How to Get Anything You Want
It’s so damn hard to change. Here’s how to stop being miserable and do it once and for all.
I’ve come to believe that people don’t think change is possible because hardly anyone has proved it is.
The ratio of people who have changed to people who haven’t is probably 1: a stupid amount of people.
Even though there have been the rare few who’ve managed to become the version of themselves they needed to be to actualize their dreams, that number in comparison to everyone else in the world who hasn’t changed is too few.
How can I say that? Because somehow, even with thousands of people changing daily, people still don’t think it’s possible.
The boring human
I’ve always been of the mindset that if someone else can do it, I can too. Unfortunately, not many of us boring humans think that way. They need something else.
They need more. They need certainty. They yearn for clarity from a life that is anything but clear. They long for 4k, constantly attempting to force sharp edges from things that will always remain blurry.
For these humans, the number of people who are indeed changing isn’t high enough to make a difference in their own lives. Even with all the examples out there, it’s still too rare of an occurrence, too much of a phenomenon, a freak accident.
The idea of change and the people who are changing need to be much more frequent and commonplace in our world. If so, no longer can the uninspired and unmotivated human specimen chalk up the humans who do change to “DNA” or “being special” or “extraordinary” or being a “freak of nature”.
Too many people are attaching a supernatural excuse to the exceptional human to make themselves feel better about their mediocrity.
It should go without saying, but if you never believe change is possible, you won’t change
If you want to accomplish your dreams, you most likely won’t. Dreams aren’t guaranteed. Chances are slim. We’re all gonna die. All hope is probably lost. Yadda yadda blah blah blah.
For those who think this way, they’ve lost all hope in thinking that change and the actualization of dreams are possible. They’ll never change because change is a phenomenon of the exceptional, and God forbid we think of ourselves as being capable of exceptionalism.
Exceptionalism is too hopeful and optimistic and faithful for the unmotivated human. There’s too much light in believing we are capable.
Here’s the thing:
To achieve your dreams, it will require a different you. It will demand that you become that person who can get the job done.
I don’t care about your definition of change
I don’t care how you may believe that deep down, in the essence of one’s inherent being and identity, you can’t actually change who you are. Whatever that means.
It’s not that complex.
I’m talking about dreams here. If you want this thing, and if you understand your chances are already slim, you have two choices:
If you’re gonna try, you have to do everything in your power to chase that dream so that you increase your chances. The best way to increase your chances, adjust the odds, and tip the damn scales in your favor is to change into a person necessary to accomplish said things.
You have to become a person you can trust to do the work.
You can’t neglect the future you. The future you…is you. They’re sculpted by your current state, experiences, choices, and actions. You have to think about what your future-self-of-greatness-who-has-accomplished-your-dreams would do now.
That’s the essence of change. That’s all I care about. That’s all that matters. Essentially, who do you have to become to make this happen? What lifestyle do you need to accept and live out for once in your life?
If you can imagine it, you can become it
Understand this:
You aren’t deserving of the future you want, but the future you deserve as a result of your everyday choices and actions.
Maybe you have it somewhere in the back of your mind that if you neglect your dreams, nothing happens. But that’s not true, is it?
I’d argue that if you neglect your dreams, everything happens. The results are catastrophic. They’re damaging to the world, to the ones you care about, and especially to you.
Maybe you think that if you remain as you are and forget your dreams, you won’t have to face the prospect of change. And yet, you don’t realize that even then, you’re still changing: You’re slowly sinking and situating yourself more and more into the person you would have to become to convince yourself that it’s not worth chasing the only thing that brings meaning and purpose to your life.
It’s funny, we think we are so powerless
We think we are so powerless and have no control, so we don’t try.
We don’t realize that our inaction is an act of extreme power itself. We have in our very being the power to go against the very things that can bring you the most life.
We don’t realize that we are in control, and that’s either a blessing or a curse. Your supposed lack of control and inability to do the hard things is an exercise of the control you do have.
Whether you are aware of it or not, you are committed to your current life. Everything you do now is either to change or remain as you are. Every single thing. Most of us will fight to maintain our current state even if we don’t like it. It’s too comfortable at this point.
You may never change because change is so damn hard. It’s damn near impossible, but “damn near” is not absolute. The problem is we tend to make the near-impossible things certainly impossible. They’re not the same thing.
Really hard doesn’t equate to impossible. Slim chances are not synonymous with no chance whatsoever.
I’m not all the way there by any means, but I will be. I believe it to be true. I know change is possible and that I’m capable of achieving my wildest dreams. That’s all I need.
It’s hard to think about death and regret because that’s sometime in the future. Maybe if you can adjust your perspective to believe that the future is now, things would be different.
The future is constantly adjusting to what you do now anyway, so you might as well believe that the present and future are running along together simultaneously. They’re parallel.
You are your future. The journey is the destination. It’s all one. There’s no point in separating the things that are dependent on each other.
We neglect the future because we can’t see it now. We fail to believe it is now. We forget about our dreams because of the work it would take to change to achieve them. We fail to think that the dream is the work, and you can’t have one without the other.