You have a dream. Everyone does. Everyone wants to be the next J.K. Rowling or Steph Curry. No one who has ever told you that you can do anything you set your mind to has ever been lying. Yet achieving your dreams is about a lot more than just hoping you will get lucky.
If you want to attain your dreams, you have to realize that it is going to take a lot of hard work to do so. You should also be aware of the many reasons some people never get to where they want to be in life. Here are a few.
1. You make more excuses than plans
Chasing a dream is not an easy thing to do. There will always be things that get in our way and try to keep us from achieving what we want to achieve. There is a big difference between stepping away from a dream to fulfill an obligation, though, and never putting any effort into making it happen because of excuses you have the power to overcome.
Stop making excuses. That’s the one thing you can do that will not help you move forward in life. Putting up your own roadblocks, and refusing to knock down the ones others create for you, is the most effective way to ensure you will never attain your dreams, no matter how much you think you want to succeed.
You are never too tired, too inexperienced or too busy to make good things happen for you. Make plans for yourself instead of excuses, and you will find that, in time, it does get a little easier.
2. You let fear make your decisions for you
Of all the obstacles you will face when taking steps toward attaining your dream, fear is one of the most difficult to manage. Sometimes, what we really want to accomplish in life is what scares us the most. It’s that one thing that will take us out of our comfort zones and never let us turn back.
It is okay to be afraid of your dreams, but it isn’t okay to let that fear hold you back from accomplishing what you are otherwise capable of accomplishing. You have to be the one to decide to do it anyway, no matter how much it scares you. Take charge of that decision. Look fear in the face and say, “Nice try, but I got this.”
Take things slow. Do one very small thing every day that will, over time, help you get over your fear and step closer to your dream. There really is no need to rush. Sometimes, overcoming fear takes time. Make the post of it.
3. You never talk about your ambitions
Do you have a dream that you have never shared with anyone? Do you often daydream about the day you will finally achieve success, even though you’ve never spoken a word about it out loud?
Staying silent about your dreams doesn’t actually do you any good. You might have avoided telling other people about your ambitions because you are afraid of the implications. Speaking it aloud, sharing it with someone, makes it real. That’s scary. It’s also the reason talking about your dream is essential, if you ever want to attain it.
The moment you tell someone else what you hope to accomplish someday, the dream you are hoping to attain suddenly morphs into something more tangible: a goal. That person doesn’t have to hold you accountable, but making them aware of what you hope to do is, in a way, a form of self-accountability.
4. You don’t make your goals time-sensitive
By now, you have heard of S.M.A.R.T. goals. Experts say making goals specific, measurable, attainable and realistic are important if you ever actually want to achieve them. The step often missed is time sensitivity – giving your goal a deadline.
We don’t like to think about giving ourselves deadlines. That puts pressure on us to actually sit down and get things done. We might not always like that feeling, but avoiding this step in the goal-setting process is what is not going to allow you to attain your dream.
Be honest with yourself. Do you really want to learn a new language, for example? First of all, when are you going to start? How much time are you going to put into studying each week? Most importantly, when are your milestones? Do you want to be able to communicate in that language fluently within two years? Five? Literally write out a timeline and stick to it.
5. You haven’t taught yourself how to focus
You’ve finally stopped letting your excuses and your fear stand in your way. You’ve told a few people about what you’re working on and you’ve given yourself a few deadlines to work toward to keep you motivated.
There’s just one problem, though: you’re still not making very much progress. You feel like you have done everything correctly up to this point, but now you’re suddenly not sure if you want to do this anymore. You’re having a hard time focusing on the tasks you need to accomplish in order to attain your dream.
As humans, we make a lot of plans. We have a lot of dreams. Narrowing our focus and finishing one thing at a time is not always a very easy thing to do. You have to learn how to focus, though, if you’re going to get it done. It doesn’t matter if you “feel like” doing it. You’ve made a commitment to your dream. You can’t back out now.
Break your larger goals down into even smaller goals, so small that you can actually accomplish one of them every single day. Putting it into smaller pieces that way will help you focus, and you’ll have a success story to tell in no time.
There are many reasons why some people will never attain their dreams. You could end up being one of them, if you don’t make yourself aware of them and do what you can to overcome them.
