I’ve studied many of the successful writers and bloggers in my field. I put all of their success down to one thing above all else: just doing.

I’m a tall, fun loving bloke from Australia who reaches millions per month through blogging. There have been many times where I have wanted to give up. Having something you want to be successful at is hard work and there are so many other distractions that seem much more interesting.

Had it not been for the consistent observation of the successful writers I followed, I reckon I would have given up by now. When you clicked this article, you were hoping I was going to share with you a secret that would change your life – that you’d never heard before.

The truth is you’ve heard it before.

That’s right. THERE IS NO SECRET.

There is, however, a strategy you can follow and you’ve heard it all before.

“Just doing what you love over and over is the secret because so many people hear it and never follow the advice”

Shortcuts don’t exist either.

You can’t get there faster because mastery and being successful is about the “doing.” It’s the showing up every day that will eventually get you what you want. You can’t buy your way to success or cheat your way into it either.

That’s because success is measured by your impact and the value you create, You can’t lie about that, and building up the knowledge that creates your unique value doesn’t happen overnight. Success doesn’t happen overnight my friends.

It takes years.

Well not for everyone, but for 99.1% of you.

Let’s do a case study: for this example will use my mate Jon Westenberg (sounds like Steven Spielberg).

Jon has amassed a massive audience across Medium and LinkedIn and many people think he just came out of the womb, did a couple of years at school and then became this blogging sensation that drops truth bombs like they’re going out of fashion.

Okay, well that’s wrong folks. Jon was addicted to Maccas. He’s tried everything. He was writing on LiveJournal (I’ve never heard of it) and Tumblr for years beforehand. During these years where no one noticed him, he was honing his craft.

Like a lot of success stories, he just wasn’t ready yet. He had to do the “doing” to discover the following:

– What was his unique value?
– What could people learn from him?
– What was the best way to share his message?
– What platform could amplify that message the best?

These questions take more than five minutes to answer. In fact, these questions can take years to answer. That’s why the “doing” is so important.

“It’s the doing that eventually answers these questions for you. You can’t find the answers on Wikipedia or at a conference run by a guru”

Are you willing to spend the rest of your life doing it?

We can do the “doing, ” but because that takes years, it may take up most of your life. This means your motivation for “just doing” better be freaking amazing!

You better have figured out why you want to do the “doing” and what it means to you. Failure to come to this realization will cause you (somewhere in the future) to lose the plot and go off track. Major failures and mishaps in life are guaranteed. It’s during these moments that we take a break from the “doing” and then find it nearly impossible to return again.

Motivation is one of the hardest things to master.

“What none of the picture quotes on the Internet tell you is that motivation comes almost entirely from within. Being self-motivated is how you keep doing the ‘doing.’ “

So, you were hoping to read about a secret.

Sorry to disappoint you yet again peeps. As I said earlier, there is no secret: there’s only “doing.”

If it pleases you, feel free to use the whole doing lesson as the secret that you learned from me today. All you can do is keep doing the “doing.” I promise you that if you do that over and over again, eventually, you’ll find the success you want.

The doing is repetitive.
The doing is essential.
Keep doing the “doing.”

If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net