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Following your dreams takes a lot of faith and courage. But it also requires persistence – the ability to keep on keeping on regardless of the obstacles that may crop up. And there can be many. While you may think obstacles only come from outside forces, the opposite is also true. In fact, the greatest obstacles tend to be those we create for ourselves.

Be sure to also check out part one of this two part series on Following Your Dreams.

Self-Doubt

Even the most successful and seemingly confident people have experienced self-doubt at some time in their lives. It’s a perfectly normal human trait. Those who have followed their dreams to success are the ones who have overcome it. Overcoming self-doubt involves nipping it in the bud. Realize when it’s plaguing you and then make a conscious effort to change your mindset.

Tips to help you conquer self-doubt include:

• Surrounding yourself with positive, successful people
• Paying attention to the positive feedback you get, not negative comments
• Not worrying what other people think. Base your decisions on what you think is right, not what you think other people think is right.
• Not comparing yourself to others. You don’t do yourself any favors by gauging your success as it compares to the success of others.
• Set a series of smaller goals, in addition to your big goal, so you’re consistently achieving a series of wins.

Frustration, Giving Up Too Early

No one said following your dream would be easy, or that attaining it would be instantaneous. It can take incredibly hard, incredibly tenacious work to make it happen. You have to be in it for the long haul, no matter what. If you give up too early or too easily, it’s not going to happen.

When Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz was trying to raise money from investors to make his coffee shop dreams come true, he hit a major brick wall… More than 200 of them, in fact. He spoke to 242 potential investors during the year he was trying to raise money – and 217 of them said no.

Colonial Sanders is another great example of persistence. He was 65 years old when the restaurant he owned failed and he went to plan B. His plan was to share his special chicken recipe with restaurants for free, in exchange for the restaurants giving him a percentage of the chicken sale profits. He got 1,009 rejections before someone agreed to his plan.

Those are two great examples to keep in mind when you feel frustrated and feel like giving up. Remember their stories, along with the old sales adage that says you’re going to get 20 “No’s” before you get a “Yes.”

Not Pushing Hard Enough

Not only are rejections par for the course, but they can also be an indication that you’re on the right track. If you go out of your way to only get a yes and avoid a no, you’re probably not pushing hard enough, according to author Andrea Waltz. She says this type of behavior “leads to a mediocre life where you’re always in your comfort zone.”

The success of your dreams is not where you are in your comfort zone, but above it. You have to grow and meet it if you want it. A few ways to push harder include:

• Imagining yourself getting to your next level. Focus on what that next level is, and what you need to do get there.
• Taking on a little bit more than you think you can. Challenge yourself to bigger and better things all the time.
• Looking at how other people got where you want to be.
• Remaining inspired and motivated. This can come from inspirational quotes, videos, images, meditations and support from someone on your side.

World Events, Such as COVID-19

Once you get past all the self-made barriers stopping you from following your dreams, you may still face forces beyond your control. What’s going on with the coronavirus is a prime example of this. With so many businesses operating on limited hours or, in some cases, not at all, you may think this is the worst time to follow your dreams.

That’s not necessarily true. You can still do the legwork for following your dreams. Perhaps you can enroll in classes or training you were too busy to tackle, or catch up on your industry reading or networking. You can also look for opportunities within the situation, rather than excuses for letting it slow you down.

Look for a need, and then offer to fill it. In my voice over business, for instance, I’ve made sure clients know I’m available for new messaging, commercial spots, retail in-store announces, IVR system recordings and more providing updated information or changing schedules due to COVID-19.

One final tip is to stay positive and optimistic. This is another mindset you can learn to cultivate with repeated efforts over time. As Sam Altman says in his “How to Be Successful” post: “I have never met a very successful pessimistic person.” So don’t let outside circumstances – or your own thinking – take you down and out. Keep moving forward, heading onward and upward instead.

Be sure to also check out part one of this two part series on Following Your Dreams.

The very phrase “follow your dreams” can fill us with bliss. For a working voice over actor, it’s something society, pop culture and Disney movies reinforce at every turn. While following your dreams may sound like the only course of action you would want to consider taking, is it really the best road to success in our competitive and ever-changing world?

Maybe it is. Maybe it’s not. But you’ll never know until you try it, right? On the other hand, it could entail a big risk without a guarantee of reward. The risk may feel just too great, especially considering the uncertainties we’re now experiencing.

Some may feel the decision boils down to only two options. So what to do?

• Pursue the “dream job” that you think will be fulfilling and rewarding on all levels?
• Pursue a solid way to make a living that may not be very fulfilling emotionally but will meet your needs financially?

Flipping a coin may not be the best way to decide. I’d like to instead share my thoughts on some of the pros and cons of each scenario, along with my own experience landing on a solution that was fulfilling, rewarding and financially profitable.

Let’s look at the pros and cons first.

