Studies shows that the human brain tends to focus on the negative. We all remember the bad things and focus on the threats within life much more than the opportunity.
Unfortunately, the way we are wired can have an affect on how we approach our dreams. We may try to pursue them and when we fail, we develop the belief that it’s impossible for us to succeed.
Only 6% of people have achieved their childhood dreams. So, the question is, why did 94% of people give up?
The truth is that most people gave up on their childhood dreams because they felt that their dream was futile. Others say that the challenges of life compelled them to move on, suck it up, and get the bills paid.
How many of us can comfortably say, like Thomas Edison did, ‘I will not say I failed a 1,000 times, but I found a thousand ways to fail.’
The truth is that you should never give up on your dreams. Yes, we may have tried and failed along the way, and it starts to look like our dreams are impossible. But this article will remind you that your dreams are valid and sometimes our dreams may change but ultimately, it is important to never give up.
Below we have listed 9 reasons why you should never give up on your dreams.
9 Reasons To Never Give Up On Your Dreams
1. Remember Why You Started
Why did you start pursuing that dream in the first place? Did you ever start at all? Most people have a dream about who they want to be from childhood.
However, as they grow up and experience life, they give up or switch their plan. Not because of hardships, problems, or challenges, but because they choose to give up.
Perhaps people laughed at your dreams, and you got discouraged. Sometimes the biggest discouragement can be from our friends or loved ones. We may take it personally when they tell us that it’s not worth pursuing our dreams, or maybe they’ve said to you that you cannot succeed.
Yet, it is important to realize that failure is giving up on your dreams. Remember why you started and gather up the courage to pursue your dream. The truth is that it takes a lot of courage to overcome setbacks, rejections and tough times. However, in the end, the results are worth it. Don’t disappoint yourself, stick with it until you succeed.
It is important to note that there is nothing wrong with your dream changing as you learn, grow and mature. However, make sure that you are pivoting because you want to, rather than pivoting because you are compromising and don’t believe that you can fulfill your dream.
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2. Failure & Setbacks Are Inevitable
Have you ever heard of success without failure? Often it is said that failure is the mother of success. There can be no success without failure or setbacks. When you fail, simply see it as an opportunity to learn more and use that knowledge to help you come back stronger.
It is common for us to celebrate success and appreciate it. However, it is so much more satisfying when we are able to celebrate success after we’ve experienced failure and setbacks. The truth is that you cannot have sunshine all the time, it also has to rain.
So, when you fail take it as an opportunity to learn. The more you learn, the more you improve your life.
Related: Feeling Behind In Life? How To Overcome It And Make The Most Of Life
3. Focus On The Positive
If you want to succeed in your dreams have a mindset of never giving up. A positive mindset gives you more confidence, boosts your mood, and even reduces the likelihood of developing conditions such as depression.
This mindset will help you focus on the positive side of achieving your dreams. For example, if you have always had a dream of being financially free by becoming an entrepreneur, you could focus on what you are working towards, such as the ability to be your own boss and spending time doing the thing that you love.
Instead of focusing on mistakes, a positive mind compels you to move forward and never give up.
Related: Positive Changes You Can Make Today: Practical Tips To Help You Change
4. It’s Not Meant To Be Easy
If achieving dreams was easy, everyone would be doing it. An old saying is, when you do what everyone else does, you will get the same results that everyone else does.
When you are chasing your dream you may have to give up a guaranteed salary or sacrifice your time. However, at the end of the day, you will have to sacrifice something to achieve your dreams.
There will be instances where people may not be excited for you or agree with you chasing your dream. For example, if you are wanting to venture into entrepreneurship, friends or family may feel that you should simply be content with your guaranteed salary.
Not everyone is going to understand or get you, and that’s okay. Simply choose to be fearless in your pursuit of what you really want and use it as motivation to keep going.
Related: Getting Yourself Together: Practical Tips To Help Get Your Life Sorted
5. Success Doesn’t Come Overnight, But It’s Often Around The Corner
They say Rome was not built in a day and the same is true for success. It doesn’t happen overnight because success is a journey.
Most entrepreneurs talk about the long hours spent pursuing their dreams, with some going many nights without sleep. It isn’t just one week of hard work, they sacrifice and work hard for years to get where they are are wanting to go. They ultimately choose to never give up.
But the good news is that hard work is very often rewarded. Appreciate the journey, no matter how long it takes. Take the time to plan and position yourself each day and incorporate activities that will lead you towards becoming successful.
The sad truth is that many people quit when they were close to success. Perhaps they were a call away or one interview away from landing their dream job but didn’t believe that they would succeed, so never took a chance. Often we give up quickly because we can’t see what the future holds for us.
Therefore, keep a positive mindset and continue striving towards your goals.
Related: 8 Proven Keys To Success That Will Set You Up For The Rest Of Life
6. Imagine The Worst Case Scenario
Imagining the worst case scenario is a good way to keep yourself motivated on your journey to becoming successful. Take time to imagine what would happen if you failed to achieve your dreams.
