This article is dedicated to those who have a dream but for whatever reason are not going after it. 

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(For those who want to go after something bigger/greater/different, but don't know exactly what that thing/dream/goal/ambition is, 00X is dedicated to you. 00X is  where I make suggestions as to how you can discover a journey that is worthy of pursuit) 

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This article will, discuss the potential reasons that you feel unable to chase your dreams. I aim to help draw your awareness to that which is preventing you from being the person that you want to be, so that you can acknowledge these things, accept that they are there as a natural part of life, and then move beyond them. 

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​ As far as I can tell there are two overarching reasons that people never embark on a pursuit of their greatest dreams, goals and aspirations. 

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1. Fear of the things that they associate starting with. 

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2. They do not believe that they are ready. 

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Time to break it down. Lets go!

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1. Fear of the things that you associate starting with.  

Chase your dreams is a lovely phrase. It is motivating, and inspiring, it ignites something deep inside of you to go after whatever it is that you truly want. Here's the thing, when you see 'chase your dreams' in person, it appears more like 'face your fears'. Fear scares a lot of people. When you find yourself in a real life situation, face to face with the opportunity to chase your dreams, you are hit with the reality that by chasing your dreams you must simultaneously face your fears. The presence of fear deters a lot of people. When your circumstances present you with the opportunity to make a decision that will ultimately change your life forever, you run and hide, you do all you can to avoid facing the fear, and therefore you do all you can to avoid chasing your dreams.

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If chasing your dreams appears more like facing your fears, then we must develop the skill of facing our fears. We must develop the skill of taking action despite the presence of fear. Just to clarify, this means that you take action even when you are scared. Fear is a phenomenon that will exist forever so it is definitely in your best interest to develop your ability to deal with it. Fear will never disappear and you will never overcome your fear until you face it. The only way to face your fear is to face your fear. The only way to do it is to do it. There is no substitute, there are no alternatives. Nike said it best. "Just .. .."

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Painting the picture of fear so that we are on the same page. Here are the fears: 

Fear of failure - Also known as: fear of not being successful, fear of not being great (especially right from the start), fear of not being absolutely outstanding (especially in the beginning), fear of being a beginner (and everything that comes with being a beginner i.e. failing), fear of falling short, fear of not accomplishing the goal, fear of not achieving your desired outcome, fear of being wrong, fear of not being right, fear of appearing bad/poor/inexperienced, fear of sucking. 

Fear of embarrassment - fear of what other people may or may not think, fear of what other people may or may not say, how other people may or may not react, fear of other people being witnesses to the early stages of your journey, fear of looking bad in front of those who you love, fear of failing for everyone to see. 

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There is one thing that is absolutely vital for you to understand. You have no proof that your fears are realistic. You cannot with one hundred percent certainty predict that your fears will occur as a result of taking a specific action. Your fear is a prediction of a possibility. Don't get me wrong, your fear might have some validity to it, depending on past experiences, circumstances, relationships etc. But at the end of the day you are afraid of something that may or may not even happen. The only place fear exists is within your mind. Once you realize that you are afraid of something that does not even exist in the real world, you are better equipped to move forward and take action. 

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Before we move on to the second possible cause of inaction there is something you must know: I had these fears, I still have these fears. Those who you admire and look up to had these fears and (probably to a certain degree) still have these fears. Famous people, successful people, CEO's, founders and business owners had these fears and (probably to a certain degree) still have these fears. A life without fear does not exist. Fear is a natural part of a meaningful decision making process. Those who you admire have not eliminated fear from their lives, they have developed their ability to deal with fear. These people have probably faced their fears thousands of times, which the exact reason that they appear unphased by tough circumstances, they have been there before, they have overcome fear before, they have been in situations where they took action despite the presence of fear. And what did they discover? That facing your fears does not kill you. You find your feet on the other side and you continue on with your life. Every single time. Do not be discouraged or deterred by the presence of fear. Fear is a sure sign that you are still alive and well, it is not a sign that there is something wrong with you, it is not a sign that the world is against you, and ultimately fear is not a sign that you should not, or can not do the thing that you wish to do. You are not alone, fear is not unique to you, you are not the first person to ever experience fear in the history of the world. I believe that you will be able to overcome your fears, I just need you to believe to. 

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2. People do not believe that they are ready to take action just yet.

