Columbus's story is the story of your own life, or, rather, your own story is a variation of Columbus's. Columbus persisted. He did not give up. In your story, sometimes you give up.
You can see how Columbus's journey was not all on the physical level. Can you say that drive and purpose exist on the physical level? Are they not part of your will? Your will can be evidenced in the physical, but your will is an offshoot of Mine.
Columbus did not make excuses for himself. Excuses are a very limiting thing. They are as restrictive as iron bars. Are excuses physical? They are thoughts. They are thoughts that say you are not mighty. No matter how verifiable, excuses are not true.
Your childhood is not responsible for what you do or don't do today. Lack of time is not responsible. Lack of money is not responsible. Lack of anything is not responsible. Sometimes surfeit is. Sometimes life has been so easy you don't know how to reach for it.
Do not make excuses for yourself not to follow your dreams. Maybe your dreams just aren't strong enough. That's not a crime. Better to say you just didn't want something enough rather than to blame something for dreams unfulfilled. It is no felony to not reach what you desire because you didn't desire it enough, but it is a misdemeanor to make excuses. Making excuses is weakening. Honesty is strengthening.
You want to get in the habit of being honest with yourself. Maybe your dream wasn't really your dream. Maybe you weren't giving up anything not to pursue it longer. Maybe it wasn't in the stars. Maybe you have another dream to find.
Would Columbus have persisted no matter what? And for how long? Had Columbus not sailed to the new world, he would have still maintained his belief that the Earth was round. Such a simple thing really. Columbus would not have given up his perception of truth. From where did his perception of truth come, after all? Where does yours?
The idea you seek seeks you. What is proven is your intention. Truth does not truly come from instruments or calculations. There is a mind and a heart that make something of the calculations. What is the role of the stars in the calculations of man? What can be calculated that does not come from the Heavens above?
And when a man sails on the seas, is he not sailing on the skies of Heaven?
And when a man searches for his dream, where does the dream come from? Whose dream is it? Does man find his dream, or does the dream find him? Has the dream been seeking the man to fulfill it? Who is the seeker, and what is the sought?
Are not possibilities better than certainty?
The time to give up a dream is when it is no longer yours. If it was always really someone else's dream, it never was yours.
Perhaps everyone wanted to become a movie star once upon a time. For most, the real desire was to be adored and in the limelight. Perhaps only the clothing of the desire was real, and the rest was an idyll.
Perhaps your real dream was to live the life you are leading now. Perhaps your dream was to be a humble person leading a humble life, to be a loyal husband or wife or happy mother or one who enjoys life whatever the life looks like. Is that not a noble thing?
And yet something exists in Human Beings to discover new things, to venture where no one has ever ventured before. But, of course, you are all doing that. No one has lived your life before you. Discovery is nice, but exploration is better.