Words are cheap. You can say whatever you want, you can define yourself as any type of person you like to. But the truth is, your behavior and your actions define who you really are. Nothing else.
One of my friend often mentions the quote, "Average people talk about other people, but great people talk about ideas". He believes that what you consume and talk about, fills your mind.
But whenever we meet, he usually goes on talking about our old friends. What everyone is up to these days, how someone is failing in their life, and how someone made it.
I don't have a problem in catching up with what my friends are up to. But my focus is on point that he is more interested to talk about other people's life, and less on his own action and growth. He don't follow his own advise, his own words of wisdom.
And he is not alone in this because it's something we all do. We are all guilty of it in one way or other. It's easy to point out others fault but hard to notice them in yourself.
Self awareness means you have to be true to yourself. You have to point out all the faults you have, and all the lies you have been telling yourself lately. Then work on yourself.
I have promised myself maybe dozens of times this year that I will work on improving my skills.
But how much have I actually done? How much time have I spent on doing things instead of thinking about doing things?
I had decided to write daily, practice and learn a new skill(preferably coding or designing) daily.
But so far, I have done it for 2 months out of the last 8 months.
There is a difference between saying I will write a post daily, and I am writing and posting daily.
Slight difference, but it separates people who focus on action from people who focus on plans but not on execution.
One continuously improves his writing skills, and one plans on improving it one day.
Just observe your actions for a little while and you will understand who you really are.
Maybe, you will realize what you thought you were passionate about, you don't enjoy doing it. You just enjoy thinking about it.
Maybe, you will understand that all short term goals/behaviors have a long term drawback.
Think about a person who is broke, and under debt.
No one would want to be in such a position. Yet, so many people end up there.
I am sure external factors and bad luck plays its part, but when you observe most people around you, they are somewhat similar.
They are scared of running out of money, complain a lot about lack of opportunities, or things not being fair to them. But never try anything outside of their job. No side hustles, no online business, no knowledge about crypto, no investments.
But when it comes time to spend their money, they don't hold it back.
The thing about building wealth is that it is super slow. I have learnt it after years of failing. I always wanted to change my financial situation in a single year, but it never works like that.
Whether you want to build skills, wealth or a profitable business, it's slow. Sometimes super slow. The progress in the beginning seems zero. However, with time, results compound, and you achieve your goals. Mostly, if you are consistent, you achieve way more than you wanted in the beginning. It just takes patience and consistency, something people lack these days.
Talking about all this is easy but doing it is hard. Putting efforts everyday, when the output of your efforts looks zero, is frustrating. You start doubting yourself, lose confidence. Then you give up, on your goals, on trying.
I have done it dozens of times, and learned the lessons hard way.
One of my all time favourtie quote is :
“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” — Bill Gates
I am sure, if you try something for five years, not even ten, something good will happen.
Invest your money in a good project for five years, don't take out anything. Or practice a skill for five years, every single day, and see how much you can earn from it. Observe your growth in doing so.
Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Day by day, and at the end of the day - if you live long enough - like most people, you will get out of life what you deserve. — Charlie Munger.