You’re Doing it Wrong
Reach Your Goals by Building Your Own Road
There are a million ways to reach a goal, build a habit, or learn a skill. And when we aim to do something important, we want to do it right. So we do our research.
We read articles like “How I Lost 30 Pounds in 2 Months (And Kept It Off!)” or “I Made $5,000 in My First Month as a Freelance Writer — And You Can Too!” And don’t get me wrong, those articles are great. They’re fun to read. They inspire us. And they motivate us to keep going when we’re ready to give up. But there’s a danger to them too.
Sometimes we read them and conclude: If I do exactly what they did, I’ll have the same success! So when we carefully step into each one of their footprints, following their every move, it hurts even more when we fail. Why?
Because we think the method is solid, bulletproof. This is what made him a success. It works. I don’t work. Is that true?
No.
The truth is that,
For the most important things, we each must build our own road.
That success story you dissected —It worked for him because he created it for himself. He started from scratch and made a system he could love and stick with.
But playing follow-the-leader with a success story is a lot easier than building something out of nothing. I have to know myself, my circumstances, what I really want. And after all that introspection, I have to get creative and build my own road to get me where I want to be.
And I can’t worry that someone else’s road is getting there faster. There are as many roads as there are people. The important thing is that I reach my destination. I might take the scenic route, but it’s the route I know I’ll love and stick with.
Because it’s tailor-made for me.
So what are you waiting for? Go and build your own road.
