I truly believe that if you have a urge to do something, and frequently think about and feel like you should do something, then you have an obligation or personal responsibility to pursue/explore doing it to the best of your ability. Nothing happens without a definite reason, and especially not something that sets your soul on fire, interests you, feels familiar, occupies space mentally, and is thought about frequently.
There is a reason why we have particular desires, interest and talents. A lot of the time, these desires may seem impractical, or not the best or easiest things to dedicate ourselves and/or give energy to. We may view them as being difficult to accomplish, inconvenient, intimidating, and uncertain. Also, apart from the self discouragement, observers may be negative when it comes to one following their heart and dreams, generally being more encouraging and optimistic about one’s success when it applies to assuming easier, convenient, and ‘more guaranteed/sure’ paths or ventures in life.
Following one’s dreams is not easy and takes a lot of courage, persistence, faith, mental strength, discipline, optimism, and ‘thick skin.’ It is challenging to pursue the things that interest us with or without the intention or expectation of being successful/making money/a living from them. Despite all of this, we have an obligation to walk our paths by giving energy to these things. We should not ignore the need to express ourselves in any way, no matter what it concerns (unless it is harmful to ourselves, or others, ofcourse). We do ourselves a disservice if we ignore the urge from our souls to do something, out of fear of how it will turn out, how successful we will be doing it, and how people will view our doing it.
Following our dreams is the highest level of self expression. The reason why we have interests, talents and desires is because of who we are, and what we are meant to do in life. Having the courage to pursue these things lends heavily to the feeling of fulfillment, happiness, and expression of one’s authentic self. It adds to one’s sense of purpose and attracts even more authentic and beneficial situations and experiences. Following one’s desires will always provide the biggest, most important outlet for sharing very needed gifts with the world.
We often give ourselves excuses for why we cannot pursue the things that are important to us, or that we would enjoy doing the most. Fear of failure, or not ‘doing it the right way’ or ‘good enough’ manifest into mental barriers that prevent us from working on them, or even imagine ourselves doing them. Nobody can discourage us as much as we discourage ourselves. No outside force, no matter the frequency, has the ability to stop us from doing something as much as we personally hinder ourselves. After all, we do have the choice to give energy or validity to negative or opposing influences of any sort. Just like anything else we take to heart/mind, it is a choice. We discourage ourselves the most when it comes to following our dreams, and should not blame any one/thing else.
When it comes to doing intimidating things that take us out of our comfort zones, we tend to justify many, many reasons (all created by us; our only limitations) as to why we either won’t be able to start pursuing our deepest desires, or why we will not be successful if we do pursue them. This concept also applies to ourselves expressing ourselves in a completely authentic sense, and showing the world exactly who we are, and what we stand for and believe in. I struggle with expressing myself completely. Actually, ‘completely’ may not be the most accurate word to use; since I actually hide a lot of who I am from the world. I’d like to imagine that I’m not the only one. See, it can be very intimidating to be 100% ‘you’ if you have been told (at any point(s) in life) that you are ‘wrong’ for ways of being, beliefs, or values, ‘unrealistic’ because of dreams that may seem far-fetched to some, or even ‘crazy’ because you view the world, life, or even a concept, differently from someone else.
These are just a few examples of how other people imposing their opposing or judgments on an individual can cause them to ‘shrink’ into themselves and feel compelled to only feel comfortable presenting a version of themselves to the world that is altered as best as possible to become a person who is more likely to be accepted, and not challenged in any way.
Self suppression, in any way, is never a good thing. Our reasons for doing this vary, but are not justifications for not expressing ourselves the way we want to/should. We need to work on blocking out negativity and skepticism about ourselves, be it from us, or others.
perfectenigma 