Make Your Dreams Come True!

Good morning or afternoon, wherever you may be. It's Friday, and you know what that means. Drum roll. It is my live stream, making your big dreams come true. And I just. I live for these days. I really do. I'm rocking my Barbie hair. I went to the Barbie movie recently. I'm still rocking this, like, wavy, mermaid beachy hair. It's so fun. Okay, so today is, we're mixing things up a little bit. I'm gonna jump right, right into it. And today is all about embracing your childhood. And we're gonna go back to, like, childhood messaging and grassroots messaging and living in that sort of carefree state of what it is to be a child and dream big.

And I'm launching this new. Hey, Luke. I'm launching this new series within a series. So every Friday I talk about making your big dreams come true. Today. I don't know if you remember that show. I mean, eighties babies rise up, but do you remember the show reading Rainbow? If you do, I am launching Risa's reading Rainbow once a month. I am going to bring you a children's book reading that has adult messaging in it. And I think a lot of kids books do, but there are certain ones that stick out in my mind.

Hello, junk food junkie. One of my all time faves on here. Certain books that stick out of my mind that remind, like, me of it's messaging. It's adult messaging within the children's book. And today I'm going to read you a book, and then I'm going to recap it. So I'll rip through the book really fast because I know that people have a lot going on on a Friday at 09:00 or 11:00 or 12:00, wherever you may be. But today's book is one of my all time faves from a series that is one of my all time faves from an author who is just incredible and just who gets it.

And I just love it when kids books really speak to adults, too. So today I'm reading what do you do with a chance if you have kids, you've probably heard of this book. If you have not heard of this book, this author also wrote, what do you do with a problem, and what do you do with an idea? And I'm going to rip through it. And then, of course, I have my page of notes of just, like, things that I want to quickly touch on that will hopefully make sense. Okay, so here, stay with me. Stay with me. This is Risa's reading Rainbow.

Remember that? Take a look. It's in a book reading rainbow. Do you remember that? Okay, well, if you don't, google it. Okay, here we go. One day, I got a chance. It seemed to just show up. It acted like it knew me. As if it wanted something. I didn't know why it was here. What do you do with a chance? I wondered. It fluttered around me. It brushed up against me. It circled me as if it wanted me to grab it. I started to reach for it, but I was unsure and pulled back. And so it flew away. I thought about it a lot.

I wished I had taken my chance. I realized I had wanted it, but I still didn't know if I had the courage. When another chance came around, I wasn't so sure, but I decided to try. I went to reach for it, but I missed and fell. I was embarrassed. I felt foolish. It seemed like everyone was looking at me. I decided I never wanted to feel this way again. So after that, whenever a chance came along, I ignored it. And the more I ignored them, the less they came around. Until one day, I noticed I hadn't seen a chance in quite a while.

It was as if they had all disappeared. I started to worry, what if I don't get another chance? I know I acted like I didn't care, but the truth was I did. I still wanted to take a chance, but I was afraid. And I wasn't sure if I would ever be brave enough. Then I thought, maybe I don't want to be brave all the time. Maybe I just need to be brave for a little while. At the right time, I realized it was up to me. I promised myself that if I ever got another chance, I wasn't going to hold back. If I got another chance, I was going to be ready.

Then, one seemingly ordinary day, I saw something shining far off in the distance. Is it possible? I hoped. Could this be my chance? I had to find out. I ran as hard and as fast as I could toward it. I don't know how to explain it, but the second I let go of my fears, I was full of excitement. It wasn't that I was no longer afraid. But now my excitement was bigger than my fear. As I got closer, I could see that this was really a really huge chance. But this time I was ready. As it came by, I reached out and grabbed it.

