 
I'm Possible!

Insights To The Pursuit Of Dreams

By Ronnie Virdi

Smashwords Edition

Copyright Ronnie Virdi 2012

Cover Art: Paramjit Virdi

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

**Table of Contents**

Foreword

Acknowledgments

I'm Possible!

Dare to Dream!

Goals, You need them to score!

A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action Please!

Fearless is to fear less, so, fear less!

Shut up! Who asked for your Opinion?

For The Win!

A Kick in the Pants!

**Foreword**

I guess this is the part where I explain why I'm writing this, I think it might be because I'm frustrated, frustrated at the lack of belief people have in their dreams. I'm frustrated at the overwhelming amount of belief people have that their dreams are impossible. I'm frustrated at how quick people are to dismiss our dreams as nothing more than flights of fancy, I'm frustrated at how easily we accept the false notion that our dreams are impossible and I'm frustrated at how so many of us decide to settle for less than all we're capable of becoming and achieving!

Maybe I should explain why I'm so passionate about following and achieving our dreams. You see, I spent nearly a decade mired in depression, a grim melancholy and I was just tired of the monotony and drudgery my life was filled with. There was no real happiness, nothing to live for, no dreams and aspirations to aim for, I essentially felt like I had no future.

My life had become like this because I believed all the cynicism and negativity around me, I believed it when people told me that I would never amount to anything or I would never achieve anything or be anyone. I allowed other people to convince me that I was worthless, that I had no dreams to work towards, no future to build or achieve and this thought process ultimately culminated in a desire to commit suicide. Thankfully my best friend talked me out of it and encouraged me to reevaluate my life and change my perspective on dreams and their possibilities.

I began doing a big of digging throughout history and found that history has already proven that all of our dreams are possible; history has proven that we can be and achieve anything we desire! Encouraged by this proof, I decided to begin collecting insights and bits of wisdom that not only proved that all our dreams are possible but also encourage people to follow them and more importantly, insights that offered some direction as how to achieve them.

I have spent years now pursuing my own dreams and forming my own insights along the way as I went through trials and tribulations, making mistakes and making progress towards achieving my own dreams and I want to share that knowledge with you. I am writing this to prove to you what I already know to be an irrefutable fact, that YOUR DREAMS ARE POSSIBLE, that YOU CAN BE, DO and ACHIEVE ANYTHING YOU WANT! History has already proven that people can achieve any dream and history has proven this hundreds if not thousands of times over!

**Acknowledgments**

My mother taught me to always be grateful for and to everyone who has had a positive influence on my life whether directly or indirectly so here it goes...and it's a long one!

First and obviously to my loving mother who taught me to be grateful, who supported and encouraged me on my journey to better understand dreams, how they are achieved and in the pursuit of my own dreams. Thank you for helping me overcome many of my fears concerning failure (but I'm still afraid of clowns, you haven't helped with that one!) For being an example of happiness, positivity and oh yeah, for letting me take a break (sorry for taking such a long one) from college to pursue my dreams of writing and pursuing the other arts as well. So yeah...thanks mom, you're the best but then again, everyone says that about their moms so I guess it's all relative...get it, relative? Never mind.

To my best friend, Christopher John Yuastella Jr. Thanks for being an exemplary best friend, for helping me through a self-destructive mindset, for helping me overcome depression and for that time you helped me find my spare car keys after the original set fell out of my pocket when I locked the car...that was especially embarrassing for me as a car guy. Thanks for keeping me encouraged, for keeping my spirits high and never letting me doubt the possibility of my dreams and...oh man, I promised I wouldn't tear up when writing this, ahem, so yeah...Thanks and anyways as my best friend it's implied somewhere on some ancient stone or piece of paper of an important looking nature that I'm always grateful for your friendship. I think that stone reads, "thou shalt not take best friendship for granite!" See what I did there with granite instead of granted and...never mind, you never laugh even at the funny jokes!

My thanks and admiration to Eric David Brooks, thanks for being a prime example of perseverance, kindness and commitment to a goal, all important traits in trying to achieve a dream. Thanks for embodying the essence of hard work and setting a great example of how to conduct oneself to be a good person.

Elliot Benjamin Spector Merker, thanks for being a friend of supreme awesomeness (and for informing me that as an author I am given free reign to create whatever and as many words as I see fit!) Thanks for helping me find my self-confidence, overcoming the fear of failure and oh yeah, for nearly breaking my fingers with that kendo stick...thanks a lot for that one man and it was cold too that day and my fingers were freezing! I guess I have to end each one of these on a positive note so thanks for being a reliable Mass Effect teammate so I don't get stuck with people who don't know what they're doing.

Thank you Gianna Van Briesen for being a prime example of living life to the fullest and in pursuing your desires. Thanks for being a friend I can always talk to and ask advice of when I'm trouble (I seem to be always be in trouble though) so I guess thanks for always being there when I have question and problems and what not. You rock Gia!

Keith Campbell Henning, thanks for a decade of friendship and for serving as a fantastic example of overcoming physical adversity and turning a weakness into strength. Thanks for giving me someone to look up to in terms of dedication, commitment and overcoming the hurdles in life... except that one hurdle you fell over in freshman year track because that was way too funny...sorry. Look at it this way though, you demonstrated another lesson in success when you got back up after you fell so thanks for embodying the lesson of getting back up after you fall!

Much respect, admiration and gratitude for Mr. Collier (Todd) Hageman, thanks Todd for devoting time everyday to posting messages among your friends that inspire us, are thought provoking, help us glean some wisdom, spread happiness and definitely laughter. Thank you for being an amazing example of dedication and perseverance as someone who has spent a lifetime (literally at least two of my lifetimes put together) practicing and improving upon your crafts and passions. And also, thank you so much for your service to our country by serving in the United States Marine Corps!

To the General of bicycles and showing up randomly, thanks to Beaux (refused to share his last name with everybody) of the gym I used to work at, thanks for being a good friend, a mentor and more. I hope to see you again someday.

To Phil Evanisko, thank you for being a great friend, mentor and for introducing me to several of the aforementioned people who have become my friends too. Thank you so much for imparting your knowledge to me, which was gained over a lifetime of commitment to your passion.

Lesley Houseman Poirier for being the best science teacher ever, for making science and school fun (well bearable), for being someone whom I could talk to about anything, for letting me work quietly on my projects in your room when I skipped first period (which I was allowed to do so no judging), teaching me the word schist and just being awesome all around so yeah... Thanks GeoWoman (GEO WMN)!

Rae Fairbanks Mosher for being the best English teacher ever, for helping me find my path to writing, for helping me find creative ways to keep English class interesting and challenging. Thanks for helping put me on the path to meditation...not like when I did it in your class because then I was just napping but now I do it for real so thanks for that and thanks for staying in touch and reading some of my works and for believing in me.

My mother also taught me to always be grateful to your heroes, the people you look up to, the people who inspire you to be better, work harder and make you aspire to achieve something.

To my hero, Conan O'Brien or the ginja ninja or the maestro or whatever he's calling himself this week. Thanks for really giving me someone to look up to when that whole television debacle happened with you, thanks for being a paramount example of perseverance by not giving up and still working hard to provide jobs and money for your friends and staff, that was truly inspirational and epic! Thank you also for that speech you gave about not giving into or adopting an attitude of cynicism, as someone whose been surrounded by cynics my whole life, thanks Conan for that speech it really helped.

Sylvester Stallone for making the Rocky movies which were not only a massive part of my childhood but I can't think of any other collection of movies that are so honest with how to achieve success. I can't think of a single Rocky movie that doesn't show the spirit of perseverance, the struggle to overcome adversity and fighting for your dreams and all of those come into play in trying to achieve something...too bad it took me nearly two decades to figure that out. Thanks for making movies that show that the hardships in life can be overcome and that we can even prosper if we fight hard enough.

Kevin Conroy, why, because he's Batman!...I grew up with a lot, like a lot of Batman cartoons so yeah...

Christian Bale, why, because he's Batman...too!

Will Smith because he's achieved so much in so many different fields and I remember him giving a speech somewhere about hard work so thanks for helping me understand that value of a good work ethic (not saying I have one but I'm trying). I mean seriously, how many things has this guy done, award winning rapper, movie actor, television star and producer. Thanks for showing me that you can do as many things as you want in life as long as you are willing to work hard and oh yeah...thanks for the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, that opening was so catchy that it was stuck in my head during my I.B exams and I wrote that instead of my essay...which explains why I failed it.

From the bottom of my heart and internal combustion engine, I would like to thank Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond of Top Gear U.K. Thank you guys so very much for hosting probably the greatest show on the planet, a show which proves when it comes to cars that no dream or feat is impossible like when you made James May the first person to go to the North Pole who didn't want to be there. Also for being the first people to drive to the North Pole, by setting the indoor speed record (but seriously, you guys set it in the reasonably priced car?) Thank you for showing just how possible things are like when James May (captain slow) became the fastest person on land...for about two seconds when he drove the Bugatti Veyron Supersport, by being the first group of people to drive across the Makgadikgadi (there's no way I spelt that right) and for being the first group of people to tame a racing driver (Top Gear fans will get that joke) so thanks guy for essentially hosting a show that shows nothing is impossible!

This next bit of acknowledgements, for those of you who are still reading is for my fellow Americans. Thank you so very much for spending your money on this, I know times are hard but I want you to know that I truly appreciate this and would like to pay you back in some manner so I'm writing and dedicating this next part to all my American brethren.

" **Be courageous. I have seen many depressions in business. Always America has emerged stronger and more prosperous. Be brave as your fathers before you. Have faith! Go forward!"**

Thomas Alva Edison (1847 – 1931)

American Businessman, Inventor, Holder of 1,093 U.S Patents and Telegrapher

He's right, America has faced many depressions, we're going through some rough times now but history has shown that we have always overcome these hard times and we can again! It's our very nature as Americans to overcome hardship and even prosper, it's what we do, we fight and overcome. Listen to his words, be brave, have faith and go forwards! We can and will come out of these times stronger and more prosperous; we are the country of dreams, we have a track record of overcoming adversity in many forms and emerging stronger so again, have faith because. We. Will. Get out of this!

" **Americans never quit."**

Douglas MacArthur (1880 – 1964)

5 Star General of United States Army and Leader of United Nations Command in the Korean War

No we don't, we can overcome anything as long as we never quit, I still have faith in my country and I know we will come out of this somehow, someway and we will be stronger. As long as you never quit, how can you fail, the answer is you can't, we will not succumb to these hard times because when things get tough, Americans get tougher!

" **America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination, and unbeatable determination to do the job at hand."**

Harry S. Truman (1884 – 1972)

**33** rd **President of the United States of America, 35** th **Vice President of the United States, United States Senator from (1935 – 1945) and served in the National Guard during WWI**

America was not built on fear, this country was built on courage so have some courage, we were built on imagination and dreams so believe in your dreams and we are a very determined bunch of people so be determined! Don't let these hard times get to you, we have always overcome in the past and we will continue to do so!

And now onto the first chapter of the book... if you're still reading after that.

**I'm Possible!**

" **There is nothing impossible to him who will try."**

Alexander the Great (356 BC – 323 BC)

King Of Macedon, King Of Persia and Pharaoh Of Egypt

All success starts in the mind, it's a psychology or a mindset, all success starts with you and within you. This mindset starts with you understanding that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE, every dream can be achieved and I know that sounds a little farfetched but it's not and I'm going to prove it to you. Let me ask you something, if you feel that a dream is impossible before you even decided to go after it, will you in fact go after it at all if you don't think it can be done?

Chances are that you answered that question no! Well if you don't even make the effort to go after a dream then YOU in fact are the one who made it impossible when it was always in fact possible. How do you know that a dream is impossible if you've never achieved it before? The answer to that one is you don't! The only way to know it is to go after and by making the decision to go after it, if you're willing to try it then it isn't impossible, impossible is only a word not a fact!

Take a close look at the word impossible, if you play around with it you can break it up to say I'm possible, the word itself shows the very thing that can't be done, can in fact be done! This is why one of the most important things to achieving success consists of you changing your mindset to embrace all of the possibilities of your dreams, the word impossible scares people off from pursuing their dreams and the sad thing is that all their dreams are possible but they let a little word deter them. Are you going to let a little word scare you away from achieving all you dream of? History has shown that any dream can be achieved if YOU are willing to go after it and embrace the idea of it being possible but you probably want more proof than just my word.

" **That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well."**

Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1865)

**16** th **President of the United States and Abolitionist**

I'm not the only one saying that all your dreams are possible, everywhere you look you can find celebrities, professional athletes, business moguls and more all saying the same thing, that DREAMS ARE POSSIBLE! Now if they all achieved these things and are saying that it is possible to achieve them then why would you believe otherwise? These people are the proof that it can be done, they did it and so can you! If it was truly impossible then how come they did it hm?

Let me ask you this; is there only one actor or only one professional athlete in any given sport? If it has been done before by someone then it CAN be done again by anyone, it can be done by you, your friends, your neighbors, whoever and wherever! The proof is all around you and it always has been, take a moment to look, use the internet, TV or whatever tool you want to find just how many people have achieved their dreams before you and how many are continuing to do so. History has shown you that countless people before you have achieved their dreams and that's the proof that you too can achieve your dreams because aren't you a person too?

Now some of you are already beginning to make excuses like, "oh well of course this person achieved their dreams because they were born to or destined for it or that they're talented," that's all garbage! Nobody was born having achieved anything, nobody was born a professional athlete or an artist or whatever, they were born simply a person like you and I. People who achieve things do so because they make the effort to go after their dreams, they try whereas so many others simply say that their dreams and impossible and don't even bother going after them.

It's easier isn't it to say that our dreams are impossible and just pursue something else rather than making the effort to go after them and it's that misconception that stops people from going after their dreams. The world is filled with tons and tons of successful people who achieved their dreams, achieved being the operative word, which means they went after their dreams, they tried! The reason there are so many successful people is obvious, because dreams can be achieved!

Some dreams have been accomplished numerous times over and over, proving that anything can be done and for those dreams that haven't been done before, well they're just waiting for someone to accomplish them for the first time. Just because a dream has never been accomplished before doesn't mean it can't be done, there's always a first time for something and it could very well be that it's YOU who are supposed to be the first! There's always something like the first flight or first shuttle launch in life and all it takes is that person who believes it's possible and is willing to try and achieve it.

This is a world where 15 years ago we were using CD's that could only store a dozen songs and now we have devices that can store thousands! Our phones now can do nearly as much as computers, our phones are now also cameras, mp3 players, navigation devices, web browsers and more. If you told me 15 years ago that cell phones would be able to do all that they today, I would tell you that would be impossible but I would be wrong wouldn't I? Impossible is nothing!

Here's another example of just how possible the "impossible" really is, lasers at one time were nothing more than fiction, laser were to be only found in science fiction movies. Today lasers are so common and we use them daily from things like laser eye surgery, laser pointers, media devices, hi tech cutting devices and even fat reduction surgeries. What's so common to you and I would be considered an impossibility to say someone in 1950, if you could show them something as simple as a laser pointer they would probably die of shock. If it's been done before then you already have the proof that it can be done and if it hasn't been done then it only means someone hasn't found out how to do it, not that it can't be done. If you're willing to try then it might be you who figures out how to do it, so start embracing the possibilities of your dreams!

Think of how many records there are that have been broken time and time again but for those records to be broken didn't someone have to set them in the first place? When it comes to dreams and success there is always a pioneer who does it first and paves the way, proving the possibility so others can follow the trail and continue achieving. You have a lot of options when it comes to achieving your dreams, you can either be a trailblazer and be the first or you can follow the trail, embracing the possibilities and achieve you dreams like those before you, it's a win win scenario. If you want to achieve your dreams then you first have to acknowledge them as being possible.

" **The word impossible is not in my dictionary."**

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 – 1821)

French Emperor, Conqueror, Military and Political Leader

If you want to achieve your dreams then one of the first things you're going to have to do is to ditch the word impossible from your vocabulary. Successful people don't believe in the impossible, they believe that their dreams and pursuits are possible because if they weren't then why would they bother going after them? It's just a word nothing more, if you believe the word then you won't bother to pursue it and if you don't pursue it how can you achieve it?

Hello!

Do you see how ridiculous it is now not to do something just because a word says it can't be done, if you don't do it then it doesn't get done! It has nothing to do with whether or not something is impossible because it isn't, it has to do with YOU deciding whether or not to actually do it because you either feel it is impossible or possible. This is why you need to forget the word impossible, throw it out, ditch it because it serves no purpose in achieving your dreams it's just unnecessary.

" **If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really true, there would be little hope for advance."**

Orville Wright (1867 – 1912)

Inventor and Aviator

Think about this for a moment, if everyone in the world truly believed that dreams were impossible then would anyone ever have achieved any of their dreams? The word impossible is a fallacy, it says something cannot be done but does that actually mean that something cannot be done, does it make it a fact? No! People become deterred by the word and decide not to start following their dreams, hello, if you don't start it then how can you finish it?

I hope your starting to understand why it's so important to start changing your mindset about your dreams and there possibilities. I mean at one time people thought that flying through the skies in an airplane was impossible but was that a fact? I'm pretty sure a pair of brothers proved that assumptions wrong, I'm pretty sure that the "impossibility" of flight was proven possible, correct me if I'm wrong. Just because someone says something impossible doesn't make it so, that's an opinion not fact and the fact is that history has proven that people CAN achieve their dreams!

" **Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done."**

Louis D. Brandeis (1856 – 1941)

Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States

How do you know what can and cannot be done if you yourself have never made the effort to find out, if you've never bothered to try? It's stupid to assume something can't be done just because someone else said so, especially if that person hasn't done it either, it's just an assumption and I'm not going to leave my dreams up to assumption. It's true that so many people declare something to be impossible before even doing them and does that make any sense whatsoever?

Now some of you are probably thinking something along the lines of, "but I have tried to go after my dreams and I know they're impossible," first of all don't get ahead of me, I'll address that in the book and secondly, we're not talking about your past attempts, this is a new clean slate that starts now. This is about putting you into a successful mindset, it's about understanding that your dreams are possible and that you can achieve them!

" **Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it's impossible for anyone to accomplish."**

Marcus Aurelius (121 AD – 180 AD)

Roman Emperor and Philosopher

Just because something seems difficult for you doesn't make it impossible to do, for you or anybody else, difficult is not impossible and dreams are not impossible. If just thinking that a dream was impossible truly did make it impossible then no dream would ever have been achieved and that's obviously not the case, dreams have been and can be achieved because they are possible! The word impossible is tossed around far too much and used to describe many things that are difficult but difficult is not a synonym for impossible, difficult means hard to do, not that it can't be done.

Just because something maybe hard to do or achieve doesn't make it impossible to achieve so don't be fooled by the word impossible, it's just a word not a fact. A difficult dream can still be achieved because it's difficult, not impossible but difficult and no dream is impossible, understand yet? It's a matter of perception really, if you perceive something to be impossible then you won't bother to do it and if you don't bother to do it then it won't get done, duh!

If your dream seems difficult then that doesn't mean that you can't do it, no, all it means is that it might be a hard journey but not that it's impossible. Too many people mistake difficulty for impossibility and that's why they never make the effort to pursue their dreams. There are also people who will purposely deem their dreams impossible when they are really only difficult but possible because they simply don't want to deal with any difficulty, they want it easy in life.

I know that's a bit harsh to say but it's true, many people just don't want to go after their dreams because it might be a little rough and require some work, they want to be handed everything on a silver platter. Now you have to ask yourself if your dream is truly impossible or is it just difficult and you're pretending it's impossible, has history shown your dream to be possible and if so then why are you acting like it can't be done?

" **With willing hearts and skillful hands, the difficult we do at once, the impossible takes a big longer."**

Author Unknown, Also inscribed on the Seabee's Memorial

NO DREAM IS IMPOSSIBLE TO ACHIEVE, understand this, some may take longer to achieve but even if they take longer they can still be achieved! If a dream can be achieved, if it has been achieved by someone else past or present then it isn't impossible. We equate things that take too long to achieve with being impossible because we have expectations of instant gratification and that if it takes longer than we'd like then it's impossible and that's not true. Look, just because something may take longer to achieve then you would like doesn't mean that it can't be done, it's more of an inconvenience than impossibility. The Seabee's memorial outside of Arlington National Cemetery is a testament to the can do spirit and that the impossible actually really is possible!

" **Nothing is impossible; there are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will we should always have sufficient means. It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible."**

_Francois de la Rouchefoucauld (1613 – 1680)_

_French Author_

_I don't know how many times you might need to hear it or from whom but nothing is impossible, no dream, no desire and no lifestyle is impossible to achieve! So if no dream is impossible then why do so many people toss the word impossible around? Well this is going to sound quite harsh to say but it's true nonetheless, the reason so many people use the word impossible is because it makes a great excuse or scapegoat for not wanting to pursue something. It's easier isn't it, to say something is impossible rather than actually making the effort to go after it and achieve it?_

_How many times have you heard someone say the reason they didn't bother doing something is because, "oh it's impossible," or , "that can't be done," hm? If you tell someone that you didn't do something because it's impossible the vast majority of people will simply nod, agree and sympathize with you as if merely saying something is impossible explains everything. It doesn't explain anything, if it did, then how come I see people proving the impossible to be possible, explain that!_

Either something is truly impossible or it is possible, there is no between, from my experience I've come to see that every dream is possible meaning that the impossible just serves as an excuse. At one time people thought that practical air flight was impossible and guess what? They were wrong! People thought that space travel and rockets would remain only as science fiction.

Wrong!

At one time, before the vast majority of the world knew of the Americas, people in Europe thought there was no more land to be discovered. Wrong! People thought that the success of the television and radio was impossible. Wrong again! So now you tell me what exactly is impossible, because every time I see someone declare something as "impossible," I see someone else set out and prove the world wrong and show us that OUR DREAMS ARE POSSIBLE!

Making excuses and viewing dreams as impossibilities is exactly why so many people don't succeed or much less even make the attempt to and those are just stupid reasons not to do something you dream of. Excuses serve no purpose other than preventing you from going after your dreams, they convince that it's better not to pursue your dreams, they're counter productive so why make them. There is always a way to achieve your dreams, always!

The problem most people have is that they are all too willing to indulge excuses and reasons why they can't achieve their dreams rather than looking for a way to actually achieve them. How does it make any sense to desire something and then spend your time coming up with excuses and reasons why you can't have them? If you truly want something then doesn't it make more sense to spend your time looking for a way to achieve it rather than believing it to be impossible, where's the rationality in having a dream and not pursuing it?

What does making excuses give you, tell me exactly what benefit comes from doubting yourself and or coming up with reasons not to pursue your dreams, is there any benefit at all? I didn't think so. If it doesn't benefit you to make excuses like, "dreams are impossible," then why indulge in the habit of making them? Understand that your dreams are possible; understand that there is always a way for you to succeed!

One of the most popular excuses I see people make is that any person other than them can achieve success because they were talented, skilled, lucky or destined to do so, they are all too willing to come up with excuses why someone else could do something but they can't. That is a dangerous habit to get into because first, it's self – depreciating and secondly, because it's garbage! That excuse holds no water because people from all different walks of life have achieved success, people of different races, religions, socio-economic backgrounds and more, it doesn't matter because anybody and everybody can succeed!

Don't be so quick to believe that your dreams are impossible, successful people don't become so by believing that their desires cannot be achieved, they achieve things because the know that it's possible. Making excuses has never led to any achievement or reward, excuses don't pave the way to dreams and success is achieved by embracing the possibilities so embrace them! I truly want you to succeed; I mean who doesn't want themselves as well as others to succeed and to do so you need to stop making excuses for why things are impossible. I want you to understand that your dreams are possible, all of your dreams can be achieved and history has shown that dreams are possible!

" **Man would not have attained the possible unless time and time again he had reached out for the impossible."**

Max Weber (1864 – 1920)

German Sociologist, Economist and Philosopher

If you don't reach out to achieve the impossible then how will you ever know the limits of what is possible, if there are any limits at all? People all throughout history have fought to achieve the impossible and by achieving it, they have shown us all that the impossible is in fact possible! It's a funny thing isn't it, you add two little letters in front of the word of possible and suddenly something can't be done, does that make any sense?

I don't know how long the term impossible has been around but I feel it's been around long enough hasn't it? I want to get rid of it because this stupid word deters so many people from pursuing and achieving all the great things that they are capable of. The word impossible is just the word possible hiding behind the disguise of two extra letters and that's it. If you want to know for yourself what truly is impossible and what is possible then you're going to have to go after your dreams to find out and that isn't a bad thing now is it?

History is littered with examples of people achieving what the world thought was impossible, so when the world says something is impossible but one person proves that it is possible, who do you believe then? At one time the notion of climbing Mount Everest was considered impossible but that notion was proved wrong and now it's been climbed successfully multiple times.

If you don't go after what's considered to be "impossible" then someone else will and they will prove it to be possible. Do you want to sit on the sidelines and watch someone else do what you only dream of, or, do you want to live the life of your dreams? Dreams have always been possible to achieve but some people choose not to realize that, they want believe in the illusion of the "impossible," whilst others realize the truth and achieve things, which one do you want to be?

How else do you think achievements come about, do you think people sit around and make excuses and lament about the impossible? Dreams are achieved by people who know they are possible to achieve, by people who feel that the impossible is just waiting to be proved as possible! Nearly everyone has been told at one point or another that something they wanted to do was impossible but that doesn't make it true. It's because of people who have reached for their "impossible" dreams that we have all the innovations and great things we do today. If dreams were truly impossible then we wouldn't even bother having them, we wouldn't waste time entertaining the thoughts but they are possible, dreams can come true!

" **Every great achievement was considered impossible."**

Unknown

It's true that at one time somebody somewhere doubted the possibility of someone else's dream but time and time again people have achieved their dreams in spite of the "impossibilities." Progress and achievement depends on people having dreams and understanding that dreams are possible and pursuing them. If you truly believed that a dream was impossible, would you bother going after it? That's exactly why it is so important to realize that the word impossible is nothing more than a word, your dreams can be realized if you realize that nothing is impossible! Just because someone says something is impossible doesn't make it so, it's just an opinion and the facts are history shows that nothing is impossible! If you want to succeed then you need to start considering your dreams as possible because they are!

" **We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible."**

Malesherbes (1721 – 1794)

French Statesmen and Minister

Can you imagine just how many people would pursue their dreams if they didn't think of them as impossible? Seriously, what would you do if you believed nothing was impossible, how many of your dreams would you pursue? By keeping the word impossible in your mind you only hold yourself back, by believing that something is impossible you convince yourself that it can't be done and thus don't make the effort to pursue it.

You can't achieve something if you don't set out to do so and if you don't believe it can be done then you won't set out after it, do you see how this works yet? Success is a mentality and it starts with getting over the idea that dreams are impossible and starting to believe that they are possible because they are! Do you want to be held back by nothing more than a thought, a word, or do you want to test the possibilities of dreams by going after them yourself?

Tell me, is there some cosmic law saying that your dreams are impossible, is there any concrete proof that they are impossible because history proves to the contrary? Do you know of any law prohibiting success, do you know of any binding force that prevents dreams from being achieved? The thing that keeps most people from pursuing and achieving their dreams is the thought that their dreams are impossible, by simply indulging that falsehood people rob themselves of the opportunity to live a better life.

Some people feel that dreams are impossible and decide to settle for less, then there are people who set out regardless of the opinions of the world and achieve what they want, which one are you? You have a choice in life, you can believe that your dreams are impossible or you can acknowledge the truth and believe they are possible and set out to achieve them!

Impossible is just a notion; a notion that some people strive to prove is false, successful people know that impossible is just a word. Gravity is a law of the universe and yet things defy it all the time, planes, hot air balloons and shuttles all fight against this law and yet at one time every one of those inventions was considered impossible. Did you know that at one time people believed that a bumblebee should not be able to fly according to some of the laws of science? Last time I checked they could fly pretty well...and sting.

Today the mechanics behind bumblebee flights are understood where at one time they weren't but just because people thought it was impossible back then doesn't mean that it was then or now. The story of the bumblebee was all due to a misunderstanding of how a bee's wings worked and that's what happens with dreams, a misunderstanding, people do not understand that their dreams are possible no matter what others say.

" **Never tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon."**

Unknown

The word impossible is used because too often we feel that there is a limit to what we can do or achieve and if anyone proposes an idea that exceeds this limit we deem it to be impossible. Nothing. Is. Impossible! People thought we would never land on the moon, people thought Edison's light bulb was an impossibility or that the steamboat was impossible but they were all wrong. There is no limit to what people can achieve because every time someone sets a limit, someone else breaks it and sets a new record or a new height for what can be achieved. If it weren't for people going after their "impossible" dreams then what would the world be like today, would we have all the great things and lives we do? If there were limits to what we could do, then we would have peaked as a species along time ago and yet we still continue to make progress, achieve dreams and redefine possibilities.

Innovation, invention and all progress in this world comes from people with dreams who are brave enough to pursue them, if you want to achieve your dreams then you can't afford to believe in the impossible. People will tell you that it's rational to settle in life, that it's absurd to follow your dreams but I say it's absurd to do anything else but follow your dreams. How many lives do you get, I'm given to understand we only get one, one chance to truly live the way we desire so why waste it by settling for less then the life of our dreams? Every dream always sounds crazy and impossible up until the moment someone achieves it and proves it to be possible, it's a weird irony that by believing something is impossible you choose not to act on it and by not acting you make it impossible when in fact the whole time your dreams have always been possible. You have a chance to go after the "impossible" dream, achieve it and show everybody just how possible dreams are.

" **Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible."**

Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)

Theoretical Physicist, Father of Modern Physics and Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics

There are many people who do consider following your wildest dreams to be an absurd thing to do but the way I see it, you only have one life so to not follow your dreams is the most absurd thing you could do. Maybe it's a good thing that following your dreams is considered by some to be an absurdity because if our dreams are considered to be impossible as well as absurd and we have to do the absurd to achieve the impossible, well then it only makes sense to follow your dreams doesn't it? If attempting the absurd is how you can achieve the impossible then maybe it's not so absurd after all, I feel that it's more absurd to have dreams and not bother to go after them. It's not absurd to have dreams, it's not absurd to go after them and it's certainly not absurd to believe that they're possible because all of them are, for everybody!

I see dreams much like the saying, "ones man's trash is another man's treasure," well to me one man's impossible is another man's possible! Take a look through history and listen to the words of all the people who have achieved their dreams, they will all tell you that your dreams are possible because they are. Who does it make more sense to listen to, someone who has achieved their dreams and proven them to be possible or, someone who doesn't even bother to follow their own and hide behind the word impossible? The very fact that people have achieved their dreams proves that you can too, dreams are meant to be achieved, dreams are not meant to be ignored, follow them and achieve them! Not following your dreams is absurd, believing in the impossible is absurd, following your dreams is the sanest thing to do and they are possible!

" **Every noble work is at first impossible."**

Thomas Carlyle (1795 – 1881)

Scottish Writer, Historian and Essayist

Everyone always feels that something is impossible at first but that's not a reason why you shouldn't follow your dreams; feeling that something is impossible does not mean it really is impossible. It always seems impossible when you're first starting to pursue your dreams because you're just starting, there's a level of uncertainty and that scares people but just because you haven't done something before doesn't mean it's impossible. Just because your dreams seem impossible at first doesn't mean that they are, this is something everyone who is pursuing their dreams has to go through, this initial fear that their dreams seem impossible but they overcome it and so can you. Thinking your dream is impossible when you first start to go after it is much like shooting yourself in the foot right before running a race, it's debilitating and makes no sense.

Every dream has at one point or another been considered by someone to be impossible but that never mattered to the person pursuing his or her dream and it shouldn't matter to you. It doesn't matter who feels your dreams are impossible as long as you believe that they are possible, people who achieve their dreams do so because they believe them to be possible. If dreams were impossible then no one would bother to pursue them but people do pursue them so it stands to reason that dreams can be achieved if people are going after them and are achieving them. You may start out feeling that your dreams are impossible but trust me, the more you read the more I will prove to you that they are possible!

" **Become the captain of your fate today and live with the consciousness that everything is possible."**

Unknown

This is a concept that so many of us have trouble believing, that we are the captains of our own fate, that everything is possible but it is all true! We control our lives and can make them what we want but it starts with us truly understanding that everything is possible. Nobody pursues what he or she believes to be impossible, therefore to pursue something you first have to consider it to be possible and if you consider everything to be possible then you can pursue and achieve everything. Possibilities exist everywhere and for everybody but not everyone chooses to see and believe in them and those people rob themselves of the opportunities to live the life of their dreams. What kind of life is it where you believe that all your dreams and desires are impossible? I've lived that kind of life and it nearly led me into taking my own life, everybody has something to live for and some dream to achieve and we all can achieve our dreams!

Remember that this is your life and that every moment of it that goes by is a moment you do not get back so take the initiative and take charge of your life! This is the time for you to become the captain of your life, this moment can be the moment where you decide it's time to start living the way you want and live the life of your dreams! This is where you realize that "yes, our dreams are possible and yes we can achieve them!" The moment you start treating all of your dreams as possible is the moment they become possible so treat everything as if it's possible!

" **Anything unattempted remains impossible."  
Unknown**

Things only become impossible when YOU choose not to do them because if you don't do them how can they ever get done? If you decide not to act on a dream because you believe it's impossible then by your own decision not to act you have just made your dreams impossible, understand? You choose whether or not your dreams are going to be achieved, you have to bear that responsibility and make that choice. As long as you are willing to pursue your dreams then know that THEY WILL ALWAYS BE POSSIBLE! How can you know whether or not your dreams are impossible unless you pursue them? Deciding your dreams are impossible before even going after them is just senseless.

" **Just as in the sciences we have learned that we are too ignorant to safely pronounce anything impossible, so for the individual, since we can hardly say with certainty that anything is necessarily within or beyond his grasp. Each must remember that no on can predict to what heights of wealth, fame, or usefulness he may rise until he has honestly endeavored, and should derive courage from the fact that all sciences have been, at sometime, in the same condition as he, and that it has often proved that the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow."**

Robert H. Goddard (1882 – 1945)

American Professor, Physicist and Inventor

Every successful person at one point or another has felt that their dream could be impossible but they didn't let it stop them from making theirs dream a reality. Nobody on this Earth can tell you something is impossible because nobody knows what is impossible, there's no record of what can and cannot be done, people are constantly proving the impossible to be possible! The only way anybody can know with certainty what is possible is by going after they want because anything short of that is just speculation. Who cares if some people think your dreams are impossible, as long as you know that they are possible is what matters because it's you who has to achieve them and not others. So many of sciences greatest advances and achievements were considered by many to be impossible but that didn't matter because the people who set out to achieve them knew it was possible and proved it. Look back hundred years ago, if you could show someone back then an item in common usage today like a cell phone they would probably faint of shock and consider it to be witchcraft or impossible but does that make it so?

I vehemently believe that every person can succeed and achieve their dreams, that every person has unlimited and untold potential but it doesn't matter what I think, YOU have to realize that nothing is impossible for you to achieve. Human history is filled with so many examples of people achieving the impossible because that's what humans are made to do, achieve, set and break records and constantly rise to new heights. Look back through history and see how far as a species we have come, we've gone from primitive hunters and gathers to a species that's been among the stars. We take so many things for granted like television, cell phones, computers and even cars but at one point they were all considered impossible but how has that ever stopped people from making their dreams realities? I know I'm being incessantly repetitive but I'm being so for a reason, there is a method to the madness and annoyance and that is that I am trying to drill into your skull the proof that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!

Robert H. Goddard made the worlds first liquid fueled rocket and dreamed that rockets could be sent to space but many people around the time criticized him and thought his dreams were impossible. Correct me if I'm wrong but we've sent rockets into space and even put a man on the moon...unless you're a conspiracy theorist that doesn't believe that those events happened in which case you're um...crazy. Human history is all about conquering the impossible, achieving what others said couldn't be done, human history is all about showing the limitless potential we human beings have. I think I'm correct in assuming that if you're reading this then you are a human being and thus you are part of that human history and you too have limitless potential like all the great people who have come before you...or you're a really talented Chimpanzee that learned to read.

Who can say what is impossible, every time I have seen someone declare something as impossible, I have seen someone else believe it was possible and prove it as well. Some people set limits and others break them, you have a choice in life to be either one of those people and that choice starts with either believing that dreams are impossible or possible, so choose. I don't see any point to believe in the impossible, it hinders human progress, it prevents us from reaching our dreams, where's the benefit in that? Limits don't truly exist, if they did we would all be bound by them, but how come some people surpass the limits others says we have?

" **I cannot discover that anyone knows enough to say definitely what is and what is not possible."**

Henry Ford (1863 – 1947)

Creator of Ford Motor Company, American Industrialist and Developer of the Assembly Line

There is not a single person who can say to you with a 100% guarantee that your dreams are impossible and be right, they can say the words but that doesn't mean it's fact, it's just their wrong opinion. The fact is all dreams are possible! History has and always will continue to prove that dreams can be achieved, that your dreams are possible and history will always produce people who are willing to achieve great things, choose to be one of them! The only person who can truly decide whether or not your dreams are possible is YOU, you have the power and need to apply it, cast off the mental shackles and embrace the fact that your dreams are possible to achieve!

As an automobile enthusiast, Henry Ford is one of my heroes and especially so considering how much he achieved by following his dream even when others doubted the possibility of his success. Some people doubted the possibilities so much that they tried to dissuade potential investors from putting money into his company, for those who invested and believed in his dream and potential, well they turned a pretty profit. There were people who thought the automobile would never replace the horse and that the car was just a stupid fad, I for one am very happy that those people were proven wrong by Mr. Ford. Obviously you don't need me to tell you how successful the automobile has gone to be and how successful the Ford Motor Company has been. Henry Ford proved that dreams are possible, that great visions can be achieved and yours can too so please, I implore you to start seeing your dreams as possible!

" **No one knows what he can do until he tries."**

Publius Syrus

**Latin Writer in the 1** st **Century B.C, Former Slave who earned his freedom**

There's the truth right there, how can anyone know just how much they are capable of until they make the effort to find out, nobody can tell you your limits or possibilities! YOU, only you determine what limits you have if you want to impose any at all, embrace possibility and endless possibilities will be your life! Ask yourself just what heights you want to reach, just how far do you want to make it in life and what do you want to achieve because you can have it all. People cannot decide your future, only you can make it and until you try to do so, you will never know just how far you can make it. You've seen the proof all around you, I'm sure this isn't the first time someone is telling you of all the examples history has to offer that prove dreams are possible, do your own research and see for yourself the great potential that lies in all humans! Do you want to live a life where everything is impossible or a life where everything is possible and waiting to be achieved by you?

Do you know anybody that can predict the future, someone that can see every twist and turn of things to come and predict what you will achieve? I didn't think so! It's up to you to make the future you want and you can make that future as soon as you start to believe that it's possible to do so and great news, it is! Nobody can define you but yourself, nobody can impose limits and heights on your potential but you, nobody can create your life but YOU! Some people aren't ready to believe that because they don't want to bear that responsibility, the responsibility for creating their life so they hide behind excuses like the word "impossible." Some people fear their unknown potential, they fear the fact that they don't know just how much they can achieve so they find comfort hiding behind the word impossible because it is easier to embrace the life we know than the great life we could have.

There really is a limitless wellspring of potential inside each person, inside you, your brother or sister, mother and father and everybody you know. That unknown potential shouldn't scare you, it should encourage you, it should help you embrace all the possibilities of what you can achieve! Just take a moment to think about all the things you want and that they are truly possible, how do you feel, happy? Of course you're happy and isn't that what life's about, being happy, fulfilled and if so then doesn't it make sense to go after your dreams and achieve them? What doesn't make sense is to have desires that you make no efforts to achieve, you have desires because you want things and why do you want things, chances are because they make you happy. So, do you choose to believe in the impossible, or go after what makes you happy? Do you want to settle for less than all you can achieve or do you want to live the happiest and more fulfilling life you possibly can?

Publius Syrus was a 1st century Latin slave who rose to prominence as a writer and through writing he earned his freedom, he achieved his dreams so why can't you? Think how many people since his time in the 1st century have achieved their dreams, millions, tens of millions maybe even hundred of millions, who knows? If all these people all throughout time can achieve their dreams then why can't you? Don't make excuses why you can't do things, that's not how successful people are made, success is achieved by looking for reasons and ways to do what you want!

" **All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible."**

Orison Swett Marden (1850 – 1924)

American Financial Success Author and Successful Hotel Owner

There is a big difference between something actually being impossible and seeming impossible, our dreams may seem impossible at times but that doesn't mean they actually are. Every who has ever achieved their dreams or other great things did so because they saw them as possibilities, if they didn't then they wouldn't have pursued them. You have to start seeing all of your dreams and desires as possibilities if you wish to achieve them. Remember, just because it looks impossible doesn't mean that it is, that's all in your mind and that's what you have to fix, your mindset.

" **Our aspirations are our possibilities."**

Robert Browning (1882 – 1889)

Victorian Poet and Playwright

You want to know what your possibilities are, your possibilities in life are your aspirations, whatever you desire to be and achieve is what you CAN do! If our dreams weren't possible to achieve then we wouldn't aspire to achieve them in the first place, anything you desire to make a reality is possible to achieve, simple and true! Aspiring to achieve great things is part of what drives the world, it's that desire to be great that creates great things and people and we all have the capacity to achieve and be great! It's our aspirations that create our future, we all have a desire to excel and achieve and it's our greatest aspirations that set the standard for what we can achieve. The higher your aspirations are, the higher you can achieve and that's the simple truth of the matter. There is a reason why people who have had high aims achieved great things, the higher the aim, the higher you hit, it's really that simple.

" **You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose."**

Abraham Lincoln

You really can have and be all you want as soon as you realize that it is all possible for you to achieve, as long as you hold to the idea that your dreams are possible, then they will be. Let me ask you this, how bad do you want your dreams, are they just entertaining bits of fantasy for you or do you desire to see them become real? Everyone has the ability to achieve all of their dreams but the reason so many do not is because they simply don't believe that fact and thus they don't act to make their dreams real. Hopefully by now you do understand and believe that your dreams are possible, hopefully you now understand that you really can be anything you want! If you couldn't achieve your dreams then why are there people who say you can, why are there people who have proven you can, why does history show you can? Is all of human history a lie; is Abraham Lincoln, honest Abe a liar?

NO! Dreams are not a lie, the impossible is the lie, the impossible is a frightful illusion that society has created but the truth is in possibilities!

" **I had the ambition not only to go farther than any man had ever been before, but as far as it was possible for a man to go."**

Joseph Conrad (1857 – 1924)

Polish Novelist

So just how far is it possible for a person to go in life, what heights can we reach and how much can we accomplish? These are questions that so many have asked themselves but fewer have set out to answer and that might be why some people don't succeed, they ask the question but never try to answer it. I honestly don't think there is a limit to how far we can go because every time someone sets the bar, someone else comes by and raises it higher and this keeps on happening over and over again. We have yet to prove that there is a limit to what we can do and achieve, whereas on the other hand, humans have constantly proven whatever limits we are believed to have can be broken and beaten! Ambition, aspiration, dreams, these are the driving forces behind success and achievement, they shape the world, how far do you dream of going?

You've probably heard the expression, "reach for the skies," well I'm given to understand that we have reached for the skies and surpassed them! Today, we travel the skies so commonly and easily, we travel them daily and that idea was thought to be more than impossible at one time. We've reached for the stars and taken a place among them, we are constantly reaching for new heights of achievement in all fields, so who's to say what's impossible? Successful people are ambitious, successful people know their dreams are possible and that's why they make the effort to achieve them. We don't know what our limits are, so why should we set them when we have no idea of just how much we can do, isn't smarter to aim as high as we possibly can rather than selling ourselves shorter than all we could achieve?

