“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions, small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you too, can become great.” ~ Mark Twain 

Have you ever asked a child what he/she wants to when they grow up and they answer a list of occupations? “I want to be an artist, an astronaut AND a doctor!”

We might smile and say something like “that’s great,” or “good for you.”

But if your friend said even one of those things at age, oh, thirty-four, you’d brush it aside, laugh and say something like, “what, are you kidding?”

Our dreams are akin to a form of emotional oxygen; we need them to breathe, to survive.

Know anyone who always points out the flaws in your plans? I call ‘em soul-suckers—they’ll suck your dreams down the vortex of their own past disappointments.

People brush aside your dreams and ambitions for two reasons, basically: they’re afraid for you (don’t want to see you disappointed) or they’re afraid of you; your dreams remind them of how they’ve forsaken their own.

Either way, when people belittle you too often, or for too long, maybe it’s time to get some new friends.

Hang out with folks who help you breathe.

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer.” ~Harriet Tubman