1. You have to love it: If you’re going to make a bold move in your life, you have to make sure you’re in it for the right reasons. If you want to be rich, or you want to be famous, you will never be successful. Well maybe you’ll be successful, but you’ll never be truly happy. This is because you were chasing success for your ego. You have to chase a dream because of how it makes you feel on the inside. It has to be something that you do and it literally makes you manic because you’re so excited. I know for myself, as a writer, whenever I find just the right words for something, I literally skip across the room to the other side and back, and often I don’t even know that I’m doing it while it’s happening. You also have to love it because it’s going to be very difficult. It’s going to be a constant battle but by being in love with your work, you will succeed because you’re in it for the right reasons, and you’re probably prepared to stick it out for as long as it takes. Even doing the work for free for years until you catch a break. Besides, becoming financially successful doing something you love doing is the ultimate dream. There’s a reason why it’s the ultimate place to get to, because it takes that much work, work that most people aren’t willing to put in.
2. You have to have a plan: The best way to mitigate your fear is with extreme strategy and planning. By this I mean goal setting as well as creating a vision. The sooner you envision your dream as a goal, and then break that goal down into specific parts; it becomes instantly less scary and more attainable. To compliment your goals, you need to begin creating your vision. In my opinion, the most effective strategy for doing this is through creating positive mental affirmations. Before you go to sleep every night, and when you wake up in the morning, spend fifteen minutes creating a picture of what your world is like when you achieve your goals. Then speak aloud, positive affirmations to yourself, something in line with your goals that begins manifesting qualities in yourself that you’ll need to reach your goals. The bottom line is that if you venture into the jungle (in pursuit of a big dream) without a plan you will get nowhere, you will end up tangled in the vines, frustrated and wanting to turn back. Goals, unwavering optimism, and enthusiasm will be your machete to hack away at all your obstacles along the way.
3. Live your life; not the life your parents want for you: I know from my upbringing, the fear that deterred a lot of people from lofty ambitions and dreams was lack of security. It’s the reason why a lot of people ended up casting aside their passion projects and took the graduate school acceptance, or high-paying job because it ensured them of a particular income bracket. You have to silence the voice of your peers and your parents and really look inside yourself, what do I want to do with my life? If it were only up to me, what would I decide for myself? Whatever vocation or life you choose for yourself, you’re the one that’s going to have to life it, day in and day out. Make sure you choose something on your own merit, not something that you were forced into from pressure and expectation. In pursuit of that dream, or that goal, you may have people from your inner circle that don’t agree with you, or don’t fully embrace what you’re doing. So you need to be prepared for that. The way you handle it is by proving yourself with happiness and success. They will also slowly begin to come around once you prove that this is much more than a spontaneous idea-of-the-moment and something you really love and are committed to.
4. Be prepared for a long road: This goes back to the point about having to love what it is you’re doing. You have to, because big success doesn’t come overnight. And if it does come overnight, it will be fleeting and won’t last because you won’t have obtained the necessary skills to get to that level. Many life coaches will refer to this “road” as an “apprenticeship”. You have to be prepared to live this out in pursuit of your dream. If you want to be an artist, it will take you logging and grinding out the hours, pounding on the craft (that whole Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours business). On top of that, there’s the amount of studying, seminars, workshops, sessions with mentors, needed to occupy your extra time. It’s going to be a long road because it separates the people that really want it bad enough. Which again, is why you have to be it for the right reasons. You have to be working towards a greater purpose, something that’s bigger than yourself. If you accurately understand how long it will take you to accomplish something, and the difficult nature of achieving a goal, as well as you’re prepared for a period in your life when you’re going to be grinding and struggling, then you have what it takes to achieve something big in your life.
5. Are you willing to make the sacrifice? You have to address how big of a dream (goal) you’re pursuing and decide what sacrifices you will have to make in your life and if you’re willing to make them. For example, if your dream is to graduate from nursing school, then you will have to put in a lot of hours studying, probably monitoring how often you see your friends and go out and party. If you want to create a million dollar business in an industry that you know nothing about, that will probably require more of you. If that’s your dream, you may not have time for relationships; perhaps you’ll lose touch with friends from secondary circles and have to donate the majority of your spare time to self-development and studying that industry. It’s really important that you take a look at the magnitude of your goal and decide if it’s worth it to you. Once you make that decision, you become a force of self-worth and assertion. You begin to inspire others to take action in their own lives and start doing the things they actually want to do. Your time becomes valuable, and in turn, you begin beaming with confidence and a sense of purpose.
6. Surround yourself with the right people: This can be something such as finding the appropriate mentor to be around who has experience in the industry you’re pursuing. It could also just be a group of friends that support the things you value and are people that you respect and look up to. This is necessary because we’re only as good as the people we surround ourselves with. What the people around you say and do starts chipping away at your sub-conscious, eventually creeping its way into your reality. So if you want to change your life for the better, you might have to cut out some of the friend fat that weighs you down. The types of friends that don’t create value for your development, but rather just suck your life away and take, take, take!! Put more time into those friendships with people that are very real friendships and actually support you trying to create the best version of yourself, and be sure to avoid those friends that become passive-aggressive in the wake of your new goals and ambitions. A real friend will like you for your character, not what you do, or are trying to do. So focus on those people that are like-minded and you can bounce ideas off, people that can see your potential, even potentially helping you in the direction of your goals.
Fear is a silent killer. It lives in the dark shadows of our souls. It often remains undisturbed, powerful, and controlling the course of our lives. By leaving it alone, we let it grow and take over a bigger impact on our lives. It’s only when we begin to disturb it, and face it head on, that we actually begin to grow as people and that fear diminishes. Besides what’s the alternative? You sit back and live a mediocre life that wasn’t your first choice. We only get one life. We only have this one opportunity. Why would you be foolish enough to only live it halfway? We have an opportunity to get one hundred percent of ourselves, and our happiness. Thinking that accomplishing a dream, or a goal, isn’t realistic is a self-limiting belief that you need to shake before it becomes possible. But once you start believing it, the world of possibilities opens up.
They say courage is not being fearless, but forging ahead even when you’re scared to death. I think that’s something that people who’re currently chasing their dreams live out every single day.
To the dreamers, to the courageous ones, to those people who get up every day trying to get the most out of themselves and their lives. You’re the real modern day heroes.
Fear is a silent killer. It lives in the dark shadows of our souls. It often remains undisturbed, powerful, and controlling the course of our lives. By leaving it alone, we let it grow and take over a bigger impact on our lives. It’s only when we begin to disturb it, and face it head on, that we actually begin to grow as people and that fear diminishes. Besides what’s the alternative? You sit back and live a mediocre life that wasn’t your first choice. We only get one life. We only have this one opportunity. Why would you be foolish enough to only live it halfway? We have an opportunity to get one hundred percent of ourselves, and our happiness. Thinking that accomplishing a dream, or a goal, isn’t realistic is a self-limiting belief that you need to shake before it becomes possible. But once you start believing it, the world of possibilities opens up.
They say courage is not being fearless, but forging ahead even when you’re scared to death. I think that’s something that people who’re currently chasing their dreams live out every single day.
To the dreamers, to the courageous ones, to those people who get up every day trying to get the most out of themselves and their lives. You’re the real modern day heroes.