PURSUE YOUR DREAM: DON’T BE STOPPED BY MEN’S NEGATIVE COMMENTS

Are you moved by your dream or men's comment about you pursuing your dream? The outcomes of your life are based on the very choices you make. This will never go away. It stays with us all till we take our last breath. What we do in life is purely determined by the decisions we make daily. The directions of our dreams, purposes, goal and objectives are all rooted in the choices we make. Whether we listen to the negative comments of men to limit our dreams or depend on the leading of God to see our dream come through my making the right choices regardless of what other people may say or do.

When you believe in your dream; it does not really matter what men will say or do, you develop a lion attitude to pursue that very dream until you win or lose. What you believe, you are able to die for it. If you let the statements of me to determine the level at which you pursue your dream; sorry, I am afraid for you; you are not going anywhere.

Interestingly, many of us Christians have allowed other people's attitude to hinder, prevent, stop, limit us from achieving our dream and rob us from God's best for us, simply because of fear of men. Some of us have become spiritual slaves to men, who themselves are doing everything possible to achieve their dreams or vision for their family and children.

Sometimes, we fear what might be said about us when make a productive moves in pursuing our dreams. So because of that, we remain and watch our dream fade before our very nose. God did not create and foolish or useless individuals but he created and commanded us to go and multiple and replenish; And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein. (Genesis 9:7)

Also in Genesis 1: 28, we read that, God gave man a purpose or dream in order to live by. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

You see here, God did not make man to have dominion over a follow ma's vision or dream. He did not tell man to limits, hinder, prevent or speak against a fellow man's dreams. Many have gotten it wrong by fearing what men will say about them doing that business, selling the products or going to that college, meeting or conference and they give up on that dream before actually experiencing the favour of God.

Many of us have potentials embedded on the side of us; but because some of us have feared men and their negative comments, we shut our doors to great opportunities and regret later when we discover that, life is about living our individual dreams, we will pray with pain for another chance to be given to us.

In the pursuit of your dreams in life, people will either be in co-operation with you or your dream causing commotion in their life; the most important thing is that, your dream is causing movement. Anytime there is a great wave, things go along with the wind or fall apart.

Whatever dream you have embedded within you, until you become obsessed with it; taking positive action to chisel it out like a volcano; waiting to erupt with it lava, spreading abroad to inspire your generations, stronger than the tsunami or the typhoon haiyan; NOBODY will take notice of it potent. Ignite the power of your (dream) creative mind: let people say whatever they wish to say; just make sure that, you are rooted in the word of GOD, which is our basic manual for living our dreams. One thing that has shaped my winning attitude is the negative comments made by 'so- called loved one. This has taught me to know that, in life, once you discover your dream and want to pursue it, many challenges and ill-wishers arises to limits you.

It is very important to know that, opposition to your dream will not only come from the people you don't know but the very one you know and have shared your dream with, are the one that will pose as hindrances. People will always say what they feel base on their emotions but you do not have to be limited by it.

Never allow discouraging words from men to stop you from becoming yourself to glory of God. More often, people give up on their dreams because of what a man says to them. We sometimes get worry about other people's opinion about us and we thinks they are right and we are wrong. Men will make you feel bad pursuing your dreams or makes you think that you are too much for yourself.

I have personally observed that, sometimes when we allow men's negative comments made about us regarding the pursuit of our dreams control our mind; it damages our passion, underestimate what we are capable of and what prevents us from achieving our goals in life. From my book 'IGNITING THE POWER OF YOUR CREATIVE MIND' I referred these individuals as DREAM-KILLERS.

Their intentions are to steal, kill, and destroy your passion so that you do not pursue if to the fullest. It is very important that, you remain focus on your dream and renew your mind of the negative comments posed to undermine your desire to see that dream come to pass.

You are the only transport available to transport your dream to the world.

Until you make the move to pursue your God-given dreams to the world, you will not see your wealth and value in this world. Discovering of yourself and the values of your abilities (potentials) makes you more determine to live for your dream regardless of men's negative comments about you.

Discovering of one-self is actually uncovering, finding your real nature personality. It can also be termed as 'the act or process of achieving self-knowledge' (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

The power behind knowing ourselves motivates us to appreciate and understand ourselves better which enables us to make choices and decision regard the direction of our lives. It is also the process of being aware of your personal strength, weaknesses which you adapt and overcome at any given time and situation. This however gives you the full image of yourself that you cannot be like any other person.

