If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Confidence here is not swagger. It means moving as though the life you want is a real destination rather than a wish you keep polishing. When you act that way, the ordinary rules about what is available to you start to loosen, because you are no longer waiting for a permission that was never going to arrive. The reward tends to look nothing like the one you pictured, and it usually comes from a direction you were not watching.

Pick the one part of the imagined life you could begin living now, at small scale, this week. Do that part badly rather than postponing it until conditions improve.