Written by: Elisa Balabram

Have you ever felt frustrated by the number of years that have passed without you creating or pursuing your real dreams? Your dreams of someday launching a business, becoming an artist, promoting your music, writing and publishing a book, investing in your talents and gifts, and anything else you know you’ve always wanted to pursue? If yes, have you taken the time to go deeper within to uncover and discover why you haven’t pursued it?

We all have excuses, and it’s so simple to come up with a few: I’m too busy, I’m a procrastinator, I’m lazy, I don’t have time, it’s an expensive project, I’m always exhausted, I don’t have all the skills, I need to figure things out first, I have a lot going on already, and the list goes on.

Then, years have passed, and nothing changed. Are any of those excuses holding you back? If you choose to look closer, you will realize that it’s not likely, and that what’s behind the excuses could be the reason you haven’t committed yet.

It might be that you have some sort of trauma, fear or a deep seeded belief system that have been engrained from childhood and that have been growing since. Could they also be considered excuses? Perhaps you could use them as so. But they are real reasons and once you are aware of them, they become less daunting and you will be able to change with more ease. Before moving forward, you will need a deep willingness to go within and face the truth.

Once you commit to facing the truth, these are some of the steps you could take:

  • Meditate and connect with your Higher Self;
  • Ask that the truth be revealed to you;
  • Write down all that comes up during meditation, even when it sounds absurd;
  • Review it to make sure it makes sense to you;
  • With this acquired knowledge, take a look at all the excuses and start making new choices daily;
  • Create affirmations that will help you change the belief.

Here is an example: Let’s say that you’ve always used procrastination as an excuse not to pursue your dreams. Then, when you meditate you realize that it’s not the procrastination that stops you. In reality you are afraid of the exposure you will get. As you investigate, you remember that growing up, every time you expressed your creativity, you were somehow shamed, so you stopped expressing yourself. Now that you faced the truth, you can develop an affirmation to shift that belief that expressing yourself may cause embarrassment and shame. New affirmation: It is safe to express myself creatively. Or: when I express my creativity, my talents are recognized and appreciated.

To encourage you to take those steps and face the truth, take an inventory and search within for the times when you have shifted certain belief systems, and you created new results immediately. The knowing that you’ve done it before will encourage you to do it again. My recommendation is that you focus on one shift first, and then move on to others, so that you show your commitment and you are able to fully release it.