Why So Many People Never Chase Their Dreams - And How You Can Be Different!

agent (58)in #life • 8 years ago

We all have dreams. Growing up, you slowly form an idea of how you want to shape your life.
But we get told from various sources that it’s so unlikely for our dream to become true.

So once we get to the point of actually deciding what to do with our lives, most of us don’t chase after their dreams - even though they knew they could.
Because we automatically think that our dreams would be too hard to chase or too unlikely to happen.

And there is actually a psychologic reason why most of us don’t chase their dreams.

The biggest reason is FEAR.

We are afraid to be judged when pursuing our dreams, to FAIL, and most of all our fear of uncertainty.

We question ourselves, and wonder about 100's of possible “what-if”-scennarios.
What will the others think? What if I invest and lose the money? What if I move to pursue my dream, but don’t get the job? What if I lose?

All these question are just creations of our minds, stuck in our heads, and they hold us back from chasing our dreams.

This psychological Phenomenon is called the AMBIGUITY EFFECT.

Now let me explain what the "Ambiguity Effect" means:

When a human is given an option A (very likely, safe) and option B (unlikely, risky), almost everyone would choose option A.

We almost always choose the option that's likely going to happen, and where we know what's going to come. And we rarely ever go with the option which has an outcome that is still unknown to us.

Let's look at this in an example:

Option A: You get offered $20,000

Option B: You will shake 10 different hands with closed eyes. If you can guess which hands were mine, you get $ 1 Million.

What would you personally do - get $20,000 safely or risk getting either a much larger amount of money, or nothing?

It's a human instinct for us to choose option A, because we are absolutely certain of what's going to happen. with Option B on the other hand it's unknown for us what's going to happen, and this uncertainty creates fear within us.

We are living in a civilization where we don't have to take risks anymore - as opposed to animals, who have to take risks sometimes to survives. So our brains have gotten used to taking the safe options.

So if you really want to start chasing your dreams, you have to stop automatically choosing the safer option!

You need to learn to start choosing the riskier option B, even if you are going to fail, even if you risk losing something.
You have to do it, maybe fail, learn from it, and try again!

Thanks for reading, share to inspire others!

- @agent

#writing #philosophy #psychology #freedom

8 years ago in #life by agent (58)

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sirwinchester (75) 8 years ago

very informative post about an important topic - far too many people are living their life scared, always doing the same, and not taking risks and chasing after their dreams!
Thanks for sharing your inspiration ;)