{"id":30342,"date":"2016-09-09T02:00:54","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T09:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=30342"},"modified":"2016-09-06T21:26:39","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T04:26:39","slug":"dont-give-up-on-your-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/09\/dont-give-up-on-your-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Give Up On Your Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"IMGP0133-2\"
Downtown LA, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Life is short and cruel if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t follow your dreams. It is easy to be stuck in the cubicle and work a job you hate for 40 years, to await retirement (that might never come), in the hope that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153happiness\u00e2\u20ac\u009d will happen in the future.<\/p>\n

My suggestion: don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give up on your crazy dreams you had when you were younger and in college. Stay hungry, stay foolish, and don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give up on yourself.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I think when we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re younger, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a lot more idealistic in life. We have these grand plans for changing the world, empowering others, and helping improve society. However as we get older, we become \u00e2\u20ac\u0153jaded.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d We realize we need to pay the bills, support our families, and do other boring stuff. We feel trapped with horrible jobs, commutes, and office politics.<\/p>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t lose your enthusiasm. Stay young, pliant, and motivated.<\/p>\n

\"IMGP0129\"<\/p>\n

Know that today is the best time for you to pursue your dream. There is no other time in human history where we have modern technology (smartphones, the internet, 4g, laptops, digital cameras\/videos, social media, YouTube, e-books) that can help you make change in the world or produce art. Most of us don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go to sleep hungry (our problem is obesity), most of us have clothes to keep us warm (our problem is having too many clothes in our closet), and most of us don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t die of thirst either (our problem is having too much high-fructose corn syrup in our drinks). Despite what the media tells you, the world is safer than before. You are a lot less likely to get killed by an armed robbery in the streets or from war than you did in the past.<\/p>\n

So we have all of our basic necessities. We have shelter, food, warm clothes, and water. We have our coffee and wifi. What else is holding us back?<\/p>\n

I think it is fear.<\/p>\n

\"Suits-0\"<\/p>\n

We fear pursuing our dreams, because we are afraid that we might fail. We are afraid of pursuing our dreams, because we are afraid that others might think we are stupid or childish. We are afraid of pursuing our dreams, because we are afraid of success (if your dream came true, what would you tell everyone else, and what would you do with your 9-5 job?)<\/p>\n

Many of us also lack the confidence in ourselves. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think we are talented, smart, or young enough to pursue whatever we want to do. We get too caught up in the complexity of taking action, so we stay glued to the couches, watching YouTube, TV, Netflix, playing video games, or any other form of passive leisure.<\/p>\n

My suggestion: make your life that is active and one of action<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

If your dream is to be a full-time photographer, start off by taking action. Put up a craigslist posting offering to shoot a wedding for free. And use that to build up your skills.<\/p>\n

If you want to be a portrait photographer, contact a friend to do headshots.<\/p>\n

If you want to start your own YouTube channel, just make a webcam video with your laptop, or record something on your smartphone and upload it.<\/p>\n

If you have an idea for an app, start by learning free classes on CodeAcademy or any of the other free sites out there.<\/p>\n

If you want to start blogging, signup on wordpress.com and share any random thoughts you have on your mind.<\/p>\n

If you have a photography project idea, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just share your idea with others\u00e2\u20ac\u201d start by going out and actually shooting it, and then asking for others\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 opinions later.<\/p>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t share your ideas<\/h2>\n

\"2014-09-20<\/p>\n

I read something that by sharing your ideas, you are less<\/em> likely to take action.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Because if you share a grand idea you have with others, you have psychologically told yourself that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done the idea. And therefore you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re less likely to take action.<\/p>\n

I know a lot of people who have great ideas\u00e2\u20ac\u201d but they never execute.<\/p>\n

My suggestion: take action by executing on your ideas. Be a person of action, not of ideas or thought.<\/p>\n

And also try to go an entire month not sharing any of your ideas with others (not because you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re hoarding your ideas, but in order to focus on action).<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m totally guilty of this too \u00e2\u20ac\u201d I have a lot of grand ideas, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always execute. For a while I told my friends that I wanted to do more YouTube videos. But the more I told my friends that, the less likely I was to make the videos. So one day I just decided to shut my mouth, to sit down and lock myself up in my room, and start recording videos on my webcam.<\/p>\n

I also find the benefit of not<\/em> sharing your ideas is that you feel less guilty for not taking action upon your ideas. I feel for every 100 ideas I have, only 1 of those ideas are good or worthwhile taking action upon. Therefore when I tell a lot of my friends my 99 bad ideas, I feel guilty for not following-through on these bad ideas. And they feel disappointed in me too. So by keeping your bad ideas to yourself, you give yourself the permission to kill your bad ideas to continue to think of good ideas.<\/p>\n

\"2014-10-06<\/p>\n

So friend, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give up on your dreams. Take the first step forward today towards accomplishing your dream. And know, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The journey is the reward.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

My dream was to do photography\/blogging full-time; and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve achieved it. But that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean that I stop, and retire on some beach. Rather, I count my blessings, and spend every minute of my day to think of new ideas, to read, research, meditate, and write and produce.<\/p>\n

The reward for following our dream isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fame, wealth, or money. The reward for following our dream is having the blessing of doing that work.<\/p>\n

So for me, the reward for everything I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done on this blog, YouTube, and social media isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t gaining more followers, earning more money, or influence. The reward is the work in itself\u00e2\u20ac\u201d the chance for me to be creative, to share ideas, and to help educate myself.<\/p>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give up on yourself\u00e2\u20ac\u201d if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe in yourself, who else will believe in you?<\/p>\n

Be unreasonable, and keep following your dreams. I believe in you.<\/p>\n

Be strong,
\nEric<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Life is short and cruel if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t follow your dreams. It is easy to be stuck in the cubicle and work a job you hate for 40 years, to await retirement (that might \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_ek_photo_artist_note":"","_ek_photo_thesis":"","_ek_photo_camera":"","_ek_photo_place":"","_ek_photo_human_moment":"","_ek_photo_sequence":"","_ek_photo_question":"","_ek_photo_canonical_claim":"","_ek_photo_ai_summary":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}