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Description
How many of us are stuck in that rut of wanting to achieve something but we cant? "I can't make a web comic because I don't have the resources," "I can't play my favorite instrument because I don't have the time," "I can't become a writer because I suck at writing." It's in my belief that the only thing getting between us and our goals is the simple word "can't." It really is that simple. Drop the n't and you have "I can make a web comic," "I can play my favorite instrument," "I can become a writer." The rest of the sentence is just excuse. When you tell yourself you can achieve a goal, that's when success occurs.

The Be-Do-Have Speech
I learned from a very wise professor that we often have our mindset backwards. "Have-Do-Be" we have to have something, in order to do the things we need to do, to be what we set out to be. Thus if we don't have, we can't do, and if we can't do, then we can't be. "I can't draw a comic because I don't know how." The successors in the world, reverse that thinking and START with the belief that they already are what they set out to be. "I AM a comic artist." If you start there, then you will do what you have to do to back up that statement, and thus you'll get the things you need to have. It must begin with a strong sense of identity, and the rest will fall into place.

Dreamers versus Achievers
I think we all get caught up in comfort zones, and that's what keeps us from achieving what we say we want to achieve. The dreamer and the achiever- both know what they want to be, but only the achiever actually gets off their butt and does it. Yes, it's really that easy. So you say you want to draw comics? Nothing's stopping you, truly nothing is stopping you. You say you don't have time? If you really wanted it bad enough, you'd make the time. You say you don't have the skills? If you really wanted to achieve it, you'd find what you need to improve. Perhaps Dreamers and Achievers don't have that in common; perhaps the achiever's big difference is that only they know what they truly want, while dreamers just say they want it. It's sort of like the difference between whining and saying "I'm starving!" and being too lazy to get up and make a bowl of ramen, versus being thrown into a desert without food or water. In the latter situation, they truly believe they are starving, and thus find the means to solve the problem no matter how hard or ridiculous it seems: eat bugs, drink from dirty puddles, etc. So how badly do you really want to achieve the goal you say you have?

Comfort Zones
This is something that we get caught up in, that keeps us from becoming achievers instead of just dreamers. For those of you who dream, but aren't achieving the dream, you may be stuck in a comfort zone. That doesn't mean you're happy, you could very well be stuck at home in an emotional/artistic rut, wondering why you can't get out and do what you want to do, but I assure you, you're still in a comfort zone. Using the example of the person thrown into a desert, they may be starving, but still thinking "no I would never eat a bug, that's disgusting. --Oh gosh, why am I so hungry!?" You're stuck in that rut because you refuse to get out of it. It may suck, but you are comfortable because you are in control, and you know the results of your current behavior. It is familiar to you, it gets you by even though you may be miserable, why change that? It could be WORSE, right? The fear of attempting something for fear of FAILURE is what hangs people up. "Well… I could try to be a comic artist, but I'd have to learn how the business works and I'd probably suck at that… I don't know how to do that stuff, so I'll just… sit here and wonder why I'm not a comic artist yet." Truth is, you got to sacrifice a little to achieve the goal. NO good thing comes without hard work, or else it's not worth having! You're going to have to one day step out of that comfort zone, take a big risk, and yes, you may even have to face failure, but you can't win if you don't try. You'll never achieve by not attempting, and you'll never attempt until you get out of your comfort zone and push yourself beyond your known limits. Look at this way; your known limits obviously haven't gotten you where you want to go so far. Perhaps the reason why you haven't achieved that goal is because you haven't pushed the boundaries of what you know and are comfortable with. In order to get my web comic up and running, I knew I had to do some coding. I hate coding, I don't really know how to code. But I wanted it bad enough, so I FOUND the ways to get what I needed. For what I lacked, I found the people who could help me. For what couldn't be found through people, I found by simply Googling it. We live in a day and age where every bit of knowledge we need is at our finger tips. If you don't know something, Google it. Someone else will most likely know it for you. So, yes, coding was a pain. It was hard. I cried. I spent many late nights on it. It was out of my comfort zone of what I knew I could handle, but in the end, because I told myself "you're a comic artist now, do what you gotta do to get it done!" I found the means to do it, thus had the material to do so.

