Stop Being Complacent and Execute Your Plans

If other people don’t like your plans, if your dreams don’t fit into their mold, do it alone. Someone will find you. Sometimes, you have to put an end to a terrible story in order to find a new destiny. Remember the importance of moving forward as the protagonist of your own story.

Carl Jung said that one’s vision is much clearer if instead of looking outward, they pay attention to their heart. Those who look outward dream, but those who look inward are awakened. But waking up can be painful. It involves breaking away from almost everything you know.

We often forget that life is a dynamic journey in which permanence is false and the present is ephemeral. This creates uncertainty, which leads us to try to find security, often at any price.

We sometimes cling to the permanence of those barren fields, that arid land where only weeds grow. We cling to it so that we can feel secure, rooted to something or someone that can substitute for love, respect, or happiness.

It scares us to move forward by ourselves when we need it the most. We’re afraid that we’ll be overtaken by sadness, that we’ll fail, that the reality that awaits doesn’t align with our expectations. However, we should remember that moving on means letting go of things that are hurting us, walking along the path of detachment, and filling our bags with other plans, other winds that will sooner or later carry us towards the horizon.

All good plans involve fear

There’s an old English proverb that says “he who has never made a mistake has never dared to live.” You see this often. People choose to restrict themselves in routines so they don’t have to take any risks, because a known evil is always better than an unknown good.

People think it’s better to do what others expect than to cause a stir by being the black sheep. Conforming to other people’s expectations and living on autopilot guarantees security. It’s like a front row seat at the movies where you don’t have to take any risks or face any unexpected consequences.

Leaving your comfort zone involves jumping the barbed wire fence known as fear. And we’re not all prepared for it, but why?  Fiona Lee, professor of social psychology at the University of Michigan, concluded in an interesting study that people fear failure more than anything else.

We all have great and interesting plans in our minds that we never carry out. We’re uncomfortable with judgment and afraid of failure. We tell ourselves that the ship has already sailed, while we stare blankly at our reflection in the window. And we wonder what might have been if we had taken that step, if we had executed that plan.

It isn’t easy. In fact, Dr. Lee found that businesses that focus on product innovation, for example, are very aware that people don’t like change, at least not sudden change. Change is a break in the established, and therefore, it involves fear, distrust, and failure. 

The brain doesn’t like change, either. Its purpose is to guarantee our survival, so it tells us that it’s “better not to leave your comfort zone.” But sometimes you have to. You have to take that step and cross the line of fear.

Dreams, plans, and rocky seas

If nobody likes your plans, don’t change them. Don’t let narrow minds push you into the vicious cycle of unhappiness. In the end, we all turn into Ulysses, lost in the ocean of life longing to find ourselves, dreaming about reaching Ithaca, where we can embrace calm and happiness and follow through with our plans.

It’s time to make a change and let your dreams take shape. Below, we’ll explain how to do this.

Tips to follow through with your plans

We’re sure that at this point in your life, you’ve already postponed countless plans. So many that it even hurts to try and remember them all. But remember, people who put off their goals, desires, and dreams out of fear aren’t really living. People who live other people’s lives are left with no feet to walk on. People who give up the air in their lungs so that others can breathe forget that they also have to breathe themselves.

Shift your focus and stop being afraid of failure.

• Understand that life is a journey, and that following new paths is your only opportunity to transform and overcome yourself.

• Understand that we’re all orphans looking for our place in the world. If you stick to plans that aren’t yours, you’ll be a castaway forever. 

• Along the way, you’ll experience disappointment, failure, and betrayal. However, like any good castaway, you have to keep looking towards the horizon. After all suffering, you move on. After every loss, you move on. As long as you have a dream in mind, you’ll have enough air left in you to achieve your goal.

• Remember that your mind is an expert in self-deceit and false hope. It will make you content to fit in, and it will make you say yes when you want to shout no.

Develop your awareness and turn your self-esteem into your best weapon. Listen to your intuition, that wise voice that can act as your life compass. It’s never too late to follow your plans and dreams, although sometimes, there’s nothing better than doing it alone.