8 Common Mistakes To Avoid When Chasing Your Dream

Tap to Read ➤ Sai Kardile

If you are someone who has decided to break yourself free from the shackles of predictability and comfort and chase that big, bold, and beautiful dream, congrats to you! While the journey is exciting, it isn't the one with no pitfalls or challenges. That's why here's a little help from one dreamer to another.

“A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.” — Colin Powell

We Are All Dreamers

Inside us all, there dwells a dreamer. The dreamer desires a life of happiness and fulfillment. If only attaining that life was easy. Sure the picture in our mind's canvas looks magical and achievable but materializing it in real life takes effort, serious commitment, and keeping oneself focused despite setbacks and criticism.

Pursuing your dreams comes with resistance, discomfort, pain, doubts, and hurdles. The challenges will throw you off and make you feel disoriented. That's a given. If you allow yourself to get overwhelmed and feel helpless, not only do you risk losing steam but also rob yourself of the opportunity of learning important life lessons.

But don't you worry dreamer as we have put together a primer on how to chase your dreams whilst avoiding common mistakes.

Upholding unrealistic and impossible expectations

This is where most of us go wrong. We start off on the wrong foot by setting unrealistic, unreasonable, and impossible expectations. We beat ourselves up for not being enough to bring our dream to life.

Which is why before hurling ourselves into this transformative journey, it's important to be real and reasonable. See what can be achieved within a foreseeable time-frame and then setting the sails.

Thinking that everything has to be perfect

What is perfection? Nothing but a rigid and self-detrimental illusion. Nobody gets better at what they do in a heartbeat. Reaching where you are right now has taken you time, work, and patience.

Likewise, reaching to the next level where you want to be will take all of this and mental preparedness to face the unexpected. Have faith in yourself and your ability to learn from your mistakes.

Allowing small setbacks to affect you

Setbacks are unpleasant tagalongs that you will encounter for sure when chasing your dreams. Remember when you played your favorite video game the first time, were you able to maneuver your way out of the enemy in the first go? No, but you stood your ground and kept trying until you nailed it so why not do the same when pursuing your dreams!

Expecting everyone to support your dreams

It's natural to want your closed ones to be by your side when you are going for a big change. But you have to realize that not everyone is going to be up for it. We aren't saying that you won't feel discouraged when those close to you won't approve of your dreams.

But you got to prep yourself mentally to be met with negative reactions and be ready to take hard decisions. There are two ways about it.

Letting your past mistakes take precedence

We all make mistakes and the beauty of them is that they reveal to us life's simplest yet the greatest messages—although not in a pleasing way. When you set out chasing your dreams, you are most likely to think about your past mistakes.

But getting caught up in them or letting them dominate your present decisions will not get you anywhere. Look at your mistakes as guideposts. Use them to know which direction you should steer clear of and which to follow.

Declaring your plans to the world

Barring the handful near and dear ones, talking about your plans with people is a BAD IDEA. Not everyone around you means well or has good intentions. Their misgivings or criticism will engender negativity and bog you down. You don't need unnecessary noise to distract you from achieving your goals.

Being inconsistent with your efforts

We launch ourselves headlong into chasing our dreams, intoxicated with the initial rush of excitement and positivity. Only to lose our momentum when we realize that the journey we have embarked on is a long and laborious one. Our efforts lose frequency and intensity, and the exhilaration with which we started gets replaced by boredom.

Being consistent in efforts is of utmost importance. Dreams aren't realized in a day. They take months and sometimes years of tireless practice, persistence, and patience.

Failing to expect the unexpected

You may have a roadmap chalked out or a mapped-out trajectory leading you to your goals but there will be roadblocks and unforeseen bumps along the way. They will crop up when you least expect them.

Which is why you should always steel yourself for the unexpected and the unforeseen. Always have a contingency plan in place so that your journey towards achieving your dreams doesn't come to a standstill.

When pursuing your dreams, life will toss problems your way to test your strength and the lengths you will be willing to go to bring them to fruition. While the challenges are beyond the ambit of your control—how you tackle those hurdles without losing heart is in your hands. So dream big and have the faith and courage to accomplish them.