Become Your Best – What’s Holding You Back?

Loneliness, depression, and regrets fill many gifted and talented individuals who never reached their full potential. Their dreams and ambitions dwindled until completely dissipated, due to lack of opportunity, finances, no support system, their own attitude, or reasons not mentioned above. Odds are, though, they held themselves back.The interesting thing is, regardless of ages, ethnicities, sex, religion, economic or educational levels, all face these same dream-stoppers. Here are the two biggest dream-stoppers I’ve observed people struggling with:  (1) fear, (2) guilt.

Problems and solutions
1. Fear
Signs of shortness of breath, upset stomach, and quaking appendages, confirm fear’s arrival. Everyone is afraid of something:
*success
*failure
*loss of relationships or material possessions
*change
*new situations
*disapproval of others (rejection)
*making others unhappy
*the threats and consequences of a parent, teacher, or even, a manipulator

Can you identify with one or more of these fears? What do we do about it? So glad you asked. One of my favorite verses is:

Admitting you have a problem is the first step in defeating anything.

– recognize you’re afraid
– pray or quote a verse. Ask for God to give you strength and wisdom
-why are you afraid? Finding the answer is important so it won’t hold you captive. Could be from a past experience you need to put in perspective. Maybe your parents had a bad marriage so you remained single, yet they had a problem you were unaware of that wouldn’t affect your relationships. Might be from a past hurt where you need to forgive in order to move forward, especially when it comes to hurts in the church when younger. Our fears  can even be due to our natural personality. In that case, we must stretch ourselves to get out of our comfort zone.
– replace fear with faith. Place our trust the Heavenly Father.

Build your faith by knowing who you are in Christ and how BIG the God you serve really is. This is done through much prayer and Bible-study.

2. Guilt
Mistakes are the largest source of guilt. We hide our wrong-doings so others won’t know, all the while, they eat at us on the inside. This type of guilt is easily rendered by asking forgiveness. Forgiving yourself is hard, but necessary if you don’t want to be held back.

Sometimes we don’t have to do wrong to feel guilty. Not following what we believe we ought to do creates the same amount of guilt as if we committed a sin. For example, we believe as Christians we should put others first. When we don’t, we feel guilty. A parent might have taught us being at the hospital during any family member’s surgery, or not letting your car run is important. Not sharing the same convictions often spawns a twinge of guilt.

Finding the truth is harder in these circumstances. However, we must recognize our identity in Christ. We can’t live others’ convictions. Our relationship with Him is our own. Compare yourself to Christ and His Word; not your perception, or other’s.

Be aware, fear and guilt can not only hold you back from your dreams and ambitions, but they can lead you right into a trap. . .a trap of vulnerability where manipulators will be happy to take advantage of you. Over and over, I’ve seen Seniors enabling children and grandchildren out of fear or hidden guilt. If left undetected, or unresolved, it’s possible those same children and grandchildren threaten, steal, and severely injure. I can attest to this for we’ve helped many in these circumstances.

Don’t become a victim of a manipulator. Be set free and achieve your goals and dreams today!

QUESTION: What did you find the most helpful today? What other things have held you back you could add? Share with us in the comments below.

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