Chasing Your Dreams: A Dozen Reasons to Start Today
Chasing your dreams requires tenacity and commitment. It’s not for the faint of heart. The world is going to be against you. People close to you and random strangers and going to spend their breath telling you why it’s impossible at worst, unwise at best. Leaving any kind of security for unknown territory can be scary. Security is comfortable but hardly exciting.
You have a dream buried deep in your heart, but chasing your dreams can be terrifying when you begin to remove it from the clouds and give it roots in the soil of your life.
If you need some encouragement today, here are a dozen reasons why you need to quit making excuses and start making plans!
Chasing your dreams gives you courage
Maybe you don’t feel very courageous now, but stepping out in faith and pursuing your dreams is the first of many steps that will build your confidence. As you begin pursuing your dreams, you begin to achieve success. No matter if it’s a huge win or a small accomplishment, success breeds success. These wins will build courage inside you to press on and try the next scary thing.
Chasing dreams gets your comfortable with fear & failure
How many times have you allowed yourself to be stopped in the pursuit of your dreams because you were scared? Afraid of failure? Afraid of change? Afraid of success? Fear is a paralyzer and the killer of dreams.
The more you try, the more you will fail. Failure goes hand in hand with testing boundaries and trying something new. Chasing your dreams means getting comfortable with the possibility of failure. It means pressing on with your goals and trying your next right thing amidst the insecurities failure often brings.
Chasing your dreams keeps your life aligned to your priorities
If you have a dream sewn deep in your heart, there’s a high probability that it aligns with your core values. Your life right now may be chaotic, unsettled, or too busy. There will always be an excuse for why there’s not enough time or energy left at the end of your day to pursue your dreams.
But I promise you, when you begin adjusting your time and focusing your energy on chasing your dreams, the noise quiets. You begin to see how your dreams align with your values. The more you chase your dreams, the more crystal clear your priorities become.
Chasing your dreams inspires others
As you give yourself permission to chase your dreams, it can embolden those around you. Like salmon swimming upstream, people often go along with the current until they see someone else swimming a different direction. Chasing your dreams is countercultural. As you take steps against the status quo to pursue a life less ordinary, it will be noticed.
Pursue your priorities in spite of what others may think or say. As you do, the dreamers around you will likely take notice and begin spurring you on. Your bravery may even inspire other closet dreamers to step out and pursue their own passions.
Chasing your dreams teaches you about yourself
Pursuing a dream is one a grand adventure in self-discovery. You find out who you are and what you are made of. Chasing your dream tests your self-imposed boundaries and reveals the ceiling you place on your abilities.
As you journey to make your dream a reality, you will discover hidden fears and insecurities, but you will also discover potential and courage you never knew you possessed. As traveling teaches you about the world, so chasing your dreams teaches you about yourself.
Chasing your dreams shows you what is possible
The more you pursue your dreams, the more you begin to see what’s possible. The more you see what’s possible, the more you go after it. As you realize your potential, the voices of those around you lose significance. The boundaries and lines society draws to keep you in dissolve. You give yourself permission to live a life outside of the box, a life where anything is possible.
Chasing your dreams keeps you hopeful
Dreamers are eternal optimists. It is the hope of accomplishing a dream that motivates a dreamer to keep pressing forward. And it is the relentless pursuit of dreams, supported by an unwavering hope for the future, that moves a person along the path on their journey from dreamer to doer.
Chasing your dreams tests your perseverance
It is the failure to move forward, not failure itself, that is the killer of dreams. Every dreamer experiences numerous obstacles and failures on their way to great success. It’s persevering despite the obstacles, in the midst of the failures, that turns you from an eternal dreamer into an eternal doer. You can’t accomplish great things in life without perseverance.
Chasing your dreams sets an example for your children
“Kids don’t remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.”
~ Jim Henson
You can be anything you want to be when you grow up. That’s what we always tell kids, isn’t it? But what’s better, saying anything is possible or showing your kids that anything is possible? The best way to encourage your children to dream big is to live big yourself.
Chasing your dreams keeps you from regret
Many people fail to chase their dreams because they are too busy living someone else’s. Don’t settle for a life that falls short of your desires, even if it’s something good, or something great. Only you know the dreams buried deep in your soul, and only you will live with the consequences of keeping your dreams deferred.
You might take risks that don’t pan out. You might even fail miserably. But you know what won’t happen? You won’t grow old wondering what might have been.
Chasing your dreams keeps provides a life of adventure
When you chase your dreams, anything can happen. Living a life where the future is still unknown, where possibilities are as endless as sands on the beach, that’s a life of adventure. Adventure always has risks, but it also comes with great rewards, amazing lessons, and a perspective that cannot be gained by sticking with the status quo.
Chasing your dreams means finding your higher purpose
In her book, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles, Marianne Willamson writes,
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Chase your dreams and live life on purpose
Chasing your dreams means living a life true to yourself and your priorities. It’s living a life without regret. It’s the kind of life that inspires others to strike out on their own journey. Finding your courage amidst failure and fear shines a light that allows others to find their way in the darkness. When you choose to stop pursuing the status quo and start pursuing your dreams, you create a spark that can start a fire and light up the world.
