Stepping Up: Your Dreams Require Action

Life Coaching Tip: Fear will often cause us to do just about anything to avoid acting on the hollering’s of our heart. Sometimes we spend years chasing “adventures” that take us away from our aspirations. But once we finally take the first few steps forward, momentum takes over and away we go!

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Jerry and I had been hiking at different spots on the weekends, and on one late-fall morning we decided to visit a site we often took our kids to when they were little. It’s a beautiful place with expansive views, high on top of rolling hills that overlook a curvy river.
 
There is an area on this trail with more than one-hundred steps that lead down to a river on one side and a creek on the other. Obviously going down is effortless because gravity helps out—but going up, not so much.
 
I laugh when I think about that hike now, because something absolutely ridiculous took place once Jerry and I were at the bottom of those stairs. 
 
You see, we BOTH had the brilliant idea of crossing the creek that morning, despite frigid November temperatures. Defying all logic, we actually walked the bank for quite a while looking for a place to cross the fast-moving waters—until we came to our senses.

I’m happy to report that we decided against crossing, but it’s truly bananas that we were both thinking about doing it in the first place!
 
Later with reflection, I realized that we were probably both looking for a way to avoid hiking up those stairs, even though neither of us admitted it at the time.  Instead, we were framing the idea of crossing the creek as a way to add to our morning’s adventure.
 
A story of adventure is much more flattering than one of avoidance, right?
 
Oh, how trickster the subconscious mind can be!
 
And truth be told, the trek up the stairway was not even that bad at all—definitely not worth the energy we put into avoiding it! 
 
This got me thinking about how we humans will often do just about anything to avoid acting on the dream that has been screaming to our soul. Sometimes we avoid the climb by spending YEARS chasing an “adventure” that takes us away from our aspirations.

But then, once we finally brave the first step, momentum takes over and up we go!

I’m wondering. Can you relate to any of this?

Are you scaling the steps, ascending towards your big, crazy dream?

Or are you dragging your feet at the bottom, afraid to put your tippy toe on the first step, perhaps even diverting your attention in another “important” direction?

If the latter is true, then I encourage you to listen to your inner voice, trust it, and gain clarity about what you’re really wanting.  This may mean calling yourself out on the “smoke and mirror” ruse that your subconscious mind has been playing, distracting you with “noble causes” that are taking you in the opposite direction of your dream.

That big, crazy dream was put in your heart for a reason, my friend.

Onward and upward, you go!