Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true." Napoleon Hill
Big Dreams
Everyone has dreams. Some are much larger and more complex than others, but they all have value. The dreams that you have are there for a reason: to be realized as a part of fulfilling your life purpose.
I truly believe that it is our one and only purpose for being here, to create amazing experiences for ourselves and others.
Then why do so many people continue to live life by default allowing life to just pass them by without achieving anything they want?
Fear of Failure
Winston Churchill said, "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." Well I am not sure it is really that extreme, I do know that it can feel that way. When you are in the middle of that feeling of fear, it can seem that everything you have every tried has failed.
But why do we really feel this way – do we have old beliefs from when we were a child? Do we have some negative people around us that never have anything positive to say? Do we have some past experience that we can't forget?
Feel the fear and do it anyway
You know when you are standing on the edge of the diving board and you are getting ready to jump, if you take a minute to think about how you are feeling, you might feel some butterflies in your stomach, you might feel a little shaky or sweaty, and you might even have that inner voice chattering at you.
Stand there for a minute and just feel those feelings. Now take a deep breath and jump! You are going to feel the fear that is okay. Now that you jumped and you are flying through the air and you splash down in the clear water. How do you feel? Excited, elated, proud? You set out to jump and you jumped. You were successful!
Now if you take this little example and trade the diving board for a live speech or write a book, can you see how you would work through it?
Making Your Dreams a Reality
You must plan and work toward what you want. Even if you try and fail, keep trying. Your dreams have value. Keep moving toward them.
Mindset techniques:
- Think of what you would be missing out on if you missed this opportunity.
- Make a vision board where you can pin or glue symbols of what you want to see realized.
- Keep a journal of what you've done toward realizing your dreams each day or each week.
- Remember to enjoy and respect the present moment, enjoy the journey.
Ask yourself, is this feeling really true? Where is the fear coming from? I like to spend some time in meditation or journaling to really get into where and what? This give time and space for my inner voice to really step through and show me why I am feeling this way.
"Each time we face our fear, we gain strength, courage, and confidence in the doing" ~Eleanor Roosevelt
Action Steps
- Take one small task that will move you forward, concentrate on that task, don't look past it.
- Have faith, faith that you were able to dream it, so you are able to accomplish it.
- Understand that fear is just your mind's way of dealing with the uncomfortable, embrace the feeling of uncomfortable.
- Feel the fear, the sweat, the heart palpitations, and just do it; be bold and be audacious.
- Kick fear in the ass and make it cry!
I want to leave you with one last question – if you weren't afraid, how would you act?
Now that is something to journal about.
I would love to hear about a time when you were afraid and you did it anyway. How did you feel afterward, did it allow a dream to be realized?