The Spokes

Grab them and snap them.

One morning, I quit my 9-5 job and said, “I’m a writer now.”

Want to do something similar?

Listen:

Quitting my job to bet on myself is a decision I agonized over for years.

But when it came down to it, the actions it took to create my reality took me less than 24 hours.

• Woke up

• Printed a 2-week notice

• Gave an 8:00 A.M. presentation

• Quit at 9:00 A.M.

When you're "stuck" in the day-to-day grind, it's easy to get tunnel vision. And it’s hard to grasp the vastness of opportunity that simply being alive offers you.

And because the years whip by at speeds that shake the station, it can feel impossible — almost dangerous — to stick your hand in the spokes, grab hold, and snap your patterns.

So instead of taking advantage of the limitless sandbox of the human experience, you blink and years pass and you still haven’t progressed toward That Thing You Wanted To Do.

But the life you live is simply a result of the actions you take.

Most outcomes are determined by your inputs — not by random chance. As Vincent van Gogh once wrote:

“If one wants to be active, one must not be afraid of making some mistakes. Many people think they will become good by doing no harm; that’s a lie … It leads to stagnation and mediocrity.”

And look — these don’t have to be drastic things. They usually aren’t. I know plenty of people who love their patterns. Their jobs. Their relationships.

But you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn’t have something they want to change.

So whether that’s quit-your-job-and-move-4,000-miles-away drastic or man-I’m-sick-of-eating-the-same-thing-every-day mundaneness, the actions it takes to change your situation are often less daunting than your brain makes them seem.

Remember: Your future self is watching you right now through your memories.

Who you are is who you choose to be.