We are two months away from the end of the year, and my mind is already on 2025. I want to get so much done in 2025, but I also want to take the time to look at what I did and didn’t do in 2024. Let’s go on this journey of reflection together and see what we can bring into the new year.

There are so many reasons we don’t start our dream projects. It could be external reasons, like our jobs being really hectic or just going through a breakup and taking time to heal. But what if none of those things were standing in our way? What if it’s internal, and the only thing standing in your way is you?

In this week’s episode, we’re going over 10 reasons why you haven’t started your dream project. Your dream project could be anything from starting a podcast, negotiating your salary at work, or even starting your own business. You know what you want—now is the time to make it happen! Tune in to hear all 10 reasons why you haven’t started on your dream project and what you can do to combat them.

Resources Mentioned:
EP. 132: Mother’s Day Special: From Poverty to Investor with Blanca Gonzalez

Follow Erika on:
Instagram @‌theerikacruz
TikTok @‌theerikacruz
LinkedIn

Website:
http://www.theerikacruz.com

How to work with Erika:

Join the waitlist for Courage Driven Latina here.

Podcast production for this episode was provided by CCST.

Episode Transcript:

Erika: Hello, hello! Welcome back to Chingona Revolution podcast. Can you believe we are in November already? I cannot believe how fast time has just flown by this year.

As we have made our way through most of 2024. I think a lot of us are starting to think about what we want in 2025. Maybe we’ve been reflective on what we have gotten done this year and where it is that we want to go next year. And because of this, I wanted to create a podcast episode to cover 10 reasons why you have not gone after your goals, whether these goals are negotiating your salary at work, applying to be in a different industry, or changing jobs, starting the business you’ve been wanting to start.

start, maybe launching a podcast, maybe working on your self confidence, maybe dating after a divorce, whatever that thing is that you’ve been wanting to do, that maybe you speak to your friends about and you talk about it and you get excited, but anytime you’re going to get started, maybe you feel overwhelmed or maybe you’ve given it a shot and you hit some obstacles and it prevented you from continuing on.

So, I want to talk about 10 reasons why we stop ourselves from taking action on this dream project of ours are on this goal of ours and how it is that we can overcome it. I also think it is very timely being that we’re headed into the new year and it’s just naturally a time to reflect. But if I can do anything to ease your anxiety, what I can tell you is that January 1st is just another day.

Just like December 31st is another day. A lot of these pressures are self imposed. You can change your life at any moment. You can make new decisions at any moment. It doesn’t have to happen at the beginning of the year. So take a deep breath. And know that you’re the creator of your life and you get to decide what you do, how you spend your time, who you spend your time with.

And it’s not because we’re getting to the end of the year that you should start to feel anxiety. If anything, take a moment and reflect on how much you’ve gotten done this year, who you’ve became this year. What healing have you done? What have you unlearned? What have you learned? It’s not all about accomplishments.

It’s more about who you’ve become as a person. Also, I do want to be very mindful that I do know that the day that we’re releasing this podcast episode, it is election day. So I just want to call out that anxiety can be really high. If you are a woman, if you are concerned about your rights, if, there’s just a lot of factors.

I know, I mean, I have friends on all levels. All ends of, of the spectrum where some people are like, I don’t want any political party with everything that’s been going on with the international wars and wherever you stand. I just want you to take care of yourself. Please make sure you go out and vote, but also please make sure you are doing everything you can to take care of yourself.

This can be a very triggering time. With that being said, let’s get into today’s episode and let’s talk about the 10 reasons We do not take the action that we know we want to take. Okay, the first reason that we don’t start the business, launch the podcast, start the Instagram page, ask for the raise, apply for the promotion, is because we fear failure. There is a fundamental need and a fundamental desire to want to succeed and a fear of failing. A lot of people fear failing more than they like winning.

The fear of failure is so real and it is what prevents people from taking action because if we don’t take the action, guess what? We can’t fail. If you don’t apply for that promotion, you can’t be rejected. But if you don’t apply for that promotion, you My argument is, isn’t that the ultimate failure?

Isn’t the ultimate failure not actually trying? 

