Get Out There And Do The Damn Thing Already

Personally, I am tired of motivational posters and t-shirts. I’m far from a cynic, but the truth is that they are all saying the exact same thing. All these phrases boil down to one thing.

“Don’t give up.”

“Keep waiting.”

“Good things are on the horizon.”

“One day your prince will come.”

But trust me, waiting doesn’t get you a damn thing.

It isn’t hope that changes anything, it’s action.

You want to know the secret about how to change your life? You get out and do stuff. You workout, you write, you go out with your friends or by yourself. You submit stories or decide to go back to school and fill out the application. You do.

Nike got that one right, at least, but you’ve got to take the phrase off your t-shirt or your socks and put it into action.

Hope is a lovely concept, but it doesn’t get you jack. It’s nice to say, “I wish I’d win the lottery,” but how many tickets do you buy? It’s one thing to say, “I’d like to lose weight,” but it doesn’t have much effect if you say it with a mouth full of ice cream.

Changing your life is different than just saying you will. We are inundated with key words and catchy phrases, but those things aren’t getting us anywhere.

All your dreams will come true is a nice lie Disney has helped propagate, and it’s a comforting one, but it’s also a dead end.

These things are designed to keep us waiting for our white knight or miracle to come and be given to us, and that’s it. We’re not actively changing anything. We aren’t waiting purposefully, we’re just waiting until that hope or belief one day runs out, and if that isn’t a terrifying thought I don’t know what is.

For one, I am tired of waiting because it isn’t hope that is going to get me my dreams, it’s action.

Everyone says it, but does anyone actually know what it means? “Follow your heart, it will lead you home.” Sorry, but I thought that was GoogleMaps. People think this means to do what you love, to do things that make you feel happy ,but it’s harder to identify those things than people think.

I say don’t follow you heart, but listen to it more. You need to identify those moments when you are truly, irrevocably, Bella loves Edward happy. You need to quiet your mind when you’re reading Harry Potter fanfiction or listening to One Direction, or when your jaw drops at the latest twist during your favorite show. You need to stop thinking in these situations and focus on how you feel when you see that new photo of Harry Styles or when you’re cursing the producers of the Walking Dead for all your worth and listen to how happy, how alive you feel in that moment.

Does that mean that you’re going to marry your celeb crush or make a fortune writing fanfiction? No, but it might help you narrow down just what you do want. Following your heart isn’t the hard part, narrowing that wide field into something you can actually achieve is.

Take that, and then do something because while your homeboy Styles may look like Snow White, this isn’t Disney, and your prince ain’t coming. Trust me, he’s way to busy playing Xbox.

So, go out there, and find him instead. Take action, throw away your inspiration board you spent three hours perfecting, and use your time wisely because your destiny isn’t going to wait for you.