The Art of Embracing Struggle and Not Giving Up on Your Dreams

Anita Adams: 00:00:00

Hey joyful journey I need to Adams here your host and today we are going to talk about the art of embracing the struggle and not giving up. Let me start by asking you Do you have a dream that you are currently pursuing? It could be a big dream about how you want to be of service to others in the world. Or it could be something smaller and more personal like a dream to learn how to paint, or dream to travel to some exotic place around the world. Here's what I firmly believe and I would love you to consider we are meant to have dreams big and small dreams help shape who we become. They are the spiritual breadcrumbs that lead us to the best version of who we are. Now lean into this belief even for just a moment and ask yourself, if dreams are spiritual breadcrumbs leading you to the best version of you. Are you doing everything you can to follow that that trail. And when that trail leads up a steep and challenging section, do you sidestep or get off the trail altogether? I recently read a book by Brendon Bouchard high performance habits, where he shares that most people today expect comfort and convenience, quick fixes and the magic pill. According to Brendon, we have been conditioned to run away from struggles to quit anything that is uncomfortable and move towards things that are easy. He argues that we have lost the art of embracing struggle, and in so doing, jeopardize ever becoming, ever being able to realize our dreams. People quit marriages, quit jobs, quit friendships quit pursuing their dreams, because it gets hard. And I'm not saying there isn't a time to leave some things. an abusive marriage, for instance, should be quit. But a troubled marriage is another thing entirely. And those dreams we chase, we should never never quit on them. That doesn't mean our dreams won't change. In fact, they most likely will change, they will evolve as you follow your dreams, new paths will appear. If you feel the tug of the heart to go down a different path, that's the spiritual breadcrumb you were looking for. Pay attention. Pay attention to those tugs of the heart. Regardless of the dream, and if it changes or not, the underlying desire of wanting something more for one's life is always there. And we should never ever give up on that. We should never give up on ourselves instead, and embrace the struggle that is inevitable with following dreams. And truly, there will be challenges in the pursuit of your dreams because it is those challenges that make us stronger, more resilient, more competent, wiser. Those challenges play a significant role in shaping who we become. Once you come to terms with that, and accept that the struggle is inevitable, you are halfway there. The other half of the equation is believing in yourself. This, in fact, is often the biggest challenge or hurdle to overcome. Without that belief in you, it becomes really easy to give up when things get tough. The good news is you can build up your belief in yourself. I did. I used to be so full of self doubt. I would see other people doing great things and being so confident it would make me cry. Literally, I would wait for myself because I didn't believe I could ever be like those other people who were so full of self confidence and boldly going after what they wanted. I told myself I wasn't smart enough or talented enough or connected enough or competent enough or whatever enough, I was constantly putting myself down. Although I've always chased my dreams, my lack of belief in myself held me back from fully realizing many of them or suffering greatly while pursuing them. My confidence and belief in myself today, however, is strong. I still have work to do. And truthfully I really enjoy that work. Learning how to love and believe myself and how to be the best version of myself is how I'm living into my dream today. It's the work I do with others and it's so rewarding. What I've learned through my work and through the guidance of my spiritual teachers is that when You love and believe in yourself. You find courage to push past previously self imposed barriers. When you love and believe in yourself, you stay stuck in when things get uncomfortable. And when you love and believe in yourself, you don't worry about what other people think or say. So how did I go from being that girl who cried because she didn't think she was enough to standing tall and proud and believing that I am worthy and truly capable of achieving great things. Aside from working with some truly wonderful coaches and mentors, I did three things consistently. One I journaled every morning every morning, and I journaled in a very specific way. The journaling practice I coined and teach my clients now is something called the possibility pages. I've shared this before in other episodes, so I won't go too much into it here. But in essence, this is a stream of consciousness style of writing about the future version of you, but writing in present tense, using im statements. In doing this, you reprogram your beliefs about yourself and you find opportunities to step into being the person you wrote about being. If you want to learn more about this practice, listen to episode number 13, titled self worth and the possibility pages. Doing the possibility pages was a transformative practice for me. And it could be for you to the second thing that you that I did that you can also do. And that will significantly significantly boost your love and belief in in yourself is to go for mindful walks in nature. I know that's my thing. Sometimes it will feel counterintuitive, to take time out of your busy day to go for a walk. But this time will calm your mind and lead you to find creative solutions to any challenge you are facing. Even how to navigate that steep slope that will take you to your dreams. This time in nature will give you clarity of mind that will help you stay the course it will also help you better see those spiritual breadcrumbs when the path becomes clouded. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of the step in finding strength, resilience and belief itself to not give up on your dreams. And the third and final thing that you can do that will make a huge difference in helping you build belief in yourself. So you stay the course. And don't give up on your dreams is to surround yourself with people who believe in you who support you, and who also believe in themselves. There's a saying that you are the product of the five people you spend the most time with. So do an inventory of who you are investing time with? Do they believe in you? Do they lift you up and encourage you and equally important? Do they believe in themselves? Find people who model this behavior and invest time with them. All right, to quickly recap, recap. Dreams are spiritual breadcrumbs leading you to the best version of you. It's your job to follow those breadcrumbs and not give up on your dreams even when the terrain becomes challenging. Building love and belief in yourself is the way forward. And how you can do that is by journaling using the possibility pages method. Going to are going for mindful walks in nature and surrounding yourself with people who lift you up believe in you and believe in themselves. If you need further guidance on how to develop this belief in yourself, so you become unstoppable in the pursuit of your dreams. Check out my coaching programs. I now also offer group coaching programs which provide a beautiful opportunity to connect with a small group of like minded individuals who can become part of your support network. You can find out more on my website at joyful inspired living.com All right. Thanks for tuning in joyful journeyer may you find deep love, belief and joy in yourself and in the pursuit of your beautiful dreams. We'll catch you next time