Any grown up with a creative dream can likely relate to this Erma Bombeck quote:

“There are people who put their dreams in a little box and say, ‘Yes, I’ve got dreams, of course I’ve got dreams.’

Then they put the box away and bring it out once in awhile to look in it, and yep, they’re still there.”

This quote makes me want to burst into tears with the memory of all the years I’ve done this in my own life.

Looking around my office, I realize one way I hide my dream is in a stack of paper.

While I’m pretty uncluttered and minimalist when it comes to furniture, accessories and decorative items, my home office is another story.

Papers everywhere!

Hidden within the stacks— the great ideas I’ve failed to act on.

I know from experience that if I have a creative dream or an idea, the best course of action is to jump on it and make it happen.

Once it goes into that pile of papers, or becomes a business plan, I suck all the joy and inspiration right out of my dream.

My dream never takes flight. Eventually it’s forgotten!

I thought of home staging and then I forgot

Here’s a perfect example of what this looks like (and how it holds me back).

A full 2 years after I became a home stager, I was diving through an old pile of paper and stumbled on a newspaper article about home staging.

After clipping the home staging story out of a newspaper 4 years earlier, I scribbled notes in the margins and promptly forgot about my discovery.

In other words, 6 years perviously, I:

• Read about home staging and realized “that thing I did” naturally to my own houses before selling them had an actual name.
• Discovered home staging was a career that could make money.
• Realized a home staging career was a perfect use of my creative talents and interest in real estate.

And, that’s where the idea, and my dream, died. 

I put the home staging article, that represented a new possibility for my life, onto a corner of my desk to think about “later”!

“Later” didn’t come for 2 more years (much of it spent wondering, “what should I do next?”)

Real life kept going on around me. I was busy single-parenting, running my other creative business, keeping my house clean, planning meals, running errands, etc.

I did’t know how to start a home staging business

Not knowing how to have a home staging business or do what the other stagers I was reading about had done, I couldn’t see where to begin.

Being stuck on that “where do I start?” question was too painful.

I believe that was my unconscious reason for literally burying the whole idea. I was scared and overwhelmed!

Perhaps you’ve felt that way too?

The story about successful home stagers lay forgotten as more and more “To Do,” “To Read” or “To Pay” options got dumped on top of it.

Eventually forming a new mountain of paper I would never look at.

Fortunately, two years later a sudden move put “home staging” back on my radar and I rediscovered my dream.

I finally turned it into a successful career when I started my staging business Six Elements.

Because of the hundreds of aspiring home stagers who reached out to me for help, I eventually created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program.

So others wouldn’t have to be scared and overwhelmed like I was.

A big part of what inspires me to teach other home stagers how to make money doing what they love is knowing how painful it is living with unfulfilled dreams.

The dreams you “take out and look at”, and put back on a shelf because you don’t know how to take action on them.

What you can do next

If you’re wondering if you have enough decorating talent to become a home stager, check out my FREE QUIZ here.

If you have a ton of questions about what it’s like being a home stager and how to get started, you’ll find answers here.

If you’re ready to take action on your dream of making a living from your creativity, click here!