The Pros of Following Your Dreams

Since most of us dream big (because we’ve been taught to do that), following our dreams can be a huge risk – but it can also come with huge rewards. It can make us feel excited, alive and fueled with passion. We may expect the work we’ll be doing in our dream job will feel more like joy-filled play than actual work. Enjoying what you do and making money at it – what could be more amazing than that?

Another huge benefit of following our dreams is to live without regrets. Research says 98% of the population dies without fulfilling their dreams, which is a scary thought. Following our dreams ensures we at least gave them a try and won’t have to live with the remorseful thoughts of what could have been.

The Cons of Following Your Dreams

While we won’t have those regrets if we choose to follow our dreams, we may not have an easy road ahead of us, either. Our culture glorifies certain professions as “dream jobs” – such as actors (and yes, even voice talents), athletes, rock stars and celebrity personalities.

We imagine living a life full of fame and glamour, working every day on projects that feel exciting and artistically fulfilling. We likewise envision feeling constantly validated by doting fans, or even just by our own satisfaction that we are truly “living the dream.”

But the harsh truth is that this level of success is reserved for a small percentage of professionals in each field. In the most-pursued dream careers (especially in the arts), only a handful makes it to a level where they can earn enough money to make a living. And only a few from that group ascend to the level of success that fits the profile of what everyone is chasing. The vast majority often find themselves in a perpetual struggle to make ends meet.

We may not make enough to fulfill our financial needs, or we may find that the dream job is a lot more work than we anticipated.

Being a voice talent, for instance, may seem like a glamorous job. Parts of it are. But other parts behind the scenes require extremely hard work and don’t feel very glamorous at all. Voice training, honing your acting skills, learning the mechanics of editing and other software, constantly auditioning for the next job, becoming a great marketer, adapting to the ever-changing market, and the day-to-day operations of running your own business are just a few of those parts.

Cons May be Ongoing

Then there’s the constant rejection. Even as someone who has been a working VO professional for the past 25 years, I am rejected daily, usually multiple times per day. I lose far, far more jobs than I win.

Sometimes a voice talent will snag one of those jobs that is truly fulfilling and provides the sort of validation and fulfillment to inspire them to keep marching on. But most of the time you’re on your own.  Being a working artist requires an incredibly thick skin, and unfortunately many find that their dreams are too fragile to persist in the face of the rejection and daily grind that is required.

Yes, work can feel like play at times – but other times it’s undoubtedly work. A dream job is still a job, and sometimes fueling such passions is incredibly exhausting and consuming. This particularly holds true on those days when you feel, despite all of your hard work and joy for the craft, you’re just not getting anywhere.

Once you’ve invested all you have into pursuing your dreams, you may end up disappointed. Reaching that part of the journey can feel both depressing and liberating. Depressing because the dream did not unfold as you envisioned. Liberating because you know you gave it your best shot and you can now move forward in a different direction that may bring more rewards.

How to Balance the Two Options to Create a Third

The cons of pursing your dreams may appear to outweigh the pros by a ton. Yet nothing can outweigh the passion in your heart for doing something you truly love. I faced this same dilemma years ago when I began my own career. What I wanted involved a tough road ahead, yet it was something I absolutely knew I had to try.

I made it work by finding a happy medium. This involved:

• Having a more general dream job goal
• Keeping realistic expectations
• Being flexible
• Never giving up

General Goal, Realistic Expectations

As a young college graduate, my dream was to be a working actor. I didn’t set out to be a star or to win an Academy Award or even be on Broadway. I just wanted to make my living as an actor.

Fast forward 30 years later and I have been able to achieve my goal in a way that I did not know was possible when I set out on my journey. Having a more general dream job goal actually worked to my advantage. I was able to adapt and evolve over the years all while staying true to my dream.

Flexibility

On the road to becoming a working actor, I was open to working at other jobs until I was able to get a foothold in the business. Perhaps pursuing your dream job as a side gig while working a full-time day job can give you a good taste of what’s possible and what “living the dream” would look like – warts and all.

If you’re a performer, maybe gigging in a local coffeehouse or performing in community theatre is enough to give you what you want. Such a setup could feed that creative desire inside of you while also ensuring you are financially stable enough to pay the rent and put food on the table. With something else to support you, the rejections will not seem as emotionally and financially crushing.

Never Giving Up

Keeping my eye on the prize was another great motivator – and it still is. For me, the rewards consistently exceed the rejections, the risks and the ongoing hard work required to maintain a career as a working actor.

If your heart is truly set on a path you want to take, there are ways you can weave your dream into your life to make it a possibility. Set a general goal with realistic expectations, be flexible enough to adapt your plan as needed, and keep your eye on the prize.

Also keep your eyes open for opportunities. So much of the dream job appears to boil down to luck: being at the right place at the right time, knowing the right person, stumbling into just the right circumstances. With a little luck, a lot of hard work and ongoing perseverance, you never know what might happen.

Please also check out the part two of this series on Following Your Dreams.