Norman Mailer once said, "Ultimately a hero is a man who would argue with the gods, and so awakens devils to contest his vision. The more a man can achieve, the more he may be certain that the devil will inhabit a part of his creation."
Each of us is on a journey and each of us knows what’s best for ourselves, better than any other person alive ever will.
No matter how much advice you get – only you know what you need at this point in your life.
We all know this but we very rarely believe it.
Our society's engineered to make us doubt ourselves.
From a very young age, we’re taught that there’s someone that knows more than us – teachers, parents, grown ups...
By the time we reach adulthood we’re pretty much conditioned to follow some kind of system and trained to consult outside sources before consulting ourselves.
People’s opinions start to matter more than ours; we worry about what others think and say and stop listening to our inner voice.
How Can You Start Following Your Dreams
1. Take responsibility for your life
No one is going to give you permission to get started on your dream (they are waiting for you to give them permission). Give yourself permission and validate yourself.
Give yourself the support you need to start doing the things you want to do with your life.
When we wait for others to give us permission to be unique and be ourselves, all we do is end up waiting.
Freedom is the ability to make decisions and the ability to rely on yourself to deal with the outcome and take responsibility. As Nike says: Just do it.
I won’t lie, financially stressful, lonely and on some days you live in a vacuum of just pure doubt but one day you realize that your life is going in a direction you never thought possible, you’re doing things you never thought you'd do and you’re overcoming your worst fears.
You start believing in miracles and the divine.
And for a second, you understand why you’re doing all this and that’s enough to give you strength to keep going.
2. Crystalize your vision
I’ve always believed that if I can see something, I can make it a reality.
There’s a reason why bank managers want you to have a business plan or why law of attraction teachers always preach about the power of visualization.
The mind hates uncertainty – it scares us and represents the unknown but when your mind can see a vision, the uncertainty disappears and your fear slowly fades.
Write down your vision, talk about it, post pictures of the things you want to attract into your life, do whatever you need to, to make it crystal clear.
The simpler and clearer your vision is in your mind, the easier it is for you to communicate, the easier it is to make it real.
3. Focus on the process, not the destination
There’s a famous saying that life is a journey not a destination.
Things don’t always happen according to plan.
When we live life with destination points we can end up very disappointed, because we live with expectations of how things should happen and miss many new opportunities along the way.
The trick is to learn how to be an optimist, and expect without expecting and to find opportunity even in the worst situations (easier said than done).
4. Build a fan club
Not everyone’s going to support you on your journey and the people that love you most, will try to protect you by discouraging you.
Go out and build your fan club – people who believe in you and your vision.
Surround yourself with people that you can call when everything falls apart and you start to doubt yourself.
They remind you of your abilities and believe in you when you can’t believe in yourself and this gives you strength.
5. Have unlimited self esteem
At the end of the day our dreams are our own; we can never run from ourselves.
At some point the things that we didn't say or do because they weren't the norm will start to haunt us
Within us we carry the marks of Gods who dared to dream the impossible and that’s something to be proud of. Every time we deny our potential we make a mockery of the Gods.
What advice can you give on following your dreams?
Let me know in the comments section below.
