Who Are You Not to Pursue Your Dreams?

Let us see you, in your raw and bedraggled form. Please don’t wait for perfection, it will never come. Please don’t seek external validation, it may come but it will never be enough. Only you can be enough. Only you. Revel in your victory, whether it’s putting pen to paper, brush to canvass, fingers to chords, a spade in the ground or a key in the engine, let whatever is inside come out.

Fast forward people, play out the life that got stuck in fear: fear of your own capabilities, fear of others’ opinions or fear of consequences. What does that life look like? What does it feel like?

Does it feel better when you have ideas bubbling in your head that want to be expressed, to think that you are being too bold in expressing them or does it feel better to believe you are a vessel, a conduit, for the creative expression of life itself?

Does it feel better to dwell on your lack of confidence in your skills or does it feel better to have faith that the ideas have come to you because you have exactly the right skills and experience to express them?

The more pain you are feeling, the more desire you actually have to express. Think of your creative expression like a fast flowing river of your own wellbeing. If you create a dam in the form of a myriad of excuses, you will feel the torrent building and rising, you will feel the pain. Let the dam go and go with the flow of your life.

For years I felt a dam building without knowing what it was that even wanted to flow, if you are there, stalking like a tiger in a cage, perhaps read things like What Anger Can Teach You About Your Gifts. My gifts were so obvious I missed them completely, it’s often the way.

Recently I have heard from some who are emerging into adulthood who really got what I was meaning when I said you are not as important to your parents as you (or they) think you are. Yet they are feeling a lack of confidence when it comes to pursuing their own dreams. While I’ve expanded on this further in other articles, what is really bursting to be said here is – who are you not to pursue your dreams?

I think of people as tap turned off (stuck in their heads, the result is they feel cut off from their own wellbeing, feeling anything and everything from loneliness and worry to despair and hopelessness); or tap turned on (connected to their own wellbeing, feeling anything and everything from hope and encouragement to passion and joy).

At any point in time, only a few have their tap turned on it seems.

To those who are suffering, who want to move but are stuck in a state of paralysis, know that it is okay. You are never going to be done, that energy is always going to want to burst forth from you and, like any river, will find its way eventually.

If you could take a far more objective view of your life, you would know how small some of your fears really are and you would know what a powerful creator you are. You are not alone in this, every day, in some way, I have the same inner struggles. You too would have more confidence in me than I have in myself when my tap is turned off.

But right now in this flow, I need no convincing of what it is that wants to be expressed, it’s life and more life, and it feels good.

So take a step, whatever feels best, even if it’s just starting by observing, watching, becoming aware of how you feel about this and that. It will have much to teach you. And when you have observed enough, when you are convinced enough of your own expression of life that waits, let the tap flow just a little, see how it feels.

​Don’t look down, you will not be best served by watching the crowd’s reaction to your daring exploits, look within. Do more of what feels good, and do it again. Keep doing it until that tap is turned on and the river is flowing a decent chunk of the time. Then you will look back and wonder at why you did not begin sooner. But know that it all okay, it’s all perfect timing, you can only get it right.

Life is in so many stages simultaneously, inspiration is needed in so many varieties at so many different levels all at the same time. Something that would have inspired you in this moment, may not in the next, so you cannot second guess who you will inspire, the only thing you can guarantee is that – in letting what is inside flow – you will inspire yourself.

Knowing I’ve helped in some way through my writing means a lot - I’d love for you to like, comment on, or  share these thoughts with others, or contact me directly at shona@shonakeachie.com, I’m always happy to help if I can. You can also subscribe to my newsletter and, as a special thank you, you will receive the link to my video 3 Steps to Becoming You.