The Seemingly Endless Juggling Act of Chasing a Dream

Trying to chase a dream is hard, but it’s worth it.

There’s a certain balancing act that needs to be performed when you begin chasing a dream; You’ve got to spend your time spinning plates, or juggling your responsibilities while trying to find time to work on your passion project. Whether you want your passion to turn into a career or you just want to do it for fun, you’re going to have moments when you feel as though you’re splitting yourself in too many directions, when the responsibilities of life threaten to overwhelm you as you try to follow your dream. 

Here’s a few things I’ve learned over the last few months, while chasing my own dream of writing.

Don’t lose yourself to your dream

It’s incredibly easy to give your all to something that you love, but you can’t do this while forgetting to look after yourself. The temptation to stay up late in order to work on your project while knowing that you have to be up in the morning for work or to look after your kids is all too real, but doing that is the quickest route to burn out. 

You have to set yourself hours in which you work on your project and outside of those hours, focus on yourself, make sure to look after your own health, both mental and physical. Don’t coop yourself up in a room and force yourself to work while exhausted and cranky - this doesn’t produce the results that you’re aiming for. Working while exhausted only means you’re going to end up disappointed with what you produce, which will turn into a vicious cycle. 

Self-care is important; if you need to take a break, that’s absolutely okay. Step away from the computer, the camera or the art supplies. No one is going to judge you for taking a day to yourself in order to recharge and reset. Get out into nature, leave your passion project behind and stop thinking about it for a few hours - you’ll be amazed at what kind of inspiration can come to you when you’re not focused on it. 

During the last few months, I’ve made sure to take time for myself in the evenings, after my daughter is in bed, to look after myself and my mental health. It would be easy for me to get bogged down in my writing. I’m liable to obsess over details and spend hours trying to come up with ideas for articles, but I’ve learned that this is a terrible way of thinking up content. The inspiration for this article came somewhere between making my daughter a cheese bagel and hanging out my laundry.

Take inspiration from others

Whether you take it from social media, the people you meet in the street or from a movie you’ve watched - inspiration is all around us. 

While it’s easy to feel downtrodden by the success of others and to compare your own level of success to theirs, this is entirely the wrong mindset to have. Encouraging and supporting other people who are chasing their dreams is vital to bolstering your own confidence in your project. Rather than judging yourself based on the success of others, take inspiration from their journey and try to find out what worked for them. While not everything works for everyone, it’s possible to find guidance in the success of others. 

Social media, specifically Threads right now, is an abundant source of support and encouragement from people of all backgrounds. There are communities of creators forming which offer endless positivity to people chasing their dreams. Every day, I am floored by the support I receive and by my growth on the platform. Discussing your work with other people and seeing them enjoying what you do is incredibly rewarding and increases the satisfaction you feel when putting out new content. 

Don’t neglect your relationships

Your family and friends will be your biggest supporters and loudest cheerleaders, but only if you let them. Include them in your process, take inspiration from them and let them be the first to see whatever it is you produce. Don’t forget that their support and assistance is what allows you the opportunity to chase the dream that you have. Your husband or wife is likely the person encouraging you to continue chasing it. If you have children, don’t let your passion project be the cause of you missing their big moments. Those big moments can be a source of inspiration, a reminder to keep pushing forwards and a break from the endless path that you feel you might be on. 

While I spend a couple of hours a day responding on social media, writing or volunteering my time for a video game company to run their social media, I always make sure to nurture the relationships with my husband and my daughter. It would be easy for me to plug my daughter into her tablet and ignore her all day in order to write or stare at my phone, but I know that this would not be beneficial to her and would rather spend time nurturing our bond and helping her to grow. We swim each week, play every day and cook together. She’s learning to read and it’s one of my favourite things to do. She is my inspiration to keep going, to try and be a positive and strong role model for her. 

My husband, despite being 3000 miles away most of the time, is my biggest supporter and reads everything I write first. I joke that he is proofreading for me, but I wouldn’t put anything out there without having him read it first because above anyone else, I respect his opinion of my writing. He is endlessly supportive and encouraging, even in those moments when my dream feels impossible to reach. At the same time, he has his own dreams that sometimes require my encouragement and I will never neglect to provide him with my support. My dream is not more important than his, it doesn’t take precedence over his and we work together to keep each other’s spirits up. 

Don’t give up

Of course, while chasing any dream there are moments that may make you want to give up. Maybe something you produced didn’t get the reaction you expected or someone disagreed and made sure you’ve heard their argument. Maybe you’ve not had inspiration for a week and feel like you’ll never have inspiration again. These are the moments when quitting feels like a very real possibility - you shouldn’t. 

Giving up is the only guaranteed way to prevent yourself from reaching your full potential. As George Eliot once said, “it’s never too late to be what you might have been.” If you’re uninspired, step away and take a break. If you get no reaction (or a bad reaction) to something, be proud of yourself for putting it out into the cosmos at all. Not everyone will like everything that you do, you cannot please everyone, but you are trying and that is an incredible feat. Take pride in your bravery for chasing your dream. Try to remember why you started in the first place and where you want to end up.

Even when you don’t believe in yourself, believe in those who believe in you. Yes, that’s based on a Gurren Lagann quote and no, I don’t take any shame in it.