So a lot of times, fear of failure comes from wanting to be perfect, and when we fail, it highlights that we are not perfect. So, as I mentioned earlier, it’s just easier to stay in your comfort zone, to stay in the familiarity, because you don’t want to risk failing. 

but the risk of fearing failure is that you’re also not allowing yourself to grow if you’re not taking chances. And risking the possibility of failure, you’re also not leading to growth, you’re avoiding success. You’re staying where you are. And as humans, we are meant to evolve or are meant to grow because as soon as you get everything you want in your life.

You’re going to want something else, not from a place of being greedy. It’s just human nature. I was talking to my mastermind earlier today and I was telling them like, you don’t just read a book and you’re like, okay, I’m done. I don’t have to learn anything ever again. If anything, reading a book leads you to want to read more books.

It leads you to want to learn more. Growth is a normal part of being human. And if we don’t allow ourselves to grow because of fear of failure. Failure, that’s when we start to feel extremely unfulfilled. So the question that I want you to ask yourself is 

what am I preventing myself from doing? Because I fear failure. I just want you to really reflect on it. Okay. We’re not going to come up with full blown solutions today. We’re just really trying to work on the awareness and then ask yourself the next question of, if I did not fear failure, what would I do?

And just give yourself those things to reflect on. Okay. Reason number two that people do not take action on this dream project of theirs on this goal of theirs is because they are overthinking. They’re spending so much time in their head and they’re almost in this analysis paralysis. So whenever you’re looking at this dream of yours, it’s easy to overthink every detail and people really do get stuck in the planning, the researching and like weighing out every possible outcome.

Instead of actually starting. So what happens is we are like, Oh, I just have to create the business plan. Or if I want to start a podcast, what’s the podcast name? And you just so get stuck in this analysis that it feels like you’re taking action because you’re doing research, but nothing is actually happening.

Maybe your dream lives in your journal, but it never makes it into physical reality. So how do you know that something is happening? That you’re taking action on something. You know that you’re taking action on something because somebody outside of you can see it. If nobody else can see it, you haven’t really taken action yet.

It’s all in your mind. And I want to be really clear. If you listen to the magnetic method webinar recording, then I did talk about how manifestations begin in our mind, but the faster we can bring them into reality. The faster we can start taking action, the faster they will actually manifest. And whenever we manifest them, everyone benefits, right?

Let’s say that you want to write a book. The sooner you write that book, the sooner other people benefit from that book. If you want to launch a podcast, the sooner you create that podcast, the sooner other people can be transformed by your podcast. This is actually what we’re going to do.

Um, I didn’t mention, I think at the beginning I said we’re going to go through solutions. Honestly, each one of these topics can be a podcast episode because we can go deep into each one of these. And really like I have frameworks for most of these to help you get out of the Funk out of your head and take action.

But I think because this podcast episode is about the reason we’re not taking action, we’re just going to treat this as an episode that is about reflecting and awareness so that you know what it is that’s stopping you. and then we can help you find solutions. So for right now, for each one that I mentioned, I’m going to give you reflection questions so that you can see if it’s your deal.

And then at the end, I’ll give you just some kind of general solutions that you can start working towards. Sound good? Okay. As soon as I got started, I was like, yeah, I don’t know if we’re going to be able to do like a solution for each one. So one of the things that I want you to reflect on is Have I been telling myself that I need to plan, research, get the certification before I can start?

So answer that question, you know, like where have you been stuck in the research phase with the attempt of reaching this? And this could be maybe you’ve gone down, maybe you’ve read some books, maybe you’ve gone down YouTube, maybe you’ve even purchased some courses, but you didn’t actually get started.

So go ahead and reflect on that. Where have I been focusing on the research and the analysis, but haven’t taken action? Reason number three that we have not taken action on our dream project or on our goals is that we fear judgment and rejection. I want to be really clear that we are social beings. It’s so easy to be like, I don’t care what people think, BS.

Every single person cares what people think, even me, right? Even me, whenever I get mean comments, it’s a lot easier for me to brush them off now because at this point I’ve been doing this for a while, but it’s not like it makes me happy. Thank you. You know, and at the beginning it definitely was difficult, but I think we are social beings, especially if you are a woman who’s been conditioned to maybe be a people pleaser or to seek approval from others, which I mean, in, if you live in our society today, every woman has been given this message through the media, right?

