Doubt Kills More Dreams than Failure Ever Will

Doubt Kills More Dreams than Failure Ever Will

Updated 8/13/2018

When I look at this picture, I see a little boy with big dreams. But when he looks out over the city in the moonlight, I think that he is overwhelmed by the vastness of the city. The moon is large and full and seems to be almost overpowering.

When you have these big dreams, it is easy to look out and see that we are just a small insignificant thing that will probably have little or no impact on the world. That is when doubt starts creeping in. Then it is joined in by those parts of us that try to protect us from harm, as well as friends and family that are trying to protect us.

Don’t let the devil put a question mark, where God has already put a period.

  – Inspire Us Daily

The voices yammer inside our head that we will look foolish. We will be laughed at as failures. Who do we think we are? Do we really think so much of ourselves that we alone have the answer to even one of life’s problems? If this idea we had was valid they whisper, then someone would have done it a long time ago.

The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself.

  –  Maya Angelou

I know that our parents want to protect us and sometimes in trying to do that they crush our dreams. Teachers may have told us that we were not smart enough or talented enough and so we give up on our dreams, because we think that they must know – they are older and know more than we do, we follow the advice and give up.

We may have bosses that belittled our idea once when we shared it, so we closed up like a clam shell, never to speak out an idea again.  Or we may have spoke up regarding what we believe to be the answer to a challenge at work and we are ignored.  Then we find out later that someone else stole that idea and how they are being given the credit for it – so we feel that no one will listen, so why even speak up or try.

Many times our ideas scare our friends into thinking that we will outgrow them and leave them behind, so they tell us to not even try – they tell us it is too hard, how you don’t have the money, influence or power to make a difference. Don’t speak up or you might get ostracized they whisper in our ears.  We feel like our life is the “Whack a Mole” game and if we stick our necks out, we will get hit by a giant hammer.

We spend so much time asking God to cure us of our hardships.  But we never stop to consider that our hardships are curing us.

  – Yasmin Magahed

The voices inside/outside of us come from many directions at once, so we freeze and do nothing. I think that one of my favorite people who talked about dreams was Martin Luther King Jr. When he started I can’t imagine that he knew what a difference he was going to make in our world. He must have been overwhelmed many times by the enormity of what he wanted to do. He inspired many to stand beside him, and his legacy goes on today as we remember him and his work every year.

For what it’s worth:  It’s never too later to be whoever you want to be.  I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over.

  – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Dreams take on lives of their own when they are divinely inspired. They grow inside of us and spread out to everyone, to inspire them to join with us and help grow the dream. The dream didn’t start with us, and it will not end with us. We are like a runner in a relay baton race, getting passed the baton to continue onto the next person who will be inspired to continue running with the dream. The dream can’t be stopped, because it has a life of it’s own.

If you are going to doubt something, doubt your limits.

  – Don Ward

Our dreams live on, still free, still inspiring others to take up the baton in the race and be brave. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream still lives on. He wasn’t the first person to take that baton up and he wasn’t the last one.

It’s your life, not a show.  Don’t sit back watching it drift away.  Go out and fight with everything that holds you back.  Remove your doubts.  Kill your fears.  Overcome the challenges of your life and most of all, fight with the pain you have inside.

  –  Shubhanshu Tiwari

Whatever dream lives inside of you, take up the baton and join in the divinely inspired race. And when it is time to pass on the baton, know that your dream will live on through those that you were able to inspire to take up the baton and continue the race.

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Sheryl Silbaugh

I am married with 4 grown children who are all married and currently have 14 grandchildren and two great granddaughters. I work fulltime as a Director at Bank of America and I am the founder of LemonadeMakers.org, which is a website and Facebook page dedicated to personal transformation and growth. We all have life's lemons show up in our life, this website helps us to make them into lemonade.