What are you waiting for?

Published in

Objective DilEmma

5 min readNov 5, 2017

Today it felt like I’ve missed something in my life. I don’t know what exactly, but it seems to be very important. Maybe it was another missed opportunity, or maybe there were things in my life I could do differently. But if I did, I would never get where I am now.

Maybe I could get somewhere better, or worse. Who knows? Our lives are shaped by our choices, and every choice leads us to a specific outcome.

There are no good or bad choices, you’ll never know which one would be better for you, but you must be ready to make mistakes.

I’m 25, and when I look back at my life, I see many ups and downs, failures and achievements. I always think of what would happen, if I made a different choice at a certain moment of my life. I know that I’ve made many mistakes but I’ve also learned from them.

And, first of all, I’ve learned to never give up and make peace with my failures. Everybody makes mistakes, and I’m not an exception. You just have to make your conclusions and move forward.

Winston Churchill said: “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”

Recently, I found myself watching some motivational Ted talks, where people share their stories. And I started to think about all those people who went through so many challenges and difficulties, but still they had motivation to continue their way to success.

What makes them different? What makes them successful? Why do they keep fighting, while others just give up? I had so many questions.

At first, I thought that they work harder than others. But not all hard-working people become successful. Then, I thought that their purpose is the key to success. Yes, the purpose matters, but it’s not the sole thing success depends on.

I also realised that those people had passion for what they did. They had something to show and prove the others.

So, is this the formula to success?

Passion+purpose+hard work = success

But what inspires them to have that passion? What makes them stand out from the crowd and move forward?

I’ve watched a lot of different and unique stories, where people reached their goals or were on their way to success. I wanted to reveal what they had in common. Here is what I’ve found:

They have a dream

“I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Do you have a dream? What keeps you from following your dreams? Just listen to your heart. Can you hear it? The echo of your unfulfilled dreams.

How many times you stopped yourself from acting, because you thought it’s impossible?

The fear of failure is haunting us when it comes to making serious steps to get closer to our dreams. But there are people who make their steps forward and get rewarded for that. Sometimes they fail, but they keep on going, because the path to success consists of thousands of small achievements and failures.

These people are not afraid of changes, they are looking forward to them. The changes may affect their families, their friends, but they are ready to forgive those who will turn their back on them.

And, finally, they found a way to make their dreams come true. If you don’t know how to make your dreams come true, then educate yourself, learn and read more, plan your actions, set your goals, just start acting. You’ll find your way in the process.

They embrace their insecurities

Overthinking, low self-esteem, being unable to make friends or form connections, trying to fit in, feeling depressed and dissatisfied, negative feelings (guilt, shame..) suicidal thoughts, feelings of isolation and aloneness.

How many of these are familiar to you?

Am I good enough? How are you dealing with your insecurities?

You have to accept them, because you are not an exception, we all have them. The question is how?

There are lots of articles on how to fight your insecurities, how to accept yourself, how to do this, how to do that, etc. But they won’t help you if you just read them. Nothing will help you,unless you understand the core reason of your insecurities and start acting.

You are not the first one, and surely not the only one. There are people who use their insecurities as a source of their strength and their driving force. They overcome their fears to show that everything is possible.

They are empathetic

What does it mean? They understand themselves and those who went through the same or similar challenges in their lives. So, they share their stories with those who need it. They know that there are many people who are undergoing the same difficulties, like they did.

Somebody is fighting a disease, or working hard to keep his business up and running, making efforts to solve global problems, or trying to lead a normal life after an abuse.

They want to show that life goes on and, no matter what happens, we always have opportunities to achieve our goals.

They are not afraid to make decisions

We make decisions at every step of our lives. The possible results scare us to make the right choice. The inability to make a decision takes our time and energy. We’re afraid of the consequences.

What will happen if I make this decision? What if it’s wrong? What will other people think about me, if I fail?

Control your emotions and think rationally. Consider each option, find the pros and cons.

Easier said than done.

When you realize what’s holding you back from making a decision, it will be easier for you to actually make one. And you need to keep in mind that there are no right or wrong decisions. There are decisions and their outcomes. You must have the courage to accept them.

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” Albert Einstein

What can we learn from these people? Each of us has a dream and has the ability to make it come true. We just need to start acting right now, right at this moment.