What's Blocking Your Dreams?

Do you struggle making progress towards your dreams?

Don't worry, it's a common challenge most of us face.

Our dreams are like wagons, to carry on more, the engine has to be upgraded.

I'll give you a very common but personal example.

My dream was to be lean, but muscular - I weighed 100kg, at the age of 15.

The reason for my goal was simple. Everyone made fun of me, I lacked self-confidence and getting into a relationship seemed impossible.

To accomplish this goal, I had to grow myself by taking new actions:

Consume more calories;
Do 3-4 workouts a week;
Reduce empty calories foods;
Get disciplined;
Be consistent.

These were a lot of new things to include in my life, and that was not all. Everything might get blocked by something else unforeseen.

After a few years, I've lost a lot of fat, built some muscle, and weighed around 85kg. All was just perfect.

But suddenly, the first symptoms of Crohn started to appear.

As I wrote in Debut of Crohn's disease, I dropped from 85kg to 59kg.

I've got exactly in the other extreme, where I had no fat, no muscles, no energy.

A year later, once I recovered, my dream was the same: to be lean, but muscular.

You see, we don't know what's gonna happen even an hour later. But we'll certainly still know what we want.

Roadblocks are temporary. Our journey lasts as long as we live.

Do not quit if your progress is slowed or backed off. That's your challenge to prove you deserve your goal.

Just as a car needs regular maintenance to keep it running smoothly, so do your dreams require nurturing and support to thrive.

Here are a few ways to keep yourself on track:

Prioritise: What's the most important dreams?
Focus: Focus your time, energy, and resources on pursuing it;
Set Smart Goals: Break it down into specific, measurable, achievable, and relevant goals;
Seek Support: Surround yourself with like-minded individuals who can support and encourage you;
Take Action: Take consistent action towards your goals every day, no matter how small the steps may seem.

Remember, progress, not perfection, is the key to success - from a former perfectionist.

The road of accomplishing a dream is not linear, but look at the positive effect: you'll learn even more.

There are a lot of mental blockages keeping us from progressing such as:

Lack of self-confidence - questioning too much of your abilities;
Negative self-talk - sabotages self-confidence;
Impatience - expecting accomplishment fast, with minimal effort;
Comparison - to others instead of to yourself;
Underestimation - expecting the unknown to be as easy as the known.

Oftentimes, one or more fears should be tackled in order to get closer to what you want. You may be tempted to skip them, but it's just a short-term solution. You can run, but you can't hide.

These are some fears that I've got through them:

I was afraid to fly alone - I bought a ticket and did it.

I wasn't confident that I could change jobs - I prepared and went to interviews until I did it.

I was in a comfort zone staying with my parents - I moved alone and discovered solitude.

I lacked present clarity - I learned about meditation, introspection and started practising.

I was afraid of being rejected by the girl I liked - I planned my first question and I finally did it. She's now my loved one.

I was afraid of looking stupid for asking questions - I did ask them; you'll never be the only one with that question.

This is the framework I created and used to get through each fear:

Notice - the fear;
Accept - that you struggle with it;
Divide - in very small pieces that I can really do;
Plan - how to smash those small pieces;
Action - the plan;
Celebrate - the moment you cut off that fear; you'll feel like the world is yours.

Fears only exist in the mind. It's hard to fight something you don't see. They die when you stop feeding them.

The more fears we face, the more powerful we become, and the easier and faster our dreams come true.

Until the next letter, I wish you success in everything you're up to!