When the tumblers in a lock align correctly, the vault opens.

I am now so far away from who I was that I barely recognize the person who started out here 1,500 days ago.

If you’re wondering what in the world I’m going on about … 1,500 days ago I wasn’t writing. At all. Not just Not Every Single Day but Not Any Day. I liked to talk about writing and how “someday” I’d be a writer (again) but I wasn’t doing it. John Muldoon over at Monthly Experiments customized one of his challenges so that I would write 30 days in a row in order to (try to) build up a writing habit. I wasn’t looking forward to it. It sounded painful. It didn’t sound like fun. Talking about being someone and actually being that someone are canyons apart from each other. Long story short, I succeeded in the 30-day challenge and have kept going and today is day 1,500.

1,500 days ago, I was searching, reaching, even pleading for help. I knew not where to look or whom to ask. I didn’t start because I didn’t know where or how or maybe even why. I didn’t know that just starting was enough.

Is today your Day #1?

If you’re reading this and not quite on your Day Number One, but would like to start, let me send out a simple challenge: tomorrow you look back on today as the day you unleashed the shackles, the day that you opened the dam gates just a sliver and you took the first step in becoming who you know that you truly are.

There is a secret to it all, though. There’s a big, nasty secret that you can find buried in the deepest chapters of books on success or self-help or improvement. It’s not about patience, although that’s part of it. It’s not about persistence, but that’s sure helpful. It’s partly about passion, but that’s more just fuel for the fire. It’s not even about doing or starting or wanting, but they are certainly elements.

You have to want it, but that’s a given, isn’t it? Of course you want it. You like to talk about it, even boast about it. You might even do it, but that’s still not the core of the secret sauce. It’s not just wanting and doing, it’s wanting and doing because all you really need is:

To Be The Person You Know You Are

The secret ingredient buried deep in yourself is that you be who you want to be. It’s not an act, it’s not an exercise. It’s not just doing or wanting to be who you want to be. It’s not dreaming or pretending about that person you’d like to be. It’s not trying or hoping or wishing or reading about who you would like to be.

If you’re reading this and you’re not quite sure what I’m getting at, then I’m afraid you’re just not ready yet. It will come. When you know who you want to be, you can no longer deny it. You can try to hide it, but it’s usually painful and comes at great cost. In fact, it can cost you an entire life of not being who you knew you were.

It’s a simple mindset shift. I write simple because it’s not very complicated. However, it’s also simple like an earthquake is simple: it’s just a few tectonic plates shifting.

What needs to shift in your brain, or more accurately, in your heart, before you are the person you know you are? If your heart decides, your brain will follow. If your brain decides, your heart might follow.

It’s not external factors that you’re waiting on. It’s not this book deal or that promotion. It’s not this sign or that recognition. Here’s the good news and the bad news at the same time: this mindset shift occurs only within you. The good news is that you don’t need any external factors. The bad news is it’s all you.

If you see that bad news as good news, then you have a step up on most. If you know you have what it takes to make the shift but just need that last push, allow my 1,500th day to be your extra push. I have boundless energy. I have enough to go around. I happily share it with you. Take a little to get you over the hump to get you rolling. I know you don’t need it, but I’m offering it, so please take it.

Make today your first day.

  • Possible: tomorrow
  • Impossible: yesterday
  • Repossible: today

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1,500 Posts in 1,500 Days. I'm exactly where I want to be. [Driebergen, Holland]

1,500 Posts in 1,500 Days. I’m exactly where I want to be. [Driebergen, Holland]

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