Most of us had dreams bigger than ourselves as we grew up..we dreamt of becoming superheroes to save the planet from destruction, becoming astronauts to discover new planets, or maybe simply having a loving family when we got a little older. However, somewhere between work, school, and, you know, life, our dreams seemed to drift into the background, and we quickly forgot about them. Luckily, following your dreams comes down to a few key components: determination, patience, and elimination.
“Don’t follow your dreams; chase them…” – Kunal Patel
We’ll explain that last key element in further detail below, so just bare with us.
Here are five things you need to release if you want to follow your dreams:
1. Small goals
So, referring back to the third component of success – elimination – you need to have a monstrous, larger-than-life goal in mind if you want to follow your dreams. Sure, the milestones along the way will help you attain this bigger goal, but you want to keep your focused goal – the one you truly desire – in the forefront of your mind. If you have small ambitions, they can easily take your attention off what you want, thus pushing you further away from your target.
Have the larger goal in mind with every decision you make, and stay focused on it. You can consider focus as another key component to success, as well. Remember, the people who follow their dreams don’t have any more going for them than you – they just know what they want, and go after it.
2. Too much clutter
If you want to succeed and follow your dreams, you must eliminate and release all the clutter and distractions in your life. Our minds can easily lose focus if we have too much going on, so you need to streamline your efforts and remove anything that gets in the way of success. Excess clutter may also add to your stress, inability to get tasks done efficiently, and even feelings of guilt. However, just as you should keep your work environment clean, you must also look after your thoughts and impulses.
Having too many goals at a time will prevent you from focusing on what you want, so to maximize productivity and capture your dreams, make sure to declutter your mind.
3. Indecisiveness
As we hinted before, not knowing what you want can put a damper on your path to success. Our brain constantly gets distracted by external and internal stimuli, and not to mention, we tend to be overly ambitious with what we want to accomplish. For example, we might say, “I want to learn Spanish, start up my own business AND lose 30 pounds in the next six months.” Do you see how counterproductive this is? We can’t possibly accomplish these three things simultaneously, so it works much better to work on one goal at a time. Of course, you can easily work out in your spare time, and you very well may lose those 30 pounds, but you’ll have to decide which of the three things matters most to you, and plan your time accordingly.
Starting up a business would easily take up most of your time, which means the other goals would have to take the backseat for a while if the business is your number one priority.
4. Excess wants
Like we’ve reiterated already, the brain always wants new things, mostly because of external stimuli. Humans naturally want to accomplish things in life, to feel satisfied, fulfilled, and like we have a purpose. However, many of us don’t know how to find our true purpose, instead switching from one skill to another without mastering any of them. To follow your dreams, you’ll have to learn self-control and self-management so that you don’t become distracted by other wants. Of course, wanting things in life isn’t negative, but wanting too much at once can be detrimental to your overarching goals.
5. The need for control
Finally, if you want success and the manifestation of your dreams, you’ll have to give up some semblance of control. You can learn to control yourself, but you can’t control what happens outside of your own mind and heart. Sometimes, things just don’t work out like we’d hoped, but instead of getting frustrated that you didn’t reach your goal, take the lessons in stride and express gratitude for what you learned. You can always pick back up where you left off and approach your dreams from a different angle.
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