Who are your success heroes?

I mean real, live people you look up to. People you wish you could be like, whose artistic renown or business success or [fill in the blank] you want for yourself.

I know it all seems to impossibly remote. Who are you (you wonder) to shoot so high? Who are you (you wonder) to envy what you couldn’t possibly create?

I’ll tell you a secret:

There’s only one real difference between you and your success heroes.

Only one that matters, anyway.

And it’s not talent.

Or money.

Or family background.

Or charisma.

Or luck.

Or connections.

Or anything else you probably think it is.

The only thing that really sets success heroes apart from anyone else is this:

They do it.

Think about it. While everyone else is dreaming or planning or making excuses why they can’t possibly, or at least not right now, it’s the people who actually do something who make change, build great things, and do the cool things other people only dream about.

That’s it. Nothing more to it than that.

Do you dream of having a body of work? Whether it’s art or writing or music or inventions or anything else, just start creating, baby. Keep at it, and before you know it, it’ll happen. (Need a tribe to cheer you on and provide accountability? Check out my Creative Ignition Club.)

Do you dream of having a show of your artwork? Start inquiring at potential venues, and keep at it until you get a yes.

Do you dream of writing a book? Commit to writing 750 (or 1000 or 1666) words a day, and do it. (Sign up with a site like 750words.com if you need some motivation.)

Do you dream of traveling the world? Sign up with Chris Guillebeau’s Travel Hacking Cartel (affiliate link), rack up enough points to get on a plane, clear your calendar and go.

Don’t wait until you’re “ready.”

Don’t wait until it’s “perfect.”

Don’t wait for permission.

Those are all just Resistance disguised as justifications for staying small.

I know you have big dreams, and I know you can bring them to life. I believe in you. You just need to believe in yourself enough to do it.

Much as I hate quoting a multi-national corporation, I have to admit the marketing whizzes at Nike got it right when they crafted their famous ad campaign.

Just Do It.

That, my dear, is the only thing your heroes are doing differently that really matters. The rest is window dressing.

Tell me, what big dream are you going to take one step toward this week, and how?

PS – Pssst! Know someone who might benefit from seeing this today? Pass it on!

One year ago today I went under a surgeon’s knife.

I’d managed to dislocate my knee, badly, the previous month (10/10/10 is a day that will live in infamy in my world), and a week after my birthday last year, thanks to the miracle that is modern sports medicine, my doctor sliced me open and re-anchored my kneecap to my thigh bone with a brand new (to me) donor ligament.

That was a Friday. In my naivety, I thought I’d spend the weekend to recuperate at my parents’ house, and be back to business as usual in my own home by Monday.

It didn’t quite happen that way.

Unrealistic expectations…

It took eight days after the surgery before I was finally home, hobbling around with crutches and the brace that only came off when I lay down. In a lot of pain.

A lot. Of. Pain.

Did I mention the pain?

Six days post-surgery, my surgeon had started me on straight leg raises, to try and regain the muscles that had atrophied in the previous six weeks. I couldn’t lift my leg at all without assistance, and it was excruciating to try.

For the next several months, progress was slow and painful, and I even started to wonder whether I should have had the surgery at all. A kneecap with an annoying tendency to dislocate almost seemed preferable.

In the brace for six weeks. No yoga for four months. And months beyond that in which I couldn’t walk very far or fast.

But I persevered

Every time I compared where I was now to where I’d been last November, I could see my knee was clearly improving. Just very. Very. Slowly.

Five, six, eight months after the surgery, my knee was still puffy and sore, and not nearly as bendy as it used to be.

“Is it ever going to get better?” I would wonder. The healing process was just so frustratingly slow! After a friend of mine who’d had a similar major knee surgery told me it had taken a solid year for the swelling to go down, I was both relieved (maybe I wasn’t such a “failure” at this healing business after all), and disheartened (you mean it will take a year?).

And yet, when I stopped to think about what my poor knee had had done to it, really, a year didn’t seem so crazy.

The body takes time to heal.

It operates on its own, very wise schedule, and the impatience of the mind will speed it up not one whit.

In other words, it’s a lot like that business you’re trying to grow, or that body of work you’re eager to build, or that creative project you’re anxious to get rolling.

Transformation — whether it’s healing something that’s been damaged or creating something out of thin air — is rarely an overnight process.

It’s deceptive

We tend to think transformation happens overnight, because when we witness the success of others, all we usually see is the moment when they finally gain traction. At that point, things can move very quickly indeed. But we’re not usually privy to the years that went before the “overnight success.” Years in which they plugged away, persevered, stuck with it.

For the longest time after my surgery, my knee felt as if it wasn’t making any progress at all. Then just in the past several weeks, it began to improve in a noticeable way. Although it felt like a sudden breakthrough, in fact it was only possible thanks to those previous long months of hard, painful work.

Five + years to overnight success

A couple of weeks ago I interviewed artist Erin Smith for ArtEmpowers.Me, my joint venture project with Cory Huff to help artists deprogram the starving artist mindset and learn to thrive. Five years ago Erin was working as a waitress. Today she has a thriving business selling her art, with full-time employees, and a list of over 1,000 stores that carry her work.

She’ll tell you her success came pretty much overnight, and it’s true that once she gained traction, things took off fast.

But that doesn’t take into account the long years (and thousands of dollars) she put into showing her work and exhibiting at trade shows, sometimes not even covering her booth expenses, before the “overnight success.”

Overnight success usually requires some time

Those A-list bloggers with 5-figure mailing lists, who seemed to spring out of nowhere, like Athena, fully-formed from the head of Zeus? Or musicians who burst on the scene with instant platinum albums? Or unknown novelists who make the New York Times bestseller list?

No matter what it looks like from the outside, I can pretty much guarantee those folks have been logging their time, studying their craft, showing up, forging ahead even when the going gets rough. (Think about it: you don’t become musical master or complete a novel without logging some time!)

As Seth Godin pointed out in this blog post from waaaaay back in 2008, it’s the ones who persevere who make it.

And as I’m very fond of saying, it’s baby steps that will get you there. Lots and lots of baby steps.

The upshot?

If you want to get somewhere, start walking. And most important, don’t stop.

What big goal are you headed toward? Take a moment to notice how far you’ve come, and celebrate by crowing about it in the comments below! Me, I’m working on an e-book that, with lots and lots of baby steps, I aim to have done by mid-December. Stay tuned!

PS – Pssst! Know someone who might benefit from seeing this today? Pass it on!

Yes, it’s my birthday, and since I’ve never actually made a birthday card for myself, the card I made for my mom’s birthday this summer will have to do.

Or perhaps that’s my inner child wishing me a Happy Birthday…

(And now I’m thinking it’s about time I do make a birthday card for myself! Hmmm… I like that idea!)

Regardless, I’m spending my birthday doing things I love to do. And though I love doing stuff on the computer (thank goodness, because I’m on it All. The. Time.), today I’m taking a break from digital stuff.

No email. No blogging. No Facebook. No Twitter.

(At least that’s the plan.)

So although you might be reading this on my birthday, I’m actually doing something else entirely. In fact, I’m typing this the day before my birthday (internet time-travel magic!), just before my sweetie is to come home and whisk me off to an undisclosed, secret, surprise location (isn’t he the best?) for a night and a day. Where I will most decidedly not be on the computer.

No doubt I’ll be right back at it and rarin’ to go on Sunday. But Saturday? Today? (Or as I type this, tomorrow?)

Rest day. Birthday!

Because we all need some margins in our lives.

I hope you’re taking yours too!

See you back here next week…

PS – Pssst! Know someone who might benefit from seeing this today? Pass it on!