There are only two ways to look at life, the world and pretty much everything else out there.
Time is either working for you or it's working against you...
Unfortunately, it's a lot easier to get caught up in the second one.
And a lot harder to keep focusing on the first one...
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It's cheap to optimize.
A lot cheaper than it is to create something new.
And it feels good to optimize.
It feels safe.
It feels like you're making progress while everybody else is still trying to catch up to you.
The problem is that at one point there's nothing left to optimize anymore.
And then the ones you thought were trying to catch up to you turn into the ones you're now trying to catch up to.
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How many ideas do you have in the back of your mind that'll probably never see the light of day?
How many ideas for books?
For blog posts?
Businesses?
Songs?
Trips?
Paintings?
Poems?
How many?
Probably too many....
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Most things happen slowly at first, then suddenly.
The problem is that we've grown too impatient.
We want everything right away.
Without putting in the work.
And if we don't get it right away, then we just leave.
Love?
Right away.
Success?
Right away.
Satisfaction?
Right away.
Happiness?
Right away.
Most things happen slowly at first, then suddenly.
Give them a chance...
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You can run a company that has a working product, an established customer base, a sustainable cash flow and capable employees on a 4 hour work week. But it's pretty much impossible to build one on it...
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Good books almost always have good covers.
But does that mean that a good cover will make a good book?
Of course, it doesn't.
But in many situations in life we act as if it does.
We get fooled by the people who want to sell us the "cover".
Because we like to get fooled.
We take the shortcut.
Because we like taking shortcuts.
The shortcut that every book has a good cover and that a good cover will consequently make a good book.
Unfortunately, it doesn't.
What makes a good book is a good writer...
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Just like the font doesn't matter.
Or the picture.
Or the animation.
Or the template.
Or the design.
Or whatever...
What matters is that you do the work.
Everything else is just a distraction.
A distraction that's holding you back from doing what you initially set out to do.
Here's the thing...
You can worry about all the other stuff once you've built a habit of shipping your work.
Once you've started the difficult journey of shipping your work and mastering your craft.
But that will only start once you do the actual work and keep doing it.
And not all the fluff around it.
And once you've done that, once you've successfully built the habit of shipping your work, then you can work on all the other stuff.
But if you start the other way round, if you start with all the fluff, then you'll never ship your work.
And you'll never build a habit of shipping your work.
And instead you'll constantly be busy tweaking things that don't need any tweaking at all.
Because it's so easy to get caught up in all the tweaking and forget about what really matters.
Tweaking is a lot easier than shipping.
Tweaking doesn't have a deadline and can go on forever.
Shipping has a deadline.
That's why it's so scary.
Because at one point you just have to put it out there for the whole world to see and to judge.
And the only way to get over that fear of shipping your work is to tun it into a habit.
There really is no other way...
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You can't save it.
You'll never be able to get more of it.
You can't buy it.
You can't invest it so it multiplies.
And once it's gone you'll never be able to get it back again.
It's your scarcest resource and your most valuable asset.
So what are you going to do with it that lasts?
Today is a good day to think about it.
Because there's still some time left...
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It's very likely that the numbers are against you.
That you've got a lot less experience.
A lot less traffic.
A lot less fans.
A lot less success.
A lot less friends.
And a lot less of pretty much everything...
But some time ago the numbers were also against them.
Some time ago they were the ones with a lot less experience, a lot less traffic, a lot less fans, a lot less success and a lot less friends.
But now they aren't anymore.
The thing is that we all have to start from a similar position.
A position of a lot less.
A position that can turn into a lot more.
If you're willing to do a lot more...
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You just can't.
No one can.
And no one should.
And this is the first step to showing up.
Over and over again.
You gotta get rid of the fear.
The fear of having to be perfect every single time.
Because there's no such thing as perfect.
No one can hit a home run every single time.
The only way to hit just one home run is to hit as much and as often as you can.
Even if you're a professional you won't be able to hit a home run every single time.
The record for most consecutive home runs is four.
And only six people in the history of baseball have ever hit four consecutive home runs.
And this doesn't apply to baseball only.
It applies to pretty much everything in life...
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When you do work you don't enjoy doing everything will feel like a never ending uphill battle.
That's why the only way to be more productive is to do more of the things you enjoy doing.
That's probably the best productivity hack out there.
Doing more of the things you enjoy doing...
It's as simple as that.
The only problem is that it's almost impossible to only do work you enjoy doing.
As a matter of fact, to be able to do more of the things you enjoy doing you actually have to do a lot more work you don't enjoy doing that much.
At least for a while...
Most people think it's the other way round.
You just do more of the things you enjoy doing and the things you don't enjoy doing will just disappear.
Unfortunately, they won't.
It might look like they're disappearing but in fact they're quietly multiplying...
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It's always a good idea to start with the small stuff.
Because not only will it help you to build up confidence along the way but it will also help you to get better at it...
