Following Your Dreams is Truly Divine Work

Often, the most difficult thing in life is being true to yourself. By the time your cognitive development is over you have been bombarded with millions of different ideas; ideas that have shaped your personality by telling you not only what you should be doing but who you should be. Many of these messages come from the people who brought us up, friends and relatives, however; the media and culture play undeniable roles in our world view. From the time you are ready to begin life as an adult you are often in a headspace so far away from your true self that you can no longer identify your passion or dreams. Then life gets you. Responsibilities and bills imperative for survival come to the forefront and things like following your innermost dreams seem like something silly, something you tell yourself you will have time to do later.

It is never too late to follow your dreams, sometimes you just have to do a little back peddling. Your truest self is the self that remains when you stop letting the opinions of others penetrate your mind. The only way you will ever reach your true is by not caring about what others think, and stepping forward with courage. It does not matter what others think, following your dream is divine work; it is between you and God.

The most important thing is to not care what people think. It is no wonder artists are such an unusual breed. They have a rebellious spirit for a reason- in order to make art that is innovative they cannot worry about what the critics will say because there will always be critics. Some will say they crazy. Some will try to steer them in another direction. Some might even think they’re being helpful by giving their honest opinion, an opinion that is almost always counterproductive to what the artist is working towards. Worst of all, some people are jealous and malicious enough to try and derail them on purpose. You too are the artist of your own life- the one who holds the necessary tools to bring your dreams into the physical reality. You will never achieve your dream if you listen to these critics or anyone around you.

Many of the most influential people in history were often thought to be stupid or even crazy. At the very least the people around them, the people they trusted the most, tried to discourage them. Even when you continue to follow your dream despite their protests, there will always be vultures just waiting to tear it apart.

When you get to the point when you are truly on the right path following your dreams something primal takes over. At this point nothing can derail you. Like wild flowers in nature you are feral and no one can contain you nor can they predict where you will grow.

The work of dream-following is divine, because the second you start listening to humans outside of yourself is usually the second you start to get off track. You are the only one who knows what you are capable of achieving. Never let someone else define you. Never let someone tell you that your dreams are ridiculous or lofty. They may laugh at you. That’s fine. If you stay on your path you will be the one laughing, in the end. Never aim for realistic goals:anyone can do realistic. To truly follow your dreams you need to go after those goals and ideas that other people would call insane. As the saying goes: “Aim for the moon and even if you miss you’ll still be amongst the stars.”

Below Are a Few Examples of What I am Talking About:

Beethoven Possibly the most influential composer of all time. Not only did critics bash his work, but people called him crazy. How’s that for ouch.  People were not used to his type of music; work so powerful and innovative that the more melodic music of the time. What if he hadn’t expressed himself with this loud and powerful style. What if he just tried to blend in?

Thomas Edison Possibly the most influential inventor of all time, who was responsible for perfecting the light bulb and bringing electricity into homes and businesses for the first time in history. In school rather than encourage him, his teachers called him crazy. Good thing he didn’t listen to his teacher. I too have a few teachers who were extremely discouraging and said the same thing about me!

Vincent Van Gogh Well maybe he had some issues but his art was critically panned during his lifetime. In death he became one of the most recognizable artists ever. Perhaps his issues stemmed from the severe criticism his art received: not all artists are able to cultivate a thick skin, constant rejection is very difficult. He bought into the negative things people said about his work. Don’t let an outsider criticize your work – if they have the nerve to do that, ask them how productive they’ve been lately. I bet they will shut up really fast.

Arianna Huffington Before she created The Huffington Post: The Internet’s Newspaper, people discouraged her from doing it, citing that the internet business was for young people. They said that she was too old! Ha! They were sooo wrong! Imagine a world without Huff Po?? I can’t!

There are countless examples of this type of discouragement. Many of these examples can be found amongst some of the most successful people in history. Does that tell you something? The only reason a person would discourage you from doing something great is because of their own insecurities. In their mind the more others succeed the more they fail. It is selfish. Rather than tear others down they should work on building themselves up, however, they most likely won’t. That’s why it’s so important to never listen to them. You know what your dream is. Maybe it’s so close to your heart that you’ve never even spoken about it. It doesn’t matter. You know what you’ve got to do to make it happen. Don’t let anybody stop you. Following your dreams is truly divine work- isn’t that what you came to this Earth to do?