When chasing a dream or a goal, you will experience setbacks and have to adapt to challenges. If you are chasing a dream, the likelihood that everything is going to run smoothly is extremely low. If you go look up the stories of the greatest inventors, actors, musicians, or athletes, you will read story after story of people overcoming adversity and failure. Michael Jordan is notable for being cut from a basketball team. Everyone remembers “The Shot” and they remember six titles, but they seem to gloss over all of the playoff losses to the Celtics and the Pistons. I recently heard a Kevin Hart speech where he said everyone is seeing him hear and experience the word “yes” in terms of his career, but people did not see the first 19 years of “no.” Thomas Edison had 1,000 prototypes (or failures) before he successfully created the lightbulb. All of those people had to adapt to challenges while chasing their dream.

While working on my book, I experienced different challenges to which I had to adapt. One of those challenges was what I discussed in the last blog post and that was feedback. Feedback is a necessary form of a challenge. While you need to seek it, it is still tough to seek out someone to try to shape and refine you in chasing your dreams. It will still make you bristle when you hear that your book thus far is not good enough or your song is leaving something to be desired. For those of us who played sports, you received feedback telling you to be better or to do a task better. Feedback, while necessary, is challenging. When you receive quality feedback, you should take it and adjust accordingly.

I think the most other common challenges you will face are the following: roadblocks, naysayers, and (hopefully short-term) failures. One of the first things that you will likely run into is roadblocks. They will come in many shapes and forms. While writing my book, I hit many roadblocks. A common roadblock in writing is writer’s block. It is when you literally sit down to write and just stare at your computer screen with no clue of what to write or say. Some roadblocks are other life events. You may intend to work on your dream one evening and things will get in the way. Your car battery dies. A necessary task at work requires you to work over. Someone, maybe even you, gets sick and you do not have the energy to work on chasing your dream. Sometimes the roadblock can even be you. You may be too tired or in a bad mood or may want to watch another episode of Stranger Things rather than pursuing your passion or dream. That’s not a shot at all at Stranger Things because that show is absolutely amazing.

You cannot stop roadblocks all together, as things are going to happen, but I wrote about it in one of the last posts, you have to create time for your dream. Do everything you can to set you up for success. If you are working out every morning, set out your clothes the night before. Eliminate your distractions. Do everything in your power to topple a roadblock before it ever gets there. If you are working on your dream, give yourself a little wiggle room to allow for life’s roadblocks because they will happen. If you think you can write a book in six months, you may want to give yourself seven. This let’s you have a little wiggle room for unexpected life events. If you are like me, if you set a really high standard, and you fail to reach it, it’s going to hit you pretty hard. So, undersell your deadlines and then overdeliver on them.

The next biggest challenge you will likely face when pursuing a dream is the challenge of naysayers. You will absolutely have some people who want to nitpick and deflate all of your lofty dreams and goals. Some people hate to see others dreaming and achieving because it makes them feel insecure if they are not doing the same. You will have naysayers. I had people who questioned how I would find the time to write a book. I actually had one person look at me and say, “I really don’t think anyone will read it.” You will have people who try to downplay even some of your biggest accomplishments.

Sometimes you are going to have to just ignore the noise. When you are hearing a lot of negativity, take stock of who is saying those negative things to you. Is this person someone who really cares for you? Is it someone who has your best interests in mind? Is this person always negative? At the end of the day, do you give them permission to make you feel bad about what you are doing? These are all questions you need to ask yourself. If someone who really cares is screaming from the rooftops about something you are doing, it is probably time to listen. However, if the person who always says something negative to you is screaming from the rooftops about something you are doing, it may be time to plug your ears and keep on walking. Do not waste time trying to convince a naysayer why you do what you. Just keep on doing it and eventually they will move on to try to naysay someone else.

Finally, you will also experience failure. Regardless of what dream you are pursuing; you are going to have your “yes” and “no” moments. If you are trying to run your first 5k, some days you are going to feel awful, or you are going to run slower than usual. During my time as a runner, I would hit entire weeks where I would plateau, or even worse, run slower for a bit of time. I had two choices: get frustrated and stop training or push through the plateau. What I often found was one of three things was occurring: I needed a little rest; other things were holding me back; or I needed to push through the wall.

First, you may need a moment to rest or recalibrate. If you have been running a lot of miles, a couple days off may do your legs some good and allow your body to rejuvenate. Successful diets typically allow for a “cheat” meal, which allows your body to readjust. If you are writing a book, give yourself a night off to refresh. There’s a reason God rested after six days, and you’re not God, so give yourself a break now and then. Second, you may notice you are having failures because something else in your life is impacting you. When I ran, sometimes a few bad nights of sleep or poor nutrition would catch up to me and impact my running. Maybe you are hitting some roadblocks in your writing. Think about your sleep. Are you running on fumes? Do you need to catch up on your sleep? Are you so stressed from work that you cannot focus? Look at other areas of your life and assess are other things impacting you negatively. Are there things you need to adjust or change in other parts of your life so you can be your best self when working on your dream?

Third, sometimes you just have to push through the wall. When I ran, there were days where I just had to put my head down and push through. I had to apply the same mantra to writing a book. There were days and weeks when I was not accepting failure as an option. I turned failure into a short-term proposition. I plan to talk about this more in the next post, but when my book was published, some bookstores flat out told me no when I asked if they would carry my book. I had a similar experience during my first book signing, which I will cover more next time. However, when pursuing your dream, you are going to have two options: you can give up or you can try again. That trying again may just need to be in a totally different way. You may need to assess where you are and recalibrate. You may need to rethink that chapter you are writing, refine the introduction to your speech, or make some changes to your workout regimen. Failure does not always have to be fatal, sometimes it can be fertile, building the foundation of your championship, artistic aspirations, or creative success.