5 Fears Which Don’t Let You Act on Your Dreams

Fears Which Don't Let You Act on Your Dreams
“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” – Plato

It has been a few years since I’ve started working on my dream of becoming a writer. But now when I look back at the point where I had started, I wonder how I had even managed to start.

I don’t live in the midst of successful people having cheerful faces, who have achieved what they had once dreamed of, or who would inspire me to do the same. Instead, I doubt whether such people really exist apart from the ones whom I have seen on the television screen or read about in some books. I don’t see more than a handful of them.

To me, sometimes it seems like dreaming is a sin.

Why? Because the world makes me think so, people make me feel the same, and my insecurities are enough to end it all.

But I manage to go on, somehow, because my heart doesn’t understand such practical things. What I’ve learned is that we can survive failures with more ease than the guilt of not working on our dreams.

What our heart wants

  • It wants us to trust our faith more than our critics.
  • It wants us to take a leap even if it knows that we may fall.
  • It wants me us to give a shot, regardless of how good or bad we are.
  • It wants us to overcome our limitations by trying our best.
  • It doesn’t want us to quit before trying.
  • It doesn’t want us to accept being losers without pursuing our dreams.

Above all, it wants us to do the work which makes us happy, not for someone else but for ourselves.

In my journey till now, I’ve realized that what matters the most are our efforts. Though the outcome is crucial too, our work gives us the biggest contentment.

It doesn’t matter whether you succeed or fail, no one will be able to deny one fact – you tried your best.

In that case, even failures look equal to successes, because whatever be the results, they are because of our sincere work.

However, even when you start working on your dreams, you know that you might not be able to succeed. Neither is there any assurance that people would bother to help you.

But one thing cannot be denied – whatever you do will still make you happy, and that’s what matters the most. You will find a plenty of people who are experiencing the joys of chasing their dreams.

However, you will also come across the tribe of people who think that their dreams or ideas won’t ever work. These people are the ones who have already found some practical reasons and excuses for not working on their dreams.

In other words, they’ve decided to not ever start, and have also decided to fail by default.

You will often see such people talking about where and what they want to be, and also why they aren’t being what they want to be. Some among these are the ones who are really great at what they want to do and even deserve the opportunity to make their dreams into a reality.

But they won’t be able to make it until they start. What’s the point in being able when you don’t use your ability?

You might be among them too, if you haven’t started yet.

There’s one major thing which prevents people from starting for years, sometimes for a  lifetime – it’s fear. Here’s a list of 5 most common fears which every dreamer has to deal with.

1. Fear of starting

If you’re thinking about giving your best, making your dreams a reality but feeling almost paralyzed at the same time, then you’re not alone.

Even if we feel that we’re different from the rest, we aren’t. All other dreamers face the same kind of anxiety which is enough to drive anyone crazy. The ones who overcome it start in spite of the obstacles they need to tackle. And the ones who allow it to overpower themselves are left behind.

Starting is also the scariest part because it demands our trust while we are ourselves unsure of what we’re doing. However, like every other successful and content human, we need to start somewhere. Everything follows it later, whether it’s growth, success, ideas or something else.

2. Fear of being imperfect

The moment I gathered my courage, held a pen, and tried to write something, a voice inside me yelled that what I do won’t be that good.

“There are already thousands like me sitting out there who are doing the same thing, and there’s no more space for a novice like me,” I could hear my inner-critic say. I could’ve stopped at that moment and gave up forever, but I tried to ignore my imperfections and wrote my first short story, The Wishful Stone.

If I would’ve given up at that moment then it would’ve also lost my faith. Today, if I could be thankful about the one thing which I did in that particular moment was not holding myself back and doing what I could.

We all start as imperfect fellows. Slowly these imperfect beings try, learn, and put in their best to get closer to perfection, and that’s what makes them great.

Although we think we aren’t perfect, we get a chance to get closer to perfection. Each day. Making attempts to become perfect instead of quitting and scaring yourself to hell by thinking that you are not ready yet.

3. Fear of failure

Not doing something because you think you might fail doesn’t make sense. Not even gods can assure you success if you aren’t willing to take charge for yourself. Both your failures and successes make you better by teaching you, so shouldn’t you even expect failures?

You can only control your efforts, which in some way also means controlling the results. How good it would be if you could always win. Though, that’s not possible.
The remedy?
Always be prepared to embrace both failures and successes. Take a step further, risk being a loser, and start anyway.

4. Fear of rejection

Fear of rejection is the enemy of expression.

Our minds are filled up with questions which need to be abandoned at some point, because if we don’t, they become our biggest obstacles.

“I’ll somehow manage to write a book, but what if nobody likes it?” was one of those questions which haunted me each day. This was only one among hundreds of other questions I had in my mind. I had developed an habit of hammering myself with my flaws during those days. In some way, starting was always harder. But what I’ve learned after that is once you overcome that mindset, right things start happening to you.

We don’t speak the words which we think, we don’t perform the tasks that feel like doing, and then regret about not being our actual selves.

Nothing can make you happy if you snatch from yourself your real identity for the sake of being liked by others. Try to be what you are, even if you doubt that you aren’t good enough. It’s better than doing nothing or being fake.

When you’re a dreamer, you also have to be a rebel and break some rules. This might even mean doing something against the conventions which the world has set for you, escaping your limitations and what you think is right even when your people you against you to prove yourself right.

You can all this only if you overcome your fear of rejection.

5. Fear of  the unseen

“What lies beyond this?” is the kind of question which will always be there. Your insecurity forces you to reflect on your actions and asks you to check whether you are going astray in spite of the fact that it doesn’t make any difference. We dreamers don’t really know what we’re doing sometimes.
 
The road that leads you towards your goals is always blurred, and it unfolds it’s mysteries as you keep progressing on it with your actions. Eventually, you discover the unknown and soon become familiar with that creepy feeling which tries stopping you, and also learn to deal with it.

Wait for the suspense to break. What lies beyond is marvelous. You won’t ever get to know about the unseen unless you try to discover it. Your destination is right out there, it has something for you, but you won’t ever know about it if you quit.

Fears of Dreamers - Life Infographic

Conclusion

No matter how much insecure or awkward you feel – start.

Even if you think you cannot do something – try.

If you think you should be doing it – do it.
If you need to know something else, your heart is always there to guide you.
 

Dreaming isn’t only about expressing your materialistic desires or discussing impractical ideas endlessly. It’s about starting small somewhere and doing what is hard enough to be imagined.

The dreams that make you restless won’t ever happen unless you start.

Do you have a dream? Would you mind sharing it in the comments? What is it that often stops you and what is it that inspires you to go on? Let me know in the comments.

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