We all have dreams! Us moms as well. The problem is that once we have kids we either forget about them or they are simply put on the back burner. Mostly because we put all of our energy into our kids and their dreams.
In this blog I will tell you about 3 wonderful women (all moms!) who wrote books that will change your way of thinking. And allow you to not only dream again but to also achieve any dreams that is on your heart. Because being a mom does not mean that we should settle and stop going after what we want. It’s actually the opposite and I will tell you why in a moment.
Mind Over Marathon by Gabe Cox
The first book that you absolutely must read is Mind Over Marathon by Gabe Cox. This book will help you understand why you NEED to dream and how to go after your dreams.
Especially as a busy mom.
Gabe takes us through her journey of achieving her dream of qualifying for the Boston Marathon. If you are a runner you know how challenging it is! And if you are not, don’t worry, this book is definitely for you as well. Because this book is not about running but uses running as an analogy. You will learn from this book how mental training is so critical in achieving our goal.
Takeaways
There are so many things that I absolutely love about this book. But here are my many takeaways that I want to highlight.
Mom Guilt
First, I found it to be very relatable. It talks about the importance of dreaming for moms. The author also went through a phase of life when she pushed her dreams to the backburner. Just like many of us – I’m know I did.
And she addresses the mom guilt of going after your desires by explaining why that is important not just for you but also for you kids. She explained how when we hold ourselves back and do go after our dreams we are teaching our kids that they can dream as much as they want when they are kids, but once they become adults and have kids of their own, dreams are over. And is that really what we want to teach our kids?
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Self-talk
Second, one of her chapters covers a topic of how we talk to ourselves. And how that internal dialogue can make or break our dreams. And I found it to be such a powerful message. Because we are our worst critics. I know I have decided not to do things in the past because I did not think I was good enough, qualified enough, or something else ‘not enough’.
And the author made me realize that I would not talk to my friend is she was in a similar situation. Instead, I would encourage her and tell her that she is enough. Therefore, we really need to change the way we talk to ourselves.
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Call to Action
And the last thing that I really love about this book is that this is not just a story of her success. It is a book that will tell you exactly what you can do to go after your dream. She even gives you a set of different tools and techniques at the end of each chapter. There are short devotionals and worksheets you can download to start taking action right away.
I find it very helpful because usually we read a personal development book and we love it but we quickly forget about it. And we all know that having the knowledge will not solve our problems but applying that knowledge will. And this book will help you do just that.
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All In On a Dream by Natascha Carrel
The second book that I want to share with you is All in On a Dream by Natascha Carrel.
This book is a perfect example of what it takes to follow a dream. The author describes how she achieved the dream she and her husband had to move from Switzerland to Australia.
What I love about this book is that it does not sugar coat the struggles they have experienced and the many instances they had to ask themselves: are we doing the right thing? This dreams was something that started on their honeymoon and lingered for years.
It seemed like a dream that was too big to go after. Because who leaves a comfortable live with 3 kids and moves thousands of miles away into the unknown? Where they have to start from scratch? Not to mention being a foreign country.
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It brought back a lot of memories for me because I also moved from Poland to US when I was 15. It was very interesting to see things from a perspective of parents who are moving their entire family to a different country, where they don’t know the language and they don’t have any family. Because my perspective was a little different – I was a teenager. But these were all challanges my parents were facing when their were pursuing their dream and taking the kids along.
Takeaways
The main take-aways from this book are:
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- If you have a dream that you keep pushing away because you think it’s too big, really consider it. If it keeps coming back to you, there is a reason for it. Don’t ignore it.
- Achieving your dreams takes hard work. What I loved about this book is that it did not paint a picture that once the decision was made to move to Australia, everything was flowers and rainbows. They moved to a country where they did not speak the language and where they had no family support. And they had 3 small kids! There were job challenges, housing challenges, school challenges, you name it! There was no shortage of obstacles! Achieving your dreams is hard work! You have to have a really strong why to make it happen!
- And the third take -away for me was that despite all the struggles, they would have done it all over again. Because she would tell you that it was all worth it! The temporary sacrifices we have to make to achieve our dreams are worth it! Those sacrifices will become irrelevant when you are living the life of our dreams.
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The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins
And the third and final book that I want to share with you is The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins. This book offers you a simple tool to get start taking your first steps on your dreams right now. Mel talks about how she was able to transform her own life. A few years ago she found herself unemployed, unmotivated, resentful towards her husband, not present for her kids, and simply not wanting to do anything. Including getting out of bed in the morning to make sure her kids were in school on time. In fact, they were late all the time. And she came up with the 5 second rule to get herself out of bed each morning. It’s simple in how it works: you simply count 5,4,3,2,1 and take action. In her case it was 5,4,3,2,1 and get out of bed. She was amazed that it has worked and started applying it to everything she was doing. When she caught herself thinking: I really should call this recruiter about a job opportunity, but what if they say no. What if they think I’m not good for that job. She would simply start counting in her head 5,4,3,2,1 and pick up the phone.
Takeways
And this simple thing has transformed her life. And if you pick up her book you will see examples of how it has changed the lives of other people. It is full of screenshots of people’s testimonials from Facebook, Tweeter, Instagram – you name it!
She explains that “logically we know what we should to, but our feelings about doing it make our decisions for us”. This is why this tool is so useful!
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With dreams it’s about starting to take those first steps. And this rule will absolutely get you there. Because it makes you take action before your self talk (remember we talked about it with Gabe’s book) yourself out of it. Before you allow your feelings to make the decision for you.
So be sure to check this one out as well. It allows you to take action in any area of your life.
Your Turn
Did you read any of those books? If not, which one would you like read next?
what an interesting selection of books! 🖤
Thank you! I love them all and the fact that they were written by moms is an icing on the cake 😉
What a great selection of books. I think sometimes we all need a little inspiration to see that if others can achieve their dreams then so can we.
Absolutely! And it makese is so much better when the authors are fellow moms to whom we can relate.
I really struggle with books of this type, you’ve reviewed these so well though that I have just added the first one to my amazon wish list for Christmas x
That’s awesome! And they are all really easy to read!
What a great list of resources! All of these books sound so motivating, I might have to add these to my wishlist on amazon!
Please do! You won’t be dissapointed 🙂
Another awesome blog post! Would love to be nosey on your bookshelf – you read some great stuff. They all sound good, but I’d go for the marathon one first. Mindset is everything. Xx
Awesome choice! It’s always amazing to me how much influence our mindset has on our success!
These all sound great, they’re the kind of thing I need to read now my mind is open to them (where it wasn’t before). Self talk, and not shutting down the dreams that keep talking to you are the takeaways that have really spoken to me. x
I think you would find Mind over Marathon very interesting – in one of the chapters the author describes how changing her self-talk helped her deal with depression.
These books sound really good. I especially like the take away from the first book of if we don’t follow our dreams we teach our children they can’t have dreams when they are adults
Yes! I never really thought of it that way before I read this book but it is so true! We really need to show them that they should follow their dreams, even as adults.
The 5 second rule is a game changer 🙂
It is! and so simple!