They don’t tell you that the most painful part isn’t getting rejected, it’s getting silence after you tell them what you want to do. Your uncle nods at you, your friend says okay, we’ll see. Your best friend wouldn't want to discourage you so she just switches the topic. They’re not trying to hurt you. They just don’t care enough to debate. And that hurts in a different way.
You can’t blame them for not seeing it. They have their own issues. Why should they care about your dream when they have debts to pay and kids to yell at? So after a while, you stop talking about it.
But you still wake up with it, that is the thing you want to build or try or change. It’s still there in your mind. Morning, noon and night. So you start doing small things like research, writing down thoughts on the idea and practicing when nobody’s watching because you don't want to explain what you're practicing for anymore, you don't want their discouragement.
People call this self belief like it’s some divine superpower. But it's not that profound. You’re just continuing because quitting is a worse option. There’s no crowd cheering you on and giving you the motivation. Some days you’re not even sure you’re doing it right.
And during this time, you find out what’s real and what was hype. Because when nobody’s watching, you find out if you really want this thing or if you just wanted the feeling of wanting it. A lot of people find out the latter, and quietly go back to their normal lives. There is mo shame in that. But if you persist, something will eventually crack open. Not because the universe rewards persistence, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t.
But you’ll get better at the thing simply because you’ve been doing it while everyone else was scrolling through Instagram or sleeping.
The first person who notices will surprise you. It won’t be who you expect. By then you’ve stopped looking for validation every day. You just keep going.