Wherever you're at right now, if you feel trapped, liberate yourself by throwing yourself into the unknown. You are only trapped by your OWN limitations. You have trapped yourself by TELLING yourself "I can't," and filling in the blank with any number of excuses. There are no excuses, really. Surely you've heard, "if there's a will, there's a way." Nothing is truly impossible in one way or another. Some examples: Few hundred years ago, if you told someone "I want to fly," they'd think you're nuts. They'd say "You CANT" because of any number of physical, logical, and scientific reasons, but look at what mankind has created: airplanes, hot air balloons, even jetpacks in the works! All because somebody said "Well I can." Another silly example. As a kid I always said "I want to be a dragon." Not entirely out of the realm of possibility. I learned how to make costumes, and baddaboom. Goal achieved, because I took a seemingly childish dream, and made it happen cuz I wanted it bad enough. You also have to be open minded. There are many routes to success and you may find that you can achieve the goal in an entirely unexpected way. As a kid, of course I wasn't expecting costuming to be the answer to my problem. Never would have dreamed it, but there it was. I'm sure back then, people wouldn't think that the solution to wanting to fly would come in the form of a billion dollar hunk of METAL. XD

So in closing, all I'm really getting at is just to get out and do it. If you really want it, just do it. It's just that easy, there's no real mystery. I could expound on this for hours, going into the psychology of what's holding you back, and the mysticism and power of suggestion, however what it all really boils down to is: "How bad do you want it?" The real reason why you're not achieving what you set out to do, is because you don't want it as much as you think you do. That doesn't mean you're headed 100% in the wrong direction, it just means you need to refine your goal. Why do you want it? What aspect of this goal is it that you're REALLY out to achieve? It's not enough to say "I want to be famous." You need to be specific. "I want people to notice me, so I can make an effect in the world. I want to see a physical change in the world, due to my notoriety." A goal is like a map. The more specific and refined your goal is, the clearer the paths will be to get to it. The only way to really define your goal and get to the bottom of what it is you really want, is to start somewhere, and try it out. I used to think I wanted to be the world's most famous artist XDDD Childhood dream, of course. But in attempting to be 'the world's most famous artist,' I began to learn what I liked about that goal, what I didn't. As I gained friends and appreciators of my work, I realized that 'being famous,' wasn't really what I wanted. What I enjoyed most about being noticed, was being able to talk with my fans, get to know them, and to encourage them to achieve something magnanimous too. But you have to start somewhere. So tell me, what is it you really want most out of life?

Description
How many of us are stuck in that rut of wanting to achieve something but we cant? "I can't make a web comic because I don't have the resources," "I can't play my favorite instrument because I don't have the time," "I can't become a writer because I suck at writing." It's in my belief that the only thing getting between us and our goals is the simple word "can't." It really is that simple. Drop the n't and you have "I can make a web comic," "I can play my favorite instrument," "I can become a writer." The rest of the sentence is just excuse. When you tell yourself you can achieve a goal, that's when success occurs.

The Be-Do-Have Speech
I learned from a very wise professor that we often have our mindset backwards. "Have-Do-Be" we have to have something, in order to do the things we need to do, to be what we set out to be. Thus if we don't have, we can't do, and if we can't do, then we can't be. "I can't draw a comic because I don't know how." The successors in the world, reverse that thinking and START with the belief that they already are what they set out to be. "I AM a comic artist." If you start there, then you will do what you have to do to back up that statement, and thus you'll get the things you need to have. It must begin with a strong sense of identity, and the rest will fall into place.

Dreamers versus Achievers
I think we all get caught up in comfort zones, and that's what keeps us from achieving what we say we want to achieve. The dreamer and the achiever- both know what they want to be, but only the achiever actually gets off their butt and does it. Yes, it's really that easy. So you say you want to draw comics? Nothing's stopping you, truly nothing is stopping you. You say you don't have time? If you really wanted it bad enough, you'd make the time. You say you don't have the skills? If you really wanted to achieve it, you'd find what you need to improve. Perhaps Dreamers and Achievers don't have that in common; perhaps the achiever's big difference is that only they know what they truly want, while dreamers just say they want it. It's sort of like the difference between whining and saying "I'm starving!" and being too lazy to get up and make a bowl of ramen, versus being thrown into a desert without food or water. In the latter situation, they truly believe they are starving, and thus find the means to solve the problem no matter how hard or ridiculous it seems: eat bugs, drink from dirty puddles, etc. So how badly do you really want to achieve the goal you say you have?