Self-discovery enables you to understand the way you actually feel and behave as you behave. In fact it's also gives you the platform, opportunity and set you free into the unknown world to change and create your future.

IF YOU DON'T MAKE A MOVE WITH YOUR DREAM; YOUR DREAM WILL BE REMOVED BY THESE DREAM-KILLERS.

Knowing yourself and pursuing your dreams (business, education, marriage, etc) opens your eyes to see that you are unique and not like everybody else in the world. Great achievers in the world today did not just get where they are now by listening to men's negative comments but rose above it and pursued their dream like no man's business and achieved the success they dreamt off.

Make that move now- and kiss men's negative comment goodbye

Let me assure you that, you might not be the next Einstein, Lisa Ocker, Ben Franklin, George Eastman, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Thomas Alva Edison Conrad Hilton Sr; Jeff Bezos and Steve Case. Just to mention some few names. But one thing I am very sure of is that, when dedicate yourself to your dreams with inspiration and passion, making a move and not giving up on yourself, you will attain success to in your own fields.

King David defeated his discouragement by identifying them. David demonstrated openness and honesty in placing his concerns before the lord. We need to bring our discouragements to the open so that we are able to seek the face of the lord in confronting and or dealing with them just as done by King David.

Identify the people around you who may have the desire for discouraging you, avoid them as much as possible and focus on the word of the Lord and His promises for you. The account of Jarius daughter and Jesus' assurance to his father is evidence of the necessity to avoid or ignore elements of discouragers around us.

Biblical characters that were never stopped by men's negative comments to pursued their dream

1) Elijah was discouraged because of exhaustion. After a great spiritual victory, when he called down fire from heaven and destroyed all the prophets of Baal, one little woman scared him to death because she threatened to kill him. And he was ready to give up. I have had enough, Lord, he said. Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors (1 Kings 19:4). I find that I am often discouraged after spiritual victories. How about you? Do you often find yourself discouraged just when God has done something wonderful in your life? It's not unusual.

2) Hannah was discouraged because the deepest desire of her heart had not been given to her. And it was a good and worthy desire—to have a baby that she could give back to the Lord. Downhearted and discouraged, in bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord for a baby (1 Samuel 1). Some of you are discouraged because of unfulfilled desires. Maybe it's the desire to be married, but the right person hasn't come along. Maybe, like Hannah, it's the desire to have a baby, but your womb has been closed so far. Maybe it's your dreams of serving God in some special way, but the door hasn't opened yet. It can be discouraging. So, we can certainly see that discouragement is nothing new; it's been around since the beginning of time.

3) Naomi was discouraged because of financial difficulties and terrible loss. Her husband and two sons had both died, and she was left penniless and homeless. Don't call me Naomi, she told her friends. Call me Mara (meaning bitter), because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. Ruth 1:20-21). It's easy enough to understand her discouragement. Financial difficulties cause a great deal of discouragement for many of us.

4) Mary and Martha were discouraged because they lost someone they loved, and they had really expected Jesus to save him. After all, Jesus had been healing all kinds of other people; surely He would come and save his beloved friend, Lazarus, they reasoned. And when he didn't, they were very discouraged; Jesus had disappointed them. Lord, Martha said to Jesus, if you had been here, my brother would not have died (John 11:21). Have you ever set an agenda out for the Lord, expecting him to work on your timetable, and then been disappointed when he didn't come through? That can be discouraging.

5) Peter was discouraged because of his own failure. After he denied the Lord three times, Peter went out and wept bitterly, we are told. I imagined he felt that he had blown it for good, and he must have been terribly discouraged with himself. How could he deny the Lord, the One he promised never to deny? When I look at myself and see how inadequate I am, how often I fail, how I go back and do the same things over and over that I know I shouldn't do, I get very discouraged. In fact, that discourages me probably more than anything else, how about you?

6) Even Jesus fought discouragement when his friends failed him; when he was misunderstood; when he tried to help and his help was refused. That really hurts, when you have totally good motives, and yet people don't approve or understand or support you. In fact, they may reject you, as they did Jesus. Well, it is encouraging to see that even these great people of God went through times of discouragement.

OTHER PEOPLE WHO NEVER GAVE UP ON THEIR DREAM BECAUSE OF MEN'S NEGATIVE COMMENTS

1) George Washington, the 1st President of USA, had problem with reading and writing but never allow his limitation to take hold of his destiny.

