Do.

"Be one of the few who do rather than the many who talk." These words stopped me in my tracks the other day as I listened to an audiobook. I took personal inventory of all the times in my life I said I'd do something only to get distracted with another project or forget my proclamation entirely. 

What I've learned, particularly in the last few years, is there is no shortage of people who claim they'll do things. There is however, a deficit who say as they do and do as they say.

I have a great empathy for this struggle and believe it comes down to the fact that people don't think they know how to get started. The truth is, you already know exactly what you need to do. The missing components are confidence and action. The first step is the simplest and hardest - beginning.

Say you want to write a novel. An ambitious goal no doubt, but far from impossible. Sit down and write one sentence. Tomorrow try and write two, even if they're awful. Just begin and stick with it. 

Soon, you'll develop a sense of consistency and once you do that good luck to anyone who tries to stop you. You will move mountains to maintain a routine if it's important enough to you. That is, if your "why" is lined with your core values.

You can get your voice out into the world, but it requires a sense of calm, concentration, and a heightened intuition that you have the capacity to create something of value, which you most certainly do. 

Here's to the Starters. 

Look for the Superstars in Your Life

To me the real superstars were people like my friend Jeryl, who'd work a double-shift and then carry her heavy keyboard all the way from lower Manhattan to the Bronx for a performance that started at midnight.

Then there was Maria who worked all day at a law office then made her way to Tribeca after work to perform in a staged reading in a quite bookstore after work. 

These were people forced to bend time, babysit, and teach just to find any way they could to sing, write, act, play, and do what they loved most.

I learned that success was simply improving upon something you loved to do and attainment of the goal wasn't the point but rather who you became in its pursuit.

Find your Jeryl's and Maria's. Find your superstars.

The Year Ahead

Long after the ball has dropped and the confetti has been swept up, we take time to ponder the past year's wins and setbacks. Most importantly, we look to the year ahead.

If you're at all like me, you've already taken time to write out your ambitious goals for 2017; disciplines you hope to cement, habits you need to break, and achievements personal and professional you'd very much like to see come to fruition. 

Author, speaker, and former editor of Success Magazine, Darren Hardy once said, "The definition of commitment is doing the thing you said you were going to do, long after the mood you said it in has left you."

As you embark on the year ahead consider these two simple thoughts:

1. You can have high standards for yourself and hold yourself accountable without beating yourself up.

2. What will separate the people who achieve their goals versus those who don't will be consistency. Continue to put in the work on a regular basis long after the shininess of a new year has worn off.

Happy New Year and Best of Luck in 2017.

Building Routines

Each week I read a terrific blog by a gentlemen named James Clear. Mr. Clear is a photographer, writer, and entrepreneur. He recently posted an insightful study on motivation:

http://jamesclear.com/motivation

One of his discoveries helped me a great deal:

During a conversation about writing, my friend Sarah Peck looked at me and said, “A lot of people never get around to writing because they are always wondering when they are going to write next.” You could say the same thing about working out, starting a business, creating art, and building most habits.

It reminded me of some of my friends who'd asked about my routines over the years. Many asked about how to being the writing process. "Just start," I'd always say. "Go pick up a notebook. Write for 5 minutes every single day and eventually go to 10, 15, 20, and so forth. Don't worry about defining what you're actually writing about. It'll slowly reveal itself to you. And on the 40th day or so, if you don't do write it'll feel strange because you'll have built a habit."

Turns out I was missing a step. It's equally important to decide when that time is going to be. I've recently implemented this strategy into my own routine deciding that I'll begin just after noon and steadily work for at least 2 hours into the early afternoon.

Start by starting. But first decide exactly when and stick to it.

More than One Way to Save a Life

Bigger. Better. More important. We're often conditioned, particularly in Western society, to think in terms of the next best thing. A quick glance at your iPhone touchscreen reveals it's already time to upgrade your apps and software. Didn't I just do that? I often wonder. This notion of thinking also permeates the way we view our chosen career paths.

In a previous blog entry I talked about how success is masterfully doing that which you love to do. But too often, I see people associate their vocations with their sense of self-worth. "I'm not exactly saving the world," my friend joked recently when describing his job.

Doctors in particular are held in high esteem because they do in fact save the world over and over. It just happens to be one person at a time.

But the longer I spend my life creating the more I appreciate that there are many ways to save a life, particularly through artistry.

Though a painting, a book, or a compelling performance on stage can't cure a terminal illness, it can absolutely resuscitate one's soul from a lack of inspiration. It can reconnect one with their sense of humanity however lost it may have been.

What you think, write, create, and say means something. And without realizing it, you may have already saved a life.

Write it Down

I can't tell you the number of times I've come across a scene, or a overheard a conversation and thought, This would make a great film. Unfortunately, when it was time to put pen to paper ideas for what world to create would elude me, or not amount to much.

It wasn't until I started carrying a pen everywhere and began to casually jot down my thoughts, insights, or observations. When it then came to sit down at a  my laptop, or crack open a notebook, there was suddenly a million different directions my work could go.

Ideas cross-pollinate and can lead from one to next. Be sure to take inventory of them whenever you can.

Carry a pen around. You'll be glad you did.