What you do today changes who you are tomorrow. →

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Deciding to “Be Somebody” will require introspection to discover who you are. Just taking inventory and doing some severe pondering is a good starting point to find out what you are good at and not good at. Don’t confuse your point of view and conclusions with other people's expectations. Finding out who we are means asking ourselves what our values are, what truly matters to us, and then following the principles we believe in.

Build a list and add the things you are passionate about and the things you love to do. Ask someone you trust and respect for feedback on what you have put down. These are the first steps in knowing who you are, and learning what you want from life is itself part of what real success in life is. Knowing yourself will give you purpose, direction, and a true sense of well-being; that knowledge will change some of the things you do today.

Change anything about today, and you will change tomorrow and your life.

Change who you associate with. Surround yourself with people who will tell you the truth.

Don't set yourself up for Productivity Shame with Unrealistic Goals →

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Productivity shame comes from unrealistic goals and measuring your self-worth with achievements. Productivity measures the efficiency of a person completing a task expressed in numbers. Even your life is measured in numbers.

According to the United Nations, today’s average global life expectancy is 72 - 70 for men and 75 for women. If a person livers to age 69, another 17 years can be added to that total, and the life expectancy becomes 86 on average. In the United States, life expectancy in 2019 was 78.87 years, but if a person reaches the age of 69, that time is lengthened to 85 years on average.

Establishing how many years of a person’s life will be productive is subjective. Productivity can be a philosophy of life, a state of mind, or even someone’s opinion. Freeing yourself from productivity shame requires you to stop defining your self-worth by quantitative accomplishments.

Instead of setting a goal to do all you can, decide how much is enough for each undertaking. For your individual goals to be realistic, you need to be able to answer the question of why you want that goal. Then you need to recognize that making progress is enough and take satisfaction in doing just that.