If you’ve been hanging around here long enough, you know that I am an avid fan and inaugural alumni of an ecourse called Make Sh*t Happen. I completed the ten week course more than a year ago, and I can honestly tell you it was one of the best investments I have ever made in myself.

I’ve shared it before so I won’t bore you with all of the details, but at the time, I was… searching. I knew I was unhappy with the direction my life and career was taking, but I literally could not move past my “stuck” phase. I attended more free tele-seminars than I ever imagined possible; I read books telling me to “take action now” and “follow your passion”… I even succumbed to some more woo-woo tactics, which we will just forget ever happened.

And then I found Make Sh*t Happen. Well, actually, it found me. I am skeptical to begin with (no, not you Melissa?), so I wasn’t keen on investing money in myself for yet another “thing” that could help me figure it out. But I kept coming back to it. And it was a niggling thought in the back of my mind. And when I saw that there were only a handful of slots remaining, I knew that I’d regret it if I didn’t try just one more thing.

Around the web you will find my former classmates talking about how MSH changed their lives. How they were able to do something, change something, accomplish something, that they weren’t able to do before. And that’s all true. And I could add a long, long list of things to that list. But to me, MSH was even more than the tangible outcomes – launching my own business, writing two books, earning income on my own terms, blogging, and so on.

Make Sh*t Happen gave me a safe haven of sorts.

It gave me a built-in cocoon of people who allowed me to dream big, but also held my feet accountable to the ground. When I told them about my “online business” idea, they didn’t laugh or scoff or tell me to be realistic. They got it. They had their own BIG dreams, and I knew they could achieve them too.

I remember thinking back to one of the first exercises in the course – it was about your support network. And I literally cried when I read what was asked of me. Who supports you on this journey? Who is your cheerleader? How are your friends and family reacting? I didn’t want to say bad things about the people I loved, so I sat there and stared at it instead of writing down in bold letters, “THEY DON’T EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT MY DREAM IS, much less support it.”

Instead of turning away from the group or giving them a BS answer, I said those words out loud. No one laughed or rolled their virtual eyes… they rang in with “yeah, me too’s” and “add me to your support network now.” You can make an awesome list of the tangible outcomes I got from taking MSH, but what is more important to me, are the friendships I gained.

I still speak with three people from the course, twice a month – a year later. I have Skype dates and Hangout chats with several people on an ongoing basis, not to mention all of the Facebook messages, updates, and so on. We are a family of sorts – my “get ‘er done” family.

So what?

Because the one thing I wish someone told me when I was stuck in indecision last year, was take a chance. Find your people, then your thing will come. Stop thinking that someone is going to come around and tell you what the right path, or option, or business is. Take a chance on YOURSELF. Invest just a little bit of time, effort and energy, and yes – money, IN YOURSELF. Be a tiny bit selfish and spend one hour a week reading and interacting with other people who are in the same boat – YES, THEY ARE OUT THERE.

So if you’re one of those people, like I was, wondering what comes next and thinking that creating another resolution about it or “planning on doing something next year” is going to get you closer to doing it, just check out the course. Jenny is not only the leader of the pack and super inspiring in her own right, but I’m lucky enough to call her my friend now (sorry, I think I just name-dropped).

Before you buy one more gift, or start analyzing what went wrong this year to those big goals you had in January 2012, just check out the site. Think about if you’re ready to actually achieve things, but also, if you’re ready to find your people.