Living with Intention
How to be a Genuine Superhero
It’s really simple
You know how some people just keep on achieving? They often dominate those 40 under 40 lists, they succeed in their business ventures, they run the marathons, they eat plant-based diets and they manage to publish six books on top of it all.
They’re kind of superheroes.
It’s not just the high-profile success stories either. It’s a friend who’s always there for you, has their life in order and keeps progressing, quietly but surely. And they make a mean carrot cake. They’re never late. They never complain. You never hear them bemoan their lack of time, even though they must be so busy.
They seem to be superheroes.
And they all have a rock solid sense of self.
But they’re not superheroes. There’s only one difference between them and the rest of us.
They do what they say they’re going to do.
Flakiness is killing us
I bet you know a few flaky people. You know, they say yes to lots of things but you can bet your bottom dollar that they won’t actually show up. They’ll bail. Or they’ll give up on a goal.
Hell, maybe you are flaky yourself. I know I am.
In a social context, we feel obliged to say yes to things we know we don’t want to do. Sometimes we say yes to things we know we have no intention of attending. We’ll think of an excuse later.
It’s not cool. And I’m not saying you should keep saying yes and actually go. I think it’s far better to say no, and not go.
But that’s only a tiny part of this article. What I’m talking about here is the attitude that leads to flakiness and how eradicating that will make you a superhero.
Because if we’re flaky people, we’re not just flaky to social events. We’re flaky about all those other commitments, those promises too.
We’re flaky about that novel we’re ‘writing’. If you say you’re going to finish it by summer and you’re still on 25,000 words (exactly where you were last month), then you’re breaking that commitment. You’re flaking out.
