Overnight success is an illusion

In order to get to where you want in life, you also have to change who you are in some way. You can’t remain the same person, do the same things and think the same thoughts and expect your life to dramatically change. Your life is the result of what you repeatedly do, think and feel. It all starts with you. Your mindset. Your way of looking at life. Your habits and routines. Sometimes it can even be as fundamental as your core beliefs, your values and your convictions. Rarely is the thing that limits you other people, but actually you yourself.

What you have to realise is that, in order to get to where you want to be, you also have to become the person who can handle that. If your goal is to be able to deadlift 250kg, you literally have to build your body to the point where it can physically handle lifting that weight. And I don’t just mean strength wise, but every little muscle and ligament that helps your body perform the lift as safely and as technically sound as possible. Even being mentally able to perform the lift is something that comes from training. Because lifting that kind of weight puts a lot of stress on your body and mind in several ways. Much like running a company with employees and clients who depend on you puts a lot of stress on your body, and mind.

Don’t get trapped in the idea that the result is what matters, whether that be the weight you lift, the money you earn or the projects you land. What matters is the process. How you get there. How you grow in order to accommodate for the load you intend to be able to handle. And all the possibilities that are opened up because you grow, because you learn and because you change.

That’s why the overnight success is an illusion. Not because it never happened to anyone. In very rare cases someone does achieve some form of overnight success. But what history has shown us, is that these people were not built nor prepared to handle everything that came with that success. Whether that be handling the fame you achieve over night, the constant barrage of people wanting your attention and getting a glimpse of your fame. Or it be a business venture growing so large so quickly that you loose control of it, not knowing how to handle employees, deal with business and economic decisions, dealing with customers or having the right processes in place to handle problems and situations that do eventually come around.

Realise that the real value is in that process, and everything that comes with it. All the incremental steps you take on the way. Every single extra kilo you add to the bar when you perform a lift. Every single problem you solve in your business of one employee and one customer. It all adds up in the end.

True success, regardless of what that looks like to you, is the accumulation of small simple things, done repeatedly and disciplined over and over again, for a long time.