Today I want to share with you something I learned from - famous American actor, comedian, producer, rapper, and songwriter - Will Smith; a life lesson that can change your life forever if you implement it.
Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t have the privilege to learn from him personally 🙂
Yet, we are lucky we can have access to his recording any time we want.
Here’s the video that may wake you up.
How many times have you not started or finished something because you were paralyzed by how much work, effort, and time reaching your final goal implied?
How many times have you preferred to pay the price of regret rather than the price of discipline?
In other words, how many times have you chosen to stay comfortable in a situation that felt tight, rather than getting uncomfortable to change your life for the better?
Nowadays, social media show us people who have already achieved the final goals we are aiming for, whether it is a six-figure business, a new brand supercar, a lovely relationship, an excellent shape, etc; we are impressed by them, but we lose sight of all the tiny, small, boring actions they must have taken to achieve the final goal.
This is what Will Smith's message is all about!
“You don’t set out to build a wall. You don't say ‘I’m going to build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that’s ever been built.’ You don’t start there. You say, ‘I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid.’ You do that every single day. And soon you have a wall”. - Will Smith
The tiny, small, and boring actions taken day in, day out are the bricks we need to focus on to eventually erect a wall, i.e. our final goal.
What happens when we focus on our ultimate goal - the wall - instead?
Whether it is building a successful business, having a million-dollar bank account, writing a book, studying a 1,000-page book, losing 20 kilos of fat, or gaining 20 kilos of muscle it is normal to feel overwhelmed, isn’t it?
Our brain automatically brings about countless things to learn, do, and instead of focusing on the possibilities it focuses on the obligations and difficulties.
We sabotage ourselves thinking: “I’ll never make it! It’s out of my reach! It’s impossible”.
The foreseeable result is that we give up on achieving our goals.
HOW DID WILL SMITH LEARN THE LIFE LESSON?
In the summer of 1980, 12-year-old Will Smith and his little brother Harry were given a seemingly impossible task.
Their father decided to have a new wall in front of his shop; he tore down the existing wall that was 16 feet high and 30 feet long.
Then, he asked Will and his brother to build a new one, by hand.
Will and Harry started by digging a 6-foot-deep hole as the foundation for the wall.
Then, they continued mixing concrete and laying bricks every single day after school.
A year and a half later, they laid the final brick and the new wall was erected.
FINAL THOUGHTS
If two young boys have been able to erect an entire wall - by laying one brick after another, after school - what's your excuse to not build yours?
What would have happened if Will Smith and his brother had been focusing on the seemingly impossible task, i.e. building the wall?
Probably they would have never started and completed it.
Maybe you are at the same stage in your life as I used to be - fed up with working in a 9 to 5 job, trading your time for money - and you need a change.
Maybe, you’d like to start an online business that eventually will free you up from the hamster wheel you are trapped in.
Yet, you don’t know where to start from, you feel discouraged by the new skills you need to learn, by the hours that you have to put in to set up a successful online business.
You see, I ran the risk of not starting my online business because of the above reasons.
I was focusing on the wall.
Luckily, I bumped into Will Smith’s video and since then I’ve been showing up for myself every day.
I’ve been focusing on laying one brick a day as “perfectly” as I can.
It works!
I still remember when I started my blog.
By focusing on writing one post at a time I’ve written over 100 posts.
Slowly, but steadily I am moving towards my goal, i.e. getting out of the hamster wheel forever.
What would have happened if I had focused on writing 100 posts?
The gap - 0 to 100 - would have been so big that surely I would have never started.
This holds for all the digital skills I’ve been learning.
Whether it is building websites, designing landing pages, thank you pages, or creating automatic follow-up emails, and much more, I’ve been focusing on laying one single brick at a time.
What happens over a period of time? You learn and gain skills and knowledge that enable you to get out of the hamster wheel and live life on your own terms.
Maybe, you are not interested in starting an online business, maybe you would like to get fit or build an extraordinary relationship with someone you love.
It doesn’t really matter what your goal is.
What matters is that laying one brick at a time is a universal principle.
It works in every aspect of your life.
What are you going to do?
Will you focus on laying bricks as perfectly as a brick can be laid or will you focus on the wall?
In other words:
Will you focus on learning one skill at a time or on being a master in whatever you want to learn?
Will you focus on one chapter of the book you want to write or on the whole book?
Will you focus on paying into your bank account some money regularly or on the million-dollar bank account you wish you had?
Will you focus on the next workout and healthy meal or on the lean and muscular shape you are dreaming about?
Ask yourself:
Where am I going to be in 1/5/10 years from now if I lay one brick a day?
What will my life be like in 10 years if I focus on simply one brick at a time?
How will the life of the people I love benefit from me taking consistent action, i.e. laying one brick after another?
The six-figure business, the one-million-dollar bank account, the fancy supercar, the lovely relationships, the excellent shape, etc you are dreaming about may come true.
Bottom Line: success is nothing less than continuous actions taken over and over again.
More resources for YOU:
I couldn’t agree more! You focus on the task at hand because this is the most important thing you’ve got to do at the moment. Yet at the same time try to never lose sight of the big picture – not to lose track, to make sure the wall your building is straight.
Thank you for this post. It was a good reminder for myself.
Love what you said about not losing sight of the big picture to make sure the wall you are building is straight.
Thanks a lot 🙏🏻