" **A man can do all things if he wills."**

Leon Battista Alberti (1404 – 1472)

Italian Renaissance Poet, Linguist, Philosopher, Cryptographer, Priest, Author, Architect, Artist and Polymath

You have the ability to succeed in each and every pursuit you can possibly imagine as long as you understand that, yes, it is possible to do and achieve all you want to! Take Mr. Alberti as an example for all you can do, look at how many things he excelled at and he did excel at them and you too can excel at anything! Leon Alberti learned music without a teacher and went on to impress the professionals of his time, he rose to great heights and if he could do all that back then, think how much you can accomplish in this day and age. Today we have so many advantages at our disposal to help us succeed and all we have to do is come to the realization that nothing is impossible and we can achieve anything. Look at Benjamin Franklin; he was an inventor, an author, a postman, scientist, musician and one of the Founding Fathers of a country! One man accomplished all that and it proves that human beings can accomplish a great deal, so now you tell me what exactly is impossible for you to do? Nothing. Is. Impossible!

We all have the capacity to succeed in as many fields as we desire, to achieve as many dreams as we wish, all humans have potential inside them and all you need to do is realize this! Maybe you'd like a more modern example of someone who has achieved many things, Arnold Schwarzenegger has achieved a great deal and serves as an example of how many dreams a person can achieve. Mr. Schwarzenegger is a champion bodybuilder, international movie star and served as the 38th Governor of California, not exactly small accomplishments are they? He knew his dreams were possible when he went out to achieve them, heck he told the world his ambitions and he achieved them despite the "impossibilities." It only takes one person to show you that you're dreams are possible to achieve and so far I've shown you a bit more than one person and I will continue to show you more and prove to you that YOU CAN ACHIEVE YOUR DREAMS!

Where is it written that you can only achieve one dream, accomplish only one goal and that there is a ceiling to your potential? The only limits you have are the ones you impose on yourself, the word impossible is a cage to potential, it keeps you from realizing your potential. It's much like being trapped in a glass house with a rock, you're not really trapped at all, all you need to do is throw the rock and shatter the glass house around you. If you want to see your potential then much like the glass house you need to shatter the perception you have of the word impossible, you need to realize that the world and your life are full of possibilities. You have a chance to live the life you want and you owe it to yourself to live that life and achieve your dreams!

" **Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."**

T.S Elliot (1888 – 1965)

Poet, Playwright and Literary Critic

The best way to truly discover just how much you can achieve and just how far you can go in life is to do just that and GO! Ditch the word impossible from your vocabulary and go after your dreams, go as far as you possibly can and then you will know with certainty just how great you are! The heights each person can reach are unknown; there has never been a set limit on human potential so the only way to know is by setting those limits ourselves and by setting them high. You choose how far you go in life, you choose what you can and cannot achieve and you do it by choosing to go after your dreams and desires. All humans are born with great potential, as a species we are made to grow, excel, achieve, accomplish and shatter limits! So far nobody has been able to predict what limits there are to achievement and if there are no limits then why do we all choose to limit ourselves with that stupid word impossible?

I don't believe that we have a ceiling to our potential, that there is some cutoff point to human achievement because there is always someone who goes above and beyond our expectations. There is always someone achieving something great, inventing something new and both setting and breaking records. We all have great potential but when you choose to believe that your dreams are impossible you bury your potential and hurt yourself by doing so. Think about it, if you do not pursue your dreams because you feel they cannot be attained, whom do you hurt? You have the potential to achieve and accomplish anything so why waste it, why deny your ability to succeed and why deny yourself your dreams?

" **All things are possible until they are proved impossible and even then impossible may only be so, as of now."**

Pearl S. Buck (1892 – 1973)

Author and Humanitarian

So many people say that our dreams are impossible, well if that's the case then prove it, I don't care what you say, prove it! Every successful person I've met and seen says the same thing, that our dreams are possible, if they weren't possible then how did other successful people achieve them? I can find example after example of people achieving their dreams, why, because dreams are possible to achieve! Nothing is impossible, nothing and you'd be a fool to believe so, sorry if that's harsh but it's true. Just because something may seem impossible or difficult to achieve today doesn't mean it will be hard the next day or the day following that, sometimes things just take time but that doesn't make them impossible. Any and all of your dreams can become a reality if you're willing to break down the barrier of impossibilities society has placed on you.

We have been conditioned from a young age to believe that we can't have what we want, can't be what we want and that our dreams are impossible, that's garbage! Impossibility is not part of mankind's natural state; we are made for success and achievement, look at our track record of achievements. We humans dream, we create, we achieve and we shape the world around us, that's the power we all have, that you have! We are the species that has gone from the Stone Age to the Space Age, we live in a world of technological marvels that have all been created by someone with a dream and we can achieve anything!

All it takes is one person to prove a dream is possible but how many does it take to prove a dream is impossible, a hundred, a thousand, maybe a million? Just because one person or even groups of people fail to achieve a dream doesn't mean it's impossible or that no one can achieve it. Difficult and impossible are not the same thing, people quitting on their dreams do not make them impossible, so far I've only seen people prove dreams as possible. If it hasn't been properly proved that dreams are impossible then the only logical conclusion is that dreams are possible to achieve, difficult maybe but I'll take difficult over truly impossible any day. Ask yourself where is the proof that your dreams are impossible, what cosmic force prevents you from achieving what you want; what law says you can't succeed hm?

" **Every vision is a joke until the first man accomplishes it; once realized, it becomes commonplace."**

Robert Goddard

Your dreams are not a joke, they are not silly flights of fancy, your dreams are a vision waiting to be realized and achieved. It always takes one person to show the world that something can be done; it's already been proven it can be done so why don't people acknowledge the possibilities as commonplace? How come so many people feel that dreams are impossible when history has shown us that they are more than possible, people have realized their dreams before and you can realize your dreams now! If someone has already achieved a dream similar to yours and proven it to be possible then you shouldn't hesitate to pursue it and if no one has achieved a dream like yours then you be the first to achieve it, be first to break new grounds and be an example for others who will follow!

" **Nothing is guaranteed, and everything is possible. The script of your life isn't written until you do it yourself."**

Unknown

As an author, I feel that viewing your life as a story or script is an apt metaphor and like the quote says, your life isn't written until you do it yourself, so do it! Everything is possible but to achieve these possibilities you have to go out and do it, you can't sit around waiting for fate or destiny to hand you anything. I do not believe in a predetermined fate or destiny, I don't believe that everything is already predestined, what I do believe is that it is up to you to make your future. If you're not happy with what the story of your life has been like up to this point then change it, you're the author of your own life and you have the power to change your story so do it! You need to get over the false idea that your dreams are impossible and start pursuing them, you need to understand that you control and create your destiny and you can have whatever you want!

" **Never tell a person that anything cannot be done. God may have been waiting centuries for someone ignorant enough of the impossible to do that very thing."**

John Andrew Holmes (1904 – 1962)

Poet

It doesn't matter if you believe in a higher power or are an atheist, the impossible is an idea that holds many back and it needs to be gotten rid of in order to succeed. They say ignorance is bliss, when it comes to success a little ignorance of the impossible may very well be blissful, be ignorant of the impossible! Think about it, if no one ever told you that your dreams were impossible then wouldn't you be more likely to pursue them and more enthusiastically? Sometimes knowing or thinking that you know something can hurt you because if you think something is impossible will you bother to do it? On the other hand, if you don't know something is impossible wouldn't you be more likely to do it? Forget about the impossibilities and see only the possibilities, successful people live in a world where they only see the possibilities and of what can be achieved.

I find it both fascinating and impossible that a tiny seed, something smaller than a fingernail can grow to be a giant tree towering a hundred feet, that kind of transformation seems impossible doesn't it? A caterpillar can go from something resembling a tiny worm with legs to something that can fly, that seems impossible but the caterpillar doesn't know nor care what I think and does it anyway. There's a lesson to be learned from nature, it does the impossible everyday and doesn't care what limits we care to impose on it and we need to do the same in order to achieve our dreams. The more ignorant you become of the impossible, the more aware you become of what is possible and that's what you need to focus on to succeed.

" **Lots of things that couldn't have been done have been done."**

Charles Austin Bates (1866 – 1936)

Entrepreneur

The quote says it all, lots of dreams were considered to be impossible to achieve and yet they were accomplished anyways, so what's impossible? Your dreams are always possible to achieve and that fact never changes, what changes is your perception of their possibilities. If something has been done before then it stands to reason that it can be done again and again, your dreams can be realized if you would just wake up and realize that fact. The first step to success is realizing that the possibility of success exists; you see the possibilities in order to pursue and achieve them. There are always people who will believe that dreams cannot be achieved but it doesn't matter what they think, this is your life and your dreams so it is what you think that matters. Dreams can be achieved, if dreams were truly impossible then no one would ever entertain the idea of achieving them, much less making the effort to pursue them but they do. Just because someone says that something cannot be done does not make it so, anything and everything can be done provided you are willing to recognize that truth.

" **To believe a thing impossible is to make it so."**

French Proverb

" **Impossible only means that you haven't found the solution yet."**

Unknown

That's one of the biggest reasons why people believe their dreams to be impossible, because they simply do not know how to make them come true, just because you don't know how to do something at first doesn't make it impossible. Did you know how to ride a bike the first time you go on it? Did you know how to swim, run or walk the first time you tried? Don't use the word impossible as an excuse to keep you from your dreams.

" **Start by doing what is necessary; then do what is possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."**

St. Francis of Assisi (1181 – 1226)

Saint, Friar and Preacher

The impossible can always be done, always, sometimes you just need to do some other things first in order to achieve what others said couldn't be achieved. All you have to do is start doing what you can to pursue your dreams, eventually it all adds up and you will accomplish what you wanted but you have to start. Achieving the impossible doesn't take any secrets and there is no complicated process to it, it most comes down to you having a dream and following it to the end. All you have to do is what you can, with what you have, wherever you are and I know that's a bit clichéd but it's true. There is no right or wrong way to go about achieving dreams; there are no secrets because everyone has a different life and different desires so you can't create a singular formula that always works. That being said, I do believe that there are a few core ideas that can be applied to the pursuit of any dream and can help guide as well as motivate you on the path to your success.

You've heard me prattle on long enough about nothing being impossible and you're probably ready to hear more of what I promised earlier, a guideline to achieving your dreams and some motivation to keep you going. Well the achievement of dreams starts with the very thing itself, dreams, so let's talk more about your dreams and their importance, shall we?

**Dare To Dream!**

" **If you don't have a dream how are you going to make it come true?"**

Oscar Hammerstein II (1895 – 1960)

American Songwriter, Producer and Director

It sounds blaringly obvious but you need to have a dream in order to make it come true, the problem is that most people have vague ideas of what they want and not a clear vision. Most people have a list of wants but not a concise picture of the life they want, the career, job, home and so on. If you want to achieve a dream then you have to have a clear vision of exactly what it is you want, it's like trying to look through a murky lake, you can't see the bottom and have no idea what might be in there. If you don't know what exactly it is you want out of life then how can you expect to get exactly that? You need to ask yourself, what exactly do I want, what kind of house to I want to live in, what kind of job do I want, how much money would I like to make and etc.

The reasoning behind this is that once you know that you can have and achieve anything, you need know what exactly is it that you do want and want to do? It makes sense to assume that you obviously don't want and want to do literally everything so what exactly do you want and want to do? It's about clarity; you can't see clearly through a pair of scratched and dirty glasses, this is kind of the same thing.

Being vague with your desires is just asking for trouble, it's much like being invited to a party but you've only been given a partial address, how can you expect to make it to exactly where you need to go? If you follow that partial vague address you might end up in a giant neighborhood, unsure of which house that party is at, then what? What are you supposed to do in a scenario like that, run around knocking at every door hoping to end up in the right place? Is that how you want to live your life, randomly going around hoping to end up in the right place and having achieved the right things? I think you'd rather be sure of what you wanted and that you're going to achieve exactly what you want. If you want live a specific life then be ready to define that life, be clear, know exactly what you want and where you want to end up.

A very common and yet vague desire is saying, "I want to be rich," well how rich is rich? Some people might answer saying a millionaire, others might answer that a being a billionaire is rich and even those answers are vague. If you wanted to be a millionaire then what constitutes a millionaire to you, 1 million, 2 million maybe 3? You have to be crystal clear with what you want in order to get it, when you order something from a restaurant don't you tell them exactly what you want? An example would be like being asked, "what kind of drink you would like," and replying, "soda!" That's really specific isn't it, with all the dozens upon dozens of brands of soda, you could get anything and it might not be exactly the soda you wanted. It's a bit of a silly example but that's exactly the way life works, if you're not clear about what you want then you won't get exactly what you want.

" **Take heed: You do not find what you do not seek."**

English Proverb

Asides from not being clear about what they want, another mistake people often make is desiring things that others tell them they should want, not their own true desires. You've probably seen or experienced this yourself, someone close to you influences you or someone you know to pursue something that you might not exactly want yourself. This is about your dreams, YOURS, this isn't about what other people want for you. If you want to live the life of your dreams then the dreams you have, have to be YOURS and no one else's. Be clear, be concise and know what you want in life, that's one of the first steps to success.

If you want a sports car then be clear what car you want, what make, model, color and more! If you wanted a 2011 Verde Ithaca Lamborghini Gallardo convertible, would getting a 2008 Rossa Corsa Ferrari 430 be the same thing, is that exactly what you wanted? Now after hearing that example someone of you are probably thinking that having either wouldn't be to bad at all but it's not about having either, it's about getting what you asked for because you are going to put the time and effort in trying to achieve something so it makes sense to get exactly what you desired.

" **Dreams are the touchstone of our character."**

Henry David Thoreau (1812 – 1862)

American Author, Poet, Abolitionist and Philosopher

The reason you need to be clear about your dreams isn't just to ensure you get exactly what you want but also so you can become exactly who you want to become because our dreams to define us. Whatever our aspirations may be, they help shape us into the person we will one day be and be having a clear vision of who you want to be, you are better able to become that person.

" **The key to happiness is having dreams. The key to success is making them come true."**

Unknown

Now I'll get to how you make your dreams come true soon enough but for now I want to stress to you the importance dreams play in our lives and show you just how much they've helped shape the world. Dreams drive success, successful people become successful by following a vision, having something to aim for and that dream is usually something that makes them happy, that's why they pursue it. I truly believe that everyone is meant to be happy, to follow and achieve their dreams and live a successful life which is why I'm going to stress the importance of dreams to you.

" **Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations. For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live."**

Henry David Thoreau

Don't let people deter you from your dreams with their declarations of impossibilities, you know by now that your dreams are possible so don't give them up. What kind of life is it where you have no dream, no vision to live for? Dreams are crucial to life and success; they spur us on to achieve things, to change our lives and possibly the world. Countries have been built on dreams, America is built on dreams, no other country is more synonymous with the achievement of dreams than America, it's called the American Dream for a reason. I can tell you from experience that a life without dreams to look forwards too is no life at all; dreams give us something to live and work hard for. Dreams are meant to enrich and define our lives, dreams are to be pursued and achieved and you can achieve them!

" **Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly."**

Langston Hughes (1902 – 1967)

American Poet, Novelist, Social Activist, Columnist and Playwright

What kind of life do you want to live; do you want to coast through life, do you want to settle for less than all you can be? Dreams are our chance to live a better and more fulfilling life, that's why we have the capacity to dream in the first place, to be able to forge a vision to work towards for a greater life! Do you want to spend your life doing things that you don't want to do or do you want to live a life where you are happy and fulfilled? You deserve happiness, everyone does and that's why our dreams are so important, our dreams are a blueprint for a better and happier future. Hold onto your dreams because if you're not living to accomplish a dream or living the life of your dreams then what exactly are you doing with your life, wasting it and your potential?

I've seen what happens to people who let their dreams die and it's not a pretty sight, these people become broken down, angry, bitter and resentful towards everything and everyone. Someone close to me let their dreams die a long time ago and now they live life like it's a burden, a difficult chore, there's no enjoyment in their life and it's just saddening to watch. This person is always complaining about how bad life is, they're always angry with everyone and life itself, I've seen this person ask so many times to life to just end. It's very rare but sometimes I hear this person talk about their dreams and how great it would be to have them come true and when they talk of them, for a moment they are happy, but just for a moment. If talking and thinking about achieving dreams can make a person happy then think how much happiness would come from achieving them, that's why dreams are important, they carry our happiness with them, our hopes. Don't let your dreams go, hold onto them and be ready to make them come true.

"Keep your heart open to dreams. For as long as there's a dream, there is hope, and as long as there is hope, there is joy in living."

Unknown

" **Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."**

Harriet Tubman (1820 – 1913)

Abolitionist, Humanitarian and Union Spy

All success starts with a dream and every dream needs a dreamer (that's you in case you were wondering,) you do have to power to achieve anything you want and it's time you realize that. You already know that nothing is impossible and you can achieve your dreams so now it's time to creating and refining your dreams. Your dreams have the power to not only change your life, but change the world as well so never doubt your abilities to achieve great things, look at Harriet Tubman and all she accomplished. Harriet Tubman was born into slavery and eventually escaped only to make perilous trips back into slave owning states in order to free other slaves. In one raid alone she helped free over 700 slaves, not only did she achieve her own dream of freedom but helped countless others achieve theirs as well. Who better to tell you about the potential you possess, the potential to achieve your dreams, the potential to change your life for the better and maybe change the world?

" **The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim to high and falling short, but in setting our aim to low and achieving our mark."**

_Michelangelo_ di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni **(1475 – 1564)**

Renaissance Painter, Poet, Sculptor, Engineer and Architect

That is one of the greatest dangers to a dream, setting it low, what's the point of setting your dreams low? Most people set their dreams low because they feel it's easier to attain them that way, it's a way to comfort the fear we have about our dreams, we fear by setting them too large we'll be setting ourselves up for failure. What kind of dream is it if it's not true to all that you desire, how can you call it a dream if you are curtailing it so you don't have to be afraid and afraid of what, living to the fullest? You have one life, ONE, only one chance to truly live the way you want so why on Earth limit it in anyway? If you're afraid then don't be, I will cover that later on, fear can be conquered but now it's the time for you dream and dream big!

Get over the impossibilities; you know that nothing is impossible so remember that when creating your dreams, dreams aren't meant to be limited just as life isn't meant to be limited. People set their dreams low because they doubt themselves when they shouldn't, they doubt their dreams when they shouldn't and they doubt the possibilities when they shouldn't! It's like playing a game of darts, one person aims for the outermost rings because they are easier to hit, whilst another person aims for the bulls-eye. Let's say in that scenario the first person succeeds in hitting one of the outer rings whereas the second person misses the bulls-eye by a few inches, who did better? Does the person who hit what they wanted win or does the person who is just shy of the bulls-eye win? You're only hurting yourself by limiting your dreams, you are hiding your own potential by fearing to dream the best dream you can and where's the sense in that?

There is no logic in aiming low and hitting that mark when you have the potential to aim high and score high. I would much rather fall short of reaching my highest and grandest dreams than succeed in achieving every small desire I could think of, what about you? There is no limit to what is possible so why would you limit your dreams knowing that, if no one has yet to define what limits there are to dreams then why impose them on yourself? Take this for example, two people set monetary goals, one dreams of being a millionaire, the other dreams of being a billionaire and both set out to make it happen. Time passes and the first man makes his first million, the second man only makes half a billion, who did better? Even if the second man fell short of his dream, he achieved more by setting a higher dream and plus, who says it's over then, can't he keep on going to eventually earn that billion?

Look at Michelangelo, he didn't limit himself to only one pursuit, he was a painter, sculptor, poet, architect and engineer. Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel and sculpted the Stature of David, he wasn't born having accomplished those things, he had dreams and achieved them. Anybody can do, become and achieve whatever they want in life so why not be all you can be, why limit yourself? You don't have to shrink your aspirations or bottle up your potential because YOU ARE capable of achieving all that you desire as long as you remember that fact! Michelangelo certainly set out to be all he could be and by doing so he became what he set out to, it's that simple, decide what you want and decide to go after it! Could you imagine what the world would be like if everybody was afraid to pursue their dreams, what would the world be if everybody decided it was better so settle for less than all they could be, would we have all the great things we do today?

" **You are never to old to set another goal or dream a new dream."**

C.S. Lewis (1898 – 1963)

Poet, Novelist, Literary Critic and Essayist

For those of you who have let their dreams go before, really take those words to heart because they are true, it's never too late in life to take up new dreams or renew old ones, never! That's another mistake some people make in life, they feel that too much time has gone by and that old dreams cannot be revived and new ones can't be forged, that's wrong because they can! As long as you are alive then you're dreams can live because isn't it through you that they live, you are never to old to dream and never to old to make those dreams come true, so dream and achieve! Don't let time or age become an excuse not to live the life you've always wanted, that is a bigger waste of life than anything I could think of, it's counter productive to the whole point of truly living!

" **Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do then by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."**

Samuel Langhorne Clemens AKA Mark Twain (1835 – 1910)

American Author and Humorist

Ask yourself, where would you like to be in twenty years, what would you like to have achieved, how would you like to live and would you want to have any regrets? One of the saddest things in life is a life full of regrets and that's what often happens to people who decide not to follow their dreams, it's sad when someone starts to say, "I could have" or, "I should have." I've seen that very thing happen to people in my life and these people are always depressed and lamenting about what could have been, well now is the time for you to dream and achieve! In twenty years time would you rather be living the life of your dreams or spend your time wishing you could live that life? You have a chance now to start over, it's never too late to start over fresh and clean; people do it every year on New Year's Eve so why not now? Life isn't something to be looked back upon in disappointment, life is meant to be enjoyed and I definitely believe there to be great joy in living your dreams!

You can't change the past but you can define and create your future by what you do now, have a dream and hold onto it, never let anyone tell you that it's impossible because it's not! There is no redo button for life, what's done is done but what's waiting to be done is to be decided by you so decide, don't ignore your dreams and don't let them become regrets. You only live once and most people forget that, I'm not implying that most people believe that they will live twice but rather that most people just take life for granted and don't appreciate the chance they have to do something great with their life. So many people settle in life and don't do the things they want in life only to wonder down the road what happened, where did all the time go and how did they end up where they did? As long as you are still living, you have the opportunity to make your dreams come true because life isn't a road filled with sparse amounts of opportunities here and there; life is one big opportunity that can be seized at any moment, so seize it!

" **A man's dreams are an index to his greatness."**

Zadok HaKohen (1823 – 1900)

Rabbi and Author

Your dreams serve as a blueprint for your future and you're the architect, they are a roadmap that can lead you to the best life you can possibly imagine and they are the best way to uncover your potential! I vehemently believe that within each person lies greatness, untold amounts of awesomeness...(I know that is not actually a word but as an author I should be able to make it one, I mean bling bling is in the dictionary, seriously?) Yeah, I kind of digressed there a bit but my point is that everyone has great potential but not everybody chooses to see it and even less choose to develop it.

Greatness exists in all of us, for some us that may be hard to believe but it's true, recognize that your potential for greatness lies in your dreams. Sometimes we look at the greatness in others and their accomplishments and we become intimidated, we doubt our ability to achieve the same things and we shouldn't because their greatness serves as proof as to what can be done by people. The greatness in others doesn't exist to intimidate us, it exists to inspire us, it exists to help us uncover and cultivate our own greatness and give us the courage to follow our own dreams!

" **When there is no vision, there is no hope."**

George W. Carver (1864 – 1943)

Scientist, Educator, Botanist and Inventor (he made Peanut Butter!)

Our dreams are our hopes, hopes for a better and more fulfilling life, hopes that can be made into reality! Dreams cannot only be made a reality but can change the reality of countless others as well, Mr. Carver's visions certainly did. Did you know that Mr. Carver invented an estimated 300 plus products all from the peanut? If you were to ask me whether or not it was possible to make 300 things from a little nut I would tell you that it was impossible, I mean seriously, 300! I still can't believe it to this day but my doubt doesn't matter and neither do the doubts of others when it comes to your dreams, why, because they are YOUR dreams and no one else's! Can you believe that he even made a type of gasoline from peanuts as well as nitroglycerin, I can't but then again it doesn't matter what I think because he did it. Don't let that last fact deter you from eating a peanut; you won't explode like TNT...I think.

What if Mr. Carver had never set out to pursue his vision, would anyone have found another use for peanuts aside from the obvious, would anyone have found 300? What if Mr. Carver had not worked so hard in trying to unlock the potential of the peanut, would we have peanut butter, could you imagine a world with no peanut butter? Sorry if you're allergic... I'm allergic to pollen...wish that never existed! Anyways back to my point, if Mr. Carver decided not to pursue what he did, we might live in a world with no Reese's Peanut Butter Cups...oh the horror! If a little nut could hold so many possibilities, nearly 300 of them then can you possibly imagine just how many possibilities you have, can you fathom just how much potential you have within you? It can be a bit scary when you come to realize that you're capable of achieving anything and you are, it's a daunting thing but at the same time it's exciting isn't it, knowing that you can make your wildest dreams come to fruition?

" **Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before."**

Edgar Allen Poe (1809 – 1849)

American Author and Poet

Now I don't quite know what dreams Mr. Poe was having but what I took away from that is to dare to dream big, daring to dream bigger than anyone before and why not? It's normally the people who dream big who win big so why not dream big, unless you truly do not have some grand desire which is okay as long as that's true to you and not done out of fear. It's much like the saying, "go big or go home," I don't know who first said that but they are right. The way I see it is that the real dare here is the word impossible, it's daring you to try to prove it wrong so do it, dare to dream big and prove that the impossible is just a word and nothing more! Don't waste time in fear, don't waste time doubting, dream! That word impossible is nothing more than a challenge so step up to it, dream big and be ready to make them happen!

" **All human beings are also dream beings. Dreaming ties all mankind together."**

Jack Kerovac (1922 – 1969)

Novelist, Poet and Painter

Everyone is unique but the one similarity we all share is dreams, we all have them, have the capacity to have them or at one point had them (and should be renewing them). Dreams are created by our thoughts, stretched to untold limits by our imaginations and shared by all people regardless of race, religion and socioeconomic backgrounds. Dreams bring us all together to build a future for ourselves as well as others around the world, that's why dreams are so important; we're all united in our pursuit of them. Dreams are the one thing that we all share, they connect us, dreams connect you to your heroes because they all have dreams and have had dreams and so do you! You never know, one day you might become someone's hero because you followed and achieved your dream, one day you might inspire others to follow their dreams. Having dreams is part of being human, it's the common denominator between every person on this Earth, we all have them and we all want to achieve them and we can!

" **Science does not know its debt to imagination."**

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882)

American Essayist, Poet and Lecturer

All human progress and advances are preceded by dreams, imagination or a vision of what can be done and what is possible. Most of what is considered to by science fact was once nothing more than science fiction, rockets, space shuttles, lasers and even a small personal communicator device like oh I don't know, a cell phone! Everything great stems from the human imagination, our ability to dream and conceive new ideas and inventions that could change the world. The power behind dreams is the power to change the world and you control that power and can achieve anything if you wake up and realize that. H.G. Wells wrote of space travel and atomic weapons long before anybody had even achieved these things and he believed they were possible but the rest of the world took his work as just science fiction, you tell me, is his work now fiction or fact? Imagination, dreams and visions create everything and YOU create them, do you see what potential you have now or what?

The great author Jules Verne wrote of traveling the skies, space and underwater before any practical means of traveling those places even existed, he saw it before the world did. We've traveled to space, we have space shuttles, we have airplanes and we have submarines and all of these were just visions once, an intangible part of someone's imagination and yet they exist today. Just because your dreams aren't physical at first doesn't mean they won't become so, dreams are intangible at first because that way they can't be destroyed, you can't destroy an idea. Thoughts are stronger than steel for you can break and melt steel but you can't lay your hands on thoughts, thoughts change and shape the world around us and you can make your thoughts a reality!

" **You see things; and you say 'why?' But I dream things that never were and say 'why not?'"**

George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950)

Playwright and Political Activist

It's a great question to ask isn't it, why can't you have all that you want, why you can't you live the life you want, why can't you? I have never found any good reason for why you can't have your dreams come true, the vast majority of the reason's I've seen are nothing more than excuses, you're not here to make excuses but to achieve! Where does it say that you can't achieve your dreams and more to the point where has it been proven you can't, all the proof I have ever seen shows that you can! You have within you the power to literally change the world, never forget that and ask yourself why not? Stop looking for reasons why you can't have or do something and look at all the reasons that prove you can, look at all the examples that show the great heights to which a person can reach and follow your dreams!

" **There is nothing like a dream to create the future."**

Victor Hugo (1802 – 1885)

French Poet, Artist, Novelist, Statesman and Human Rights Activist

If you want a better and brighter future for yourself and then make it yourself, create it through your dreams, make a vision of what you want your life to be like and be willing to make it happen! The future is always made by dreams, your future, my future and the future of the world is all created and changed through dreams. Our lives are like a ball of clay, the clay can be shaped to be anything but first we need a vision of what to shape it into and then we need to make it happen. Your future lies in your dreams, whatever dreams you have can be your life, simple! There is nothing in the universe that can take the place or power of dreams; I mean how can you achieve your dreams without having a dream right?

"The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities."

James Allen (1864 – 1912)

British Philosophical Writer

It's like I've been saying, everything starts out as a dream and eventually is made a reality by the dreamer, the greatest things in this world were at first just a dream. Just like a seed, dreams are meant to be nurtured so they can grow, what starts off as imagination eventually becomes reality if you let it. No one is born a success, no one is born having achieved anything, it's all done by following a dream. Rome, one of the largest and greatest empires in history started as a dream. America was created by the dreams of ill equipped people who managed to defeat one of the largest and most powerful military forces of that time and it was done because of a dream! Dreams are the most powerful thing in the cosmos and they are yours to control and achieve, never doubt their possibilities!

" **All dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them."**

Walt Disney (1901 – 1966)

American Animator, Film Producer, Screenwriter, Voice Actor, Entertainer, Entrepreneur, International Icon and Philanthropist

Walt Disney built an empire off of dreams and possibilities, he changed the world with his imagination and created a world of his own, if Walt Disney tells you dreams are possible then believe it! Disney World is the kingdom of dreams and magic, what more proof do you need that dreams are possible; Walt Disney's life and work are a testament to their possibilities. The man is a legend who built one of the most successful companies in the world; he built a kingdom from a dream and a little but awesome mouse! You deserve to have your dreams come true, everybody does but not everybody is willing to accept the fact that they can come true, you deserve to know that YOUR DREAMS CAN COME TRUE!

" **Don't be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams."**

Unknown

That's what our dreams are for, to help lead us to better life, to improve our circumstances and overcome our problems. I know this for a fact because the pursuit of my dreams has led me away from my own problems. I struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts before I found something to live for, before I found something worth pursuing. My dreams helped save me from death, that's the power dreams hold and what they can do for us, dreams can take a person from desiring death to truly living by giving them something to live for. The pursuit of dreams has led people to conquer the sea, land, air, space and most importantly allowed them to conquer their own lives.

" **We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter's evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true."**

Woodrow Wilson (1856 – 1924)

**28** th **President of the United States of America, 13** th **President of Princeton University, 34** th **Governor of New Jersey, Recipient of the American Peace Prize and the Nobel Peace Prize**

Everybody has greatness in them and it's through our dreams that we unleash it, it's through our dreams that our greatness grows and with it we do great things, all successful people are dreamers. It can be hard to hold to our dreams at times, there are days when they don't seem possible or moments when the opinions of others get to us but in spite of all that it is our duty to ensure that our dreams never die! You have to look after your dreams much like you would a flower, if you neglect them, they will begin to wilt and will inevitably die...don't let them. Remember that your dreams are a part of you, they are made from your thoughts and passion and if you let them go, then a part of you goes with them. If you want to uncover your own greatness and see how far you can go in life then you're going to have to dream and be willing to pursue them, so dream and dream big!

" **Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself."**

William Faulkner (1879 – 1962)

American Author and Nobel Prize Laureate

Never settle for less than all you can be because you can be anything you want! Life isn't a race in the way most of us think, we aren't racing to pass other people but rather to be better than ourselves, to constantly improve and reach new heights. When creating a dream be sure to make it the best dream you can because in trying to achieve this best dream you will be bettering yourself. When you aim for the stars you set yourself on the path to becoming a star yourself. Life is a one way trip that shouldn't be wasted by settling for less than all you can be and achieve, what does settling give you, what benefit is there to it?

" **A man is not old until his regrets take the place of his dreams."**

Yiddish Proverb

You can't do live over again, there is no magical fix or redo button for the past no matter how much we wish there was one. Nobody wants to live with regrets yet so many of us end up having them, we often regret not doing certain things, not pursuing our dreams but we can change that now! One life, one great big chance is all we get and yet that's all we need, it's never too late to create and pursue a dream. I wish I had made the effort to find out what my dreams were earlier on in life and start pursuing them earlier as well, but I didn't. I can't change that but I can make it so I have no regrets about it, I can pursue my dreams now and pursue them relentlessly until they are made reality and so can you! You need to ask yourself if you are okay with letting your dreams die, are you okay with not pursuing them and living a life where you only wonder what could have been? If you're not okay with that, if you don't want any regrets about that then be willing to embrace the possibilities of your dreams and be willing to achieve them!

" **Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future."**

Charles F. Kettering (1876 – 1958)

American Businessman, Engineer, One of the Founders of Delco Electronics Corporation, Inventor, Holder of 186 Patents and Head of Research at General Motors from 1920 – 1947

The only limits a person can have are those that they dream up themselves, otherwise we have no limits, as big as we dream is as big we can accomplish. Whatever life you can imagine yourself living is a life you can achieve so don't limit that vision, don't limit yourself. People who achieve grand and great things do so because they have great and grandiose dreams, you can't hit what you don't aim for, therefore it makes sense to aim high and shoot for the stars.

" **It may be those who do most, dream most."**

Stephen Leacock (1869 – 1944)

Political Scientist, Teacher, Humorist and Writer

The people who accomplish and achieve great things do so because they have a desire or dream to do so, it's that simple, if you can dream of doing something then you can do it! Nobody is born better than anybody else, the difference lies in how big someone is willing to dream, some people settle for smaller ones whereas others dream larger than anybody else. If you want to do great things and live a great life and you have to dream great, dream big, don't limit your dreams and yourself!

" **All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers."**

Orison Swett Marden

" **Follow your dreams, for as you dream you shall become."**

Unknown

How do you think people who achieve their dreams achieved them? It's so obvious and we all know that all we have to do is follow our dreams but then how come so many of us don't do it? Success and achieving our dreams isn't a complicated thing, we've known all along how to do it but so few of us do. Now's your chance to take that first step, here and right now is the time for you write down your greatest desires and dreams, do it now! If you're reading this sentence and haven't done what I just told you to then you're missing the point, GET A PEN, GET PAPER AND WRITE DOWN YOUR DREAMS, NOW! Putting something in writing is one of the best ways to remember it and more importantly to create the intention of doing it because you do intend to follow your dreams don't you? You can only live the life of your dreams by following your dreams and to follow your dreams you need to have dreams to follow duh! You know nothing is impossible and that there are no limits to what you can dream and do so why hold back in your dreams, dream big!

" **It is often said that men are ruled by their imaginations; but it would be truer to say they are governed by the weakness of their imaginations."**

Walter Bagehot (1826 – 1877)

British Journalist, Essayist and Businessman

We all have the capacity to dream great dreams and achieve them but some people choose not to believe that and set small dreams and worse, some people set small dreams that they have no desire to achieve. How does any of that make any sense, when you have the ability to live the life of your dreams, why would you choose to lessen those dreams? Doing that is much like knowing that you have the capacity to run in a marathon for hours but resigning yourself to only running for minutes, where's the logic in that? Some people, for whatever strange reasons choose not to dream great dreams, for some mad and incomprehensible reason people choose to shrink their dreams. Your ability to succeed and achieve will only be as small or large as you set them to be, remember that, you control your potential!

" **We trifle when we assign limits to our desires, since nature hath set none."**

Christian Nestell Bovee (1820 – 1904)

American Author

I don't recall it ever being written in the skies or in stone what a person can and cannot do, what a person can and cannot do is to be determined by that person alone. Limits are much like rubber bands, they can be tight and constraining but once you start pushing and stretching, they will break. If there are limits to what we can do then those limits only exist so we can break them and set new limits, but since we don't know if there are any limits I'm going to continue to dream as if there aren't any.

" **Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall at last unveil."**

James Allen

I see dreams much like that saying, "you are what you eat," only in this case you are what you dream yourself to be. Too many people believe that they are victims of fate and circumstances and I refuse to believe that, your "fate" is what you decide to make it! Everybody has the ability to create a dream and see it through until they achieve it and therefore each one of us has the ability to choose our own fate. We are not victims, our lives are not at the mercy of circumstances, we have the power to direct and change our lives as we see fit.

People have followed and continue to follow dreams for that very reason, they give us the power to make our lives what we want them to be, if dreams couldn't be realized then who would waste time on them? Dreams are real, the power they have to change your life is real and your ability to achieve them is real! Your dreams are literally visions of the future, of what your life could be and will be if you're willing to make it happen. You're neither a victim nor a prisoner to fate, you are its master, YOU control your fate!

If we are all truly powerless before fate then why have people fought for their dreams in the past and why do people still fight for them and achieve them? Fate is an excuse made by those either not willing to pursue their dreams or those who gave up, harsh but true. Do you want to know why people fight for what they want, because they know they can have it, they know that they have a choice in life. People choose to fight for their dreams because they know they have the power to direct and control their lives. You have choices the same choices as every other successful person on this Earth, do you want to move aimlessly through life or do you want to pursue and achieve your dreams? Aim as high as you can because anything less and you are just short selling yourself, you're hampering your own progress by limiting your dreams so don't do it.

" **It's not in the stars to hold our destiny but ourselves."**

William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)

English Poet and Playwright

There are people who will tell you that, "it's not in the stars," or "it was never meant to be," but those people are wrong. Nothing is written in the stars about your limits, there are no limits to your potential and your destiny because it's up to YOU to define those things. People like to say things like that because it gives them a sense of comfort if they didn't go after their dreams or quit on them. I'm going to tell you something that you may not want to hear but going after your dreams might mean going far out of your comfort zone to achieve them but you can achieve them! If our "destinies" were set in stone then it would be absolutely pointless to try and change them yet people struggle to change them and succeed. The proof that you can achieve your dreams and change your life lies in the proverbial pudding of history, people have done it before, people are doing it now and you can be one of them.

" **It's better to shoot for the stars and miss than aim for the gutter and hit it."**

Unknown

Unknown is right, it's better to aim high and risk possibly falling short rather than aiming low and hitting that mark. People think that falling short means failure but it doesn't, you can always improve and get what you initially wanted, just because you didn't get it the first time out doesn't mean anything at all. Aim high with the intention of scoring high, set big dreams and don't worry about falling a bit short. Think about it, if you aim for the stars and fall short, well aren't you still in space, you're above the world aren't you and that's not exactly a bad place to be is it?

" **The Wright brothers flew straight through the smokescreen of impossibility."**

Charles F. Kettering

No dream is impossible, remember that, every success story starts off as "impossible" but ends in achievement! The vast majority of successful people have probably at one time or another been told by someone that their dreams and pursuits are impossible, so what? Some of the most successful people in history were told that their dreams were impossible but they still achieved them, how much more proof do you need that your dreams are possible? You shouldn't be focused on what's impossible, you should be focused on your dreams, you need to be focused on creating the best dream possible for you to pursue and achieve!

" **If you can dream it, you can do it!"**

Walt Disney

If you have the capability to conceive a dream then you have the capability to achieve that dream, simple! Why would anyone want to believe that they couldn't achieve their dreams, is there any good reason to look for excuses or reasons that you can't do something? Don't dismiss your dreams as just bits of imagination because remember that it's imagination that precedes the creation of everything great. If you couldn't achieve your dreams then everybody would be telling you so, now maybe there are a few people telling you that very thing but history's greatest people are telling you otherwise, whom are you going to listen to?

" **Follow your dreams!"**

Unknown

That's it, just follow them, no excuses or anything else but just follow your dreams. That quote is one of the best pieces of advice anybody can give you when it comes to success, it's short, sweet, simple and it's right! Every successful person who got where they were did so by following a vision, a dream, follow yours! Millions of people over the ages have all believed in the pursuit of dreams, they all can't be wrong can they? It takes more courage to get up and decide to follow your dreams then to sit down and settle for less than all you can achieve in life. In five, ten or twenty years time where would you like to be, do you want to have to look back and wish then that you decided to follow your dreams now, or would you rather be living the life of your dreams and thanking yourself for making the decision to follow them? The way to success is simple and simply stated it is this, follow your dreams!

There's far too much ambiguity in life, nobody knows what's around the next corner but following your dreams is a way to add a bit of control to your life. Following your dreams gives you a destination, it gives you a constant in the constantly changing life and that's a good thing. Life is so unpredictable but having a dream gives you the ability to predict where you can be in five or ten years times. Achieving our dreams is a way to take back control and stop a bit of the randomness in life; it's a way to no longer be subject to circumstances but rather to be the master of them. I really believe it is important to follow your dreams and more so I fervently believe that you can achieve them! Alright, you've heard me harp on long enough about dreams; there importance, their possibilities and now you want to know the next step in achieving them right?

**Goals, You need them to score!**

" **You will never achieve your dreams if they don't become goals."**

Unknown

Now don't let that first part about never achieving your dreams discourage you, you can achieve your dreams but you need to make them into goals to do so. Once you have your destination you need to get directions don't you and that's what in essence goals are. Everything needs a plan in order to succeed, when building a house, aren't blueprints made? When driving somewhere, you have a map and or GPS, making goals makes achieving dreams easier. This is all pretty obvious stuff but when did I say that achieving dreams was complicated. Maybe now you're starting to see just how easy obvious it is to succeed, we've always known how to do it but most of us never bothered taking the steps, well now's the time. Since everybody has a different dream and there is no exact way to plan for them all, I'm going to offer advice that can help you plan for almost anything. Now you're probably wondering how do you go about planning for your dreams right? Good question, allow me to allow someone else to answer that for you.

" **Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it."**

Rene Descartes (1596 – 1650)

French Philosopher, Mathematician and Writer

That's really it in a nutshell; once again it's so obvious yet so many of us make things more complicated than they have to be. Whatever your dreams are, just break them up into as many parts as you feel are necessary and manageable. I know that none of this advice is a shocking revelation but you don't need shocking revelations to succeed, you need tried, true and obvious ways that history has proven! I also know that this is a bit vague and that an example could help, example's make everything better, well not everything but let's use one anyways.

One of the most common dreams I've heard people mention is building their dream body, some dream of losing 50 lbs whilst others dream of adding 50 pounds, let's stick with losing 50lbs for now. Every dream needs some sort of rough timeline to make it into a goal so for this one let's work with losing 50lbs over one year. Now a year can be a long time and a lot can happen over that period so let's try to make this more manageable shall we? Let's try to work the year deadline into something more inline with the number 50, if you break up a year into weeks it just so turns out you have 52 of them, what a coincidence! So now you've gone from 50 lbs in a year to a more easy to work with, 50 lbs in 52 weeks. I know that the timeline hasn't really changed but the way you view it has, 52 weeks sounds much less ambiguous than a year doesn't it? Remember that success has a lot to do with psychology; it's how you perceive things and act in accordance so yeah.

Now that we have an easier time with managing the pounds to week ratio let's take a better look at it. We have 52 weeks to lose 50 pounds, break that down more and we eventually come to around a pound a week, now that sounds way easier than before doesn't it? A pound a week almost sounds like a joke, some people can lose that in a day based on what they eat and how many times they go to the bathroom...okay maybe that wasn't the best example. Now if you lost one pound for every week of the year you would end up losing two more than you dreamed of, the timeline hasn't changed but do you see how much more manageable the situation becomes when you break it up. You're still going after the same thing but it's how you do it, once you break it down from yearly to weekly you can take it a step further into daily goals and even hourly. You can break this example of weight loss into hour-by-hour plans for meals, exercise routines and anything. Goals are tools to make dreams easier, set them and use them to succeed!

" **Write it down. Written goals have a way of transforming wishes into wants; cant's into cans; dreams into plans; and plans into reality. Don't just think it – ink it!"**

Unknown

Writing down your goals is one of the best things you can do to help ensure your success, writing them down helps make them more concrete and more likely you will act on them. Everybody needs a plan and what good is a plan if it's not written down. This is the first physical step to actually making your dreams come true, writing down your plans for achieving them. Successful people set goals annually and they always write them down, writing things down helps you define them and gives you a physical reminder of what it is you want to achieve. It's like writing it down in stone only pen and paper serve just as well, as soon as you write down your dreams and goals they're real, now you've just taken them from ideas and put them in a more tangible form.

