“You can dream of success...but nothing will happen until you wake up and work hard at it.”

I’ve been writing on a medium for about thirty days. My purpose when I started was to write about whatever I felt like, whenever I felt like it—so no purpose, really. I’d been burnt on trying to blog, the intricacies that felt over my head, so when I stumbled across Medium, I knew I’d found my place. (I’m home now.)

As the days rolled on and the words rolled out, I began to notice a pattern— a purpose was developing. Through writing, I learned I could help others—the hope I might give, the encouragement someone might need.

You see, I dreamed of writing, but I second-guessed myself so much so that even the paper itself seem to tremble, that’s how bad the fear was—or how bad my writing was because of it.

“Whatever your dream, just keep trekking…practice, practice, practice. You might be amazed at what happens.”

It wasn’t until I read The War of Art by Steven Pressfield that I really understood the importance of working through the resistance I had built up.

Prior to this, I harbored such thoughts as:

“I’m not good enough.”

“No one will like what I write.”

“There’s not enough time.”

(and I could go on and on…)

These were all resistance, reasons I gave for not pursuing a dream, but once I persisted, ignoring these thoughts and trekking along on Medium, I began to see things differently.

Very quickly I noticed I was becoming more patient and calm, happily waiting my turn in line at the store, making chitchat with strangers, smiling more often, looking forward to writing; it felt like a faint veil that had been hanging over me—one I didn’t even know existed—was finally being lifted.

If you struggle with this, too, I urge you to follow your dreams, setting aside your fears in any way you can. Like my mom always said, “If anyone else can do it, you can do it, too.”