How to Go After What You Want

“Focus on the core skills, your inner game. The techniques will take care of themselves.” This is a quote by David DeAngelo– aka Eben Pagan– and it stuck with me for the rest of the day, today.

In life you’ll meet people who had big ambitions, or dreams of doing something great. They don’t necessarily act on those dreams, though.  ”I didn’t know how,” or “I was never very good.”

Well, screw that.

A secret I learned a while back was a simple one: when faced with a challenge, you intuitively know what your next step is. True, you may not see the whole road. But the next step is right here.

Years ago, I wanted to write a comic, and I didn’t have the first clue of how to go about doing it. I did know where to start looking, though. The bookstore. Bam. From there I figured out steps two, three, and so on.

This past spring, when All Fall Down was in danger of being cancelled (we were miles from the finish line), I approached a friend named Andrew who helped me put together the (ultimately successful) kickstarter fundraiser that finished the job. Andrew asked me how we were going to get the word out.  I said, “I don’t know. But I know that we’re going to do it.”

Determination is a stronger advantage than skill.  People with skill but no determination give up first, and end up not doing what they dreamed of doing. I’m not saying it’s easy– quite the friggin’ opposite. But if you can let go of worrying about looking stupid at first and getting over that uncomfortable feeling of “I have no idea what I’m doing”, the pay-off can be incredible.

There are no guarantees, of course. I have no idea if the comic will sell– I hope it will, but I can’t promise anything– but it. Got. Made. The rest is details.

So what is it that you wanna do? What do you find yourself daydreaming about whenever your attention starts to drift? Drop me a line. I’d love to know.