Setup Your Success

You ever have one of those days where you get up and just aren’t feeling it? You sit for hours and little gets accomplished. Maybe you turn on “Squid Games” and the day blurs by in a sea of violence and progressively more insane death games. It’s all good. We’ve all had them. 

Too many days of little productivity becomes a problem. “I’m taking just one more day off. It’s fine.” Two weeks go by and nothing gets done. Assignments and/or bills are piling up. Your friends are getting antsy because you haven’t responded to them in days. 

Wow, actually looks a bit like me…

David Wong, the Former Executive Editor at Cracked.com, has a fantastic article about why we need to produce and get it done to be successful. Give Cracked.com a look, the site is full of hilarious, informative, interesting, and relevant articles. I’ve spent hundreds of hours of my teen and young adult life on this site. Be warned, some of the articles are full of curse words and a little raunchy at times. Maybe that’s considered a pro. It does make them hilarious. 

Jokes aside, let’s dive into Wong’s famous article. Titled “6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person”, Wong lays out the six life lessons that he learned the hard way. Give it a read. Then read it again. I’ve read this article at least 20 times in the past decade. Wong is confrontational, intense, and on-the-line in a few spots. In a nutshell, Wong argues that you need to provide value to society and get it done if you want to be successful and desired. It doesn’t matter how you feel. What matters is what you do and the actions you take. Do something, anything to better yourself. Doing nothing is easy and miserable. 

Print his article out. Annotate it. At very least give it a thorough couple of reads. Because he is right. I’m not some life coach or guru. I’m not even that old honestly. But, I’ve seen enough of life to know that effort matters. I grew up in a small town in rural Wisconsin. About half of my classmates left after graduating high school. Most of us went elsewhere to attend college. The other half of my class stayed around town. Many of my classmates who remained are now unfulfilled in their lives. I see it in their social media posts. Most of them hate their jobs and complain constantly about not having enough money. Yet, they take zero steps to improve anything. I’m sure if you asked them, they would tell you that “I’ve got big dreams” and “I deserve better than I’ve got” and “It’s so-and-so’s fault why I’m not successful”. In their minds, they have plans and dreams and then inevitably self-sabotage by blaming others. So they do nothing and years pass and nothing changes. Because they did nothing beyond the bare minimum.  

Don’t be those people. Get off the couch, put the work in and execute. Before long, you will accomplish all kinds of great things. Maybe you will graduate college with distinction in your major, or invent a new best selling product, or write a 200-page book. And it all began with the decision to try.