Look this way, sound this way. ves mas bonita. Like you look more, you look prettier when you’re quiet. I think Joe Dispenza actually gave me the English version of this. When I went to the Summit of Greatness conference, he says, girls should be seen and not heard. And I was like, Oh, I had never heard that in English.

The, Cagadita te ves mas bonita. If you do not speak Spanish, that is a Spanish saying that literally translates to, too. You look prettier when you’re quiet. So if you’ve been conditioned for this, right, there’s, there’s a fundamental fear of being judged and it’s, a human desire and not even a human desire.

It’s a human need to be accepted because back in the day when we lived in tribes, if you were not accepted into the tribe and you were removed from the tribe, you wouldn’t survive on your own. We literally needed community for survival. And our brains are still wired for that. So any idea or any, any ounce of judgment or rejection from others is really scary.

Especially if you, you know, who doesn’t value their parents opinion. I mean, maybe at this point you don’t, but it’s human nature to want are the validation of our parents. And a lot of times we can worry about the negative feedback or judgment from our parents, from our family, especially if your parents.

I mean, I’m assuming all of your parents come from a different generation and they’ve been conditioned to like, oh, you stay at your job forever. A job isn’t about fulfillment. A job is about money. And it’s like, we’re looking for validation from somebody from a different generation with different, a different mindset, with different understandings of what work should be, of what following your dreams can be.

And we’re letting other people’s opinions stop us from that. So, one of the questions I want you to ask yourself if you fear judgment and rejection of others or even just, um, I feel like fear of rejection is very tied to number one, which is fear of failure. But, the third one that we’re talking about right now, fear of judgment is relating to other people or rejection of family as well, right?

So, rejection can kind of fall under those two. Fear of failure can also be like fear of being rejected for the job. and then fear of judgment and rejection could be like literally being rejected by your family or being judged by your family or being removed from the friend group. Things like that.

So, and you know, it’s, it’s like we hear these narratives even in like underserved community of like, ah, who does she think she is now that she has, you know, money or now that she got this job. Now she thinks she’s better than us. And sometimes it comes off as a joke, but there’s, you know, some truth in there.

There’s some, some truth in there of like, who do you think you are to make it ahead and leave us behind? And that is a really difficult thing to navigate for us when we, especially if you want to bring your community with you. That’s kind of the solution, right? Allowing yourself to get ahead and then bringing people with you.

So back to the reflection question. If you fear judgment and rejection, I really want you to ask yourself, whose opinion are you worried about? And be totally honest with yourself. These are reflection questions for you and for no one else. For you to understandwhose opinion am I worried about? How have other people’s opinions prevented me from doing something that I wanted to do in the past? So I have an example for you all. I really wanted to go to school in Southern California and I got into UCLA and I really let the pressure of my mom and my boyfriend at the time, keep me in the Bay area.

I mean, I also got into Berkeley, which is a good school. So. And I was able to visit it a lot more, but I truly think that if I hadn’t listened to other people’s opinion or their judgments of me going far, I would have ended up at UCLA and everything happens for a reason. And I don’t regret it now, but I have this realization.

So. Now, I mean, if I would have letmy mom’s opinion about me starting a business, stop me from starting the business, we wouldn’t all be here today. And if you listen to the podcast episode where I interview my mom, I think we call it like Mother’s Day special. It was released in May.

She talks about how she was terrified of me going off on my own to start my business because she didn’t really understand what I was doing. And if you find yourself in this category of really being afraid of being judged, by your family or that you feel like you won’t be accepted, I encourage you to go back and listen to that episode because it is a great example of how my mom simply just wanted what was best for me and she, Wanted me to be safe and in her opinion, the most safe thing I could do was stay at a tech job and now fast forward, that tech job does not exist.

I would have been laid off y’all if I didn’t leave and start this business. So now she’s very proud of me. She’s obviously seen me on Telemundo many times. She has, the Facebook page. Photo framed of my feature in the New York times at her house here and her house in Mexico. So she’s like one of my biggest supporters now.

So the thing is that sometimes that fear of judgment and rejection, those people don’t, we fear their judgment or being rejected by them. But a lot of times they don’t even know where it is that we are headed. So I think the last question that I want you to reflect on here is how does me following this dream project or this goal, Benefit everyone, including my family, including the people I’m worried about their opinion.