If you haven't already done so with your dreams, write them down, you should have done that a while ago but if not then DO IT NOW! Define your dreams and goals clearly, know what you want and how you plan to get it! Be as articulate with this writing part as you possibly can, know exactly what career you want, what kind of house you would like to live in, what car you would like to own and so on. As soon as you've written your dreams and goals down you have just made the first step forwards in achieving them, see that wasn't so hard was it? Successful people always set goals because they know that it is through goals that dreams can be achieved, if you don't have a plan, how can you make something happen the way you want it to?

" **Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage but simply because they have never organized their energies around a goal."**

Elbert Hubbard (1856 – 1915)

American Writer, Philosopher, Artist and Publisher

People succeed and achieve their dreams because they set goals and work to accomplish them, not because they're stronger, faster or better educated, that has nothing to do with success. Many people will use those things as excuses but the truth is if success did rely on those prerequisites then we wouldn't have people without college degrees go on to become millionaires and billionaires. If success relied on physical capability then we wouldn't have people with physical disabilities rise to great heights and achieve success but they do. Success is not physical, success is mental, success is an attitude and requires proper planning and that's it! You've probably heard the saying, "prior planning prevents poor performance," well this is where you do your prior planning. Now is the time for you to set your goals, define them and write them down!

" **Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure."**

Confucius (551 – 479 BC)

Chinese Philosopher, Teacher, Politician and Editor

To achieve success you have to plan for success otherwise you're setting yourself up for failure, now don't let that discourage you, this quote is to help stress the importance of planning well. If you're taking this seriously, as you should be, then you have nothing to worry about. Achieving your dreams and succeeding in life takes a great deal of planning, the reason so many people don't do the things they wish they could is because they don't plan to. It's all these simple and obvious things that people overlook that end up keeping them from succeeding. People are too quick to believe that it takes "genius" or luck or something else to succeed but never think about the obvious things. That's why I'm sharing these quotes and my own insights with you, they are here to guide you, inspire you and prove to you that now only is success possible but that much of it is simple.

" **The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one."**

Mark Twain

That's all it takes to start, it's not complicated, create your goals and when you're ready start on the first one. Don't over-think this, just do it! Make your plans, break up your dream into as many goals/steps as you think it will take to achieve and when it's time to start, start on the first goal. That's all you really need to know about goals and setting them, it's easy to understand and follow.

" **If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes."**

Andrew Carnegie (1835 – 1919)

Scottish – American Industrialist and Prominent Philanthropist

Your goals should be set to command the best out of you because if you want the best then you had better be willing to give your best effort to achieve them! This chapter is going to be very short because there isn't really much to say about goals, it's obvious that you need to set them and it's really simple to set them. Everything has plans, blueprints or instructions and that's what goals are and why they're so important to set and follow. Just as you set big dreams you need to set big goals in order to reach them. By achieving goals on the path to our dreams we help uncover more of our potential, every time you achieve one you catch a glimpse of your potential and that's why goals are so helpful. Goals help show you what you're capable of doing; every goal you achieve shows you that you have the capacity to work towards and achieve something.

Andrew Carnegie is considered by many to be the second richest person to have ever lived. He came from humble beginnings in Scotland and eventually rose to great prominence. He ended up with a net worth that today would be valued at around 300 billion dollars! You can bet that he had dreams and made goals in order to achieve success. Every vision needs goals to reach it, don't overlook this simple step, it's so simple and so beneficial that it would be stupid to ignore it. I know that I may not have the credentials to be speaking of success and achievement but I know I'm smart enough to heed the advice of all the successful people who have come before me and follow their example.

" **We will either find a way, or make one!"**

Hannibal (247 – 182 BC)

Carthaginian Military Commander and is considered to be one of the greatest commanders in history

Like I said before, everyone is different with different dreams and circumstances so there is no absolute and clear-cut plan to follow. The most important thing about goals is to set them, you can set them however you want and to fit your life, you don't have to follow the examples I gave you. Contrary to what many people say, there is no one way to set goals and achieve them, if there was then everyone would only do it that way and we would all only recognize that one way. Success has been achieved so many different ways by people from so many different backgrounds and this all goes to prove that you can do it however you want, all I'm doing is offering some motivation and some guiding insights. If you feel that a certain path isn't for you then don't be afraid to do it your way, if you can't find a method for achieving what you want then do it how you see fit.

There is no "proper" way to achieve dreams, there is as many ways as there are people, you CAN make your own way so don't be afraid to do so. Recognize that your dreams are possible, create your dreams and set your goals to reach them however you desire to. This is YOUR life, YOU CAN DO THINGS YOUR WAY! Your goals are the path you're going to have to travel to achieve your dreams so you should create a path you are going to want to travel. Don't create or follow a list of goals that are going to have you compromise who you are in the process. In the day and age we live there is information available everywhere on how to do anything so you can find a way to achieve your dreams and if you can't find one you like, then make one! Create your goals in order to achieve YOUR dream, plan properly and YOU WILL achieve the proper results!

There is nothing more I can say at this point about goals, there never was much to say in the first place. Goals are a very simple tool to help ensure that you find a way to achieve what it is you want, they are the individual steps in a staircase, you climb them one after another in succession and eventually get to the top. You can see them as the rungs in a ladder or the tracks in a railroad, whatever, the point is that you need to set them and follow them and you will achieve your dreams. Now that you've set your goals; well what's the next step? After you know what you want to do and have a plan to do it, well, it's time to do it!

**A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action Please!**

" **All of the so-called 'secrets to success' will not work unless you do."**

Unknown

It's great that now you know what you have to do but do you know that you actually have to get out there and do it? Again this is very obvious advice but how many people actually follow it? Everyone knows that it takes work to achieve results but very few people actually go out and work to make their dreams come true. I've met many people that have deluded themselves into believing that somehow their dreams will "magically" come to them. I've tried my hand at magic, it didn't really work out, I got burned...literally. You can get all the "secrets" you want but what I've learned is that there are no secrets so success, there's hard work and with out it, all your secrets are just thoughts and nothing more. If you get knowledge on how to do something then you have to put it to work, once you know how, you have to do! So all that being said, GET TO WORK NOW!

" **The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."**

**Lao Tzu – (6** th **Century BC)**

Ancient Chinese Philosopher

Every success story starts out with a single step, that first leap and that's what you have to do now in order to make your dreams come true. You've got the dreams, you've got the goals and now you have to start taking action to achieve your dreams. I know it can be a bit frightening finally having to take that first step, especially when you're thinking of the long journey ahead but remember that for now, all you have to do is just start the journey. That's all I'm asking you to do right now, I just want you to make the first move, don't think about the whole journey that lies ahead, focus on making your first move. Everything big starts with something small and that's all you have to do, just take that first small step and soon you'll be thousands of steps down the road. This shouldn't be too hard; you've already made your goals and know what to do so DO IT!

" **The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one."**

Mark Twain

I know I've used this quote before but I'm using it again because it applies here, if you're unsure of where to begin then read this quote again, it should be obvious. For any of you who are feeling a bit hesitant about where to start, don't worry because it's simple, start on your first goal. Once you've broken down the path to your dream you should already know where to begin, once you know where to start, all you have to do is start from there. How does anyone start a race? Everyone starts from the starting line don't they and all they have to do is take that first step and repeat the process of step after step until the end. If you're still unsure after that, then maybe you should go back to your first goal and see if you can break that down into a series of even simpler and less intimidating mini-goals. Once you've done that, just start on your first mini-goals, even goals can be broken down to be more manageable.

" **Everything you want is out there waiting for you to ask. Everything you want also wants you. But you have to take action to get it."**

Jules Renard (1869 – 1910)

French Author and Dramatist

All of your dreams are out there waiting for you to claim them, they are possible to achieve but you have to make the effort to reach out and grab them. It does you no good to have dreams and make plans if you're not going to go after them. It may be common sense to say that you need to act to make things happen, but from my experience it doesn't seem to be that common at all. I've spoken to many people who have dreams but procrastinate in setting out after them, they have everything planned and ready but aren't ready to go after them. Dreams aren't meant to be kept solely under your pillow at night, dreams are meant to be acted upon and they're meant to be achieved by you! All of your dreams are possible but YOU have to act in order to achieve them, you need to get off your laurels and get to work!

I know that some success gurus say that all you need is a wish and that's all it takes to succeed...yeah okay. If all it took were wishes then you are owed quite a bit of back pay for all of your birthday wishes that have come and gone. I know I'm still owed a few superpowers from my past birthday wishes as well as a fully functioning Death Star. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that wishes don't come true but rather that YOU have to make them come true, understand? Wishes don't work; you work to make wishes come true, you've got to put some elbow grease in to get the things you want.

" **There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded."**

Mark Twain

Look, you can sit around and talk about what you want to do, or, you can go out and accomplish it! That is the one of the largest problems people face in making their dreams come true, acting on them, they have the dream but then what? Some people grind to a halt when it's time for them to pick up the pace and work hard to make their dreams a reality. How many of you have had a great idea and procrastinated on it, only to see someone else make it a reality and successful? It's like the old adage, "you snooze you lose," you have to work to make your dreams come true. How useful is it to have dreams that you never act on and just talk about? Dreams are supposed to be your guiding stars to a better life, you're supposed to follow them, act on them and achieve them! Don't procrastinate, don't just sit around talking about your dreams but go out and accomplish them!

" **The heights by great men reached and kept, were not obtained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night."**

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 – 1882)

American Poet and Educator

Anyone who has achieved a dream, accomplished something great or reached some level or prestige did it by working hard! No one gets anywhere by sitting around and just dreaming, twiddling your thumbs does not count as work so get to work! You've probably heard of at least one overnight success story in your life, but the truth is that there is no such thing as an overnight success story. Those people all put in work, whether it was months or years of work; they all put in their time. Nobody achieves anything in the blink of an eye, the only thing that really happens overnight in those overnight success stories is those people's exposure to the world, their fame is overnight not their success. Success is not instant; it takes time and hard work, which is something that many people don't want to commit to hence why so many people do not succeed.

There are no secrets to success, there are no short cuts and I'm sorry if that burst your bubble but you need to know the truth. Success takes hard work but that's not necessarily a bad thing because everybody is capable of working hard. If there really were any secrets to success then only people who were privy to those secrets could succeed but success is dependent on hard work and that's something you can do. Success secrets are nothing more than an excuse, you can't cheat achievement, it's called achievement for a reason and that reason is that you have to work to earn it!

The reason so many people view the rapid success of others as an overnight success is because while they are out partying and procrastinating, wasting time, someone else is working hard to achieve something and they do it in the time others waste! Someone could spend years inventing something revolutionary and when it comes out it takes the world by storm, what people focus on is the now, it's rapid success and that's what they see as an overnight success. Most people never realize all the time and hard work that goes into creating that success, most people only focus on the immediate results that come with success and that's a big mistake. Don't let this deter you however, I much prefer hard work to secrets because hard work is in your control, we are all capable of it.

" **Vision without action is daydream. Action without vision is nightmare."**

Japanese Proverb

What good is having an idea if you never plan to act on it and what good acting on an idea without a plan? Fortunately you have a plan, you've set goals and know the importance of acting on them so you're in pretty good shape so far. You can't just let your dreams remain as thoughts and you can't expect to succeed by just working without a vision to work towards. Dreams, goals and action are all part of success, you need them to achieve something. You can look at dreams, goals and action like links in a chain; they are all connected and help build a longer and stronger chain. Acting without a plan can be a nightmare, you would be setting yourself up for trouble, that is why I spent a bit of time explaining the importance of properly setting your goals. I know I wasn't as in depth about goals as I could have been but that is because there is no right path that you have to follow and act on, you can make and follow your own path, just be ready to act!

There are no excuses, this is the information age, you have access to an infinite amount of information at your fingertips, you can find out anything you want just with a few clicks. You shouldn't have trouble finding out what goals to set, how set them and so on, making a plan shouldn't be hard when you can research anything but remember that all of your plans need to be acted on. Don't make this harder than it has to be, take action to make your plans and act on making your plans come to fruition. If you have access to a computer then you potentially have access to all the information of the world, past and present and with that information you can figure out how to plan for any dreams but all that information is useless if you don't act on it! Visions don't change the world; people who act on their visions change the world!

" **Either attempt it not, or succeed."**

Ovid (43 – 18 AD)

Roman Poet

It doesn't get any simpler than that, either you don't bother to do it or you get to work and get it done! This isn't the time to dawdle and mess around, once you have your vision and you have your plans, you need to get to work! Let me ask you something, do you honestly believe that somebody is going to come by and hand you your dreams on a silver platter? No? I didn't think so either. If you want something, go after it! Too many people procrastinate and wait to start on their dreams, the longer you wait, the longer it takes. You either don't do it or you keep working at it until it gets done, it doesn't matter how many times you make mistakes, if you keep working you get the results you want.

Never underestimate the power of hard work; the pyramids were built with blood, sweat and tears, not luck but work! The ancient Egyptians used tools that are primitive by today's standards yet they were able to build lasting monuments that we would be hard pressed to replicate today even with all of our advances. Hard work contributes far more to success than "luck," than "secrets" and than talent. Nothing in this universe can take the place of working hard until you make your dreams a reality. Essentially you have two choices before you, either don't bother with pursuing your dreams or get to work and achieve them!

" **Action is the foundational key to all success."**

Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973)

Painter, Ceramicist, Sculptor and Printmaker

You can't expect to a win a prize if you don't participate in the contest can you? It's the same principal, if you expect results, then you have to put in the equivalent amount of work. Success doesn't come by snapping your fingers; it doesn't come by luck but by taking action! I know this is repetitive but it's like they say, "repetition is key," and the key here is to drive all of these points and insights into your skull so you understand their importance, how to use them for your benefit and get motivated by them. How can you expect to do something if you don't actually make the effort to do it? Once again I have stated something so stupidly obvious and yet I have met people who only talk about their dreams and have no plans to act on them...where's the sense in that? I will take stupidly obvious as opposed to just plain stupid because that's what not acting on your dreams is...stupid!

" **Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."**

Sir Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965)

British Politician, Statesman, Orator, Artist, Writer, Historian, British Officer, Nobel Prize Winner in Literature, Famed for his leadership during World War Two and Two-Time British Prime Minister from (1940 – 1945 and 1951 – 1955)

Choice not chance decides your life, you have the choice to create the life you want and you have a choice to go out and achieve that life or do nothing. You can't sit around waiting for the right opportunity in life, that's an excuse; the right moment to act is now! Dreams are achieved, not waited for, you can't expect to sit around and wait for things to happen because you will be waiting forever. You are more than welcome to try waiting for you dreams to come true, let me know how that works out in the year 3,000 because you might as well be waiting for a millennia if you don't plan on acting. It's one of the biggest excuses ever, waiting around for the right opportunity, what about the opportunities here and now in the present? It will never be the right time if you keep on waiting, you make it the right time by deciding to act now, you can't wait for things to happen but rather you have to make them happen!

You always always always have to make effort, let's say just for fun that your dreams were lying in front of you and waiting to be grabbed. In that scenario wouldn't you still have to make an effort to reach out and grab them? Even if the effort in some cases is minimal, you still have to make the effort; you cannot expect to get anything by waiting around. The present moment is all we ever have, though we can dream about the future, when it inevitably comes we will be living it as the present so you can only act now. Take advantage of this moment because it's here, now and in your control, don't wait around but use this time to move forwards in life. Nobody has ever succeeded by wasting time; people succeed by working hard and taking advantage of the time they are given because time is a precious commodity that can never be regained so use it now!

" **We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish to be. We have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in the future can be produced by our present actions. So we have to know how to act."**

Swami Vivekananda (1863 – 1902)

Indian Monk, Philosopher and Lecturer

We are all responsible for our success but that fact escapes many people, some people don't want to take responsibility for their own life and actions, some people feel it easier to blame luck or fate. Your actions control your life and shape your future; you have the ability to create the future you want by acting now in the present. Everything we do has a consequence, bad or good and our current life is a product of our past actions and our future life is to be determined by what you do now. If you want to achieve your dreams then you need to take responsibility for your life and act now to make them a reality! We are always living in the present and when the future we planned for does come, it will be the present moment for us so it is up to YOU to shape that future now!

You can be whatever, do whatever and achieve whatever you want as long as you act on your dreams! Take responsibility for your life, take control and take action now! The present moment is all we ever have, it is the only moment we have the direct ability to affect and by properly doing so, we can create a future of our desire. Act now so later you will be able to live the life of your dreams. You can't sit around waiting for the right moment to act, the right moment is always now, the right moment is the present so act!

" **If it is to be, it is up to me."**

Unknown

It really is that simple, if you want to achieve your dreams then it is up to you to go out and get them. If you're under the impression that somebody is going to come by and do all the work for you, give you all the credit and rewards then by all means, wait for this person. I'm not saying that people can't and won't help you on your path to achieving your dreams but rather that you shouldn't wait around for others to come to your aid. It is up to you to get started and to make as much progress as you can before and if any outside help comes along. If you sit and wait for someone to come by and help you, you could be waiting for a very long time and that's time wasted that could have been used to make progress. If you want to achieve something in life then take responsibility for yourself and take action! Don't dawdle, get up and get to work on making your dreams a reality!

" **In the arena of human life, the honors and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities in action."**

Aristotle (384 – 322 BC)

The rewards in life only go to those who earn them, to earn something you have to put in the work and if you don't put in the work you get what you put in, nothing! It's not a hard choice, you can either procrastinate or you can work hard and get results. You can look at it like a math equation, the results will equal the sum of what you put in, zero effort in equals zero rewards out. If you want something then you have to take it upon yourself to get started and go after it. All successful people are self-starters, they have a vision, they make plans and then get to work on achieving their goals and dreams. True success isn't handed out, true success is earned and you can only earn it through getting to work! I learned a long time ago that hard work always pays off and if you want to achieve big things then you are going to have to work hard for them.

Think about it like this, how often do you see people around you get rewarded for doing absolutely nothing? Chances are it never really happens and if it does it's rare, people earn raises don't they; earn being the operative word there. It's very simple get to work and work hard and you will achieve what you set out to. For some strange reason there are people who do act but act as if someone is going to come by and serve them their dreams on a silver platter, do you believe that's going to happen to you? No? Good because the only way you're going to live the life of your dreams is if you go after them yourself.

" **Shallow men believe in luck, strong men believe in cause and effect."**

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Too many people believe that their dreams will only come true if "luck" is on their side. "Luck" does not control anything in life, YOU control your life and you do it by your thoughts and actions. Dreams come true by working hard, not because the mystical, magical and intangible force of luck decides to make them come true. You have the power to change the course of your life, to direct it to whatever end you want but to do so you need to employ that power, you need to act! Hesitation doesn't get you anywhere, if you were drowning would doing nothing help you or doom you? If you want to achieve something then you need to move your arms and legs, you've got to splash, flail and move or else your drown. It's YOUR life and you have the ability to control it so take control, don't be a bystander to your own life, act and control it!

You know what luck is, luck is an excuse, luck is something to blame for when things go bad and when things happen that are above our understanding. Luck doesn't determine success and it doesn't control your life, you do! Granted, sometimes things happen in life that are bad and out of our control but that doesn't mean we have to lie down and take it, no! We have the ability to choose how we act and react to things in life; the problem is that most people resign themselves to only reacting and never acting. Don't just sit around and let things happen to you, get out there and make the things you want to happen, happen! You are a strong person and you have the strength to take control on your life, you just need to see and recognize this inner strength and employ it. What you need to do is get to work!

" **A strong, successful man is not the victim of his environment. He creates favorable conditions. His own inherent force and energy compel things to turn out as he desires."**

Orison Swett Marden

No man or woman is here on this Earth for the purpose of being a victim to life's twists and turns, no! Your purpose is what you want to make it, you are here to live life, to enjoy it and achieve things that you want. Successful people don't let their environment control them; they work hard and control their environment and their lives. If you don't like certain things about your life then take the responsibility to take action and change those things. Whatever you want in life, get to work on achieving those things, compel life to give you what you want. If you want to get in better shape then get to the gym, if you want a raise then get work now, whatever you want get to work in order to get it! You can create the conditions and environments you want in life but you are going to have to work to do it, so get to work.

You are not supposed to live every moment of your life reacting to the things that happen to you, you have the ability to make things happen, you can't just react but you have to act! If things aren't going your way then work hard to make them go your way, don't let life push you around, push back! Your life is like a ball of clay, you can either let it be shaped by outside sources or YOU can take control, act and shape it according to your desires. Don't make excuses and don't blame others because that's all time wasted that you could be using to achieve your dreams. Life is too short to be playing the blame game and making excuses, if you want to achieve something then do it, achieve it!

" **It has long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment, rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things."**

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519)

Renaissance Sculptor, Architect, Painter, Mathematician, Inventor, Musician, Anatomist, Engineer, Cartographer, Geologist, Writer and Botanist

Leonardo da Vinci is probably one of the most diverse people to have ever lived and he didn't become so by sitting around and letting things happen to him. Da Vinci accomplished so much in his life because he made the effort to do so; he got to work and made things happen! Are you starting to get the picture yet? If want certain things to happen in your life then you have to make them happen! Achievement, accomplishment, success and dreams are all earned; you can't cheat life to get those things because you have to earn them. If you take a look in a dictionary you will see that the words effort and action come far before success and it's no different in life. You can't sit around waiting for things to happen, you have to make them happen! There is no guarantee that the perfect opportunity will come by and lay itself in your lap, but by working hard you can make your own guarantee's, you can guarantee your own success!

No one just happened to appear at the top of Mt. Everest one day, the airplane didn't happen to just magically appear out of thin air, these things were made to happen by people who acted on their visions and dreams. People sit around and wait for the "right moment" or opportunity but the problem is, when those opportunities do show up, most people wait right through those as well. Inaction has consequences too, you miss out on things, you lose opportunities and most importantly, you lose the opportunity to make more opportunities! You don't have to wait around for things to happen, for scenarios to present themselves; you have the ability to make things happen as you want them to. Taking actions is what takes dreams from being part of your imagination to being a part of reality; action makes dreams go from being intangible to being physical. How bad do you want your dreams to come true, if you really want them to happen, then set out and make them happen!

" **All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible."**

T.E Lawrence AKA Lawrence of Arabia (1888 – 1935)

Renowned British Army Officer and Author

Some people leave their dreams under their pillows, only to be brought out at night for a few hours of entertainment, whereas other people keep their dreams on their minds throughout the day and act on them to make them a reality. Now if I were to ask you which one of those two types of people are you, what would your answer be, the former or the latter type? Dreams are always possible to achieve but not because I or anyone else says they're possible, they're possible because they can be acted upon and made reality by you! Any dream, any plan or blueprint can be acted on and brought to life by our physical efforts, you can't deny the physical world because it exists here in front of us and action is how our dreams are brought into the physical world. We can't touch the world of imagination and thought with anything but our minds; we can however act on those thoughts and dreams in order to make them exist in the physical world, that's why action is important. Dreams are possible because WE make them possible by our ability to act on them, by our physical ability to build, construct and shape the world around us.

Everybody dreams but not everybody acts on his or her dreams and it's those people who do not act, who do not achieve what it is they want. Inaction is doing nothing, when you do nothing, you get nothing and is that what you want, nothing? How can do nothing be productive, how does it make any sense at all? What do you get by hesitating, by waiting or by wasting your time? Action is getting things done, it's producing results and isn't that what you want, results? If you want to make your dreams possible, then act and act now! Remember that success is equal to what you put in, the more you put in is the more you get out, how much do you want and are you willing to work that hard in order to get it?

Those who do not act on their dreams ensure that their dreams remain as only a part of their imagination. By hesitating to act, you doom your dreams to being wasted, which is sad considering that your dreams the keys to your potential. What good is a key that you don't use, how can you unlock the door to your potential with out making the effort to use the key? Successful men and women don't just leave their dreams in the corners of their minds, they dream, they plan and act on those plans until they accomplish their desires. You have the power to make any perceived impossibilities into any number of possibilities if you take action!

" **I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work."**

Plato (424 – 347 BC)

Greek Philosopher, Writer, Mathematician, Teacher and Founder of the Academy in Athens

Dreams are realized by working for them, great things happen because people work to make them and we all have the capacity to work hard and make those things happen. You can't waste your life waiting for things to happen, you can't waste the opportunity to act that the present moment offers in the hopes that something good will happen by accident. If you want to make a difference, if you want to achieve something then by all means, set out to do so. We don't have to let our lives be subject to random chance and happenstance, we have the strength to make our own circumstances and make our own lives. All achievement comes through work, working hard can lead you achieve anything you want so what reasons can you think of to not work? We all have to work in life no matter what path we choose to follow, why not choose to work at making our dreams come to fruition?

" **Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you."**

Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826)

**American Founding Father, United States Minister to France (1785 – 1789), 1** st **United States Secretary of State, 2** nd **Vice President of the United States, 2** nd **Governor of Virginia (1779 – 1781), Founder of the University of Virginia and 3** rd **President of the United States (1801 – 1809)**

Action won't just define you as a person, your actions will define you life, your actions will define your future and lead to your achievements. Don't just sit around and wonder who you are, who you will be and what your future will be like. This isn't the time for wondering, take action and BE who you want to be, ACHIEVE what you want to achieve, take action and choose to be rather than wonder. Everybody has questions about life, about their future and so on but all of those questions can be answered by taking action because actions create results and results provide answers as to who you are and what you're capable of. I know that you're capable of achieving great things but you need to see it for yourself and you can do so by taking action to achieve your dreams. If you want an amazing life, then act now, create the life you want, show the world and yourself the great potential that lies within YOU!

" **Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking."**

William B. Sprague (1795 – 1896)

American Congregational and Presbyterian Clergyman

It's one of the largest mistakes a person can make, waiting for the proverbial, "right time to act." I've spoken to many people who claim to be waiting for that perfect moment and until that time, they're not really doing anything to make their dreams come true, it's a waste of time isn't it? Think of all that time waiting, that instead could be used for doing, think of all the things that a person could get done in the time others waste waiting. You can make any moment the right moment to act but some people choose to hesitate and waste the valuable commodity that is time. You're not going to get time back so why let it go to waste? Any moment spent in waiting can also be used to act instead, what do you think is going to benefit you more, waiting or acting?

" **Genius begins great works, labor alone finished them."**

Joseph Joubert (1754 – 1824)

French Essayist

Everybody is a genius in their own right, everybody has their own talents but not everybody succeeds even with these gifts, why? Well it's very simple; genius and talent don't do anything for you until YOU do something with them! Do you get it yet? You can have all the advantages and opportunities in the world but if YOU don't step up and act on them, if you don't roll up your sleeves and put them and yourself to work, well what good are all those advantages and opportunities? You could design the greatest building ever, but until you start getting to work on building it, it's only a design; it's only an idea. Success isn't going to wait for you, it's not going to fall in your lap, if you want it, go get it! Remember that you do have talents, you do have potential to achieve whatever you want, so put these talents and potential to use and act to achieve your desires!

" **Remember that lost time does not return."**

Thomas à Kempis (1380 – 1471)

German Author

He's right, any time you waste is time you lose, any time you lose is going to stay lost. You have a choice to make, are you going to sit around and let life and all it's opportunities go by, or, are you going to get to work and achieve your dreams?

" **The most effective way to do it, is to do it."**

Amelia Earhart (1897 – 1937)

American Aviation Pioneer and Author

There you go, straight, simple and to the point. That's all you need to do, just do it, nothing more. Don't make this more complicated than it has to be, you have the dream, you should have the plans and now you just need to carry them out. Don't dawdle just do it darn it! There is a reason I'm being so persistent and repetitive, I'm trying to motivate you, I'm doing this so you have something to come back and read that will give you the kick in the pants you need. Once you've got everything planned and laid out, you need to put those plans into action; you need to take the mental picture and make it physical. Can you think of any better and simpler way to do something other than just doing it? No. Why? Because it's simply all we have to do, all we have to do is just do it, no complications or over-thinking but just work.

Over-thinking things more often than not leads to a waste of time, if you think too long about whether or not you should work out today, you might end up wasting the whole day on the debate. I've seen people wonder whether or not they should go to the gym and they spend hours pondering that, hours! They could have already gone to the gym and finished their workout in that time and still had time left over for other work.

Just do it!

Whatever it is you want to do, do it, do it now! There's a reason it's called Over-thinking, it's over what you need to do, it's too much. Don't make it anymore complicated by over-thinking, do it, get it done!

" **Nothing happens until something moves."**

Albert Einstein

For success to come about something or SOMEONE, YOU, has to move. The universe is constantly changing, moving, as is life but what about you? Are you stagnant, are you sitting stuck in one place or are you moving towards something, are you moving towards a goal and a dream? What are you doing to make your dreams come true, are you even doing anything at all? There is a reason why the terms jobs and careers are synonymous with the word work, because they are work and they give you results don't they? Some work gets you paid, some work gets you favors or gratitude and some work gets you your dreams! You have a choice, you always have a choice and the choices you have before you are, to either act on your dreams or not, so choose.

" **Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."**

Will Rogers (1879 – 1935)

Actor, Cowboy, Social Commentator, Humorist and Vaudeville Performer

You can be doing everything right and still in a sense be doing nothing at all; you can have the dream, the perfect plan and motivation but it all means nothing if you don't get to work. On the other hand, let's say you do get to work and you work hard, what happens when you stop working before reaching your goals? Complacency is one the biggest mistakes people make on the road to success. Some people get a third of the way, some people get halfway there before getting too comfortable with their progress and deciding to stop and settle with what they've earned. There is no middle ground, you either get it done or you don't, you don't go after your dreams to get halfway there and just settle. It's a mistake to get some ways down the road only to stop and camp right in the middle of it, I'm not saying you can't or shouldn't take breaks, but rather that you should never let your breaks become permanent.

You cannot let yourself become stagnant after making a bit of progress, too many people get excited over the little bits they achieve and become content with those morsels and forget their dreams. Did you put in all that effort only for some morsels? If you are doing everything right and putting in the effort, don't you deserve to reap the full rewards? Complacency kills dreams, it kills work ethic and if you can work to earn morsels then you can put in the continued effort to achieve the larger meal can't you? When you're doing everything right you should keep working and continue doing it right because that will lead you to the larger reward that you desire and deserve.

Everybody gets tired and even the best of us need breaks and time to recharge our batteries but don't let it become an excuse to stop working. You need to understand that when you stop working, progress stops coming and when there is no progress you get stuck. Is that where you want to be in life, stuck? Do you only want to get halfway in life; do you only want to get half of all your desires? No? I didn't think so. Take your time and take you breaks but don't allow your breaks to become a permanent vacation away from working towards your dreams. The only thing that comes to you when you decide to sit down in the middle of the tracks is a freight train, I for one do not want a freight train barreling towards me but I can't speak for you.

" **I'm a great believer of luck and I find that the harder I work, the more I have of it."**

Thomas Jefferson

Remember how said earlier that there is no such thing as luck, well maybe I was wrong, maybe it does exist but one has to make it rather than receiving it from who knows where. Maybe men and women can make there own luck and our hands are veritable luck making factories, but we do have to put those hands to work so to speak if we want to make our own luck. I think I could believe the notion that luck is produced via hard work; it makes sense to me because for the longest time I believed that successful people were lucky and I overlooked all their hard work. Maybe successful people are lucky because they worked so hard day and night to bring their dreams to fruition, yes, that makes more sense doesn't it. Now that I think about, I rather like the idea of being able to make your own luck don't you? Just remember, you have to work to make that luck, so get to work and get lucky!

" **An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea."**

Gautama Buddha (563 – 483 BC)

Spiritual Teacher and Founder of Buddhism

The greatest and most revolutionary ideas in the world are powerless as long as they remain ideas, it's through taking action on our dreams do they gain the power to change our lives and maybe the world. It is we who empower our dreams and ourselves, when we take action we are putting our potential into physical use to make our dreams reality. It's easy to sit around and dream and dream all the time of how great our life could be, but for as long as we do not act, our dreams will just stay dreams. Look at all the great dreams, inventions and achievements in our world, all of them were realized through hard work but can you imagine how many great ideas have never been realized because someone didn't act on them? Who knows what great things have been kept from the world because the person who had the idea decided not to act on it, it's mind-boggling isn't it?

" **Apply yourself both now and in the next life. Without effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land be good, you cannot have an abundant crop without cultivation."**

Plato

Just like the old saying, "you reap what you sow," you're only going to get out what you put in. I may not have ever worked on a farm but I have enough common sense to know that crops don't grow by magic; somebody is out there doing backbreaking work so the vast majority of us can eat and success is no different. If you want something then you are going to have to pay the price for it and the price is work. You have the potential to do and achieve so much in life but the only way that potential pays off is if you put it to use. The ability to be great exists in every man, woman and child but the reason we ever reach great heights is because people choose to cultivate their potential, they put it to work. You need to ask yourself, "am I really living up to all I can be, am I really using my full potential?"

" **No one can go back and make a brand new start. Anyone can start from now and make a new ending."**

Unknown

The past is gone and done with, we can't go back can change it, we can only wish that maybe it was different. The future on the other hand is something we can control and we do it by acting now and it is never too late to take action. We all have a finite amount of time on this planet so why not use it to do something we love, why not work to achieve something we truly desire. Our life really is like a story and in that regard we are the authors, though much of it has been written, we still have the power to choose the ending as long as we pick up that metaphorical pen and start writing! I don't want my life to be subject to "fate," I think that an uncertain future is one of the worst kinds, I want to know where I'm going to be in the future and I am going to work to create a future I desire. Do you know what your future's going to be like, would you like to know, would you like to control and direct it? Great news! You can! Take action now and shape your life.

" **Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor's of the mind."**

Leonardo da Vinci

Do you have any idea as to just how much potential you have, how much talent and greatness lies within you and every other person? Most people don't, why, because most people don't make the effort to find out, most people don't bother trying to uncover their great potential. Inaction wastes all your latent abilities; abilities that can help you achieve your dreams and do so much more. What do you get by doing nothing, seriously consider that question, what do you get by doing nothing? It's a very obvious answer isn't it; you get nothing when you do nothing so why do nothing? The vast majority of people simply do not care to find out how much they can achieve, they don't try to be all they can be and they hamper themselves by doing so. You truly do have the capacity to direct your life to whatever ends you desire but you need to wake up, realize this and act in order to make the life you want.

Do you want to be stagnant in life, do you want to be stuck and make no progress towards something greater? Do you want to see all your potential wasted, do you want to let your dreams fade and be nothing more than a mirage? No? Then you need to make the conscious decision to get to work and fight for what you want!

" **No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune."**

Plutarch (46 – 120 AD)

Middle Platonist, Historian, Essayist and Biographer

Your dreams aren't going to magically manifest themselves, no walls ever raised themselves and the pyramids certainly didn't build themselves, it's all done with sweat! You can't just create a dream and let it idle around in your mind, let me ask you this, does an idling car ever go anywhere? Nope, a car in idle stays in idle until someone puts it into gear and drives off. You need to get yourself in gear and get going after whatever it is you want. You need to understand that success is much like a mirror, it reflects what you do, when you wait, it waits and when you go after it, it comes to you. The longer you wait for things to happen is the longer it will take for things to happen, get it? The sooner you go out and make things happen, well, the sooner the things you want to happen will happen.

I know my grasp of the obvious has you in awe doesn't it? I wonder though, if all of this is so obvious, how come so very few people actually follow all these insights? It seems to me that what is obvious is often over looked because it's obvious, we take it for granted and eventually forget all this common sense.

" **I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs."**

Frederick Douglas (1818 – 1895)

Orator, Writer, Statesman, American Social Reformer and Abolitionist

There's nothing wrong with praying for whatever it is you want, just remember that you have to put in the time as well to really make that praying count. What good is it to pray for something if you're not willing to work for it, do you think that's how life works, that you can ask for things that you're not willing to work for? If only life were that easy, it's not but that shouldn't discourage you, hard work isn't that bad, in fact if you're doing what you love it really doesn't feel like work at all. I've know a few people that prayer has helped but these people also put in work along with their prayer. Thoughts don't have as much power as they do when they are put into action, if you want something to happen then please make it happen!

" **Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often."**

Mark Twain

It's true that actions do speaker louder than words and that people rarely do ever act on what they say. How many people do you know that are all talk and no walk so to speak? I've met quite a few in my life and I've tried to help some of them, I've implored some of them to set out and do what they want but to no avail. So many people have plans to succeed but never act on them and then many years down the road they wonder where it all went wrong when it really never started in the first place. You can't get to the top of the mountain by wishing yourself up there can you? If you want to make to the top of anything you've got to climb.

" **I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act."**

Buddha

There are two ways to go about life as I see it, the first way is to go through life without much of a plan, allowing things to happen and simply accepting them. The second way I believe in is to make the effort to control and direct your life via taking actions towards a clearly defined dream and goals. The first way is not really even living to me, it's more like allowing yourself to be swept up in a current and letting it thrash you around and take you where it feels like taking you. The second way is truly living, it's fighting the current, it's swimming towards something YOU want and making every effort possible to get it. "Fate" is just the name we've given to many of the external circumstances and influences in our lives that we allow to direct us, we don't have to allow it to subjugate our lives, we CAN take control of our lives and direct to where we want!

Yes, sometimes things will happen in life that we can't stop, things will happen that we have no control over but we DO have to power to choose how we will react to them. Sometimes we direct our path and sometimes we have to redirect when circumstances try to throw us off course but to do this we have to make the effort. You can't achieve your dreams if you just sit back and allow life and circumstances to push you around. You're not alive just to be pushed around by life; it's YOUR life so you do the pushing!

Think about it, do you want life to be in control of you or do you want to be in control of your life? It's like being strapped in a car going 200 mph and in one scenario you have no control over the steering, brakes, accelerator and in the other you have total control, which would you rather be in? Would you honestly be comfortable in that car if you had absolutely no control, no influence at all and if not then why would you allow life to treat you the same way?

You have a choice, we all do, we all have free will and thus have the ability to make the effort to direct our lives to the ends we desire. We are not puppets, there are no strings attached to our limbs that make us dance in accordance to "fate," we are not remote controlled toys with someone else holding the remote and directing us. You want to know what life is like?

Life is like watching a television, you can sit there like a zombie and just watch whatever is coming on that channel or you can grab the remote and change the channel to what you want! One choice constitutes you doing nothing and essentially forcing yourself to be stuck watching a single channel and in the other you choice you get to actually get to control what you want to watch. Look at the name of the device itself; it's called a remote CONTROL, why, because it allows you to take control of what you're watching. Apply that same principle to your life, YOU ARE the remote control but in order to take control of your life you need to take control of yourself first, control your actions and direct them to your dreams and goals!

How much more proof do you need that you have the ability to control your life? At our fingertips we have the power to control and direct invisible forces like radio waves, our televisions and with our computers we send digital messages all with our own fingers! We have all this power lying at our fingertips yet how often do we actually put our fingers, our hands, bodies and minds to work for greater purposes like achieving our dreams. We have the capacity and we have the proof but so many of us just don't employ our common sense to see these things and then act upon them. It is common sense, if you don't act then life will act for you and on you and if you do, well then you are in control and which other way would you have it? Take control or be controlled, choose or...don't.

" **Instead of saying that man is the creature of circumstance, it would be neared the mark to say that man is the architect of circumstance."**

Thomas Carlyle

You ARE the architect of your life, what do you think the section about goals was all about? Goals are you blueprints, don't architects make blueprints and now you have to take those plans and build with them! You are responsible for and in charge of building YOUR life and if you don't act and don't take responsibility then your life will be dictated by outside influences. You can choose to be a spectator to your own life or you can choose to be the director of it and enjoy it. Don't be bullied by life, if you don't like your circumstances, then work and work hard to change them!

Sure, can hard work be unpleasant at times, yes let's be honest about it but that doesn't mean you can't do it and that it's not worth it because it is! This is about your life and your dreams, any amount of hard work it takes in order to achieve them is worth it. Why else do we work in life, isn't it so we can keep living and in fact trying to live a better life? If we can subject ourselves to doing that for jobs and careers we don't like then why can't we put that effort into creating a life we do want?

" **Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life."**

Confucius

That one speaks for itself, if your adverse to putting in hard work then maybe that's all the more reason to pursue something you love because trust me, it doesn't feel like work at all. It's not a bad thing is it, doing what you love, pursuing your dreams and having all of it feel as if you're not working at all. There is a correlation between doing what you love and success, I'm not the first to suggest it nor will I be the last.

When you do what you love, you could do it all-day and longer than people who work a job they hate and that's why people succeed when doing what they love. You work harder and longer because you love doing it, you don't pay too much attention to how hard you work because you enjoy it. You know by now that hard work equals larger results so when you do what you love, you work harder because you love it and it doesn't feel like work and this leads to great results. It all makes sense doesn't it? Can you think of any reason not to do what you love especially when you know that you can succeed in doing it?

" **You will never 'find' time for anything. If you want time you must make it."**

Charles Buxton (1823 – 1871)

English Brewer, Philanthropist, Writer and Member of Parliament

Once again, you can't sit around wasting time under the false pretense that you are waiting for the "right time." You don't find time for the things you want to do, you have to make it, you have to prioritize the time and set it aside for the important things. How much sense does it make to spend time in trying to find time? That's absurd; you're spending and wasting time in search of a certain type of special time that will help you achieve your goals? There is no right time, there is no special time, there is only just time and what you do with it.

You make the time into what it is; it can be used for doing mundane tasks, important tasks or it can be wasted and nothing more. An hour is an hour regardless of how you use it; the only thing that changes with time is the importance of what you are doing at any given time. Successful people understand that time is one of the most valuable things because it's one of the few things that can't be returned so we have to make the most out of it. We all have the same number of hours in a day but we all differ in how and what we spend them on. We all have the same amount of hours at our disposal but the question is how are you using them to benefit you instead of hampering you?

" **We fail to see that we can control our destiny; make ourselves do whatever is possible; make ourselves become whatever we long to be."**

Orison Swett Marden

" **The time for action is now. It's never too late to do something."**

Antoine de Saint – Exupery (1900 – 1944)

French Poet, Writer and Pioneering Aviator

No it's not, I really don't know how much more I can elaborate on that quote because it's just simple and well, right. It's never too late to pursue your dreams and achieve them but you need to act now, not procrastinate and wait but act now!

" **Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."**

Thomas Alva Edison

That's the truth right there, most people miss out on opportunities because they don't realize that opportunities are made, opportunities come from doing work! What good is an opportunity if you don't use it, you have to act on it and if you don't see an opportunity you want, then make one! That's how people achieve their dreams; they work for them and work hard. Do you even know what an opportunity even is? An opportunity is being given a chance to act, to ACT, do you get it yet! Opportunities aren't some magic events that will take place and grant you your dreams. Opportunities are chances for you to get to work and make something happen so go and make something happen!

" **First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do."**

Epictetus (55 – 135 AD)

Greek Sage and Philosopher

Success really can be that simple, just decide what you want to be and do, and then do it! It's not as hard or complicated as everyone makes it out to be, in essence it takes more work than anything else and ironically that's the one thing many people don't want do. I don't understand it but there are people who want their dreams but don't want to work for them, I know that's not the case with everyone but there are those people out there. If you have the goals then act on them, how much simpler can it be?

" **No one has a corner on success. It is his who pays the price."**

Orison Swett Marden

There are no shortcuts, no fast track and no secrets to success, there's only work. Everything has a price doesn't it, clothes, cars, homes and more all have a price and success is no different. If you want to achieve your dreams you have to pay that price and that price is work. That's not a bad or discouraging thing because work is a price we can all pay and I think it's a price well paid when you consider the rewards. Isn't working hard to achieve your dreams a good thing because it gives you a sense of gratification, you earned it, you achieved something with your own hands and that's a great feeling. You want something, then get to work, pay the price and reap the rewards!

