We often get many platitudes in life and nice sound bites such as “just do it” or “be true to yourself,” but there’s often not a lot of concrete advice on how to actually do the work that needs to get done to get from point A to point B.

Many “experts” have written volumes to help teach you what to do when to do it, and still, people suffer and struggle.

I am not an expert on anything but myself.

I do not have a magic wand or special secret that I can pass on to you that will help you leap over years of work to get to your nirvana.

So why not close this book and throw it away?

I can share with you what has worked for me, and you can glean not only hope from that but a roadmap that will work for you.

Yesterday a friend at work shared a video with our team. It’s a TEDx talk by Caroline McHugh entitled “The Art of Being Yourself.” I watched the video and then watched it a second time with my wife and kids.

Not only did I find the video helpful, but I learned a lot about myself.

We can choose to look at the world in two ways:

• Look for the fast fix and magic cure-all

• Build a life of self-discovery and purpose

I have opted for the second path. I see life as a journey, and each day is filled with new possibilities and opportunities. When I watched McHugh’s video, I learned things about myself and how to build up my self-esteem that I hadn’t learned before.

Where most people see the word as “impossible” and “impotent,” McHugh sees “I’m possible” and “I’m potent.”

Each day our job is to be the best “you” that you can. Your job isn’t to be like me, a celebrity, or historical figure. Your purpose in life is to be you.

What if each day we embraced learning something new about ourselves?

What if we took steps each day to build out a path for ourselves that would allow us to become better each day?

Some days suck. There’s no easy way to say that. We all have hard days, and we fail.

But there are also good days.

The secret that I’ve found is to build up positive and healthy habits each day—no matter if we’re having a good or a bad day.

What do I mean?

I write, exercise, read, meditate, and am a daily quest to learn more about myself every day. To some, this might all sound insufferable. But what if you flip things around and look at it from a different perspective?

We have the gift of life. We are alive and can experience all that the world has to offer. The secret, if there is one, is that I am on this journey one day at a time. And then I break that down to one step at a time.

Yesterday I learned a lot from Caroline McHugh’s TEDx talk. Today? I don’t know yet, but I’m going onward with an open mind and heart.

What about you? What are you going to do today?

Like what you’ve read? Be sure to check out my other posts in my Let Go and Be Free blog.