How does me following this goal benefit everyone? And I’ll just answer that for me. Me following my intuition and starting this business has tremendously benefited my mom. I have so much more freedom, flexibility, More financial security. I’m more fulfilled. She’s benefited in many ways. I’ve been available to help her At the house that she built for retirement in Mexico many times I literally moved over there for a summer to help build the house I have so much flexibility to support her in her retirement in ways that I would have never had if I was still at the other job 

Amiga, I hope you’re enjoying the show. We are going to get right back to today’s episode, but I just had to drop in and check with you. How are you feeling? How are things going? If you find yourself frustrated or maybe shaming yourself because you have not taken the action that you wanted to take.

Maybe you are just tired of starting and stopping or overthinking or worrying about what your co workers are going to think about you or your family members are going to think about you if you finally start that project that you’ve been wanting to start. I just want you to know that I see you. I feel you.

I overthought starting. My Instagram page for two years before I actually started it. So I get it. I totally understand. And if you find yourself in this position where you’re ready to start procrastinating and start taking action, then I invite you to Courage Driven Latina.

Courage Driven Latina is my signature program where you will legit change your life in 90 days because we are going to help you take action on a courage project in 90 days. I also recently introduced the courage project paths, which I’m so excited about. So you essentially get to pick the path that you want to work on and you can work on more than one path because the program is now 12 months, right?

But we recommend one path at a time. And I’m so excited about these paths because. We have a confidence, courage, project path. So if you want to speak up in your relationships or maybe speak up at work, this would be the perfect path for you. Or if you just want to establish more self trust. The second path we have is the content creation courage project path.

So this is perfect for you if you want to create an Instagram page, a TikTok account, or perhaps you are ready to launch your own podcast. We even have a whole podcast course inside of Courage Driven Athena. The third path is the career courage project path. So if you know that you want to be at the director level or the VP level, or maybe you’re ready to change your job to a different job, then this would be the perfect path for you.

Maybe you’re like, you know what? Entrepreneurship is cool, but it’s not really for me. I really want to be a boss ass mommy, then this is going to be the path for you. And last but not least, we have the Chingona CEO path. So if you know that you want to be an entrepreneur and you know, you want to start your business, whether it’s a coaching business or a physical business, if you want to sell a product, then this is the perfect path for you.

Again, because this program is not 12 months, you can work on more than one path. Join the waitlist for Courage Driven Latina by going to the link down below in the show notes, because when you join the waitlist, you are going to be the. first to know when we open doors and you may even get some early access.

So ensure that you join the wait list. I cannot wait to work with you. We have some incredible women in this program and the fact that it’s now a year long, we’ve already seen so much transformation. I can’t wait to work with you. Let’s get back to the show and don’t forget to join the wait list.

Erika: All right, let’s move on to number four.

That took a long time. Three num I’m telling you, each of these could be an entire podcast episode. Number four is lack of confidence. This one’s big, right? A lot of self doubt or imposter syndrome can be roadblocks to getting started. You may not feel like you’re qualified or smart enough for something, and you really feel like, oh, I’m waiting to feel confident in order to do it. The reflection that I want you to ask yourself is what story am I currently telling myself about Why I can’t start my dream project yet. So why, what story am I telling myself about starting the business? What story am I telling myself about launching the podcast? What story am I telling myself about asking for a raise?

And you know, your answers can be something like I’m telling myself I’m not repaired yet. I’m telling myself I’m not ready. Things like that. Okay, number five, not knowing where to begin whenever we’re starting something new, like a, like a business or a podcast. Oh my gosh, it can feel so overwhelming. We live in this era of information and it’s, it’s not so much that you don’t know what to do.

It’s that there’s so much information out there. It’s overwhelming. It is really overwhelming. So whenever you don’t know where to begin, it’s so hard to get started because even if you’ve made that intention, like, okay, I’m going to work on this for an hour, you can sit down and be like, well, which direction do I actually take?

So the reflection question I want you to ask on this is. What is the first step I can take towards this goal of mine? What is the first step I can take towards this goal of mine? And if it’s, if it’s a podcast, decide on the podcast name, create the page for it. If it’s a business, um, maybe like, let’s say you want to sell candles, start making the candles.

And give them away to family to see if you even like it inside of Courage Driven Latina. We have a whole concept around not knowing where to begin. And we have a concept it’s called your ghetto first draft. It is the most quick and affordable way of testing out your idea to see if it’s something that you even want to keep doing, right?