Let’s say that your dream is to set up a successful business. What would happen if you didn’t take action? What if you failed to produce the results you desire? Imagine that you’re deep in debt with no money to spend or way to feed your family.
Are you concerned that your colleagues and friends are going to look down on you? Imagine you have to contend with a rusty old car because you cannot afford to buy a new car on your current salary. Imagine that you have no accomplishments to show your kids one day.
Take these scenarios into consideration and ask yourself, “Are you willing to settle for that, or do you want to change and have/do more?”
We call this push motivation. This is when you use your fears to push you to become motivated and taking action. The two main things that motivate us are pleasure and pain.
When you focus on pleasure, you engage in what we call ‘pull motivation’. For example, traveling all over Europe, riding camels in Egypt or owning your own home-mortgage free.
With pull motivation, you use positive association with your dreams to motivate you. Where would you end up, what what you be able to do or have once you realize your dreams?
Take a moment, close your eyes and imagine where you could be in the future if you utilized pull motivation.
On the other hand, push motivation compels you to imagine the worst-case scenario. You imagine all the bad things that you could experience if you fail to achieve your dreams. For many people this makes them work even harder to reach their goals.
When you combine the push and pull motivation (pleasure and pain), you will be pulled towards the good things that you want and pushed by the things you don’t want to happen in your life.
Make a list of all your fears and failures that you don’t want to happen to you. Review the two lists of pain and pleasure from time to time. Imagine what would happen if you give up on your dreams. Is that what you want out of life?
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7. Everything Takes Time
As mentioned earlier, success takes time. Just like everything else in life, it will take time to accomplish your dreams. This process is known as the law of gestation.
For example, babies stay in the womb for about 40 weeks before being born. Dogs have a gestation period of about 58-68 days, while it takes eight months for an acorn to turn into an oak tree.
The same is true for your business, success and dreams. They also have a gestation period as well. This is why people say success doesn’t happen overnight. There are no self made entrepreneurs who have became a billionaire in one month.
It is important to understand that it takes a period of time for things to mature and become a reality. So how long will it take for you to make your dreams come true? There’s no fixed answer to this question because everyone’s dreams are different, and we are all different. We approach our dreams differently and get different results.
It doesn’t matter when your dreams are going to come to pass. What matters is that you understand that success requires time. Everything takes time. If you are not producing any significant results right now, then that’s okay, just as long as you’re taking action and moving forward with your goals and dreams each day.
The best part is that you don’t have to make huge leaps to succeed. All it takes is committing to five small actions a day. If you do that, you’ll have accomplished 1825 small victories within a year.
That’s what it means to start small. You dream big, but you start small. And, you never give up until your dreams come true.
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8. It’s Better To Try And Fail, Than To Wonder What Could Have Been
Have you ever regretted something in life? Perhaps it was a job vacancy that you hesitated to apply for. Or that person you never gathered the courage to ask out on a date. Do you get knots in your stomach when you think of what could have been?
How do you avoid living with a life full of regrets? Simply by trying. You don’t have to take drastic action. You can start by sitting down and coming up with simple steps on how you’ll achieve your dreams and goals.
There’s a quote that says the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Little by little, you’ll find yourself on the right path towards making your dreams come to pass.
Related: I Don’t Know What I Want To Do With My Life: How to Get Unstuck
9. Your Dreams Demand Persistence
For you to achieve success, then you have to persist. So what if you fail? Simply get up, press on, and keep at it until your hard work pays off.
This step is all about committing 100% and being determined to get what you want. You should never give up until you succeed one day.
Always remember this quote below:
“It takes a dream to get started, desire to keep going, and determination to finish.” By Eddie Harris Jr.
It took Colonel Sanders more than 1,000 rejections before someone finally accepted his secret recipe for Kentucky fried chicken. J.K Rowling’s pitch for Harry Potter was rejected 12 times before Bloomsbury Publishing accepted it. Michael Jordan was cut from his High School team, yet he became a basketball legend two decades later.
All of these great people have something in common. They continued to press on even in the toughest times. They were determined and committed to their dreams and they simply never gave up.
“A winner will never quit and a quitter will never win.”
It is important to persist regardless of the failures, setbacks, or challenges you face. You have to understand that it won’t rain all the time.
Seasons change and so do situations. You just need to persist and forge ahead. Refusing to give up is one of the greatest gifts we can ever give ourselves.
Related: Different Types Of Motivation And How To Know Which Works Best For You
The Bottom Line
Now you are equipped with why you should never give up on your dreams. We also want to add that your dreams are what make you unique. You have an idea of how you want it to appear in reality, and you are the one that has what it takes to achieve it.
You can motivate yourself by reminding yourself about your purpose. Make sure to use the push and pull motivation method to keep you on the right path until your dreams come true.
Have you tried pursuing your dream but gave up? Or did you succeed in achieving your dreams? Share your experience with us in the comments section below.
