{"id":54342,"date":"2021-11-10T08:09:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-10T12:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=54342"},"modified":"2021-11-15T13:34:06","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T17:34:06","slug":"giving-up-on-your-dreams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/giving-up-on-your-dreams\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Do If You Feel Like Giving Up on Your Dreams"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What do successful people do when they feel like giving up? How can we re-inspire ourselves when pushing forward just feels like too much or worse\u2014pointless?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To achieve success, we must resist the urge to give up and our inclination towards losing faith. One way to keep pushing forward when you feel like giving up on your dreams is to amp up your levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is what to do when you feel like giving up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Loss of Faith<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the major <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/obstacles-to-success\/\">obstacles to success<\/a> is the fact that once we reach adulthood, we often don\u2019t have the faith in ourselves that we did as children. Consequently, we stop being willing to take the risk of making mistakes, lose belief in the possibility of success, and lose tolerance for the experiences of failure that are often necessary to achieve success. You can tell you\u2019ve reached this state if you regularly have thoughts like \u201cI could never do that,\u201d or, \u201cthis is too difficult for me.\u201d Over time, these thoughts make you feel less motivated to take the risk to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/pursue-your-goals\/\">pursue your goals<\/a>, and more likely to give up on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When you are on the edge of giving up on your dreams, you must find ways to re-inspire yourself if you start to lose faith and don\u2019t entertain thoughts of giving up.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One way to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-keep-yourself-motivated\/\">stay motivated<\/a> when you\u2019re afraid of failure or stop feeling inspired is to keep your dopamine levels high. Dopamine is the reward chemical, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/blog\/the-athletes-way\/201112\/the-neuroscience-perseverance\">the more dopamine your brain releases, the stronger your ability to persevere through challenging periods<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can increase your dopamine levels using the following strategies:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Every time you take an action towards your goals, visualize yourself getting a jolt of dopamine.<\/strong> For example, you might imagine yourself drinking a shot of liquid and becoming immediately happy. Research shows you can use visualization to train your brain to associate perseverance with pleasure.<\/li><li><strong>Reframe your perspective on moments of struggle. <\/strong>See these moments as opportunities to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/build-confidence-and-destroy-fear\/\">build confidence<\/a>. For example, every time you <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/actions-to-achieve-goals\/\">take action towards your goals<\/a> when you don\u2019t feel like it, praise yourself for how strong and capable you are. This teaches you to associate work with growth, and growth with joy.<\/li><li><strong>Treat every positive action you take as something worth rewarding.<\/strong> For example, even the smallest actions, like getting out of bed on time or combing your hair, can be fuel for your dopamine tank. This trains your brain to release dopamine even when you\u2019re not taking actions directly towards your goals.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What do successful people do when they feel like giving up? How can we re-inspire ourselves when pushing forward just feels like too much or worse\u2014pointless? To achieve success, we must resist the urge to give up and our inclination towards losing faith. One way to keep pushing forward when you feel like giving up on your dreams is to amp up your levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine. Here is what to do when you feel like giving up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":21198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,42,43],"tags":[532],"class_list":["post-54342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entrepreneurship","category-motivation","category-self-improvement","tag-the-slight-edge","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What to Do If You Feel Like Giving Up on Your Dreams - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"To achieve success, we must resist the urge to give up and lose faith. Here is what to do when you feel like giving up on your dreams.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/giving-up-on-your-dreams\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What to Do If You Feel Like Giving Up on Your Dreams\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"To achieve success, we must resist the urge to give up and lose faith. Here is what to do when you feel like giving up on your dreams.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/giving-up-on-your-dreams\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-10T12:09:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-15T17:34:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/motivation-goal-future.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1220\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/giving-up-on-your-dreams\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/giving-up-on-your-dreams\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"What to Do If You Feel Like Giving Up on Your Dreams\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-10T12:09:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-15T17:34:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/giving-up-on-your-dreams\/\"},\"wordCount\":448,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/giving-up-on-your-dreams\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/motivation-goal-future.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Slight Edge\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Entrepreneurship\",\"Motivation\",\"Self-Improvement\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/giving-up-on-your-dreams\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/giving-up-on-your-dreams\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/giving-up-on-your-dreams\/\",\"name\":\"What to Do If You Feel Like Giving Up on Your Dreams - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/giving-up-on-your-dreams\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/giving-up-on-your-dreams\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/motivation-goal-future.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-10T12:09:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-15T17:34:06+00:00\",\"description\":\"To achieve success, we must resist the urge to give up and lose faith. 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