Last night someone asked me, they said, “Doug, how do I know when I see somebody that’s actually living The Author of Your Own Story lifestyle? Give me two examples, just something that I can look at in other areas of life that I can really see.” And I said, “Easy, that’s really easy for me to do.” And they looked at me in astonishment. “Well, why was it easy?” Well one, the skater. The skater is the perfect analogy, right? You see a skateboarder and what are they doing? They’re trying tricks and they’re eating it hard. If you watch, there’s tons of YouTube videos as well as Instagram channels dedicated to this phenomenon.
So a skateboarder might be skating and trying a really complicated trick and they might cut their head, they might cut their hand, they might cut their leg, but they try and try and try again. And maybe after the tenth attempt, not only are they in pain, but they are just determined to get that trick accomplished and get it on film. Their tenth attempt, they try the trick and boom, they land it. And you can just see the euphoria, everybody goes nuts, everybody goes crazy. But the point is is despite the pain, despite the setbacks, despite the failures, they are trying and trying again. They are determined, they are passionate and they are dedicated to what they’re trying to accomplish.
The same can be said for the entrepreneur, right? I’ve never met an entrepreneur where every day or everything they’ve done has just been easy. It’s not at all. It’s the day to day grind. And I say grind lightly, right, cause grind can still be flow and I use that term very loosely, but it’s the day to day in the business, the focused attempts at making things work. Cause they’re failing more often than not, failing all the time. But failing forward. Conscientiously failing forward and making sure they’re following a path that works for them. An entrepreneur is somebody who gets up … An analogy I love to use is, an entrepreneur is somebody who is willing to work 15 hours a day so they don’t have to work for somebody else for eight hours a day. Totally get it. I also caveat don’t think everybody should be an entrepreneur, but they are by definition, somebody who is going to keep going over and over again, despite failure. They’re gonna make calculated risks, but their passion is gonna take them forward. The passion for what they really want to do.
So same thing with the skater, attempts, attempts, attempts. They’re gonna get hurt, they’re gonna lose money, lose employees. All kinds of things happen in business on a regular basis and if you’re an entrepreneur, I’m just talking to the choir here, but if you’re not, you don’t see what’s behind the scenes of these business owners and so it can be very stressful. And oftentimes, they’re falling, they’re failing, they’re falling forward, they’re falling flat on their face and they’re dusting themselves off. But this is all behind the scenes, right? What you see on camera aren’t these aspects. Just like a skater, typically you see the great landing skating tricks, although there are again a few dedicated channels that show you those fails. But both of these categories, both of these types of people, I would say, are really dedicated to their craft and despite being hurt, despite all these things going against them, they get up, dust themselves off and keep trying.
And I would say the same thing is to do with you. Someone who’s out there trying to live The Author of Your Own Story lifestyle. Somebody who is riding life on their own terms, who is living life. They’ve kind of unplugged from the matrix so to speak, and actually your eyes are open and you’re going after your goals. Now it might not be easy at first. Especially if you haven’t built your tribe right? Especially if you haven’t built those people around you, people having conversations like this one, like the one you and I are having right now. If you haven’t built that, it makes it tougher because the people around you just naturally want to pull you down a little bit. And it’s not their fault, it’s just natural human instincts. A lot of people don’t like change.
But as The Author of Your Own Story, right, as The Author of Your Own Story individual, person living that lifestyle, it’s up to you, is every time you fall is to dust yourself off and carry on. Not only for yourself, although that should be your main focus cause this is your own story, but also the people around you. You’re gonna have so many silent observers of the way that you’re living your life. The things that you’re doing, the things that are coming out. They’re gonna be watching from the stands. And some are gonna be naysayers, they’re gonna be hoping that you fall so it makes excuses for themselves to not be the authors of their own story. But most people are gonna be watching to see how it’s done. To see if it’s really possible. Can you really live this lifestyle? Can you really live life on your own terms like Doug keeps talking about? The answer’s absolutely yes. And if you’re listening to this or if you’ve been listening to this and actually putting these work practices in, on a day to day basis, you’ve experienced this as well.
And I’m stumbling here a little bit because I do these off the cuff, right? I do these without any plan, but that’s okay. I fail but I don’t let the fact that I don’t have a teleprompter, the lighting’s not good, I don’t let any of that stop me from just going out and doing it. Going out and trying. Going out and experimenting. Cause the truth is as soon as I hit stop on this, I’m going out with my family. We’re going down to the river, we’re gonna spend a beautiful day by the river all day today. And it’s gonna be amazing. So I’m okay with failing forward and failing forward right here in this particular instance.
So here’s what I’m gonna ask you to do. Where in your life are you not failing forward where you know you should be? Where are you not being the skater that gets hurt and then dusts themselves off and tries the trick again despite the knowing that they’re probably gonna get hurt? Or the entrepreneur who’s going out there, risking it all, putting their self on the line for humiliation, their money, everything, their family, their work, everything on the line to be successful. Where are you not doing that in your life? In your five to thrive, your mind, your body, your soul, your relationships, and your business. All five categories, where are you playing small? And then I want you to rip that off. I want you to tear that layer off of yourself and go out there. Take the risk. Get injured but dust yourself off because just like the skater, you’re gonna nail that trick in your life and that is what’s gonna push you forward.
That’s it for me today. As always, remember go out and be the author of your own story
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