Do You Have Border Bullies?

RE: Dream Chasing Skills

Are you familiar with the term ‘Border Bully’?

It’s from a little book by Bruce Wilkinson titled ‘The Dream Giver’. It tells a story about a Nobody named Ordinary who lived in the Land of Familiar. He discovers he has a Dream and decides to pursue it even though Nobody does that where he comes from.

I recommend the story to absolutely everyone—especially YOU.

See, we all feel ordinary sometimes and people like us to stay where we are, in the familiar surroundings we’ve all gotten so used to.

But like Ordinary, we have a Dream and chasing that Dream calls us out of Familiar!

You, my friend, are going places.

And when you get there, you’re going to be creating spaces where amazing things happen. Oh the impact you’ll have out there in the Land of Possibility!

When Ordinary packs his back to leave Familiar, he runs into Border Bullies. These are people who love him and want to keep him safe. They play devil’s advocate and point out all the potential pitfalls and risks involved in dream chasing.

You have Border Bullies too, don’t you? People who love you and want to keep you safe—or perhaps people who feel threatened by your Dream Chasing?

When you refuse to settle for the everyday and rise to answer a deep vision for your life, it’s unsettling for friends and family who either don’t understand what you’re doing or have sold out on their own dreams.

We can understand what they’re experiencing, but we can’t take responsibility for how they feel or worse, sell out on our own purpose in life to make them feel better about themselves.

Some will never leave Familiar and we have to be okay with their choice.

The people closest to us can be our greatest supporters but they can also be unwitting stumbling blocks—criticizing, limiting, worrying, overprotecting…

There may come a time when you have to look a Border Bully in the eye and lovingly say ‘Get on board or get out of my way.’

You don’t have to drop Border Bullies from your life but you do want to limit their exposure to your Dreams.

Be careful in who you share your ideas with and cautious about who you let speak into your business.

You don’t want or need input from someone who can’t or won’t see your possibilities.

Because you are going places and creating spaces!

There’s good news in the book—once you get past your Border Bullies, you get to meet Champions… people who’ve chased their own Dream and understand what you face. They can offer sweet encouragement just when you need it most.

I’d love it if you’d count me as one of them.

If Border Bullies are giving you more trouble than you can handle these days, I’d love to support you.  Learn about working with me as a coach here.