Author: Christa Baca
You’ve got dreams and you’ve got ideas, but you have no clue where to begin. Don’t worry, you are not alone. If you are like most of us, getting started on something as important as “living your dream” can be a daunting task. It’s kind of like staring at a blank canvas. Where do you start? What do you paint? What colors should you use? If you are honest, it’s hard to not be intimated by the void of “what could be.”
The ominous, “What ifs" race through our mind as we struggle on where to begin....
What if you make a mistake?
What if you fail?
What if no one likes what you make?
Well, what if?
Let’s just be real for a second:
Chances are you will probably make a mistake.
You may fail.
You may also succeed.
And what of the critics? They seem to circle like vultures the second that a dreamer chooses to begin. They are there to kindly remind you to keep your head on straight, don’t get your hopes up, pull your head out of the clouds, and tell you numerous stories of how they too tried and failed. I submit to you this thought: we are not to live a life dictated by our critics. Like the composer Jean Sibelius said, “Pay no attention to what the critics say. A statue has never been erected in honor of a critic.”
In your life there will ALWAYS be people who will tell you that you can’t, that it is impossible, that you are not smart enough, old enough, you don’t have enough money, you’re not from the right family, and on and on and on…. They will tell you these things because this is what they see as truth and this truth has become their reality. The good news is this doesn’t have to become YOUR reality.
You have been given unique talents and gifts, you are unlike anyone else and yet, as a society, we struggle with the dichotomy of wanting to stand out and embrace our uniqueness and wanting to blend in and be accepted by society. The Bible puts it like this in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” There is a pattern of life that most people follow. They line up single file, marching along through life never lifting their head up, simply trudging along in the well-worn paths that others have carved out for them; only pausing at brief moments to ask themselves, “Is this the life I really wanted?”
The beautiful thing is YOU are in charge of your life. You are not a victim to your circumstances or surroundings. We must stop blaming other people for the way that we think our life should be and start making it what we want it to be. To do this it takes boldness. It takes courage; it takes standing out from among the masses and doing things different.
Most people let fear stop them. There are so many “What ifs” when it comes to living your dream. Most people let these things paralyze their dreams into a life of restrictive confinement. You’ve felt it before: passion stirring in your soul, excitement about an idea, a feeling as though you were born to do this. Then the fears settle in, looming overhead. Then you rationalize away your dream, you worry what people would think of you if you tried and you failed before you even began...and the worst part is that only you know the failure. You suffer in silence, in solitude and great loneliness, for only you know the great fear and the timid soul that lives inside which does not dare to venture.
As the years go on, most people become efficient at talking themselves out of doing their dreams. They know all the reasons why they can’t. They’ve rehearsed them all a million times, and somewhere along the way they lose that sparkle in their eyes, that life in their step and they become so absorbed in themselves that they can’t even see that the world had great need for them. The world was waiting for them and they didn’t even realize it.
If you are looking for a different way to live, then we invite you to Submerge. At Submerge we are all about making the dreams in your heart become a reality. Not in a lofty, unrealistic way, but by arming you with the practical tools you need to make your dreams happen. If you would like to hear more then we invite you to fill out the form below and one of our reps will get back to you.