" **The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react."**

George Bernard Shaw

You do have numerous possibilities in life; you do have the possibility to achieve anything and everything you desire but to do so you have to take action! You can't sit by and be a spectator to your own life, this isn't a reaction test where you sit by, let things happen to you and then react. If you want something then you have to act to get it! There's a reason the term go-getters is synonymous with successful people, it's synonymous with them because they go out and get what they want. How much more obvious can I make it, you have to ability to make your life into whatever you want so get to it, make it happen!

" **You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing there will be no result."**

Mahatma Gandhi (1869 –1948)

Prominent Figure during the Indian Independence Movement, Advocate of Non-violent Civil Disobedience and Civil Rights

I know that some of you might be worried about taking action to pursue your dreams because you're unsure of what might happen but what will happen if you don't act? The one thing you can be sure of is that if you do nothing, nothing happens and that's not what we want is it? Some of you might have already tried pursuing your dreams in the past and are thinking that you know what results will come, failure but that's not true and we'll get to that later, hold on. Quick, what's zero plus zero? There's your answer for what you get when you don't act, you get zero, zilch, nada and nothing. Can you see any benefit at all to not acting; is there any benefit for procrastinating and holding off on pursuing your dreams?

" **You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind."**

Unknown

No. You. Can't. Sorry, that's about all I could come up for that one but it's right to the point isn't it?

" **It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste."**

Henry Ford

You would not believe just how many people out there waste their time with trivial things rather than using that time to pursue their dreams. It is very true that successful people do get ahead by using their time properly whilst others waste their time. There's nothing wrong with relaxing every now and again but relaxing is contingent on having done some work, if you haven't put in the work then you're just wasting time and not relaxing. I've seen people waste hours vegetating in front of the television and then later on complain that there is not enough time in the day, seriously? If you want to get ahead then use your time efficiently, even one hour spent working and three relaxing is far better than four hours doing nothing productive. Honestly, do you really want to waste your time, do you want to waste your potential, if not then you need to use time to your advantage and capitalize on it!

" **No one can arrive from being talented alone. God gives talent; work transforms talent into genius."**

Anna Pavlova (1881 – 1931)

Russian Ballerina

Every single person on this Earth has talents but those talents do not guarantee success, every idea, every talent and every skill needs to be worked upon in order to achieve something. Work brings about results and nothing can be substituted for that.

" **Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."**

Thomas Alva Edison

Edison was definitely a genius and now you have his recipe for being a genius, it's done through work! Do you think that all those inventions invented themselves, huh? Do you think that all he did was dream them up and the poof, they magically appeared? No! Edison put his nose to the grindstone and worked hard, all of his inventions exist because he made them exist! Even the greatest genius in the world cannot compel something to happen from simply their mind, things have to be made to happen and they can only be done so by you! To make something, to invent something and to accomplish something all imply work, don't they? If you tell someone that you made something, doesn't it mean that it came about through your work? Success comes from work.

" **Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Weak men wait for opportunities; strong men make them."**

Orison Swett Marden

I believe that every moment is a viable opportunity to do something and that they should all be made to count. Do extraordinary opportunities exist and come across our paths, sure, but that doesn't mean you should sit around and wait for them. By waiting for great opportunities you waste the opportunity to make every moment, every opportunity great. We all have opportunities in our lives, some of the opportunities we receive are better than others but that doesn't mean we shouldn't make the best out of the more mundane moments in our lives. Every moment of our lives can be made greater, every opportunity can be made greater but we have to seize the day and make the effort to make them great. What are you doing to make all your opportunities greater, are you doing anything at all with them, are you making the absolute best of your opportunities?

Strong men and women make the best out of every opportunity they get, that's why they become the best, it's because they act like the best. You too are a strong person and by making the best of every opportunity, small or large, you can rise to great heights and achieve all your dreams. Remember that life doesn't give refunds on wasted moments and opportunities so make the best out of every one you do have and come across.

" **Life is like a trumpet – if you don't put anything into it, you don't get anything out of it."**

William Christopher Handy (1873 – 1958)

Musician, Blues Composer and widely known as the "Father of the Blues"

" **Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle."**

Abraham Lincoln

If you just sit around waiting for something to happen all you will get is the scraps left behind by the people who took initiative and action. Is that what you want, scraps? Nobody wants only meager morsels, we all want the full course and we can all have that if we get to work on our dreams. Do you only want a small part of your dreams to come true or do you want the grandest vision you have to be realized?

" **The best luck of all is the luck you make yourself."**

Douglas MacArthur

Like he said, the best luck is the luck you make so get to work and get lucky!

"People sometimes attribute my success to my genius; all the genius I know anything **about is hard work."**

Alexander Hamilton (1757 – 1804)

American Founding Father, Economist, Political Philosopher, Soldier, One of America's First Constitutional Lawyers and First United States Secretary of the Treasury

It doesn't take a genius to understand that success comes about from hard work; dreams aren't handed out but are achieved. There is no difference between people who achieve their dreams and you; they are not smarter, faster, stronger or anything else, they achieve their dreams because they work hard to achieve their dreams. No one is born having achieved something; no one is born a success because it has to be earned! If you look throughout history, the most successful, influential and inspirational people all had a strong work ethic, coincidence, I don't think so! People who achieve their dreams aren't anymore capable than you, they work hard and you too are capable of working hard and thus succeeding, so work hard and ACHIEVE!

" **We make our fortunes and we call them fate."**

Benjamin Disraeli (1804 – 1881)

**Novelist, Parliamentarian, 1** st **Earl of Beaconsfield and British Prime Minister**

Your fate is up to you, it will be whatever you decide to make it so you have to make the choice and decide. You have the power to shape your life into whatever you want by your actions so take the initiative and act on your dreams!

" **Well done is better than well said."**

Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)

American Founding Father, Printer, Politician, Author, Political Theorist, Postmaster, Musician, Inventor, Scientist, Satirist, Diplomat, Statesman and Civic Activist

Take it from the man himself, hard work is far better than big talk, I mean look at all he did, did, not talked about doing but actually did. Anytime a person has their face imprinted on money it means they know a little about success and Mr. Franklin is on the U.S hundred-dollar bill so I think he knows a little something. Talking about doing something doesn't get it done; only doing the work will accomplish your task, another shocking revelation I know but how come so many people only talk about their dreams and never pursue them? Well done really is better than well said so go get something done!

" **This is a world of action, and not for moping and droning in."**

Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870)

English Author and Regarded as the Greatest Novelist of the Victorian Period

It's true that this is literally a world of action; I mean our world is constantly moving, constantly spinning isn't it and success requires movement and work as well. Everybody goes through hard times whether they allow others to know of it or not, so if you're going through a rough time you're not alone. The thing is, you can't sit around moping about your circumstances because moping won't change them; you have to make the effort to change them. Time is a precious resource and it gets used up whether you actively make use of it or not, even doing nothing and moping wastes it so why do that? Make use of your time and work hard to change your world because YOU CAN!

" **Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone."**

Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973)

Spanish Sculptor, Painter, Printmaker and Ceramicist

I'm not implying that you're going to die tomorrow but you need to consider what happens if you keep putting things off, they will never get done and then where will you be? If you get into a habit of putting things off, then it stands to reason you will continue to put off pursuing your dreams for some amount of time and how does that benefit you? It doesn't. You need to commit your self fully to the pursuit of your dreams, you need to seize the day, grab the proverbial bull by the horns...preferably the proverbial bull as pulling a real bulls horns will get you into quite a situation. I have seen people put things off for years, years, can you imagine losing all that time? Make every moment count, if you have the time available to put some work into your dreams then do it! Go get to work and achieve your dreams!

" **Ideas won't keep; something must be done about them."**

Alfred Whitehead (1861 – 1947)

English Philosopher and Mathematician

If you want an idea to become concrete and more than just a thought then do something about it. You have the ability to make your ideas a reality, your visions realized and your dreams achieved to do something about them!

" **Success depends in a very large measure upon individual initiative and exertion, and cannot be achieved except by a dint of hard work."**

Anna Pavlova

" **Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."**

St. Francis of Assisi

I know I've used this quote before but it applies here as well, all you really have to do in order to achieve your dreams is just start doing what you have to and keep doing so until the end. At times our dreams can seem impossible but if you just start slow and simple, doing what you can, soon enough I guarantee you that you will be doing and achieving things that you thought were impossible. I mean it's like the saying "Rome wasn't built in a day," look what a great achievement that empire was and it was done slowly and simply over time. Small-continued efforts truly add up in amazingly large ways and that's all you have to keep doing, just keep making small continuous efforts and you will achieve big things. It's like running half a mile a day and then moving up to one mile a day and you keep repeating this process until you're able to run a marathon!

Life is like a marathon and if you keep running step after step, well, you will end up at the finish line with all the rewards you desire. Just start taking whatever action you can in following your dreams and soon enough you'll be achieving great and wondrous things.

" **Great talents find happiness in execution."**

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832)

German Politician, Writer and Artist

Deep down inside you lie great talents and potential, they are within everybody on this Earth but the only way they will ever benefit us is if we first choose to recognize them and then use them! We all have greatness in us but we have to act in order to bring it out and bring us prosperity, our dreams can only be achieved by working for them. What good does it do you to bottle up all of your potential, what good does it do you to deny your capabilities for success and achievement? If you want to be happy, if you want success and to achieve you dreams then you need to get to work and harness your potential! The ability to act can be used for mundane purposes like making a cup of coffee or for more amazing things like scaling Everest, we all have the ability to act so act! Don't let your potential go to waste, don't let it be misused on trivial things, you have dreams and plans to reach them so execute them!

" **Willingness without action is a fantasy."**

Unknown

" **Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."**

Theodore Roosevelt (1858 – 1919)

**25** th **Vice President of the United States, 33** rd **Governor of New York, Rough Rider, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Writer, Nobel Peace Prize Recipient and 26** th **President of the United States**

You don't have to have the best circumstances and all the advantages to succeed in life; people from all different types of background achieve their dreams because of hard work, not circumstances. Poor, well off, well educated, uneducated, it doesn't matter because people with all of these backgrounds and more have achieved success and they did so through work. As long as you constantly, the operative word being constantly, do the best you possibly can YOU WILL SUCCEED! There is no secret formula to success; it really does come down to doing what you can, with what you have, where you are. There are no true secrets to success, we've created the idea that they are secrets because it's difficult for so many of us to accept that success isn't complicated and it's not! Does anything I have shared with you here at all seem complicated or revolutionary? Do the best you can and you will live the best you can!

" **Parties who want milk should not seat themselves on a stool in the middle of the field in hope that the cow will back up to them."**

Elbert Hubbard

You can't spend your life sitting on the sidelines watching as it goes by, you can't be a spectator and just watch as things happen to you and do nothing about it! It's a sad thing and people actually go through life like this, that's not life, don't watch your life go by but live it! If there's anything you want in life then go after it, do something, don't sit back and watch but do something! There is a difference you know, it's much like sitting in a train and watching as mountains and fields go by or, being out there in the mountains and fields yourself. Are you a spectator to your own life or are you living it, are you going to sit by and just wish for things to happen or are you going to make them happen?

" **However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do if you do not act on them?"**

Buddha

You can read all the success books, go to as many seminars as you want but none of it will make a difference if you aren't willing work with the information you receive. They say knowledge is power but what good is all that knowledge and power if you don't use it? Nothing in this book will help you if you don't put these insights to work, nothing will help you if you don't use this motivation to get to work, do you understand? You have the power to truly redefine and shape your life to whatever you can dream of, you can be anyone, achieve anything but you have to take that first step and all the following steps in order to do so. Your dreams are not just fictional visions, your dreams are a plan, your dreams are the future that lies ahead of you and you just need to take action, reach out and grab them, so do it!

" **Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."**

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

If you have the capacity to dream it then you can do it and if you can do it then you should be out there doing it! You're supposed to be bold in life if you want to get what you desire so be bold!

"Whatever we learn to do, we learn by actually doing it; men come to be builders, for instance, by building, and harp players by playing the harp. In the same way, by doing just acts we come to be just; by doing self-controlled acts; we come to be self-controlled; and by doing brave acts, we become brave."

Aristotle

If you want to achieve your dreams, if you want to be successful then you have to start acting like a success, it's that simple. You need to start acting like you can do this because you know what, YOU CAN! You need to be brave and decide that now is the moment to change your life, now is when you take charge and dictate the course of your future. By taking action towards your dreams and being successful, you will learn how to be successful, no book can teach that, this book can't teach that because you can only learn by doing. You get better by doing things over and over, the more action you take towards being successful, the more successful you will eventually become. Why do you think successful people only become more successful over time? Practice makes perfect so practice, act now on your dreams and achieve them!

" **Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness with action."**

Benjamin Disraeli

Well now you've been given an ultimatum of sorts, you can take a chance and go after the things that make you happy in life, or you cannot bother and let your dreams go. It's not a hard choice is it?

" **Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do."**

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

" **You can make the dream come true if you wake up and work."**

Unknown

" **You can have anything you want – if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose."**

Abraham Lincoln

YOU CAN have anything you want, be anything you want and do anything you want if you just go out and do it! You need to hold your desires firmly in your mind, never lose sight of them, never let them slip and keep working towards them and you will achieve them! Life is always moving forwards and always will with or without your consent, you can either move forwards with it or you can try and remain stagnant but that won't lead you to your dreams. If you want something then you need to go after it with a sort of single-minded attitude, you need to work towards it with a burning passion and you will inevitably achieve your greatest desires. What do you want, how bad do you want it and are you willing to go get it? If you answered yes, then you need to gear up and go now!

All right, I've harped on repetitively long enough about taking action and why it's so important, I'm sorry if I've annoyed you but there was a point, seriously. I wrote this part like this so when you're done reading the book you can go back and have a section to reread and get some motivation to go out there and achieve something. You know you have to take action to achieve your dreams, but do you know the number one reason why most people don't take action? Do you know what causes most people to fail in their pursuits and others to never start their pursuits in the first place? There is an intangible force out there that stops people dead in their tracks; it prevents people from going after their dreams and stops people from trying to rekindle their dreams.

It's fear, the fear of failure is the one thing that keeps people from pursuing their dreams and it's something you're going to have to conquer. Fear is nothing more than a lie but can be a convincing lie and I'm going to try do my best to help show you that it's a lie and nothing more. The fear of failure holds people back, it makes them too scared to take that first step in pursuing their dreams and it's what prevents people from taking their dreams back up again if they've given up on them in past. The fear of failure, of inadequacy, the fear of the "impossible" chains people and prevents them from moving onto a better and happier life. Fear is something that every successful person needs to learn to conquer, not succumb to and if you'll let me, I along with my oh so distinguished mentors will try to help you conquer your fears. Let's conquer the fears that people might have so you can pursue your dreams with as little obstacles as possible!

**Fearless is to fear less, so, fear less!**

" **Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world."**

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Yes, fear is the number one thing that keeps people from achieving their dreams, fear holds people back in life and that is exactly why you have to understand and overcome it. Fear causes a sort of paralysis of the mind and heart, it causes you to stop and when you stop you can't act can you? Fear prevents you from taking action and action is what you need to take in order to achieve your dreams, see the problem? The fear of failure causes people to not make the effort to pursue their dream, why, because they fear making an effort that may fail so they don't bother in the first place. So, here's my question to you, does it make any sense to allow fear to prevent you from taking that first step if you know you need to take action in order to succeed? Does it make any sense not to do the one thing that will bring about your success?

Fear causes people to quit in their pursuits and more often than not, it prevents many people from even starting in the first place. Fear is why many people give up on their dreams early in life and decide to settle for something else, for something less. Fear forces people to quit early on and cling to that past failure later on in life. Fear is a devilish trick of the mind that needs to be conquered not succumbed to.

Together, we are going to help you understand all the many types of fears that stand in the way of success and how to overcome them. You're going to learn that fear is powerless and can be conquered. You are going to learn how to act towards your dreams despite your fears. You are going to learn that fear is the mind's greatest lie.

" **Present fears are less than horrible imaginings."**

William Shakespeare

That's what your fears are, nothing more than horrible imaginings, your fears are nothing more than the dark side of your imagination running rampant. The same capacity you have to dream and imagine wonderful things for your life is being used against you; it's being used by a part of you to scare you from what you truly want. Remember your imagination is just that, imagination, a series of thoughts that can be made real by you. You can make your dreams real through action but until you act on them they are just thoughts, so, it stands to reason that your fears too are intangible thoughts. Fear is you over-thinking your dreams and possibilities and coming up with horrible imaginings to scare yourself from pursuing those possibilities. The same power you use to create a great life is being used to deny it from you.

The fear of failure is nothing more than your mind going, "what if this happens or what if this or what if that," and so on and so on. It's nothing more than the what if game and you know what, you can do that too for the other side because what if all your dreams can come true, what if they all do come true? You should already know by now that all your dreams CAN come true and that you have the power to make it so. Why are you using the ability you've been given to dream of a great life to hold yourself back from that life?

Think about it like this, if you allow your fears to scare you from taking action, then how can you achieve your dreams. You're afraid of failing in your pursuit but by being so afraid to start in the first place, well, you've already failed then. Now you tell me if that makes any sense? Your fear of failure is what causes failure. The fear of failure leads people to quit and thus they fail. See what a dirty trick it is, it causes the very thing you're afraid of, failure.

" **How much pains have cost us the evils that never happened?"**

Thomas Jefferson

That's what the fear of failure is, an evil plaguing your mind, it's a distraction keep you from taking action. Do you know how much time is lost catering to your fears? Every moment you spend thinking of what COULD, keyword being could, go wrong is a moment that could be used for taking action. It goes back to the very beginning of this book and overcoming the idea that dreams are "impossible" because the fear of failure is just like that, nothing more than a scary thought but still a thought. Your fear of failure doesn't help you; it's not sparing you from some failure down the road but is really causing you to fail. This is just your mind coming up with all the scariest scenarios it can and it serves no beneficial purpose for you so why cater to it? Do you like being scared, do you enjoy being afraid to pursue and achieve your dreams? I didn't think so, so why do that to yourself?

Do you think it's logical to contemplate failure before you even start pursuing your dreams, does it make any sense to worry about running a race before you even step up to the starting line? That's what you do when you give into the fear of failure, you worry about scenarios that haven't happened and probably won't even happen, how much sense does that make? Most people scare themselves out of pursuing their dreams right at the beginning, you haven't even begun and you're going to throw in the towel? You are using your own gift of imagination to hurt yourself and that's stupid, sorry but it is. Remember the lesson about the present moment and acting on it, why worry about a theoretical failure in the future when you are supposed to be taking action here and now in the present?

Think about how much of your strength you're sapping by even considering your fear of failure, you're wasting opportunities to act, you should be taking action but instead you decide to resign yourself to inaction. If you let your fear scare you from taking action, well then how to you expect your dreams to come true, by magic and luck, are we back to that again? See how pointless the fear of failure is, it keeps you from doing what you actually need to do in order to succeed.

" **Where fear is, happiness is not."**

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 – 65 BC)

Roman Statesman, Stoic Philosopher, Dramatist and Humorist

It is that simple, your fears keep you from following your dreams, they keep you from what makes you happy so why indulge them? Are you ever happy when you are afraid, it doesn't make sense, the two emotions are not part of each other so does it make any sense to fear going after your dreams? The fear of failure is not productive to the pursuit of our dreams, it's counterproductive and therefore we shouldn't succumb to it but so many of us do. We have been conditioned to believe that failure is inevitable and that we should settle for something less than our dreams but that's not the truth. Society frowns on failure so we are forced to succumb to our fears to satisfy an emotional need to avoid embarrassment because failure is seen as embarrassing. Do you know how many times the world's most successful people have failed? Do some research because you will be shockingly surprised. Failure is not something to be feared nor is fear something to be succumbed to, they are to be understood and conquered!

You know, it doesn't make any sense when we are told that failure is to be expected in our pursuits because when we are younger aren't we all told that we can be anything we want? So what changed when we got older, why is everything now impossible and to be feared? Nothing changed per se, just our perception of things changed and that costs us a lot. Our dreams are and have always been possible, that doesn't change but our thoughts do, we start to cater to fear and imagine horrible scenarios of failure but overlook the common sense in ignoring them.

Why are you worrying about things that haven't even come to pass and probably won't happen at all? How can you possibly know or even worry that you will fail if you don't even bother to take action in the first place? Do you worry about what might happen next year during this year? You should be focusing on right now not the future because you've already planned for the future and now you've got to build it and you can only do that here in the present. You're worrying yourself before that time even comes, you're shooting yourself in the foot before you run the race and that makes no sense.

" **A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself. He makes his failures certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it."**

Alexander Dumas (1802 – 1870)

French Author

Maybe that will make it more clear as to why you shouldn't cater to the fear of failure. When you begin to doubt your ability to succeed and fear the outcome you only set yourself up for failure. It's like the start of the book and falsely believing your dreams to be impossible because when you believe that, you don't even bother to go after your dreams and if you don't bother, then who will? If you don't go after them then how will they be achieved? By doubting yourself and fearing failure you become your own enemy, you turn your wonderful ability to dream against yourself and nobody needs or wants that. By doubting yourself you end up holding yourself back, you bottle up your amazing potential that needs to be unleashed not bottled.

Don't doubt yourself because that doubt is what will cause you to fail, there's nothing inadequate about you that causes failure except maybe an inadequate way of thinking such as fearing failure. When you doubt yourself and are afraid you can't do something, guess what happens? You decide not to go after your dreams and what happens when you don't go after your dreams? Do you see the stupidity in fearing failure yet? Fear causes you to fight yourself rather than fighting for your dreams, it causes you to act on the false assumption that you're going to fail and by acting like a failure you fail. I'm sharing some groundbreaking stuff here aren't I? It's so obvious but always overlooked and especially over thought, don't over-think but just do!

Don't convince yourself of outcomes that may never come to pass, don't fear the results of a venture you haven't even completed or much less even started. If you want to form an opinion of what might happen if you follow your dreams then do it after you finish the pursuit and not before! Fear is the enemy, it's the killer of dreams so don't feed it but overcome it! What reason do you have to doubt your ability to achieve your dreams when I've already proven to you that YOU CAN achieve your dreams? Why worry when you have human history on your side, you're part of that success and achievement, you are born not to worry but to succeed!

" **I'm proof against that word failure. I've seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of hugging to the purpose he sees to be best."**

Mary Anne Evans AKA George Eliot (1819 – 1880)

English Novelist, Translator and Journalist

That's the true failure in life; not following your dreams and desires, giving up to fear is the real failure. People fear making a mistake in their journey and let me tell you that mistakes are not failure, they are a mistake, they happen get over it! The true failure is living a life you don't want to, it's giving up on your dreams due to fear. I'll tell you this; I am far more frightened of living a life I don't want than being considered a failure doing what I love. I don't want to live up to other people's expectations but I want to live up to mine and you should only live up to and for your own expectations. Failure isn't messing up in your pursuit; failure is giving up on the pursuit or not even starting it at all.

If failure was certain then how come so many people have achieved and are still achieving their dreams? Failure is never certain and it certainly isn't a reason to not pursue your dreams. Most of us fear failure because it will make us look bad in the eyes of other people, seriously, is your ego that big? Who cares what they think, it's just like people who believe that dreams are impossible, are you living to please them or are you living for yourself? These are your dreams, they deserve to be realized, you deserve to achieve them and live that life. You can be the proof to other people that dreams can be achieved, don't give into the fear of failure, don't let it paralyze you and never stop acting towards them!

" **Fear is only as deep as the mind allows."**

Japanese Proverb

Your fears stem from your mind, YOURS, they are products of your own imagination and can only be as bad as you allow them. They don't have be debilitating or a hindrance to you at all. It's your mind so get in control of it! Don't allow your fears to run rampant and hamper your progress. The fear of failure is no different than fearing the dark as a child, you don't let the dark keep you from sleeping and you don't let fear keep you from achieving your dreams. The fear of failure is just like thinking your dreams are impossible, neither of those things have to stay in your way so don't let them.

" **Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight."**

Benjamin Franklin

It's pointless, absolutely pointless to worry about failure and all the things that may never happen, what do you get out of it? Seriously, what benefit do you get about incessantly worrying about failure; do your dreams come true by doing it? All you do is stress yourself out and stress is a killer and that's a medical fact... I think? Don't spend your time wondering about failure because people act on their thoughts and when you think about failure you will act like one and that's not helpful. Thinking about failure is like going around looking for trouble, if you look for it, you will find it and you don't want to find trouble do you? Spend your time focusing how to make your dreams come true and not on failure.

Going after your dreams while being occupied by thoughts of failure is a recipe for disaster. You're doing one thing while thinking about something else, it's like driving on the road and not focusing on the road, which can get you killed and most certainly won't get you to where you want to be. Focus on the task at hand, focus on success, on achieving your dreams, focus on living the best life you can dream of! The fear of failure is a distraction, it's detrimental to achieving your dreams and you shouldn't have to suffer that so don't suffer it!

" **There is a time to take counsel of your fear and there is a time to never listen to any fear."**

George S. Patton (1885 – 1945)

United States Army General during WWII, Member of 1912 Olympic US Pentathlon Team and Designer of the "Patton Saber"

Fear is natural, it's part of life and there always is a time when you should listen to them and a time to ignore them. This however, is not the time to be afraid, this is the time to go after your dreams with everything you have and not allow yourself to be held back by fear. The fear of failure or of making a mistake is much like a child listening to a horror story, what's the point of a horror story? To scare you, that's it, that's its point and it serves no benefit or purpose so why listen to your fears? All your fears serve to do is hold you back, they try and keep you from pursuing your dreams and how does that help you? It doesn't help you, does it?

Now yes, there are times when fear can be very beneficial, like if you're in the jungle being chased by a tiger but that's not where you are is it? If you are in that scenario then something has gone very wrong but my point is that fear is only helpful in survival situations, it gives you a caution and awareness to keep you safe but here it's holding you back. If you allow your fear to keep you from pursuing your dreams then how you can expect to move forwards? It's very simple, you either allow your fears to hold you back or, you push past them. I'm not saying it's going to be easy, it never is and I don't want to lie to you about that, but YOU CAN do it! You have the strength to overcome them and I'm going to continue showing what our fears really are and that is powerless.

" **Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt."**

William Shakespeare

That's what your doubts and fears are, they are traitors to your pursuit, all they do is stand in your way and why would you want anything standing in the way? The fear of failure and doubting your ability to succeed is not beneficial and if it's not beneficial why cater to it, why? The fear of failure scares people out of attempting to go after their dreams and if people don't go after their dreams how can those dreams be achieved? You are using your power that creates dreams essentially to destroy them when you cater to your fears and doubts. Why do you have to doubt yourself and your abilities to succeed when I've already shown you that you do have the potential, all people do and they always have and will! The point of all of this is to show you that you can go after your dreams and achieve them and if the fear of failure keeps you from doing that then why on Earth would you cater to that fear?

" **Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out."**

Benjamin Franklin

Don't be afraid to make mistakes because you know what, they will happen but so what, it's a mistake not failure. Mistakes aren't final and the great thing about them is that they can be corrected if you're willing to make the effort to correct them. Mistakes are not true failure and you can't let the fear of making mistakes hold you back in life. When you let a mistake overwhelm you, discourage you and prevent you from taking other action, then that is where you fail. Failure is quitting, it's giving up, making a mistake is not failure. Everybody makes mistakes, it's part of being human and definitely part of becoming successful because all successful people have made mistakes and still do. Mistakes are part of the success learning curve, they happen, they happen to everyone and they happen all the time so why worry about them?

Let me ask you this, would you consider Henry Ford a failure? I mean it sounds crazy to even consider calling him one when he created one of the largest automobile companies in the world. Did you know that Mr. Ford's first automobile company was actually the Detroit Automobile Company, which failed and was dissolved? He made a mistake, a big one but do we remember him for that? Do you think he's a failure? His second company was the Henry Ford Company, not to be confused with the Ford Motor Co., which is a multibillion-dollar juggernaut, anyways Mr. Ford ended up leaving his second company and going on to make the Ford Motor Company we all know today. So that's at least two times he had some problems but would you call him a failure when he's responsible for creating a company that revolutionized the auto industry and is a world wide enterprise generating billions upon billions of dollars?

Yeah, I didn't think so, nobody remembers him as a failure because he wasn't one! He didn't allow his mistakes and adversity to overwhelm and subdue him; he didn't allow these experiences to scare him from trying again. Remember that history is written by the victors and if you don't allow your fears to scare you from pursuing your dreams then you will achieve them and history will remember you as a success. People are only remembered as failures when they give up and allow that fear to keep them from trying again, failures don't get back up they stay down. You're not reading this because you want to be a failure right, you're reading this because you want to succeed and to do so you cannot be afraid to make mistakes. Don't be afraid!

" **I have not failed. I've just found 1,000 ways that won't work."**

Thomas Alva Edison

1,000 attempts, 1,000! Most people are too afraid to make that first attempt much less keep going until they've tried 1,000 times and that's what separates failures from success. Don't be afraid to make mistakes, they happen but they are mistakes and not failure and you need to understand that! A mistake is just a failure you decided to correct but if you leave it be and give up then you have a failure. Maybe you've gone after your dreams in the past and made mistakes and then gave up, that's failure but that doesn't mean you can't start back up again and succeed but you have to get over the fear of failure. Everybody messes up and most of histories greatest people essentially "failed" their way to success, they made tons of mistakes and learned from them and went on to succeed. If you are too afraid to even make a mistake then how can you expect to achieve your dreams?

Did you know that Henry Ford and Thomas Edison both knew each other; in fact Mr. Ford worked for Edison for a time until he was encouraged by Edison to follow his own dreams. Well as we know, Mr. Ford followed his dreams and look how that turned out but did you also know that during that process he went broke five times? We know Edison made many mistakes but did he fail? No! Do you understand yet, mistakes will happen but who cares, they are mistakes not failure. Don't fear the inevitable, I know that's not reassuring but it should be because your mistakes can be fixed and the only failure is quitting so if you don't plan to quit, you won't fail so why be worried?

What do you think about Einstein, do you think he's a failure, I mean he dropped out of school so he has to be a failure right? Many people thought he would amount to nothing, his own teacher thought he was mentally slow and would never do anything but last time I checked he's heralded as a genius. Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard, Steve Jobs dropped out and Richard Branson didn't even go to college, are they failures? What constitutes a failure, can you even answer that, is there a definite answer? No, there really isn't so how can you be afraid of failure when you can't even define it? Oh by the way I should state that I am not advocating dropping out of school by citing those examples, I was just using them to accentuate the point that failure is based on perception and most people have the wrong perception about it. Failure is quitting, giving up permanently on your dreams and if you don't give up, you don't fail.

" **They fail, and they alone, who have not striven."**

Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836 – 1907)

American Novelist, Poet, Editor and Travel Writer

If there is any true failure, if there is anything to truly fear than that would be not even trying in the first place, that's the real failure. Failure isn't making a mistake, failure is giving up on your dreams, real failure is allowing your fears to prevent you from taking that first step and every following step towards your dreams. Don't be afraid, if you know that you aren't going to quit then you aren't going to fail so what are you afraid of? If you have enough courage to take that first step with the intention of never giving up then you will not be a failure. There is nothing to fear in the pursuit of your dreams, nothing, not failure, not mistakes, nothing!

Your fears are just thoughts, they can't physically harm you so don't let them harm your dreams. Look, walls do pop up in your path but there's always a door through them because where are doors built if not in walls? I am far more afraid of not pursuing my dreams than making mistakes or looking like a fool in my pursuit. What point is there in letting our fears frighten us from pursuing the things we want?

" **I more fear what is within me then what comes from without."**

Martin Luther (1483 – 1546)

Professor of Theology, German Monk and Priest

Sometimes we don't fear failure or fear that we're inadequate in anyway, sometimes we fear our potential, we fear all that we are capable of doing and achieving. I've learned that many of us fear what we don't understand and in this case what we don't understand is our potential, just how much we're capable of changing in our lives. You're afraid that you're more capable than you know and you don't know how to deal with that fact, it scares some of you. I mean look at what we have accomplished in our history, we humans have changed the face of our world and it's unreal but we've done it and that same potential is in you. It's scary because we're not raised to deal with success or understand how much potential we have, on the contrary, we're taught that failure is inevitable and that's not true! The most frightening thing isn't failure but success, it's the notion that everything will change when we achieve our dreams and those thoughts are overwhelming but you shouldn't fear that change.

Success brings about a new life that we don't know how to handle and that scares us but it shouldn't because it's that life we want isn't it? We want our dreams to come true, we want everything to change for the better but at the same time we're afraid of that change, why? We want everything to change but at the same time we want everything to stay the same, we want everything to be familiar and we don't know how to deal with that. Don't be afraid of that, don't be afraid of that change and of your potential, embrace it because it will lead you to the life you want. You shouldn't fear the life you want, the life you dream of, you have the capacity to achieve it and all you dream of so don't be afraid.

" **What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you."**

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Some of you are worried about mistakes you might have made, your past pursuits of your dreams and ambitions, some of you are afraid that you might make the same mistakes again. You shouldn't fear that, for those of you who do, that's the past and it's over with and gone. Some of you are worried about mistakes that you might make in the future that might compromise your dreams but you're not in the future, you're here so don't worry about what hasn't come or what might not come at all. The past is gone and done, the future rests in your hands and what you do with those hands here and now in the present and worrying doesn't help. All of your fears truly do pale in comparison to the potential you harbor deep inside of you, don't be afraid that you will make a mistake, know that you have the ability to correct these mistakes and create a life of your choosing.

Your fears are nothing but your own thoughts but thoughts nonetheless, they are intangible and more importantly, are under YOUR control so control them! You are stronger than your fears but as long as you cave into them you cannot move forwards. Your fears hold you back, they are chains on your dreams and your dreams should not be chained. It's very simple, your fears hold you back and keep you from pursuing your dreams but you want to achieve your dreams so what do you do? You go forwards in spite of your fears; the only way to achieve your dreams is to go after them regardless of how much you fear failure. You are greater than your fears, you have the potential to achieve everything you dream of, remember this the next time you are afraid of making a mistake.

Some of you fear that you are inadequate in someway, that you can't achieve your dreams because you aren't as capable as some famous or public figures who are extremely successful and that's garbage! YOU ARE more than capable, you are not inadequate, nobody is. Nobody is born great, nobody is born a success, successful people simply choose to acknowledge the great potential that is inherent in every person and they choose to cultivate their potential. You have that same potential, you are a person same as them and you have the ability to dig deep down and harness that potential so do it! What fear does is bottle up this potential, it creates a fictional cage in your mind that hides and traps you potential and you have the keys to open that cage. Every successful person has and does struggle with fears of making mistakes, appearing inadequate but they are just negative thoughts and nothing more. Your actions speak louder than your thoughts and words so act, don't fear, don't worry but act great because you are!

" **Fear is the static that prevents me from hearing myself."**

Samuel Butler (1835 – 1902)

Victorian Author

That's what your fears are, static, they keep your mind occupied on your fears rather than what actions you could take to succeed. It's like static on a television; it keeps you from seeing the complete and perfect picture, which in this case is your potential to succeed. Your fears keep you occupied on what COULD go wrong, could not will but could. Things can also go well too you know, they don't always have to go wrong, every terrible scenario you can come up with also has a positive counterpart. Fears are nothing more than background noises that keep our minds distracted when we should be focused on working towards achieving our dreams. When you're busy contemplating all that can go wrong you forget all you can do to make your dreams come true, it's like a shell game being played on you by your own mind, you're so busy focusing on the options you forget that it's all a trick. Our fears are just tricks, yes things can go wrong but does that mean they will or that we won't be able to do anything about them? No!

Every problem has a solution but if you're so focused on just the problem, on what's gone wrong, how can you find the answer? Don't worry about your fears of failure or mistakes, if they happen then think, not worry but think about how to overcome them. Every mistake, every misstep can be fixed but you have to look for a solution to find it. You can't be so preoccupied with the fact that something is wrong, you have to think about what you can do to fix it and you can fix it. By listening to your fears you are not saving yourself from some embarrassment of preventing a failure, you're causing it, you are making yourself the failure by giving into your fears, don't!

" **If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles."**

Sun Tzu (544 – 496 BC)

Ancient Chinese Military General, Brilliant Strategist, Philosopher and Author

That's what the point of this whole chapter is; it's to help you know yourself, your potential and your fears. Once you understand that your fears are not stronger than your potential you will be able to achieve things much easier and that's the point. It's no different than overcoming any other fear, once you conquer it, it no longer holds you back. Your fears cause you to fight yourself, they cause you to question whether you should go after your dreams or hide in the safety of your current life. Is that a question you really need to ask yourself, do you still not know whether or not you want to achieve your dreams? Your fears are the enemy; they are the killer of your dreams so why would you indulge them? Are you going to let your fears control you and your life or are you going to control them? Your fears contribute nothing to your success, they only give you stress, worry, anxiety and distractions, is that what you want?

" **Never let the fear of striking out get in your way."**

Babe Ruth (1895 – 1948)

American Baseball Legend

Babe Ruth had over a 300 batting average which is calculated out of being up to bat 1,000 times. That's a 30% success rate, now on most tests I know of 30% is a failure but would you call Babe Ruth a failure. He struck out more times then he hit the ball but that doesn't matter there nor does striking out a couple times in your pursuits matter. It happens so what? You fix it and move on to success but if you never make the effort in the first place because you're afraid, then what? Nothing happens until you get over your fears and make the effort but as long as you let your fears hold back, you can't succeed. What would have happened if Babe Ruth let the fear of striking out hold him back? What would have happened if every great person, every pursuit was held back because the people pursuing their dreams gave into fear? Fears don't help us, they don't benefit us, they hurt and hamper our lives.

The real failure is not going after your dreams, failure isn't messing up, failure is not starting and not following through. What would our world be like if everybody stopped pushing the envelope so to speak, if everybody gave up on their dreams because of their fears? Would we have the things we have today if people were too afraid to make the first flight or too afraid to sail across seas and so on? Fear holds us back, all of us, the fear of failure, they fear of change; our doubts and inadequacies are not beneficial so why do we cater to them? Seriously, is there any good reason you can think of to hold yourself back from achieving all you want?

Here's something to really think about, Babe Ruth struck out 1,330 times in his career, he scored 714 home runs...Think about that. You know what he said about that fact, "every strike brings me closer to the next home run," he embraced the possibility of failure because it also presented the possibility of success. Oh, by the way, did you know that Mark McGwire has struck out more times than Babe Ruth so...is that a failure? Do you get why the fear of failure is pointless? It doesn't help you, it is only going to hold you back but you don't have to let it, you don't have to let it hold you back at all.

" **Every man, through fear, mugs his aspirations a dozen times a day."**

Brendan Francis Behan (1923 – 1964)

Irish Novelist, Poet and Playwright

Every time you entertain some fearful thought you are mugging yourself, you are robbing yourself of your own potential and instilling false doubts in your mind. You are only hurting yourself by giving into the fear of failure; you're putting up a wall that doesn't need to be there, so why do it? Not pursuing your dreams because of your fears is just you robbing yourself of your chance to achieve something, how much sense does that make?

" **I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship."**

Louisa May Alcott (1832 – 1888)

American Author and Abolitionist

How much sense does it make to be contemplating failure when you are working towards success and achieving your dreams? You're doing one thing yet thinking about the opposite, no, focus on success not failure because it's just senseless thinking. It's like driving down the road while not focusing on driving...and we all know people do it and they crash! Is that what you want, do you want to crash and burn?

No I didn't think so.

Look, if you want to succeed then that's what you focus on, you focus on how you can succeed and what you can do to achieve your dreams not how you can fail. I've shown you that you can succeed; I've shown you that your dreams are possible and that you have the potential to achieve them, so why be afraid of failure when you want to succeed?

" **Imaginary evils soon become real ones by indulging our reflections on them."**

John Ruskin (1819 –1900)

Victorian Era English Writer, Watercolorist, Draughtsman, Art Patron and Philanthropist

Your fears are for the most part imaginary, the only time they ever become real is when you become to indulge them, you begin to see every mistake as a sign of impending failure and it causes a snowball effect. The fear of failure is paranoia, instead of seeing a mistake as an opportunity to correct yourself; you see it as a sign that you're going to fail and most people then quit. If you quit, you fail; you've brought about the very thing you feared by indulging that fear and acting on those thoughts. Everybody deals with the fear of failure but nobody succeeds by catering to those thoughts, you acknowledge it exists and then you move on. Most people don't even have the time to think about failure because they are so engrossed in what they are doing, in their pursuits and if you can get yourself into that mindset then by all means do so. Focus on thoughts of success, of achieving your dreams because that's what you're working towards anyways, isn't it?

" **The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one."**

Elbert Hubbard

You're worried about making a mistake, about failing; well stop because the biggest mistake is worrying that you're going to make a mistake. It doesn't help to constantly be thinking that you're going to make a mistake because chances are if you keeping thinking you will, then, you will. Stop looking for reasons of how you're going to fail or how you're going to make a mistake, it's pointless because that's not your aim, look for reasons on why you're going to succeed and you'll find a way to succeed. The only way you're going to find a way is if you're looking for it, make sense? It's like being trapped in a maze and constantly complaining about being trapped in a maze, stop worrying, stop complaining and start looking for a way out. Success and achievement happen by looking for solutions, not problems!

" **What worries you, masters you."**

John Locke (1632 – 1704)

Physician, Philosopher and Enlightenment Thinker

That's what this is all about, helping you become the master of your own life, no longer being subject to "fate" and such. By letting your fears get the best of you, you allow them to start dictating your life rather than you making the choices, which is wrong. It is your life, YOURS, and these are yours fears so are they supposed to be in control or are you? Your fears are the negative parts of your imagination and that stems from YOUR mind, so take control of your mind and put your fears in their place. You're not meant to go through life being afraid to do and go after the things you want, that's not living, that's terror. Don't let your fears take control of your life and hold you back, it's your life and it's meant to be lived how you see fit. I'm going to ask you again, are you or aren't you in control of your mind and life?

What kind of life is it where you are too afraid to go after what you want because you're afraid that you will fail? Tell me where it's written that you will in fact fail, where is it guaranteed; tell me because I missed that? I've never seen a place where it is absolutely guaranteed and written what a person can and cannot do. The only thing I've ever seen is the proof that we're constantly breaking records and setting new limits, so far the impossible hasn't really been impossible but has rather only just taken a bit of time to achieve.

" **So first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."**

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 – 1945)

**32** nd **President of the United States, 44** th **Governor of New York, Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1913 – 1920) and Member of New York State Senate (1911 – 1913)**

The fear of failure paralyzes many people from making the efforts needed in order to succeed and achieve their dreams. Failure is not meant to be feared, only understood, fear is the only we truly have to fear. I'm afraid of being afraid, I don't like it and I'm fairly certain you don't either so why give into it, why give it what it wants? Forget being afraid of failure; don't be afraid to pursue your dreams because then you're giving your fears what they want. You're are not supposed to allow fear to force you into retreating from your dreams, you're supposed to pursue and achieve them, advance and achieve your dreams!

" **No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its power of acting and reasoning as fear."**

Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797)

Irish Author, Philosopher, Orator, Political Theorist and Statesman

Fear robs you of you're ability to make good decisions, of reasoning and most importantly it prevents you from acting on your dreams and goals. Fear doesn't lead to success in any scenario, why do you think in dangerous situations people are advised to remain calm? Have you ever heard of the saying, "cooler heads prevail?" Well cooler heads do prevail so stay calm, stay cool and don't give into any fears in the pursuit of your dreams! If fear robs people of their potential, why would you let it, why would you give into it and let it hurt and hamper your progress? Is it reasonable to allow yourself to become a victim to fear, to allow it to cage your potential and keep you from your dreams? No, the most reasonable thing is to ignore it and pursue and achieve your greatest desires!

" **My life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened."**

Michel de Montaigne (1533 – 1592)

French Renaissance Writer

" **Our fears are more numerous than our dangers and we suffer more in our imagination than in reality."**

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

It's true that we do suffer more in our minds than in actual reality, our imaginations run wild and create more fearful scenarios than actually will and could ever happen to us. It's pointless to be worried about failure and letting it hold you back because we're only torturing ourselves and what's the point of that? Why spend you're time coming up with all these ideas of what can go wrong, tell me, how is that going to help you succeed? It's not, so why do it, if it's not helping you then it's just a waste of time. What did you learn in the chapter of action, that you shouldn't be wasting time so, don't! Don't cause yourself to suffer in your mind, don't imagine terrible scenarios, just focus on achieving what you want.

