Not Everyone Will Support Your Passion. Here’s Why It’s Okay.

Everywhere we go, we’re being told to follow our dreams. We see inspiring social media posts, drive by billboards on the side of the highway, and hear songs songs on the radio about being the best we can be and going for our dreams. Even one of the biggest companies has one of the most well known slogans in the world. Just Do It.

The sad truth of following your life’s purpose is that not everyone will be on board for your adventure of a lifetime. Maybe you’ll know more people who are initially against you pursuing your dreams than people who are for it. And that’s okay.
Sit back and think about it for a second. All of the biggest enterprises in the world started with just someone with a dream. That sounds hopelessly cliche but it’s true. Someone started with a vision and ended with a tangible reality. If those people hadn’t started, we may be missing out on some of the greatest products, developments, and achievements the world has seen.

If Thomas Edison hadn’t been persistent in creating the light bulb, even after 1000 tries, we might all still be sitting in the dark.

A few questions to ask yourself the next time you’re face to face with a situation where you’re wondering if you should listen to the people around you when they say it’s not worth your time or effort:

What will the world lose if I don’t do this?

This is a very important question because it allows you to see your already-created and soon-to-be-implemented value. What does the world lose if you don’t follow your dreams? It’s an easy question to answer, really.

If you want to be a life coach, the world (and your potential clients) lose clarity and encouragement. If you want to be a speaker, the world loses an inspirational and lifechanging story. If you want to be a rockstar, the world loses facemelting guitar solos (School of Rock anyone…?). If you want to be a clown, the world loses laughs. And I don’t know about you, but denying the world of laughter is pretty selfish.

What will you lose if you didn’t do this?

It’s all nice, dandy, and worldly of you to think how the lack of you pursuing your dreams affects the planet but let’s scale down with our thinking really quickly. What about you?

You want to start your dream business or lifestyle for a reason, right? If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be stuck in a situation where you’re feeling unsure of whether or not to continue.

One of the coolest quotes is “Don’t regret what you did, regret what you didn’t do” and this is the best situation to apply it. You dream and you want for a reason? What would that be? Is it financial freedom or achievement or success? What does success mean to you? In fact, what do all of those things mean to you? The more you get clarity on what you want and WHY, the faster and easier it’ll be for you to block out the naysayers and party with the yes people!

Life comes with highs and lows, and along with them, you get the inspiring and the not so inspiring people. It’s up to you who you want to listen to. Be your own inspiration.