What would stop you on your path to achieve your goals and dreams?

Ok, you did it. You set that financial intended outcome. You are buying your home by the end of the year. So you close your eyes and you see yourself at the closing with lawyers, bankers and sellers on a beautiful day October 20th, 2008!

You determine your actions and what needs to happen between now and then to have that happen. You look at your financial records, you see how much you can put as a down payment, how much you can pay as a monthly mortgage and therefore define the range of homes you can purchase. You define a plan of action and you get started.

As soon as you take action, things don't go exactly like you expected. The mortgage rules have changed, the places you see don't seem to fit that mental picture you have and you may need to save some more money to be able to afford or renovate one of those places to get the kind of home you envision. The other thing that happens is that you call people and they don't return phone calls. You start to get upset.

But you keep going. You go and see more places, you talk to a bunch of bankers and mortgage brokers and at that point things really look hopeless. You need your finances in a lot better shape as with the mortgage crisis, rules became more and more stricter.

And now, you are really frustrated. You are upset at everyone and nobody seems to understand you. Well, this is exactly what happens when you start to pursue a big dream. We all like to think that everything will go smooth and things will get done according to plan. Most times, that is not the case. The way it looks like is "nothing is working", "it is not fair", "this does not make any sense"... and you can go on and on about the thoughts that come to our mind.

What do you do then? Do you get going and take the actions you see you can take? Or do you get stopped?

If you stop, what you want to start seeing is, what is stopping you. Go over that situation on your mind, see what you are thinking as you think about the conversation you had and the feelings you had about what is happening. What we don't realize most of the times is that what is really stopping us is what we think about a situation or how we feel about that situation.

If we feel that doing something is frustrating or hopeless, the likelihood that we will continue doing it is minimal. That is exactly what stops 99% of the people when they start to go after a big dream.

So nothing would phisically stop you from achieving anything. We stop ourselves! You stop YOU! So it is very important to be in touch with you thinking and your emotions as you are trying to buy that house, save for retirement or whatever goal you have. We are the ones who have the power to decide, should I stop or should I move ahead? I know it does not look like the way I wanted and maybe it even looks as it is not possible. But what can I do now? And now? And now? And keep going. Nothing can stop you on your path to your dreams. Eventually they will come through. You have the power.