Think about it, how many scenarios can the human mind imagine, a million? Do you honestly think that a million things could go wrong in your pursuits, do you think half a million will happen or maybe even a tenth? No! It's just unnecessary worrying and you're hurting yourself by doing it so just stop, just stop!

" **Don't let your fears stand in the way of your dreams."**

Unknown

Why would you let anything stand in the way of your dreams, the last thing you need is obstacles so why create more by indulging your fears? You don't need to become your own enemy and stand in the way of your own dreams but that's what you're doing when you give into fear. Don't put up any walls, don't bottle up your great potential and don't kill your dreams by catering to your fears! Nobody likes it when things get difficult right, so why would you make things difficult by scaring yourself and preventing yourself from making progress? You want to achieve your dreams but then you're afraid of going after them because you're afraid you might mess up, is that seriously something to be afraid of? Stop worrying and start doing!

" **He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat."**

Napoleon Bonaparte

Don't spend you're time looking for how you're going to fail because when you do that, you do fail because you're programming yourself to look for a path that leads to failure so you don't think you're crazy. When you constantly expect failure, you begin to look at everything as if it's going to cause you're failure and when you do make a mistake you say, "yup I knew it." You cause your own failure so you feel that you were right and sane by expecting yourself to fail but no that's insanity. You're screwing your own life up and then using it to prove some false theory of expected failure right but it's not. Don't defeat yourself because that's what your fears do, you fight and defeat yourself, so don't crush your own dreams.

Don't let your fears conquer you, you are supposed to conquer them and achieve your dreams. You're not meant to be defeated by life, you're not meant to give in and give up, no! You have a life to live and the chance to live it as you see fit, you have the right and ability to achieve your dreams and live a great life so do it! Don't let yourself hold yourself back because it's stupid, it's just stupid!

" **Many of our fears are tissue-paper-thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them."**

Brendan Francis Behan

You create your fears and you can destroy them, just take that first step towards your dreams and keep following through on that and you will overcome your fears. Your fears don't really even put up a wall to block you, it's more like a picture of a wall, it's just a weak façade you can tear down if you choose to do so.

" **What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?"**

Vincent Van Gogh (1853 – 1890)

Dutch Post Impressionist Painter

Imagine what would our lives be like if we were all too afraid to do anything? Now imagine the opposite, imagine that you weren't afraid to go after and achieve anything you could think of, which life would you rather live? Think just how much we would all achieve if we never had to fear failure or worry about anything at all? If you want to succeed, don't be afraid of going after success and your dreams. You cannot allow fear to keep you from going after your dreams, the things you want to do and achieve in life. You have the courage inside you to go through your fears and achieve what you want, everyone has the ability to conquer their fears because each person creates them and each person conquers them!

" **Nothing will ever be attempted if all objections must first be overcome."**

Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784)

English Author, Biographer, Literary Critic, Essayist, Editor, Lexicographer, Moralist and Poet

Think about it, if you're so busy looking for reasons you might fail or looking for how something may go wrong, when will you have the time to actually go out and do it? You will never have the time to actually achieve your dreams if you're so fixated on how everything can go wrong, you can't spend all your time worrying. How can you achieve your dreams if you're spending every moment worrying about how you might make mistakes? See the stupidity in worrying, it's pointless, you spend time worrying when you should be working. If you keep your mind preoccupied with fear, you won't be able to focus it on making progress towards your dreams, stop worrying and start working!

" **The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything."**

Theodore Roosevelt

The only way you will never make a mistake is by not doing anything and if you're not doing anything, well that speaks for itself doesn't it? Mistakes are a good thing, you learn from them, they're not final and they're not failure so what's the big deal? If you're making mistakes it's proof that you're doing something, that you're working towards achieving something, I'd much rather have that then being seen as someone who does nothing. Mistakes happen, everyone makes them, so what? Do you want it said that you never did anything in your life, that you were too afraid to make mistakes, that you were too cowardly to pursue your dreams? Don't be afraid, make mistakes, learn from them and achieve your dreams!

" **We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible."**

Malesherbes

Is that what you're afraid of, are we back to this, some of you are afraid that you're going to fail because you're dreams are impossible. You're dreams are not impossible; we've already covered that so stop fretting and start doing. Just imagine what your life would be like if no one ever told you that your dreams were impossible, what would your life be like if you thought everything was possible? Don't you think you would go after and achieve more things if you didn't think they were impossible, well guess what, they're not impossible so stop being afraid! Don't let fear of any sort hold you back from achieving what you deserve, what you have the right to and what makes you happy.

" **Most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to boldly walk through them."**

Orison Swett Marden

Whatever obstacles you face in life can be overcome and walked through, if you're obstacle is fear, walk through it because you can. We all run into walls in our lives and these walls demoralize us, they make us fear the outcome of our pursuits but we can push through these walls. When you run into a wall don't just stand there befuddled and afraid, make up your mind and walk through it, knock it down! You're not supposed to cower before obstacles, you're supposed to overcome them and strengthen yourself through them, you're meant to conquer them not be conquered.

Remember what an obstacle is, an obstacle is something that obstructs your path, it doesn't mean the end and it doesn't mean failure, obstacles are meant to be overcome. All obstacles inherently have a way to get around them and that's why they are obstacles and not the end of the line. An obstacle is a problem that already has a solution, the thing is, you just need to make the effort to look for the solution and employ it. Don't cower but walk through your fears!

" **The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is it's own reward."**

Amelia Earhart

That's what your fears are, paper tigers, are you going let paper tiger hold you back from achieving what you want, are you afraid of paper tigers? Look at what Ms. Earhart did, she flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean, that can be pretty terrifying but did she let that fear keep her from doing it? She is an example of the necessity to overcome fear in order to succeed, you don't have to listen to me but you cannot ignore her advice. She said it plain and simple, you CAN do anything you decide to do, so you need to decide to do it or bow out because you're scared. You can change your life and achieve everything you dream of but you need to act and your fears prevent that so choose, inaction or action? Are you the kind of person who is going to be stopped by paper tigers, have you seen a paper tiger, look one up because they're not that scary so tear them up and move on to greater things!

" **The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision."**

Maimonides (1135 – 1204)

Rabbi, Philosopher and Physician

It's better to make a mistake and a wrong decision that can be corrected than making no decision at all. If you don't make a decision, what happens, you get stuck and nobody wants to be stuck, do you want to be stuck? It can feel like a risk at times but you can't let your fears hold you back. Think about it like this, where else does fruit grow if not on the limbs of trees, if you want the sweetest rewards then you have to go out on a limb.

The fear of failure causes people to doubt every opportunity, to become stuck and stay stuck and if you're stuck you obviously can't make progress can you? Allowing fear to hold you back is like becoming stuck in back to back traffic, nobody moves and there's no progress. Not worrying every second and having the courage to take action, even some wrong ones is like driving by yourself on an open highway, there's a great deal of room for you to maneuver in and progress.

" **That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well."**

Abraham Lincoln

Success can be achieved by anyone, that's already been proven so you need to stop being so hung up on the notion of failure, you're demoralizing yourself and that's stupid! If success wasn't possible and if failure was inevitable then no one could have ever succeeded but you know that's not the case. Anyone can succeed, you're a someone aren't you, simply by being a person you have the ability to succeed and never forget that. Stop thinking about and courting failure, yes we know that mistakes can demoralize people but they shouldn't because they're just mistakes, remember real failure is giving up. Do you intend to give up at the first sign of trouble, do you intend to give up and never pursue all you dream of, no, then stop worrying. Everybody can succeed but you can't do that as long as your mind is occupied with thoughts of failure, you know success is possible and you know that you can do it, so do it!

" **The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise."**

Gaius Tacitus (56 – 117)

Roman Historian and Senator

One of the fears that holds us back in life is the fear of change, we want our lives to change for the better but we're afraid of that change because we might lose the comforts of the life we know. We're afraid of achieving everything we want because then we have to learn to deal with a new life, one we're afraid we might not be able to handle. Tell me, is that really something you should be afraid of, why should you fear a new and better life? It doesn't make any sense and yet people still allow this fear to hold them back. Many people want everything in their life to change but then they fear that very change, why, what sense does that make? Yes, our lives may change but that's part of why we're doing this, change and don't you want that change to take place? Do you or do you not want your dreams to come true, if so, then why fear the necessary changes that will need to take place in order to give you the life of your dreams?

Your fears are trying to offer you a false sense of comfort; they are trying to convince you that your current life is better and safer than the one you dream of. If that's all true then why exactly are you dreaming of things in the first place, the "safety" that fear offers is a lie, you can live an amazing life as soon as you stop fearing that the change that life brings.

" **There is no security on this Earth; there is only opportunity."**

Douglas MacArthur

Your fears make you believe that you're safer in your current and familiar life but that's not true, I'm not trying to scare you but it's simply the facts, change happens whether you like it or not. Since change is always happening you might as well help bring about a change you want, change your life for the better and achieve what you want. This is an opportunity and not something to be afraid of, yes your life will change but if you go after your dreams it will change for the better. I could not bother going after my dreams because of fear, I could huddle up safe in my current life but that's not living. I would much rather go after my dreams and make mistakes than do nothing and feel safe because doing nothing is the biggest mistake. You always have the opportunity to influence and change your life but you need to act and get over your fear to do it.

The possibility to change your life is not something to be feared, embrace this; this is your opportunity to create the life you want. Don't fear making mistakes, don't fear change, don't doubt your capacity to succeed. You should already know this by now, you should that success is possible, that you can achieve, that you know how to achieve it and that you shouldn't be afraid to go after it.

" **Worry gives a small thing a big shadow."**

Swedish Proverb

When you continue to worry about making mistakes, you empower your fears and doubts and when you do that, you make it easier for them to overpower you. Let's say you make a mistake, so what, your world doesn't end does it? Things keep going on, you can correct your mistakes and you can achieve your dreams so why worry? Does it make any sense to worry about mistakes before you've even made any; is it smart to worry about messing up when you've just started pursuing your dreams? It's all stupidity, you're worrying about things that haven't come to pass and if they do, well they're harmless and can be corrected. Does it make any sense to worry about what you can fix? It's like the old saying, "there's no use crying over spilt milk," let's say you spill some, who cares; you clean it up and pour yourself some more.

Worry only kills your potential, you become so obsessed with everything that can go wrong, you forget to focus on everything that can go right. How do you think people succeed, by focusing on all the wrong things that can happen or by focusing on all the opportunities, on all that can go right? Remember that mistakes happen, they do, so stop worrying because it's pointless, if and when they happen to you; focus on what can be done to correct them.

" **Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."**

Mark Twain

What do you think you will regret more later down the road, making a few mistakes and achieving your dreams, or quitting on them due to fear? Stop clinging to the shore, get over your fears and sail towards your dreams. Every successful person has made mistakes and they still do, the difference is that they know mistakes don't signal failure; they're just a detour and nothing more. A detour is never a dead end until you make it so, you make it one by quitting permanently, once you give up it's over but until then it's never over. This is your big chance so don't waste it, don't let this opportunity become wasted and something you will regret, capitalize on it and achieve your dreams.

" **As a rule, men worry more about what they can't see than about what they can."**

Gaius Julius Caesar (100 BC – 44 BC)

Roman General and Emperor

One of the worst things you can do is spend all you're time worry about things your imagination comes up with. Stop being afraid of everything that can go wrong before anything even happens, if it goes wrong, then you can spend time thinking about it but until then, stop! When something goes wrong you fix it then, you don't worry about it beforehand, if it ain't broke don't fix it and if it hasn't happened then don't worry! You know what, you don't have time to worry, you should be focused on taking action and succeeding!

" **Don't waste your life in doubts and fears: spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hours duties will be the best preparation for the hours or ages that follow."**

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every moment you spend doubting yourself and worrying is a wasted moment, commit yourself wholly to your work and you will work better and achieve more! It's really simple, the more you focus on your work the better you will do, the better you do the more you achieve. The best thing you can do to ensure your dreams come true is to work on them now and not worry. Worrying keeps you distracted and you don't focus as well when you're distracted right, so, stop worrying! It's not complicated, work and focus on your work and you will achieve what you want. It's like worrying about the rain before it even comes, don't, just go about your day and if it rains you pull out an umbrella. Success is no different, do your work, don't worry and if something goes wrong fix it.

" **It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear."**

Sir Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626)

English Statesman, Essayist and Philosopher

It's not living when you're constantly hounded by fears and doubts, diminish your fears and you can do that by focusing on your dreams. Don't spend your time worrying and doubting, keep your dreams and desires on your mind, stay focused on what you want. You're not meant to go through life being afraid of the things you want, that doesn't make any sense, you're supposed to go after them and achieve them. Your dreams are meant to make you happy and be fulfilled, that's why we have them and place such great value on them, don't be afraid to go after them or afraid of what changes they may bring.

" **The thing I fear most is fear."**

Michel de Montaigne

You don't have to fear anything; you don't have to fear failure, you don't have to fear change, the only thing you might have to fear is fear itself. Personally I'm afraid of being afraid, I hate that we even have to experience that, it's a terrible and detrimental state of mind. Fear has never helped me complete any task or help me achieve anything; only a cool, calm and collected mind will yield success. If you're afraid of failure then avoid failure by not letting fear hold you back, the opposite of failure is success so focus on succeeding!

" **The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today."**

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

If you want to realize the dreams of tomorrow then stop doubting them today! I've already proven to you that you have the ability to succeed; everybody does, so don't doubt yourself ever, don't expect failure and don't fear anything! The only limits you have are the ones you impose on yourself, stop doubting your dreams, stop fearing that you might fail, embrace the idea that you can and will succeed! Don't spend your days worrying and doubting, spend them working and making things happen!

" **Fortune favors the brave."**

Virgil (70 BC – 19 BC)

Ancient Roman Poet

Fortune truly does favor the brave, not the fearful, if you want something then be brave enough to go after it, do not fear anything! You have the ability to be brave, to face your fears and overcome any obstacles, know this. Successful people are not afraid to go after what they want, they are not afraid of making mistakes because they know, that in the end they will achieve what they want! If you want to succeed, be brave, be focused, work hard, overcome your fears and you will succeed!

" **Come to the edge, he said. They said, we are afraid. Come to the edge, he said. They came. He pushed them.... and they flew."**

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880 – 1918)

Poet, Art Critic and Writer

That's what I'm asking of you, I'm asking you to go to the edge and beyond, to consider the possibilities and take the risks in going after your dreams. Some of you are so occupied with thoughts of failure, of inadequacy and more but how do you know what you can and cannot do until you do it? I'm asking you to conquer your fears and go after your dreams so you can see for yourself how much you can do. I know you can achieve anything but it doesn't matter what I know because you're the one who has to do it. I need you to go out and discover for yourself the amazing potential you have, how do you know you that you are going to fail, are you clairvoyant? The funny thing about most people is that they are afraid they can't do certain things when in reality they can.

How many times have people achieved the impossible, did you read the beginning of this book at all, nothing is impossible! Don't impose limits on yourself, don't be afraid and don't doubt yourself. You want to see how much potential you have, then go out and prove it to yourself, achieve your dreams and see just how much you can do. I know that all people have the ability to achieve great things; I've seen the proof in history, now you need to prove it to yourself! This is the edge, where fear meets action, you need to decide whether you're going to cower before your fears or conquer them and achieve your dreams. Take that step off the edge and fly, fly towards your dreams and achieve your desires!

" **Fear is pain arising from the anticipating of evil."**

Aristotle

The fear of failure is like flinching at every little sign of movement; it's anticipating something bad will happen even when it won't. All you serve to do is impair yourself by catering to the fear of failure. The fear of failure can be likened to taking a test and then worrying everyday about your score, how does worrying help, it's not going to change anything except maybe increase your stress level and you don't need that. Don't sit around anticipating failure; mistakes or any negative consequences, if you have to anticipate something then have it be success! You can't devote 100% of your focus to more than one thing, I know some of you are great at multitasking but you don't get that luxury in the pursuit of your dreams so you have to choose, focus on success or the fear of failure?

" **Those who have conquered doubt and fear have conquered failure."**

James Allen

If you want your dreams to come true then you have to conquer your fears and doubts, that's done through understanding that your fears and doubts are powerless! That's why we're going through this together, that's why I'm repeating many things about fears and failure, so it gets drilled into your head that fears are nothing! Fears and doubts cause people to quit, is that what you want, to quit? No, you can't win by quitting; quitting is the antithesis of winning so you have to conquer your fears. The more you understand about fear, about failure, mistakes, doubts and adversity, the more apt you will be at dealing with and conquering them. Knowledge is power so know your fears, know your power to succeed and use that power and drive to conquer your fears!

" **Disappointments usually occur when we attempt to do something great. If you want to avoid being disappointed, don't attempt anything great."**

Unknown

Don't make the mistake of thinking that just because your dreams might not be as grandiose and large as someone else's, that they are not great, everyone's dreams are great and you should not fear going after them. Disappointments happen in the pursuit of dreams and in many other areas of life as well but you cannot let that be a reason not to pursue them. You are going after something great in going after your dreams, in going after them you uncover your own greatness and so you should not allow anything to keep you from all of that. If you don't want to be disappointed then maybe you shouldn't do anything at all, that being said, does that really sound like a great and productive life to be living? I'll gladly take disappointments coupled with the achievement of my dreams as opposed to not being disappointed and not achieving what I desire.

" **Instead of giving myself reasons why I can't, I give myself reasons why I can."**

Unknown

I don't know why some people are so quick to come up with reasons why they can't succeed, why they can't achieve their dreams and why they will fail. Why do people do that, do you do that, if you do that then maybe you should stop, what do you think? Why can't you succeed, where is it written in stone that you can't, if you ever find that stone you know what you do, you smash it! I can give you a ton of reasons why you can succeed, in fact, I think I already have so why worry and fret about failure. You know what, you're not allowed anymore to worry about failure; I will not allow it because you've got work to do. You don't have time to be anxious, to worry and fear or doubt yourselves in anyway!

" **The first duty of man is to conquer fear; he must get rid of it, he cannot act till then."**

Thomas Carlyle

You have to conquer your fears, fears hold you back like running with a parachute strapped to your back, you need to sever the cords holding you back. As long as you fear the outcome of your pursuits you will never pursue them! Fear causes inaction, inaction doesn't lead to achievement of dreams and that's what this is all about! You need to take responsibility for your fears and cast them out!

" **When a man has put a limit on what he will do, he has put a limit on what he can do."**

Charles M. Schwab (1862 – 1939)

American Steel Magnate

It's true that when you allow fear to hold you back and keep you from doing things that you are in essence limiting yourself. I know that sounds a bit contrary to what I earlier said about you having no limits but the truth is that it is up to you to decide what limits you have, if any. You determine your capacity to succeed by what you are willing to do, by how hard you are willing to fight, if you let fear hold you back then you limit yourself. Don't allow fear to set limits on you, don't hold yourself back, don't be afraid to take action and go after what you want!

" **Don't fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have and should have."**

Unknown

One day, many years from now, how would you like your life to be summarized? Would you like your life to be a story of how you could have gone after your dreams but didn't? Would you like it said that you should have gone after your dreams? One of the saddest things in life truly is wasting the opportunity to go after your dreams. Don't let fear keep you from going after what you want. Life is not meant to be filled with regret, it's meant to be fulfilling and happy so go after what makes you happy, go after your dreams!

If you could summarize your life right now, what would it say, seriously, write down on a piece of paper all of the great things you've done and the one's you regret not doing. If you could have anything written on that list what would it be, what would you like to have done by the end of your life? Fear keeps you from doing things that you want, fear paralyzes you and that's why you need to learn to overcome it. Go after your dreams without fear!

" **Excessive fear is always powerless."**

Aeschylus (524 – 555 BC)

Greek Playwright

Yes, fear is powerless, that's what I've been trying to get into your head.

" **Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is."**

German Proverb

It's true that you empower whatever you fear by constantly thinking about and fearing it, in this case failure; you make it seem more certain and daunting by catering to negativity. Don't empower your fears, starve them, don't feed them anymore negative thoughts. The more you focus on a favorable outcome in your pursuits, the quicker you will be able to conquer your fears.

" **The worst sorrows in life are not in its losses and misfortunes, but it's fears."**

Arthur Christopher Benson (1862 – 1925)

**English Author, Poet, Essayist and 28** th **Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge**

Indulging your fears is one of the worst things you can do, fear demoralizes people and keeps them from their dreams. Mistakes and getting lost along the way to your dreams isn't as bad as it sounds, it happens, we all make mistakes and we learn from them. The worst thing you can do is be so afraid of making a mistake that you hold yourself back and don't make any progress whatsoever. It's far better to move forwards and make a few mistakes here and there as opposed to being stuck in one spot due to fear.

" **There is a great beauty in going through life without anxiety or fear. Half our fears are baseless, and the other half discreditable."**

Christian Nestell Bovee

If half of our fears are baseless and the other half are discreditable, well what does that say about our fears as a whole? I'm not a genius at math but I'm fairly certain that our fears are 100% powerless! Our fears are just our minds playing terrible tricks on us, trying to rob us of our own great potential, don't give up your dreams because of fears. Your fears are baseless and discreditable, do you understand that, your fears of failure are basically nothing more than a frightening lie! Don't yield to this lie, don't succumb to the terrors of your own mind, understand that they are powerless and conquer them! You have the ability to achieve your dreams; we all do, never ever forget or doubt that!

" **Fear makes men believe the worst."**

Quintus Curtius Rufus (A long long unknown time ago!)

Ancient Roman Historian

Fear really does make men and women believe the worst, I know, I've done extensive research...sort of. We all know fear makes you believe the worst and how exactly does that help? Is that what you're trying to achieve, are you trying to achieve the worst possible, if not then why expect it? Don't spend your time expecting the worst when you're working to achieve the best, it makes no sense at all.

" **Fear is what kills us."**

Unknown

Now that is a bit melodramatic but it is true that fear does kill our dreams and what's life without dreams? I want you to achieve your dreams, you probably want you to achieve your dreams...I hope, anyways what I don't want is for you to let fear kill your dreams. Fear demoralizes us, it makes us doubt our ability to succeed, it makes us feel unworthy of success but that's all a lie! Remember that our fears are baseless and discreditable! You are capable of succeeding, if you weren't then I wouldn't have spent nearly half a decade trying to find the evidence to prove it to you, I have a life to live too you know...sort of. I don't want your potential to be wasted or your dreams to be cast aside but it doesn't matter what I want, what matters is what you want, do you want fear to hold you back?

" **Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure."**

George Edward Woodberry (1855 – 1930)

American Poet and Literary Critic

Every defeat or setback in life is temporary as long you do not quit, then it becomes a permanent failure! The worst thing is not trying at all though, how can you expect to win the race if you don't bother participating. Failure is not making a mistake, do not fear failure, successful people don't fear mistakes, they learn from them. You can make over a million mistakes and still succeed, but some people quit after only one mistake and thus failure! Remember that this is all about making sure you don't quit, whether you're enticed to do so by fear or by being discouraged after making a few mistakes, don't quit! You are not a failure, a failure is someone who doesn't bother or who gives up for good, if neither one of those describes you then you are not a failure.

" **Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul."**

Douglas MacArthur

Yeah what he said, only less poetically, don't quit! Nobody wants a wrinkly soul...

" **I was never afraid of failure, for I would sooner fail than not among the best."**

John Keats (1795 – 1821)  
English Poet

Don't ever let the fear of failure hold you back from the best you possibly can be and living the best life possible. You have the capacity to be and achieve whatever you want so don't let your fears from keeping you from achieving your desires. Mistakes happen all the time and all along your way to success but they can't keep from succeeding unless YOU let them. Take some responsibility, these are your fears, doubts and your dreams, you have the power to overcome your fears and achieve your dreams. You need to make a choice between them, are you going to let your fears run your life, or are you going to ignore them and achieve what you want? Would you be ok with making mistakes if it meant one day living the best life you possibly could? I am more than ok with that.

" **One who fears failure limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity to more intelligently begin again."**

Henry Ford

It's like being afraid to cross a road or climb a mountain when the thing you want most lies on the other side of the road or atop the mountain. You can't be afraid to go after the very thing you want, it's nonsensical, if you want it then go after it without fear! Mistakes are meant to be fixed, not fixated on but fixed, something breaks, you fix it but you don't worry about fixing it before it breaks, understand?

" **Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."**

Albert Einstein

Don't be one of those people who are too afraid to go after what they want most, that's no life, you have a dream so go after it. Never be afraid to pursue what you want in life, we all on have this one chance to chase our dreams, let's not waste it huh?

" **You're on the road to success when you realize that failure is only a detour."**

Unknown

You are on the road to success, don't doubt that, just realize that you have a dream, that you're going to go after it and that you will achieve it! Mistakes, failures and obstacles can all be overcome, they are just detours. There's nothing wrong with getting lost, it happens but it doesn't mean that the journey is over; if you don't quit then you will find the way.

" **Fearless minds climb soonest into crowns."**

William Shakespeare

If you want to be the king or queen of the hill then you need to get fearless and fast! Fears get in your way, fearless doesn't necessarily mean to have no fears but I see it more as meaning to simply fear less. Don't give your fears anymore of your attention and power; keep your focus on getting what you want, don't allow them to hold you back.

" **Never take counsel of your fears."**

Stonewall Jackson (1824 – 1863)

Confederate General and considered to be one of the "Most Gifted Tactical Commanders in US History" by many historians

I don't really have to say anything at all, that quote says it all, I just felt like typing something... something.

" **Each time we face our fear, we gain strength, courage and confidence in the doing."**

Unknown

You have absolutely nothing to lose by facing and overcoming your fears, you get stronger by dealing with them, conquering your fears allows you to get closer to your dreams. I know it seems easy for me to sit here typing, telling you to overcome your fears but it's not easy, I've overcome many of my own and am still working on overcoming others. It's never easy but it's worth it, that's what matters, overcoming them in order to pursue our dreams without being held back. I used to be terrified of heights; I got over it by zip lining and climbing and more. I am also afraid of clowns...I'm still working on overcoming that one...nobody's perfect, it's their smiles...creepy!

" **Things done well and with a care exempt themselves from fear."**

William Shakespeare

Think about that one; if you truly are working hard and doing your best, well then what do you have to fear? If you know you're doing everything right, if you have the plan and are putting in the work, you shouldn't be fearing failure or negative results. It's no different than doing anything else well, when you've been trained well to do a job do you then go about always fearing your performance in that job? Once you've learned to ride a bike, swim or drive a car do you then always fear that you're going to mess up even after you've learned? You know you can succeed, I've shown you the proof; I've shown you what to do, so why worry about failure?

" **He has not learned the first lesson of life who does not everyday surmount a fear."**

John Dryden (1631 – 1700)

English Poet, Translator, Playwright and Literary Critic

Learning to get over your fears isn't just a success lesson but a life lesson as well; just think of how many things people are kept from doing because of their fears? Fears can hold you back in many aspects of your life; it can keep you from trying new things, from pursuing your dreams and more. Fear is nothing more than a hindrance and you don't need to be hindered in the pursuit of your dreams nor in your everyday life.

" **Always do what you are afraid to do."**

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Yeah! Imagine how great your life would be if you weren't afraid to do anything, nothing would hold you back; well you can live like that as soon as you start doing what you're afraid to do. Don't worry about it, do it!

" **Do the thing we fear and the death of fear is certain."**

Ralph Waldo Emerson...again...again, what can I say, the guy knew his stuff

Just do what you're afraid to do, it makes sense, you want to achieve your dreams but you're afraid of failure but if you go after your dreams, you will achieve them and conquer fear and failure. That's a win-win scenario isn't it? By doing what you're afraid to do you will eventually get over that fear and obviously no longer be afraid...duh, but isn't that the point?

" **He who is afraid of a thing gives it power over him."**

Moorish Proverb

" **I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward."**

Thomas Alva Edison

Never let yourself become discouraged by a mistake and never let fear hold you back from pursuing your dreams. So what, you make a mistake, it's better to make a mistake going forwards than to not be moving at all because of fear. One wrong step forwards is better than not taking that step at all. It's not as if you can't correct your mistakes, this isn't like writing in permanent marker, and even that can be corrected with white out. I'm not sure how my argument became a product placement for white out but my point is that any mistake can be fixed so do not let the fear of making them hold you back. Progress is progress regardless of how many blunders you make in trying to achieve something. It doesn't matter if you get lost along the way as long as you make it to the finish line.

" **My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure."**

Abraham Lincoln

Let's say you do mess up and you mess up big, you're stuck and terrified of moving on because you might make another mistake and then it's game over, what do you do? Well ask yourself, "Am I ok with giving up on my dreams?" You need to ask, "am I fine with quitting and staying stuck?" If you're not ok with those notions then don't quit, it's that simple, you have a choice you know? You have free will and that entitles you to be stubborn enough to never ever quit on your dreams. Never allow yourself to be content with failure because I know that you have the capacity to succeed and achieve!

" **Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair."**

Edmund Burke

" **A failure establishes only, this, that our determination to succeed was not strong enough."**

Christian Nestell Bovee

Is your desire to succeed stronger than your fears and desire to quit, if so, well you have nothing fear. Failure is a sign that you gave up, sorry if that's a bit in your face but it's true, you quit. Nobody can quit and give up for you, that's on you, you need to take some responsibility. If you don't want to fail, then don't quit!

" **You can have anything you want if you will give up the belief that you can't have it."**

Unknown

One of the worst things a person can do is doubt their ability to achieve their dreams, this doubt causes them to fear the outcomes of their pursuits and they feel it better to just quit. You can achieve anything you want, as long you understand that you can and go after it without fear, stop doubting yourself and fearing failure. What good does it do you to doubt your abilities, especially after I've proven to you that anybody can succeed? Don't underestimate your abilities, don't ever sell yourself short, everybody has the ability to succeed and achieve their dreams.

" **Ninety-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses."**

George W. Carver

Far too many people make excuses why they can't or should do something like go after their dreams, why? Don't ever make excuses why you can't do something, don't make excuses or conjure up reasons why you might fail, you should know better than that by now. Successful people don't make excuses for why they can't get something done, they're too busy working towards their goals, they look for solutions and thus find them. I've shared with you dozens upon dozens of reasons why you can succeed, how to go about it and hopefully some motivation to get you going, so don't make excuses. Excuses doesn't get the job done, when has making an excuse ever accomplished your tasks, don't make excuses but get the job done!

" **There is nothing with which everyman is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming."**

Soren Kierkegaard (1813 – 1855)

Danish Philosopher, Poet, Social Critic and Theologian

I mentioned before that one of the things I believe that people truly fear in the pursuit of their dreams is their unknown potential; most of us fear what we don't know. There's no measurable standard for our potential, there's no recorded limit on what we can do and that uncertainty scares us but it shouldn't. We shouldn't fear the fact that we have unknown levels of potential, if we truly had a limit then we wouldn't be able to surpass it but we as a species are always breaking new ground. I find that encouraging, not daunting, we have an untold capacity for achievement and that should be embraced not feared. Don't be afraid of what you can do and don't doubt what you can do, just do it!

" **There is no passion so contagious as that of fear."**

Michel de Montaigne

Fear is like a disease in many senses, it hurts us in a way by holding us back from our dreams and it's also contagious in a way. Sometimes our fears are not originally our own but are instilled in us by other people, sometimes we fear things we allow people to convince us to fear. Sometimes fear comes in the shape of harsh criticism, lack of approval or a form of external pressure from someone we know. We're so fixated on the opinions of other people that sometimes we allow their opinions to compromise our own judgment, our own desires and we hold ourselves back in order to meet other peoples approval. That's all wrong, you should never compromise your life out of fear that someone else won't like you, or approve of you, or anything of that nature.

**Shut up! Who asked for your opinion?**

" **Public opinion is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to drink other men's thoughts, to speak other men's words, to follow other men's habits."**

Walter Bagehot

Another form of fear we have to learn to overcome is the fear that comes from external sources, fear that is put into us by other people and society. You've seen the proof of this yourself, sometimes people form cliques and groups around a certain theme or idea and if you don't meet their criteria you don't get in. In many of these cases people compromise their own beliefs, their own identity and desires in order to fit in and meet these people's approval. People so long to fit in that they destroy what makes them, them, they mold themselves into other people so to gain approval and escape criticism. WHY? WHY? WHY? That is so stupid, it's another form of fear and it holds you back, never be afraid to be who you are and go after your dreams!

I know from personal experience just how much this conforming can ruin a person's life, how much the fear of criticism can crush our dreams and essentially destroy our character and happiness. I know for a fact that there are many of you out there whose parents are really keen on making you into a doctor, lawyer or an engineer, anything with a big paycheck and fancy job title. We are so afraid of letting other people down, afraid of their criticism and desire so strongly to garner their approval that we let our dreams die in order to realize theirs.

NO!

That's not life, I know it isn't, it's that kind of thing that nearly led me to take my life, trying to live someone else's life will lead you to depression! NEVER, NEVER, EVER, be afraid to pursue your dreams and go after what you want, it's YOUR life, not theirs, not anyone else's but YOURS!

I know that for some of you younger people it may seem that compromising yourself to please your parents or others isn't so bad but trust me it is. I've faced some abusive and pretty harsh things in my life and that was when I was conforming to the desires of others but you know what, as soon as I started living for myself, it all stopped affecting me. The moment you are no longer afraid to live your life, to be who you are, no amount of fear and criticism will be able to hurt you. If you don't believe me then let me show you, let me help show you how powerless criticism and adversity can be. I want to help enlighten you to the fact that other people don't know what you can and cannot do, that they don't know what's best for you, only you know what you can do and what you should!

" **Pay no attention to what the critics say. A statue has never been erected in honor of a critic."**

Jean Sibelius (1865 – 1957)

Finnish Composer

It's true isn't it, when does anyone ever remember the people who said it couldn't or shouldn't be done, people only remember those who achieve, not those who don't. Don't listen to the people who tell you that you can't do this or you shouldn't do that or that you have to be what they want you to be. You are your own person; your own boss and the maker of your own life so realize this! There are always trash talkers, haters, people who will try to bring you down and tell you that you can't do something, I've shown you that you can. Some of histories greatest people have left behind their wisdom and have proved that everybody can achieve their dreams. If someone tells you that you can't do something, ignore them, who asked for their opinion anyways?

I have people telling me everyday that I will never amount to anything, that I will never achieve my dreams, that I should quit and I've heard much worse and derogatory things in my life. We've all been criticized harshly, we've all faced many different forms of adversity but you can't let it get to you, fearing these things holds you back. Look, it's going to happen, everyone faces adversity and gets criticized, so what? There is no fantasy world where that doesn't happen but what can happen is that if you fear it, if you compromise yourself and let it get to you, it will ruin you. Don't ever give into these things; you're stronger than that and the people doing the criticizing.

Listening to criticism won't help you, that's what nearly killed me, I listened and believed every bad thought that was impressed on me, I believed that I was worthless, that I was nothing and would be that forever and it destroyed me in a way. I resigned myself to being only average for a time being, then less than average and eventually felt I didn't deserve to live. Now you tell me, does thinking like that help anyone achieve his or her dreams; do you think I was going to accomplish much with that mindset? Don't be afraid of being criticized, it's going to happen but you can overcome it, it's just another person's opinion, not fact!

Everybody has dealt with criticism and it doesn't feel good does it, chances are that if it doesn't feel good, then it isn't good. It's just another form of getting hurt except it's not physically but mental, psychological and success is a psychology so you cannot let yours become compromised. All successful people have been and still do get criticized by someone in someway but you know what, they get over it because they know it's their life and it's only in their hands. Other people's opinions do not define you, remember that YOUR actions define you, let your actions speak, let them accomplish and achieve for you what others say cannot be done. You can show others who you truly are by what you do and achieve; you are not who they say you are but rather who you show you are!

You have to learn how to overcome the fear of being criticized and how to deal with being criticized in order to succeed. We are all going to get it whether we achieve our dreams or not, so if that's the case and people are going to talk trash regardless, well then why not at least have them say it while we achieve our dreams?

" **Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing and being nothing."**

Aristotle

Avoiding criticism is no different than avoiding the fear of failure, you can just do nothing and you probably won't be criticized at all but is that worth it? Is it better to avoid being criticized at the expense of sacrificing your dreams? Chances are that you're still going to be criticized no matter what you do, if you're not doing anything then you'll be criticized for that, I've been criticized for doing nothing. You might as well go after your dreams and get criticized than trying to avoid it by holding yourself back. I'd rather achieve all of my dreams and be criticized for going after them and so on, rather than being criticized anyways whilst doing nothing. The way I see it is that if you're being criticized then it means people are taking notice of you, that you're doing something to catch their attention, that you're on their radar and that's a good sign. Who cares what other people think, who asked for their opinion?

As soon as I started pursuing my dreams I noticed that I started receiving more and more criticism in my life. I was told that I was stupid, that I wasting my time, it was never going to happen, that I should settle and some extremely obscene things as well but so what? The criticism started increasing with the more progress I made, why? It's when you're making progress, people take notice and they just have to say something, some people just have poor vocal control. That's a good thing though, it's a sign that you're on the road to achieving your dreams, the more people that are criticizing you mean the more people are taking notice of you and that means you're making progress.

Think about it, people can't and won't criticize what they don't notice; you don't think to insult or bring down what's not on your mind. If you're receiving criticism, it means you're attracting some level of attention to your work, to your pursuit and that means you're doing something right. Remember that this is YOUR life, you can't spend your time worrying about what other people think, it's YOUR life and YOUR time, focus it on YOUR pursuits! The only opinion about you that matters is your own, it doesn't matter what other people think and it doesn't matter what I think.... although I think you're great...just putting it out there.

You need to ask yourself what kind of life you'd like to live? You have a choice between a life where you give up on your dreams in an attempt to avoid being criticized, chances are you'll be criticized anyways for giving up...so what's the point of that choice? Or, the other and obviously better choice is to endure the criticism and achieve your dreams; I'd rather take all the criticism in the world while living the life of my dreams. Do you honestly think any of the criticism would really even matter when you're living the life of your dreams, no because it never matters.

" **Since we cannot attain it, let us revenge ourselves with railing against it."**

Michel de Montaigne

It's something I've noticed that the people who have criticized my pursuit of my dreams are people who gave up themselves in their pursuits. Most of my critics are people who quit on their dreams and are now telling me that my dreams are impossible. Most of the critics are people who quit, they gave up and because they decided not to do it, they feel other people can't achieve their dreams too. Seriously, that's how shallow and conceited some of these people are, they quit and now feel others should quit as well. My biggest critics are people who failed themselves, so if they failed then what exactly do they know about success? I've shown you a list of successful and influential people who have told you that success is possible, whom are you going to listen to, a failure or success?

Most of the critics that I've encountered are people who are always lamenting over their failures; their mistakes and they feel that their reality should be everyone else's. That's not the case; you make your reality, not the opinions of others. They quit and now they think by criticizing you that they can make you quit as well, don't! So many of the critics I've met are people who just want to take their frustrations out on other people, they're angry because they failed and now want other people to fail as well. Now think about that, is that the kind of person you want to listen to?

Now in some cases, some of these critics are family members or people close to us, people who want to live their lives through us. I know people who failed in their personal pursuits and use criticism to try and steer me in a path they desire, they desire, not I, but they desire. Sometimes other people want to live their dreams vicariously through us and you cannot let that happen, this is your life and you only get one so do it right! Many critics and haters come from people who themselves failed in their pursuits so now they want to attack those of you who do go after what you want. Criticism is a petty thing to do, which is exactly why you shouldn't succumb to other people's hate and criticism.

Criticism and hate stem from a person's ego, it comes from envy and anger that someone else is doing what the critic or hater couldn't do. You have the right to live your life as you see fit, after all it is your life, not theirs but yours! How dare someone else tell you that you can't do something or be something, how on Earth do they know? If they truly knew anything at all then they would know that anything is possible, I've shown you that. All the successful people in the world are proof that it's possible and they all say it can be done and be done by anybody. So whom does it make sense to listen to, a successful person who says and has proven it can be done, or a person who quit and is now criticizing you?

No truly successful person can criticize another person for following their dreams because if they themselves are successful, then they are the proof that it can be done, they should not be telling others that it can't be done. Every person who has and continues to criticize me is a failure, they've admitted that they couldn't or wouldn't go after their dreams; they make millions of excuses so why would I listen to them? I listen to the words and follow the examples of successful people because they have the answer, not the people who quit but the people who have done what they set out to do.

Why would you listen to the people who attack you, who criticize and insult you? Is that the kind of people you want to be around, people who tear you down rather than build you up? Do you think anything can be built by being torn down, think about that, can any dream be achieved while others are tearing it down? No, you build something by giving it support, a foundation and by well building more. Criticism doesn't help success, people can make all the arguments they want but tearing down somebody does not help save them from failure or anything else.

Listening to criticism from somebody who isn't a success is like learning how to drive a racecar from somebody who doesn't even have a driver's license. Look at it logically, if somebody has succeed and achieved their dreams, why would they tell anybody else that it couldn't be done when they did it themselves? A success knows that success is possible, they've done it, a critic or hater is just a failure who wants others to follow their bad example.

" **A critic is a legless man who teaches running."**

Channing Pollock (1880 – 1946)

American Playwright

If you can't swim, who then would you prefer to get a swimming lesson from, an Olympic swimmer or someone who's never swum a day in their life? The same goes for criticism, why would you listen to someone trying to tear you down, someone who has probably failed in his or her pursuits and is trying to hold you back? I don't see why a successful person would tell you that you couldn't achieve your dreams, if they did it then so can you. No one is born having achieved their dreams; if one person achieves their dreams then all others can as well. I don't know why some people just have to try and break other people down, have to try and deter them but your job is not to listen to them. Don't listen to the criticisms of people who have failed, the only opinion that matters is yours...well it'd be nice if you'd take mine into consideration, I'm just trying to help you, you know.

Nobody can truly criticize you, nobody, not a failure nor a successful person although I don't see why a successful person would. There have been cases though where people of success have criticized someone and their dream and even then the dreamer proved them wrong. Did you know that Alexander Graham Bell tried to sell the telephone to the company Western Union and they rejected it, they thought it to be nothing more than a toy...boy were they wrong. See, in the end not even the criticisms of the all the successful people in the world matter, only you and your pursuits matter. You have the power to make your dreams reality and never forget that!

" **I have found it advisable not to give too much heed to what people say when I am trying to accomplish something of consequence. Invariably they proclaim it can't be done. I deem that the very best time to make the effort."**

Calvin Coolidge (1872 – 1933)

**30** th **President of the United States, 29** th **Vice President of the United States and 48** th **Governor of Massachusetts**

Never listen to the naysayers and people who oppose your dreams and who try to make you compromise your dreams and identity. There are always people ready to tell you that you can't do or be something, that you can't achieve your dreams but they are wrong. I get all sorts of negativity and criticisms everyday but I'm to busy working towards achieving my dreams to listen to these people. When people say something can't be done then it's your job to prove them wrong by getting it done. Nobody can ever tell you that your dreams are impossible, they can be the most successful person on the planet and still be proven wrong, only you determine what you can and cannot do.

Did you know that Einstein's teacher thought that he was a slow child and that he would never amount to anything? Now I'm not a genius but I'm fairly certain that this "slow" child's amounted to a great deal, in fact, isn't his name now synonymous with the term genius? Critics, haters and naysayers want you to fail because they are miserable and want you to be too, don't give into them and their hate. These people want you to believe that your dreams are impossible but you know that they are possible. You don't have time to listen to their negativity, you should be busy working towards achieving your dreams and then you can prove these people wrong!