I held on with all of my might. It felt so good to soar, to fly, to be free. I now see that when I hold back, I miss out. And I don't want to miss out. There's just so much I want to see and do and discover. So what do you do with the chance you take it? Because it just might be the start of something incredible. The end. Okay, listen, I know you're not five year olds, okay? I know you're not six year olds. But when I read these books, and when I think about books like, oh, the places you'll go from Doctor Seuss and the other books in this series, like, what do you do with an idea?

I think about the fact that you're never too young or too old to hear this messaging. And it's so important to go back to the beginning and to think about grassroots messaging and to think about what it's like to have child dreams and childlike feelings and excitement and energy around ideas and chances and opportunities. So I thought about the messaging that's woven throughout this book. Things like feeling of uncertainty. I'm unsure about taking the leap. Things like feeling of regret. I wished I had taken the chance.

Taking a risk. The chance came back, so I tried, and the chance got away. And then failure and misstep and embarrassment and shame. Shame. Have you read my blog post, evolving past embarrassment on Cadre? If you haven't, go read it. Loss of determination, lack of belief, actual lack. When they stopped believing there was lack, the chances didn't come anymore. And self doubt and self realization and power within. How all of this is preparation and laying the groundwork for taking the chance, and then the, the idea of fearlessness and then opportunity.

When I hold back, I miss out. But when I let go, I am free. And the message here is that it's normal, it's necessary, it's educational. It builds character, it shapes us, it grounds us in gratitude, and it teaches us we have to experience these ebbs and flows. And I think we forget that as adults, we want immediacy. We feel like we know what's on the other side. We feel like it should happen for us. Just like that. We've put in the, we've been doing it since we were 21. We've been at it for so long.

Where's our big break? And I think we just forget that there are stages to taking a chance and really having it be the right time. And I think about these books and their messaging and how when I read them to my nieces and nephews, I really think about, like, what these books are trying to say. And they're written so much more for adults than I think they are for children. But the messaging is so important, no matter what age you're at. So most people never know, Levar Burton was the host of Reading Rainbow.

Yep. But he also was the executive producer. Great messages from books. So I love the idea of Reese is reading Rainbow. Ah, I love it, too. I love it. I love kids books so much. And fun fact about me, I like to do, like, video, like, book readings to my friends kids. So I will do, like, a FaceTime nighttime, like bedtime story time with my friends kiddos. And I know it's probably bad for them to be on technology right before bed, but I don't have kids of my own, so I always call my friend Tracy when I get a new book and say, hey, can I read this to your son Matteo at bedtime?

And he's always up for it. And I just, I love reading kids books. I have written one about my dog. It's not published, but I always wanted to do, like a whole series about my dog, welly, because he's such a goofball. But anyway, I just think there's a lot to be said for the messaging that comes through in children's books for adults. So think about this idea of the stages of taking a chance and listen closely for the messaging that's out there. And don't ever lose that childlike sparkle for going after your big dreams and taking a chance and having an idea and not letting other people stomp it out and ruin it while it's a seedling of an idea.

And don't get in the way of taking your own chances. I think that's so incredibly important. So. Hi, Marissa. I love you guys so much. I hope you enjoyed Reese's reading Rainbow. If you're late to the game, go back and watch it once it gets posted. And fun fact about this sweatshirt, I actually stole this from Michael Vartan, the actor from alias in LA. I ended up at his house in the Hollywood hills, so it's his and he's never getting it back. And it's amazing. I would call it vintage now. Anyway, love you guys.

I hope this was inspiring. Inspiring and that you like my anecdotes about my crazy life. Okay, go out, take a chance, grab it, don't let it pass you by, and then tell me about it in the community feed. I want to engage with you guys, and if you have any favorite children's books that you think have a great message, drop them in the community feed. We all want to read them. I'm going to add them to my collection and I will be doing this once a month. I'm not going to read to you every week, but I just thought it would be a fun way to bring in the messaging from a kid's book into our adult lives.

So I love you guys. Have an amazing weekend. Yes, channel the inner child and chase your dreams. I love it. Thank you for being here. You guys have a great weekend.