# How to know this is the right thing for you

If you think you know how to write a story but never do it, do you really know how to write a story?

If you think you know how to do a yoga pose but never do it, do you really know how to do that yoga pose?

If you think you know how to apologize for a mistake but never do it, do you really know how to apologize?

If you know what you want to do but aren’t doing it, do you really know what you want?

Because hidden beneath your goals and technical step-by-step instructions to accomplish them, there’s an obstacle course of personal context, personal beliefs, past experiences, and emotions.

And these, you won’t discover in books or videos.

These, you’ll encounter by doing.

And these, you’ll conquer by doing.

Am I running to get in better shape or to get distracting thoughts out of my head?

Am I going out to enjoy being with friends or to forget my worries?

Am I writing to grow an audience or to process my own emotions?

What am I striving for?

Your answers may vary from day to day. There are no right or wrong answers anyway.

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t useful to understand why you behave the way you do.

Maybe it even makes you curious about why others behave the way they do, too.

Do you really want to write a book? Or do you actually want to dream about writing a book?

Do you really want to drop everything and move to a sea-side town? Or do you want to dream about dropping everything and move to a sea-side town?

Both are fine. Both can be fulfilling, because often, having a dream is enough.

But both are not the same.

Only you will know if it’s the dream that makes you happy, or the action you want to take.

I can say I want to run a marathon, write a book, or have a successful career – which doesn’t mean I’ll actually end up running a marathon, writing a book, or having a successful career.

But if I’m serious about it, it does mean I’ll take daily steps towards that goal – daily actions that will change my identity.

Can I live with the present-day implications of my uncertain future visions?

If I don’t know yet if I’ll ever write the book – will these daily actions still be fulfilling to me?

Will they make me happier?

Will I be happy with the person I become by taking such daily actions?

Do these daily actions contribute to a fulfilling emotional, mental, physical, and social life?

If not, am I willing to make emotional, mental, physical, or social sacrifices?

This is a choice everyone makes for themselves.

But I don’t want to make my present day miserable for an uncertain vision of the future I don’t even know will happen.