" **Many great ideas have been lost because the people who had them could not stand being laughed at."**

Unknown

Just imagine how many ideas have been lost to us because the people who had them couldn't endure criticism, hate and all the negativity. Edison was constantly thought to be insane in his pursuits and people definitely told him so but can you imagine the world without the light bulb? Louis Pasteur's work has saved countless lives by being the first to create vaccines for rabies, anthrax and his work with pasteurization. Can you imagine what the world would be like if no one bothered to pursue those vaccines? Pasteur's theories about germs and microbiology were ridiculed, his own professor ridiculed his work and today he's regarded as one of the main founders of microbiology! Can you imagine just how many amazing ideas are lost every year because people give up on them; they yield to the criticisms of others and abandon their dreams.

Who knows the impact you might have by following your dreams, you could potentially change the world but if you don't pursue what you want, it won't happen. You cannot let criticism, hate and the naysayers get to you, you just can't. Never allow your dreams to become lost just because some fools laugh at you, trust me, they are the fools not you. Your dreams have the possibility of changing the world and if not, at the very least they will change your world for the better and that's enough. Criticism, hate and negativity serve only to diminish or destroy dreams, you have to protect yours, you have to work on them and achieve them understand?

" **Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with the big dreams is more powerful than the one with all the facts."**

Unknown

The people who mock, insult and attack your dreams don't have the answers about success, in fact they have no answers, so why listen to them? Nobody but you has the power to make your dreams come true, all the failures and successful people in the world combined cannot tell you what can't be done. Did you know that Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper because he "lacked imagination," seriously, can you believe that? Last I looked, he turned out to be pretty successful despite the opinion of another successful person. Oh but it gets better, did you also know that Mr. Disney later chose not to hire Charles Shultz, the creator of the Peanuts cartoons...

Nobody has all the answers, the only person with the answers in the end is you, I don't have the answers, all I'm trying to do is help guide and encourage. The most powerful people in the world can tell you that your dreams are impossible but they're wrong, you decide, not them. Napoleon Bonaparte shot down Robert Fulton's steamboat idea, thinking that it would never work and was nonsense, man was he wrong. You might remember Robert Goddard from the beginning of his book, well his theories of space flight were rejected by many of his peers and today he's thought of as the father of modern day space flight. Nobody but you, understand, nobody but YOU alone determines the success and possibility of your dreams!

The critics are never right in the end, only those who follow their dreams until the end are right, they are the winners. Somebody turned down the Beetles; somebody rejected the Harry Potter books, somebody turned down investing in the radio...big mistake! There was a professor at Cambridge who criticized Frank Whittle's plans for the jet engine; the professor told him that it would never work. One of the Wright brothers thought that the idea of flying from New York to Paris was impossible! Can you believe that, one of the men responsible for successful sustained flight thought that flying from New York to Paris would never happen? Do you see my point, even the biggest and most successful people can't even predict the limits of what can be done, these people were criticized for their own dreams and some of them didn't learn the lesson. Never ever doubt the potential that lies within every person on this planet, you can do and achieve anything!

Now I could go onto giving you tons more of examples of successful people being wrong about dreams but maybe I'll give you some more later.

" **Nothing is a peevish and pedantic as men's judgment of one another."**

Desridius Erasmus (1466 – 1536)

Dutch Theologian, Teacher and Humanist

We live in a society where judging people is part of the norm, some people can't walk down the street without forming an opinion about someone else they see. How childish are we today, this judging of people is exactly what leads to people judging and criticizing the dreams of others. Everyone has something to say but not everyone has the ability to keep it to him or herself. Everyone has to tell you what you're doing wrong in your pursuit, or that you shouldn't bother chasing your dreams or that you're going to fail. You know what, who asked those people right, why don't they shut up! It really is a peevish, pedantic and pathetic thing to do, why would anyone want to attack someone else's dream, how empty are their lives? They probably didn't like it when their dreams were attacked so why on Earth do it to someone else?

I try to understand the mindset of the haters, the critics and naysayers since I'm surrounded by so many of them but I think I'm going to end up giving myself and aneurysm. I just don't understand the reasoning behind attacking someone else's dreams and identity; it's not that hard to instead offer them a kind word encouragement is it? Is it really that hard today to say something nice or to simply refrain from saying something negative? You know what, just because these people have nothing better to do than to hate on you doesn't mean that you don't have better things to do than to listen to them, because you do! Let them talk, whine, complain and hate all they want while you go out and achieve something.

I think that maybe this hate comes from a place of insecurity, they feel so ashamed that they failed, that they don't want to see anyone else succeed because it makes them look bad. How shallow is that, that's what most of the haters I've met are like, is that who you want to listen to. You don't want these people influencing your life, don't give them that power, ignore them. Haters and critics have all the time in the world to talk trash and degrade people and dreams because that's their job. That's what they occupy their minds and time with and that's sad, you've got better things to do with your time.

" **If you call a tail a leg, how many legs has a dog? Five? No, calling a tail a leg don't make it a leg."**

Abraham Lincoln

If somebody criticizes you or says something derogatory about you, does that automatically make it true? No! If somebody says that your work is terrible does it make it so? No! That is only their opinion and not fact, I don't care how much of an expert they say they are or however many degrees they have, they don't know squat! Only you have the ability to judge yourself, your dreams and your work. I've shown you some examples of the judgment of "experts" and well, they weren't right. I know for a fact that there will be people who will hate this book, criticize it and tear it apart so what? Does their opinion make it a terrible book? I wrote it, only I can judge it. I also know that there are people who will like this book and the message, I'm writing for them and not for the haters who have nothing else better to do than hate.

It's just like when you're a child, the old saying, "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me," well don't let the words of others hurt you. Do not allow the words of others to hold you back, to deter you, to chain your dreams, ambitions and potential! The opinions and influences of other people cannot define or affect you if you do not allow it to. Take control of your life, of your identity and your dreams, take control and achieve the life YOU want!

" **Those who can – do. Those who can't – criticize."**

Unknown

It makes sense doesn't it, if you can do it then wouldn't you be busy actually doing it, if you feel you couldn't do it, you'd probably criticizing other people trying to do it. You already know that you can go out and achieve your dreams and chances are that someone telling you otherwise is someone who quit on theirs. Do you want to take the advice of someone who quit or doesn't believe that dreams are possible? Every naysayer I have ever met is someone who gave up on their dreams and now spend their time trying to convince me to give up on mine...isn't that counter productive to the whole point of going after your dreams in the first place? Why on Earth would you or I take the "advice" of someone who gives up on things and wants to pressure you into doing the same?

If these critics and haters did achieve their dreams then they probably wouldn't become haters and naysayers. People who achieve their dreams know that it's possible to do so; they obviously did it so why would they try to deter other people from doing so. There's a lesson in that, remember that most people who try to deter you or criticize you are probably people whose advice you shouldn't be taking because they didn't achieve their dreams. I've shown you the words of some great people, they weren't born great but became great, they obviously learned some things in their lives and they're sharing them with you, it'd be a shame to ignore their advice. Everyone I've quoted has achieved something and they are telling you that you can achieve your dreams too, whom are you going to believe, the critics or the ones that have achieved something?

It doesn't matter who you're being criticized by, it doesn't matter if it's your neighbor, extended family, friends or heck your parents, this is your life and you have the right to live your dreams. Trust me, speaking from experience, I can tell you that the people who have criticize me are people who all work jobs that they hate so why would I listen to them? Everyone who is a hater in my life is someone who is living life that isn't exactly an example of a life I'd like to live, they're miserable with their jobs and their lives...great example! Now does that sound like the life any of us would like to live, so why would I take advice from them or listen to their criticisms?

Most people who are naysayers and talk trash can do so because they have the time to talk trash; they have the time because they make time to talk trash instead of making time to chase their own dreams. Once again, not a great a example, successful men and women are too busy working on achieving things to be concerned with criticism, that's why they achieve things! I know I might not have as much pull as the people in your lives but listen, I want you to succeed and succeed in doing what you want, what you love, don't let anyone regardless of who they are deter you from your dreams!

" **I have no right by anything I do or say, to demean a human being in his own eyes. What matters not is what I think of him; it is what he thinks of himself. To undermine a man's self respect is a sin."**

Antoine de Saint – Exupery

It doesn't matter what other people say or think about you, it really doesn't because only you have to live with yourself for the rest of your life, they don't. Are you willing to you compromise yourself and your dreams forever just so you can please a few people temporarily? Nobody has the right to your dreams, they are yours do you understand, these are your dreams and only you have the right to them. Never allow anyone to make you think less of yourself, never allow anyone to make you doubt your abilities to achieve your dreams, you know that dreams are possible and that you can achieve them! This is your life and you have one chance to live it as you desire, so do it right!

It's a funny thing, if you ignore the mud and stones thrown at your feet and you keep climbing, soon you'll be standing on a mountain of the very stones that were being thrown at you. Ignore the naysayers and go about your way, keep working and climbing, while they're throwing stones, you're rising to the top. Nobody has the right to hold you back in life, nobody has the right to keep you from doing what you want, even if they tell you what they want for you is in your best interests. You cannot allow someone to make you doubt the possibility of your dreams, you know they are possible and that you can achieve them, do not doubt yourself ever!

" **Don't waste your life trying to impress other people. Do what you love, love what you do."**

Unknown

You can't spend your life trying to impress people or garner their approval, especially at the cost of sacrificing your dreams to pursue what they want you to do instead. I did that, for nearly half my life I did what others wanted me to do so that I might win their approval and it ruined my life. I know some of you might be under pressure of family members but you have to find a way to explain to them that this is your life and you have the right to live it as you see fit. You cannot let the fear of losing someone's approval keep you from pursuing your dreams, you just can't. I spent nearly a decade burying and repressing my own desires and because of that I still don't know all the things I want to do in my life, I ended up hiding some of my desires from myself and that leaves a very empty feeling that you don't want to experience, trust me.

Life truly is too short, that's not just some silly platitude, it is true. We all have a finite amount of time on Earth to do things and we should capitalize on it. These are your dreams and you can't fear the criticism and opinions of other people, do what you want to do! Do you want to live someone else's life or do you want to live a life of your choosing? This is one of the biggest forms of adversity you will face in life, the opinions, the hate and criticism of other people but you cannot let it get the best of you. Dealing with this is no different than dealing with the fear of failure.

" **The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."**

Walter Bagehot

I don't care nor pay even the slightest bit of attention when people tell me things like, "you can't do that" because I know they're wrong, I know any dream is possible to achieve! When people try to deter me or tell that something is "impossible," I see it as a challenge because that's what it really is. I want to achieve what others think as impossible to show them the truth, to prove to them that dreams can be achieved, I know this and you know this but for some reason our critics don't. If someone is trying to convince you to give up on your dreams then you prove them wrong by achieving them! There really is a great pleasure in achieving what some people say can't be done and I'm not talking about a petty or vindictive sense of pleasure but a sense of accomplishment.

" **Challenge your limitations."**

Unknown

You decide what you can and cannot do, remember that, what other people say to you are just words, not facts, not reality but just opinions. Other people's opinions of you do not truly define you, they don't create your reality, only you can do that through your work, so work! Don't let criticism and hate distract and deter you from doing your job and achieving your desires. Just because someone says you can't do something doesn't make that true, that's only their opinion, what you choose to do determines what you can and cannot do, it is your actions that determine your life understand?

" **Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do."**

Benjamin Franklin

Anybody can talk trash and belittle your dreams but what I've learned is that the people who do that to you are the people you should ignore. These people really are the fools because all the time they spend attacking you and your dreams is time that they could be using to achieve their own dreams. It's true that fools whine and complain whilst successful people get ahead by doing oh I don't know...work! If you let these people, these fools keep you from pursuing you dreams, well then, who's the bigger fool? People who achieve their dreams do so because they do not allow themselves to be scared out of pursuing them, they don't care about the criticism or hate they receive because it's detrimental to a successful mindset.

Remember that success and achievement are all mindsets and criticism is a form of psychological warfare if you will, that is being waged on your successful mindset. Don't let your dreams be derailed by the fools criticizing you and make no mistake about it, they are fools! I don't even think you should bother arguing with some of these people because if you waste your time arguing with a fool what does that make you? If you want these people to come around to your way of successful thinking then do it by proving to them that dreams can be achieved and you do that by obviously achieving your dreams.

" **Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by it's ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid."**

Albert Einstein

Everybody is a genius, everybody has talents and everybody has the ability to succeed, the problem is that not everybody realizes that. Some people don't understand the potential they have and they bury it, these same people go on to become most of the haters and critics in life. These people want other people to believe the same things that they do, that success isn't possible or that you don't have what it takes because they didn't believe they had what it took. The sad thing is that everyone has what it takes to succeed but some people allow themselves into being duped to believe otherwise. You are not stupid, you are not destined to fail in your pursuits, you are meant to achieve your dreams.

People try to compare and judge you according to their own standards and beliefs, do not let them, hold yourself to your own standards and beliefs. Just because some people quit and have a cynical view of dreams and success doesn't mean you let their views become yours. I've lived my entire life surrounded by cynics and people who admitted they quit on their dreams and then they want me to follow their advice in life, seriously? I've seen successful people come from every background imaginable, every country, every socio-economic background possible and it's all proof that anybody and everybody can succeed!

Don't allow anyone to ever convince you that you can't succeed because they feel you have a flaw or maybe you're lacking something. Let me tell you something that you probably already know, everybody has flaws, every successful person has flaws but they all still succeed in spite of their "flaws." Any perceived flaws you might think you have don't matter because dreams are achieved, remember, by hard work, your flaws have nothing to do with this. Remember Einstein, the man whose quote this is, his own teacher thought he was stupid...So, who out there is fit to judge you and your capabilities to succeed, no one but yourself! Everybody (and you're part of everybody) can succeed, everybody and anybody can do it so don't let anyone convince you otherwise.

Einstein was expelled from school and was refused admission into a technical school, people thought he was slow and would never amount to much. The criticisms, the hate and negative opinions of others do not matter; they never have and never will matter in the pursuit of dreams. The only thing that matters is you, your opinion of yourself, how hard you work and not allowing yourself to become deterred by any fears! Thomas Edison's teachers thought he was too stupid to learn anything and look how that prediction turned out. It's like I said, other people's opinions don't matter, unless you believe them and make them matter, don't!

" **In order to excel, you must be completely dedicated to your chosen sport. You must also be prepared to work hard and be willing to accept destructive criticism. Without 100% dedication you won't be able to do this."**

Wilson Mizner (1876 – 1930)

American Entrepreneur, Playwright and Raconteur

See, you can't let criticism get the best of you, criticism derails people, it keeps them from doing the hard work necessary to achieve their dreams. Destructive criticism is just another form of adversity you are going to have to deal with, so what, you can't let an opinion keep you from the fact that your dreams can be achieved. Your dedication and hard work is what achieves a dream and other people's criticisms can't keep you from doing that, it just can't. Charles Darwin's father criticized him as having less than average intelligence as did his teachers, look how he turned out. These are your dreams, yours, you have to be dedicated to achieving them or the slightest negative comment will be able to hold you back. Stay focused and know that all the negativity in the world won't change the fact that you can achieve your dreams!

" **Criticism comes easier than craftsmanship."**

**Zeuxis (um...sometime during the 4** th **century BC)**

Greek Painter

It easier to talk trash, to try and tear down someone's dreams rather than go out and achieve dreams themselves, maybe that's why haters well hate. It is easy isn't it, to just talk and criticize, to try and deter other people from doing work rather than just doing the work themselves? Why would I ever listen to anyone's advice about achieving dreams when those people couldn't achieve their own dreams? These people just talk the talk, they don't take action and if they did, well they gave up and that's not an example I want to follow. That's why I don't listen to my critics and haters, they are all bad examples, they all quit on their dreams and now they are trying to convince me to do the same, where's the sense in that?

Hard work creates success and all the criticism and hate in the world cannot change that, not now or ever. Words are just words, no matter how hateful or whom they come from, they are just words and cannot physically stop you from achieving your dreams. These are your dreams, your chance to craft something, the life you want and you cannot allow someone else's words keep you from that. Nobody gets anywhere by taking the easy road, that's why haters become haters, they want to take the easy road and couldn't commit to achieving their dreams. You can't let these people scare you into taking the easy roads in life, you can't let them scare you into giving up on what you want, it's your life and you deserve to live the life you desire.

" **Any jackass can kick a barn down, but it takes a carpenter to build it."**

Sam Rayburn (1882 – 1961)

Lawmaker and served as Speaker of the U.S House of Representatives

It is much easier to try and tear down another person and their dreams, instead of working hard to create to achieve dreams of their own, that's why haters do what they do. It takes men and women of substance, of strength, to create and achieve a dream, you have that strength; don't let haters convince you otherwise. It is always easier to destroy something than to build it, it takes hard work to achieve a dream and that's something the haters just cannot endure, hard work. Successful men and women do not allow the thoughts of others to deter them; they know that their dreams are possible, that's why they work so hard to achieve them. Think about it, if dreams couldn't be achieved then why would anyone work ridiculously hard to achieve them?

" **In reality, the world have paid too great a compliment to critics, and have imagined them men of much greater profundity than they really are."**

Henry Fielding (1707 – 1754)

English Novelist and Dramatist

We do pay far too much attention to other people's opinions of ourselves and our dreams but we shouldn't. The only opinion here that matters is your own; you have to know that no matter what others say, that in the end you will achieve your dreams. There were people who told Tony Hawk that he would never make a living off of skateboarding, they were geniuses weren't they, those people were real clairvoyants. You shouldn't tailor yourself to suit other people's desires and wants, what do you want? We pay so much attention to other people's thoughts and opinions that we forget to take into account our own opinions, which are infinitely more important.

Sometimes when the criticism comes from people close to us, we feel it's better to listen to it in order to please the other person but that's just as dangerous as caving into other criticisms. Think about it, what happens when you keep whittling away at a piece of wood, eventually you carve it away into nothing. That's what happens when you whittle away yourself to please other people, no matter how close they are to us, who do you want to be? We can't let our lives be directed and controlled by the opinions of other people, they don't own our lives, we do!

It's a very big mistake that many people make, compromising themselves in order to please their critics. You only hurt yourself by doing that, if you compromise your dreams to please other people, well what's left to please you? If you give up on the things that make you happy in order to make other people happy, how can you then make yourself happy? You can't give up on what you want, on what makes you happy so you can please other people. It sounds very selfish but it isn't, if you're not happy do you think you can make other people happy? You have to take care of yourself first in order to take care of others but you can never ruin your dreams to please a critic or hater.

Think about what a hater does, they hate, it's that simple and is that the kind of person you want to please by compromising your dreams? If the critic is someone close in your life it becomes harder, I know, but you have to impress upon them the importance of your dreams. If they can tell you not to pursue something then you should be able to tell them why you want to pursue your dreams and why you should and can achieve them. This is a decision you will have to live with forever, are you going to be who someone else wants you to be or are you going to be who you want? You are going to have to live with whatever life you make, you can either make one that someone else wants you to have or make the one you want, choose.

" **All of us could take a lesson from the weather, it pays no attention to criticism."**

Unknown

A perfect example right there isn't it, no matter what we all feel about the weather, good or bad, it's going to do what it wants. Take a lesson right there, no matter what people say about you, go after your dreams and achieve them! Trying to please critics at the expense of living a life you're not pleased with is not success, it just isn't. True success is achieving and living the life you want, not the life someone else wants for you but what you want. You need to learn how to ignore the negative comments; the criticism and hate, if you let it get to you it will hold you back in life.

" **The author himself is the best judge of his own performance; none has so deeply meditated on the subject; none is so sincerely interested in the event."**

Edward Gibbon (1737 – 1794)

English Historian and Member of Parliament

You are the author of your life story; you have the power to choose whether or not your dreams come true, which is why only you can judge yourself and your dreams. Nobody knows you like you do, obviously, nobody knows your heart, dreams and dedication as well as you. People who criticize and condemn you have no idea what they're talking about; they don't have a clue about you because if they did, they wouldn't be criticizing. Nobody knows your potential better than you; nobody knows your ability to succeed better than you because you are the only one inside your own head. You understand everything about your dreams better than anyone else, so you shouldn't let someone else convince you that you can't do something when you know you can.

Tell me, who has spent more time contemplating your future, your dreams and life than you? Do you think your critics, haters and naysayers know you better than you know yourself, no and that's why they can't judge you. No one knows what you have gone through in life and what you're going to have to go through to achieve your dreams, that's why no one can criticize you. If they haven't lived your life and if they don't want to be a part of the life you dream of, then they can't talk trash about it, understand! This is your life and you are in control of it, understand that, YOU are in control of it and not them!

" **Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."**

Albert Einstein

You are a great spirit, everyone is but some people lose sight of that and attack other people and their dreams, some people fall short of all they can be and want to take it out on others. Critics, haters and naysayers don't understand what makes successful people successful, they don't understand what makes them strong so they attack anyone who is on the road to success. It can come from envy, hate or whatever other demented reasons they can come up with but it does not matter, you don't let them get the best of you ok? You do not submit to their hate and cynicism, you use your intelligence, you stay focused and work hard to achieve what you want, understand? Every successful man and woman has dealt with their own opposition, people who want them to fail, people who tear at them and hold them back but they overcome it all and succeed.

Successful people do not submit to hate and negativity, I mean why do it, what do you get by giving in? Why would you want to give in and fail when you've already put in so much work, when you're willing to put in more work, as much as it takes to succeed? Why would you let someone else keep you from the life you want, don't you have the right to live the life you want, you do have the right, never ever forget that. Remember the examples of great people that I shared with you who were opposed and criticized, they still achieved their dreams and you can too!

Maybe you would like more examples of great people who were criticized and still made it to the top, would it make you feel better, it makes me feel better. Charlie Chaplin, great man right, well his pantomime routine was thought by some to be ridiculous and nonsensical. The world-renowned sculptor Rodin, his own father thought that his son was an idiot, last time I checked Rodin ended up famous and his father is...I have no idea. There were a multitude of publishers who rejected Dr. Seuss. Somebody told Henry Ford that cars would never make it in the market and that they would never replace horses. Feeling better yet, I am, I love the fact that all the "experts" in the world couldn't convince these people from giving up on their dreams and they all succeeded.

I have a question, if all these people succeeded despite the opposition and criticism they faced, well then what can you do, just how much can you achieve? There is only one way you will ever be able to answer that question and that is by going after all you want and getting it. Don't take someone else's word or opinion as fact, don't even take my word for it, go out and prove it to yourself! You can ignore everything I've said in this book if you want...it would hurt my feelings a tad but you can. None of my words or anyone else's mean anything in the end, the only thing that matters is you, your opinion and your dedication. You achieve your dreams, you do the work and because of that no one else can tear your dreams down. How fair is it that if you're doing all the work that other people can tell you to give up, no, they gave up and that's on them but you go after what you want and get it!

" **They condemn what they don't understand."**

Marcus T. Cicero (106 BC – 46 BC)

Roman Philosopher, Lawyer, Orator, Statesman, Political Theorist and Constitutionalist

Maybe that's why some people attack our dreams and us, maybe it's because they don't understand success and many people do attack what they don't understand. If our critics and haters truly understood success then they wouldn't be attacking us would they? If they really understood it then they would probably be working to be successful themselves or would already be successful and if that was the case, well they wouldn't be wasting time attacking us. I think that might be it right there, these people just don't understand success and instead of making the effort to understand it themselves, they find it easier to attack us. I know that all the naysayers and haters in my life have no clue whatsoever about success because when I ask them what it takes to succeed, they all answer luck... That's enough to tell me that they don't have a clue, so why listen to them?

" **There is only one way to handle the ignorant and malicious critic. Ignore him."**

Unknown

Yeah, that's great advice; just ignore them because that's what most successful people do to their critics. Hey, you can take a bit of comfort in the fact that your haters and naysayers might be pretty insulted if you just ignore them. I mean why wouldn't you ignore them, these people don't want they best for you, they want you to give up on your dreams, some of them want you to fail. Think of your haters and critics as bees, sometimes what they say and do can sting but if you ignore them, well they don't matter then do they?

" **I do the very best I know how – the very best I can; and mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything."**

Abraham Lincoln

That's what matters, that's what makes successful people successful, doing the best they can. Think hard about that, if you are doing the best you can, isn't it reasonable to assume you're going to achieve the best results possible? You know that work equals results, the best work put in, gives you the best results. Why should you have to worry about what other people say or think about you when you know that you are doing the best you can? I don't care much for the negative things people say behind my back, I figure if they're saying it behind my back then I must be up at the head of the pack, right? Most haters and naysayers just spew garbage, negativity that doesn't mean much; I mean how much importance do you place on garbage?

Remember what you're doing here, what you're pursuing, you're going after your dreams and that's a pretty substantial pursuit understand? You can't let trash talk and derogatory comments about your dreams and yourself get to you. Your dreams are far more important than what people think about you because what are you going to think about yourself if you give up your dreams? This is the chance for you to create the life of your dreams so what's worth more to you, other people's opinions or, your dreams?

" **The greatest achievements of the human mind are generally received with distrust."**

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 – 1860)

German Philosopher

The greatest achievements, ideas and dreams are all always received with distrust, criticism and negativity. Remember all the examples I cited before, people with dreams who work hard, make their dreams a reality but many people don't believe in those dreams and criticize them. We are all going to have to deal with it but just because other people don't believe in our dreams doesn't mean that we shouldn't believe in our dreams. Edwin Drake is credited as being the first man to drill for oil in the United States; well he was mocked by other drillers for his idea to drill for oil in the ground. So, how crazy was his idea, his vision to drill for oil? We all know it now, today it's common sense but back then he was ridiculed for what we know today. That's what it's like with dreams, there are always ignorant people who don't understand that dreams can come true!

There will always be critics and naysayers who will never understand that success can be achieved, that our dreams can be achieved and it's not your job to convince them. You know what your job is, your job is to work hard and achieve your dreams, not to prove anything to other people ok? You aren't here to prove yourself to anyone except maybe yourself. There are always fools out there who will doubt you and not trust your ability to achieve something, who cares about them, if they want to be miserable then it's their choice. You have a choice to either succumb to the criticisms or rise above it; the fear of criticism and hate is no different than the fear of failure, rise above it!

Did you know that Atari and Hewlett-Packard both turned down Steve Jobs' personal computer, they essentially shot down Apple Computers, can you believe that? There were people who doubted space travel, x-rays, television, radios and more but just because those people had negative opinions doesn't matter, it never has nor will. You know what matters, what matters is your ability to work hard and overcome adversity in any form, fear of failure or criticism or any other obstacles that get in your way.

" **A rocket will never be able to leave Earth's atmosphere"**

New York Times, 1936

Yeah...they called that one right, didn't they? I'm probably not going to win an all too favorable review from them now am I? Oh well, it's not like they review books and can make or break a book but then again, this is a digital book, so I win! My point is, the biggest, most powerful and influential people, the "experts" so to speak, cannot even predict the future of a person's dreams. The only person who can create your future is YOU, only YOU can decide whether or not your dreams come true so make them come true! Don't give into other people's negativity, their hate and criticism. You have to rise above all of it, understand, don't sink beneath it but rise!

Somebody doubted that we would be able to travel using high-speed trains because the speed would make us suffocate. I've ridden on one or two high-speed trains and the only thing that could have made me suffocate was the smell of the person next to me but not the speed. Are you starting to understand what I'm saying, the opinions of the whole world do not matter, only your opinion matters, do you believe in your dreams or not? When Samuel Morse demonstrated his invention, the telegraph, there were people who thought it was absurd and would never work. Nobody is clairvoyant, nobody other than you has the key to your future, you create it and you alone!

Would you like more examples of how dreams were thought to be ridiculous and yet still prevailed? President Rutherford B. Hayes told Alexander Graham Bell that no one would want to use his invention the telephone. I don't know about you but I use my phone every now and again, it's useful isn't it? Now just because your dream might not be inventing something revolutionary doesn't mean that your dream isn't revolutionary itself because it is. Your dream doesn't have to revolutionize the world but it can and will revolutionize YOUR life and that's what matters, this is about your life. Dreams are dreams no matter how grandiose or miniscule you choose to make them and they can all be achieved and never let anyone fool you into believing otherwise!

" **Keep away from small people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."**

Mark Twain

That's one of the best pieces of advice right there, just ignore the haters and naysayers and if you can, stay away from them. Have you ever noticed how many successful people thank their friends and families? There is a reason for that you know; the people who encourage us and believe in us really do help us succeed. One of the best things you can do to ensure your success is to replace the people who doubt and criticize you with people who believe in and encourage you. If you want to be in better shape then you need to surround yourself with fitness oriented people who encourage you to live a healthier life. That's just one example; there are all sorts of groups that are tailored to and for every ambition and lifestyle that you can think of so you can always find people to support you.

Think about it like this, the biggest buildings, the strongest structures all have a support structure don't they? Every great building and every great person needs a strong supportive foundation and you are a great person in the making and you are building something great, the life of your dreams. Ignore the haters and critics, who cares what they have to say, they don't dictate your life. The critics, haters and naysayers aren't helping you are they, if they're not then why listen to them? Why would anyone want to be surrounded by people who have such a low level of believability about what's possible? I can't think of any reason why I want to be around someone who is so cynical about dreams and pursuing them. Do you want to be around someone who doesn't believe that you can or should do what you want in life?

It's not conducive to a successful mindset when you're surrounded by cynical and pessimistic people, if you want to achieve your dreams then surround yourself with people who believe in you, not doubt you. Remember that success is a mindset and how do you expect to obtain that mindset if you're constantly dealing with people who are criticizing your dreams? Who do you want to be surrounded by; do you want to be with people who bring your dreams and you down or people who raise you up, people who believe in you?

" **The purpose of a writer is to be read, and the criticism which would destroy, the power of pleasing must be blown aside."**

Samuel Johnson

This applies to anyone with a dream, not just writers, the point of pursuing a dream is to see it completed and achieved and not compromised by other people's opinions. Your job is to accomplish what YOU set out to accomplish, not what other people want but what you want, understand? It's not your job to go around people pleasing...unless of course that is your actual job...which is weird but I digress. Your job is to go after your dreams and achieve exactly what you want and not what other people want. You can't compromise your dreams to please other people, your purpose is to achieve your dreams, not meet other people's expectations. You really do have to blow aside the external negativity and cynicism if you want to achieve your dreams.

Achieving your dreams is like carving a masterpiece from stone, you have to do a considerable amount of work but you can't chip away too much of it either or you're left with nothing. We are all great works of art in the making, our lives are a work of art but if you keep chiseling at them to please other people, nothing remains. What happens if you keep chiseling at a statue without stopping? Nobody wants their life to be a pile of rubble but that's what you get when you listen to and act on every piece of criticism and negativity people toss your way. You cannot chip away at yourself in the hopes of becoming and living the way other people want you to, what about what you want, how do you want to live and who do you want to be?

Your dreams can only be achieved by you because they are, wait for it...YOUR DREAMS DUH! How can you possibly achieve your dreams if you're not being true to who you are, if you're compromising yourself to please other people? Now I know that sounded like a nice little cliché but that doesn't make it any less true does it? The only person who can achieve what you want is you and you can only do that by being you, not who others want you to be but who you really are! It's not your job to live for other people or to be someone other than yourself because you're essentially wasting the person whom you actually are. Why let your passion, your individuality and potential go to waste?

Your life is your story and you are the author of it, no one else has the right to write it for you nor the power to do so unless you give them that power. Being who other people want you to be is not the way to achieve your dreams or succeed, trust me I tried that for nearly a decade and it didn't work. Being the person other people wanted me to be eventually led me to the point where I began to hate who I actually was, I was ashamed of wanting to pursue artistic things because they weren't considered prestigious careers. I allowed people to convince me that working on cars was trivial, that I would be looked down upon a failure. I started to become afraid of doing the things I loved to do and that's not a life to live.

" **If I had listened to the critics I'd have died drunk in the gutter."**

Anton Chekov (1860 – 1904)

Russian Author, Physician and Dramatist

I would be in the same boat if I had listened to my critics only not so much the drunk part or...in the gutter because I'd like to imagine that I would have died in a more edgy way like fighting a polar bear with both hands tied behind my back! It's a good thing that Mr. Chekov didn't listen to his critics because he eventually rose to become one of the greatest short story authors ever. If he could overcome the criticisms in his life and rise to such prominence then just think how far you can go and how much you can achieve! Giving into my critics led me to nearly commit suicide but it's a good thing for me that I stopped listening to them and a good thing for you because who would be bugging you then if not for me?

What do you get out of talking to your critics and haters, pessimism, negativity, cynicism and hate? Do you really want to deal with all of that, no, forget them and go about doing what you want to do and achieve. If these people knew anything about achieving dreams and success then they wouldn't be haters, they wouldn't have the time because they would be busy achieving things and living a happy life.

" **It is ridiculous for any man to criticize the works of another if he has not distinguished himself by his own performances."**

Joseph Addison (1672 – 1719)

English Politician, Playwright, Essayist and Poets

It is ridiculous for anyone to criticize your dreams and especially so if they themselves haven't achieved anything. It doesn't matter who the haters are because they can't tell you what you can and cannot do, it doesn't matter even if they have achieved an enormous amount of success. Remember the examples I've shared with you of dreams that were doubted and some of them were even doubted by great people who had achieved their own success? Nobody on this Earth except for you can determine whether or not you can achieve something, nobody has all the facts and nobody can criticize your dreams! Look closely at the people who criticize your dreams, have they achieved anything great themselves? If they haven't then why listen to them and if they have, well again, why listen to them because even successful people cannot predict the outcome of your pursuits because only you can!

No "expert" or "professional" anything can tell you with a 100% guarantee that you won't succeed, that's not how life works, dreams can be achieved by anyone willing to pay the price. The only opinion that matters here is YOURS, not your critics, not your haters, naysayers not even mine but just YOURS! Now what do you think of yourself, do you think you can do this or not, is this worth doing or giving up on, are your dreams impossible or possible? Whatever the answers to those questions were are the only opinions that matter because it's your life, they're your dreams and it's all done by you and depends on your ability to work and your opinions, get it?

" **Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also."**

Marcus Aurelius

Just because you or someone else thinks that you can't do something doesn't mean that you actually can't do it, that's just an opinion, not fact. Never ever underestimate the potential that lies in the human the race, the potential that you have. That's what most haters and naysayers do, they believe that because they feel that they can't achieve a dream that nobody else can achieve dreams as well. That's a falsehood because if it's been done before it can be done again, people have achieved their dreams before and you can achieve yours. If someone else has done it then you too can do it, it really is that simple and straightforward, there are no secrets here to achieving something.

If something can be done and achieved by some person then it can be done and achieved by any person including you! Now in the event that you have a dream that has never been accomplished before, that doesn't mean that it can't be done but rather no one has been willing and committed enough to get it done. If you have a dream like that then you have to ask yourself if you are the person who's committed enough to see it through, are you going to be the first person to show the world that it can be done? Never allow the haters to deter you from going after your dreams, just because they feel something can't be done doesn't mean that it really can't be done.

Sometimes our haters and critics over-think things; they keep looking for a million reasons why we can't do something. You can have a million reasons why you can't or shouldn't do something but all it takes is one good reason why you can and should to overrule all that negativity and criticism. Haters and naysayers spend so much time looking for reasons to fail instead of putting in the work necessary to succeed! Success and achievement does require a bit of thinking but it requires a heck of a lot more work, stop listening to the haters and stop thinking about failure and start working towards success!

" **It is not the critic who counts; nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."**

Theodore Roosevelt

I know that one is a bit long but it makes excellent points doesn't it, the critic doesn't matter in the end, what matters is you and your work. Sometimes you might mess up, it happens but what's important is that you keep going until you get what you want. Do you want to be the person who sits on the sidelines for your whole life, do you want to just cruise by safely and never know your full potential? That's what most of the critics and haters are, they are people who are so afraid to fail that they never make the effort to taste success because they know sometimes they'll have to taste the bitter in order to taste the sweet. Success and achieving dreams can be likened to having to eat a few lemons in order to get a basket of oranges and peaches. What happens is that some people don't want to eat the lemons and so they never get to taste the oranges.

People who achieve success are the people who don't give into the hate, cynicism, negativity and all the criticism; they overcome it and rise above it all. Dare to go after your dreams and live a great life, don't be timid, and don't be afraid to go after the life you want. Don't allow people to instill fear into you, don't allow people to control you through fear and shape you into someone other than who you truly are. I would much rather face a thousand defeats and finally have one big amazing win at the end than to knuckle under and never lose but never win either.

" **When we judge or criticize another person, it says nothing about that person, it merely says something about our own need to be critical."**

Unknown

Just because someone attacks you or your dreams doesn't mean that what they say is true or that you deserve it, no, sometimes people just do not have the capacity to keep their mouth shut! Sometimes in life we are going to come across people that just have to, have to attack our dreams and us because they feel compelled to. I don't know why but there are these kinds of people out there that just have to say something negative, I don't know what's wrong with them, maybe somebody replaced their shampoo with Nair but these people are just angry. Just ignore these people because they have to attack someone and their dreams to make themselves feel better and that's pathetic, it's petty, I've dealt with these people and I feel sorry for them. These people have so little going on in their lives that they have to stir things up by attacking other people just to get some excitement or pleasure in their lives and that's sad.

If you want to achieve your dreams and be successful then you can't waste time catering to this negativity and cynicism that comes from other people, you have work to do! Don't sit around and entertain thoughts of failure and hate and negativity, just because these people have a problem doesn't meant that you have to have one. Live your life, do your work and achieve your dreams, let the haters keep squawking in the background. Do you want to listen to the people who aren't in your corner supporting you, the people throwing stones rather than building something, do you want to listen to your haters or to that voice inside your head that pushes you to follow and achieve your dreams?

" **Let me walk three weeks in the footsteps of my enemy, carry the same burden, have the same trials as he, before I say one word to criticize."**

Unknown

Everybody is different and has experienced life a little bit differently than other people, we have all had our own struggles that sometimes only we know about because we've kept them to ourselves. It's that reason why nobody on this planet can criticize us or our desire to do something great, to become and achieve something, everybody has struggled and everybody deserves to turn that struggle into a life of happiness. Nobody knows you better than you, that's why nobody can rain on your dreams because they belong to YOU! You shouldn't listen to your haters and critics because they don't truly know you, only you know you, I know that's a big revelation isn't it?

Even though everybody has gone through their own hard times and that some of those hardships may be similar to ours doesn't mean that they can try to destroy our dreams and desires. The way I see it is that everybody has gone through hard times but so many people have gotten out of them and even prospered, that's all the proof I need that we are meant to rise and achieve something, not sink and succumb to negativity and hardships. Never let the haters and naysayers bring you down, don't let them instill fear into you; they don't know you or your strength because only you know that!

" **Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."**

Marcus Aurelius

When people criticize you and try to denigrate your dreams, know that what they say is only an opinion and not fact. Heck, everything I've shared with you is only my opinion and the opinions of the people I've quoted. The thing is, I believe these opinions to be facts and act accordingly whereas cynical people believe the opposite and thus act the way they do and thus live the lives they do. Actions bring about results and actions stem from our thoughts, when you act on successful thoughts you will take action that matches up with those thoughts and will bring about successful results. When the haters and critics say something negative about your dreams it doesn't mean anything at all, it's nothing more than a bunch of negative and cynical words, that's it!

Learning how to succeed and achieve something requires you to learn to accept criticism and hate for what it really is, just angry, spiteful words and nothing more. A person's opinion does not become fact until you begin to treat it as such, some facts are irrefutable like 2 plus 2 always equals a lot which is 1 more than 3...any number more than 3 is a lot...it's mechanics math. Anyways, my point is that when it comes to life, dreams and achievement, facts become a bit sketchy. The facts of life and success are the opinions we accept, believe to be true and act upon. For a hater or critic, dreams are impossible because that's what they truly believe and act upon.

I can't live like that; I can't live a life with such a low level of believability, believing that dreams aren't possible because I believe they are! Now what's fact, the haters opinion that dreams don't come true or the opinions of the people I've quoted who have achieved their dreams? Both people are right in a way, do see what I'm trying to say, it's a matter of perception and acting upon that. Successful people operate on the idea that dreams and achievements are all possible, that's why they do achieve things, that's why they make the effort. Hater, critics and naysayers believe the opposite and so either don't act or quit on their dreams and thus their beliefs become vindicated through their inability to act, which is all based around their initial and cynical opinions.

In order to achieve your dreams you need to understand that other people's opinions do not matter nor do they define you. The only things that will define you in this life and define your life are your opinions and how you act on them. Words are just that, words, they can hurt at times but never will they be able to physically hold you back. Negative words and hate aren't walls and if they were, well, any wall can be scaled right?

" **Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you will be criticized anyway. You will be damned if you do and damned if you don't."**

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 – 1962)

Civil Rights Activist, International Speaker, Politician, Author and First Lady of the United States from (1933 – 1945)

That's another reason why we should in fact go after our dreams and not listen to our critics because they're going to be criticizing no matter what we do. It's better to be criticized whilst on the top of a mountain than to be criticized while being on the bottom. I've seen people criticize people for failing and people be criticized for pursuing their dreams and working towards success. So what are you going to do, you're going to get it anyways so you might as well accept that fact and keep working regardless. All successful people have been criticized before they succeed and many still are even after they've achieved their dreams but so what, that criticism doesn't diminish their dreams.

That's what people need to realize, all the negativity and hate in the world can't stop you from achieving your dreams and more to the point, it can't take your dreams from you once you've achieved them! Go after what you want regardless of how other people feel and what they say, who cares, it's not their life it's yours! I get criticized nearly everyday and I know that one day when my dreams come true that I will still be criticized by someone, who cares, bring it on! I believe that pursuing and achieving a person's dreams are worth taking all the criticism in the world, what about you, do you believe your dreams are worth it?

The way I see it is that if I'm going to catch flak anyways then I might as well go after my dreams and live the life I want. It makes a bit of sense doesn't it; if you're going to receive criticism regardless of what you do then maybe you should just do what you want to do. I've been criticized for not achieving my dreams fast enough, for going after them in the first place and I know I will be criticized for the rest of my life for any other reason haters can come up with. That being said, I might as well be king of the hill as far as my life is concerned, they're going to hate anyways so I might as well get comfortable right?

" **You need to overcome the tug of people against you as you reach for high goals."**

George S. Patton

Yeah, you do, the negativity and criticism of people is like a rope tied around your waist that's pulling you back. You need to cut that rope so you can move forwards with more ease, as long you cater to negative thoughts you are limiting your ability to progress. Critics, haters and naysayers are trying to pull you down and back and it's your job to rise up and move forwards, get it?

" **That which does not kill us makes us stronger."**

Frederick Nietzsche (1844 – 1900)

German Philosopher, Poet and Philologist

Enduring criticism and hate does make you in fact stronger, words cannot tear you down unless you let them, use their negativity to spur yourself on to achieve your dreams. When people say you cannot or should not do something, see it as a dare or a challenge, let it be fuel to push you to excel. Don't let their words wear you down and make you give in, let their criticism become your weapon, let it make you sharper and stronger. Why give them what they want, which is to see you fail or quit, take the stones they throw and build yourself steps out of them. The bricks they fling at you can become your staircase to success.

Many successful people have used the criticism and hate they received as something to keep that inner fire burning; they used it as a reason to become even more determined to achieve something. Sometimes it can be a good thing to be criticized if you can put yourself into a mindset where you can use that negativity to drive you to prove these people wrong. It comes down to whatever works for your mindset, if their nay saying gets you angry, then redirect that anger and fire to push you to shut these people up by achieving an unparalleled success!

" **Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world."**

Arthur Schopenhauer

So many naysayers and critics out there believe that dreams are impossible and they feel that the limits they have imposed on themselves should be imposed on everybody. That's not how it works, just because these people don't believe in dreams or have quit doesn't mean that we have to believe the same thing. Just because some people decide to have a narrow field of vision doesn't mean that we have to. Some people have a very limited scope of vision and possibilities; these people try to get others to go along with this fallacy but why should we? Just because maybe these haters quit or didn't even bother in the first place doesn't mean that we shouldn't go after our dreams.

" **If you don't like my words, don't listen. If you don't like my appearance, don't look. If you don't like my actions, turn your head; it's as simple as that."**

Unknown

Yeah it really is that simple, if your critics and haters have a problem, well too bad it's their problem but don't let their problem become yours. I've got work to do and if they have a problem with it then they can shut up, stop listening, turn their head and stop looking. It's your life and you are in charge of it, if people have a problem with your dreams and what you're doing, remember that it's THEIR problem not yours. You have one life to achieve what you want so do it!

