Buckle up for the roller coaster.

So, you’ve given yourself permission to dream about what this proverbial “dream job” might look like in your life which means you read Part One, and you’ve started imagining what it might feel like to get paid to do something you don’t have to merely tolerate. Something you more than like. A job you could love. Bravo!

But something happened while you were letting yourself dream…

It turned into a freaking nightmare, didn’t it? One minute you’re on the top of a roller coaster, filled with dreamy potential and possibility and excitement and hope about the career you’ve imagined being happy at.

The next minute you’re at the bottom of the roller coaster pummeled with whatever g-force roller coasters are dishing out these days, wondering why you gave yourself permission to even get on the ride in the first place.

Fear got on the ride with you. And now maybe fear came home with you after you got off the ride and has been saying really encouraging things to you like:

• “You’re too old to change to that kind of work.”
• “What were you thinking? You’ll never make enough money doing that anyway.”
• “It’ll be too hard to switch companies, and it’s going to take way too long. They probably don’t even want you.”
• “You don’t even have an updated resume.”
• “You? Going back to school? Right.”
• “What will others think about you when they hear you want to do that?”
• “You just can’t. Don’t bother.”
• “You are being way too indulgent. Don’t forget about all of your responsibilities!”

Most of us give into fear because it’s really seductive. We listen to its voice of ‘reason’ and decide to abandon the very dream we gave ourselves permission to create because it’s so much safer when you’re playing not to lose. But that even sounds lame. Don’t you want to be playing to win?

Changing companies to work for the competitor, or changing your career entirely, or starting your own thing… they all come with risk. We recognize that, and you should too. They all take courage to initiate. They also all guarantee you a way out of the comfort zone that isn’t even all that comfortable anymore.

Don’t confuse the voice of doubt with the voice of reason.

Check out some of the best quotes ever on blasting through fear to pursue your dreams:

“Ask yourselves, ‘How long are we going to work to make our dreams come true?’ I suggest you answer, ‘As long as it takes.’” –Jim Rohn

“The greatest thing is to push on through, and say at the end ‘The dream is true.’” – Edwin Markham

“…Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists… it is real… it is possible… it’s yours.”  – Ayn Rand

“For what it’s worth: it’s never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

“May I have the courage today/ to live a life that I would love,/ to postpone my dream no longer/ But do at last what I came here for/ and waste my heart on fear no more.” – John O’Donohue