Can you believe that we ALL have been held hostage at some point in our lives? Yes, like for real, you and I have been held against our will. Ok now that I’ve revealed that we all have been in hostage situations, can you think of whom the captor is? Well seeing that you didn’t realized you’ve been a captive, I’ll just save you the guess work and inform you that we hold ourselves hostage mentally and physically. 

Through out life, there has been something we’ve dreamed of doing or just wanted to do; but somehow we’ve talked ourselves out of fulfilling it. Having enough money isn’t always the reason. Nor is having enough time. Nor is it always our race, sex, ethnicity, etc. Have you heard of the old adage that ‘you are your worse critic?” Well think about that for a second. We criticize ourselves the hardest when it comes to our efforts, abilities, appearance, and behavior. 

So we dream and imagine ourselves doing certain things like running a marathon or writing a book. We can touch it and it makes us smile. But before that smile can reach our ears, our mind starts to take over and it begins to unload on us all the reasons we can’t run (our weight, no time to train, no experience, too slow, the weather, shoes expensive, dogs outside…) and why we can’t write that book (no quiet time to write, no laptop, no desk with a plush chair, no one will want to publish it, they will laugh at the things I like to write about, someone will think the story is about them, too many lions tigers and bears oh my…). 

Too often we never make it pass step one because we never succeed in planning the steps because we stopped ourselves at the thought of fulfilling the dream. Have you written out the steps you need to take in order to fulfill your goal? If not, why not? Why did you stop dreaming? Like for real, take a pause for 2 minutes, look away from your phone or computer and think about that dream inside of you. Why did you stop pursuing it? Stay there until you determine the answer before you continue to read…ok go.

What did you come up with? Did you unknowingly tell yourself, you couldn’t do it? Did someone else say you couldn’t and you believed them? Yes, people do misspeak and we mistakenly believe them. I can recall being on a dream high. I mean like really. I was getting up at 4:30am everyday working on the steps to meeting a goal I had set for myself. A friend asked what I was working on and made a comment about what I was doing as if to say I was chasing my own tail. But they had no evidence that I wasn’t accomplishing anything. They hadn’t been there to see the progress or lack there of. But I subconsciously believed them as I began to procrastinate profusely and I didn’t know why. 

Then I recall listening to a motivational message, can’t recall the speaker or message, but I remember them encouraging the listeners to journal their feelings and thoughts daily to determine what was preventing their goals’ fulfillment. I did and through that journaling, I discovered the reason for my procrastination. I started to believe I was chasing my tail. I had felt I was making progress but with nothing to show, it was true. Didn’t matter that I was getting up and working towards my goals, no one saw it so I must have been chasing my tail. So I believed their words and stopped dreaming. 

Some of you may can relate to what I dealt with. If it wasn’t someone else, maybe you couldn’t see any progress so you decided to stop. But what if you had kept going? What if you kept going until it happened? Never stopping until you reached it? What if that is how we approached the things we want to achieve? We go until we get it! We stop when we arrive! And even then, we keep on pressing forward. What if we had that sort of drive behind us? We in turn become the captor and don’t stop until our dreams are held hostage! I don’t know about you but there are a couple things I want to capture hold of. I want the confidence that I can rope the moon if I wanted it!

Too many dreams going to the graveyard. I dare you to take them back! Become the captor in your life. You got it! If only you believe! 

“Whether you think you can, or think you can’t. You’re right.” ~Henry Ford

“The only thing keeping you from getting what you want is the story you keep telling yourself about why you can’t have it.” ~Anthony Robbins

Thank you for your attention. You are your only competition.

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