Why I'm Ditching Role Models

A month ago, I started watching Casey Neistat on Youtube (thanks to my dear friend Shannon Wooten for suggesting him). I watched one video and then another and then another until I went down a full-blown Youtube rabbit hole.

As I'm finishing up a video compilation on his life philosophy, I asked myself,

"What do I need to do to be that kind of person in the world? Bold, daring, authentic, creative, visionary, in action, inspiring, etc."

LIGHT BULB MOMENT

If I want to be all of those things, I need to stop putting these people on a pedestal. I've had many role models in my day. My older sister, Grace Helbig, Michelle Akin, a slew of fitness YouTubers, Marie Forleo and now Casey. It's all good to admire these people but all I was doing was living vicariously through them. It's easy to justify looking to them for inspiration and hope. But what I'm actually doing is avoiding making my own mark on the world. I'm so busy watching other people's stories unfold that mine is sitting there unwritten.

Hope is a bankrupt word. Hope is like waiting for something outside of you to make life play out the way you want it to as if you have no say in the matter. Hope is like hitting the disengage button.

The only way I'll have any chance of succeeding at living a fulfilling life is if I genuinely engage in living. Intentionally write my story. Stop looking up to people and start being someone I'd be stoked to look up to. I've been selling myself short and I can't imagine that I'm the only one.

What do I say moving forward? Things will be different because I say so. More importantly, I will be different. I would invite you to do the same.