What do you think makes a character the main character?
If you ask me, it’s how they take charge of their own narrative, and make intentional choices with a clear goal in mind to shape their story.
Now, think of yourself and your circle:
Friends, family, colleagues, whatever; and I’ll do the same.
Now I don’t know your circle, but what I see in mine is that most of us just exist on autopilot, following the rules set by other people in different times under different circumstances.
Even though we get this urge to try something new every now and then, and know deep inside that we’re capable of so much more than just blending into mediocrity, we ultimately choose to play it safe, and do what others think is normal for a very, very long time.
We clock in to work, slave away our lives for a stable income and occasional corporate parties, and never take a chance on ourselves and the dreams we’ve had our entire lives.
We hope that they will suddenly come true at a distant point in the future, on the day that never comes.
Do you think a main character waits for things to just happen like that?
No, because there’s no story to be told there.
A protagonist needs a story.
The good news is that you only need 3 things to write your own story, so it’s actually very simple.
The bad news is that most of us still don’t do it, so the main characters remain a rare breed.
And that takes us to the first harsh truth of the day:
Anyone can do anything, yet most people won’t.
You’re one of the lucky ones, because you found this video.
Feel free to like and subscribe as a way of saying thanks, and let’s see how it works.
Step 1: Know what you want.
This is the ‘why’ of the whole thing.
Why do you want to change your life?
Why do you want to quit your job?
Why do you want to do main character stuff?
What’s the point?
And what happens if you fail?
In order to answer these questions, you have to have a goal.
And it has to be a clear one.
There will always be uncertainty, and you will never have all the answers.
But the clearer the goal is, the clearer the steps to achieve that goal become.
It will also be the biggest driver of your motivation when you hit the countless roadblocks on the way.
You will be able to remind yourself why you’re doing this, and keep going.
You don’t have to stick with a goal if it makes you miserable, so you’re allowed to adjust it from time to time.
But you have to have a goal.
You have to have a destination, so you don’t drift off to somewhere else when you run into the hardships and inconveniences of actually doing something with your life.
One thing you must keep in mind is that simply having a goal won’t get you there.
Even if it’s a super clear goal, it doesn’t correspond to anything without you acting on it.
We all have goals.
What separates the main characters from the rest is the next step, which is to make a guess and act.
Now that you have a destination, you have to start sailing.
You make an educated guess on what a good starting point might be, and take the first step.
Often, we get stuck in overthinking and planning, waiting for the "perfect" opportunity or the "right" moment.
But you already know that there’s no such moment.
If your goal is to quit your job and grow a YouTube channel, you should probably start by saving some money to allocate the time to build that channel, and give yourself headroom to experiment with it.
Once you achieve this milestone, you jump into the unknown and discover a bunch of problems that you have no idea how to tackle, yet.
But it’s fine, it’s all a part of the process.
What matters is that you took the first step in the right direction, and broke the inertia.
You created your channel and started making videos.
You’re learning new skills every day, which is a feeling you realize that you missed over the years you spent working 9 to 5 for a company, doing the same things all over again.
From now on, it’s all about momentum, and you already start feeling like the main character.
And here’s where it all comes together:
You have to receive feedback and keep going.
You have to weed out the things that didn’t work with your previous guess, and keep trying.
Despite all the failures, and all the hard work that seems to have gone unnoticed, you have to keep learning and improving.
This is the most difficult step towards achieving your dreams.
Failure is inevitable, but how you handle it makes all the difference.
This step is all about persistence and resilience.
You post your first video, and nothing happens.
This is something you already expected, so you’re cool with it.
You post 10 more videos, and still nothing.
Now it starts getting rough, because you feel the hours of writing and editing take a toll on you.
Were your topics too niche?
Were they too broad?
Was your audio quality subpar?
Maybe your content lacked engagement, or maybe your editing isn’t as good as you’d hoped.
Maybe people aren’t searching for what you write about.
Maybe your title and thumbnail are not compelling enough.
Whatever the issue is, each failure brings you closer to understanding what does work.
Since you have a clear goal in mind, and you know what you’re capable of, you don’t let the hardships diverge you from your destination.
Each time you fail, you gather new data that can guide you on your next attempt.
This continuous process of trying, failing, analyzing and refining is what moves you toward your goal, and keeps you from falling back into the autopilot mode where most people are stuck in.
Over a long enough time horizon, the small failures add up to significant wins, and you find yourself reaching milestones that your circle, or maybe even you once thought were out of reach.
You proudly look back on your younger self saving up to try another way, and can’t imagine becoming anybody else than the main character that you’ve become.
It really is that simple.
The difference between those who live their dreams and those who don’t isn’t talent, intelligence, or luck.
It’s the willingness to take action and persist through failure.
Now, to end this video, here’s the second harsh truth:
No one can do this for you.
Your story is yours to write.
The question is, are you ready to take the pen in your hand and begin?
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