“It’s not about the destination, it’s the journey.”

"Hello beautiful people, sometimes I invite my former students to be a guest blogger. I want you to meet Lyndsay. Lyndsay is a hairstylist and makeup artist in Indiana. She took my LIVE Streaming MasterClass a while back and has been excelling in her craft. She has a beautiful soul and is a go-getter with big dreams. I can't wait to see what she accomplishes in 2019. I hope you enjoy her story of inspiration"

---Robbie

You can find her at:

Website: www.lyndsaynicolehair.com

Instagram: lyndsaynicolehair

Facebook: lyndsaynicolehair

It sounds cliché, and we’ve all heard it before.

“It’s not about the destination, it’s the journey.”

“Find the Joy in the journey.”

“Trust the journey.” And several other variations of that.

While it can sound cheesy, and like something that you would read on a motivational poster, I have found it to be incredibly accurate. The journey is where the best stuff happens. It’s where the learning takes place. It’s where you find out how strong you really are and what you’re capable of. The destination is important too, but I don’t think of it as one “place”. I think of it more in terms of a “rest stop” as opposed to a destination. A stopping point throughout the journey, each time you accomplish an individual goal. I mean, who only has ONE goal, or destination in life?

I love the idea of this. I live and breathe for this stuff. The idea that life is like one big road trip and you’re not bound to one idea or one place. It’s constant movement forward, constant learning, constant exploration. There is something so freeing about that.

It may sound like I’m rambling, but I promise, this is going somewhere.

Just about 5 short years ago, I was a different version of myself. I was still me, but I was complacent. I was so unhappy. Not with my life in general, but with my place in life. Particularly career wise.

Now, you don’t know me, so you may be saying to yourself, “yeah….so what? Most people don’t like what they do for a living. That’s nothing new.” Well, yeah. You have a point. There are tons of people out there, working because they have to-just going through the motions. No passion for what they do. Living for the weekend. So, what’s the big deal?

The big deal is that it doesn’t have to be that way. And it shouldn’t be that way.

I’m gonna say some things now that may get a little weird. But stay with me, ok?

I’m a Leo. I very much believe that the stars and the planets have everything to do with how we are and who we are. I also 100 percent live up to the grand, over the top personality that Leo’s are known for. What does this have to do with anything? Since I was old enough to remember, I have known in my bones that I am not ordinary, and I refuse to settle for anything less than extraordinary. I truly believe that if your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough. And I believe to my very core, that nothing is impossible. So you see, the word “complacent” should have never been a word I would use to describe myself. Complacent doesn’t exist for me. But there I was. I had caved to the pressure that we’re all under to follow some kind of generic road map on our journey through life.

After high school, I went to college. Not because I wanted to, but because I thought that’s what I was supposed to do. I wasn’t even really sure what I wanted to do with my life at that point, but I knew college had to be involved. I wasted lots of time and money at different schools, studying different things, only to end up deeply in debt, and not doing what I wanted with my life. I continued on that path and got married and started a family (which, by the way, ARE things I wanted to do-I do not at all regret those particular parts of the journey. I am happily married and I love my kids.). But while I was happy with the way everything else was going in my life, more time passed and I still had this huge void. I felt like I had no purpose. I had worked in retail, worked as a receptionist, been a massage therapist (which I did enjoy at times), worked as a phlebotomist, and then finally a medical assistant. While there were parts of these jobs that I liked, and plenty of awesome co-workers over the years to commiserate with, none of it filled the void. I wasn’t passionate about any of it. None of it set my soul on fire.

There was one thing though. One thing that I truly enjoyed. One thing that was universally known about me in my circle of friends-so much that they would come to me with questions about it. I was a beauty junkie. Makeup was an obsession. I spent all my free time researching and educating myself on all things in the beauty industry. Practicing my skills, getting better and better. At some point, the thought entered my mind. Wouldn’t it be great if I could make something I love this much into my career?

I think you can see where I’m going with this. That thought first entered my mind around 5 years ago. I told a few people close to me, one of which was my husband. Having to be around me daily, he was quite familiar with how miserable I was in my career at that point. To my surprise and delight, he loved the idea of me turning what was basically a hobby, into my job. Like everything else in life, it wasn’t going to be easy and I met some obstacles. There’s never a right time to quit your job to pursue your dreams, so at some point, I just had to take a leap of faith. So 3 years ago, that’s what I did. I quit my job, and enrolled in cosmetology school full time. I didn’t mess around. I did what I had to do, graduated, and got my cosmetology license. In the spirit of not messing around, I already had a job lined up, and within the first few months, I had already built a steady enough clientele that I could be booth rent.

So, for the last two years, I have been living my dream. I don’t even feel like I have a “job” because I love it so much. I am in control of my schedule-which means I am in control of my entire life. I have the ability to continually grow my business. When I first got out of school, up until the last couple of months of last year, I was primarily doing hair, which is great. But my first love, makeup, the thing that made me go to cosmetology school in the first place, was definitely lacking. So, I changed that.

In the fall of last year, I discovered Airbrush Master class and it was exactly what I had been looking for. I requested information and Robbie himself called me. We had a great chat. My intuition kicked in and I knew that this was the opportunity I was waiting for and that Robbie would end up being an important person in my life, and an important part of my journey. When something is right, it feels effortless. It just, ‘fits’. We actually have a lot in common with regards to our separate journeys, for example, we both worked in healthcare prior to going to cosmetology school. It’s nice when you can relate to someone on that level. Nothing makes you feel like you’re on the right track more than having people you can talk to that have had similar experiences and want to accomplish the same types of goals that you do. I learned so much in my class, and I love that even long after my class was over, I still am in touch with Robbie, and he’s happy to chat with me or even answer questions. Adding airbrush makeup to my arsenal has been amazing, not just because of how much I love makeup, but because it’s just another part of my dream, being realized. It’s new opportunities and endless growth.

I definitely have so much more that I want to accomplish and many more goals to crush. But what is so important here is that I can look back just 5 short years ago, and see how much I have grown as a person. How I have grown into the person that I was always meant to be. Five years ago, all I had was a hobby and a dream, and it took 2 years before I took a leap of faith and put my plan into action. In the last 3 years, I have accomplished things that I didn’t even know I was capable of. I am more independent, more driven and more confident now than I have ever been. Nothing is off limits. Nothing is impossible. I just keep moving forward and it gets better and better. I’ve done a complete 180. It’s powerful.

So what’s the moral of the story here? You, and only you, are in charge of your destiny. You don’t ever have to be “stuck”. Trust your instincts, and if you don’t like your situation, change it. If you do nothing, then nothing will change. You have to be willing to put in the work. Will it be hard? Absolutely. But if it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. It’s the hard that makes it great. Quit waiting for a perfect time, because there is no perfect time. Sometimes, you just have to take a leap of faith. Once you can open your mind up to the idea that YOU are in control, things will get much easier. Don’t fall into the trap of doing what you think you are supposed to be doing, if it’s not what you want to be doing.

I don’t regret anything in my past because-say it with me-it’s all part of my journey. Sure, I can say, “I wish I would have figured it out sooner so I could have been doing this for longer.” But you know what? I made mistakes and I learned from them. I had experiences that I wouldn’t have otherwise had. I’ve met amazing people, that I otherwise wouldn’t have known if I didn’t do things exactly the way that I did them. I may have taken the longer route, but I was exactly where I was supposed to be, when I was supposed to be there. And all of that, is what led me here. My journey is far from over, but it’s nice to pause at a rest stop once in a while, and appreciate just how far you’ve come.

--------Lyndsay Edwards