Don't Be Afraid to Chase Success

Today, one of my fabulous friends over at QueryTracker (Bodwen) posted about a dream she had last night. She was inside an hourglass with sand pouring down, and she knew the grains were moments in her life. It was about chest-high when a man came up to her hourglass and scooped up a handful of her sand. She cried out, thinking he was taking it for his own, but he threw it on the ground.

"Why are you doing that?" she asked. He replied that her sand was better than his, so she shouldn't have so much of it. He went to grab more sand, and she chased him away.

What I thought was particularly powerful about this dream, is that when she woke, she knew that the man trying to steal her sand represented all the people in our lives who are jealous that we are chasing success. They feel they are wasting theirs, so they want to tear us down instead of seeing us succeed.

How many times have we each experienced this as we tell people about our goals and dreams? I used to tell my non-writer friends about my dream of getting published, and they'd say helpful things like "Well, if you don't make it, at least you wrote a whole book," or "The odds are really against you, so if you don't get an agent, maybe you can self-publish."

Others have self published and rant on forums about how the publishing industry is broken, and agents can't find a good book if it hit them in the eye. (I have nothing against self-publishing. I only have something against people who give up trying to be traditionally published, and then try to tear down others who still strive for that.) By tearing down the hopes of those of us fighting to be a part of that industry, they are trying to justify why they gave up.

Don't let them.

Don't let people try to take your sand away from you. They will tell you that you don't deserve it. They are wrong. You will EARN it if you chase your dream all the way to the end. You absolutely deserve everything you earn through hard work and determination.

Don't let anyone steal your sand. It is yours and no one else's.

I have a quote that I live by while chasing my dream, and it is this: "The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want the most for what you want now."

Don't give in to smaller dreams or suggestions meant to keep you from your Big Dream. You can do it.

Let the sand flow, and chase people away who try to take it from you. You can do it :). You need to believe that you have the right to chase your dream.