 You know, there's this little pesky trend I've noticed in life when I see how other people talk about their dreams and goals, and it annoys the crap out of me. You know, we say these things like, I'm going to do it when, or 2021 is going to be my year, or there's something I'm going to do, and then everything after that doesn't really matter. Now, this video, I want to share why I think so many of us have made a bargain with the devil, expecting and hoping that one day our dreams are going to come true, but most of the time with this kind of language, they don't. Let's talk about why that is and what to do about it. Hey guys, Alex Hine, author of Milk the Pigeon, a field guide for anyone lost in their 20s on Amazon and Audible if you want me whispering into your ear late at night. I've included a free download below this video, which is for a free goal setting worksheet to plan out how to have the best year ever of your life. There's a free email sequence there that'll give you some lessons and stories for my life as well. So you can check it out right below this video. So let's start with this idea that today is basically the future you dreamed of five years ago. You know, I first heard this from an old Earl Nightingale audiobook and he talks about way back in the 1950s that today is that day or that period of your life where you thought you'd be having so much fun. You thought you'd be doing all these goals and taking all these trips and going after your dreams. Well, the question is really today, are you doing what you thought you would be doing years ago? And if the answer is no, that should be a very sobering fact. You know, I was thinking back through my life recently as I think this time in history is making a lot of us do and I thought back to all of these kinds of bargains that I made with the devil. I thought about way back when I was living in Connecticut and I graduated from my undergraduate with a bio and environmental science degree and I was super excited about the future, but also very jaded. After I got my first full time job and I realized I didn't really want to work a nine to five for the rest of my life. So I couldn't figure out what that was going to really look like to actually build this life that excited me. So I kept telling myself, you know, oh, next year, I'm going to be in New York City or I'm going to go on a trip or I'm going to be doing an internship in Fiji and my life's going to be awesome. So one of those next years was I moved to China and then when I was in China, I was like, oh, next year, I'm going to do the coolest thing. I'm going to go to the most fun spot. So I went to the next spot and then after I was in the next spot for a while, I was like, oh, when I do my doctorate in Chinese medicine, life's going to be awesome. I will have arrived and then I was in Portland, wrapping up my doctorate and I'm like, I can't wait to move to LA because these experiences are going to happen. I'm going to meet these people and on and on and on this bargain with the devil went. And I never realized that really what I was doing was I was really future pacing because I wasn't really truly enjoying my day to day life. And so I was trying to create a future reality that inspired me and excited me more than reality. The problem was I realized now I've been doing that for 10 years. So where does that end? And where do you start living the life you want? Most of us will never really end up doing the things that we really want to do. And that shouldn't make you feel sad. It shouldn't make you feel unmotivated or uninspired. It should make you be even more fiery to make sure you are the exception to make sure you see the way your friends and your family talk about their goals and their dreams. And unless they're super holistically successful, you do the exact opposite because most of us we're going to talk about the things we want to do. We're never going to do them. So that's why a few years ago, maybe 2017 at this point, I was like what would be a cool dream I've always wanted to do? And it was I want to trace the footsteps of the book The Alchemist down through Spain and Andalusia. I want to stand on those old forts that Paolo Quello mentioned where you can see Africa through that straight there. And I want to spend a month in Spain writing my next book. That book became Milk the Pigeon. And it started off by tagging this Instagram picture on La Rambla and I was reading The Alchemist and I was writing out the chapter titles to my book Milk the Pigeon, which was really about a book on reaching your full potential and making sure your 20s were sowing you the seeds for living that great life. And so I realized, you know what, screw it. This is never going to happen. Like when am I going to do it? When I'm 60? Like why don't I just book the trip and I'll just write the outline. I'll just write the table of contents. So I booked a trip to Barcelona. I flew in and that first night I sat in my Airbnb. I got a bottle of wine from around the corner and I just wrote out the table of contents to that book. But in that month, I ended up writing well over a thousand words a day and actually completed a half of that book in a month. And that was because I realized that there is never really going to be a good time to do most of the things you want to do or to go after your dreams. Like when is there going to be a time to write a book or start that side hustle or to fall in love, even though you're scared or to have a baby or to move across the country or to move across the world or take Italian lessons? Like when exactly does that good time happen after COVID, after you're 30, when you make six figures, when you're stable and secure, when exactly does that happen? And I think it's really important to realize that when we say one day I'm going to do this, what we're really doing is making a Faustian bargain, this bargain with the devil. Because most of those things you really want to do, you're never going to do unless you're taking actions towards them today, like this week. So I want to leave you at that. Today is the day that you've been dreaming of five years ago. Is it the life that you wanted? You know, is today the life you had been dreaming of for so long? And if not, you better take action steps today and this week and this month to one of those big dreams. Because otherwise, I think honestly, you're probably just fooling yourself. All right, you guys, that's my fiery Alex rant, as is to be expected. Again, there's a free goal setting worksheet below this video. Do you want to plan out how to have an incredible year and how to figure out what rituals are going to help you get there? Download the free worksheet, go through those emails and then try it out because I think it's really going to help you. And then before you go, I have two related videos over here.