Don’t Let No Stop You

Sometimes in the world and the universe it feels as if everyone is against us.  More times than not it feels that you are always hearing “no, you can’t do that.”  I think this can be more because the word no, holds so much more weight in our minds than the word yes.  Yes validates what we are thinking and feeling and helps us to realize we should continue on our path.  But the word no, that word stops us dead in our tracks.  Sometimes makes us even retreat on our path because we feel that we must no longer know what we are doing based on the opinion of one person.

No work that is worth doing, or worth of any importance was told yes by every person that came on their path.  There were inevitably no’s.  Maybe the no came from someone who didn’t have the capacity to believe in your idea.  Maybe the no came from someone who was jealous that you are working towards something of importance and they don’t have the guts to do it themselves.  Maybe the no came from someone who was in a bad mood that day.  Maybe the no came from someone who always pessimistic.

For every no you will receive, there will always be yes’s.  People that are supporting you and cheering you on.  People in the world you don’t even know who are supporting you that are supporting you.  The people in the universe that want to drive beautiful projects that mean something are always looking to support those who have the ideas to create them.  

I sat at a college this morning in a cubicle in the library.  Having not set foot on a college campus in a few years, it is a funny feeling to be at one.  But what I noticed at this cubicle, there were a bunch of immature messages, totally portraying the minds of typical college students.  But what I found that was more important were the amount of positive messages.  Trying to tell their fellow students to be better and to believe in themselves.

These messages made me smile as I sat down.  The students that wrote these messages, these are the people in the world that are worth connecting with.  Every person was placed on this earth to help make a difference.  That difference does not always need to be something grand like finding the cure for cancer, or solving world hunger. The importance of living, is finding your niche, the place that you want to make a difference and finding the people to connect with that believe in making that difference as well.  Don’t ever let the people that give you a million reasons why your project won’t work hold you from traveling on your path.  There are so many beautiful things that are created today that would have not come to fruition if they listened to all the no’s.  Find the people who believe in you, think you are worth it, and want to change the world too.

Once upon a time, when I graduated from high school, I took a quote from one of my favorite Dave Matthews Band songs “You Might Die Trying” and I put it as my Senior Yearbook quote:

To change the world, start with one step. However small, the first step is hardest of all.

I have taken that first step and it was hard.  I won’t lie, the steps after feel hard too.  But they aren’t as hard as the first one.  Always take that first step, the world will be a better place when you do.