Do you get frustrated trying to figure out what they you passionate about? Do you want to find that one thing that makes you jump out of bed with excitement every morning. That one thing that keeps you eternally motivated to work long hours. That one thing called ‘purpose’.

This is something many women struggle with. We read self-development books. We listen to Tony Robbins and Oprah. We attend talent analysis sessions. We mediate. We go for long yoga retreats. We dedicate a lot of time and effort to discovering what would make us more fulfilled in our work.

It’s not enough to discover what you are passionate about and what you enjoy doing. You also need to say out loud how ambitious are you. You need to be ready to define what your success dream looks like?

Want your own limousine with a driver? Want to be financially independent? See yourself as a successful business owner? A celebrity? Living in a big house? Speaking at TED conference? Known as the expert in your industry?

What ever it is you want, it’s important to verbalise it.

Here’s my story.

I’ve always eagerly read all ‘How I Did It’ stories by women entrepreneurs and ripped out those pages from magazines. I never thought I had a role model, but all these years I’ve looked up to women who have build remarkable, branded consumer businesses. Marcia Kilgore (Bliss Spa, FitFlop), Chrissie Rucker (The White Company), Sarah Blakely (Spanx) .. and the list goes on.

I always had this desire inside of me, I just wasn’t brave enough to admit it. I had been building my career for external validation, but not for my own success and dream. I used to filter my choices through the eyes of others because I wasn’t ready to look carefully enough to discover what I really wanted for myself.

Saying out loud what you want is like a turbo charging your goals.

It’s important to know what you are passionate about and what your core talents are to start working on something you actually care for. But unless you are able to imagine what success looks like for you there is a risk you will not be moving forward. And when you know your level of ambition, you can pick any of your interest areas to focus on, and build something really successful.

Sounds simple. Well, it isn’t. Figuring out your talents and values is much easier than saying out loud what you want and taking active steps towards your dream because with announcing your dreams comes a risk. What if you won’t make it?

What made the ‘aha’ moment to start DrivenWoman so powerful was that two components came together: a full understanding of what we were passionate about and clear articulation of our ‘success dreams’. Simply discovering what we were passionate about wouldn’t have been enough. Admitting what we actually wanted in terms of success was the catalyst for unstoppable motivation to make things happen.

Saying out loud what your success will look like is the scariest thing you can ever do.

It makes you extremely vulnerable. By exposing our dreams we take the risk of being ridiculed and criticised by others. And when we do it we step into our own power as we stop caring what other people think.

When you are ready to be vulnerable you are ready to be powerful. You stop wanting outside validation. You stop wanting to conform to other people’s wishes. You stop worrying if you will hurt other people’s feelings. (Yes, having big dreams often hurts those who strive for nothing.)

There will always be people who say you can’t do it. People who don’t think you deserve to be successful. And people who judge you for dreaming so big. The fact is, there will always be people who will disagree with what ever it is you say you want.

It’s that shame that stops us in our tracks.

Deep down we know what we want but we are too ashamed to say it out loud.

No yoga retreat or talent analysis is going to deliver the answers. We must find the courage to look inside and find what it is we are looking for. It’s ok to be ambitious! Once you articulate your success dream you will be surprised how much easier it is to start prioritising your work.

Understanding what you love doing is great, but not enough. Verbalise what success looks like as there will be many alternative routes to get there!

~ Miisa