2) Steven Spielberg, movie maker also struggled with math, dropped out of high school.

3) Tom Cruise (actor) childhood was extremely lonely. It was said that he was dyslexic and lots of kids made fun of him but he was determined not to allow his disability to stop him from using his talent and gifts. He rather used those experiences to create his desire future by learning to accept ridicules.

4) Reyn Geyer the inventor of Nerf balls & Twister also was dyslexic but he was very determined to overcome his disability. He ignited the power of his creative mind to discover his talents, develop products to help others who struggled through school as he did.

5) Michael Faraday became one of the greatest in his days even though the resources he had at that time were limited as a Blacksmith. However he did rose above his limitation and became the world's greatest recoveries in the area of science and humanity.

6) Henry Ward Beecher's childhood days were very bad. Sometimes due to his lack of effective communication in the area of writing and spelling, he was regarded as foolish and stupidity. Through his self-discovery he also saw above the limitation that were placed on him (foolish and stupidity) and became a prominent Congregationalist, social reformer, abolitionist and a great speaker.

What have you been called? What is the dream that you have embedded within you that you have shared with men and they said negative things about? Do you have a passion to achieve something great in life? Then make that move NOW. It does not matter what they call you as long as you will discover yourself in God's word (MANUAL FOR LIVING) designed for your making and your accomplishment in life you will be above those limitation.

It does not matter to all these people listed in this article what they have been labelled with, regardless of their individual shortfalls, bad academic records bounced back and rose above all limits by pursuing their individual dream in life. Some became powerful scientist, lawyers, doctors, politicians etc. This is your season and your turn to pursue your dreams and not allowing men's negative comments to limits you your destiny.

Nobody is bigger than the giver of dreams and so your dream is very powerful to be limited by men. Those who have shallow attitude to success will want to pull you down or sabotage your hard works but remember that, anytime you make a positive move to achieve your dream, like Jesus Christ, He encounter three major attacks on his way to achieve his purpose here on earth. (KING HAROD. SATAN AND JUDAS.) This tells you that you will also face major attack on your way to achieve your purpose for your life.

Although, the bible made it clear that, three Wiseman came to pay respect to HIM; it did not stop the enemies from attacking him. You are not exceptional.

Your dream will have to go through diverse refining moment but guess what; you are coming out on top more refined and valued.

Remain focus in the midst of all the trials; you will overcome because your master Jesus went through to show you how to do it.

Please; Nobody will live your life for you as you don't live anybody life for them.

Do your things, humble yourself and appreciate the people God brings your way.

If individuals are not ready and prepared to feed you and provide for you; then they have no right to limit your desire to be all that you are created for in this life.

The people you do not value in your life will eventually leave your life. Open and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit to know the right people designed for your destiny.

The questions I want to ask you today are these.......

1: How determined are you to see your dream come true.

2: Are you living in fear because of what other may say or do to you?

3: How humble and honest are you in your leadership and with the people around you?

4: Are you living your dreams or shying away from it?

5: Are you thinking of giving up on others because you never seems to agree on a single term?

6: Are you seeking your own agenda and ignoring the minority of people working with and for you?

7: Is your life being driven by your negative hurt or past?

8: Are you limiting yourself to only what you can achieve in life or inspiring others to inspire their own world?

9: How much have you achieved in life by loving people?

10: Is your life being hunted by what you could have done and haven't done to motivate your world?

11: How committed and dedicated are you to invest into others and to see a great SMILE on the faces?

12: Are you bold enough to stand against self-timidity, self-inflicted slavery and ignorance?

You have only one life, so make the most of it. Live to inspire your world before you expire. Guidelines, principles, rules and regulations are given to all men; but visions and dreams are given to an individual (person) you. If you follow your dreams effectively, it will become guidelines, principles, rules and regulations in life of others.

No limitation is above God and you not fail, limited and stopped by negative comments only if you focus on your dream with a passion. Begin to work, watch, wait, commit, organise, mobilizes your dream and your world will celebrate you STEP AND KEEP UP: YOU ARE DESTINED FOR GREATNESS.

PURSUE YOUR DREAM: DON'T BE STOPPED BY
MEN'S NEGATIVE COMMENTS

Article by
Ferdinard Senyo Lawson:
Beffta Award Winner: best author 2013