“I believe every single event in life happens in an opportunity to choose love over fear.” Oprah Winfrey
One big reason ~ a tragic one ~ that people don’t move toward their dreams is a simple one. Fear.
Fear holds us back from becoming who we really are. That is the sad reality of too many stories.
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Why do we hesitate?
Sometimes opportunity is staring us in the face. Yet, we hesitate.
When you move toward doing meaningful work there is a ton of risk:
- You might fail – you could embarrass yourself
- You could lose the respect of family and friends
- You could lose all your money
There are thousands of ways you could fail. However, the truth is you could also succeed.
Until you start acting on those gifts you’ve been given and living in your calling, you are robbing the world of a gift. The gift of you.
I wasted a whole lot of years before I went after those dreams I had on the inside. One of those dreams was that I wanted to be a writer, but didn’t think I was good enough. I thought I had to wait for someone – a professional in the publishing world – to pick me.
I hesitated because of fear.
It wasn’t until I read Jeff Goins’ book You Are a Writer (So Start Acting Like One)
I chose to pick myself and write and publish the stories that were burning inside me. My 1st novel was published and then I wrote my 1st nonfiction book and finished creating an online course to help others write and publish their books. Lately, I’ve been working on the edits of the second book in the historical romance series – called Anchoring Annaveta. It’s due out in March 2016, and I’m again pushing through fear to publish another book.
Here’s some of the steps that help me to write more stories… maybe it will help you too. Everyday I do what I can to take steps beyond my wall of fear. Everyday I sit down to write, knowing that I can’t wait for the fear to go away. I just act on those ideas that are burning a hole inside me.
In order to move toward an opportunity or a dream you have – even though it’s risky – you need to remind yourself of 3 things:
1. Believe you can do it. The only way you’ll really act on your dream is to trust the gifts you’ve been given. Listen to family and friends who say you are really good at this. Those are clues to the hidden talent and gifts inside of you.
At some point it’s important to stop doubting yourself…. and believe in you. You need to see the possibility of doing work you love before it happens.
This is called faith.
Trust in the emergence of your own story.
2. Talk and Learn about it. Keep speaking out loud who you are. Even if it doesn’t seem possible. That’s what really helped me when I started writing. I started talking about writing and learning about it for years until one day I could say with confidence I am a writer.
3. Do your dream. Until we act on what we’ve been dreaming about doing, what we value is just that – a dream.
Even though we aren’t what we do, we become what we practice.
For anyone that is doing any sort of meaningful work, it’s important that we get this. So if you are practicing living in fear, insecurity and intimidation what does that say about you?
So if you have a calling that you aren’t really stepping into, then it’s time to: Believe in your dream before you see it; Keep speaking out loud that you are what you’re waiting to be; and then do your dream.
Then when opportunities come your way to step into it instead of focussing on the negative questions like what if I fail?… Instead ask yourself:
- What if you are amazing?
- What if you do really well?
- What if people LOVE YOU?
Let the answers to those questions guide you to your next step.
Are you pushing through fear and moving toward your dream? I would love to hear your story in the comments.
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