“Are you nuts? Pursue your dreams?” Joe gasped. I had just spilled the beans about a big decision to quit my job over a glass of chardonnay at happy hour. I was slowly getting used to this reaction.
“Maybe!” I laughed, my smile concealing my disappointment. But I felt then (as I do now) that I was making one of the sanest, calmest, most certain transitions I’d ever made.
You should’ve heard what other people told me (relatives included!) when I said I was giving up my high-paying sales career to be a full-time confidence coach and writer. The laughs I got, the wide-eyed reactions, the sniggers. Did I care? Yes. Were my feelings hurt? Certainly. But did I care enough not to do what my heart was telling me, just so other people would approve of me?
No. Freakin’. Way.
Put simply: What other people think about your life is not your business. Your business is to figure out what you most want in this world and then pursue it like a 6-year-old in sight of a Toys ‘R’ Us sign.
After life coaching hundreds of people, I’ve learned there is one mega-watt, sprinkles-on-top reason that people turn their back on their dreams: the fear of what other people will think. We can handle change. We can deal with some financial uncertainty. We are probably game to take a risk. But to do it in front of all the people watching, observing, perhaps even waiting for us to fail? The shame would be too big to bear!
Besides the fact that people take a lot less notice of you than you’d ever think, here are five very good reasons why you should follow your dreams even when (and especially when) others don’t approve.