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Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Don't Let Your Dream(s) Overwhelm You

The last few weeks I have had the opportunity to talk to many people who have big dreams they want to pursue.  The common words I hear is "there is something burning on the inside of me" or "I have a fire stirring up inside of me".  When I hear statements like these in my mind whatever this "fire" is, is something the person is extremely passionate about it and need to bring forth.

It's also great to have that fire stirring, but sometimes that fire feels like it's blazing because the dream is so overwhelming.  The sheer enormity of the dream and what it would take to execute the dream can be extremely scary.  Scary to the point it stops you from pursuing it.  You may ask yourself, "what if I fail?" or even yet, "what if I succeed, am I ready?"  The reason there is a fire inside of you is because that particular dream, or vision, is yours, and yours alone.  Though it may be scary walking in to your destiny you are the only one who can do it.  No one can do what you have inside of you to do.  So though the dream may be overwhelming, and executing on that dream may seem daunting, you can do it.   Whether you know it or not, people are depending on you to birth that dream.  When you bring forth your dream you may be opening doors for others to birth theirs.  So you may ask what do you do with these overwhelming feelings? Here are some steps you can take to keep your passion and dream ignited despite the enormity and bring forth that fire that is burning on the inside of you:

  1. Accept It - accept that you, and only you, can bring forth this dream. There is a reason you have this burning inside of you.  Only you can articulate the "why".  Only you can bring it forth because it resonates within you.  Only you can understand it at a level no one else can.  People are depending on you to bring it forth so they can experience your dream.  Own your dream.
  2. Acknowledge your concerns - my cousin once said to me that he doesn't like to use the word "fear".  Fear is an emotion where you are expecting something to go wrong.  So if you already expect it to occur you have already extinguished some of the fire you will need to drive it forward.  Instead of going in with fears, think about the parts of the dream that are concerning and how you are going to overcome those concerns.
  3. Break It Down - don't go in with the mindset you have to do everything at once to bring forth you dream.  Break the dream down in to manageable parts so that you are showing progress throughout.  When you can show progress that will keep you on the course of execution.  If you get overwhelmed by the enormity and bring forth nothing, you could begin to stop believing in your dream.  Sit down and think about all the tasks that need to get done to bring forth your dream. Then prioritize and create a plan of action.  It may take a couple of years before the full dream comes to fruition, but trust me the end product will be a masterpiece that will impact so many lives.  
  4. Don't Give Up - you will FAIL.  It's okay to FAIL.  Failure has such a negative connotation, but every failure gets you closer to your success.  Every successful product out there has had some sort of failure.  These failures teach you new things and makes you stronger.  Don't give up if during the process of execution you fail.  Take time to do root cause on why you failed, pick yourself up and keep going.  Remember, someone out there is waiting for you to bring forth this dream.
  5. Commit - with anything you need to commit with perseverance and discipline.  Even when times get hard you have to push through and see it to the end.  What doesn't kill you will make you stronger.  Take every obstacle as a chance to get stronger for the next obstacle that will come your way.  There will always be challenges, but how you react to the challenges is what will make you or break you.
  6. Help Others - I have found that while you're working to manifest your dreams if you help others along the way your dream will manifest stronger than ever.  You may ask, "Paula, what on earth are you talking about?  I have to execute on my own dream and now you are telling me to help others.  Won't that take away from the time I should be spending on manifesting my dream?"  You can look at it that way, but I offer a different perspective.  I'm going to tell a personal story.  I have a lot of different dreams I want to accomplish before I perish from this thing called life.  I have a passion to help others reach their goals, whether personally or professionally.  I have a day job and run two businesses outside of that day job.  One of which is my consulting business.  For those who don't know, my consulting business is 4-tiered.  This means I have 4 very distinct components that I do consulting on: event planning, business planning for small businesses, leaderships and career development coaching/mentoring/speaking and finally business analysis coaching/mentoring/speaking/authoring.  As you can imagine, especially in the speaking space I have to prepare content which takes time.  In the event planning space I have to create templates and plans for the different occasions.  I believe you get the picture.  However, though I have this work to do, I'm still giving back to the community in which I live focusing on the youth.  I want our youth to succeed.   Now how does helping youth help me with my dream?  As you recall, I said my passion is to help others reach their goals.  In helping the youth I'm learning exactly how to do that.  You learn a lot by helping others.  Different perspectives are brought forth as you share your gifts and talents with others.  Some of the conversations and volunteering I have done has created some great scenarios for content in presentations that I have leveraged to bring forth a point.  The youth sowed a seed in me and now I'm sowing that same seed in others with the hope, someone will continue to sow and spread the word for a great harvest of knowledge.  So you see, helping others has helped me to bring forth my dream even stronger.  Most successful people will tell you they didn't get their success on their own.  They had others who helped them achieve their ultimate success.  

I want to encourage you today to bring forth that fire that is burning inside of you.  Don't let the sheer size of the dream, or your concerns, stop you from bringing forth what you know you have inside of you.  People need to experience the dream that only you can bring forth, because it lives inside of you.  There are many people who are counting on you and many people who will help you if you just take the step to bring it forth.

No go forth and conquer!  We need your dreams!!!!!!

Regards,
BA Martial Artist