What I REALLY want is...

I can't tell you how many times people have said to me, "What I REALLY want to do is..." or "I've been thinking about doing 'such and such' for years..."  or "You know what I've always wanted to do...?" Or one of my favorites

And overtime I respond with "Why don't you do it?"

     99% of the time these people respond with, "Oh I will.  I'm just getting my ducks in a row, or I'm planning it out, or yeah, that would be nice." Or one of my favorites "Oh, I yeah, I have the entire thing worked out." Only after talking with that person that 'entire thing' has been being worked out for 15 years and NOTHING has been done to make it a reality.

      See the issue here is that these people have dreams they're passionate about but they haven't done anything to actually attain them.  I've seen excitement and fire burning in peoples eyes when they talk about their dreams, or their ideas but that fire doesn't translate into action.  Oh there are a ton of excuses that I hear that cover up that fear.

Take a look at these bullet points below and see if any of them sound familiar to you.

• I don't have enough time
• I don't have enough money
• I wouldn't know where to start
• I don't have enough support

     The list goes on and on and on but the bottom line, the lowest common denominator in all of this is that little thing that sits in the background stopping you from going forward and that little thing is FEAR.  Fear of failure, free of whatever.  

     You see the truth is that all of those excuses mentioned above and in fact every other obstacle that you put in your way are absolutely surmountable.  You can overcome any of these things by simply taking action.  Let's look at this clearly.

• Time.
• Create TIME.  How do you do this? Well ask yourself these questions.
• How organized are you?  
• How do you spend your day?  
• How much TV do you watch?
• How much social media do you interact with, diversions you engage with?
• I want you to make a list of all the things you do that are not real work and that you could cut out.  Seriously cut out.
• Truth is you can MAKE time just by being more aware of what you do during the day.
• I have a good friend who is a single working mom of two kids.  She kicks butt as a mom and as a business person with multiple businesses going at the same time.  When I look at her and the things she's accomplishing on a daily basis I am inspired but her tenacity, her work ethic and her devotion to her kids.
• Money
• This is ALWAYS the big one. Well it's simple.  Make more money.  
• Find additional ways to generate income. People do it all the time.  If your dreams are that important to you (and they should be) you CAN find a way to bring in more cash.  
• My buddy Grant Cardon wrote a little book on Millionaire Math.  Check this out.  If you had 5000 people paying you $17 a month for one year you'd make over $1 million dollars.  You can play with this math all day to figure out different ways to generate that kind of money.  Find something that you can create, work with, work for and start making more money.
• Investment. 
• Develop a game plan for your dream, put it on paper and find someone who is passionate about you and what you have created and get them to invest in you and your idea.  It DOES happen.  
• Starting
• This is the easy part.  You start by learning.
• Look at people who have successfully achieved what you want to achieve and find out what they did to get there.  Then simply follow exactly what they did.
• Research other business or similar ideas that have been created
• Once you've educated yourself in everything you can possibly learn the DO something about it. Start the ball rolling.
• By putting it out INTO the universe, announcing it to friends and family that you're actually doing what you've always wanted to do, you are, in effect starting on your path.
• Support
• Support is something many people need.  It's comforting to know that someone has your back, and I bet more people have your back that you would think. 
• It's also very important to remember that you should cut out the negativity in your life.  Remove those aspects that are stopping you, not encouraging you, questioning your dreams and desires.  This is often a very hard thing to do because many times these negative aspects come in the form of family and "friends" who are 'just looking out for your best interests.'  
• If you run into this, and many of us do, you can try a couple of things.
• Explain to them how important this endeavor is to you and ask that as a friend or loved one, that they understand this and support your efforts.
• Look seriously at your past experiences with this person and determine if this is a pattern with them that has repeated itself over and over.  If it's not then try the step above.  If they have continually 'cautioned' you, 'warned' you and in essence tried to stop you, then it's time to look at whether you want this person in your life.
• Find people who DO support you and surround yourself with them.
• You are your own support.  
• With knowledge and understanding comes confidence.  Know who you are.  Learn and know what it takes to make your dream a reality and that self-confidence will translate into a huge power base that will in effect, wipe away a great deal of the need for external support.  That need to rely on others to boost your confidence will diminish.

Fear is created by external forces pushing you down.  But once you take that first step, once you've started, that fear will be replaced by confidence and strength and soon you'll be running full speed toward your dreams.

     So don't stop yourself.  My college mentor told me once "What you reach for should be beyond your grasp."  What he meant by this is that you must stretch beyond your comfort level to achieve your goals and dreams. Reach, go for it and know that you CAN make them a reality.