( Joodie Shy )

Overnight success isn’t real. That’s not how it happens. And here is proof, see Chris Guillebeau. This IS how it happens. And his value is much greater than if it had been one giant sweep of random luck or chance. I just finished reading his free eBook about “overnight success” and it restated a lot of things I already knew but wasn’t completely confident about. Luck happens. And so does shit. He reminded me that you can work the middle ground and come out a hit!

I’d love to keep rocking my creative impulses and indulging them with tasks and work and projects. And I have all the time I need because I’m not waiting for my fifteen minutes to come and go. I’m actually enjoying life, enjoying writing, and enjoying the slow process of growing! Besides I need to stop thinking that life’s all one great big practice game before the superbowl. It’s really more like one really long practice that never ends.

This upcoming travel adventure has proved this all again and again to me. Renewal, change, transformation and ‘the unexpected’ are always waiting for new ways to act out in your life (whether you like it or not).

Here’s some things I’ve learned about myself (but that I kind of hate to admit are true)…

1. Luck is completely unreliable and you can’t just ‘wait it out’ hoping it will reach you eventually. You might wait your whole life.
2. If I have the attention of lots of people I want to deserve it, earn it, and value it. Attention on the internet is a great treasure, so don’t waste it.
3. My impatience sometimes causees me to not do anything at all. It doesn’t keep me busy and it doesn’t make me a productive person. Being impatient is a waste of time.
4. Tiny, little action steps take a lot less emotional (read: stressful) energy to act upon.
5. Big steps are called projects and you can’t just “do” them. (Example: Write a book. Not something to put on your to-DO list!) Process, process, process. Work with it baby!
6. There is very little that I can be convinced to do 7 days a week. I will sleep and I will eat every damn day. Beyond that, you may be out of luck. My pace is never steady and I’m okay with that.
7. Daily action steps usually end up being not-so-daily-but-kinda-close action steps. We’re not robots and we can never be positive how we’ll feel from one day to the next.

– This is how I work and I can still be successful, dammit!

So can you, just stop waiting to get lucky and go do something now.

Tags: change, learning, transformation