“The only way to get started is to quit talking and start doing.”

– Walt Disney

“Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.” – Henry Ford

Decide what it is you want.

Write that shit down.

Make a plan.

And…

Work on it.

Every.

Single.

Day.

“It is the struggle itself that is most important. We must strive to be more than we are. It does not matter that we will not reach our ultimate goal. The effort itself yields its own reward.”

― Gene Roddenberry

NO EXCUSES!

Someone asked Neil deGrasse Tyson what was the most astounding fact about the universe. His answer was pretty amazing…

What does this have to do with excuses?

The chance of your mere existence is a cosmic miracle. Your life is a gift. Don’t waste it making excuses. I know that sounds cheesy, but I can’t think of any other way to say it.

“You are a ghost driving a meat covered skeleton made out of stardust. What could you possibly have to be afraid of?” – Unknown

This TED Talk by Gary Vaynerchuck is one of my favorite things ever. It consistently inspires me to do whatever it takes.

Hustle is the most important word. EVER! – Gary V.

I still remember the day it all changed.

I’ll tell the longer version of this story later; but the short version goes like this:

I had fucked my life up. I was on a pretty good track. Actually, a great track. My life was pretty amazing. But I started to screw it up. Slowly at first.

I started to slack, and get depressed, and make excuses, and slack some more, and then use the depression as an excuse to slack some more. Rinse, repeat, fuck it, let’s repeat it again.

The excuses got worse and worse. I started to let other people down. I’d been letting myself down for a while, so I had plenty of practice at being disappointing.

I stopped trusting myself. I’d say I was going to do something, and even I stopped believing it at some point. Something would always come up. Some excuse would “get in my way.”

Of course, it was all bullshit. All lies. All in my head. Negative self talk is always a lie, but that’s the best trick depression knows how to play. You start to believe it. Start to doubt yourself. Start to live up to your negative self talk. The lies start to become true.

And then… I don’t even know how or why or even when, but I woke up one morning and then I did something I’d never done before… I woke up again. Once from my nightly slumber and then again from the nightmare of lies I’d been telling myself about my life.

HOLY SHIT!

What? What the fuck? No no no no no no no no no no no. Please let this not be real. Holy shit. Fuck. No!

In terms of the “5 stages of grief,” it felt like I went through all of them in the course of a few seconds.

1. Denial. (What!? No no no no no no no.)
2. Anger. (FUCK! HOLY SHIT FUCK FUCK FUCK!)
3. Bargaining. (Please let this not be real.)
4. Depression. (Again… fuck fuck fuck, but now only lowercase.)
5. Acceptance. (OK. Well, this fucking sucks, but let’s do something about it.)

It was a rough morning, but it was extremely valuable. I’d hit my breaking point.

I could finally see clearly, and it was time to change.

 

You can make excuses, or you can make things happen.