I knew I had solutions to offer.
So in 2017, I finally committed. I booked a room at a serviced office and hosted my first workshop. No support staff. Just a small slide deck and a deep desire to create space for conversation.
Registrations rolled in. Delivery went better than expected. And afterwards, I realised something important: this was work I was meant to include in my offerings.
Advocating for agency.
Once I understood how visibility changed my life, I began advocating strongly for personal agency. I wrote posts, articles, ran free “ask me anything” sessions, and delivered more workshops and webinars. As my digital presence grew, so too did the number of invitations to design and develop programs.
The work was meaningful and I could see the impact quite clearly. But still, I felt the fear. Less insistent but still present. So, two years ago, I said yes to pursuing a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. I knew that if I completed it, it would mean saying yes to more training and facilitating programs.
I said yes fully and unequivocally.
When I finished the course, I looked at the certificate and paused. Then I did one more scary thing: I said out loud, “I’m open. I’m ready. I welcome training and development opportunities that may come my way.”
I felt brave, reckless, scared and hopeful, all at the same time.
And then the opportunities came.
In December 2024, I accepted a part-time role delivering employability skills training. I’ve been facilitating workshops all year. Saying yes has once again brought me into work that feels aligned, impactful and right.
Dream unfettered.
Looking back, the threads connect so clearly: the Jeep, the travel and different cities, the business, the magazine and the workshops. These all come back to one idea: if you can dream it, you can bring it to life.
I talk about dreaming unfettered. Dream boldly and do not worry about challenges along the way or figuring out the ‘how’. There will be space and time for that. In the early days of dreaming, it’s about being clear about what you want. Imagination matters but so does specificity. That clarity shaped my action and surfaced opportunities for me. And in doing so, changed my life.
It does feel impossible sometimes but I do it anyway. It does feel like too much sometimes, but again, I do it anyway. I continue to define what I want because naming it gives it shape, colour and direction.
If you can’t say it, you can’t see it.
My work in employability skills training brings me face to face with so many individuals charting a new course in their lives. Many people want their next big opportunity, but they keep their goals vague – partly to keep options open, partly because there may be external pressures.
But vagueness is a barrier. If you can’t articulate what you want, you can’t recognise it when it shows up. And others can’t see it either.
Unspoken dreams have nowhere to land. Write it down. Say it out loud. Share it with someone. This clarity isn’t just about dreaming — it shapes how we build our environment.
Create the environment in which you can thrive.
There’s so much in life that we can’t control but we can shape our priorities, our choices, how we interpret things and the actions we take.
I’d rather risk failure than live an unfulfilled life.
So I keep dreaming. I keep naming what I want and I keep doing the work to make those dreams happen. Don’t be afraid to want it and then, go the lengths necessary to make it happen.
I wanted to share the backstory behind my journey and my advocacy for building visibility. All of this — the dreaming, curiosity, experimentation, the pursuit — has led to this point. It has also led me to the creation of two programs I co-developed with Krista Goon this year: From Vision to Voice and Your Year, By Design.
If you’re navigating change or uncertainty in your career and need a sounding board, let’s talk. Fresh perspectives can open doors you didn’t even know were there.
#AnythingIsPossible #direction #CareerGoals #YourYearByDesign #VisibilityReframed