There's Only One Way To Be Somebody

I care a lot about being somebody.

I want to be remembered as someone who did something for the world, so I’ve spent my life reading and experimenting with different approaches to achieve that. This led me to my ultimate conclusion:

You Can Only Be One Person. Act Accordingly.

The biggest mistake we make when trying to become somebody is acting as if we could be multiple people. We take contradictory decisions and try to balance them out to become successful in multiple areas.

But the reality is that there’s no such thing as balance when it comes to success.

You are either a successful entrepreneur or a successful athlete. But you can’t be both.

You are either a super social, popular guy or a wealthy introvert. But you can’t be both.

You can’t be both, but you can first become somebody, and then evolve into a new person.

You can’t be both a perfect athlete and a great entrepreneur today, but you could become successful in one area of your life and then, once you get the outcome you wanted, become successful in a different one.

“The person attempting to travel two roads at once will get nowhere.”
— Xun Zi

If you understand this correctly, the results from your accomplishments in one area could accelerate or maximize the results in another.

Once you understand this truth, you can start acting toward becoming the person you want to be.

Choose The Person You Want To Be

Open your notebook, your notes app, or the writing tool of your preference, and write down the people you’d like to be. Don’t focus on the things you want; focus on the person you’d need to become in order to achieve them.

For example, if you want to become a millionaire, write down the person you’d need to be (e.g., an entrepreneur or an investor).

Write down as many versions of yourself as you want. Make sure you include all the people you want to become.

Once you have them all written down, it’s time to choose the person you want to be right now and commit your whole life to that single mission until you achieve it.

Here’s how my list looked:

I want to be an entrepreneur.
I want to be a writer.
I want to be an athlete.
I want to be an influencer.

After a short period of introspection, I realized that, at the moment, I want to become an entrepreneur, because that’s where I believe I can make the biggest positive impact on the world.

Design and Implement a Strategy to Get There

You need to identify the habits in your life that are incompatible with becoming the person you want to be. Cut them out, and start implementing habits that will turn you into that person.

There are many ways to achieve this, but what I’ve found most effective is creating a list of habits that fit the person you want to become, and then tracking them in a daily planner with a to-do list where you can see which habits you’ve completed each day.

March 23

My Habits
[x] Write an article
[x] Work on my startup
[ ] Read a book

My Actions

10:00 – 10:20 Planning the day
10:20 – 11:00
11:00 – 12:30 Write an article
12:30 – 13:00 Lunch break
13:00 – 13:30 Work on my startup

...

Looking back at the entries in your journal will motivate you to keep going and make you more accountable for your progress. You’ll clearly see the mistakes you’ve made, which allows you to correct them quickly.

Burn The Ships

The phrase is famously attributed to Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés in 1519, who, upon landing in Mexico, ordered his ships destroyed to prevent his hesitant men from retreating to Spain, thus compelling them to conquer the Aztec Empire.

And finally, burn the ships. Eliminate any possible retreat.

Progress begins where the option to quit ends.