The season of adolescence brought me a racing mind with countless dreams, ideas, and plans for my future.

In middle school my dad asked me, "What do you want to be?" I promptly replied, "The boss."

By 21, I had sought professional help for sexual abuse, drug and alcohol abuse (or "behavioral concerns" that just happened to be at an addiction center), depression, eating disorders, body image issues, and professional direction. Getting to the age of 21 was hard for me.

By 24, I was ready to run like hell from all forms of responsibility. I had driven around the perimeter of the country solo, looking for that magical, perfect coastal place to live. Somehow, I pulled back into my parents' driveway in Louisville listening to Take It to the Limit by the Eagles with tears rolling down my face, thinking. ..life is over. I had lived in New York City twice. I bought a cute house in Louisville. I landed and left a job. I had fun and well-educated, beautiful friends, and yet still - life felt like it was over.

The life I wanted seemed too hard, too far away, had too many steps to take to get there, and I wanted everything NOW! For a while, I fought harder, performed better, and life was a grand party; I was getting in the rhythm of how to be an adult, dedicated to my employer, paying bills, and smiling while doing it all.

My gut, spirit, and heart said something needed to change because there were too many options available to me to continue on my chosen path. It was time to start saying yes to things outside of my comfort zone. Three things that I said yes to:

* Enroll in a personal and professional development seminar,

* Watch a video about vision boards, and,

* Make a vision board.

The Vision Board

Today, I am in recovery, my God is my leader and guide, I own and operate Abigail Academy, LLC, and I love the woman I am and am evolving into.

My life is living proof of the power of thought and visualization. I created my first Vision Board in 2006 and you can see how these things went from Vision Board to real life:

1. Founding my fun and rewarding business, Abigail Academy, LLC, coaching high school and college girls to improve self-esteem and gain confidence and direction with their lives.

2. Traveling to Alaska.

3. Being grounded, sexy, natural, and lovely as I am.

4. Being a season ticket holder to Actors Theatre of Louisville.

5. Becoming a national and regional partner with the Girl Scouts of America.

6. Practicing yoga on the beach with my college friends in Captiva Island.

7. Developing a working relationship with Today's Woman magazine, serving the women of our community.

8. Being a certified woman and family coach.

9. Being a published co-author of Life is an Attitude; the Power of a Positive Attitude.

10. Having loving friends and family who are intentional, while embracing my life.

My Personal Mission Statement

While being patient and taking the necessary actions to allow and invite these manifestations, I held tight to the personal mission statement created on October 26, 2006 in the seminar I said yes to years ago. My mission statement is:

* To teach young women self-courage

* Self-love

* Art

* Attract people to Louisville

* Pass along wisdom to my children

* Share intimate joy with my husband.

My affirmation was and still is: I am a healthy, rested, and focused woman.

This mission statement shows me that I am on my purposeful track and that I still have more to look forward to. That great man is going to come along to grow in this journey with me and hopefully we will have many little ones of our own. And I will forever get to help others with creating new visions for their lives.

My life is a vision of success because it fulfills my personal mission. I hold myself accountable to my values, dreams, spirit, and self. My spirit is my loudest guide. I share this with you because, one day, I needed to read something about someone else's success story in order to get to where I am.

Your vision is yours, your talents are yours, and your life is exactly as you allow it to be. Because, "what we see, mainly depends on what we look for." -John Lubbock

I stopped looking for what I didn't want, and started looking for what I did want. Life is good when you want the life you have.

This is part of our series on making your dreams come true and following some women through the process of realizing their dreams. This is the story of the leader of this process - Abigail Mueller.

Please join Abigail and three fortunate ladies from our community as they learn how to create a new vision over the next several months on our Facebook Group, Today's Woman Dreams