How to Overcome Obstacles to Achieve Your Dreams

You may know all about how to identify your goals and work toward them. However, sometimes there is a big and seemingly insurmountable obstacle in your way. Sometimes, that obstacle is real. You might genuinely lack the physical capabilities to become an Olympic runner, for example. Sometimes, the obstacle is temporary even if it seems as though it will be there forever. For example, you might have to wait until your children are grown to pursue a certain goal. But in many more cases, the obstacle is not as impossible as it seems, and the real answer is for you to refuse to take no for an answer.

Finding Money

Whether you want to start your own business, sail around the world, or go back to school, you may find yourself faced with the reality that you simply cannot afford it. However, there may be avenues you have not explored. Do you qualify for a small business grant or loan? Could you get a second job or crowdfund a trip if you share your adventures on a weekly podcast? Can you afford school if you supplement scholarships, federal loans and grants with private student loans? An additional obstacle you may run into is a lack of a cosigner for private student loans. Some lenders may still allow you to borrow without a cosigner, particularly if you have a good credit score.

Finding Time

There’s a saying about only ever having enough money or enough time but never enough of both at once. If money is not an obstacle to reaching your goal, time often is. The first step is to examine your time budget the way you would examine a financial budget. Many people are surprised to learn how much time they waste on social media. Other common time sucks might be gaming or streaming movies or TV shows. It can be easy to lose track of your binge-watching when your streaming service keeps automatically going into the next program. Rigorously interrogating how you are using your time each day will almost certainly reveal blocks of wasted time that you can put toward achieving your goals instead.

Finding Expertise

Maybe what you need is more information. You want to build a house with your own hands, train to run a marathon, or learn Italian, but either you don’t know where to get the knowledge you need or—increasingly common in our information-saturated world—you’re overwhelmed and don’t know how to differentiate the good information from the bad. Be sure to look at the credentials of anyone who says they are an expert, but beyond that, just jumping in and starting to learn is not a bad way to begin. Remember that making mistakes is all part of the process.

Finding Courage

Do you really lack money, time or expertise, or are you telling yourself that as an excuse? Maybe you haven’t been sincere about your goals and you’ve simply written down what other people, such as your family, want for you, or maybe it’s scary to think about success. These are all common issues, and you need to be honest with yourself to get to the bottom of them.

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