A note on reality.
For most of us we want to be ‘more’ something. More healthy, happy, stylish, Beyonce. Whatever. And for the most of the people who want to be more something, they also already know how to get there. It’s no big secret that being more healthy means no chocolate at 11am and drinking more water, if you want to be happier you need to look at what makes you happy and do more of that, if you want to be more stylish, find the style you love and imitate. None of this is rocket science. More Beyonce… well I mean some things are just unachievable. Whatever your ‘more is’ I bet you know the way to get there. Even with the big big goals, they all start with one tiny ‘more’.
If you don’t know what your more is a) maybe you don’t have one and that’s absolutely fine go live your life – I am very, very envious of you. b) if you want to find it, it’ll be the stuff you get frustrated at yourself for… you’ll find yourself dreaming about if you were better ‘x’ then you would where you want to be. This isn’t a post about finding your ‘more’, although seems a fairly good title so I may write an article on that soon.
You’re bored in your day job and you know that what you’re really passionate about could make you way more than what you make in your boring day job but you stay put. It’s the same thing. All these things hang off admitting the truth about getting more or doing bigger things.
It takes work – and that is far too simple and boring to be worth having a go at.
We all have a mental to do list – the to do list that is created around obtaining being more. I’ve done it myself. An Eve-intervention.
I sit myself down and go ‘right, what do you really want to achieve in your life’, I iron out my goals, make them S.M.A.R.T and put a plan in place to meet those goals. One of those goals I’ll share with you. It’s to write two hundred articles this year. So, what do I need to do that? Well, I just need to write. I’ve written eight so far this year so only one hundred and ninety two to go. But oh not that is far too simple. So instead, I do anything but write. I spend ages, going back through my goal… Is it really clear enough? Maybe if I make it clearer I’ll be more likely to achieve it. I create to do lists… before I can write another article I’ll need to buy myself a fancy pen and notebook because that’s what all successful writers have (a fact I’ve just made up). I spend time writing up ideas (useful but I’ll do that instead of actually writing), I’ll go back round to thinking is that really what I want to do? Yes we’ve already established that. I’ll spend time going through all the reasons why I can’t write two hundred articles this year and I should concentrate on doing other stuff instead. Maybe I should start that business I wanted to start or go for a bike ride instead.
I go round and round and round.
I think we all do. Because the truth to being where you want to be is just far too boring and far too simple. Every ‘successful’ person you see, I bet my bottom dollar they have spent the majority of their time doing the boring stuff. It’s not fun all the time, it’s not shiny and fancy, it’s not new cars and it’s certainly not high-flying. It’s just work. And that’s the boring truth about what it takes to meet your goals. It. Is. Boring. And don’t get me wrong – I love writing. I love, love, love writing. But it’s not always fun getting up and writing every morning or at least, trying too. Sometimes I have no ideas, I don’t know what to say or I don’t know how to say it. And that is the point with all this stuff. And if you’re ‘more’ is really someone else’s, you won’t be able to stick with it because the one thing that gets your through the boring is, that you actually just really love doing it.
So find something you love, put your head down and don’t look up until you’ve achieved the goal. In the words of Nike ‘Just Do It’.