I’ve never listened to Joe Rogan’s podcast, but I heard an audio clip of him saying, “Be the superhero of your own story.”
I loved that. Because superheroes aren’t the whole story. They’re only one character who has abnormal powers but is also riddled with flaws. They’re amazing in one sense, but terrible in others because they take action at the moment when something happens to them, sometimes with catastrophic consequences, sometimes they incur collateral damage. Superheroes are awful planners. But they’re still the heroes because they act.
It’s not heroic to show up for an easy win. It’s heroic to struggle, to ask yourself “What can I do to set me up for the best shot at beating the bad guy or getting this thing done?” Then, facing all the other routes that feel easier, or safer, and choosing the best shot anyway. Because that’s all you get on the best day, with the best conditions; a good shot at the thing you want. Being a hero is 0% shooting laser beams from your eyeballs, and 100% facing hard choices, making a “good-enough” plan, and doing your best when the day goes to shit anyway.
Because the day will go to shit. The story will unfold around you. You just want to be the guy or the gal who’s aiming for the “best shot they can get” when it does, and not the person who’s paralyzed by the habits earned through weeks or even months or years of easy wins and easy decisions.
My plan is simple. When I don’t know what to do. I just show the f*ck up in whatever is ailing me and give it my best shot. Usually, that means I show up at the gym. Sometimes I just sit at my favorite burger joint with an open laptop, typing nonsense until a plan forms, and the story tells me what it is.
That’s not today’s post. Here is how it really started…
I don’t know what I’m doing. Just sitting at Big Orange waiting for a menu.
I began typing this post without any point to make for you (whoever you are) but, we’ll see where it goes.
I’m a big fan of starting small and hoping for better resources as you go along because, well, that’s how anything works. Sometimes, you even become smarter at what you’re doing by simply doing it and letting your gut guide you through what you’re attempting to do.
Goals, and achievements are a lot less like a planned trip with road bumps along the way, and a lot more like stories that unfold as you read them for the first time, or maybe even put the pen to paper and write without knowing what you’ll write about. I have to let the story tell you what it is, a lot like a solution will present itself only when you stop focusing on the problem and get back into your routine.
Writing out what the best day of eating would look like is good, but your job, and kids, and traffic will tell you what kind of day it’s going to really be. Sometimes the day takes it easy on you. Other days, it can seem like your plans were foiled, but that’s how it’s supposed to work. The story always unfolds around you. Having a plan is what puts you a leg up for writing a stronger part in your story.
I’ve never listened to Joe Rogan’s podcast, but I heard an audio clip of him saying, “Be the superhero of your own story.”
I loved that. Because…
That’s the full post. But today your story starts here…
