One of the most famous paintings of all time, The Mona Lisa, took the famous creator 16 entire years to finish painting it. Throughout his life as a revered painter, he actually only finished a total of 20 paintings. It is said that one benefactor was once willing to bankrupt Leonardo da Vinci, because his procrastination was causing him to take too long with his artwork.
It’s easy to get distracted in life, with notifications incessantly buzzing on your smart phone every single minute of the day. There is always somewhere to turn your attention to, but only if you are willing to allow it. Turn the devices off, allow yourself clear your head. Silence is underrated, and there’s a reason all of those hippie types swear by meditation and yoga. Create the mental space that you need, which can allow you to regain clarity. All of this can help you feel back in control, and to allow creative thoughts to run free across the landscape (painting pun intended).
A lot of people view success as a race and better yet, almost everyone has this unhealthy perspective that you have to be the best at whatever it is that you do. If you like to fish? Of course, here’s the biggest boat for you, sir. What about if you want to start a travel and food blog? It only makes since to book your flight to Paris tomorrow for the most exquisite travel and romantic dining excursion, madam. When we always expect the best, we look over the little things that can create a wonderful journey.
The cold hard truth is that it’s OK to not get the best boat, or the nicest travel, or the most gourmet of all of the French soups in the world. There’s excitement whether you go on a large journey, or a small journey. Success exists in every aspect of life, and it can be defined differently depending on the observer. Comparing your success to other peoples’ success is unnecessarily painful. Allowing yourself to take baby steps into a new direction, and to open yourself up to success and failure matters.
Tomorrow, lay out your wants, goals, dreams, and passions. I don’t care whether it’s on a sophisticated handheld device with an Apple logo, or on the back of a napkin. The goals and dreams you make do not care if they are backed up on the cloud. Make your desires apparent to yourself, and only then may you be able to devise a plan and begin to follow it.
Surround yourself with likeminded people, especially if they have success with whatever it is that you are wanting to do. If you want to travel the US in an RV, find a Facebook group dedicated to that. There you can learn the in’s and out’s of how this process works, and what it might cost. Most importantly you can learn how you, yourself, can make it to that goal. Success breeds more success.
You wake up from an intense nightmare, dripping in sweat. Only to realize that you failed opening your first business. You believe it to be a premonition, that it will come true if you even attempt to chase after this dream. Shake out of it. Drop this false narrative. Allow yourself to dream, and to set up the path that you need to walk. Failing is only part of any process. You can not be the best, or expect to know what you’re doing every time that you first try something new.
“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Michael Jordan, retired NBA player
Even Michael Jordan, who was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009, is considered to be the best basketball player of all time by many people. He has went on to create a brand of shoe sneakers that have grossed billions of dollars, but still has racked up his fair share of failures. Not only does he claim the quote above, where he mentions “failures” all throughout his career, but he also could not make the varsity basketball team in high school. Now who’s laughing.
There’s two very important lessons that I hope you walk away with after reading this blog today. Those who anxiously wait, or procrastinate, will never learn what the fruits of their labor could produce. The other important lesson is that there is no set pace, or timeline that you must become successful or accomplish something. Just like Leonardo da Vinci, he lived a life slowly painting stroke by stroke, mastering his craft to inevitably become one of the world’s most renowned painters of all time.
No Place Like Gone 