Here’s A Little Secret. I Have No Idea What I’m Doing.

And Neither Does Anyone Else

The greatest advice I ever received was from three dear friends in the winter of 2007.

I was caught in a whirlwind of fear trying to start an organization from the couch of my apartment. My only business skills were the C minus I stumbled through in a college economics class.

My friends sat me down and said this:

“Fake it till you make it. Throw the wings on the plane as it’s going down the runway.”

I’ll never forget that moment.

And five years later, in many ways, we’re still flying without wings.

This is the big secret held by successful artists, visionaries, leaders, and entrepreneurs. Very few of us had any idea what we were doing. Many of us still don’t.

And that’s totally ok.

The stuff I hear most often are excuses from talented people who don’t think they have the creative ability to live a life with great purpose. They say they don’t have the vision or the work ethic. They haven’t received their “calling” written in permanent marker on the bathroom mirror. They focus on their past to purposely sabotage their future.

But the truth is this: They are simply too scared to start.

And that’s what separates those who make it and those who don’t. The ones who make it have the courage to open the door, sit in the driver’s seat, and start the ignition.

So here’s a tip. And it’s the suggestion I give most often.

Thirty minutes a day.

Carve out thirty minutes every day to do creative work that plays to your greatest strengths and deepest desires.

Block off the time on your calendar and do one or more of these things:

Write Read Pray Vision-cast Create Talk on the phone Record Practice Run Organize Volunteer Build

Thirty minutes a day of dedicated work to the thing you know makes your heart skip a beat.

What will happen will amaze you. You’ll stumble through the first few. But by week two you’ll hit your stride. You’ll look forward to those thirty minutes. They will be a time of both energy and peace. Those thirty minutes will begin to inform your entire day.

Whether or not those thirty minutes becomes something more is irrelevant. You’ll figure that out later. Set the kitchen timer. Fake it till you make it.

-JZ

Photo Credit: Abhiomkar Photography