By Tracy Crowe
What is keeping you from living your dream? Of course, the first problem is to know what your dream actually is. Many people have no real direction in life; they are just drifting, bouncing between the random circumstances that life throws at them. It may seem like the answer to "What do you really want?" should be obvious, but the truth is that most people have never really asked themselves this question because they have been preoccupied with dealing with the urgent, yet often trivial things in their lives. We spend more time planning our vacation than we do in planning our life. The following is based on the ideas of Bruce Wilkinson.
Once you have decided what you really want to do, the first dream stealer is your comfort zone. We don't want to leave our comfort zone because we are afraid of facing the unknown. We feel like it is better to live with the discomfort we are familiar with than to live with an unknown but potentially better life. We start to feel like we don't deserve to accomplish our dream, that we are somehow unworthy. We start wondering whether we can do it. To deal with this, we simply have to gain the courage to walk through the fear.
The second dream-stealer you will encounter is bullies, who want to force you to turn back. These bullies turn out to be the people you trusted most, your family and friends. They tell you that you could get hurt, and that they don't want to see you defeated. They say "Who do you think you are to go against your family's/ society's traditions". The way you deal with this is to use the legitimate concerns to help you clarify your plans. The rest you just dismiss or avoid.
Once you get past the bullies, you will find yourself in a wasteland. You may lose your way, or nearly run out of what you need to survive. At this point you will need the company of faith. You will eventually realize that God is still looking after you even when it seems you've been forsaken, because you have found just enough to keep you going, and just enough of a path to follow.
The next dream stealer is having to look inside yourself and see all the parts of you that you really didn't want to see; all the rebellion, and selfishness, and betrayal. You have to give your dream to God. You have to decide whether you want God more, or your dream more. If you give it to Him, He will then give it back to you. Then you can proceed on your journey, with God's help.
The next dream stealer you will encounter is the difficulties you have to defeat. Some, such as Moneyless, are obstacles you need to get around. Some, like Corruption, oppose your dream and attack you fiercely. Some, like Rejection, attack you personally and leave you deeply wounded. You defeat the difficulties with your belief in your dream, using the truths you have learned on your journey.
Finally you will arrive at the place where you are meant to be. You can now accomplish your dream. Then you will be inspired to bigger and better dreams. You will have more courage to go forth and accomplish them because now you know that God is on your side. Onward and upward!
