The Time Will Pass Anyway
We've All Been Trapped
Society has been designed to get you to fit into its neat little paradigm.
Go to school, learn a bunch of mostly useless things (past grade school anyway). go to college where you accumulate debt,
start a career to pay off that debt, work your ass off til you're too old to pursue anything else, retire and live frugally til you die.
No thanks.
But what absolutely blows my mind is that 90 percent of people out there, are going to do this exact thing.
They have this idea in their head that living a creative life, a life where you do something you actually desire is for "other people."
People who got lucky.
People who were raised differently than they were.
People that are naturally more creative.
Well I'm going to tell you something that you need to hear, and if you're not a spring chicken anymore might even sting:
The only difference in you and those people, is the decision to act.
That's it.
They have the same doubts as you do, the same fears, the same imposter syndrome , but that
on decision to act anyway is the only thing that separates you.
The Cornerstone Of Everything
Now it can't be that easy can it? If it were just about deciding to act, everyone would right?
So why don't we?
The reason most people will never act on their desire to live a life of their dreams, one where they call their own shots and don't
wait for someone else's permission to pursue their passion, is because deep down at the very core of who they are lies one
pivotal reality:
They don't believe that they can succeed.
That's it.
The cornerstone in the mindset of the people that go after what they truly desire is that at a fundamental level they believe
they can achieve it. It doesn't mean that they know how they will, or that they have a plan, but they believe that they can figure it
out over time. Before they decided to act, every successful person believed that they could achieve their goal.
But what about those of us who don't? Are we just doomed to be the worker ants, that spend our days summing up to the rest of
the colony? Watching the clock from 9-5 everyday waiting to use what little time there is
left in the day to do what actually lights us up? How can we cultivate this self belief?
The Time Will Pass Anyway
I remember the first time I gained weight. I was 23 years old, I was touring with my old band School Boy Humor and I
had gained 20lbs.
A side effect of touring the country playing in a different city every night is that you for the most part are living a very
sedentary lifestyle.
8-10 hours in a car everyday, gas station food, no real routine.
It's hard not to stack on the pounds.
After I realized things had gotten a little out of hand, I tried dieting.
I'd last a couple days, maybe a week, and I'd fall off the wagon.
Most of the times this resulted in me binge eating my favorite foods, and not only undoing my progress from the last
few days but actually making it worse.
Until one day, I had a realization.
The next 6 months are going to pass no matter what
At the end of 6 months, I'd either have made the decision, and be looking back on 6 months of discipline where I stuck to my
goals and had changed my body. Or I'd have kept making the decision that "I'd just start again on monday" over and over again
and make no progress or end up even worse.
Every day that I wanted to cheat on my diet, I'd try to visualize myself at that 6 month mark. I'd embody the feeling of the pride
and accomplishment I had by being where I wanted to be. I'd embody the pain and regret of allowing myself to continue bad
habits, and allow myself to really feel this disappointment as if it was actually this moment.
And slowly but surely, day by day, I stayed on track. I didn't think about how much time I had left, I just thought about getting
through each day. And after 6 months I'm proud to say, I was able to look back completely changed, both physically and
mentally. So where does that leave us?
You Are One Decision Away
I posted a video about this the other day, but a phrased you see a lot in viral videos around creator culture is to Just Start.
But we both know it's not that easy. So instead I ask myself:
Where will I be in 5 years if I don't.
The answer is always the same:
Eactly where I am right now. Not where I want to be.
Let me tell you something I truly believe.
You aren't out of time, but you do need to get started.
And if you're a part of this community because you want to create content but don't know where to start, thats exactly what
Short Form Filmmaker and The Story Engine Starter are for.
They're your jumpstart into a life of creativity, freedom, and purpose.
Here's What I'll leave you with.
You have to do whatever it takes to bypass your own self-doubt.
For me it's remembering:
The time will pass anway.
For you it might be something else.
Your first task is to solve that equation for yourself:
How can I make myself start?
Ask yourself where will you be in 5 years if you don't.
I hope this helps
Caleb
