At one point or another, we all had dreams. Maybe it was dreams about success.  Maybe it was dreams about love. Maybe it was dreams of adventure. Whatever it was, dreams need attention. What gets in the way of dreams? Life. We attend to what is immediately in front of us. We all have obligations and priorities. These obligations and priorities may be paying for a mortgage, a car payment, children’s activities, and any bandwidth leftover we want to go have fun. This can be going to the movies, going out to eat, or going on a weekend getaway.

There is nothing that is left over for our dreams and our true purpose in life. Your dreams require energy, time, money, focus, and commitment. Bottom line is it takes sacrifice! 

A payment for a dream is sacrifice. 

Your dreams are alive in you. Whether it’s a desire to write a book or open a company, whether it’s engaging in a creative venture, and even traveling the world. These dreams are alive and in you. But, they require a little of the bandwidth that you say that you don’t have. These require sacrifice. This sacrifice could include waking up an hour earlier to work on your dreams. It could include giving up a little fun time once a week to work on a business plan. It can be being really uncomfortable in order to learn something new that can help you achieve your big dream. To paraphrase, a sacrifice is giving up something to get something greater. Any dream or goal requires you to give up something in order to get what you want. These sacrifices can include giving up time, money, energy, comfort, or any other precious resource that you think you can’t give up. You don’t need to binge watch your favorite show. You don’t need to always go out to dinner. You don’t need to always acquiesce to every whim of the people that you deal with.

Your dreams require resources. When you invest your resources into your dreams, you become amazing. Every dream requires action. The bigger the dreams are, the more action it takes. Opening a company takes developing skills, time, money, help from others, and the ability to deal with challenges. For instance, taking a vacation takes time, money, energy, and the willingness to stand in lines. Line at the airport, line at TSA, line to get on the flight, line to get off the plane, line to get luggage, line at the hotel desk, even line at the restaurant. Even going on a vacation requires many small sacrifices. Finding love takes sacrifices. Great hobbies take sacrifices. Raising children takes unbelievable sacrifices.

The investment or sacrifices into your dreams are worth it. The sacrifice that you invest into your dreams will pay off if you are willing to take it on. There is no greater feeling than accomplishing your dreams. When you accomplish your dreams, you will look back at the sacrifice that you made which will enhance the positive feeling of accomplishment. You will wear the sacrifices like battle wounds. Your dreams and an amazing life are waiting out there for you. All you have to do is fight and sacrifice for them.

Where are you at? 

One common excuse that people make for not achieving amazing success is that there are not enough opportunities. However, people fail to realize that, when you make sacrifices, you are creating opportunities. People who went to college have more skills that they can turn into opportunities. The same goes with investing your time, money, and energy into self-help or growing yourself. If you have any insecurities, emotional blocks, or any kind of limitations, your sacrifices include accepting and dealing with whatever holds you back. For example, if you have anxiety, your sacrifices may include taking time out of your day to calm yourself. It might be meditation or it might be engaging in therapy. A big part of my sacrifices is dealing with my physical limitations and the psychological ramifications that my disability presents. I have to deal with the sacrifices that my disability presents plus the sacrifices that I have to make to ensure that my ambitious goals happen.

 The Right Sacrifices

One issue is that people think they deserve amazing success just because they work hard. Working hard is definitely a kind of sacrifice. However, working hard at the wrong goal is not going to lead you to amazing success. You can pursue something with all the effort in the world and if your efforts are not going to lead to amazing success, then it’s the wrong sacrifice. 

Where To Begin?

Sacrifice does not automatically imply some grandiose gesture. It’s not one action that is going to get you to amazing success. It’s a series of systematic actions done together that is going to lead you to amazing success. It may be reading one chapter of a personal development book. It may be taking a half hour walk. If you want to open a company, you begin by reading a book on entrepreneurship or having a drink with an entrepreneur in your area. If you want to write a book, you start with an outline, then a paragraph, then writing a chapter a week. Every goal can have the same trajectory. Most goals begin by asking what are the next steps. What are the steps for the next two weeks or month? Most of the steps or sacrifices are small. They involve giving up something small in order to get something bigger. One of the issues is for every sacrifice you make, you can invest that same energy into feeling good in the moment, which will not yield you amazing success in the long run.

 Wrong Expectations

People assume that if they have the right connections, or are in the right place at the right time, then they will achieve amazing success. People also assume that other people can make them successful. Although there’s some truth to that statement, the reality is that when you start making the right sacrifices other people take notice.  Since you are on a better track, others who are successful will want to get on your bandwagon. They want to collaborate with you and work with you. Many people want a bail out either from some boss or some government program or some connection that they made. In reality, you need to make the sacrifices in yourself. Nobody is going to sacrifice for you unless the sacrifice in you will benefit them.

Needless to say, the more amazing you want your life to be or the bigger your goals are, the more sacrifice that you have to make. An amazing life costs more, but when you invest in yourself, the sacrifice has a bigger payoff.

Big dreams take small sacrifices.

Summary:

Achieving amazing success means making sacrifices along the way. In order to reach your dreams and goals, you have to look within and make the necessary sacrifices and choices that will continue to drive you forward.