Comfort Zones
This is something that we get caught up in, that keeps us from becoming achievers instead of just dreamers. For those of you who dream, but aren't achieving the dream, you may be stuck in a comfort zone. That doesn't mean you're happy, you could very well be stuck at home in an emotional/artistic rut, wondering why you can't get out and do what you want to do, but I assure you, you're still in a comfort zone. Using the example of the person thrown into a desert, they may be starving, but still thinking "no I would never eat a bug, that's disgusting. --Oh gosh, why am I so hungry!?" You're stuck in that rut because you refuse to get out of it. It may suck, but you are comfortable because you are in control, and you know the results of your current behavior. It is familiar to you, it gets you by even though you may be miserable, why change that? It could be WORSE, right? The fear of attempting something for fear of FAILURE is what hangs people up. "Well… I could try to be a comic artist, but I'd have to learn how the business works and I'd probably suck at that… I don't know how to do that stuff, so I'll just… sit here and wonder why I'm not a comic artist yet." Truth is, you got to sacrifice a little to achieve the goal. NO good thing comes without hard work, or else it's not worth having! You're going to have to one day step out of that comfort zone, take a big risk, and yes, you may even have to face failure, but you can't win if you don't try. You'll never achieve by not attempting, and you'll never attempt until you get out of your comfort zone and push yourself beyond your known limits. Look at this way; your known limits obviously haven't gotten you where you want to go so far. Perhaps the reason why you haven't achieved that goal is because you haven't pushed the boundaries of what you know and are comfortable with. In order to get my web comic up and running, I knew I had to do some coding. I hate coding, I don't really know how to code. But I wanted it bad enough, so I FOUND the ways to get what I needed. For what I lacked, I found the people who could help me. For what couldn't be found through people, I found by simply Googling it. We live in a day and age where every bit of knowledge we need is at our finger tips. If you don't know something, Google it. Someone else will most likely know it for you. So, yes, coding was a pain. It was hard. I cried. I spent many late nights on it. It was out of my comfort zone of what I knew I could handle, but in the end, because I told myself "you're a comic artist now, do what you gotta do to get it done!" I found the means to do it, thus had the material to do so.

Wherever you're at right now, if you feel trapped, liberate yourself by throwing yourself into the unknown. You are only trapped by your OWN limitations. You have trapped yourself by TELLING yourself "I can't," and filling in the blank with any number of excuses. There are no excuses, really. Surely you've heard, "if there's a will, there's a way." Nothing is truly impossible in one way or another. Some examples: Few hundred years ago, if you told someone "I want to fly," they'd think you're nuts. They'd say "You CANT" because of any number of physical, logical, and scientific reasons, but look at what mankind has created: airplanes, hot air balloons, even jetpacks in the works! All because somebody said "Well I can." Another silly example. As a kid I always said "I want to be a dragon." Not entirely out of the realm of possibility. I learned how to make costumes, and baddaboom. Goal achieved, because I took a seemingly childish dream, and made it happen cuz I wanted it bad enough. You also have to be open minded. There are many routes to success and you may find that you can achieve the goal in an entirely unexpected way. As a kid, of course I wasn't expecting costuming to be the answer to my problem. Never would have dreamed it, but there it was. I'm sure back then, people wouldn't think that the solution to wanting to fly would come in the form of a billion dollar hunk of METAL. XD

So in closing, all I'm really getting at is just to get out and do it. If you really want it, just do it. It's just that easy, there's no real mystery. I could expound on this for hours, going into the psychology of what's holding you back, and the mysticism and power of suggestion, however what it all really boils down to is: "How bad do you want it?" The real reason why you're not achieving what you set out to do, is because you don't want it as much as you think you do. That doesn't mean you're headed 100% in the wrong direction, it just means you need to refine your goal. Why do you want it? What aspect of this goal is it that you're REALLY out to achieve? It's not enough to say "I want to be famous." You need to be specific. "I want people to notice me, so I can make an effect in the world. I want to see a physical change in the world, due to my notoriety." A goal is like a map. The more specific and refined your goal is, the clearer the paths will be to get to it. The only way to really define your goal and get to the bottom of what it is you really want, is to start somewhere, and try it out. I used to think I wanted to be the world's most famous artist XDDD Childhood dream, of course. But in attempting to be 'the world's most famous artist,' I began to learn what I liked about that goal, what I didn't. As I gained friends and appreciators of my work, I realized that 'being famous,' wasn't really what I wanted. What I enjoyed most about being noticed, was being able to talk with my fans, get to know them, and to encourage them to achieve something magnanimous too. But you have to start somewhere. So tell me, what is it you really want most out of life?