Because sometimes people go and they. Create a website and they, you know, invest all this money. And then once they get started, they’re like, this isn’t even what I want. So we first just have to validate. It’s something that you want. So what is the, I guess, let me rephrase the question for you. What is the cheapest, fastest way of you taking action to see if this is something you want to do?

Another big one that comes up for people, this is number six, is waiting for the quote unquote perfect conditions.

So you might sound something like, oh, once I lose weight, then I’ll start creating content. Or once I make more money, then I’m going to start working on investing. Or once I meet my partner, then I’m going to feel loved. And this idea of perfect conditions is crazy because perfect conditions do not exist.

Even if you make more money, you still have to learn to manage the money. Even if you. lose the weight, you still have to work on showing up in front of the camera to create content. The truth is that there are no perfect conditions. So how about you ask yourself the question, how can I begin to take action with my current conditions?

Because when you begin to take action with your current conditions, that is when you create change, not when you wait for perfect circumstances outside of you. Number seven is fear of success. So number one was fear of failure, but fear of success is actually really big, especially with women. It feels surprising, but I can not tell you how many times I’ve seen women struggle with this. Here’s what happens. There’s almost this fear of actually achieving success because that feels like a lot of pressure.

It brings on new responsibilities, expectations, visibility. And if we’ve been told that women should be heard and I mean, seen and not heard. Right? Like We’re literally taught to hide and to not be visible and success brings visibility. So if we have trouble with being seen, it is so hard for us to actually go after success.

And if you’re fearing the success, you are subconsciously pushing away success, especially if you come from an underserved community. We talked about this earlier when we were talking about the fear of judgment and rejection. You may fear if you end up successful, the people that you grew up with or your family or your friends will be like, Oh, who do you think you are now?

Almost like being removed from the group. So that is why a lot of times we fear success. So I want you to ask yourself a similar question. When I am successful, who gets to benefit? And the response is everybody benefits, right? When you’re successful, you can bring more people with you. So just really looking at when I’m successful, who benefits?

What kind of positive change can I make with my success? 

Okay. Number eight is Believing that it is too late, either thinking you’re too old, or you already invested time in this other degree, or maybe that you’ve missed the window, or just like too far behind, like, oh, how am I just going to get started if like other people have been doing this for years, but it is never too late.

You’re not too old. If anything, in my experience with my clients, the individuals who have more years of experience in life kill it in my programs. I mean, they get the best results and I think it’s just because they have more life experience, right? They’re not so much worried about what other people think.

They’re like, I’ve already lived life. I already know what I’ve gone through and I’m ready to make a change. And they’re more decisive. So even if you’re feeling like, Oh, it’s too late to start a Tik Tok account. Oh, it’s too late to switch careers. It’s not. I mean, there’s so much evidence from people. I want to say like Vera Wang didn’t start designing dresses until she was 40.

Right. That’s when most people are like, Oh, you should be getting ready for retirement. Then she was literally, and now she’s like one of the most famous designers and the KFC guy didn’t franchise KFC until he was like in his sixties, I believe. Yeah. That’s huge. It’s never too late. Never too late. So what if you ask yourself the question of, right now is the perfect time to start because, and then fill in that question. Right now is the perfect time to start because. Okay. Number nine is comparing ourselves to others. It’s so easy to see all these other successful podcasts or business or content creators or people who are already really confident and look at these other people and compare ourselves to them. But I want you to know that if you are able to see somebody else do it, it is also available to you.

If your desire is to launch a podcast and you’re listening to my podcast, the fact that you’re listening to my podcast is evidence that it is possible for you too. What happens though is that whenever we see other people succeeding in their dream careers or their dream project, it’s easy to feel discouraged because we don’t feel like we’re at the same level.

It’s And this comparison can really increase self doubt as well as deflate motivation. But I want you to know that there’s enough space for all of us. And remember that I started off with zero podcast episodes as well. I started off with zero followers. I started off with zero dollars in my business bank account.

Everybody started at zero. And I think the way that you can overcome this like idea of comparing ourselves to others is asking yourself, why do you want to do it? What’s the why behind it? And if your why is to help people and give back, it doesn’t matter what other people are doing. If your intention is to create positive change, create positive change.

