Some Dream Killers can’t help it. They are worried about you getting hurt in one way or the other.
If you tell someone, usually your mom, that you want to climb Mount Everest, they will say, “You can’t do that. People hurt their leg on Mount Everest. You’re going to hurt your leg.”
And you know what? They’re right. You can actually die while climbing Mount Everest. In fact, you can die while fighting someone in a cage, or driving around a race track, or flying to the Moon. (And, by the way, why do we call it “The Moon,” it’s not terribly creative.)
My point is that almost every human endeavor carries some risk, of hurting you physically, or hurting you emotionally… everything except sitting on the couch watching Netflix.
Take Madonna… Please
Let’s take Madonna for example. She’s a mediocre singer. No offense. Madonna has many more hit albums than I do. If she had listened to her Dream Killers then she wouldn’t have any hit albums, or hundreds of millions of dollars. She would be working at Walmart instead. She has the last laugh on her Dream Killers. Look at the scoreboard bitch!
Some Dream Killers know you too well.
They know what you’ve done in the past, and what you haven’t done, and they will hold that over your head forever.
You’re not bound by your past.
A Little Magic from J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling was a depressed single-parent on welfare, and seven years after college she considered herself a failure. In five years she went from welfare to a millionaire, and she’s now one of the richest women in the UK.
Rowling said, “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.”
The worst Dream Killers know exactly what they’re doing, and they do it because they are afraid of your success.
The internet is notorious for being Dream Killers. Faceless assholes and frenemies lurk in the shadows until you post some wonderful dream. Then they leap out and do everything they can to keep you from pursuing your goals.
Why? Because if you achieve your dreams then they believe that it makes them look lazy or untalented. They are afraid that you will rise above them, so they do everything to keep you down.
Jealousy is the biggest Dream Killer of all.
Mission Impossible
But you know what? Taking risks is part of life. Your past is not your future. And nothing says “Suck It!” like succeeding at something that people told you was impossible.
My simple solution is to not tell anyone what I’m going to do until after I’ve done it.
Now there might a handful of people who are always positive about my dreams, no matter how fanciful or difficult, and those people hear all my shit. But for the other friends and family, they can wait until I’ve achieved my dreams, then they’ll hear about it the same time that everyone else does.
And by the way, you shouldn’t climb Mount Everest. It’s stupid and people freeze to death on that mountain. See? I can be a Dream Killer too.
Do everyone a favor and don’t be a Dream Killer. You might be surprised by what you friends and family can achieve with some encouragement.