People, or what some of us call the “Infamous They” of the world, tells us that we have to be “realistic” about life. That yes, we can have dreams and work towards fulfilling them, but we must stay “realistic” in our thinking about our dreams. Yes, we can have our passions as hobbies but if they don’t pay the bills, we shouldn’t put too much attention into them. We then take what the “Infamous They” says as “law” and without a second thought given, create mediocre lives for ourselves. We work “dead end” jobs that we literally despise and that mentally torture us and stay at thus said jobs because of how much we make and/or we feel that we won’t find a better opportunity. We let our fears and doubts plague our minds heavily, then let the “Infamous They” project their fears and doubts onto us, that lead to us letting go or putting off on going after the things we really want. We easily develop a “settling mentality” because as long as we are living “comfortably,” life is okay. The problem in all of that is that we without even realizing it, are suffocating ourselves with our own hands wrapped around our necks. We are stuffing ourselves into a box that blends in with all the other boxes that we surround ourselves with. Meaning, we are forcing ourselves to fit into the man-made standards of society that creates this image of what the average person’s life should be/look like. By living this way, we are killing ourselves slowly from the inside out.
“Two young boys were skating on ice when all of a sudden, one of them fell through and got trapped under. His friend started to punch the ice in hopes of breaking it but could not get through. In desperation, the friend climbed a tree and broke off a huge branch, came back down the tree and started smashing the ice, eventually breaking it and miraculously saving his friend.
As emergency services came after the boy was safe, they sat in amazement and wondered how the little boy was able to break off the branch, smash the ice and save his friend. As they were sharing their amazement, an old man walked up and said, “the boy was able to do it because there was no one here that told him he couldn’t.” ~ Les Brown ~
The man-made standards of society/the “Infamous They” are a cult that we as a human race have been following since the beginning of time. What I mean by that is that we have allowed ourselves to constantly determine what success is and looks like, what happiness is and looks like and how we should view ourselves and our lives, all by what society/the “Infamous They” says those things are, should be and look like. We have allowed them to be our “ruler” that we use to measure where we are in life, what kind of person we are and so forth. We let them dictate how we should think about things, the type of goals we should set to reach our dreams, the type of jobs we should work, etc. What would happened though if we all dared ourselves to instead of looking to society/ the “Infamous They” for guidance and validation, we solely looked to God? How much happier and more fulfilled would our lives be if we stopped selling ourselves short and wholeheartedly believed in ourselves and our dreams? What would happen if we only sought God’s guidance to lead us in fulfilling our dreams? Our hearts and minds would be so blissfully free if we didn’t allow the “Infamous They” to determine how we should live our lives and deter us from fulfilling the dreams and visions that God Himself gave to us.
“The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid to take that first step, keep with the problem, or determined to carry out their dream.” ~ Les Brown ~
We all are born with some kind of God-given gift/talent that is desperately needed in the world. We all possess some kind of intelligence that could help make the world better for our current generation and generations to come. However, our gifts and talents will never come into fruition if we continue to allow people, the “Infamous They,” to make us feel as if we cannot or should not go after the dreams that only God could have placed within us. We must start being true to ourselves and stop living in “comfort” out of fear that if we go after our dreams, we’ll fail. Every person that has made their dreams their reality has experienced failure, has felt fear and doubt, and has had the “Infamous They” speak against them, but they still pressed on and prevailed. Here’s a little secret too, when God has given you a dream and a vision, that means that you already possess what it takes to fulfill that dream and vision, and whatever help/resources you need to fulfill it, He will provide for you. We have to learn how to tune out the unnecessary noise that tries to encamp around us, that tries to tell us what we can and cannot do, that tries to say we aren’t “qualified”, and that says our dream/vision is too “big” to accomplish. We have to truly have faith, believe in ourselves and above all else, know that absolutely nothing is impossible when we allow God to lead us. Once we start doing this, then we will be able to truly live our dreams and our lives as God destined for us to.
