A Couple years ago, I heard this amazing commencement speech that Jim Carrey gave at Maharishi University of Management, and I listen to it every so often when I'm having one of those moments where I'm second guessing my decision to pursue the life of my dreams. In my favorite part of the speech, Carrey talks about his father. He talks about how his dad held down a job that he didn't have a passion for, for most of his life, and then one day he was let go. Carrey said the lesson he took from that was, "you can fail at something you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on something you love."
We come up with so many reasons why we can't even try to go after our dreams. We tell ourselves it's not the right time, we tell ourselves it's too risky. We come up with reasons why we will fail where others have succeeded. We stack all of these things up in front of ourselves as proof that our dreams are not worth the gamble, but they are.
We can not know what we are truly capable of if we don't try. We can not know what could have come of our dreams if we don't live them. We can not have the life we've always wanted doing the same things we've always done.
This is not to say it won't be hard -- because it will. This is not to say it won't take time -- because it may take a while. But when you come out on the other side and your life reflects your dreams and passions -- when you look around at the culmination of all of your hard work and perseverance, won't that be worth it?
You will never know what your life could have been if you don't take that first step and give your dreams a chance.