And let’s say your goal is to start a podcast. And you’re like, Oh, well, Chingo and I Revolution already exists. And then there’s already these other podcasts that already exist. Yeah. But they’re not you. I could have said the same thing about Chingona Revolution. There’s already so many Latinas out there talking about self development.

But none of them are me with my story. And you with your story are going to are going to be relevant to other people. Just think about how many water brands exist. Or how many makeup brands exist. So, I want you to find your why. And then I also want to, to, I want you to reflect on what is your unique story and your unique take on this dream project of yours.

Thanks. Number 10, our final one is lack of accountability or support. This one really ties back to the fear of judgment and rejection. Just like we are wired for connection, we are wired for support of one another. Having accountability and support is a game changer. Maybe your family doesn’t understand how it is that they can support you. but other people will, right? Because we can’t expect individuals who aren’t going where we’re going to understand the path we’re taking. But you can find other people who are on a similar path.

This is the number one thing I hear about either Magnetic Mastermind or Courage Driven Athena, my two group programs, like, I mean, I wish people talked about how great my coaching is, which they do, but the number one thing we hear is the accountability, the community and the support was a game changer. I no longer felt alone.

Hearing other people get coached was tremendously beneficial and I just have so much evidence that having a. solid support system and a solid community of people who are going where you’re going or who have already been where you’re going is vital to your success. I would say this is like the number one thing.

If all you had was a supportive community, keeping you accountable and no strategy and nothing else, like you would be more successful than the person that has all the strategy and no support. I feel very strongly about that. I’ve seen it over and over and over in the people that I’ve coached. So the thing is that pursuing a big dream is really hard to do.

You are going to come across obstacles and without a supportive community or having a mentor or a coach or an accountability buddy, it’s really easy to let self doubt take over and let the dream fade away. It’s really easy to believe that story you’re telling yourself. You know how, when I was talking about, point number, number. Four, the lack of confidence and how, what story are you telling yourself? It’s so much easier to believe those stories when we don’t have somebody that’s looking out for our best interest in our lives. So for this one, ask yourself, who in my life can I leverage for accountability and support? Or, what kind of community do I need to cultivate to have the accountability and support I’m looking for? To summarize the points, I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode. Number one is fear of failure. Number two is overthinking and analysis paralysis. Number three is fear of judgment and rejection. Number four is lack of confidence. Number five is not knowing where to begin. Number six is waiting for the perfect conditions.

Number seven is fear of success. Number eight is believing that it’s too late. Number nine is comparing ourselves to others. Number ten is lack of accountability or support. So these are the main reasons, ten main reasons, why we have not taken action or started on our dream project, on our goals, on the thing that we keep saying that we want to do, but we haven’t actually done. I gave some solutions, especially in the last points, and kind of threw out. And I’m actually going to be talking about this in my next free class. It’s all about how to make 2025 your courage year. So how to stop living in fear and really living in courage. It’s all about how to create massive change without overthinking in 90 days. So you will be the first to know once we’ve released it.

So join the wait list for Courage Driven Latina. The link is down below and you will be the first to know when we open up the class. We don’t have it open just yet, but being that it’s so relevant to this topic, I did want you all to know. So if any of the stuff that I mentioned resonated with you, join the wait list for Courage Driven Latina.

Again, you’ll get the notifications about when the class is coming up. We’re opening doors for Courage Driven Latina on December 9th. So mark your calendar. Obviously it’s going to be the last enrollment of the year. So if you know that 2025 is the year that you want to kind of make your year and really not just do new year’s resolutions, right, but like make it a year of change, then join the wait list for Courage Driven Latina because Courage Driven Latina is a 12 month group coaching program to help you take action on your courage project, whatever your dream project is.

And not just one, I mean, there’s people who’ve gone through Courage Driven Latina that have, um, Worked on their confidence and then they started to create content and then they launched a business and then they launched a podcast. Like you can literally do everything in this program. So if this podcast resonated with you, join us on the wait list.

And as always, if anything stood out, please take a screenshot and tag us on Instagram. We do have an Instagram page. For Chingona revolution now, or you can tag me at the Erica Cruz. That is Erica with a K I love reading all your messages and yep. I hope you found this helpful. I loved recording it and I will see you all on the next episode.