Recently I was setting out to accomplish a task that I’ve known for a long time I could easily do, but for some reason I had put it off. I am not talking about procrastination, but the type of excuses I’d tell myself, or anybody else that encouraged me to go forward in this particular project that I will be vague about for the time being.
A friend of mine who is holding me accountable to this particular thing, told me something I haven’t been able to stop reminding myself of:
“Steve, it’s actually a lot easier than you think–the hardest part is just believing you can actually do it.”
I think deep down inside each and every one of us has some goal, some desire–a healthy one–that we make every excuse in the world for why we won’t or we can’t do it.
Maybe you want to start a business or open a store. Maybe you want to be a musician, write a book, or become an actor. You want to do something that, as you read my words, you think “yeah, that’s me”, but it seems so outlandish you could never make it. Other people have more drive than you and that’s why they are where they are and you’re not.
But seriously, all those excuses you tell yourself, why are they believable? Why does someone else have a better chance than you? Seriously ask yourself: Who put that idea in my head?
Whose opinion are you listening to that you know you need to ignore?
You Have Fewer Naysayers Than Your Think
I remember years ago a friend of mine trying to persuade me to join a business he had just recently joined (cough, M.L.M., cough), and though I never did find it persuasive enough to join, I do remember something jumped out at me in the DVD he gave me to watch. It was the part where the presenter in the film said that each of us has only about three people in our lives whose opinions are so valuable to us that we listen to them, whether good or bad, instead of following our gut or conviction from the Holy Spirit.
That’s to say, out of the dozens of people in your life who might be encouraging you to do something, you might be more inclined to go with the three negative people in your life talking you out of your dreams, if they’re in your inner core of people whose opinion you value the most.
Maybe you burn to become a professional musician, but there’s someone who’s poured water on that fire and you think you never could do it. Maybe you’ve told yourself you’re not capable of this, or there are too many other people out there who are better than you and that would hold you back.
What lies do you need to stop listening to?
Who do you need to ignore and tell to take a hike and to stop stepping on your God-given dreams, and maybe even your prophetic destiny?
What’s holding you back?
If nobody else is encouraging you at all, and all you’re hearing in your life right now is why some vision of yours can never come to pass or some dream of yours can never be fulfilled, I’m here to tell you today that you can.
Pull up your socks, get to work and don’t let anybody or anything stop you.
