Ep. 36 How to Overcome Difficulties & Achieve Your Dreams feat. Angela Shanker

The Collective Corner with Elena Armijo

Why do we stay committed to our dreams? Elena and Angela Shanker discuss this question as they talk about being a successful musician in NYC and following your dreams despite hardships.

Check out Elena’s website to learn more about how she can support you in seeing and using the power that resides within you.

What is your current relationship to commitment? For some, commitment is a burden. For others, it’s an obligation or responsibility. But let’s dig a little deeper. What is your commitment based on? If it is based on external things, like perceived wrongs you see in the world that you are committed to fixing, that’s good! However, we all have a finite amount of time, so we can’t fix everything that we believe is wrong in the world, no matter how hard we try. Elena shares that when our commitment is based on something that is happening solely outside of us, that can cause us to eventually burn out. She notes that when your commitment comes from your core—from who you are and what you are passionate about—that passion-fueled commitment can be easier to fulfill, even when you run into challenges and obstacles along the way.

In this episode, Elena talks with Angela Shanker, who is a beautiful example of a passion-driven, musically-gifted, dream-chasing woman. She and Elena talk about how Angela’s love for her craft and her family fueled her to consistently achieve goals that others deemed impossible, including making a sustainable living as a musician and music teacher in New York City, pivoting from her work in classical music to musical theater as she successfully learned how to play multiple new instruments during the pandemic, and becoming a musician in the orchestra for the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular for the past two years!

If you want to be inspired to stay committed to your dreams and push through the hard days, you do not want to miss this episode of The Collective Corner!

Let’s Get Social!

Want to hear more from Elena? https://elenaarmijo.com/

Check out Angela’s website: https://angelashankar.com/

Connect with Angela on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/angshankarmusic/

This podcast was produced by the following amazing team:

John Biethan, President of Imagine Podcasting

Sam De Santo, Creative Director

Rye Taylor, Podcast Design Strategist & Producer

Alan Meaney, Audio Engineer

Meg McCarley, Brand Designer & Social Media Manager

Raejan Noh, Content Writer

Aaron Boykin, Musician & Artist (Get updates about Aaron’s music via Instagram)