Don’t Let Discouragement Sideline Your Dreams
Oh, discouragement - it sneaks up on you like a thief in the night. If you don’t do something about it, before you know it, it will have completely stolen all of your ambition and motivation, leaving you uninspired and complacent.
This has happened to me recently. I found myself frustrated when the things in my life that I was really hoping for were not happening as quickly as I would have liked. I felt like all of my efforts and hard work were done in vain. I started feeling sorry for myself. I started questioning whether or not to just give up and move on. I even tried justifying my impending surrender by telling myself, “well, at least you gave it your best shot”. What I didn’t realize at the time was that the mere thought of just throwing in the towel on what I wanted was causing me to be more and more discouraged and was pushing me further and further away from my dream.
I’m sure you can relate. I’m sure you have had seasons in your life when things seemed to take forever, and when you found yourself moving further and further away from your intended destination because of a lack of tangible results. Well, that’s how discouragement works. Ever notice that the only time you feel discouraged is when you’ve already put a lot of time and effort into something? It doesn’t strike when you first begin to work toward your goal, it waits until after you’ve experienced the initial euphoria of starting something new. It’s after some time that the seed of discouragement is planted and your negative thoughts begin to water that seed so much that it grows and becomes so big that it slowly stomps on your dreams; tramples your motivation; and suffocates your ambition. Discouragement is dangerous.
Don’t dig up in doubt what you’ve planted in faith.
Don’t let discouragement sideline your dreams. Don’t allow negative thoughts, fear, or a lack of results to steal your passion and cause you to completely abandon your goals. In life there are going to be so many setbacks. There will be days when you feel like enough is enough, and when you’re just completely tired of not seeing the fruits of your labor. Don’t start having doubts and don’t start questioning whether or not your plan is a good one; stay the course and press on.
The state of being discouraged is temporary. Eventually, one of two things will happen - you’ll either accomplish the goal that you set out to obtain, or you’ll be guided in a new direction and be led toward obtaining something different. That feeling of helplessness will soon become a distant memory. Being faced with discouragement happens to all of us; the real test comes in whether or not you allow it to overcome you.
