your inner hero

If you hang around here long enough, you’ll get to know that I love all kinds of geeky things like comic books and superheroes. One of the things I love about Captain America in the Marvel movies is how, when he really believes in something—even when it seems like he’s defeated—he gets back up. He doesn’t stay down. He has this power of persistence that makes him take every hit and shake it off and stand up again and say “I can do this all day.” I won’t give up.

He’s not only standing up for something he feels morally right, but he’s also trying to follow a dream that will help him in that passion. We can understand that mindset, can’t we? Not that it makes it easy. But we know what it’s like to be passionate about something and to have a dream that connects with that passion. Something we are pursuing with our whole hearts. And yet sometimes we may feel that the punches we keep taking (I’m talking figuratively) might actually knock our dreams out cold someday. Maybe you’re already there. You just took a sucker punch, and you aren’t quite sure you want to get back up. Maybe it’s a rejection or a really critical review or the fact that you worked really hard but didn’t get the award you were up for.

I know these feelings. All of them. I know what it’s like to be knocked down . . . again . . . and while I’m down to consider getting up and walking away from all of it. I have been there SO MANY times.

Allow me to offer you a hand. Because sometimes we need help getting up. And while you’re standing there, wondering whether or not it’s worth it anymore to keep pursuing this dream, I’d like to offer you a perspective.

Think on this question for a moment: is this dream really worth fighting for?

Before you answer . . .

Do you know that song from Eli Young Band called “Even if it Breaks Your Heart”? It’s so good. It speaks to my creative soul. If you haven’t heard it, I highly recommend. Let me share with you some of the lyrics:

Keep on dreamin’ even if it breaks your heart.

Some dreams stay with you forever,
Drag you around but bring you back to where you were.
Some dreams keep on gettin' better,
Gotta keep believin' if you wanna know for sure.

Pretty powerful stuff if you ask me. I feel like it speaks to creatives everywhere. We know how much we have to give, how much it costs, and what kind of toll it takes to make our dreams of making it in this creative field takes. We know that we have to keep believing in our dreams if we’re going to keep fighting for them. But sometimes loses can break our hearts. They can break our belief in our dreams if we’re not careful. If we give them that much power. If we stop rising in the face of our fears and hardships to let them win. Because of this, it’s important to know if this is the dream we should be pursuing.

So let me put it into this perspective for you: all the heartache, all the hardship, all the frustration and hard work and sadness and pain can lead to this feeling of brokenness. This feeling of inadequacy. This feeling of failure. And we can decide, when we end up in the doldrums . . . again . . . to stay there, to get back up and go again, or to leave it all behind for something else.

Staying there, is not a real option, friends. You can’t stay in the pit of despair. You have to get out.  Nothing good will come of wallowing in that pit. I know. I’ve pity parties there myself. So you have to get up. You have to rise up. You have to stand up. But once you’re standing, do you put up your fists like Captain America and say, “I can do this all day”? Or do you throw in the towel and do something else.

I think you already know the answer in your heart. Because your heart is the part of you really taking that beating (um no pun intended). Your heart is the part of you that breaks. But let me ask you this one question: would it break your heart more to give it up?

If the answer was yes, then keep on keeping on. Get your bearings. Stand back up. And fight for what you love. You can do this!

All day.

It can be a hard choice to keep making sometimes. Believe me, I know this intimately. That’s why getting to know some ways to make those coming hits and heartbreaks not hurt quite as hard can be a helpful tool. So let’s talk more about those next week. In the meantime, keep on dreaming.