I think we all know him.

He opens the door slowly and then all at once. Though you can’t see him, you feel him walk toward you with the same shivering presence you always feel. You roll over to your other side ignoring him sitting at the end of your bed.

He begins to talk to you. He’s not one of those friendly ghosts you know. He’s one of those things that keep you up at night tossing and turning, wishing that he would go away. He tells you how your dreams are too wild. He explains the fact that you aren’t talented or passionate enough to touch your dreams. He convinces you that you aren’t in the right major and, maybe, if you went to another school you would have a better chance touching your dreams. He seeps into every area of your life and you begin to believe him. You begin to make lists at 2 a.m. about all the things you need to do to touch your dreams. You begin to wonder why he always comes in the middle of the night because the middle of the night is the only time of the day when you can’t really do much to conquer your dreams.

This guy's name is anxiety and stress, and he can be a hazard when following your aspirations.

We all need a little stress to motivate us to do things on time and to do things well, but we let stress and anxiety overcome our lives and keep us up in the middle of the night wondering if we are going be where we want to be in five years.

I stand firm in my belief that we are in this powerful generation filled with people with dreams. Everyone I have come in contact with has some sort of hobby, talent, thought or dream that they feel convicted under. Some of us are so willing to chase after it. These people are willing to ignore the caution signs and the bumps in the road because their love for this dream is more powerful than anything.

Others, and I think this is most of us, see the caution signs. We hear the guy walk into our room in the middle of the night and we listen to all the things he is warning us about. We take those things and we allow them to rest with us heavily. Some will throw away their dreams because of this, while others of us will press on.

I’m here to tell you to press on. We have this whole life ahead of us that deserves to be striding toward our dreams. Giving up dreams will just lead us into wondering what could have been or what should have been. We will regret so heavily if we allow worry to become the thing that carries us away from our dreams.

Do everything you can to conquer your dreams. Every single little thing you do adds up to causing you to be closer to your dreams. Don’t allow a few failed job positions or a couple of poorly done tests to make you question what you are doing. Keep going.

In five years, you might be exactly where you want to be. You might be sitting in the exact office chair your imagined or singing on the stage you desired to be upon most. However, you might be somewhere else. Your dreams might be in other forms that are just as incredibly fulfilling.

The thing is, that we all have it in us to capture our dreams. We just have to tell stress to stop speaking lies to you, dream our dreams and wake up in the morning with our running shoes on to chase these dreams.