Okay, I don’t know about you, but I have all kinds of ideas. All sorts of things I want to do, wish I were doing, projects I want to launch, people I wish I could meet. I talk about all of these ‘wishes’ so often, even I start to get sick of myself.
I know you’ve heard this before:
You can talk the Talk, but can you walk the Walk?
Of course, you can manipulate that question to fit all sorts of scenarios, but today I’m applying it to all of your pipe dreams wants and desires. I mean, really…. are you acting on any of those far-fetched dreams?
I am lumping myself in the same boat here, giving myself the same advice that I am giving you today: you must put yourself out there and make it happen. Because you know what happens if you don’t?
Absolutely nothing.
You will never, ever know what you might be capable of if you don’t stick your neck out and give it a whirl. What could possibly happen? You fail?
Who cares! We all do!
When you fall flat on your face, you are one step closer to your goal. Seriously. You are starting to filter through what will work, and what obviously won’t. So what if you don’t get ahead, who cares if you don’t get the results you wanted, who cares if the mountain you want to climb is so far up in the clouds that you cannot even see its peak (I’m speaking metaphorically here, but hey, you might want to climb Mt. Everest, who knows!)… Who cares?
Even when the task seems impossible, there is always one guarantee:
You will never, EVER reach your goal by sitting around and just talking about it!
Here’s something I’ve discovered…
Sometimes your goal changes. Sometimes, when you start something and you begin working toward what you think you want your goal to be, things start to change and your goal changes… and as you work toward your goal, almost as if the universe begins to align itself to help you, things magically start to fall into place…
As you make baby steps towards your impossible dream, things start to sharpen up and life gets more focused. You become more focused. You gain steam the more and more your pursue your dreams.
The flip side to reaching for the stars and attempting your goals is this:
ABSOLUTE FAILURE
Guaranteed.
I want to tell you something about myself: I wanted to start a blog to become a writer. I wanted to write a book (I still do). I didn’t know the first thing about writing, the only thing I knew was that I had a lot to say. Someone suggested that I get a blog (thanks Tex in the City), and start typing. I mulled it over for weeks. Should I? What would I really type about? Who would read it? What might They think of me (I love this one, everyone always worries about this, but really, who are They?), and what if I failed? What if I’m not a good writer? Is this really what I’m supposed to do?
C’mon now… really, this inner voice of mine is my own worst enemy! It was the scared part of me that was afraid to make a wrong move, afraid of the unknown, afraid of everything. The more and more people I talk to, the more and more I am realizing that each and every one of us has this doubting inner voice.
That voice needs to be silenced.
I silenced my doubting inner voice by jumping in head-first into blogging. I got a blog, I named it, and I started typing. I didn’t know what the heck I was doing, but when I stopped thinking of all the reasons why it might not work and I just started doing it, things started to happen… my perspective shifted, I started getting some feedback (which was all encouraging, btw) and I gained a wee-little-bit of confidence that the sky wasn’t going to fall on me for having tried something new.
I tell you all of this because I am a person that loves the status-quo. I bristle to change, I cry and feel incredibly anxious when the winds of change blow. I like to know exactly what is going to happen all of the time and I don’t like surprises.
Well, at least the Old Me didn’t like change. Or surprises.
The New Me is starting to see that cause and effect of change. Through this blog.Through my interaction with my readers, through my commitment to ‘put myself out there’ and see what happens.
And it is positive.
It is incredible.
And it is moving me toward my goal (which has now grown from wanting to write a book to SO MUCH MORE)…
So, what is it? What is it that you sit around wishing you were doing, but you’re not? Why aren’t you doing it? Why aren’t you trying? What are you afraid of? Failure?
Failure is possible. Failure happens. Failure is also a blessing at times because there are always lessons to be learned from failing.
“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to greatness.”- Oprah Winfrey
But hold on a second: you might not fail. I don’t want all of this talk of ‘failure’ to indicate that I don’t believe in you or your dreams. On the contrary. I don’t want you to fail and I don’t think you will. I just want you to know that if you do? It will be okay.
Most of the time, we are our own worst critic. We are so hard on ourselves! How many times have you looked in the mirror and been horrified by your reflection, just to have someone else compliment you on your look? How many times have you stood in front of the mirror, almost in tears by your image, and then later have someone tell you how great you look?
It isn’t just about looks and image, though those examples were the first ones that popped into my mind. My point is this: we are so critical of ourselves, we often paralyze ourselves from making any motion forward to our goals. We are stuck in the mud. Listening to our negative self-doubting talk.
Put yourself out there.
See what happens when you do…
Silence that little voice inside of you that breathes fear and doubt into your aspirations and goals. Replace that voice with a commitment to just dive in toward your goal without thinking too hard about why you might not be able to achieve it…
Before too long, I bet you will be achieving your goals and setting new ones!
Good luck!
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