Slaying Your Dragons

As I write this exciting yet challenging article, I am in the process of slaying one of my dragons. I am fascinated with dragons as metaphors, why I wrote the book Slaying Your Dragons, Living Life you Always Wanted. The mythical dragons are from what fairytales and legends are made. We see them in a litany of books, films and impartations of wild imaginations from every corner of the globe. Usually these named magical beasts inflict much incomprehensible damage (on a civilization or people) before and/or if they are slain by the hero or protagonist in our story of choice.

Of course, I am not referring to Puff the Magic Dragon, Pete’s Dragon or How to Train your Dragon; about the sweet wholesome or nice dragons portrayed in small children’s stories. We tend to love those charismatic and very charming dragons. My focal point is those nasty, mean and highly destructive creatures found in movies such as “Reign of Fire” or “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”, a Lord of the Ring prequel. See these fire-breathing dragons established their dominance by setting everything and everyone they could ablaze. Horrifying at minimum to say the least. The heart of their malevolence results in that four-letter word we tough guys or gals deny affect us or control us in any shape, manner, or form, i.e., what we do or say or not.

We all have them, yes … those dragons somewhere in the inner depths of our souls, minds and very existence, that thing that prevents us from achieving our goals and believing in ourselves. One dragon that takes down a many of us is that fiery dragon we simply call “fear”. In my article intro, to what fear I refer? The fear of not writing a good, no, excellent article to my readers. A fear of failing them on some level where the article’s value is at question. As my deadline to submit inched closer, I overcame my dragon as I greatly desired to keep my word. Although the sister-dragon of procrastination shackled me for some measure of time.

Let’s define the dragon of fear. Fear – to be afraid. To expect or worry about something bad or unpleasant.

These definitions hit us two-fold; in the past and the future avoiding the present reality altogether. After something goes wrong, we reflect on the failure or the lack of achieving our objective which somehow manifest itself into a fear and avoiding yet another opportunity to achieve our goals. In other words, because we fall, we avoid the pain of getting back up and possibly falling again.

So, we use the past as a barometer of the future, albeit creating a negative vision of our future. “If you believe you can’t then you are correct.” In the end, we stay in a safe place where we are not moving or advancing toward our utopian vision of what our life could be. If we only would try again, but fear or that mean nasty dragon inside of us won’t allow us to experience that pain of failure. We short-circuit our future. Therefore, the past is ill-represented and the future we so desperately want is washed away in the sea of lost dreams and lost hope.

As I presented my own fear to you the readers, I was in real-time fighting this psychological and emotionally draining creature attempting to rob me of my future accomplishment of finishing this chapter or more accurately – my goal of helping others overcome their dream-killing dragons.

You see, dragons by definition are inherently designed to stop you or severally delay your goals, your life purpose and your ability to pay it forward. So, this tale about dragons is in so many ways is a story about realizing your goals in life and achieving the achievable or the perceived impossible in the mind (never-going-to-happen) for many people. As I have presented in many of my presentations and workshops over the years millions and billions of people across the globe have missed opportunities or intentionally avoided achieving their dreams or fulfilling their life’s work.

Many skipped right passed the spirit of accomplishment because they feared that they were not talented enough, not smart enough, or not worthy enough for a cacophony of reasons. Another way of looking at this is sometimes, more so than not, we do not accept ourselves and our true value in the marketplace, at school or in relationships. Our poor self-perception dictates that we diminish ourselves long before anyone else defines who we are and what we are or not able to accomplish in whatever the setting or station in life now. Yes, undoubtedly, there are external forces that may get in your pathway of success that you cannot control. However, the internal mechanisms within you dictate becoming a master of your own destiny.

What do we do to accomplish our goals and realize our dreams?

To realize your goals, you must defeat the negative chatter in your mind that loudly proclaims you cannot do something. The primary objective is to take your power back. The key to your successful future rightfully belongs in your hands. You are saying sure so simple, easier said than done, yeah right etc. I get it. Defeating a psychological fire breathing dragon aimed to destroy your dreams may not happen overnight or even next week as steps in positive directions do take time. Let me give a simple example of achieving a dream that was not overnight.

Remember when you were a child learning to ride that bicycle you were given for your birthday or Christmas? You wanted to ride your bicycle, didn’t you? Sure, you did. But you couldn’t because every time you attempted to ride it you initially fell down, right? What did you do next? You got up and picked your bicycle off the ground and tried again. Same results occurred, and you repeated the cycle of failure. That is, until that magical attempt proved successful. You did not give up. Why? Only you know that answer, but I have a few guesses. You wanted to join your friends as they rode to the kingdom of fun leaving you behind.

Or, you were also embarrassed that you were left behind walking or running aside those who achieved their self-serving greatness in riding their bicycles. No matter the reason, you get the point. You did not give up. Those so-called repeated failures were actually giving you the experience on what not do as well what to do in order to ride your bicycle. You learned resiliency and the power of the positive mind reinforced through a never say die attitude of faith and belief in yourself. You may say I still can’t ride a bicycle. Well, replace the bicycle example with another achievement where you did not give up and you ultimately achieved your goal or dream.

Slaying your dragons is much more than lessons on just conquering your fears as it is a battle plan on the war against a self-defeating spirit and mindset or fighting for the life you always wanted. Look back on all your achievements to date from kindergarten to adulthood. Most likely in conquering your dragon of choice, whether it be fear, procrastination, or doubt, you pushed forward and did the thing you feared as in the bicycle example.

To delve deeper in the recesses of your mind, ask yourself “how did I overcome and move forward?” Use those answers to help you with your present bucket list or New Year’s resolutions you make to yourself every year that go unfilled. Regardless, of your goals whether it is to lose weight, make more money, unclutter your home or write a song, fight the dragon of fear of failure or procrastination.

My guess is you used principles you learned, mentioned from the bicycle example above or other achieved goals, to accomplish previous bucket list items or wish-lists. I am a firm believer in affirmations and positive quotes. Tell yourself, “Yes I can do this”. “Yes, I will fall as I ride the bicycle of life, but I will get back up.” Each so-called failure is another opportunity to get closer to achieving the achievable. Optimism is your friend, so embrace looking at situations in a positive light.

What you focus on is what you will attract and bring forth. It starts with your mind – the power of positive energy. Treat focus as a powerful force to be reckoned with. In the hands of a positive mind, it can lead to positive outcomes like realizing your dreams. But in the negative mind that focus can lead to despair, wasting time and bring forth that four-letter word we’ve been talking about, i.e., “fear”. Or more aptly called those dragons of defeat.

So, I encourage you to take decisive action immediately by initiating your campaign of achieving your goals by slaying your dragons.