Giving up on your dream

Hi,

Come across this blog posting from my regular blog site The Simple Dollar. The post was about On Giving Up the Dream. It's a very interesting post since we all have dream in our life. Dreams makes us perform impossible task. Dreams allows us to stretch beyond our comfort zone. Dreams makes the world what's so advanced now.

I pity Matt that he had to give up on his dream and back to his previous job. We don't have to give up easily without having a thorough analysis and pondering of the mind

The blogger state the few food for thoughts. My comments in red

Following a dream doesn’t have to simply be an on-and-off switch. I followed my writing dream in my spare time for years before finally finding the opportunity - and building up the courage - to take it on full time.

So, if you’re thinking of taking the money and walking away from your dream, remember that it’s not such a dramatic choice. Work hard and earn a good income, but instead of just idling during your spare time, use that spare time to chase your dream.

Matt, consider this: when you go back to work, agree to devote at least an hour a day out of your spare time to keeping up with your dream. Put aside an hour in the evening when you might otherwise be watching television or idling and just simply write. Don’t worry about selling anything you write - just write and focus on getting better.

I truly agree with the author on this. Sometimes our dreams is not a straight line between point A to point B. In these troubled times, we need to be realistic and make sure enough money can be brought home. How much time you devote to it will determine how long you'll be achieving your dream

Instead of focusing on making money from your dream, focus instead on getting people interested in what you do. Take The Simple Dollar, for example. I can think of hundreds of ways that I could earn more money from the site - more aggressive advertising, content partnerships, and so on. If my focus were solely on squeezing money out of the site, I’d be following a lot of these opportunities.

But that’s not my focus. My focus is on the writing. My focus is on trying to reach as many people as possible with a positive message about turning around their financial lives. That often means saying no to opportunities for earning money.

What do I have instead? I have tens of thousands of visitors to my website each day. I have 44,000 people subscribed by RSS and email who receive the stuff I write each day. In other words, I have my dream right there. As a writer, I don’t dream of getting rich. I dream of reaching thousands of people with the written word.

By focusing on the writing first above all else, I’ve found readers, enough so that I can do what I want to do and only put up an ad or two to pay the bills. Once you connect with people, the money follows. The key is connecting first.

Sometimes, money shouldn't be our biggest motivator when working on dreams. Doing your dreams things will give you the energy and motivation to perform better. When you become the expert and you have the skill to achieve your dream, I'm sure the money will comes along the way. That had been proven in many success stories i.e. Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and many more.

Reach out to people who are living your dream. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to meet several writers. Most of them were quite happy to talk to me, answer my questions, offer encouragement, and give me a few pointers. All it took was a respectful query (along with a realization that I had to set my sights on a realistic target - Stephen King isn’t going to answer those letters if he gets a thousand a day).

If you have an opportunity to build a friendship with a person who is doing what you dream of doing, put effort into building that relationship. Surrounding yourself with people who are actually doing interesting and amazing things creates an environment where it’s much easier for you to chase your dreams. You naturally begin to keep your eye on the ball more and begin to see what you need to do in a new light.

Getting along with the community/association/fellowship are very important. You get emotional and physical support from the people. That in turns create a synergistic environment for everyone as well. As you start to "soar with the eagle" you won't be an ostrich again.

Even if things never work, don’t believe that you are a failure. One of my friends dreamed for years of being a comic book artist. He spent all of his spare time drawing amazing comic book-style art - stuff that, in my opinion, was superior to much of the art in mainstream comics.

After spending ten years trying to break in, he gave up. He convinced himself he was a failure, tossed out all of his art supplies, and spent years in something of a depressed haze, believing he was worthless.

There's never a failure just learned experience. We always look up upon Thomas Edison for his never dying attitude when looking for the perfect filament for the light bulb. Whatever happen to our baby nature when we always get up after we fall down while learning how to walk. We should always remind ourselves on that.

He isn’t worthless. You’re not worthless. Quite often, when you’re chasing a dream, you do have your finger on the pulse of your natural talent. The only problem is that sometimes that talent isn’t being directed in the right way. Perhaps Matt has the perfect skill set for being a great technical writer. My friend (I believe) has an amazing skill set for being a scientific illustrator.

I think we need to have correct frame of mind and recently the book by Malcolm Gladwell - Outliers do mentioned that we only be exceptionally good when we've tried 10000 hours on things that you want to master upon. Have you done the same before letting go of your dream ?

I would like to add 1 more to those above. I would say attitude matters. Do you have the correct attitudes and mindsets towards your dreams. You'll simply be amaze on the level of achievement that you be able to achieve. Have you honestly ask yourself if you have the right attitude ? With right approach, divine intervention may assist you along the way. Why not study from those great dream achievers in our life history ? What attitudes and character sets do they have ?

In conclusion, dreams is always within your reach as long as you put your heart and mind to it. Are you doing things towards your dreams at the moment ?