chase your dreams?

chase your dreams?

The saying always goes, "Chase your dreams." What does that really mean? What does it mean to chase what your heart longs for and your mind constantly dwells on? What does it mean to pursue pathways and avenues that twist and turn, that can, on occasion, turn out to be dead ends, just to reach a fragment of what your purpose here on earth is? How does one do that? How does someone, "Chase your dreams."? Where do you start? How do you begin? What puts you on that path? I think it's a little naive to think that chasing your dreams is all there is to chasing your dreams. 

What makes someone use that cliche phrase anyway? What kind of conversation brings that phrase up? What is the cause of that effect? What causes someone to use that as a "word of encouragement"? Because that's all it is. It's a cliche phrase we "advice givers" and "know it alls" like to use when we have no knowledge or solid bits of advice to give. We just resort to, "Chase your dreams." And as cliche and overused as that phrase is, there is a deeper meaning behind it all. So what deep conversation would encourage us to use it?

It's a conversation of hope and fear. It's a conversation about passion and unbelief. It's a conversation full of ideas, concepts, thoughts, expressions, uncertainties, lack of confidence, and last resorts. It's the "chase your dreams" conversation. It's that conversation most of us, if not all, have had at one point or another. And if we haven't yet, we will someday. It's the conversation that sparks up when you've had enough of following someone else's dream for your life, you're through with taking the "normal", college degree, route, and you are ready to be excited and passionate about what you're doing with your life. It's the conversation that arises when you are tired of letting fear rule you and your career. It's the "chase your dreams" conversation.

Chasing your dreams is not as easy and simple as the three word phrase itself. It requires chasing what scares you the most. It requires you to chase the chance that it might not work out. It requires you to chase the repeated "No's" and  "You're not what we're looking for's". It requires you to fail and try again. You are chasing your fears when you decide to chase your dreams. You are chasing the very thing that excites you yet at the same time puts the greatest amount of fear you've ever known inside you. We aren't afraid of chasing our dreams. We are afraid of chasing our fears. 

Fear is your dream's fake best friend and your assigned enemy. So don't chase your dreams, chase your fears. Chase your fears until they flee.