More often than not, before we make big decisions, we stop to think about what others may think about us and then base our decisions around this. We end up building fear around what the negative outcomes of our decision MAY end up being and then once again, decide not to do what we originally wanted to do because of some made up theory that we have just conjured up in our head of what might happen.
Yes, it is actually that ridiculous. To think that we stop ourselves from doing things we genuinely want to do in life, simply because of an assumption we create in our head about what the people around us MIGHT think.
Sometimes we let ridiculous reasons like this hold us back from following our passion and reaching our goals. It keeps us where we are. It doesn’t take us where we want to be. I call this: The Backyard Syndrome.
The Backyard Syndrome refers to how we let the people closest to us influence our decisions. Whether it is the conversations we have with them or what they think of us.
To put the analogy to use, imagine you are a pooch and live in a backyard. The backyard represents your world and everything in it. Your backyard is how you see the world, it is your reality. Now, without getting too deep, just hear me out.
The dog next door is living in their own backyard, their own world filled with their opinions and their reality. When the dog next door is speaking to you, they are speaking from their backyard. If you begin to base your decisions on the comments and opinions of the people closest to you, they will keep you in your backyard. They won’t be encouraging you to go out the front gate…. they’ll be telling you “it’s dangerous out there”. But what would they know? They are only talking from the experiences that they’ve had in their backyard.
Tell me, have you ever noticed a dog roaming the suburbs? When he strolls past a backyard, which dog barks? The one in the backyard, or the dog cruising the burbs?
The one in the backyard of course.
The dog cruising the streets just keeps moving on. Living free. When you decide to break free and do what you want to do, people are going to bark at you. They are barking at you because they are stuck in their own rules, their own reality. They are stuck in their backyard.
Don’t get stuck in yours. When you’re rolling down the street which is your life, dogs are going to bark. Don’t stop. Put that tail in the air and keep strolling through you good thing, you.
You see, for me, my goal is to and I know I will, influence thousands if not millions of people positively. I will not be able to do this if I’m worried about what people think. This could stop me from helping people I haven’t even met yet. Why would I ever do that to myself? And more importantly, why would I neglect helping these people I’m yet to meet?
The way I see it is like this: I don’t have the cure for cancer, or heart disease, but what I do have is the ability to help prevent thousands of these cases through mindset and movement. It is my duty to act accordingly.
Don’t get stuck in your own backyard. When someone starts barking, just remember, that it’s usually a reflection of them, not you. Too often we stop ourselves from pursuing our passion based upon the negative responses people may have. This judgement stops us from reaching our fullest potential and living our best lives.
It’s time to take action towards your passion, here’s your first step…
Write down 1 thing you are so deeply passionate about that you have held off until now. No matter how big or small.
Next to that, write down 1 person who can help you, 1 action step to get started and 1 big reason why you totally must do it.
Who are you letting down by not pursuing it?
Func up your life,
DDN
If you liked this, you might also like Dear Yours Truly, another mindset tool I’d love to share with you.
photo credit: marleigh via photopin cc
photo credit: Pollobarba via photopin cc