Joe Rogan was telling the story of the first time he was going on stage at an open mic night. He was terrified. He was praying that he was passed over.
‘Sorry bud, couldn’t get you on stage tonight’… then it’s all over.
He can punt the decision until next time.. and never even go back to the club.
He could have been the funny guy who’m all his friends say ‘Dude you should totally be a comedian, you’d do great’.. for the rest of his life.
But there was this voice he decided to listen to.. a voice that said ‘This is what you’re supposed to do, this is where you’re supposed to be..’ then he went out.. and basically bombed. But he went back, and got better, and better, and better. He kept working at it until he was one of the best comedians in the world
Whats funny about this line – ” But he went back, and got better, and better, and better.” – is that those 11 words represent 10+ years of grinding.
3,650 or more days of deciding to stick with it. Learning from previous mistakes, deciding to go back up on stage and get your teeth kicked in, but to keep getting better.
IT’S A GRIND.
Bill Gates, from the Netfilx Special ‘Inside Bill’s Brain‘, spent years and years working day and night, obsessing over building Microsoft.
If you have not seen this I highly suggest checking it out.
The power of a single decision is immense. But not the first one. Decisions have a compounding effect both ways.
When you make a good decision, it becomes easier to make other good decisions. Ever notice how when things are going good, they typically continue to go good until something interrupts the pattern?
Good breakfast, good lunch, good dinner.. you can run hard with good decisions until the voice in your head says…
‘Who are you kidding, you cant keep this up…’ This usually happens when you’re fatigued and are out of good options..
Then you make one bad decision. Instead of working on the task you know you should be working on, you jump to Facebook… then another bad decision. Let’s check the news.. now that great day of eating, or being productive has been derailed…. It happens with everything and almost everyone.
But not those who are super successful in their craft. They obsess over the details. Obsess. Obsess. Obsess.
What if that’s not natural? How do you cultivate it? How do you place guard rails around yourself to build good habits?
First off Acknowledge the power of a decision. Train yourself to make more good decisions than bad and create an environment that fosters obsession. Don’t just set goals. Write them down and look at them as much as you need to.. in every aspect of your life.
Start working towards them. And then prepare to fail.
It’s so incredibly simple, and cliche’, but it’s not what you do when things are going great. It’s what you do when things are going bad that will determine where you end up.
Ed Norton’s move ‘Motherless Brooklyn’ was 20+ years in the making. 20 Years! He had the idea for this movie and the timing was just never right, the stars seemingly took forever to align.. but it finally came together.
This year I’ve heard tons of stories of 50 & 60 somethings that finally pulled that project or business together they have been dreaming of. Rich Roll worked his butt off for 7 years basically 7 days a week building his brand, Dean Karnazes talks of how he’s constantly selling himself and his ideas…
If you’re going to do something well, it’s going to be a grind.
Figure out exactly what you want to do and then create ways to make yourself love it… More on that next time.