I am writing this blog to myself. This is an area I am struggling with at the moment. I am spending time seeking wisdom from people I trust, encouragement from those who believe in me, and praying about the huge dreams that I can't possibly imagine doing. Do you have a huge dream in you that has been there forever? Do you have a dream that seems so big and impossible that every time you take steps towards it you talk yourself out of it? Do you have a dream that when you think about it, it is terrifying and exciting all at the same time? Do you have a dream that every time you allow yourself to dream about it, you stifle it by telling yourself you aren't good enough?

One of my favourite quotes is by Australian Landscape Photographer, Ken Duncan - "Face your fears, our fears become our areas of comfort". In terms of dreaming big, comfort is not a good thing (I discuss this more in 'Grab your Confidence'). Comfort is safe, warm and cosy. It is impossible to achieve those big, crazy, out there dreams from the comfort of your armchair. Achieving those dreams means facing your fears. It means jumping into the unknown and leaving the comfort and security behind.

It is really hard to go for your dreams if you talk yourself out of it every single time. If every time you take one step towards that dream, you take two steps back by explaining to yourself why this is a really bad idea, you will never get there. When you think about what you want to achieve and catch yourself saying, 'I can't do that, I am not good enough', or 'I don't have the money' or 'I don't have enough of this or know how to do that', start by changing that thinking. Start by thinking about the positives you do have that will help you get there.

Your dream isn't going to achieve itself. What are the small things you can do to work towards making the dream a reality? When you are busy talking yourself out of your dream, are any of those negative things actually valid? Do you have a weakness in the area of discipline that you need to address? How do you do that? Maybe it starts by picking one thing to be consistent in for a period of time. For me I started with social media posting. I decided to be consistent with daily posting from my Hope Images and Essential Hope accounts on Instagram. Consistent small steps lead to big results. I saw this on an Instagram story this morning (I think it is by Beth Moore) - 'big people embrace small tasks, because small tasks create big people'. You don't get to the top of a mountain by jumping from the bottom to the top. You take a series of small steps and string them together to get there.

If you want to achieve the big things, the insane things, the crazy things - don't surround yourself with people who gave up on their big dreams. Learn from people who are out there doing it. Listen to the voices that empower you to believe in yourself and what God has put in your heart. I am not saying don't listen to people if they say something you don't want to hear, we need those voices in our life as well. We need wisdom when we can't see the forest for the trees. Just make sure you that the people you are listening to are people who support you and believe you can do it too. People who truly support you will say hard things with wisdom but they will also be the people who are your biggest cheer squad.

Don't let fear be the thing that stops you from believing you can achieve your dreams. Don't let your lack of confidence be the thing that stops you from taking the leap into the unknown. Don't let the voice that says 'I can't' and 'I am not' be the ruling voice in your life. Just jump.