" **People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it."**

Unknown

My sentiments exactly, if you have people who are telling you that you can't or shouldn't do something and then continue saying those things all while you're working, well maybe they should stop! I don't know why some people continue to pester those people who are working towards achieving something, we heard you the first time haters now buzz off! How irritating is it when someone's interrupting you when you are actually doing what he or she said couldn't be done?

" **Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then gets discouraged. That is not the place to become discouraged."**

Thomas Alva Edison

That's one of the biggest problems we have, we tend to over-think things to the point where they start looking impossible and then we quit. Just because something looks impossible doesn't mean it actually is but we convince ourselves that they are in fact impossible when they're really not. Sometimes we lose sight of how exactly our dreams are going to come true and then we begin to doubt whether we will be able to achieve them at all but that's over-thinking the situation. You should know now that you do have the potential to achieve your dreams, that they are possible to achieve and all you have to do is work for them.

Allowing yourself to become discouraged by either yourself or the words of others is a slippery slope that quickly leads to people giving up on their dreams. If you give up on your dreams because you allowed yourself to become discouraged, well, how then are you going to achieve you dreams? You want to know one of the best things you can do to help ensure that you will in fact succeed? Wait for it...

" **Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed."**

Abraham Lincoln

Bam! There you go, don't let yourself become discouraged and you won't quit, if you don't quit then you will inevitably keep working until you finally achieve your dreams. It's no big secret, it's just the right mindset and work ethic that lead a person to succeed and achieve the things they want. Successful people do not allow themselves to become discouraged by anything, they keep pursuing their dreams regardless of their situation and that is exactly why they succeed in the end. It's all about the end game; it's about having your dreams come true in the end and in order to make it to the end you need to make sure you never allow yourself to become discouraged.

" **A man can get discouraged many times but he is not a failure until he begins to blame somebody else and stops trying."**

John Burroughs (1837 – 1921)

American Author and Naturalist

Nearly every person I have ever met fears failing in their pursuits but what they fail to realize is that the person who never stops trying never fails and will eventually succeed! This quote sums up what haters are and where they come from, they are people who have become discouraged and quit and now want others to follow suit. These are people who blame other people for their misfortunes rather than taking a bit of personal responsibility. Real failure is giving in and giving up, make no excuses and have no fear as you go after your dreams and you will in the end succeed. Remember what honest Abe said in the previous quote, as long as you don't let discouragement get the best of you, you will in the end succeed!

" **One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his greatest surprises is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do."**

Henry Ford

Too many people allow their critics and haters scare them into believing that they cannot succeed or achieve their dreams. How do you know what you can and cannot do without actually doing it? More to the point, how in the world do your critics and haters know what you can and cannot do? The only way you will ever be able to know is by actually doing it, so do not let your haters keep you from doing what you want to do and achieve in life! Do you really want to know just how far you can go in life and how high you can reach? If you answered yes to that question then you need to go out and get to work, not cower in fear but go out and achieve whatever it is you desire! Discover for yourself that you can in fact do everything you've been afraid that you couldn't do, it's no different than first fearing to ride a bike, you can do it!

" **Let us banish fear."**

Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875 – 1950)

African American Historian, Journalist and Author

Let's do that, let's banish our fears, the things that hold us back in life and chain our potential. Fear is the killer of dreams, of success, you know that by now but for all the things that hurt your ability to succeed there are as many things out there that will help you succeed. There are qualities that we all possess that can guarantee our success; these are the qualities that all successful people harness and put to use. These qualities help diminish all of our fears and help give us the strength to overcome any adversity we may face. There are qualities within us that can make us into a juggernaut for success if we choose to embrace them, so what are they?

**For The Win!**

" **Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning."**

Mahatma Gandhi

Believing in yourself and your ability to succeed is one the most important qualities there is, now I know it sounds extremely corny and clichéd and maybe it is but it's still crucial to success. Think about it like this, if you don't believe you can do something, will you go out and make the effort to do it anyways? Chances are most people would not, on the other hand, if you did vehemently believe you could do something wouldn't you go out and do it? Believing you can do something is important because when you believe you can do something you actually attempt it, by attempting it you learn how to do it and by learning how to do it you inevitability become capable of doing it, understand?

It's not a very complicated idea, it's like riding a bike, no one is born knowing how to do it but we learn how. In order to first learn how to ride a bike you have to first believe that you can do it. Once you believe you can do it, you then try and learn how to do it and in the end you finally become capable of riding a bike. It's not that belief is some mystical magical force but rather an important mindset that pushes people to actually make the effort to pursue their dreams regardless of their fears. Belief is necessary because it trumps our fears; it helps us overcome the emotions that would otherwise hold us back.

All successful people believe that they are capable of doing whatever it is they want to do, that's why they go out and do them without succumbing to fears like the fear of failure. Believing you can do something leads you to eventually being able to do that thing because you make the effort and as we know, taking action or making effort is necessary to learn and succeed. Whether you know how to do something or not at first is irrelevant because if you believe you can do it then you will inevitably find a way to do it and that's what's important, making the effort and figuring it out and that comes from belief!

" **Fear is a habit; so is self-pity, defeat, anxiety, despair, hopelessness and resignation. You can eliminate all of these negative habits with two resolves. I can! And I will!**

Unknown

Fear is a habit and it's a self destructive one, fear makes you doubt and worry that you cannot do something when in reality you actually can. If you don't feel you can do something you will not bother to do it, so what's the remedy to that, to believe you can do it! This goes back to the very beginning of the book, to believing that your dreams are possible only now you have to believe that you are capable of achieving them and you are! Successful people don't mope around in anxiety, fear, despair and hopelessness, no they convince themselves they can do whatever they want and then go out and do it! You need to understand that you can succeed.

" **Fear clogs; faith liberates."**

Elbert Hubbard

Fear, doubt and negativity do clog up your mind and what good is a clogged up mind? By giving into fear and doubt you end up bottling up your potential, you hide it from others as well as yourself and what good is it all bottled up? Think about bottled water, it's no good as long as it's bottled technically; the point of it is to be opened up and provide you with water. A bottle of water is absolutely useless to a person until it is opened up and drained of its contents. When you allow your fears and doubts to get the best of you, you allow your potential to succeed to become bottled up, constrained when it should be free.

In order to fully utilize your potential you first have to believe that you have that potential to succeed, you have to have some faith in your abilities to succeed. Successful people believe that they are capable of a certain endeavor before they pursue it, that is why they end up pursuing and achieving it because once they believe they can do it, they do it! All action is preceded by thought, taking action to succeed must first be preceded by thoughts that success is possible to achieve, understand? When you believe that you can and will do something you will make the effort to do it, it is that simple, so believe!

" **They are the weakest, however strong, who have no faith in themselves or their own powers."**

Christian Nestell Bovee

You could be the most talented and skilled person in the world but what good are all those skills and talents if you are too afraid to put them to use? What good is it when you don't believe that you possess the great abilities you actually do? On the other hand, you could have a person with no talent and very limited skill still succeed by believing in themselves and working hard. A person with no skill can eventually develop the skills they need to succeed but the first thing they have to do is believe they can do it so they will make the effort. You have to believe you can do something in order to convince yourself to make the effort; otherwise will you really try at all?

" **Faith will move mountains."**

Proverb

Faith in a dream has led people to conquer mountains, to conquer Mt. Everest for example. As I was rewriting this book a legless man climbed Mt. Everest and became the first legless man to do so. Now I don't know him but I'm pretty sure he had a bit of faith in his abilities to be able to tackle Everest! Faith in a dream rallied an entire nation behind the idea that we could put a man on the moon...and we did! Faith in ourselves is what allows us to supercede our perceived limits; it strengthens us when we feel weak. Faith is the little voice that when the world says, "no you can't," faith tells us, "yes we can!"

Now some of you may think that faith and believing in yourself don't have anything to do with success because they can't be seen, because they're not tangible. Let me ask you this, can you see love? Not in the conventional sense right but you can sure feel it, so is it real and does it affect our lives? Take a moment to think of all the great things done in the name of love, faith is just like that, just because you can't see it doesn't mean that it's not real nor plays an important part in achieving our dreams. Just take your dreams for example, when you imagine them are they tangible, does that mean they're not real or can't be achieved? Hopefully by now you know the right answer to that because if not, well you can't see it but I'm banging my head on my desk...and it hurts!

" **In actual life every great enterprise begins with and takes its first step in faith."**

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

It takes a tremendous amount of faith in yourself to take that first step on the path to your dreams, there is always a bit hesitation and doubt but faith is what carries you through that. You have to have faith that things will work out the way you want them to otherwise you won't bother to pursue them in the first place. Without faith, fear will get the best of you and keep you from pursuing and achieving what you want in life. There is a reason why we human beings have the capacity to experience emotions such as belief, love and joy, they help us in life, they are the driving forces that spur us on to achieve great things. The path to success starts with you having the faith to just take that first daunting step and after that, it's easy, you just have to keep on walking but take that first step, have faith!

" **If we all did the things we are capable of we would literally astound ourselves."**

Thomas Alva Edison

He's absolutely right, do you honestly have any idea just how much you are capable of? No, nobody does until they actually make the effort to find out, so have some faith in your abilities and go after your dreams and achieve them! Believe in yourself and make the effort to find out just how far you can go in life, chances are that you really will astound yourself. Remember that it is part of human nature to defy expectations, to surpass limits and to achieve the "impossible" so seriously, have a little faith in yourselves will you? I truly believe in mankind's capacity to be great, to achieve great and wondrous things and our history has proven that so why worry and doubt your potential? Go after your dreams, have faith, push your limits and astound yourselves!

" **If you think you can win, you can. Faith is necessary to victory."**

William Hazlitt (1778 – 1830)

English Writer and Philosopher

Belief in yourself empowers you and when you believe you can do something, then you do it, no excuses, no doubt, no fear, you just get it done. It's like the story of the little train who could, he kept climbing and telling himself, "I think I can, I think I can" and he did it. When you believe in your ability to succeed and achieve then there is no amount of fear or criticism that can hold you back. Winners believe in themselves, they believe in their dreams and do not let negativity faze them.

" **Man is what he believes."**

Anton Chekov

You are who and what you believe yourself to be, not who and what others say you are. Believing you're capable of achieving something is important because when you believe you can do something, you pursue it and thus eventually become truly capable of achieving it. It doesn't matter if at first you don't know how to do something, you just have to have the courage to take that first step and trust that you will learn along the way, and you will! Life is too short to spend it mired in fear, despair and doubting yourself, take a chance, believe you can do something great and take action to achieve your dreams!

" **They succeed, because they think they can."**

Virgil

It takes belief in oneself to succeed, people who doubt themselves fail because they don't pursue something with all their heart because they feel they can't do it. Do you see the connection; when you feel you can't do something you act as such, by acting as such you bring about the very failure you feared. What do you suppose happens when you think the other way, when you believe deep down in your core that you can and will succeed? People who believe in themselves succeed because they can't see any other option other than success and thus they work to bring that vision to reality.

" **Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around."**

Henry David Thoreau

Belief in a dream and oneself has changed the world before and will always be one of the keys to continue changing the world so it stands to reason that if you want to change your life, you need to believe! In the previous chapter I shared with you examples of how so many people believed in their dreams even when others didn't and the people who believed still achieved their dreams. It doesn't matter what the world or your critics believe, what matters is what you believe, in order to succeed you need to believe that you can and will achieve whatever you put your mind to. Just as anybody can become discouraged or frightened, the same can be said of belief, anybody can start believing in themselves and start achieving, so believe!

" **Your dreams will come true...if you can see it...if you believe it...then you can achieve it."**

Unknown

Why do you think so many people over the ages have stressed the importance of believing in yourself and your dreams if it truly wasn't important? Do you think anyone would have spent so much time discussing the power of belief if it didn't in someway contribute to success? Believing in oneself is absolutely crucial to achieving success because it helps you rise above all the negativity and negative people that try to hold you back and pull you down. Believing in your dreams and your abilities to achieve them actually makes you able to achieve them by convincing you to pursue your dreams and to learn how to achieve them, to make the effort and to make the vision a reality!

It has never been complicated to achieve our dreams, we only fool ourselves into believing that, you see how powerful belief can be now? We have let ourselves believe that dreams are impossible or too difficult to achieve, that we can't do it when we really can. Achievement has always had a simple formula, believe it's possible, forge the dream, set the plans, take action, do not succumb to fear and believe you can do it! Are those really secrets, tell me if any of that was new information to you, we've always known how to succeed but we've always discredited the way how to succeed. Most of us never truly believed that success really was achieved that way when it really was.

" **It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not."**

Unknown

That's why believing in yourself is so important, your beliefs define you and if you believe that you are not capable of doing something, who do you think you become? You need to believe that you are a person capable of achieving great things because you are; you need to believe that your dreams can be achieved because they can. When you believe you are capable of doing things, guess what happens? When you believe you can do something, your mind dedicates itself to figuring out how to do that very thing and inevitably you become capable of doing that very thing. Do you think anyone is born knowing how to do anything at all? We all learn, that's one of our gifts, the ability to learn how to do something, including achieving a dream!

You are not some inept person, you are not average, nobody is average but they only fool themselves into believing that. Stop thinking about what you cannot do, about whom you're not and start focusing on all the amazing things you can do and achieve, about the great person you are. Successful people don't achieve great things by constantly doubting themselves; they don't deplore their circumstances or think negatively about themselves. Successful people see themselves as successful even before they actually become so and that's why they do make it there. There is a reason that all these successful people have said believing in yourself is important because you act on your beliefs, when you believe you will be successful you will act as such, understand?

" **We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving. And we all have the power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing."**

Louisa May Alcott

We all do have our own lives to pursue, our own dreams and since they are our own lives and dreams only our beliefs matter! It's what YOU believe that defines you and your life, only your beliefs will go on to create your life so what do you believe? Do you believe that dreams are impossible and that you are unable to achieve them? Or, do you believe that your dreams are more than possible and that you have the strength, the conviction and work ethic to achieve them? What do you believe? I can't tell you what to believe, I know that sounds a bit hypocritical after everything I've written but that's only me sharing my beliefs. The only thing I can truly do is hope that you see yourself to be as great a person as I know you can be!

I have seen and met many people in my life as you have I'm sure, I have met good and bad people but the one thing I've noticed is that they all had the potential to be great. The difference between great people and everyone else is that great people choose to believe that they can become great and achieve great things, that's it. Everyone has the potential, EVERYONE, but you have to see it inside yourselves in order to cultivate it. Could you imagine what the world would be like if everyone truly believed they could go after their dreams and achieve them? I don't know how long it will take everyone in the world to realize their potential but I can at least try to help show you your potential.

You do have the power to make your dreams come true, if I didn't believe that then do you honestly think I would be spending my time writing this? I've seen the proof that when a person resolutely believes they can do something, they end up achieving whatever it is they want. There is a reason you know why people still today say to believe in yourself and your dreams, it's not some tired old cliché, it has endured because it's true! When a person believes they can do something, then they can do that something, that's it! It goes back to the power of the human mind and nature, our ability to learn and dedicate ourselves to the accumulation of skills and the achievement of a goal.

" **Doubt whom you will, but never yourself."**

Christian Nestell Bovee

To make it to the top you have to believe you are capable of doing so, never doubt your abilities to do or achieve something because what does doubting yourself get you anyways? By believing you can do something at least you will make the effort to do it and in doing so you will learn how to do it so believe in yourself and do it!

" **If you think you can do it, you can."**

John Burroughs

" **Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail."**

Charles F. Kettering

People who achieve their dreams do so because they do believe and act as if it were impossible to fail and when you act like you can't fail, in the end you win! It all comes down to perseverance, never giving up and when a person believes that they will never fail, never give up then they never give up. What do you think happens when a person refuses to give up? In the end that person will achieve their dreams because there is no other viable option left for the person who will never yield except success! You have to believe that your success is inevitable or what's the point in going after your dreams if you believe you can't achieve them, does that make sense?

Successful people convince themselves that they are going to achieve their dreams even before they start; this helps them stay convicted to their goals. Who sets out after their dreams and believes that they are going to fail? Does that honestly sound like what successful people do? Believing in oneself helps a person overcome the fear of failure, the fear of criticism and helps one rise above all the obstacles and adversity in life. Belief, faith, confidence and conviction are the only things stronger than fear, despair, hate and adversity so believe!

" **Believe that you have it and you have it."**

Latin Proverb

While it may not be as simple as believing you have it and you get it, it's not too far of a stretch. Successful believe that their goals are right there in front of them, within their grasp and all they have to do is make the effort to reach it out and grab. You have to believe that your dreams are within your grasps, that all you have do is take the action of reaching out without fear and grab whatever it is you desire. Being able to do that only comes from believing that your dreams can be realized and that you have the ability to achieve them and you do.

" **To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan but also believe."**

Anatole France (1844 – 1924)

French Author, Poet and Nobel Prize Winner in Literature

What have I been saying this whole time? All it takes is a dream, a plan to achieve that dream, taking the necessary actions and believing in the dream and in yourself! That's how dreams are achieved in a nutshell, it's never been a secret or complicated process but the tasks can be trying and that's why you need to believe in yourself. Believing in a dream and in yourself helps provide you with an inner strength that helps you rise above all the adversity that tries to keep you down. It doesn't seem rational that an intangible emotion can play such a huge part in achieving success but where is it written that success is achieved through rationality?

Rationality dictates that a person should eventually quit on their dreams because they are "wasting time" or that one shouldn't pursue them in the first place. It doesn't seem rational to keep trying something over and over again and expect a different result. Yet, that happens in life, you can flip a quarter 11 times and get 10 tails and on the 11th try get the heads side up. I would much rather have the world perceive me as irrational and achieve my dreams as opposed to going along with the consensus of the world and leave my dreams to die. You know what's truly irrational? What's truly irrational is giving up on your dreams, not pursuing them in this one life we are all afforded, what's rational is resigning your life to any life other than the one of your dreams, that's irrational!

Believing in a dream might be irrational but believe me when I say that believing a dream and in yourself is one of the greatest factors that has led people to success and will continue to do so. People don't credit believing in themselves as being one of the reasons they succeeded just because it sounds nice, there is some profound effect on a person when they believe that they can overcome and achieve anything.

" **Determine that a thing can and shall be done, and we shall find the way."**

Abraham Lincoln

When you believe that you can and will succeed then your mind instantly begins searching for the way for you to succeed. It's that simple, it's like reading a map, once you know where you want to go and know you can get there, your mind finds the route. That's why believing in yourself is important, once you believe that you can do something your mind becomes dedicated to searching for answers on how to do that something. Success isn't accomplished by constantly contemplating failure, no! You achieve something by believing that there is a way to achieve it and then finding and following that way to your dreams!

It's like the example I gave earlier about being lost in a maze or trapped in a cave, there are two ways to look and act about it. One person can sit there moaning and groaning about being trapped in a cave, constantly deploring their circumstances, chances are that they're not going to get out of the cave. The other person can start by believing there's a way out and then actively looking for that way, they're more likely to get out of the cave. The only way to get what you want is to believe that there is a way and then look for that way, duh! You don't solve a math problem by complaining about having a problem, you solve it by looking for the solution, that's why it's called the solution, it solves the problem! Look at me talking about math after all those years of saying I would never need it, irony I love you...math I still hate you!

" **Self trust is the first secret to success."**

Ralph Waldo Emerson

How do you think you overcome doubt, trusting yourself is a prerequisite in order to succeed. Think about it, if you don't trust yourself then you will succumb to all of your doubts and be unable to take action. Doubts and fears cause us to hesitate, choke up and freeze, all of which are things we cannot allow to happen to us if we want to succeed. You need to trust that you are doing the right things and that you will succeed, otherwise, well what's the point? If you don't trust your abilities do you really think you will employ those abilities? What good are you to anyone and especially yourself if you don't trust that you have the capacity to do the things you want? Trust yourself.

" **With confidence, you reach truly amazing heights; without confidence, even the simplest accomplishments are out of your grasp."**

Unknown

I'm not the first person to say that confidence is key nor will I be the last, it is paramount that you have some level of confidence in your abilities so that you will actually make the effort to use them. When you don't have confidence in your ability to do something, will you do it? Regardless of whether you can or cannot do something, if you don't believe you can, you won't and if you won't then it will never be done. Do you understand how that works, it has nothing to do with your abilities but more to do with making the decision to pursue something, to make the effort get it? If you don't make the effort, it won't get done, I know that it is a stupidly simple point but fears and doubts keep us from making that effort and we overcome those fears with confidence in ourselves.

" **Deep within man dwell those slumbering powers; powers that would astonish him, that he never dreamed possessing; forces that would revolutionize his life if aroused and put into action."**

Orison Swett Marden

I've been saying it throughout the entire book, you do have great latent abilities that you need to recognize and employ. Everybody has gifts, talents and more importantly, has the ability to work hard and achieve something so why worry? You have great potential inside of you and the only way that potential will work for you is if you have a little faith, a little confidence in yourself and put that potential to work! Greatness isn't a select quality possessed by a few people, it's something inherent in every person but only cultivated by a few. Everybody has great potential but not everybody chooses to believe that and develop his or her potential so believe in yours and develop your potential!

" **All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence and then success is sure."**

Mark Twain

Do not be ignorant of your potential and possibilities but rather of the impossibilities and be confident in your abilities to achieve your dreams. The quicker you can forget about the "impossible" the better, impossible is nothing more than the possible hiding behind the mask of difficulty.

" **As is our confidence, so is our capacity."**

William Hazlitt

The more confident a person becomes, the more they can do but not because confidence creates ability but because confidence unlocks a person's abilities. You have always been capable of great things, we all are but it takes confidence in your abilities to put them to use. See, without confidence a person tends to subdue all of their abilities, they bottle them up and rarely use them and what good are they if not used? It's not as if people can't do great things because they can, what happens is that they don't believe they can so they don't. In the end, confidence helps a person make the decision to do something as opposed to not doing it, understand, it's no so much about can and can't but do or don't.

When a person is confident that they can do something guess what happens? When a person truly believes that something is within their power to do, they do it! When someone believes they can't do something then they choose, CHOOSE, not to do it. Getting it so far? Confidence in ourselves is necessary to help ensure that we make the right choice to do something. Successful people are confident in their abilities; if successful people are confident in themselves and you want to be successful doesn't it stand to reason that you too should get confident?

" **Confidence is the hinge on the door to success."**

Unknown

" **If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."**

Henry David Thoreau

What other way is there to go after your dreams but confidently, it certainly isn't going after them afraid of failure or doubting your abilities is it? Confidence is your buffer against all of the hate, negativity and criticism, it's your body armor against the things that would tear you up and break you down. When someone or something tries to break you down it's your confidence that protects you or helps build you back up.

" **If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started."**

Marcus T. Cicero

It's all about seeing something through to the end, a confident person will pursue and never stop pursuing their dreams until they are achieved and that's what it's about. A person who has no confidence in his or herself won't bother pursuing their dreams so they've already lost from the beginning. If they did make the effort to pursue their dreams but had no confidence then they would quickly by derailed by the criticism, negativity and hate along the way and they would quit and thus fail. A person who is confident from the get go and refuses to succumb to negativity has already won before they started because once they do start, they won't give up and that's what it comes down, never surrendering! If you don't quit, you don't fail and in the end one way or another you will achieve your dreams!

" **Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings."**

Samuel Johnson

It is one of the first requisites because before anybody else can believe in you, have confidence in you; you first need to have confidence in yourself. If you don't believe in yourself then who else will? Successful people are always the first to believe in themselves even when others won't, eventually other people will see their confidence and inner strength and come around but first a person needs to believe in themselves before others will. What's the point of going after your dreams if you are not confident, are you doing this to impress others or are you doing this to achieve something? The only person you need to impress in life is yourself so get working, believe in yourself, achieve something great and impress yourself!

" **Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on Earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude."**

Thomas Jefferson

It really is all about your attitude, do you have a successful and positive one or a cynical, negative and unsuccessful one. Your attitude really does determine how far you will go and how high you can reach in life, are you the person who believes in dreams and embraces success or are you someone who denounces dreams and rebuffs success? Successful people have a positive and successful attitude, they embrace their dreams, they believe that it's possible to achieve them and that they will achieve them. What do you believe, are you confident in yourself or not, do you believe dreams are possible or not, what's your attitude, successful or unsuccessful?

" **Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference."**

Winston Churchill

If you want to achieve something, if you want to win then you need a winning attitude, you need a winning level of confidence. A positive attitude helps you deal with all the negativity that comes your way, it helps you overcome the adversity we all face in life. Successful people overcome adversity due to their attitudes whereas negative people more often than not succumb to adversity and this in turn makes them more angry and bitter. Look at the word positive, it means more, an increase so it stands to reason that a positive attitude will more likely contribute to success than a negative one doesn't it?

You can look at it like a math problem, when you add any amount of positive numbers you always get a larger and more positive number don't you? Now, what happens if you add a negative number to a positive number? I'm actually pretty amazed right now at how many math analogies I've used in this book considering the fact that I dropped out of my senior math class because well...as you can see I have very basic level math skills I haven't even used an algebra example... too complicated. Back to the point, it's your attitude towards something that determines its impossibilities or possibilities and that in turn determines whether you will attempt something or not and we know you have to attempt something in order to accomplish it so yeah... Get a confident attitude!

" **Pessimism never won any battles."**

Dwight D. Eisenhower

No it didn't, so again, have some confidence in yourself, have a little faith, believe that you can achieve your dreams because you can!

" **Believe you can and you're halfway there."**

Theodore Roosevelt

" **The best way to gain self-confidence is to do what you are afraid to do."**

Unknown

If you're still afraid to go after your dreams for whatever reason but would like to be more confident then there you go, read the above quote one more time and go after your dreams anyways! If you want to be more confident and less afraid, if you want to find your inner strength and rise above your fears then pursue your dreams! Whatever it is you are afraid to do just do it and you will no longer be afraid, it's no different than any other fear. How do you learn to stop being afraid of the dark, by continually sleeping in the dark until you are no longer afraid right? If you are afraid of going after your dreams then you need to go after your dreams and you will no longer be afraid and you will achieve your dreams too, it's a win-win scenario!

" **Confidence is half of victory."**

Yiddish Proverb

I wouldn't say it's half but it's definitely a significant part so be confident!

" **Confidence is the companion of success."**

Unknown

Yes it is...so make it your buddy.

" **What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates his fate."**

Henry David Thoreau

Whatever you think of yourself does define you and your life, we've been over this, if you have a confident and successful attitude then you will succeed. Successful people do think well of themselves, I said well not arrogantly understand, there's nothing wrong with having a good opinion of yourself. You have to spend the rest of your life with yourself so you might as well have a good opinion of yourself or you're in for many years of misery. You need to start seeing yourself as a success in order to become one. Your confidence will help you realize and put into action your potential and only through action will your potential help bring about your success.

" **If you don't have confidence, you will always find a way not to win."**

Unknown

If you don't have confidence in yourself it will be that much easier for you to succumb to fear and doubt and essentially quitting. A person with little to no confidence in him or herself will always be looking for reasons to fail, they might not think that they are but they are. Their mind wants a way out, a reason to fail so that when they do, they will prove to themselves what they believed from the start and that is that success was a dubious prospect at best. Someone with a low sense of self-confidence will be hesitant to go after their dreams, they will believe that it's more likely to fail and they act as such and thus bring about their own failure.

You have to have confidence in order to stand up to negativity, the criticism and adversity that you will face on the path to your dreams. Everyone has to overcome these things, every successful person in the world has had their trials but they conquered them by having belief in themselves, by having faith, by being confident. What do you think the antitheses to doubt, fear and negativity are if not hope, faith, confidence and belief? Our fears and doubts are like viruses that plague our minds and potential and the cure lies within us, it's our confidence, our ability to believe in ourselves, our strengths and abilities to succeed.

" **The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds can change the outer aspects of their lives."**

William James (1892 – 1910)

Philosopher

Your attitude towards something makes a monumental difference towards your perception of things in life and your perception of things dictates your life in a way. It goes back to the very beginning of the book; if you perceive something as impossible then you will treat it as such and not pursue it. If you see something as possible, no matter how difficult it might be you will at least attempt it and in attempting you will make some level of progress. That's why your attitude matters, you have two choices of how to perceive your dreams, possible or impossible and whichever one you choose will play a large part in the pursuit of your dreams, so choose!

My attitude in life is that nothing is impossible except maybe spelling the word impossible without the word possible! I thought that was clever... ok well maybe not so clever but whatever. My point is that thoughts precede all actions whether you consciously make them or not, it's no different than making the decision to get up early or sleep in, both start with a thought and then translate into action or inaction. Whatever your attitude towards dreams and possibilities are will determine the actions you take and we know by now that actions produce results and if thoughts precede actions, you need to start having a positive and successful attitude!

" **Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds."**

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

It's true that you are no prisoner to fate; destiny or any other external circumstances, now it's also true that sometimes bad things happen to us that are out of our control and they set us back. While some things may be out of our control our ability to choose how we will react to them is not out of our control, remember that. Anytime something negative happens that tries to derail you, remember that you have the potential to succeed, to overcome it and even prosper. You have free will, which means you have the ability to dictate the course of your life and not leave it up to your circumstances but you need to exercise that ability.

When external sources try to impose fear, doubt, negativity and limits on you understand that it is up to you to either accept them or deny them. If you believe in and succumb to all of the negativity, imposed fear, doubt and limits then they become yours. If you deny them however, then they are not your limits and doubts, it really is that simple. You can either allow your potential and life to become imprisoned by negative and harmful beliefs or you can release all of your great potential and achieve your dreams. Once again, your thoughts precede your actions, understand this because if you believe you have little to no potential then you will act as such and where will that get you?

Do not allow yourself to become a prisoner to anyone else's negative thinking or your own. Do not let yourself fall into the trap of underestimating your abilities, don't give into the fears and doubts you may harbor, it serves no purpose other than to hold you back.

" **He who says he can and he who says he can't are both usually right."**

Confucius

It's that simple, when you say you can or cannot do something you act on that belief and you should know by now that your actions produce results. When you believe and act on the assumption that you cannot do something what happens, nothing! The only way to achieve something is to believe that you can and act accordingly; it's not complicated, maybe difficult but not complicated nor impossible. When people tell you that you can't, you need to tell yourself that you can! A successful attitude is absolutely vital in order to succeed, it's practically common sense because how can you succeed without a successful attitude, it doesn't make sense does it? Do you think people who achieved their dreams believed that it was impossible or possible to do so?

" **Successful or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity, successful men act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly and you will be amazed at the positive results."**

William James

Winners don't like act like quitters, duh, and successful people don't act like failures, I know that is extremely simple and obvious but have you ever really thought on it? Remember it's all in the way we act, it's that simple and our actions are determined by our thoughts and attitude so what does that mean as far as what kind of attitude we should have? Is it a surprise that the people who rise to the top and achieve things are the ones who start acting like successful people before actually even achieving their dreams? It's no different than any other thing on Earth, if you start acting and training like a successful athlete even before becoming a professional, soon you will be one.

It all starts in your attitude, your belief, your faith and confidence in yourself and your dreams. You need to start seeing yourself as capable of achieving your dreams so that you will start acting that way and in turn will achieve them. It's no secret how to succeed, you think you can, you do and you keep doing until you succeed! When has that ever been a secret or some hard to grasp concept? You need to understand that it is you who are responsible for your life and that you can rise to any heights you choose by first changing your attitude towards your dreams and success. Embrace the possibilities in life, embrace your potential and believe in yourself!

As soon as you start conducting yourself in the way you would after you have achieved your dreams, you will make it that much easier to achieve them. Go back to the athlete example above, most athletes train even harder after becoming professionals so it stands to reason that if you train at that level as an amateur that you will eventually become a professional. On the other hand, what happens if you act in an unsuccessful, lazy and doubtful manner, if you slack off in your training and have no confidence, do you think you will make it to the top?

It's that simple, your beliefs carry through into your actions, which produce the results you will experience in life. When you think successfully, believe in yourself and have confidence you will in turn act as such and thus get the equivalent results. Change your attitude to a more successful and positive one now!

" **A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."**

Winston Churchill

That's what failures do, they are pessimists who don't see the opportunity to achieve their dreams but rather focus on all the hardships that they will have to endure and thus they bow out of the race. Winners don't look at difficulties that way, they don't care because winning is more important than the hardships, hardships can be overcome. You have to understand that we will all face difficulty in pursuing our dreams but they can be overcome but you need to have an attitude that is capable of putting up with these hardships. Bad things happen, so what, are you going to sit there and deplore your life or are you going to acknowledge the hardships and then look for a way to overcome them?

Do you think anyone has ever overcome any difficulties in life by being upset about them or do they stand up and look for a way to overcome them? It's all about the attitude, it's so important that I will never be able to stress just how important it is, I can only try. Your attitude determines whether you will fold in the face of adversity or rise above it and prosper, you have a choice between what attitude you will have in life so what will it be?

" **If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it."**

William James

How bad do you want it, how bad to you want to achieve your dreams because if you truly want it enough then you will find a way to achieve them regardless of the difficulties. All of the belief, the attitude, faith and confidence lead into another important trait of success and that is perseverance. How determined are you to follow your dreams through to the end will in fact determine whether you achieve them or not. How passionate are you about making your dreams come to fruition? It doesn't matter what anyone else says or does to hold you back or make you doubt yourself, what matters is your determination to achieve your dreams, how bad do you want this?

" **There is no failure for the man who realizes his power, who never knows when he is beaten; there is no failure for the determined endeavor; the unconquerable will. There is no failure for the man who gets up every time he falls, who rebounds like a rubber ball, who persists when everyone else gives up, who pushes on when everyone else turns back."**

Orison Swett Marden

Belief, faith, confidence and a positive attitude are important because they spur you on in the face of adversity, to rise above the hate and criticism and to give you the strength to get back up when you fall. The reason I shared those quotes with you and worked to impress upon you the importance of believing in yourself was because they help contribute to what I feel is the most important quality that contributes to success, perseverance! Think about it, the person who never gives up cannot fail!

What good is action if you quit it; you have to be unyielding, resolute in your pursuit of your dreams. Everybody gets knocked down in life but believing in yourself and your dreams helps you to get back up and that's what matters! Perseverance is key! The person who never quits, never stays down and always bounces back will always win in the end! There is no question about it; if you refuse to yield until you achieve your dreams then the only option left for you is to achieve them and nothing else. Persevering until you get what you want is what makes your success not probable but inevitable understand?

It comes down to finishing the race and never quitting, I know that is another obvious fact but if it's so obvious then how come so many people do quit and give up on their dreams? Everybody gets beat down at times by life but not everybody chooses to get back up because it can be hard at times and that's where belief and a positive attitude help. Having the right attitude encourages you to stand back up and pursue your dreams where others will have chosen to quit. If you look up the word succeed in the dictionary you will see that it means to follow through, if that's what it means then doesn't it stand to reason that only by following through on your dreams fully will you achieve them?

Persevering until the very end is the only way you will ever achieve whatever it is that you want, fact! It's like running a mile, it doesn't matter if you get tired halfway through because you have to finish, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl but you have to finish! There's nothing wrong with slowing down or losing momentum in your pursuits, it happens but do not let it discourage you, keep pushing at whatever pace you can and you will make progress. Successful people persevere until they achieve what they want, it's absolute common sense that if you don't give up until you achieve your dreams then you will achieve your dreams because there is no other alternative other than to achieve them!

" **With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable."**

Thomas Foxwell Buxton (1786 – 1845)

Abolitionist, Brewer, Social Reformer and English Member of Parliament

I ardently believe that perseverance is probably the most important trait a person can have that will lead them to success because taking action isn't enough. What happens when a person becomes deterred and ceases to take action? Perseverance is more important than any amount of talent, skill or genius or whatever else you can think. What good is talent or genius if you quit? Nobody is born a success, it is earned and it can only be earned by never ever giving up, by being relentless in your pursuit. Never make an excuse for why you cannot do something because anybody can succeed by never giving up!

Look at the word extraordinary, it's two words, extra and ordinary that's it. Most people who rise to great heights and achieve great things were just ordinary people who gave a bit extra of themselves. That's what perseverance is, to continue making effort, making that extra bit and then some more and more again until you achieve whatever it is you sought to. We all have faced adversity and will face more in life, some people will succumb to it and others will fight and rise above it but to do that you need to persevere!

I spent the beginning of this chapter trying to bolster your confidence for a reason, the more confident you are, the less likely you are to give in to adversity and quit. A confident person is far more likely to persevere in the face of difficulty and only by persevering will you overcome hardship and achieve your dreams.

" **Men fail much oftener from want of perseverance than from want of talent."**

William Cobbett (1768 – 1835)

English Farmer and Journalist

Talent has nothing, nothing to do with success because in lieu of talent a person can develop skill at something but that skill only comes by continuing to do something. Perseverance is the key, you could be the most talented person on Earth and quit, where will that get you? You could be someone with no talent and practice day and night at a sport, never give up and you will accumulate a great level of skill and succeed in the end. How do you learn anything, how do you learn to swim or ride a bike? It's perseverance, never giving up, getting up every time you sink or fall down and you eventually develop the proper skills. Talented people can become discouraged by adversity too but a person of average skill and talent but strong convictions will overcome anything and everything and eventually succeed.

You wanted to know the quality that makes someone into a juggernaut, a quality that makes someone unstoppable? That quality is perseverance, being relentless because when you are relentless your dreams have no choice but to relent to your indomitable will! Never make an excuse for yourself like saying you have no talent because first of all everyone does have talents and if you believe you don't, remember that talents don't lead to achievement or success, perseverance does.

" **Quitting is only a shortcut to losing."**

Unknown

There are no shortcuts to success but there are for losing and that shortcut is quitting. Is that what you want, to lose, to fail? If you want to win then you have to persevere, to never give up in the face of any and all difficulties, this isn't just a success lesson but a life lesson.

" **It is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it."**

William Somerset Maugham (1874 – 1965)

English Playwright, Novelist and Short Story Writer

Achieving your dreams is in a way about refusal, not refusing to go after them but refusing to give in, refusing to succumb to difficulty and adversity. The person who never gives up cannot lose, it's paradoxical because if you do not quit until you get what you want then obviously you will keep going until you get it, end! It's about refusing to lose, refusing to yield to every setback and pushing through them all, it's about fighting for your dreams.

Here's a funny observation I've made about life, the people who go after their dreams and work hard day and night are often labeled insane. These people persevere in the face of adversity and commit themselves to the achievement of something and eventually achieve what they set out to...that's insane? Then you have the "sane" people who feel that after a certain point of not getting the results they want that it's better to quit and settle...and that's sanity? Who's insane, the person who put in all the effort and decides to see it through so their previous efforts were not wasted and eventually succeed? Or, the person who puts in effort and then lets the effort go to waste by quitting?

I never understood why people quit, it's obvious that giving up will end your progress and prevent you from achieving what you want, so why do it? It's also obvious that if you keep going after what you want that inevitably you will achieve it, that's the whole point of perseverance, to follow through until the end. Through persevering you can overcome any difficulty and achieve any dream so why not persevere and fight for what you want?

" **Come what may, all bad fortune is to be conquered by endurance."**

Virgil

Everybody faces obstacles in life whether they are physical or mental but any and all adversity can be conquered by persevering and not yielding to adversity. We all run into walls here and there in our pursuits but to succeed you have to push past them and you can. Every wall in life can be gone around, over or even through if you have the will to persevere. All success carries its obstacles with it but they key is to persevere through them and not submit to them, by challenging adversity you become stronger.

" **Adversity is the diamond dust heaven polishes it's jewels with."**

Robert Leighton (1611 – 1684)

Principal of the University of Edinburgh from (1653 – 1662), Scholar, Scottish Prelate, Bishop of Dunblane and Archbishop of Glasgow

Adversity is part of life, it's sad but true and you have two choices in how to deal with it, you either succumb to it or endure and rise above it. Persevering through adversity does make us stronger; some of the toughest things in this world are created through enduring extreme pressure and circumstances. Diamonds are among the hardest, toughest and most valuable things on our planet and they are created through withstanding immense heat and pressure. That's you, diamonds in the rough waiting to be shaped and carved into whatever you want to be, by persevering through adversity you shape yourself into a stronger person.

All successful people know that adversity is a given in the pursuit of dreams but they also know that they have the ability to persevere through difficult times and achieve something great. You too have that ability but you need to realize it, you need to harness your inner toughness, that's why I spent part of this chapter trying to make you more confident in your abilities. Perseverance comes from having a strong convicted and confident will and when that will is applied, anything is possible! You have the ability to endure and persevere through any hardships and achieve great things.

" **Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant."**

Horace (65 BC – 8 BC)

Roman Lyric Poet

Sometimes when life gets hard we're forced to take an introspective look into ourselves and it's during this time that we often find that we had skills and talents we never knew we did. In dealing with and overcoming adversity we uncover more of our true potential, we reveal to ourselves just how much we are capable of and that's why you should persevere in the face of adversity and not succumb to it. You have no idea just how much you are capable of until you are forced to find out, everybody has hidden strengths and sometimes it takes a push for us to uncover them. You won't get anywhere by lying down when things get rough, you have to stand up and fight for yourself and your dreams!

" **You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have."**

Unknown

It's like I've said throughout the book, you have absolutely no idea just how much strength you have, just how much untapped potential and how many abilities you have yet to harness. You have the strength to succeed so use it, persevere when things get rough or aren't going your way, don't fall back but plough forwards. When progress gets slow, you work twice as hard to make up for it, don't quit but work and achieve your dreams. You have the inner strength to make your life whatever you want, to achieve whatever you desire and to overcome any difficulties you face so believe in yourself, overcome and achieve!

" **History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats."**

Bertie Charles Forbes (1880 – 1954)

Founder of Forbes Magazine, Scottish Author and Financial Journalist

All successful people have gone through their own trials and tribulations but they succeeded because they persevered, they fought and overcame their hardships and did not allow themselves to become discouraged. If you want to achieve your dreams then you have to be ready to do the same thing, to fight and persevere against adversity, get back up after every defeat. The ability to persevere is what renders the fear of failure powerless because who cares if you fail, you can always try again and again until you succeed! People who win are the ones who make winning their own option by refusing to lose.

Commit yourself to your task, become convicted and resolute, unyielding and perseverant and you will achieve whatever it is you desire. We have all gone through hard times and for some of us, more hard times lie ahead but do not let that discourage you. You have the ability to overcome any and all hardships but you have to acknowledge that you have that ability, that strength and then make the choice to put it to use. Perseverance is the key to success more so than any other thing I've mentioned in this book because all the action in the world is useless if you eventually quit. Perseverance means to never stop, you have to make yourself unstoppable by never quitting, become a success oriented juggernaut!

Do not let hardships discourage you, becoming discouraged and succumbing to adversity will not help you overcome it so why do it? I know it's hard, we've all gone through our own difficulties but the only way to truly and effectively deal with them is to overcome them and in doing so we become stronger and that is a great reward. I've failed in many things many a time but I've never let that hold me back because I've learned each time from my experiences and try again. It's no different than falling off a bike, you fall, you learn, you get back up and try again until you accomplish it!

The rules for achieving anything in life are the same, riding a bike, learning to swim or achieving any dream you can conceive. To achieve something you have to believe in the possibility of achieving it, you have to dream, set goals, take action, conquer your fears and you do that by believing in yourself and persevering until the end! I've maintained throughout this book that there are no secrets to success and I hold to that, have I told you anything new at all, something you've never heard? No!

What I have told you in this book are all things you've heard before, you've known all of these things but I've just retold them to you with a little more passion. You know it's true that perseverance leads to success, if it wasn't true then you wouldn't have heard that all your life. I'm not the first nor will I be the last to tout the importance of persevering; celebrities, athletes, business moguls and more all attribute that trait to success, why? Why, because it is truly the way to succeed, by never giving up, it's so obvious.

" **The greatest results in life are usually attained by simple means and the exercise of ordinary qualities. These may for the most part be summed in these two: common-sense and perseverance."**

Owen Feltham (1602 – 1668)

English Author

Read that very carefully and then read that quote again and again until that truly does sink in.

