Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about success. Success in the terms of achieving goals and where it fits in within the bigger picture.
I ended up thinking about this after achieving a few goals I didn’t quite expect to achieve so soon. While grappling with the joy it brought, deep down my gut kept yelling at me to not get distracted. This is when the thought hit me. Often, when we achieve something that on a personal scale is awesome, we tend to get stuck.
How? By allowing ourselves to get comfortable in the success that now lives in the past. In this action we cause ourselves to lose sight of what could come next.
Focus + Preparation + Action = Momentum
Now don’t get me wrong. Celebrating your achievements is a crucial thing to do. In order for you to progress and move onward, you have to acknowledge where you’ve been. But it’s important to not lose sight of our why in the process. We risk losing momentum by never daring to move forward. Because we’ve grown comfortable with the feelings our past success.
Without a clear picture of what’s next, we try to extend the shelf life of our past success. Talking about it over and over again. Until we find ourselves feeling suffocated by complacency, of not knowing what to do next. Because we failed to plan.
This is where keeping a list of goals comes into play. It allows us to keep track of the micro steps that lead to the macro legacy we aim to leave behind.
It allows us to stay focused.
Often, we underestimate how much we can do in a given year, and overestimate how much can fit in a day. With life moving at a rapid pace, it’s important to keep up. To prepare for the journey we’re taking whether in a career, relationship, or hobby is a part of that process.
Macro progress can only happen when we take the micro steps. Meaning, the larger picture appears when we keep things moving.
There’s a time for everything
There’s a time for joking, a time for crying, a time for sleep, and a time to hustle. With only so many hours in a day, and an uncertain amount of hours in life. Why waste that time waiting on permission to create the good you wish to see? Why waste that time trying to fit in a mold created by someone else’s personal unhappiness?
Challenge yourself to grow, to not rely on past success but to be better than you were yesterday. Take authority over your fears. The imposter syndrome. The negative thoughts that seek to hold you back from achieving greatness.
Let them be but small blemishes that remind you of where it is you’re heading.
Where you’re headed is far better than where you’ve been. But the only way to get there is to keep moving. To keep looking up even when it seems impossible. To aim always upward. Question is, will you?
Find that one thing that makes you jump out of bed in the morning. That one thing that brings good to your life. Do it daily. It shouldn’t matter if it makes you money, because it brings you something worth far more. Bonus points if it brings in revenue.
Let Your Why Guide You
We don’t realize how fortunate we are to be alive. How lucky we are to have the privileges we have take for granted.
The obstacles we place in our own way defines our outcomes. What needs to be done may not always be the fun thing you want to be doing.
It’s in the moments of when doubt begins to creep in, where the whispers from imposter syndrome rise.
It’s in these moments where you need to remember your why. Don’t forget why you started, why you’re giving it your all. Don’t forget why you’re building your legacy.
Your journey to give your gift will break you … but it will also make you. What’s the sense in giving up now? You’ve made it this far, might as well keep going.
The pillars of our success are solidified from our habits. Habits of consistency, faith, and dedication to something bigger than personal gain.
It takes courage to keep walking when the path is obscured by confusion. Trust. Believe. Love. Keep moving. Keep aiming always upward.
