7 Ways to Keep Your Dream Alive When the Going Gets Tough The biggest barriers to success often are mental.
Edited by Dan Bova
One of the hardest decisions you'll make in your life is the decision to focus 100 percent on making your dream a reality.
Maybe you recently quit your job to start your own business, or you're a recent graduate who's pursuing your passion.
Now the real journey begins.
You'll need to overcome the obstacles that inevitably come your way externally and internally. Sooner or later, you'll have hesitations about your ability to succeed, or you'll have people tell you that your idea is no good. You will doubt yourself in your journey. And that's okay.
Every iconic leader, from Thomas Edison to Michael Jordan to Tony Robbins, has felt this uncertainty in one form or another through their career. The difference between those who persevere and those who quit is being mentally prepared for what it takes to cross the success line.
In other words, they embrace the worst that will inevitably come their way and have the resiliency to continue, believing that the best is yet to come.
Anyone can make the decision to start. The winners are the ones bold enough to make the decision to continue.
Here are seven important rules you must remember keep your dream alive:
1. You'll always have more opportunities.
Whether you're 20, 30 or 40 years old, you have a lifetime to succeed. Arianna Huffington started Huffington Post when she was 55 years old, and today it's one of the most successful websites in the world. Anything is possible.
2. Be patient.
Achieving long-term success takes time. It's as simple as that. Don't fall into the hype of the Facebooks and Snapchats of the world.
Related: The World's No. 1 Poker Player on Winning, Losing and Staying Sane in High-Stress Situations
3. Stop selling yourself short.
When the going gets tough, it's natural to begin losing confidence in yourself. Know that we're a lot stronger, mentally and physically, than we give ourselves credit for. What our brains are predisposed to make us believe versus the pain we can actually endure are two very different things.
4. Experiment, experiment, experiment.
Look at failure as finding another way to succeed, not a dead-end. There's an endless number of ways to find the solution to your struggles, your mission is to experiment these hypotheses in the shortest amount of time possible.
5. Play a bigger game than yourself.
People often use the phrase "fake it until you make it" and it can be misleading to many. I personally embrace this as being who we could become one day, than the limited barriers we put on ourselves today.
Related: Fake It Until You Make It: How to Believe in Yourself When You Don't Feel Worthy
6. Only compare yourself to yourself.
The only person you should become better than everyday is yourself. No one else.
7. Embrace the lowest moments.
Know that when things are at its worst, there will always be light at the end of that tunnel. The greatest inventions and success stories go through "a dip" before they achieve prosperity. The night is darkest just before the dawn.
