When I was fifteen years old, I had a very important person in my life come to me and say, “Who’s your hero?” And I said… “You know who it is? It’s me in ten years.” So I turned twenty-five. Ten years later, that same person comes to me and says, “So, are you a hero?” And I was like, “Not even close! No, no, no.” She said, “Why?” I said, “Because my hero’s me at thirty-five.” So you see, every day, every week, every month, and every year of my life, my hero’s always ten years away. I’m never gonna be my hero. I’m not gonna attain that, I know I’m not, and that’s just fine with me, because that keeps me with somebody to keep chasing.
— Matthew McConaughey
If you study the biographies of highly successful people you see that almost all of them have at least one trait in common. This trait is a continuous drive to improve. Whether poor or wealthy, educated or uneducated, young or old, the most successful people are constantly pushing themselves to a new level. The are always chasing a bigger and better version of themselves.
For most people, this constant chasing of something bigger seems daunting and exhausting and therefore causes many to give up before the race has even begun. As Thoreau said, they end up “living lives of quiet desperation” and feel trapped by their circumstances. They let this desperation and frustration become a wall that blocks their progress towards the future that could be theirs.
If you have ever felt trapped in this way, you are not alone. But you are also not doomed to be trapped forever.
The secret to escape is to just start chasing the future you want. Take the first step. And then take another. And another.
The great people that we revere and marvel at did not become great in giant leaps and bounds. They obtained greatness by deliberately taking one step and then another and then another until they got where they wanted to go. And once they were there, they continued to work towards an even greater future.
There is not such thing as an “overnight success”. True success and achievement is always obtained by small, but consistent effort towards a goal. So where do you want to go and what future do you want to create?
Who do you want to be in 5 years? What step can you take today to get closer to that goal?