Dreams

As the month of September is about to begin and the summer’s unofficially coming to a close, I want to consider the topic of our dreams. It’s easy to put them on the back burner during the summertime, and certainly Covid’s persistence still wreaking havoc on our lives is not helping either. However, now, while we still have downtime, is actually a perfect time to think about them.

What I really want to address is the thing that most often prevents us from going after our dreams! Of course, the stars play their part, but after years of working with clients, I’ve come to realize that our biggest hurdle to our realizing our dreams is much closer to home. It’s our own fears! Our fears can create obstacles that can become seemingly insurmountable. So, to realize our dreams, we have to confront our fears.

The best way to do this is to try to understand and evaluate each of our fears. Most fears are irrational. For instance, some of us are afraid to contact people we don’t know, even if that person can help us realize a dream. Other people may be afraid to start a project because they have never done anything like it before. This group is afraid of failing. But what they don’t realize is that, by not starting or going through with something, they have already failed. So, in fact they have nothing to lose and everything to gain!

This is why I want you to think about the fears that are keeping you from living your dreams. Write them down on a piece of paper, and then next to each fear, write down how you will overcome that fear. For example, if you are afraid to call someone, write down exactly when you will call this person and what you will say. If you are afraid of starting a project, write down what the project is, when you will start it, and all the individual steps you think it will take to finish this project. The idea is to get you to see ways to overcome the forces that are holding you back. I want to share an inspirational quote by the businessman and inventor Henry Ford. I’ve modified his quote to include men and women!

“One of the greatest discoveries that a man or woman can make, one of his/her greatest surprises, is to find s/he can do what s/he was afraid s/he couldn’t do.”

Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are allowing our fears to control us. I don’t want you to be one of these people! If you look your fears in the eye, and try to understand what they are, you might begin to understand why you feel so powerless against them.

Identifying our fears is the first step to eliminating them and unlocking our full potential. Do this, and you will be taking agency over your destiny. I hope you will consider my words this week. In the four months left in the year, let’s try to make progress with your fears. Life is too precious not to!