You Can Do It — Just Do It.

A learnception on “The Morning Habits of the Rich”, an episode on Lewis Howes podcast, The School of Greatness.

Everyone wants to be successful — of course, success can mean different things to different people. There’s a guy named Winter whose mission in life is to drink coffee from every company-owned Starbucks in the world, to date he’s visited 14,042 stores. For Hiroo Onoda, it was to fight and dedicate his life for the Japanese empire, no matter the cost. For me, I still don’t know what it would mean to be successful just yet.

I know I want to have a family of my own someday, have enough money so I can travel and see the world and all of its beauty, and have a social enterprise based in Indonesia.

But right now, what I really want to do, is to learn, meet interesting people and build projects with them. Every day, I have a thousand (okay maybe not exactly a thousand, because that is a lot) of ideas coursing through my mind. Writing projects that I want to delve more into (such as #BusinessesToWatch). Research projects that will allow me to better understand the digital marketing landscape better. Improve how I write and tell stories. Understand how I read — and how other people read and analyze common threads and unique approaches to reading. Exploring different social media platforms as a means to tell stories. Multiple graphic, email, and web design projects. Among many, many other things.

Overwhelmed & confused, I decided to tune in to Lewis Howes’ podcast and I thought that it was very relevant and very useful for me. So I thought it might be relevant and useful for you too.

The Myth.

Here are some common excuses — or rather myths — that people tell themselves every day that hinders them from doing that one thing that can get them closer to where they want to be.

1. I don’t have the education and training.
2. I don’t have time.
3. I don’t have focus and direction.
4. I don’t know what to do.

The Truth.

1. You Can Read & Learn —I understand that every day, you can learn something new just by living in this world. Going on Reddit exposes you to different tangents of possibilities (some of my favorite threads include TIL, Explain Like I’m Five, and Free Folk), scrolling through 9gag and Instagram reveals new and often exciting information happening in the world (Prince Harry just proposed to Meghan Markle?!), and watching Netflix or Hulu… although it does keep you healthy & sane (and sometimes even inspired), you won’t really learn anything substantial from binge-watching. But, to break through the barrier of excuses, you need to approach your learning more deliberately. It means dedicating a specific block of your time, every day to learn about something that you are deeply interested in.
2. You Can Work Out — When he was still a president, Barack Obama works out for 45 minutes, six days a week. Warren Buffet was given two options by his doctor “Either you eat better or you exercise,” and he chose the lesser of two evils and kept his Omaha steaks, hamburgers and Coca Cola. Anna Wintour wakes up every morning at 5:45 A.M. to play tennis. Despite their crazy schedules, these individuals made working out a priority in their lives, even if it means waking up earlier than you are used to.
3. You Can Spend Time With People Who Inspires You — I’m sure there’s people around you who inspires you every day. It can be your parents, who works hard every day to make sure that there’s food on the table and your education is paid for. It can be your brother, who shows you the power of being selfless. It can be your sister, who reminds you of the importance of being curious. It can be anyone — really. But spending time with people who inspires you will help you understand the way they think and allow you to adopt the mindsets and habits of the people who you look up to.
4. You Can Set Goals — You can travel without a compass, you just won’t know where you’re going. I think that having a goal is a lot like having a compass. Of course you can go through life without a goal. But you will wander aimlessly, from one place to another, never really feeling like you are in the right place. Always questioning if this is really where you should be and what you should be doing.
5. You Can Get Up Early — I’m not sure how to feel about this, because each person is wired differently. Some people work better in the morning, other produces their greatest work at 3 AM in the morning. So for me, this is NOT about being super human and forcing your body to do things it is not meant to do. I think that getting up early simply means giving yourself enough time to prepare for your day. After all, starting the day right will give you the momentum to end it right as well.
6. You Can Find & Check In with Mentors — I didn’t realized this before, but there’s a lot that you can get just by asking. There’s a great TED Talk on it by Amanda Palmer, called “The Art of Asking”.
7. Be Positive — We can’t choose the things that happen to us. Not really. But we can choose our reaction. When I was in middle school, basketball was everything to me. One of the season, I was practicing really hard, staying in the court later than most so I can work on my game. As we were approaching the tournament, my parents gave me an ultimatum. I have to go to a pilgrimage trip during the tournament week. No room for discussion — they just expected me to drop everything I’m doing and just go. At that point, I had two options. One, which was what I wanted to do in the first place, sulk and give my parents the stink eye. Two, understand that I’m probably there for a reason and make the most out of my situation. I chose option two, and I got to be baptized in the Jordan river, rode a camel to the top of Mt. Sinai, and enjoyed the wonders of Petra. Had I focused on what I’m missing, I would have never appreciated and enjoyed the opportunity that I do have in front of me.

I would like to end with a quote by John W. Gardner, who said that, “Excellence us doing ordinary things extraordinary well.” All of the things that are mentioned above are not extraordinary things. Its ordinary things that everyone can do, but not everyone does well.

The sobering truth is, there is no secret or short-cut to success. Only hard work and perseverance. The only way you can get to be where you want to be, is to start doing things and figuring things out as you go.

To borrow Nike’s slogan, just do it. Whatever ‘it’ might be for you.

Thank you for reading, and if you think that this was relevant & useful for you feel free to check out the original podcast here.