We are a generation of dreamers. Armed with the notion that we can be whatever we want, not only do we have a large degree of freedom, but a great deal of expectation. If our possibilities are endless, we feel as though there is less reason than ever not to succeed.

Consider this the first hurdle in pursuing our dreams: trying and failing. It’s a fear that lurks in the back of our minds, causing us to doubt our course of action, or to throw in the towel entirely. The truth is, failure isn’t the only thing standing in the way of our goals. But challenges this big don’t exist to become a deathbed regret.

Pursuing our dreams is the hardest thing we will ever do, but it can open doors to fulfilment and happiness that will have us treasuring every day of our lives. Here’s the reality of pursuing our deepest desires.

 

It takes long hours.

Working towards our dreams is a long and drawn-out process. Even the bits we think will be straightforward end up giving us trouble. But big dreams often mean big sacrifices and none more so than our time.

Research and grafting will drain our time away, but if its work we love, how can we complain? The late nights and the long days might take their toll, but we carry with us a sense of fulfilment that gets us through.

Learning is a must.

It’s not enough to just graft when working towards our goals. No matter how much we prepare beforehand, it isn’t long into our journeys that we realise we have a lot to learn, and if we hope to move forwards, we have no choice. The dreamers who don’t make it to the next step of their journeys either decide or insist that they don’t need to learn anything more, and this is a fatal error.

In the world I am most accustomed to – the author world – the dreamers that stagnate in terrible book sales are often the people who at one point or another have stopped learning about their industry. Successful authors are no longer just good writers, they are also good marketers, and good networkers. Everything most introverted writers don’t want to be.

To move up we must learn, or we hit a glass ceiling that can’t be broken with brute force. We don’t need to change to achieve these dreams, but we must grow from seedling to blooming flower.

Failure is inevitable.

Big dreams bring with them big failures, but this doesn’t mean our future success is scuppered. The path to success is littered with failures, big and small. In fact, if we hope to succeed at all we should hope to fail, because failures will inevitably teach us something. Often, it is a lesson we desperately needed to learn.

No matter how much we learn, failures still hurt and can really drain our motivation. Experiencing many failures takes its toll, and we might doubt whether we really want to pursue such difficult goals. If we can vault that hurdle, we’ve avoided the biggest failure there is: giving up.

Success is often years away.

Ever hear the phrase “Rome wasn’t built in a day”? Our ultimate dreams are almost always huge and as such, they take some time. Years, maybe even decades, and sometimes our whole lives. If we ever hope to reach them, we need graft for a long time and most of the time the end is not even in sight. We need blind faith, a truckload of motivation and inexhaustible stamina. It’s a big ask of ourselves, but we have to be prepared for the long haul.

Lifelong dreams keep us going and give us something to aspire to. Without these dreams we would still be stuck in the dark ages. No electricity, no central heating, no Facebook *gasp.* There’s no guarantee we will ever achieve our dreams, but if we can accept the hurdles we might face, we stand a chance of reaching the stars.