Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler. – Henry David Thoreau

At some point in all of our lives, we begin to realize our true purpose. This can happen at any stage in someone’s life, but it often involves a complete upheaval of how we used to live. We might move to a new city, find a new job, set out on a worldwide adventure, or start writing that first novel we dreamed about writing for years. Whatever the case might be, you will feel a deep longing to do something differently, and fulfill your dreams no matter what you have to go through along the way. However, the gap between dreams and reality often discourages people from following their dreams, and they continue to live with their dream still inside them, trying to forget about their true purpose.

Once you have discovered your deepest passion, though, it will keep nagging you until you take that leap of faith. Below are 7 easy ways to bridge that gap between dreams and reality, and start living your best life now!

7 Simple Ways to Turn Your Dreams into Reality

1. Don’t Give Into Fear

Have you ever heard the saying “There’s nothing to fear but fear itself?” Keep that in mind when you tell yourself all the reasons that you can’t follow your dreams. Most fear arises from a lack of knowledge about what’s to come; it’s the fear of the unknown. Humans naturally fear what they don’t know because they have no control over unfamiliar circumstances. It all centers around a lack of control and knowledge, but the best way to get over the fear is to just dive in headfirst, and forge ahead into unknown territory. After all, you never know unless you try.

If you’re afraid of something, you should probably do it. Remember when you first went to an amusement park, and rode that roller-coaster that you thought you could never face, let alone come off of alive? After your first ride, you probably wanted to ride it again and again. Following your dreams is much the same; life’s a roller-coaster, and the only way to know what lies ahead for you is to get on and see where it takes you.

2. Forget About Normal

Many people never follow their dreams because they believe they must live their lives according to what’s “normal.” But, what’s normal for one person may not be normal for another. One person might be destined for a desk job which leads to an executive position later on down the road. However, your destiny might lead you to a foreign country where you teach English to natives or become a travel writer.

Don’t give into society’s idea about how a person should live. You can create whatever reality you want, so remember to walk your own path. Follow your heart, not the herd.

3. Don’t Listen to Others

This one might seem a little defiant and harsh, but ultimately it’s true. If you spend your life listening to everyone else telling you how you should live it, you will have spent all that time pleasing others instead of yourself. Everyone else loves to tell others how to live their lives because it gives them a sense of control and empowerment, but no one knows as well as you what makes you happy.

Trust yourself; your heart is trying to guide you in the right direction, but if you let others lead you astray, you will always walk every path except for the one you’re meant to follow. It doesn’t matter if others think your idea is crazy or that you will never follow your dreams; do what you have to do and everything else will naturally fall into place for you.

4. Stop Seeking Approval

This relates to the previous topic about listening to your own voice rather than everyone else’s. However, it’s equally important to not be a people-pleaser. I believe this goes back to what we were taught by our parents and teachers when we were young; we’re often taught to ask others for guidance or seek other’s advice before we do something.

If the person we ask for advice says something isn’t a good idea, we tend to believe them and trust their guidance. We all just want to be well-liked by everyone, which is normal.

However, “there is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.”—Aristotle.

You only need the approval of one person: yourself. You will never make every person in the world happy, so don’t bother trying. Just do what makes you happy, and other people will either be happy for you, or be jealous.

Understand that jealousy is also a form of flattery in itself, and people are often jealous because they wish they had the courage to do what you’re doing with your life. Encourage these people to follow their dreams as well; if everyone followed their dreams, imagine how different the world would be!

5. Get Comfortable with Uncomfortable

Humans are creatures of comfort; once we get into a routine or pattern, it becomes very difficult to break. That’s why getting out of your comfort zone often helps facilitate growth; the comfort zone is just that: a comfortable place where you can lay your head at night, but nothing grows there. Many people don’t like change and will do anything to avoid it.

However, the only difference between following your dreams and letting them go unfulfilled is in change. Nothing ever changed by doing the same thing over and over again; you must make a change in order to see different results.

If you aren’t happy with your current job, then leave. You aren’t a tree, you can move any time you please. We didn’t come to this life to be comfortable, but rather, to challenge ourselves and reach our fullest potential.

The most successful people only reached the level they’re at today by getting uncomfortable often. By challenging yourself, you become who you’re meant to be.

6. Believe in Yourself

If you started believing in yourself, imagine what you could accomplish. You don’t have to know exactly how you’ll get from Point A to Point B, and you don’t even have to have a destination in mind to believe in your journey. If you wholeheartedly believe in your dream, you don’t need anything else. You are already enough, exactly as you are. If you believe you’re smart enough, confident enough, healthy enough, brave enough, etc, then you are. Humans believe what they want to believe, and have incredible power over our own minds. We can literally shape our realities based on our own thoughts and actions, so keep this in mind when you wake up every morning.

If you start believing in your dream and do everything in your power to make it come to life, you need nothing else. Having faith in yourself makes you an unstoppable force of nature, and the Universe will help you make your dream happen as long as you believe in it.

7. Focus on Love

Love is the opposite of fear, so do everything in your life from a place of love instead. Be loving toward yourself, other people, the environment, other animals, and everything around you. Once you match your energy to the natural loving energy of the Universe, you will get everything you ever wanted. Life is merely a game of energy, and mastering it only requires you to be what you were meant to be, which is love.

Every person is born into this world with loving intentions, and is the embodiment of Love itself. However, hate, fear, stress, and violence are learned behaviors and operate on very low frequencies. Once you strive to come from a place of love with every thought, action, and emotion, you naturally raise your frequency and the Universe responds to that! Love is the answer 🙂

Putting these tips into practice will help bring you closer to truly living a life you deserve – the life of your dreams!  Add to the discussion below and share what has helped YOU live a life that you’ve always imagined!

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