What To Do When Nobody Believes in You

Isn’t it frustrating when you tell people you have a dream or a goal, and they don’t believe in you?

Instead of supporting or motivating you to chase it, they chime in with how difficult it will be. They mention all the hard things you must accomplish to get where you want.

You’ll have to work out so much and eat nothing but vegetables to lose weight. Creating your career or business and breaking out of the corporate rat race will take a lot of effort and time.

Why do they do that?

There are many reasons, and we tend to take them personally, but I don’t think we should.

People are conditioned by their own life experiences. Good or bad, they’ve had the same messages drilled into their heads their whole lives. The messages come from family, friends, surrounding communities, and anywhere they get information.

In many cases, the messages they have received have been about doing things the conventional way. Go to school, get a job, get married, and have children; everything else will take care of itself.

People get confused if you try to break out of the conventional path. The people who have succeeded are lucky, they think.

So, what do you do when there is a lack of belief from those around you?

1. Consider the Source

What are the people who don’t believe in you doing with their own lives?

Odds are they are trapped in the daily grind of life. They have been for so long it’s hard for them to see any other way. Get up, go to work, come home, spend time with family.

Wash, rinse, repeat. Sadly, most people live to pass the time and don’t realize it.

It makes sense for them to doubt you because they haven’t seen anyone successfully break free. They also can feel threatened. If you reach your lofty goals, it makes them feel bad about themselves because they won’t chase their dreams.

That’s more about them than you.

If you share a goal or dream with someone and they respond negatively, disregard what they say. Don’t let their negativity discourage you from chasing what you want. They can’t see greatness because they haven’t lived it.

You oversee your life, not them. You only get one, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to sit on my deathbed wishing I had gone after what I wanted.

You won’t always succeed, but you’ll know whether you can. Someone else’s opinion and advice won’t determine whether you succeed. That’s determined by whether or not you chase success.

Disregard what they say and go after it anyway.

2. Understand Not Everyone Can See What You See

Any dream you have is going to require a vision. Unfortunately, a lot of people can’t see themselves reaching lofty heights. Why would they see you getting them?

Life is good enough for them. They are happy with the status quo.

It’s not for you, or you wouldn’t have a dream or goal to chase. You want more. You know you can be and do more.

Just because they can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Sometimes, catching on to what you see takes others a little time. Sometimes, you have to show people what is possible and what you are capable of.

Don’t let their lack of vision make you doubt yourself and what you see. Trust your intuition.

If your gut is calling you to do something, listen to it. That feeling is there for a reason. The further you pull yourself away from that, the more out of tune you get with yourself.

Stay out of tune with yourself long enough, and the more you’ll resent yourself and the life around you. The resentment will slowly build up, causing you to reach an existential crisis.

This makes you feel like your life is stuck and there is no way out. It’s not true. There is always a way out.

You have to get up and go towards what you want.

3. Realize that when You Change, People Struggle with Your New Version

This is especially true if you’ve accomplished significantly due to your changes.

You’ll probably have to change many habits and behaviors to get what you want. Making those kinds of changes completely changes who you are to people. They won’t recognize you anymore.

They want to hold on to the version of you that is familiar. Seeing you as the same old person who didn’t get things done is less threatening to them.

If you haven’t had much success in the past and that is what they are used to, it makes sense for them to struggle with the new version of you. They think you’ll regress to the mean eventually.

What they think doesn’t have any impact on what you do. It’s just outside noise.

Never let someone’s negativity convince you that you aren’t capable or your dreams are foolish. If they want to hold on to your old version, that’s their mistake.

Don’t let their hang-ups hang you up.

4. The Only Belief You Need is Belief in Yourself

If you don’t believe in yourself, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks.

It takes courage to keep pressing forward when nobody else believes. Confidence is doing what needs to be done, even if you are scared, and knowing you’ll handle whatever comes at you.

People can think what they want, but your thoughts are the ones that matter. What do you believe in? You or someone else’s opinion? Ten times out of ten, you should believe in yourself.

Eventually, they’ll catch up to you.

5. Find People That Do Believe in You

The internet, social media, cell phones, and other communication technologies have made networking much more accessible.

If you are surrounded by people who don’t believe, maybe it’s time to set a boundary around their access to you. Find your crew somewhere else.

Whatever dream you are chasing, other people are chasing the same thing. Find them and then support each other’s growth. Maybe you are a true 1-of-1, and nobody is going after the same thing.

You can still find others trying to achieve something or anything and connect for a support group or mastermind. The point is to find people to help you stay on track. You, in turn, help them stay on track, too.

This should be a two-way street. You support them, and they help you. All it takes is one person to believe. You must look and make yourself available.

Not having anyone believe in you is not the end of the world. History is littered with people nobody believed in but yet still succeeded.

Walt Disney was told he didn’t have any imagination. Einstein couldn’t speak until he was four and couldn’t read until he was seven. Nobody cared about Van Gogh’s work while he was alive.

The list goes on and on.

Your success in chasing your dreams mainly comes down to your beliefs. If you give up, it’s over. If you keep going, you’ll get there.

Keep believing until you’ve shown yourself that you can’t do it, and not a second sooner.