We are all responsible for this playing in all our heads. We get to control it.
There is never a better time to start than right now. The timing will never be right. the material will rarely align. Customers won’t wait for you to have your ducks in a row — they need answers now. They need support now. They need new services now. They don’t expect perfection. They expect support, good products and relationships. Isn’t that what we all want? Good support, products and relationships with people. Nobody wants to feel like they are an island, alone, adrift. They want to be surrounded by cool people, doing cool things, having fun, and making things happen, doing things that we deem important.
Why not get started today? Hit the gym today. Start that business or new line of business today. Make that career change you’ve been thinking about for 18 months now happen. Give yourself deadlines — today — and go. If you’re thinking about something more than three times per week, you need to try it. If you don’t try it , you will drive yourself crazy wallowing and thinking about it, having done nothing to push yourself toward it. Why do that? You’re capable of so much more. If you’re scared, good. Set a deadline to action. 3 or 6 months from now, this happens. And better: take a small action now. Take those first steps toward the larger goal. Talk to people you admire about a potential career change. Get a mentor for your new line of business and ask her the right questions. Hire a trainer for your next gym session on free weights. Whatever it is, take those small actions now. You will feel so much better about yourself and where you’re going if you’re always building momentum toward it, making headway, moving where you want to be moving, talking to successful, positive people.
So many people delay the next action. They delay the start. They delay the dream. They delay it so much that they never act. That’s the true tragedy: the failure to take action toward what you want. Not taking action toward your dreams. Delaying, deferring, hemming and hawing on and on about why the timing isn’t right. As a reminder: the timing is never right to move toward our dreams. There are always obstacles. There are always reasons for delays. There are always reasons to skip the gym. There are always reasons to not start. Yet we can choose to overcome them with courage and take bold action toward our goals and what it is we want. Big things begin with small steps. Don’t wait. Don’t delay. Get moving. Pick a direction. Pick those first small steps toward the larger goal and execute. The early momentum you build becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy toward accomplishing what you want, what you set out for. Before you know it, you’ll be well on your way to accomplishing what you set out for. And, perhaps more importantly, you’ll be enjoying the journey along the way. It’s hard to beat a great journey, full of vivid stories and harrowing adventures. You’re writing it right now whether you realize it or not. What will your story be?
We are all responsible for our own stories. Where are we going? What are we doing? What does our day look like? How fast are we going to get there? Are we working hard enough to make it there? Did we pick the right mentors to help us get there? Are we willing to take risks to get there? We are writing these stories in real time, with real people, with real experiences. The outcomes, good or bad, make for wonderful lessons and great things to pass along to others. There are fewer things funnier than life experiences and learning opportunities. Take advantage of them and those of others.
What’s great about being responsible for your own story, your own life, is that you are in control. You are the star. You get to act as if. You get to be whoever you want to be. You get to act with qualities you may not think you possess. But you possess them if you think you do. Again you are in control here. There are no limits to the story you write for yourself. The only limits are those of imagination. Everything else is open to you. This should be very empowering to you. You possess the power. You are in control. You are the author of your life. Don’t let anyone take that away from you. It is up to you.
It’s important to be reminded of this power early and often because it is easy to slip into victim mode, to give up our power to others, to blame people, to say that we’re cursed, to throw your hands up and say it’s too hard. Unfortunately, this seems to be a creeping default behavior for people when things get tough. But when things get tough, we ought to dig in, ask more questions, be more helpful, add more value, and remind ourselves that we are still the authors of our lives, full of vim, vigor and the power to change things. We are not victims. We are not puppets held to the whims of some puppet master. We are not robots. We possess the power to turn things around to the positive direction. We possess the power to pursue our goals. We make things happen. We are not victims. We are in control of ourselves, of our careers, of our lives. No one else can make this happen for us. It is up to each of us to execute and to make things better for all. We are in the business of making things better. And we make things better by making better things.
