3 Steps to Developing the Courage to Own Your Dreams

 “When you stop dismissing what God put in your heart and start taking it seriously, you never know what God will do.” -John Stanko 

A few years ago, I had a friend who was on Dr. Oz. I asked her if she was nervous to go on the show. She said, “No! I was born for this!”

I think about her reply often. She wasn’t being arrogant, she had the courage to own her purpose. For a while, I was envious of her because I knew in my heart that I did not have that same courage in my life.

Why is it so difficult to have the courage to own our dreams? Because we are afraid. We are afraid that we will fail, we are afraid other people will tell us that we’re not called to do what we believe our purpose is, we are afraid of rejection, we are afraid of looking stupid, we are afraid of ______.

Too often, I’ve let these fears hold me back from owning and pursuing my purpose. Over the past two years, with God’s help and the help of others, I’m slowly gaining the confidence and courage needed to own my purpose. Here are 3 steps I’ve learned that will help you develop the courage to own your dreams:

1.) Realize You Were Born for Something – There is something in your life that you were born to do. Over the past year, when I have opportunities to speak or do other things within my purpose, Laura will look at me and say, “D, you were born for this. This is why God made you!” After hearing that a few times, I am gaining more and more confidence that I was born to do what God’s put in my heart!

2.) Recognize when You are Not Owning Your Dream because of Fear or Insecurity – When I meet with people who know me well, I often ask them this question: “Is there anything you need to call me out on or that you would like to speak into my life?” When I’ve asked that question over the last year, I consistently have gotten responses like this:

•  “Own your purpose. Everyone else sees you’re capable of this, now you need to!”

• “You’re the only person holding yourself back from your purpose”

• “When you share your goals, you always say something condescending afterward in a joking manner. Stop putting yourself down and start taking your goals and dreams seriously.”

As a result of that feedback, I’ve become more and more aware of when I let fear and insecurity take over. The more awareness I have around this, the more I can stop the fear and insecurity and replace it with courage.

3.) Do it Afraid – Seth Godin often says that to say, “Here, I made this,” is difficult and frightening.” Seth would tell you to do it anyway. I have found that when I develop the courage to do whatever it is that I am afraid to do, that it never ends up as bad as I imagine it’s going to end up in my mind. In fact, it almost always turns out even better than I could have imagined.

Fear will always be present, but the more you act in the presence of fear, the more you realize that fear never delivers on it promises. Mark Twain once said, “I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.”

I dare you to step out and act on a dream that’s been in your heart that you’ve been neglecting due to fear and insecurity.

Write the song, the book, the blog post, call the friend or family member, apply for that job, go back to school, start the business, plant the church, or whatever else is in your heart! Do it now and do it afraid!

This post was originally published here: https://dougsmithlive.com/ownyourdreams/

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