Once you’ve gotten clear on your dream — the Big Thing you Believe Beyond Reason, or what you really, truly, deep down want to do — the most important work you’ll ever do is to get out of your own way so you can make that dream a reality.
Getting out of your own way looks like:
Cleaning up all the ways you stop yourself, all the negative things you tell yourself, all the fears that get in your way, all the stories, all the doubts, all the old creative wounds that hold you back, and doing something about them. This is the place for thorough examination, exploration, discovery, and recovery.
For instance:
- Pay attention to where you are procrastinating and get to the bottom of it. Sometimes you don’t have enough information, sometimes fear is coming up, sometimes you haven’t hit the right thing yet, sometimes you really need some down time. Figure out what it is and resolve it for yourself so you can Do The Work.
- Pay attention to the limits you put on your own dream — how are you limiting your own thinking about what is possible? How have you crimped your dream by being reasonable or realistic? (Again, I’m not saying that you don’t have to pay the bills, trust me, I do too, but I still let myself dream about what I really want because I know that’s the only way I’ll ever accomplish it.) This is often a way that we play it safe and hold back from pursuing what we really want.
- Pay attention to the stories, fears and doubts running through your mind and get help to address them on a deep level so they don’t stop you anymore. This might look like coaching, energy work, therapy, training, talking with a friend, or journaling. The main thing is to look directly in the face of the fears, doubts, stories and old wounds to say, “Really? You sure about that?”
If you want to write, act, sing, paint — whatever your dream is — your most important job is to clear out anything and everything that might stop you from doing it so you can get on with doing the work you were put here to do.
Your Turn
I always love hearing from you in the comments on my blog.
~> November 10th. My next Life Purpose Breakthrough ‘Big Vision’ Group. Sold out. Details about future groups — yes, you might want to get on the waiting list.
~> November 28th. The next session of my Writer’s Circle starts. Sign up here.
~> Next Tuesday. Right Brain Business Planning with my buddy Kris Carey.
~> Ongoing. Writing for the ProSeries class at ScreenwritingU. This class is brilliant! I’m already thrilled with my results and we’ve really just gotten started.
~> FRIDAYS & now daily too. Sacred writing time. The Do Not Disturb sign is up.
Hi Jenna
As always I love reading your articles, especially as a writer trying to bring my imaginative ideas down and anchor them in a work in the real world.
I must say though, I miss your “lifestyle” articles about how to be/cope as a highly sensitive person in the world – might we see more of those in the future?
Best regards, :)
Clare
Clare, I like that way of calling them “lifestyle” articles. I don’t know! I’m off on this creativity track, but I’ve been thinking about that too. I might just! Stay tuned! xoxo
Excellent advice, Jenna. We’re all experts at thwarting our dreams; if we got a gold medal each time we managed to convince ourselves that we weren’t good enough or smart enough or ambitious enough, we’d all have a roomful of them. The greatest challenge we face is learning how to get out of our own way…
Maybe we could start a support group on this topic! I think I’d be pretty good at helping someone else to push through their self-limiting obstructions and self-defeating patterns. And no doubt someone out there could help me to stay on task with my ambitions as well.
Anyone out there game?
What a neat idea, Markus! My writer’s circle is good at helping with that too, if that’s in line with your ambitions. I think it’s so neat that you invited people to join you and I hope if anyone is interested you will find Markus on his website!
I wanted to share an amazing article. It is called the mind relief manuscript. I think it is something everyone would benefit from reading.
http://www.selfexploratorytools.com/MRM