Self-doubt will kill dreams faster than it takes you to try them out.

I like to think of dreams like little seeds that are waiting to grow into a reality. And self-doubt is the equivalent of weed killer. You can't grow tall sky grazing sunflowers if you spray them with poison instead of water.

Believe you me, I have done this one too many times. Not so many big things but little things, silly things I wanted and kept myself from going for.

It seems that the one thing that can hold us back from having everything we want is ourselves.

Which is pretty wild because isn't that the one person we should be lifting up? When the rest of the world is telling us no, we should be telling ourselves yes, try again, and keep going.

You don't find love sitting in your house alone. You don't get the promotion by hiding out in the cubicle. You could daydream it all away and wonder what it's like or you could go for it.

Why hold yourself back? I think I hold myself back for three obvious reasons.

The first being what happens if I put it all out there and get rejected? To not be good enough or enough at all for my dreams, well that would certainly hurt. Rejection would mean I failed, and then everyone would see me fail, the fear of failure is the second reason.

Failure in front of everyone then leads to embarrassment, looking like an unsuccessful fool in front of not only the people I like but especially in front of the people who want to see me fail.

While I know these are silly reasons they have crippled me enough in the past for me to pass on opportunities life has offered up to me.

Now, not every opportunity I've turned down was due to fear some I have chosen to say no to but there have been times I counted myself out before I tried.

To counteract those thoughts I have three reasons why you should count yourself in.

The first being that you may be just what is needed, you could be everything that someone is looking for. And if you don't count yourself as enough how can someone else. You ARE enough. And if you get rejected take that and fuel the fire to keep pushing forward to a better opportunity because it is THEIR LOSS.

The second is that failure builds character. If you haven't failed once then you haven't taken a risk. Whether it be a job, an outfit, a relationship, or whatever. If you didn't get out of the box you're not living your full potential. So go ahead try and fail because then you can learn and grow.

And finally, in regards to being embarrassed, it's only embarrassing if you can't let it go. If you can't laugh it off, if you can't shake it then it's embarrassing. Who cares what others think? Who cares if the haters see you fail or fall on your face? If you were succeeding they'd still speak ill about you. Do not do things to please other people because we are not here to be people pleasers. Love the ones who love you because when you fail they will have your back.

On a final note I'd like to quote one of mine and any Hilary Duff fan's favorite movie, A Cinderella Story:

"Never let the fear of striking out, keep you from playing the game."