If You Want To Be, Do

I asked my friend, “What is something that you would want to do if you knew you could not fail?

She told me that she would love to be a YouTube star.

“If I was able to make a bunch of people laugh or smile, it would make my day just to make other people’s day.”

I asked her, what’s stopping you?

She froze.

“Uhh… I’m just not that type of person.”

I told her, “That’s bullshit.”

She made another excuse.

“I don’t have proper video equipment.”

“Do you have a smartphone?”

“I don’t have the time while balancing school, work, & family etc.”

“Can you make time? Can you sleep less? Can you sacrifice something less important in your life to follow your dreams?”

“I’ll never be famous like Michelle Phan or any other person.”

“How do you know that when you’ve already gave up?”

“My first videos are going to suck.”

“So what? Have you seen Michelle Phan’s first video? It was shot on a webcam in her living room. And it wasn’t “good” at all.”

“I’m not funny.”

“So what?”

And so on, and so on, and so on.

The biggest feeling I got from her was fear. She knew that she was capable of making her own YouTube video. She had more than enough resources to make her first video but she was afraid.

The key takeaway from this whole post is this:

If you want to be, do.

Meaning if you want to be a YouTube star, just start making videos… Cut all of the excuses and just DO IT.

Let me tell you a secret.

Your first 50 videos will probably suck. Nobody will probably watch your videos. You’ll have 100x more critics that you already have… But you’ll get better. Every video you make will be an improvement and eventually, you’ll be a “YouTube celebrity.”

I fell into this hole myself. My dream was to write for a living and when somebody asked me, “What are you doing to achieve your dreams?” I was stunned.

If I wanted to be a writer, I had to write.

I started a blog exactly 2 years ago and had no page views. But I kept writing. I wrote every day. Every new post I published was better than the last. Every new piece of writing got stronger than the last. Every action I did helped me build a small audience, bigger than the last.

If my dream is to become a writer, I have to stop making excuses and simply WRITE.

Fast forward to today, I’m nowhere near perfect… but look. You’re reading this post… right?

Whatever YOUR dream is, get out of the habit of putting labels on yourself.

If you want to be, do.

I’ll end with this quote.

“If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.” - Jim Rohn