The Millions of Reasons to Give Up

Excuses, far from needing to be sought out, will present themselves with alarming insistence, and from places you never though to find them; friends will tell you to be careful and back off, family will tell you that you aren’t yourself, parents will make you feel guilty for trying to change yourself or your life. Those who love you will hold you back, not because it isn’t real love, but because nobody likes change. Many of them will be secretly jealous, or find their own insecurities flaring up in the face of your attempts to breach the status quo.

There is really only one reason to do the important thing. And it isn’t really a reason, since it isn’t reasonable. Ultimately, the only way you will get important, significant, world-changing work done is to do it in spite of everything. You must ignore the clutter that needs to be tidied. You must ignore the friends and family who call you distracted and distant. You must ignore the message that you are wasting your time and wouldn’t it be nice to just sit down in front of the TV with a cold beer? The world won’t miss it if you just walk away from your desk.

Except that it will. There will be a gaping hole where you dream could have been. Maybe one day, somebody else will fill it in with their dream, but then the gaping hole will remain in you.

Remember this: there are few reasons to pursue your dreams. There are plenty of very good reasons not to.

Ultimately, you have to choose to do it anyway. Because the significance of changing the world doesn’t lie in undertaking a new project or spreading a new idea. It lies in altering the expectations and rules that make the new project or idea so difficult in the first place. When we live in a world in which exceptional adventurers are encouraged, your work will be done. Until then, Fight on, Brave Warrior!

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