Speaking from experience and after being in conversation with others as well as reading people’s dilemmas online, I’ve compiled a list of some of the common reason I believe that people have some problems identifying or following their dreams.
I’m sure these are common to most people, I know they are very true for me.
- Discouragement from dreaming
Many of us have in our lives people I like to call Enemies of Progress (E.O.P). These are the people who fill the need to crush your dreams and kill your ideas. Some people who are yet to discover their dreams or aren’t courageous enough to pursue theirs always feel inadequate or insecure when others around them are succeeding.
Word of warning, these people are not always strangers nor do they always mean to discourage you. There are genuine people who allow their own personal struggles and setbacks to spill into their advice.
If people have dragged you down and discouraged you from dreaming, take heart because it’s never too late to pick up your dreams and put them into action.
- Hindered by past disappointment and hurts
We’ve all experienced disappointment, it’s that place of bad experiences, unfulfilled desires and dashed hopes. Disappointments can be very crippling, when something goes wrong, we say “I’m never doing that again”. That’s the easiest reply to a situation that has left us feeling hurt and angry. However, when it comes to our dreams, the biggest mistake we can make is to never try again. Failure is a natural stumbling block on the road to success. Some of us may just have to face failure more than others to get to where we’re going. The late Margaret Thatcher once said “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it”.
- Settling for average
Achieving your dream requires you to stretch beyond your capacity. Average is for regular people. You were born to be EXCEPTIONAL! You cannot be reaching for your dream and remain mediocre at the same time. When we settle for average and become uninspired to follow our dreams, we tend to blame others and our circumstances, but the truth is that mediocrity is a CHOICE! My dad always says to me, “good enough is the enemy of great”. If you don’t possess a compelling dream, you are in danger of living a mundane life.
If this is you, then it’s time to dream bigger. A worthwhile dream will always break you out of a rut.
- Lack of confidence
You need to have confidence to talk about your dream and even more to pursue it. Confidence is what separates the dreamers and the doers, this is vital for success. The more you are confident and self-assured, the less likely you will be to give up on your dreams. Your dreams are personal to you so they are fragile, so when people you love and respect don’t approve of them, or when you fail, your confidence shakes.
To combat this, you have to be knowledgeable and accepting of yourself, your strengths and your limitations.
- Lack of imagination
To discover your dream you have to be willing to dream. It’s simplistic, but it’s the start. Albert Einstein understood the value of imagination, he said “When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge”.
We may not all be creative beings, but we all possess the ability to dream and be imaginative. It’s never too late to dream. You have in yourself untapped greatness, you just need to unlock that potential!
Dreams come a size too big so that we can grow into them.
Josie Bisset