The Barriers Remaining Are Internal

For most of history, there were enormous external barriers to a person’s ability to do what they were most passionate about, and to follow where their heart and dreams would take them.

In the old days if you wanted to publish your thoughts and ideas, you needed a publisher who would hire you and help you with access to an audience. Now you can write and distribute without a book publisher, or without a job writing for a newspaper, magazine, or journal.

There are no more external barriers for writers when it comes to publishing.

If you wanted to make music, you used to need a record company to pay for your recording and to distribute your work.

Barriers? Gone.

If you wanted to make a television show, to comment on the day’s events on video, or to entertain others, you needed all sorts of things, like agents, casting people, producers, directors, writers. Television and movies were a real insider’s game. There used to be enormous barriers to entry.

Now? Very little. Talent is worth more than cameras.

Regardless of what kind of endeavor you want to pursue, including starting a business, at no time in history has it ever been easier to chase your dream. The external barriers are all gone.

But there are still a few remaining barriers left to conquer.

The Inner Critic That Is Fear and Doubt

Inside each of us lives an inner critic. This little voice that only you can hear is often a holy terror. It stirs up fear and doubt, creating the internal barriers that are the only real obstacles to you pursuing your dream.

The little voice drives your fears with an unrelenting barrage of negativity: “You will suffer an embarrassing failure,” and “You’re not good enough,” or “People will think this is a joke!” It causes you to doubt yourself.

You have to shut down your inner critic by taking action in spite of your fear. Taking action builds momentum and builds the small victories and the progress that eventually silences the inner critic.

Taking massive action is like kryptonite to your inner critic; it’ll put him down for the count. But then there is this . . .

Apathy: Hitting the Snooze Button on Your Life

There is always tomorrow. Until one day, there isn’t.

Your apathy—and its progeny, procrastination—are internal barriers that do even more to prevent your success than any of the external barriers of days gone by.

You were going to write today, but you had writer’s block. You were going to record today, but you decided to watch some television instead. You have this great business idea, and as soon as you find time you are going to change the world.

This is hitting the snooze button on your life.

The same as with your fears and doubts, you have to overcome the internal barrier that is your apathy by relentlessly taking action. Your dreams and your vision are too important to wait, and the clock relentlessly ticks away, sparing nothing and no one (not even the best of ideas or the best of intentions).

Stop hitting the snooze button. You don’t want to sleep through this. Wake up early, stay up late, and make it count.

There has never been an easier time with fewer external obstacles to your dream. What are you doing to overcome the internal barriers?