You can change your mind and decide chasing a dream isn’t worthwhile, but giving up because you doubt yourself is failure on a large level.
Just recently, Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, and author of The Last Lecture, died of pancreatic cancer. One significant advice in Pausch’s final lecture was the recommendation to go after your dreams with a spectacular effort. He even awarded his students—who’d strived the biggest and failed—an award. It’s not necessarily reaching the goal that brings the greatest rewards. The striving-after is the important part. We discover brilliance in ourselves in this kind of pursuit.
Never doubt, however, that this can be a challenging, complicated and even, brutal, undertaking. Attempting to make your dreams reality adds depth, texture and quality to your life. It teaches you vital lessons.
The first lesson might be how to decide when to give up. Sometimes letting go of a dream can help you move forward to even more satisfying endeavors. No one can tell you, though, when to give up on a dream. This is an incredibly personal decision and should not be made out of despair. Before changing your direction, you need to ask yourself if the pursuit of your goals adds to your life, even though you’ve not yet reached these. Frustration and despondency are reasonable feelings in the midst of chasing after longed-for goals. The biggest decisions in life need to take emotions into account, but decision is best made on a logical assessment.
The hard part is deciding the reality of a pursuit, really assessing the possibilities. You may have a dream that doesn’t depend on your efforts. If your goal involves something completely random—like winning the lottery—your success at this will be very much out of your control. You can pour lots of money into buying lottery tickets, but even this doesn’t significantly increase your chance of winning. The attainment of some dreams, though, depend a great deal on your efforts. The summer Olympics are just ahead of us. These athletes have made achievement in their sports their overriding priority. They have been driven. They’ve devoted their lives to this.
Of course, talent also plays a big part in getting to this level.
You may not strive this high, or in this arena, but maybe you’re pouring effort into earning a college degree. This may be complicated by your holding down a full-time job and raising kids. Your dreams are very personal to you. You’re striving for a specific position at work or to run a marathon or write a novel.
Pursuing dreams is a vital part of growth.
You may want to redirect your pursuits. Deciding to pour your focus into being really good in your purchasing job or developing your ballroom dance skills to your best level, dreams and goals are about striving for personal growth.
Without hope, we perish. Going after your goals and dreams keeps you alive spiritually. It may not seem like the challenges that come with your endeavors are healthy and survivable(failure feels crappy). Sometimes going after what you want seems foolish. Other days, it gives you a reason to reach higher. It’s important not to give up on yourself. You can achieve, even though doing so is hard.
You may change the direction of your efforts, but don’t stop striving.