If you are reading this post you will probably be trying to chase a dream and thinking about giving up. Well, I am here to tell you to never give up on your dreams! In fact, research has shown that the pursuit of goals makes us feel happier and more satisfied with life.
As I sit here writing this post, I smile because just two days ago I was ready to wave the flag and give up on my dreams. I admit, self-doubt and a lack of belief in myself had gotten the better of me, along with the fact that I was not seeing the results I anticipated I would have by now.
As I sat with my negative thoughts, feeling sorry for myself, I thought about what I would do if I did decide to give up. What would give me purpose? What would make me excited about the possibilities in the future? How would I manage without being creative and not learning new things often? In the end, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t give up on my dreams.
It’s easy to dream, we all dream. We think about having a different life, having more money, being able to do our hobbies full-time, travelling to countries we’d love to visit, starting a business or even a family, but how many of us actually chase them? How many of us achieve them?
There are three kinds of people when it comes to dreams:
- Those that dream but do not do act on them
- Those that dream, chase them but give up
- Those that pursue their dreams until they achieve them
Those that dream but do not act on them
Some people dream with no intention of chasing them and that’s absolutely fine. For some dreaming is just a fantasy, and should remain that way. A fantasy that can provide escapism when life gets heavy, providing a few moments of bliss when they think about their dream house or job, and hey whatever works for you, and whatever makes you happy.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are those that don’t act on them because they don’t believe they can achieve them. Fear usually holds them back, fear that they will fail, fear of the unknown, fear of rejection, self-doubt, and a lack of confidence to go get what they want.
Circumstances or excuses?
Some would say that they can’t chase their dreams because of their circumstances. For example, “I don’t have enough money to start my business”. “My children are too young” or “I am not in the right mindset”.
Are these circumstances or are they excuses? I will let you decide.
Those that dream chase them but give up
You have to rate it, anyone that goes after what they want deserves browni
e points in my eyes. They were brave enough to go after what they wanted.
Reasons for giving up may vary:
- It was harder than you anticipated and you feel that it’s not worth the effort
- You have a slim chance of succeeding
- You change your mind and want to pursue something else
- You lose motivation and/or fall out of love with what
- You may even achieve your dream but it’s not as rewarding as you thought, so you decide to abort the mission!
- I guess with the above bullet points, we can all put it down to, how bad do we want it.
And of course, there are those that never give up on their dreams and go on to achieve them.
I guess we have one simple question to ask ourselves;
HOW BAD DO WE WANT IT?
Why you should never give up on your dreams!
1. Dreams give us purpose
Very Well Mind explains how having a purpose gives us a reason to get up in the morning and that without a purpose life can get boring and unsatisfying. It also goes on to say that a purposeless life will attract poverty, fear and worry.
When we have a purpose we can determine what is important and not so important, this then enables us to prioritize our goals in order to achieve our dreams.
2. It’s better to go after what we want and fail than to have never tried
If you don’t achieve your dreams, at least you can say that you have tried. You were brave enough to chase them in the first place and didn’t let fear of failure stand in your way.
Who wants to go through life living with regret? Wishing that you went after what you wanted.
On another note, failure isn’t always a bad thing. Perhaps you didn’t set out to achieve what you wanted to achieve but perhaps you achieved something else, something that you didn’t expect. Or maybe you changed your mind about your dream and moved on to a different venture.
It’s also likely that along the road, you learnt valuable skills and lessons as well as gaining knowledge.
3. You gain control of your life
We are always in control of our lives, but sometimes it doesn’t feel like that, and we get stuck in a rut believing that we can’t do much to change our reality. You should never give up on your dreams because when we pursue something we take back control of our lives. We know where we want to be and begin taking steps to gain the life we want.
4. It could lead to more opportunities
The road to pursuing our dreams is likely to be a long one. Along the way, you will be networking, meeting like-minded people, learning new skills and gaining knowledge. This means that we me may find ourselves being offered amazing opportunities that we didn’t expect. These opportunities could even exceed our goals, meaning that we can achieve everything that we want and more!
5. Dreams put excitement into our life
I bet you have been through a time when life felt boring and mundane. You were fed up of doing the same thing over and over and you needed a change, something that would excite you!
Chasing our dreams can give us a zest for life when it gets stagnant and predictable. Planning our goals and our future can and should be really exciting, knowing that you are working towards a better future.
6. It makes our current reality bearable
Perhaps you hate the house you are living in and would love a new one, maybe you hate your job or a struggling financially, whatever your current reality is at this present time, it is so satisfying to think that soon enough your life could be so different to your current reality because you never give up on your dreams.
You are aware that you are not your current reality and better days are coming, by taking action and pursuing your goals, you can see light at the end of the tunnel.
7. You will build more skills and develop healthy working habits
Whilst chasing our dreams we have to build skills in order to achieve them. For example, you may be working full-time whilst trying to achieve your goals, so you will need excellent time management and the ability to prioritize, or how will you manage to find the time to achieve your goals?
You will also likely build motivation, resilience and discipline and patients, which are skills that are vital to achieving your goals, and you probably wouldn’t get very far without them.
8. You can prove people wrong
Unfortunately, you may come across friends or family that don’t believe in your vision and try to discourage you from achieving your goals. People may even be jealous of you and the success you will achieve by achieving your dreams.
Although you are not chasing your dreams to prove people wrong, you have to admit it is satisfying to prove people wrong that said you couldn’t achieve something or didn’t believe in your or support you.
9. You will feel accomplished
You should never give up on your dreams because there is nothing better than achieving something you have blood, sweat and tears into. The feeling of meeting your goals is unmatched and will make you feel good about yourself, a sense of pride and achievement. In fact, you will feel so good about yourself that you will probably be ready to achieve the next goal because the world will be your oyster!
10. You will learn a lot about yourself
Never giving up on your dreams will mean that you will discover things about yourself that you never knew. Perhaps you discovered a new skill that you are really good at and will help you achieve success. Maybe you even found negative attributes of yourself that you need to work on. It’s all part of self-development, and becoming a better version of yourself.
Final thoughts
Never giving up on your dreams is not only about achieving the dream itself but also about the journey along the way. You could say that the journey is probably the most important part, as this is where you will learn valuable lessons, learn new skills, discover things about yourself you were never aware of, meet like-minded people and improve your weaknesses.
You have a decision to make, you can either give up on what you want or never give up on your dreams and go after what you want.
Remember Rome wasn’t built in a day, enjoy the process and get excited about your future! You will be very grateful you did one day!
Related posts:
100 Affirmations For Kids – To Promote Positive Thinking
How To Trust The Timing Of Your Life: A Guide For Women
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