Instead, they believe that they must go out and search for information in order to fill the gap between what they know now and what they 'must know' in order to take action. They feel the need to gain enough information to qualify themselves to take action. We as people have this false belief that we have to find out every single detail about taking 'the action' or doing 'the thing' before we are qualified to do it ourselves. We believe that in order to take action we must first be totally, one hundred percent certain of the result. In other words we must know the answer before taking action. Please understand that this is completely false, it is actually impossible to know the answer to something that you are unfamiliar with and something that you have never done or experienced before. We believe that we are lacking certain knowledge and information. We think, oh once I find this particular thing, then I'll do it or hey once I find the missing piece, then I'll be ready. This is our natural response, so we make a plan of action to go and find it. We seek to qualify ourselves (by gaining information), and simultaneously extinguish any feeling of insufficiency or unworthiness. A list of common grounds for searching for information: Going to university, going back to university to get a second degree, reading books, listening to podcasts, watching YouTube videos, attending seminars, talks, information nights, enrolling in short courses sold by 'successful professionals' who guarantee your success and promise to teleport you from where you are now to where you want to be. We as humans do not enjoy the feeling of insufficiency, we do not like to feel bad and/or not good, so we flock to anything that may be able to quench our thirst for feeling qualified and worthy, we are drawn to anything that may fill the void. 

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Don't get me wrong. it is definitely important to study, to research, to think, to ponder, to learn from others and to take time when making decisions. But here's the thing. Much like you cannot travel to the end of the universe, you cannot gain all the knowledge of the world. If you cannot gain all of the information in the world, then that means there is always more to learn. Your reason for learning was based on the theory that once you gain a sufficient and/or specific amount of information you would be qualified and ready to take action. (Once I get this, then I'll be able to do X). Unfortunately, your process of learning exposed you to more things that you hadn't thought of in the first place. Your awareness has expanded and now you see new (and potentially more severe) reasons that you are not ready, that you are not qualified. You have opened yourself up to a whole new world of possibility and guess how you feel about it? Uncertain, overwhelmed, wanting to know more... what you'll find is that you still find yourself in a state of feeling insufficient and unqualified to do X. Sound familiar? Oh yeah that was me last year. (And the year before... and 3 years ago... am I really still not ready?) So what do you do? You seek to gain more information and the process repeats itself. 

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We have established that you cannot gain all the knowledge in the world. Because of this we understand that there is always more to learn. If there is always more to learn, then there is room for you to be in a state of constant learning for your entire life. This is actually an optimal state for high performance, but in a different form of learning. Learning from action. Learning from the process of achieving that which you wish to achieve. First hand learning from your own experience of life. That is where you want to be. You want to be taking action on your dreams. You want to be unveiling the path to your dreams. What you seek is not the information but the action. (And no seeking information is not the action that you seek). Follow the traditional path and you will gain a lot of knowledge but you may never take action, you may never do the things that you truly want to do. You may never experience the things that you want to experience. Embark on the process of achieving that which you wish to achieve. Directly. Do not settle for something similar or 'close enough'. Act in direct alignment with your greatest goals, and most exciting dreams. That is what you truly want. 

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My last word on you believing that you are not ready: 

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As human beings, the present moment is the only place action can be taken from. Whether it is in the present moment today, tomorrow, or in a years time, your decision to act is going to occur in the present moment.

 

Reminder: Do not tell yourself that you will do it later, another day, next week, tomorrow, not yet... for that is just the same as saying "I will never do it".

 

A massive key: The habit of "I will do it now" is quite possibly the greatest habit that you can develop. Action is a habit, and if you have not taken action yet, then you are most likely building the habit of inaction. The more reps of inaction that you get, the more the action of inaction becomes a habit. Once inaction becomes a habit, it becomes increasingly more difficult to see the other side (i.e. action). The more you practice something the better you become at it. If you practice inaction you are going to get pretty good at it. That is not somewhere you want to be. In this case, inaction is a habit born out of the belief that "I am not ready". Here are some specific problems I have with the duo of in action and "I am not ready". 

- By not taking action you are reaffirming to yourself that you are not ready. Repetition induces belief, therefore if we repeatedly avoid doing 'the thing' eventually our mind and body are going to build beliefs that support the theory that we are not ready. (This only makes it more difficult to do 'the thing'). 

- The snowball of inaction. Not taking action strengthens your habit of not taking action. The more you repeat the action of not taking action the easier it becomes. Soon enough, taking thought of taking action will be associated with not taking action, meaning every time you are faced with an opportunity to do 'the thing', the habit of inaction will naturally take over. Why? Because that is what you have trained your body to do. That is your trained response. Your brain likes to save energy, thus it takes advantage of habits and trained/familiar actions.  

- You are backing down from your fears. Action is going to come accompanied with fear, that is just reality so do not surrender to fear. Fear is going to be present when you take action, no matter when that happens to be. Do not lead yourself to believe that the presence of fear is a guarantee that action is not possible. Whether you like it or not you are going to have to face your fears, you are going to have to act in the presence of fear. 

 

Now that you have expanded your awareness, I invite you to take your first step. What you must understand is that you are an individual. Your journey is unique to you. You are one of one, so do not be discouraged if your actions are different to the actions of others. Embark on your own journey, follow your own heart.   ​
I promise you that you are ready to make a start right here, right now. You already have everything that you need. You are most definitely capable of beginning from right here, where you are with what you have. 

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For specific game plan tactics, the what to do and how to do it read X. 

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Want to chat. So do I. Get in touch. 

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Written by Evan Hamele

Posted: 31/1/2025 

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