So instead of applying for that dream job right away, try to apply for the not so great ones first.
Instead of building that multi billion dollar business, start selling simple and easy stuff first.
Instead of waiting for that one big shot that will change your life forever, try to take as many small shots as possible.
It'll all help you to build up confidence and improve your skills.
But don't forget why you're doing all the easy stuff first...
To build up that confidence and to get better at what you do so you're able to tackle the big things, the real things.
It's easy to get stuck playing small somewhere along the way telling yourself that it's just temporary.
But it'll only be temporary if you take that confidence, take that leap, level up and at one point move on to the real thing...
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How long did it take you to find out about that new artist, writer, singer, podcaster, blogger [insert whatever is currently the newest thing to do] that's currently exploding online?
Probably just a few seconds.
And how many years have they usually been doing what you're now seeing them doing right in front of you?
Chances are that it looks like they've just started yesterday...
But they've probably already started years ago.
Years before anybody even knew they existed.
Years to master their craft.
So if you're still anxiously waiting for that big breakthrough after you've now been doing what you're doing for a few weeks or maybe even months, then ask yourself this...
"Am I willing to put in the work for that long?"
If not, then you might want to reconsider...
Because the world needs to hear what you have to say.
But unfortunately (or fortunately), the world only listens to people who've put in the work and have already been around for a while...
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It's hard to stop a moving train.
Or a bus.
Or a car.
Just like it's a lot harder to stop someone who's running than it is to stop someone who isn't.
Someone who isn't running, who isn't moving forward (or sometimes backwards) is easy to stop.
Easy to distract.
Easy to confuse.
And easy to convince to keep standing still.
To not start moving.
To not change.
That's why it's so important to keep moving.
No matter how fast or small you're moving forward.
As long as you keep moving, it'll be almost impossible to stop you.
P.S: The single biggest thing stopping us from moving forward are usually we ourselves...
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The thing that's taking up most of our time are the inner battles that we're constantly fighting with ourselves.
The battles about whether or not we should move forward.
About whether or not it's good enough.
If it's the right thing to do.
If it'll harm us or help us.
If we're strong enough to keep pushing through....
For most of the things we do, the actual work doesn't really take that much time anymore.
What takes up most of our time is to decide.
And to then not doubt our decisions along the way...
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A good logo doesn't make a good book.
A good writer does.
Just like good marketing doesn't make a good company.
A good product does.
Just like growth doesn't mean a whole lot.
Happy customers do...
Unfortunately, it's very easy to mistake one for the other.
To get distracted by the quick thing and forget about the real thing.
Simply because the quick thing is always quicker and cheaper than the real thing.
Sure, you probably need both.
But only one of them can exist without the other...
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The hard part isn't coming up with new ideas.
The hard part is to get the old ones out there into the world and out of your system so you have enough space for new ones.
The more ideas that are still stuck in your head, the more you'd be thinking about those and the less space you'd have left to come up with new ones...
At the end of the day it doesn't really matter if it's a good idea or a bad idea.
If they're still stuck up there, they'll take up space.
Space that's needed for new ideas...
And those new ideas are built on the ashes of old ideas.
And the really hard part is to bury your old ideas and fall out of love with them...
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Either because it'll work relatively quickly and then we can move up that ladder and do something better or because it won't work out right away and then we can move on to something better.
Unfortunately, most of the time none of the above holds true.
And instead it'll always take a lot longer until we can move up that ladder just like it'll always take a lot longer until that thing is clearly not working out anymore.
So we end up spending most of our time stuck in between.
In between jobs.
In between relationships.
In between cities.
In between thoughts...
Always waiting for that big breakthrough.
Which, of course will never come because we're too busy spending our time, energy and resources on "in between things" believing that they're just temporary.
Which, of course they aren't.
Because they take about the same amount of time, energy and resources the "real things" take to successfully pull them off.
At the end of the day, the easy stuff and the in between stuff takes the same amount of time, energy and resources the hard stuff, your real stuff would actually take.
However your real stuff might look like...
So why not do that right away?
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If you're clear about, say out loud and announce what you want to achieve, then there are two things that can happen...
You either work as hard as you can to achieve it and consequently increase your chances of getting there or you're not clear about it and don't say it out loud at all because you're afraid of the humiliation if you don't get there.
Unfortunately, most people go with the second option.
Most people remain quiet and unclear about their goals, their dreams and their ambitions and consequently never really increase their chances of getting there.
But is it really an alternative?
Is giving up your dreams, your goals and your ambitions really worth it just to avoid humiliation that might or might not occur some time down the road?
I think that's a good question to end the old and start the new year with...
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What happens until you're successful?
Until you've found the love of your life?
Until things get better?
Until you're happy?
Until you're satisfied?
Until the sun comes out again?
Until you've found meaning in your life?
Until you've achieved all your dreams?
What happens until then?
Whatever it is that you're making happen.
Because no one else will make it for you...
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