There. Are. No. Secrets!

Success has always come down to common sense although at times it really does seem as if common sense isn't so common anymore. Success is also and more importantly achieved through perseverance; success doesn't come from some secret quality you feel you're lacking but comes from the sheer will to act! Success comes from action and the will to keep acting until the end and nothing else, it's not luck or anything else but your iron will to never ever give up!

" **Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."**

John Calvin Coolidge Jr. (1872 – 1933)

**30** th **President of the United States, 29** th **Vice President of the United States, 48** th **Governor of Massachusetts, 46** th **Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts and Lawyer**

Nothing can replace the power of perseverance, nothing, not all the talent, genius and education in the world. I've seen stories and I'm sure you have too, of people with limited or no education rise to great heights and succeed, if not then use your internet and do some research. I've seen people without genius level intellects succeed. Heck, I'm a man who has put fours years into a two year associates degree...what can I say, I'm an overachiever! Talent, genius and education do not guarantee success, can they help, of course but the only thing that can guarantee it is your level of perseverance. How determined are you to finish what you start, how resolute are you in the pursuit of your dreams?

Success has nothing to do with being the most educated, most talented or a person with a genius level intelligence, it's about never ever giving up! Don't you know the story of the tortoise and the hare? Everybody has heard that right? If you have then please remind me who won and how? The fastest animal lost that race because the slowest animal refused to stop, refused to give in to the rabbit's taunts and persisted until the very end! What you have to remember is that your pursuit is YOUR pursuit and no one else's, the only person you are in a race with is yourself so you can come in first place if you do not quit!

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not denouncing education in anyway, I'm just saying that in the end what makes a difference is having a perseverant attitude. Many people lack a good education but still succeed because success comes from unrelenting effort and nothing else. Take a look at the world around you and you will see that there are many talented people that squander their talents, people who are geniuses that waste their gifts and educated people who settle in life. Dreams come to those who are willing to pay the price and that price is hard work and continuing to work hard until you achieve your desires, end!

People use things like the "lack" of talent, or a genius level intellect or an amazing education as excuses for why they can't succeed but they shouldn't. Stop making excuses for yourself, stop making excuses for why you can't achieve what you want and look at all the reasons, all the proof showing you that you can! You can be a genius and have amazing talents and still quit on your dreams so how do those things help you? You can be the most average person on Earth but cultivate an indomitable will to win and you will win every single time, perseverance is the key so persevere!

Success has nothing to do with odds or being gifted or talented but it has everything to do with heart, with passion and an unconquerable will to win! The world is filled with underdog stories and we love them, why, because we love seeing proof that the little guy can win and they can! Anybody can achieve his or her dreams through persevering, if you never give up then how can you possibly fail, answer that? I know it sounds corny but it's true that passion, heart and willpower trump all the odds and opposition in the world that say you cannot do something.

Achieving your dreams isn't a numbers game, the only things that are taken into account are your determination, your dreams, work ethic, your belief in yourself and your perseverance and that's it! This is the final insight I have to share with you about success and it's simple, true and oh so effective at leading you to your dreams, persevere! Everybody makes mistakes, falls down and gets held back but how do you think they move forwards from that to achieve their dreams? By persevering, not quitting but by toughing things out and fighting their hearts out for their dreams!

" **Nothing is impossible; there are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will we should always have sufficient means. It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible."**

_Francois de la Rouchefoucauld_

_Impossible is just an excuse, it's no different than saying you're not smart enough or strong enough to do something, don't make excuses but look for solutions! Success is achieved through willpower, there's always a way to achieve something, infact there are many ways to achieve the same thing. It's like the old saying about there being many ways to skin a cat, there are many ways to achieve your dreams not just one but it takes perseverance to traverse those ways until the end. Do you have the iron will to see your dreams through, do you have the strength of conviction to persevere until you achieve your dreams because that is what matters. Success is about will or won't, what will you do, how strong is your will, what aren't you willing to do, will you or won't you persevere?_

_There are many roads to achieving your dreams just as there are many literal roads that lead to any one place. That's why this book focuses on the insights, the characteristics and actions taken and adopted by successful people rather than what exactly they did to achieve their dreams. There is no one true way to achieve anything, there are as many ways as there are people because everyone has the capacity to imagine and create a new way but it takes perseverance to follow that way all the way to the end! It's all about forging an iron will to win, it's about having the will to endure, about knowing that you will win and persevering through thick and thin until you do win!_

_You could be born with extraordinary talent but you cannot be born with unstoppable will, that has to be cultivated and reinforced, talents don't win the race but perseverance does. Success is about passion, heart, willpower and I know that's extremely clichéd but tell me I'm wrong because you know I'm not. All the advantages in the world amount to nothing if a person isn't willing to use them, to do the work and continue do so until they achieve whatever it is they set out to._

_" A somebody was once a nobody who wanted to and did."_

_John Burroughs_

_Every person on Earth starts out as a baby and nothing more, no one is born a success, you can be born into a wealthy family but that doesn't make you a success, that makes you rich...or your parents technically because you didn't do anything to earn it. The difference between achieving success, achieving your dreams and failing is that some people make the choice to go out and do something and STICK WITH IT! Some people quit, they give in and choose another path but some people become fixed to that dream, that vision and relentlessly pursue it until it becomes their reality!_

_You have a dream, now what are you going to do about it, are you going to let adveristy bring you down and force you to cast your dreams aside or are going to fight, to rise above all difficulties and achieve your dreams? You have so many choices in life, the choice to pursue your dreams or not, to take action or not, to succumb to fears or rise above them, to believe in yourself or doubt and finally to follow your dreams unto the very end or relinquish your pursuit and watch your dreams die. Amongst all of those choices, those paths, which will you pick and will you follow them to the end and achieve your dreams? You have the power to make those choices, you have the strength of will to see those choices fulfilled and followed through on so what will you do?_

_Everybody is born with the capacity to be great, we all have greatness within us but are you going to bring that greatness out or keep it buried within? Persevering through adveristy and towards our dreams is just one of the ways we are able to see for ourselves our inner strength and capacities. Don't ever fear going after your desires in life, go after them and keep going until you achieve them and maybe in the process you will come to see just how much you are capable of doing and becoming. It comes down to the simple choice of do or don't and if you choose to do, then you must keeping doing until the end._

_" By perseverance the snail reached the ark."_

_Charles H. Spurgeon (1834 – 1892)_

_British Pastor and Author_

_Now this quote and it's message are relevant to success regardless of your religion or lack thereof, success is about perseverance! It doesn't matter what you lack because in this world any skill can be learned through sheer will and dedication. Any task can be completed by someone with an iron will, any goal and dream achieved by the person who never gives up! Success is that simple, yes it is, there are no secrets, no great complications lest you make them up! Success is about a never ending, continuous, unyielding effort to accomplish whatever it is you desire and with that effort you will accomplish it!_

_" Victory belongs to the most persevering."_

_Napoleon Bonaparte_

_" It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."_

_Albert Einstein_

_Success comes from constantly tackling your problems, it doesn't matter if you don't have the skills at first, skill can be developed through hard work but you have to be willing to stick to it to do it. I'm mathematically inept or numerically challenged, take your pick, I just can't stand math but that doesn't mean I can't do it, I just have to work a problem a bit longer than most. There is always a way to achieve your dreams but you have to be willing to work hard and find that way and be willing to find more ways if some don't work out. Everybody runs into problems but not everybody sticks with them and perseveres and that's what makes the difference._

_All successful people have had their setbacks and some still do but in order to succeed you have to be able to bounce back from those defeats. We all make mistakes, get knocked down but not all of choose to get back up and try again. The difference is made in trying over and over until you get it right, quitting doesn't benefit you but so many people still do it because it's easy. Quitting is easier than sticking with a problem, trying and struggling to overcome it, that's why people admire those who overcome hardships because we all know it's a struggle. Those struggles do come with rewards though, they make us stronger, smarter and teach us the importance of perseverance._

_Success takes time, we talked about this in the chapter about action but most people don't want to put in the time and having to keep putting it in. We live in a world where everything is a click or phone call away, it's all about instant gratification but success isn't instant. I wish success was instant but wishing isn't doing and wishing won't get it done. You can't treat the achievement of your dreams like instant oatmeal or popcorn, it's going to require a great deal of patience, persistence and perseverance! Success takes repeated effort but it pays off big._

_" Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to try one more time."_

_Thomas Alva Edison_

_Mr. Edison is the poster boy for perseverance and the proof that it is the key to success, the number of his attempts on perfecting the lightbulb vary, some say 700, 1,000 and some say 10,000, take your pick. What matters is that he is proof that perseverance is how you achieve something, we all know he succeeded and it was through never giving up. Perseverance is key, perseverance makes success inevitable while quitting makes failure inevitable. There is absolutely no arguing those point, it's common sense, it's all been proven, if you never give up then you will win and if you quit it's over._

_We all make mistakes but so what, we all have the capacity to learn from those mistakes and bounce back better, stronger and smarter than ever before. You have to be like a rubber ball, it doesn't matter how hard you throw it because it bounces back just as hard. Mistakes teach us what not to do, how not to do something and I know that doesn't sound helpful but it is. It's much like the process of elimination, when you go through all of the ways how not to do something, you are eventually left with how to do it perfectly. Remember that success is a psychology so you have to think along those lines, you have to be willing to turn mistakes into a learning tool and persevere._

_People who see mistakes as setbacks are the ones who quit, people who see them as a learning curve persevere and eventually succeed. It's all in your head, don't make this more complicated than it has to be! When you make a mistake, acknowledge it, learn from it and try again. If you mess up again, try again and again until you've atleast tried 10,000 times because that's what it took for Edison and because you use lightbulbs so you owe it to him to atleast try 10,000 times!_

_It always boils down to trying again, let's say you were tasked with flipping a quarter until you were able to have it land atleast 100 times heads up. Most people would eventually become frustrated and quit, some after 100 tries and some after a 1,000 but a few would keep going non-stop and eventually succeed. You might flip it 500 times and only get tails, it's unlikely but possible, some people would quit right there out of anger. You might have to flip coin 400 times to get it to land on head 100 times, I know that there's a 50/50 chance but success isn't about chance or odds it's about perseverance._

_I've flipped a coin before several times and have had it land everytime on heads and there have been times where I have landed only tails. Success comes down to repeating your efforts until you get the results you want. Do you have the inner strength to relentlessly pursue your dreams no matter what obstacles get in your way or not? I believe you do but what I believe is of little consequence since it is you who have to put in the effort and persevere, so do you believe in yourself or not? Do you have the strength to persevere in the face of adversity, to try one more time everytime you make a mistake, do you have the strength to get back up after every fall or not?_

_YES YOU DO!_

_" The drops of rain make a hole in the stone not by violence but by oft falling."_

_Titus Lucretius Carus (99 BC – 55 BC)_

_Roman Philosopher and Poet_

_Water does wear away stone, it can reduce it to rubble and it does so through perseverance, it's about never giving up understand? Water has carved through mountains, inwards through all continents, water has worn down statues before and all through perseverance. Your body consists mostly of water so what do you think you can do if water can do all that and you are made of water? Perseverance is part of us, it's part of our very nature to fight and overcome our obstacles, human history is filled with overcoming hardships, obstacles and more in the hopes of achieving something better._

_Let me let you in on a bombshell, we have overcome all manner of difficulties and we have achieved great things and prospered and there is much more achieving to be done and more prosperity to be had for us!_

" **Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."**

Thomas Alva Edison

There is no meter that comes along with pursuing your dreams, no indicator to show just how close you are to finally achieving your dreams and that's why you have to persevere until the end! It's like running a race blindfolded, you never know where exactly the finish line or what's around the next corner but if you quit early you will never reach that next corner. The only way to truly get what you want is to keep going after it until you get it, that's it, no complications and no secrets but just perseverance. Can you imagine how terrible it would be to quit right on the brink of achieving your dreams?

It never makes sense to quit, quitting just brings you to failure and that's what we are trying to avoid so why quit? It's worse to quit right before you are about to achieve something and since we never know just how close we are to achievement, it makes sense to never quit until we finish the race. Why let all your efforts go waste, if you've put so much time, passion and effort into your dreams then see them rewarded, see it through! The only way to know, to ever know just how close you are to achieving your dreams is to persevere and achieve your dreams, then you can look back in hindsight and see how close you were.

" **For all things difficult to acquire, the intelligent man works with perseverance."**

Lao Tzu

Think about it, if you work long and hard at trying to achieve something then doesn't it make sense that you can achieve what's hard and takes long to achieve? Dreams are not impossible, they can be difficult and trying but difficulty can be overcome by persevering.

" **Times of great calamity and confusion have been productive for the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace. The brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storm."**

Charles Caleb Colton (1780 – 1832)

English Writer, Cleric and Collector

Adversity, defeat and obstacles are all part of life but they don't have to break you, in fact they can make you. We are all going to have to endure some hardships in life and if that's the case then why not let them be of some benefit, let them drive you, spur you on to achieve something. Adverse situations can break you down or build you up depending on how you react to them, don't give up and succumb but persevere and rise above them. You can persevere through any hardships in life; you can overcome any obstacles in the path to your dreams and achieve something great! If you're under pressure then use it, persevere, fight and press on!

" **Perseverance, secret of all triumphs."**

Victor Hugo

It's not really a secret now is it but it is responsible for people triumphing over their obstacles and achieving their dreams. Every time you make a mistake or something goes wrong, try again, what do you have to lose by trying one more time and what can you gain by trying again? I've never had anything to lose by trying again but I've always had something to gain, so why not persevere? Never let your efforts go to waste, persevere and see things through and you will see your efforts awarded!

" **What do you first do when you learn to swim? You make mistakes, do you not? And what happens? You make other mistakes, and when you have made all the mistakes you possibly can with drowning – and some of them many times over – what do you do find? That you can swim. Well – life is just the same as learning to swim! Do not be afraid of making mistakes, for there is no other way of learning how to live!"**

Alfred Adler (1870 – 1937)

Doctor and Psychotherapist

That's how you succeed, there are no secrets, perseverance is the last insight to success, perseverance means fighting until you achieve your desires, end! Perseverance will carry you through any and all mistakes, obstacles and defeats, that's its purpose, to help you overcome and achieve. Everybody makes mistakes but through perseverance you can remedy those mistakes and still achieve whatever it is you desire so never become discouraged and never quit but persevere and achieve! Success is no different than learning how to ride a bike, it really is just a matter of trying again and again; don't overcomplicate this because that's one of the biggest mistakes people make.

It is very simple, it's just like carving a statue, you can't do it in one blow, it takes repeated effort and if you do not quit you will eventually be rewarded with a work of art. Perseverance is the key to success, it's the key to overcoming life's hardships and difficulties and it's the key to self-improvement so why not persevere in everything you do? How do you learn to do anything in life, master a sport or craft, learn a language or anything else you can think of? Perseverance or practice you can call it, it's the same thing, repeated effort and never giving up until you achieve something, it's the same for success, persevere, persevere and wait for it...persevere!

" **He conquers who endures."**

Aulus Persius Flaccus (34 – 62)

Roman Poet

You are going to have endure some things in order to achieve your dreams, things such as harsh criticism, doubts, fears and obstacles but the good news is that you do have the strength to endure them! Success is about endurance, about perseverance; too many people fold and give up rather than enduring the difficulties that are thrown our way. Remember what you're fighting for here, these are your dreams, your future and those are worth fighting for, worth enduring adversity and if you persevere you will be rewarded.

" **Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air."**

John Quincy Adams (1767 – 1848)

**American Senator, Diplomat, Congressional Representative and 6** th **President of the United States of America**

Courage and perseverance do form an unbeatable combination that empowers a person to be able to endure and overcome all fears, doubts and adversity. All dreams come with their own obstacles but all obstacles can be overcome so what do you have to fear? Nothing! You have the capacity to rise above any and all adversity and prosper in life. Roadblocks can be gone around, over and through...although I wouldn't recommend trying that last one on actual roadblocks...your car wouldn't like it much. Courage is what helps you persevere, believing in yourself helps you give you inner strength that can translate into external strength as well.

Of course perseverance and courage aren't exactly magical but when you are going through a hard time and you decide to be courageous and persevere, well the effect they have on you can feel magical. There's something about going through a hard time and deciding to fight back against it that makes you feel proud of what you're doing, it emboldens you and helps you catch a glimpse of your inner strength. Giving up doesn't feel that way, more often than not a person feels ashamed of giving up but persevering, no, you feel stronger for being able to endure something.

" **Life's problems wouldn't be called "hurdles" if there wasn't a way to get over them."**

Unknown

Makes sense doesn't it? There is always a way, always, but you have to be willing to look for it and follow it once you find it, you have to be willing to persevere. It's the very nature of the word to overcome and push through things; in fact, it's part of our very nature as humans. We always find solutions to problems by working at them, by persevering and by not giving up! Man feels cold...and an incessant need to burn things so man invents fire! Can't move a load, invent the wheel, can't see in the dark, make candles and then light bulb, can't see well in general then invent glasses, decide you want to fly, invent the airplane, hang glider, helicopter, those flying squirrel suits and you get my point. Human history is one of perseverance, take that lesson and virtue to heart, apply it and achieve!

You have the ability to overcome every hurdle in your path, you do, you truly do so don't sit about and deplore your misfortunes but overcome them. How bad do you want to achieve your dreams? There is always a way past every setback and mistake so don't fear them, when the happen, persevere and succeed!

" **When the world says, 'give up' hope whispers, 'try it one more time."'**

Unknown

That is the best way to guarantee yourself success, try one more time every time you make mistake, try again and again until you win! There is a reason why hope is so important to us humans and why it helps us persevere. The myth of Pandora's box is centered around hope, Pandora's box contained many things and among them were a great deal of evil things, she opens the box and releases countless evils upon the world. Seems pretty bad so far right, well one thing remained in the box, hope, hope for mankind. I know that is absolutely corny beyond all belief but you cannot deny the effect hope as on people, it drives us to persevere and overcome all adversity.

Hope is by far stronger than fear, doubt, hate, negativity and any other terrible thing you can think of. A person can have nothing but hope and they can still succeed, a hopeful person will persevere in the face of all adversity and come out on top. Human history is fraught with examples of people fighting for hope and fighting with hope. Hope is one of humanities driving forces, it pushes us past our perceived limits, it helps us persevere and surmount all difficulties. If you want to succeed then have some hope, believe in yourself and your dreams and persevere, try one more time!

I am definitely driven by hope, I am hopeful for a brighter and better future not just for myself but everyone, I truly believe we can all achieve our dreams, if I didn't I wouldn't be writing this.

" **It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you don't stop."**

Confucius

Sometimes we run into obstacles that don't stop us outright but slow us down and this frustrates us, don't let it. This goes back to the tortoise and the hare story, so what if your progress slows down, progress is progress but don't let it go to waste by quitting. Think of it this way, even if you're going slowly you're still going faster then the people sleeping in late and passing out on their couches... I know people like that; actually I think we all do.

" **In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins – not through strength, but through persistence."**

Buddha

The Grand Canyon was carved by water and it was done slowly over eons, water carved its way through miles and miles of sheer mountainous rock. It doesn't matter how difficult or hard something is because as water has proven, hard things can be overcome by persistence. Anything and everything can be accomplished if you stick to it long enough, if you work hard and keep looking for solutions. Giving up is losing, that's it, it's you conceding your defeat and how is that supposed to help you? Perseverance is the only way to go to achieve your dreams so be like water, persist, overcome and achieve!

" **If you are going through hell, keep going."**

Winston Churchill

Like I've said before, many of us have gone through our own hardships and trials and we might have more to go but we have to keep going and never quit. It makes sense that if you're already going through it then keep going and find a way out of it. It's like going through a dark cave, remember that example, if you're already in it then persevere and find a way out. No matter the difficulty or hardship you can overcome it, you by the very dint of being human are imbued with the power of perseverance, we all have the ability to persevere so use it and overcome adversity. Do not allow any obstacles to hold you back from your dreams, do not allow any obstacles to ruin your life, keep going!

" **Whatever you're going through, many others have not only experienced the same but have got out of it fine."**

Unknown

Now for any of you going through hard times, I may not know what you're going through but I know that there are people who do know and have gone through it and are fine. I know this doesn't sound like it has to do with dreams and success but it does and plus, I want to help people in whatever capacity I can, even if it's just some motivational words. Whether you are pursuing your dreams or not, perseverance is the key to overcoming hardships and adversity, hang in there, keep swinging and you will come out fine. Never become discouraged, don't lose hope, believe in yourself, your strength, your dreams and persevere and you will achieve them. You can have a better life but you're going to have to work for it and work hard, you're going to have to face challenges and persevere through them but you can do it!

" **Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength."**

Unknown

While it's true that anyone can give up, it's also true that anyone can hold it together; the quote fails to mention that part. When life gets tough you do have the capacity to get tougher, everyone has an innate strength they can call on in times of hardship but you need to recognize you have this strength in order to call on it. Never let the difficulties of life get to you in a profound way, never let them discourage you from pursuing and achieving your dreams. No matter how hard life gets, no matter how many mistakes you might make, know that you have the strength to persevere and achieve your dreams and improve your life.

" **Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."**

Mahatma Gandhi

The mind is always ready to quit before the body, it is in the mind where we get our strength, if you think you're beaten then you are. Our true strength doesn't lie in our muscles but our mind, our minds control our bodies and it's there where we have to cultivate our inner strength and our abilities to persevere. We all have a strong will, it's inborn in all people, we have the inner strength to overcome any and all setbacks, to be strong and persevere. Don't become discouraged, don't make excuses for why you can't do something but cultivate your indomitable will, persevere and achieve! Don't look to outside sources for strength but look within yourself; you have it in you to succeed!

" **A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success."**

Elbert Hubbard

Perseverance can turn a pursuit from failure to success, remember Edison, failing hundreds if not thousands of times but in the end he succeeded. That's what perseverance does, it can turn hundreds, thousands and if not more mistakes in to success, that's its nature, your nature, your ability, to turn mistakes into success. We all have the ability to work hard and we all have to ability to work a bit harder and to keep on working. Dreams don't require anything else but a strong sense of self, some confidence, some action and some determination or perseverance. When you make a mistake, try again and fix it, if you make another then try again and fix it, repeat as necessary until you succeed, that's it.

It really isn't complicated at all but for whatever reason, some people just can't convince themselves to believe that success is straightforward; they have to believe that there is some secret they don't know about. Maybe it has to do with their egos or something, maybe it makes them feel better about quitting if they tell themselves success is complicated...It's not. Everyone has already learned to succeed throughout his or her life but just never really pay much attention to the lessons. How do you learn to write, it's consecutive practice, it's part of our daily lives, we do it over and over. You can call that practice but it's just perseverance under another name, doing it over and over.

No matter how many mistakes you make know that you can make just as many attempts to correct them and in the end you will succeed. It's like throwing a basketball into a hoop, you can miss a dozen times but if you keep trying, inevitably you will make it. Throwing darts, you miss the bulls-eye a dozen times but if you keep throwing, you will eventually hit the center. The lesson of perseverance is all around us in our daily lives; its importance to success is shown to us everyday in our lives but we've become oblivious to it, open your eyes! The world is showing you how to succeed, history has shown you how and more importantly that you can do it, so do it and don't stop until you win!

It is never hopeless, hopelessness is just hope that's been given up on. Look at the word hopeless, it's just less hope, if you don't lose hope you cannot be hopeless. Yes, it can be that simple. If you take hopeless and make have one word less...say for instance you axe the word less, well then you're left with hope. Perseverance and hope go hand in hand together, keep hope and keep persevering and you can turn even the most desperate of situations around.

Trust me when it comes to hope, I am speaking from experience here, people who want to commit suicide do it because they lose hope but once that hope is regained, it's literally like getting a new life. Hope helps you persevere, it certainly did in my case, I may not be any wealthier but I can guarantee you I am infinitely more happier. I am now fighting for my dreams and will continue to do so until the day I die...which I hope is a long long ways away. Believe me when I say that hope and perseverance can truly change your life, they can improve any situation and help you achieve your dreams!

" **Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance."**

Samuel Johnson

It doesn't matter what you can or cannot do at first when pursuing your dreams because through perseverance you will develop the skills to do whatever you need to do. You should know by now that no dream is impossible if you have the will to pursue it, if you are ready to act on it and keep pursuing it relentlessly. Success isn't awarded to the strong but it is achieved by the determined. "Rome wasn't built in a day," it's no different then building a wall or putting together a puzzle, it takes perseverance, brick by brick or piece by piece. If you have the iron will to win then you will win!

" **People do not lack strength, they lack will."**

Victor Hugo

One of the biggest reasons people do not achieve their dreams is not because they are lacking skill or talent but lack the will to persevere after making mistakes. You can be amazingly gifted but eventually we all make mistakes and what happens if you make a mistake and become disheartened? A talented person who succumbs to fears and doubts can quit just as easily as someone who is less talented. What matters is determination, conviction, resolution, perseverance, will! Don't make excuses for why you can't do something because they don't matter, if you truly desire it then you will find a way to do it and persevere. Don't look for reasons why you can't but find reasons why you can!

" **To follow, without halt, one aim: that's the secret of success."**

Anna Pavlova

Look at it like an arrow that's been shot at a target, the archer aims carefully, they have a vision, a goal in sight, they take action by drawing the bow, relinquish the fear of missing and let the arrow go, what happens next? The arrow follows its course doesn't it; it follows through and proceeds straight to its target until it hits it. There you go, success in a nutshell, have a dream, set the goal, take action, overcome your fears, have confidence in your performance and follow through! It's no secret is it?

" **When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as thought you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."**

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811 – 1896)

Abolitionist and Author

Never give up when things get hard because you have a choice between either giving in or your hardships giving up, if you hold on and fight, your difficulties will subside. Every hardship gives up eventually and your goal is to hold on and not give up before your hardships do. The tide always does turn but not necessarily of its own accord but because you are fighting to turn it, it's your perseverance that causes things to change in your favor. When adversity comes, hold on, never give up, persevere and the tide will turn.

" **Don't be discouraged. It's often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock."**

Unknown

Achieving your dreams really can be likened to having a ring of keys to open one door. You may have hundreds keys but one of them will eventually open that door; the key is to persevere and try every key. Some people will get fed up and quit after trying a few keys, some will hold out longer and then there will be that one person who tries them all and opens the door. That's how you succeed, just don't become discouraged and keep trying. I know it doesn't sound that great because it's so simple but think about it, would you really want success to be a complicated thing? Be glad it's straightforward.

" **If you fell down yesterday, stand up today."**

H. G. Wells (1866 – 1946)

Prolific English Author and regarded as "The Father of Science Fiction"

Yeah what he said! If you have the ability to get back up every time you fall then you can persevere and succeed. If you've fallen and can't get back up, call emergency services ASAP!

" **I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature."**

John D. Rockefeller (1839 – 1937)

American Industrialist and Philanthropist

Mr. Rockefeller is often regarded as the richest person in history, now while riches don't dictate success, the achievement of your dreams does, he nonetheless accomplished a great many things. It makes sense that he would know a thing or two about success and he's right in saying perseverance is essential to success. The whole point of perseverance is overcoming everything, how else do you expect to overcome difficulties and achieve success? The good news is that you do have the ability to persevere and overcome everything so do it! Persevere, believe and achieve your dreams!

" **Never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."**

Winston Churchill

That's part of a speech Sir Winston Churchill made during World War II, arguably the world's darkest hour and even then he had hope, a lesson in perseverance there folks. We all know that the Allied Powers won and it was because of perseverance, never giving in, never giving up and never yielding. That speech is aptly titled "The Unrelenting Struggle" because that's what you have to be in the pursuit of your dreams, unrelenting! Never ever give up, persevere!

" **Perseverance is king."**

Josh Billings AKA Henry Wheeler Shaw (1818 – 1885)

American Humorist

Yes it is!

" **Perseverance is a great element of success. If you knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody."**

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

" **Money grows on the tree of persistence."**

Japanese Proverb

If only money truly did grow on trees, if only, but since it doesn't we are left with the advice of the quote, persist!

" **Energy and persistence conquer all things."**

Benjamin Franklin

Energy and persistence do conquer all things, all obstacles, all difficulties and help you achieve any and all your dreams. Obstacles are meant to be conquered, not succumbed to, obstacles are not stones blocking your path but rather stepping stones meant to be climbed upon. By persevering through your obstacles you not only strengthen yourself but you also bring yourself that much closer to achieving your dreams. Use your energy and ability to persevere to conquer all your obstacles, to take charge and conquer your life and to achieve your dreams.

" **I may not be there yet, but I'm closer than I was yesterday."**

Unknown

Remember that the next time you are feeling discouraged because things aren't happening fast enough, remember that progress sometimes slows down but you still need to persevere. Just because every now and again things slow down doesn't mean you should slow down or quit, every step adds up and it's more progress than the day before. Let your efforts build up, that's the only way you can build something, by letting things come together. Sometimes progress slows, it just does, that's part of life but you have to ensure you don't let those slow spells deter you from making more effort.

" **March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path."**

Kahlil Gibran (1883 – 1931)

Lebanese – American Poet, Artist and Writer

Exactly! March on; don't fear things in life but march on towards your dreams! Do not allow yourself to become discouraged by the negativity but instead draw strength from these quotes and your own heroes or whatever inspiration you can find. March on!

" **Genius is divine perseverance. Genius I cannot claim nor even extra brightness but perseverance all can have."**

Woodrow T. Wilson

Yes, we really all can have perseverance; we all have that ability and never forget it that when things get tough, we have the ability to get tougher! Everyone has the strength necessary to overcome and achieve whatever it is they desire!

" **The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential...these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence."**

Confucius

How bad do you want it, if you truly desire it then you will find a way to achieve it and overcome any obstacles, you will persevere. We all have potential but we never seem to grasp just how much potential we possess. Conquering adversity and overcoming challenges on the road to our dreams is just one of the ways we can come to see our potential. Don't fear anything in the pursuit of your dreams, embrace the challenges, persevere through them and you will start to see just how much you are capable of.

" **If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."**

Theodore Roosevelt

What he said!

" **The most essential factor is persistence – the determination never to allow your energy or enthusiasm to be dampened by the discouragement that must inevitably come."**

James Whitcomb Riley (1844 – 1916)

American Writer and Poet

Criticism and obstacles are inevitable but you have a choice in whether or not you will succumb to them and quit. You have to keep your spirits up and believe in yourself, you have to be in a positive frame of mind because that helps you persevere. A person with a negative mindset won't persevere, they will quit, they won't want to endure any more hardships and that's why you have to keep your spirits up. Do not become discouraged by the haters or obstacles, rise above them!

You have within you a deep reservoir of unbeatable willpower that you need to cultivate, willpower that can help you push past any adversity. You have to be determined to achieve your dreams in order to achieve them and you need hold onto that determination. Do not let anything whittle away at your confidence and determination, you need to be strong and you have the ability to be strong, so be strong!

" **Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind."**

Leonardo Da Vinci

Obstacles cannot crush you, it's true, everything does yield to a stern resolve so become fixed on achieving your dreams. Nothing is more powerful than a determined person, a person who has harnessed their will and is fixated on something. Your dreams are like stars, for so many years haven't people associated dreams with stars? Fix yourself to this star; fix yourself to pursuing your dreams and persevering until you achieve them! It's like becoming glue, becoming attached to something; once you're attached to something it becomes a part of you, inseparable!

Resolve yourself to be strong, to persevere no matter what and to fight for your dreams! If you become fixed to your dreams then nothing can tear you apart from them, achieving them becomes inevitability! You have the most powerful thing in the universe on your side, you have human will, sheer force of will has changed the world before and it always will. The human will is a force for change, creation and achievement; use your will to persevere and to never give up on your dreams!

" **There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of determined soul."**

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850 – 1919)

American Poet and Author

" **What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight – it's the size of the fight in the dog."**

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Again, do not make any excuses, do not doubt yourself, any perceived faults or traits you feel you might lack do not matter! The only thing that matters in this race is how far are you willing to run, how long can you go without stopping, how much fight do you have in you? This is your race, you're not running against anyone but yourself so don't compare yourself to others. Don't look at what others have and what you don't, you know you can succeed by persevering, so persevere, fight!

" **Experience shows that success is due less to ability than to zeal."**

Charles Buxton

It is about your zeal, about your passion and enthusiasm all of which give way to your determination, your desire to persevere. It's not our skills or abilities that cause us to excel but rather our pure desire to excel that cause us to do so. A will finds a way, that's what it comes down to, we improve and succeed because we want to, those are our desires and so we work to find a way to accomplish those things. In working to accomplish something we end up developing the necessary skills to do so, we don't need them in the beginning; we only have to be willing to learn them to achieve our ends.

Success isn't about what you can do; it's more about what are you willing to do in order to succeed? It's not about what you know but how much are you willing to learn? When you truly want to do something then you will learn to how to do it along the way, perseverance is how you do that, continuous effort or practice, same thing. It's about having the attitude to achieve, not whether you're better suited to a task but how far are you willing to go in order to complete that task? It's all about passion, it always has been, passion has changed the world, it's changed lives and it's the driving force behind dreams. Passion fuels perseverance.

" **Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity."**

Louis Pasteur (1882 – 1895)

French Chemist, Microbiologist and Creator of the Pasteurization Process

Tenacity is just a synonym for persistence or perseverance, perseverance is key, I cannot stress that enough, I will never be able to stress that enough. You already know how to succeed, I've shown you how obvious and straightforward it is. Achieving your dreams is about creating the dream, setting the necessary goals to reach it, taking action, overcoming your fears and doubts and finally persevering until you achieve them. Do not complicate this anymore, don't do the what if game, just focus and do your work! Be tenacious, be relentless, persevere and fight for you dreams and you will achieve them!

" **Fall seven times, stand up eight."**

Japanese Proverb

" **Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall."**

Confucius

One of the great things about pursuing your dreams and in fact life, is the fact that you can always try again and again. If you should so happen to fall, dust yourself off and pick yourself back up and march on. We don't have lie down and accept defeat in life, we have the option to rise and fight again and again until we achieve whatever it is we desire. There is a reason why the importance of perseverance is ingrained in our history, it's because it works!

" **All great masters are chiefly distinguished by the power of adding a second, a third and perhaps a fourth step in a continuous line – many a man has taken the first step. With every additional step you enhance immensely the value of your first step."**

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Think of walking up a flight of stairs, essentially every next step you take is building upon the previous ones, that's what staircases do. Success is just like that, perseverance ensures that your continual efforts build upon your previous ones and eventually help build the life of your dreams.

" **Consider the postage stamp; its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing until it gets there."**

Josh Billings

Yeah consider that stamp and stick to it!

" **No one succeeds without effort...Those who succeed owe their success to perseverance."**

Sri Ramana Maharshi – (1879 – 1950)

Hindu Spiritual Master

" **Every artist was first an amateur."**

Ralph Waldo Emerson

How does anyone go from amateur to master, perseverance, practice, never giving in and never giving up! Perseverance, perseverance, perseverance!

" **That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the task itself has become easier, but that our ability to perform it has improved."**

Ralph Waldo Emerson

What have I been saying this whole time? I've been saying that it doesn't matter what you can or cannot do because if you persevere you will eventually learn to do whatever it is you desire to do, achieve or become! Persevere!

" **You just can't beat the person who won't give up."**

Babe Ruth

No you can't beat the person who won't give up so don't give up, not now, not ever! Make yourself unbeatable, the only race you're running is the one against yourself, only you can win or lose and it's your choice. Make yourself unbeatable and you will never lose your race.

" **Permeance, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragement and impossibilities. It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak."**

Thomas Carlyle

" **Persistent people begin their success where others end in failure."**

Edward Eggleston (1837 – 1902)

American Novelist and Historian

Some people quit the last 10 meters of a race, these people say, "10 more meters? I quit!" Successful people rejoice at this however because they see that the end is in sight, "10 more meters and that's it, I've done it!" It's the last leg of the race that determines success and failure, not the first. Persevere and you will cross that finish line and achieve your dreams, if you have a little more to go then give it a little more effort and go! Don't let your efforts go to waste; finish what you've started.

" **Persistence can grind an iron beam down into a needle."**

Chinese Proverb

" **Do not turn back just when you are at the goal."**

Publilius Syrus (No clue!)

Latin Writer

" **The dog barks but the caravan moves on."**

Unknown

Remember that criticism is just background noise and nothing more, do not let it deter you, persevere and move on!

" **One of the commonest mistakes and one of the costliest is thinking that success is due to some genius, some magic – something or other which we do not possess. Success is generally due to holding on, and failure to letting go. You decide to learn a language, to study music, take a course of reading, train yourself physically. Will it be success or failure? It depends up how much pluck and perseverance that word 'decide' contains. The decision that nothing can overrule, the grip that nothing can detach will bring success. Remember the Chinese proverb, 'with time and patience, the mulberry leaf becomes satin."'**

Maltbie Davenport Babcock (1858 – 1901)

American Writer and Clergyman

What he said because he said a mouthful. He did sum up success very nicely though. Persevere, dedication, determination and a little perspiration people and success is yours!

" **Patience and perseverance surmount every difficulty."**

Unknown

" **Persist and persevere, and you will find most things that are attainable, possible."**

Phillip Stanhope (1694 – 1773)

**4** th **Earl of Chesterfield**

Anything is possible and anything that is possible is attainable duh and it's all attainable through perseverance.

" **I think and think for months and years – ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right."**

Albert Einstein

Make ninety-nine mistakes, try a hundredth time and succeed, the power of perseverance!

" **Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure."**

Benjamin Disraeli

One more try can turn failure into success, what do you think happened to Edison? All you have to do is try again, one more time and if you make a mistake, try again just one more time and repeat. Don't look at it as having to try over and over but look at it as one more try every time you a mistake, just one more! Your big achievement can be just one step ahead but if you don't take that step where will you be? Perseverance can turn any failure into success.

" **He who does not tire, tires adversity."**

Unknown

Tire adversity, tire out your critics and haters but do not tire of pursuing your dreams. Persevere and you will wear out all your opposition and your dreams will be achieved.

" **Persistence prevails where all else fails."**

Unknown

It's so obvious, there you go, couldn't have said it better myself. Persist and you will not fail, persist and you will prevail.

" **Remember that the man at the top of the mountain didn't just fall there."**

Unknown

No he didn't, he climbed, he persevered and fought to get to the top and now you must do the same...minus the whole climbing a mountain part, unless that is your dream in which case, climb away!

" **Look at the stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without so much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before."**

Jacob A. Riis (1849 – 1914)

Journalist and Photographer as well as considered as one of the Fathers of Photography

Everything can be achieved through perseverance, continuous effort building upon itself until at last you achieve! It's like a jackhammer cutting through concrete, constantly pounding away, slowly but surely breaking through until you reach your target. It's like a sculptor carving day in and day out, slowly chipping and shaping a masterpiece, not through force but through perseverance. A painting doesn't come from one stroke but many; perseverance is the key to accomplishing everything.

" **The pressure of adversity does not affect the mind of the brave man...it is more powerful than external circumstance."**

Seneca

You are more powerful than your circumstances, keep that in mind and persevere until you achieve your desires. Remember your inner strength, your willpower, your desires and what you're fighting for and persevere.

" **A man of sense is never discouraged by difficulties; he redoubles his industry and his diligence, he perseveres and, and infallibly prevails at last."**

Lord Chesterfield

By persevering until the end you will prevail indefinitely. The person who never gives up leaves no other option but to succeed and achieve ones dreams. Never become discouraged, never succumb to fears, doubts and criticism but rise above them, persevere and prevail!

" **I do it because I can; I can because I want to; I want to because you said I couldn't."**

Unknown

You really can be, achieve and do anything you can imagine, remember that. The point of all this was not only to share with you how I believe success is achieved but to show you that you do have what it takes, that you are capable of achieving amazing things. The point of this was to motivate and guide you. Remember this quote, it can be very useful; it keeps me going when people try to bring me down.

" **The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls for your best."**

Epictetus

I know this quote doesn't sound like it has anything to do with perseverance but it does in a way, just hear me out ok? The reason I am here today and pursuing my dreams, why I'm persevering is because of my friends, those people who believe in me and hold me to a higher standard. I've learned that we can go even further than we have ever imagined, endure far more than we thought we could all because our friends believe we can do it. They give us the strength to persevere, so please surround yourself with those people who believe in you and call for your best, they will give you the strength to overcome and achieve anything!

This book is coming to close soon, all I can do is hope so far that what I've shared with you has helped in some capacity...hoping it's helped in a large capacity. Trust me when I say to surround yourself with people who really believe in you, it really will make a world of difference and help you overcome anything, sometimes your friends can be the best reason for persevering. I've learned that it's one thing to let yourself down but it's far harder to let others down, I have resolved to pursue my dreams because my friends want me to, they want to see me succeed and I them. I cannot bear to let them down so I will persevere until the day I die; your friends will help you persevere through anything!

I guess this is the part where I say something profound and end the book right?

" **Learn from the past, live in the present and plan for the future."**

Ronnie Virdi (1990 – hopefully the year 3000!) What? So I want to live to see flying cars.

Oh right my occupation...Aspiring science fiction and fantasy author... who wrote a motivational book...irony...um Automotive Enthusiast, College Dropout, Aspiring artist in every medium I possibly can pursue and dreamer of the impossible

So I guess this is the end in a way, sort of anticlimactic but then again I guess it really isn't the end is it? From this point you're done with this book and you're pursuing your dreams, your achieving things so from your perspective I guess it's just the beginning. This is a chance for a new start and the chance to change your life. One final piece of advice, motivation keeps us going, keeps us fueled in our pursuits so don't lose yours. In the case you do lose your motivation, please reread this book from whatever chapter you feel is appropriate or you can read what comes next! Ok maybe I lied a bit, it really isn't the end, there's another chapter right after this one but it's optional!

What comes next is just a compilation of my favorite quotes and nothing else, no more jibber jabber from me, these are the words that keep me motivated. If you just need a quick refresher or a kick in the pants then the next chapter is just full of inspirational and guiding word

... So the end? Or not? It's up to you, hey you have choice, free will so use it, dream, pursue, believe, persevere and achieve!

**A Kick in the Pants!**

" **Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!"**

Andrew Carnegie

" **The best angle from which to approach any problem is the try-angle."**

Unknown

" **Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated."**

Confucius

" **Success comes in cans, not cant's."**

Unknown

" **There is nothing impossible to him who will try."**

Alexander the Great

" **That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well."**

Abraham Lincoln

" **The word impossible is not in my dictionary."**

Napoleon Bonaparte

" **Put your future in good hands – your own."**

Unknown

" **There are two essential requirements for success. The first is 'go-at-it-ivness' and the second is 'stick-to-it-ivness."'**

Orison Swett Marden

" **Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen."**

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

" **Never tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon."**

Unknown

" **Nothing is impossible; there are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will we should always have sufficient means. It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible."**

_Francois de la Rouchefoucauld_

" **Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."**

Harriet Tubman

" **All dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them."**

Walt Disney

"The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities."

James Allen

" **Knock the 't' off the 'can't"'**

Samuel Johnson

" **The difference between try and triumph is a little umph."**

Unknown

" **Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand – and melting like a snowflake."**

Francis Bacon

" **There is no greater force than the force of a man determined to rise."**

Unknown

" **I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work."**

Plato

" **Follow your dreams!"**

Unknown

" **I'm a great believer of luck and I find that the harder I work, the more I have of it."**

Thomas Jefferson

" **Never let the fear of striking out get in your way."**

Babe Ruth

" **Many of our fears are tissue-paper-thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them."**

Brendan Francis Behan

" **Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed."**

Abraham Lincoln

" **To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan but also believe."**

Anatole France

" **Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail."**

Charles F. Kettering

" **If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."**

Theodore Roosevelt

_" Victory belongs to the most persevering."_

_Napoleon Bonaparte_

" **Life's problems wouldn't be called "hurdles" if there wasn't a way to get over them."**

Unknown

" **Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance."**

Samuel Johnson

" **Never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."**

Winston Churchill

The End...For Real!

Back to the ToC
