A friend of mine recently told me that I inspire her because I don’t let anything stop me from pursuing my dreams. Her statement caused me to reflect on how much my life has changed. For many years I allowed fear and insecurity to convince me that my dreams were unachievable. Today, I pursue my dreams with expectancy, refusing to let negative thoughts or emotions hold me back. You may be wondering what changed, and honestly, the answer is my mindset. It’s easy for us to list a million reasons why we cannot accomplish a goal, chase a dream, or do a seemingly simple things like carve out a little “me time” for ourselves. We say things like “the kids need…,” “my spouse won’t…..” My job doesn’t…,” “I don’t’ have…, I can’t….,” etc., etc. The truth is, those are not the things preventing us from moving forward. It’s really our mindset that either propels us forward or holds us back.
When we believe that we can accomplish anything we put our minds to, none of these external factors will be able to stop us. On the other hand, when we do not truly believe in ourselves and our ability to realize our dreams, even if everything and everyone around us lines up, we will likely find ourselves in the same position, stuck and unable to move forward. At the risk of sounding cliche, it really is all in our head. Our mindset, which is defined as “the established set of attitudes held by someone,” will determine how we view every situation. For example, maybe you have hopes and dreams of being an entrepreneur, but you feel stuck in your nine to five job because that is where your financial support is coming from. Instead of viewing that job as a place where you are stuck, try viewing that job as an investor contributing to your future goals. Or, rather than thinking “what if I pursue my dreams and they fail,” think, “what if I pursue my dreams and become more successful then I ever imagined.”
Many times we hesitate to move forward with our ideas, plans and dreams because we want to be so careful to spend our time and other resources on something that will pay off in the long run. The reality is that it costs us far more to stay stuck then it could ever cost us to fail. We often let the fear of failure stop us from ever trying in the first place. What we must realize is that failure isn’t fatal, in fact, failure is required for innovative success. We must change both the things we are telling ourselves and the questions we are asking ourselves. Instead of asking “what if this doesn’t work out?” let’s ask ourselves “what if this does work out, what will this look like?”
