I can think back to when I first started to really have goals and aspirations for my life. There were so many people around me that said I wouldn’t be able to achieve those things. They were dream killers.
I’m not sure if you attribute people shooting down others’ dreams to jealousy, them lacking vision for themselves or just having a wrong mindset about things, but unfortunately people will try to discourage you.
Fortunately, I’ve always had family and close friends that encouraged my dreams, rather than discouraged them. People that spoke faith and belief in me as I worked towards my goals. This makes a huge difference. When you know that you have people that believe in you and your abilities, it empowers you. It pushes you to achieve them in spite of all the people that said you couldn’t.
One of the best things you can do is use all of the negativity and discouragement from the dream killers as fuel for the fire of your desire. It’s easy to let others’ disbelief bring you down, but don’t allow that to happen. Don’t spend time with these people. If the only thing these discouraging people have time to do is try to bring you down, then you shouldn’t have time to listen to them or hang around them. Find an inner circle of family and/or friends that do believe in you. Cultivate those relationships. Your time is better spent where you are celebrated, not tolerated.
Being exposed to others’ negativity and discouragement quickly made me realize that I never want to be a dream killer. I don’t want to be a discourager. I want to be someone who encourages and believes in people. I want to be someone who says “you can do it”, “you can be it”, “you can make it.” Sure, there will be challenges along the way and there may be hurdles to overcome in the pursuit of any good thing. It will require a lot of work, but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible. It can be done. I want to be a dream encourager, a dream enabler.
So, if you’ve got a dream to be or to achieve. I believe it is possible. I believe it can be done. I challenge you to consider the same. Don’t be a dream killer. Be someone who believes in your dreams and encourages others that theirs’ are possible as well.
Have you had experiences similar to these? Let me know.