Get your rest. Slow down.

What do you do if you have a dream, but everyone around you keeps telling you to be more realistic and to give up the dream? What if they want you to pursue a more “sensible” and traditional career route? You ignore them. You shut out the naysayers and you stay focused on your dream. It’s the only way. There will always be negative people. So we will always have naysayers. If you listen to them, you will never pursue your dreams and you will never follow your heart. Therefore, you will never be truly happy. And I can’t think of a greater tragedy in life than never pursuing one’s dream. To never follow your heart. To never experience happiness that comes from deep within your soul. A life left with unfulfilled dreams is not a life I would ever want to lead, nor be remembered for. So how do you make youFirst, you need to have a dream. Second, you need to want the dream bad enough that you are willing to take a risk, to take a chance at changing your life. You have to believe that achieving your dream is completely within your grasp. You need to stay true to yourself and stay motivated. But yet, you have doubts, because dreams such as yours are not considered realistic. Doubts hold even the best of us back. If you remember nothing else I say, remember this, doubt is the enemy. We all have doubts and they’re unavoidable. Sometimes it’s good to be realistic because you need to be able to analyze whether a dream is achievable or not. But if the only thing stopping you is fears and doubts, and not some insurmountable obstacle, then you need to banish those fears and doubts.So how do you make your dream a reality?

A doubt, as innocuous as it may seem at first, has a way of creeping its way into your subconscious. It has a way of worming itself into the depths of your heart, like some kind of black cancer that has infiltrated your body. The doubt lingers in the back of your head, gnawing. And without warning, it will eventually conquer your dreams. When you think about yourself, your self-image will not be of that person you want to be, but the person that others want you to be. And never underestimate the importance of passion in life. It fuels a dream like nothing else. If you are lacking in passion, you are probably also lacking in inspiration. So get inspired. Inspiration is one of the keys to achieving any dream.

Doubts will keep you in a job and in a town you hate, just because you’re afraid to go do what you really want to do. Doubts will keep you in a crappy relationship because you don’t think you deserve better. The good news is that you can banish doubts. Imagine that the doubt is an ugly little bug. Now step on it and squash it with the bottom of your shoe. Exterminate it. Do not let it live and spread! Replace it with positive thinking. When it comes to the external negative factors, the naysayers, you have to learn to block them out. Or if you’re like me, you have a contrarian streak in you. The naysayers only fuel my determination to succeed and prove them all wrong!

So you’re passionate. You’re inspired. You’ve blocked out the naysayers. You’ve squashed your doubts and you’re ready to pursue your dreams, but there is only one problem - you’re afraid to take the plunge. The best advice I can give you is to imagine that you need to swim out to a boat on a lake. You’re standing on the dock, looking down at the icy cold water. You are afraid to dive into that water, but you know you need to take that plunge to get to your boat. So how do you do it? Do you go in one toe at a time? Do you stand there for awhile, waiting for the right moment? Do you wait for someone to give you a push? No. You just do it. You just dive in!Once you’re in, it’ll be freezing, but you’re in. You’ve already committed to it and that makes you more likely to achieve your dreams. You now have no choice but to swim to the boat. And once you’ve gotten to the boat, you’ll be glad you took that plunge. That’s how it is with your dreams. You can’t wait for the right moment to come along, or for someone to give you a push, or for the lake to warm up. You just have to dive right in. Keep in mind that motivation comes in waves and it’s impossible to keep it high all the time. Obstacles are sure to come up, but you need to be a strong swimmer in the face of adversity. Plan it out. Do your research and when you’re ready, dive in and don’t look back. There is no better time than the present to test the waters.

This is the pursuit of happiness (in what i think)

We all know it’s important to forgive in life, but of course there are always exceptions to every situation, like toxic relationships. I think in those cases, forgiveness is next to impossible. You just need to separate yourself as far as possible from them, cut them out of your life if possible. Although sometimes forgiveness needs to be given just for your own peace of mind. You need that emotional weight lifted off of you in order to trudge thru the rest of life. For me, the key is to separate myself from the types of people that don’t add to my life, but rather take away from it. I choose to surround myself with positive people that are understanding and supportive in times of need, rather than those that take advantage of my momentarily lack of strength and pounce on my weakness as if I were prey being thrown into a hungry lion pit. If I sound bitter in saying that, it’s only because I’ve experienced it firsthand and on more than one occasion.

An apology has three parts:

1. I'm sorry.

2. It was my fault.

3. How do I make it right?

So many people skip that last part, but that's how you can tell sincerity.

I’ve allowed someone’s actions and words to eat away at me. That certainly isn’t healthy. You can’t heal and move forward with a happy life if you consume yourself with past wounds.Why do I punish myself like that? Or the better question is...why do I allow others the power over me so I can punish myself like that? If I had just forgiven them long ago, we wouldn’t even be indulging in this topic.

I can honestly tell you that people become a better person because of their failures as opposed to their successes. As much as I hate to lose and as much as I fear failure, I’ve learned so much about myself, the people around me and the world in general from the ugliest word in the English language - failure. It has made me stronger. It has made me better. It has made me wise beyond my years. Like I always say...when you know better, you’ll do better. And because of past failures, today I am doing well. So thank you failure. Thank you for overwhelming me with fear when I am succeeding and then overpowering me with strength when I stumble and fall. You are that constant negative voice in my head that I find myself being forced to push thru on a daily basis. I despise you, therefore I fight you. But yet, I love you. Truth be told, I need you there. I need you to lurk in the murky shadows. I need you to be ever present in the corners of my mind, the place where I lose focus and I refuse to admit I feel my most vulnerable. I need you to cut me down to size so I can rise above and prove you wrong. I build myself back up just to defy you. The ugliness that defines you is that which beautifies me. That is a gift that no one but you could ever instill upon me, or rather within me. Without failure, I don’t know where I would be today. And I don’t know who I would be. I just know I would not be me.

In 2009, the process of asking someone out on a date can historically be described as such. Each form of communication has its own followers and rules, which means dating today is a law of inverse proportions. As ways to communicate increases, the chances you will date someone who speaks your technological language decreases.

1.Relax. Continuously checking your phone for an incoming txt or call is not going to make it ring faster. Same rule applies to your e-mail, Facebook page, Twitter account, etc. Obsess over this and not only are you wasting your time and torturing yourself, but you’ll come off looking desperate and pathetic.

2.If he’s truly interested, he will be in touch, in one form or another. Trust me on this!

3.Just because a guy says he will call, doesn’t mean he will. Get over it.

4.Ok, that sounded harsh. So to be fair, guys don’t say you’ll call if you know you won’t. Enough with the head games. Grow up already. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Women will respect you for your honesty, even if the truth hurts. And ladies, keep in mind that things change. He may have had every intention of calling you, but something could have actually come up - meaning, he met someone else. So don’t go psycho on him. Accept it and move on. Besides, why would you want someone who doesn’t want you?

5.Just because technology is said to be an "instant" form of communication, doesn’t mean it really is. Life gets busy for everyone, so don’t take it too personal. It may take a couple hours, a day, or more before he/she responds to your call, e-mail, txt, etc. So repeat step #1, relax.