Why are some writers more successful than others?

Photo by Hu Chen on Unsplash

Some things are embarrassing for me to admit. Like how much time I spend worrying about “us” vs. “them”.

That is, how much time I’m like “why are some people famous and established and successful and some people aren’t?”.
In case you’re wondering, I very much see myself as “us” and everyone established in Hollywood as “them.”

Okay, yeah, so I’m a little bitter about it. I’m bitter about the velvet rope that divides us. I’m bitter that I don’t have the family or connections that get me in that particular door. I’m bitter that it’s taking me so long to get to the other side of that rope. But you know what doesn’t help? BEING BITTER ABOUT IT.

A couple of metaphors for you:

1. I have a waterfall near my house. It’s awesome. I can hike to it. One day I was at the waterfall and attempting to make my way back up the cliff-side and I couldn’t quite figure out how to get back up. I just took one step at a time. Finding my foothold and moving up. But when I got to the top I looked back down and saw the clear path to the top — I just couldn’t see it while I was on the journey because of my perspective.
2. I have a rock-patio in my back yard. It’s basically just a bunch of tiny rocks with chairs on it and some string lights. It’s nice. But occasionally weeds grow up through those rocks because I did a bad job when I built it. So yesterday I’m pulling weeds and when I look up I see an entire area full of weeds and get stressed out. “This will take an ETERNITY!” I thought to myself. But when I put my head down and pull one weed at a time… I was done in 30 minutes.

I, unfortunately, forget about these metaphors too often and overwhelm myself and get stressed out, so I need this reminder every once in a while and maybe you do as well.

1. Life is like climbing the cliff by the waterfall. You’re not gonna know how to get to the top. You can spend all your time charting a course and worrying about the journey and asking why other people have ladders and you have to climb the dumb rocks, but the truth is if just JUST START CLIMBING, you will get to the top and you will look back and see how easy it all was and what were you worrying about anyways?
2. Life is like pulling weeds. You can sit back and look at all the ups and downs of the journey and get overwhelmed, or you can JUST START PULLING WEEDS. Before you know it, all those weeds will be pulled and you’ll have a beautiful patio!

Maybe it’s just me and you guys are super chill and confident on your journey. If that’s the case, I don’t have much advice for you.

But if you’re like me, you’re anxious and overthink it all and spend most of your life stressed out about missed opportunities or what you did wrong or who you’re not meeting or paralyzed by decisions and you need to hear this:

JUST DO.

This is actually the answer to my embarrassing anxiety-ridden question earlier: Why are some people successful? BECAUSE THEY JUST DO. They don’t overthink it. They don’t spend all their time dreaming and planning. They don’t stress out about it. They don’t compare themselves to others. They have confidence in themselves.

THEY JUST DO.

When I first launched my podcast, I had about 3 plays that first week. Then 20 plays the next. Then 60 plays the week after that, and eventually worked its way up to over 1,000 plays on my most listened-to episode. This didn’t happen because I planned it or worried about it. I didn’t do anything “right” or “wrong.” I JUST DID. I didn’t worry about it. I did something I loved. I helped other people on the journey. And it began to gain traction.

I think the “just doing” is hard for writers because there are no analytics for it. We can’t look on a map and tell where we are. Even with the weeds and cliff metaphors — I could look and tell roughly how far I’d been and how far I have left to go. With writing — we don’t have those guide posts. We just start and keep doing until we “make it.”

While writing doesn’t have the same analytics as podcasts, but you’ve got to treat it the same way.

Do something you love to do. Believe in yourself. Do it every day. Treat each project that you write, each connection that you make, each short film you create, and each contest you enter as the next weed you’re pulling. The successful people don’t stop after one weed! They don’t stop after climbing one step on the way to the top of the cliff! They keep going.

At some point you’ll look up from the weeds and realize that you’ve pulled them all and you’ve made it. But for now, keep looking down.

Take it step by step.

Pull one weed and then pull the next.

Just do.

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