So I wrote Pursuing Your Dream, Part 1 all the way back in March. My plan was to get this post out next. The next week, COVID happened and we went into quarantine. In the middle of a crisis, I didn’t feel like this post was appropriate. I put it on the back burner. So give that post a quick read if you want.
The first post was about finding your dream and choosing to pursue it. This second post is about continuing with your dream.
Continuing with Your Dream
Do you know what comes after starting your dream? Continuing with your dream. It’s awesome to establish your business, create your first product, and make your first sale. But then reality sets in. You have to keep creating. Then you have to figure out sales tax and income tax. After that, you have to put money back into your product or business. Then there’s dealing with people who don’t care for your product. It’s during this time that we are tempted to give up on our dreams. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like it’s worth it.
When the output is more than the income, when you don’t sell enough product to make a profit, when somebody complains or criticizes what you are creating, when you feel like this business will never get off the ground… that’s when we are tempted to give up on our dream.
Why Continue?
Matt and I are pursuing our dream of writing and creating products. I blog here at Faithfully Stepping and write non-fiction books as well as fantasy books, and I’m loving it! I am so fulfilled by writing.
With that said, though, Matt and I are not getting rich on the books we’ve written. We pay more for editing than we make in sales. So why do we do it? Because it’s how God has gifted us, and we love writing! Writing gets us up early, keeps us up late, and leaves us bleary-eyed and tired. Yet, we’re doing what we love, and we have goals in mind that we are striving for. That’s how a dream is. On good days, it will motivate you, so you don’t have to motivate yourself.
Encouragement to Not Give Up
One of the verses that has become a huge encouragement to me is Micah 7:7.
But me, I’m not giving up. I’m sticking around to see what God will do. I’m waiting for God to make things right. I’m counting on God to listen to me. Micah 7:7 MSG
Too many times we give up on our dreams, give up on seeing God do something amazing with our lives for one simple reason. We don’t stick with it long enough to see the dream come to fruition. It’s not enough to start something, we have to stick with it.
Keep Pursuing Your Dream
Let me take it a step further. Have you tried your hand at a dream and it failed? Have you seen your dreams crash and burn and then given up on them? It’s really easy to look around and see everybody that’s doing a better job than you. I get it. Believe me!
There are very few people who have actually become a success overnight. It takes hard work and discipline and sticking with it to become successful.
Jim Rohn says,
“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”
Jim Rohn
If we want to keep our dream alive, we need to put some habits into practice and stick with them. It’s not enough just to pursue our dream, we need to develop the habits and practices to keep that dream alive.
Five Tips to Help You Not Give Up on Your Dream
- Get up early. Entrepreneurs know that successful people get up early. The best book recommendation for this is The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod.
- Learn to find extra pockets of time throughout your day. If you are just starting to pursue your dream, chances are you are still busy full-time with other work. Maybe it’s a full-time job, parenting, homeschooling, or something else. Most of us don’t have time to focus one hundred percent of our time on our dream. Because of that, we have to learn to get creative and find pockets of time throughout our day. Jessica Turner calls these the fringe hours. Her book The Fringe Hours is a must-read.
- Refuse to listen to negativity. There will always be people who don’t like your particular business or product. We have to choose not to listen to that negativity and let it discourage us. We need to choose to ignore criticism or it will cripple us from moving forward. If there is something we can learn and change from the criticism, then do so. Otherwise, ignore it and move forward.
- Remember why it is you started. Whether you started because you need extra income, you want to help people, or because you just love your product and want to share it with the world, don’t forget why it is you started.
- Picture your success. Form in your mind’s eye what success looks like to you. Then keep that image before you, especially on the days you want to give up. We have to have something that motivates us to keep going.
Other Resources
If this post got you thinking about wanting to start something of your own, but you’re not sure what, Money-Making Mom and Fringe Hours are both great books to get you started. They are both loaded with ideas.
