What’s Stopping You From Following Your Dreams?
No, really?
I’ve felt frustrated with myself lately.
Frustrated because I haven’t been doing much work towards following my dream of building a writing business that I believe will benefit so many others, once I can finally support myself with a full-time income from my writing.
This frustration got so bad that yesterday I had to stop myself and analyze what was holding me back.
When I was doing this, I latched onto an implacable thought that passed into my head. All the voice said was:
What’s really stopping you from being your best self?
It wasn’t loud — it had a bit of an echo — but it pronounced loudly in my mind nonetheless.
I didn’t really have an answer — not a solid one, anyways.
The only thing I could think of were more excuses.
Excuses like “I’m not disciplined enough” filled my head. The voices also shouted “You’re not good enough!” and “Wouldn’t you rather check Facebook/Snapchat/Instagram/etc. for some new notifications again?”
My personal favourite was this: “Today’s just not a good day to do your work — so why not put off today’s work to do tomorrow?”
All of these sounded great at the time.
But looking back at them, I can only see the lunacy in them.
When has a new notification ever fulfilled our need to explore the world around us and build something that we’re confident by creating, we can change the life of even one person around us?
When has discipline ever been our problem?
Why does today never seem like the absolute best time to follow our dreams?
And why does tomorrow always seem like it will be better in some way? Why do we fantasize about tomorrow, as if something magical will happen to us overnight or in the morning, where we’ll get some kind of vision that will finally give us the key of permission to follow our dreams?
When have any of us never been good enough or capable enough to follow our dreams?
Take a moment now to think about what’s stopping you from following the dreams buried in your heart. That’s all I ask. Be honest with yourself, too.
After you make your list, really analyze the reasons.
Ask yourself: “Are these true? Or are they just the limiting beliefs placed upon me by the never-ending broken record of cynicism and broken dreams constantly spinning in my head?”
If they are or aren’t, find some way to develop a counter-punch to them that will help solve them and put them to rest for good. You owe yourself that much.
I hope this exercise gives you some answers and helps clarify your vision.
At the very least, I hope it gives you some hope.
Because sometimes hope is all we have. Without it, we’re just aimless blobs spinning around on the plane of the world, waiting to drift into our purpose by luck or chance or whatever, but find ourselves quickly disappointed when that fulfilment in our life never comes.
Sometimes we just get stuck and all we need is a push in the right direction, or an anchor to help guide our way.
Chances are, whatever is holding you back, deep down you already knew the answer to this question, long before I even asked you to write it down to help yourself truly see.
The question is, what will you do with that information now that you have it?
Because what’s really stopping you now that you know the best way to go forward to get to where you want to be?
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Blake is an author, dreamer, and coffee lover based in Vancouver, Canada. He’s on a mission to help writers step into their potential and create their dream lives. If you’re looking to take your writing to the next level, you can download a FREE copy of “Bulletproof Writer’s Handbook” to conquer your writer’s block today.
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