Do It For Yourself

Dont forget to do it for yourself.

It’s very easy to do it because someone else told you to. Or because you feel like people might care whether you do it or not. Or because ‘everyone is doing it’.

You might think they’ll judge you if you dont do it. But when you do that they’ll probably judge you for how you did it anyways. So you might as well do it for you.

Because when you do for yourself it’s more you. It’s more natural. You aren’t pretending to be someone you’re not. You’re being the self you want yourself to be.

And if you do it - and win - you’ll feel the difference. You will have earned it! You’ll have grown more because of it. You’ll have learned more. This will compound.

When I started writing this blog I didn’t tell anyone. I probably wrote 25 blogs before making it public. I just wanted somewhere to put my thoughts for myself.

But of course eventually you feel like you owe it to other people to share what you’ve thought. And I think that’s true, you do owe it. That’s the most beautiful thing in the world, sharing your thoughts with other people and hearing theirs.

So you should share. But be careful because if you do some people will likely express their appreciation (which is awesome). Then after that now you might feel like you’re obligated to them in some way.

Like there are rules, and that you have to keep sharing. Like you must share at least 2x per week. And like it must be high value, topical, tactical stuff or they will stop caring.

I’m saying I don’t want you to care about whether or not people stop caring. I want you to do it because you love it. Or because you are good at it. Ideally both. On your own terms.

And if you stop loving it then you have no obligation to keep doing it. You have earned the right to do whatever else it is that you love. And if they byproduct is that the world becomes a better place because you did it for yourself then we all win.

The Teddy Roosevelt cliche is that the man in the arena is the one who matters. And I appreciate that sentiment. But for today I prefer the Rick Rueben saying:

“I’m not making it for them. I’m making it for me”

Peace,
Ramsey