You’re an author. Essentially that’s what each of us are, and the novel we’re working on daily is the story of our lives. Most of us, however, don’t see ourselves as writers or authors of a grand epic, but rather characters or pawns in a narrative that we don’t control. The pages of our lives, in our minds, are written by circumstance, and our expectations reflect this.

Whether we do it consciously or not, we do what we’re told, we become who we’re expected to become. We aim to fulfill the expectations of a society, of a birth rite or birthplace, of our parents and friends and in relation to those who we hang around with. Our expectations for our lives are not written by our soul. Our spirit’s greatest desires and ambitions don’t forge the actions and intentions we take and make. (Read this: How to Live a Story Worth Reading)

Our lives, our expectations hold nothing of the man writing his grand novel, where every stroke of his pen is done to the best of his ability, penned with his mightiest stroke. They’re confined by the expectations of others. We’re trained to be who we’re supposed to be, where we fit in society. We go to college if that’s what’s expected of us, and we don’t if it isn’t. We find the job that suits our position in life and even if we reach for the stars, that reach doesn’t exceed our grasp, we’re not truly going for the greatness that our spirit, deep down in the bows of our Self, believes should be ours.

You Are Not Made for Mediocrity

The lives we lead, live, and enact, aren’t the lives we’d create for ourselves if the weight that crushes our imagination was lifted. From a young age we’re programmed to fall in line and play a role. Where we once dreamt of adventure, of conquering and controlling our fate, we’ve been tempered to diminish our dreams, to crush the audacity of our soul so we could live a life that fit into a puzzle, into pages of a book that isn’t written by us and doesn’t extend us, our actions, goals, and dreams, with the audacity that would allow us to live as our potential would see us do.

The expectations, however, can be brought back, reeled in, and once again placed in our hands so that we can again take your place as the author of your own life.

Find What You Really Want

Expect audacity in the goals you set for yourself.

The first step to changing who you are, improving who you are, and creating the life you really want, is listening to that part of your soul that wants more. Not only listening to it, but feeding it.

When we’re kids our imaginations can take us to great, grand places. As adults our goals are tinted with the blackish hue of reality.

We set goals that won’t require risk; risk as in time and effort.

It’s time and effort that most of us shy away from. Imagine putting 10 years into creating a dream, spending 17 hours everyday working on that dream, and then you “fail” (failure being put in quotations because it’s an incredibly subjective thing). (Must Read: How to Reach the Unattainable Goal of Your True Potential)

That would suck, and yet what we’d learn in that journey would inevitably help us succeed.

There is no point in aiming for the mediocre because once it’s yours you’ll be filled with an even greater void knowing that what you reached for wasn’t nearly as audacious as what your soul called you to reach for.

Aim higher. Listen to what you truly want, what that warrior within will have you do. The importance of audacious goals can’t be overlooked. It’s only a goal that’s daring that will excite you enough to spend those 17 hour work days needed to create success.

Expect the Work Needed to Create Your Future

This is the most important step and a step that only a few reading will take.

To start this year I set some very, very big goals. They’re goals that have action steps that also need to be accomplished to see the end goal through.

Each action-step or smaller, more specific goal, requires that I do a lot of work, more than I did last year. It requires focus and consistency. It needs discipline in spades and without an insane amount of improvement on who I was last year, these goals simply won’t be reached.

… And then, an epiphany.

I’m comparing myself to the wrong person.

I’m not who I was, I am who I can be.

I can be the guy who gets up at 5am 365 days this year. I can be the guy who gets the work done without failure. I can be the guy who accomplishes these audacious goals.

This man, this guy who is my potential is who I should expect in the present rather than expecting what I have been thus far. That’s not who I really am. Who I am thus far is who I was and I will never again be who I was so why waste my time reflecting on what he did?

And you are the same.

Rather than expecting the guy who gets half the work done, change your expectations of who you are and what you’re capable of to accomplish what your soul begs you to follow, claim, and conquer. (Read this: Why You’re Comparing Yourself to the Wrong Person)

Identify what you really want in this life. This isn’t what anyone wants for you or what society is telling to you chase, this is about your pure, real intentions and dreams. Then, identify what you need to accomplish to create this audacious goal and expect more from yourself.

[Tweet “Expect the guy you can be and leave behind the guy you were.”]

Example:

Goal: Become a published author.

Step: Write a book.

Daily expectations: Every day write 2,000 words.

Make it simple. No matter what else is in your schedule, no matter what’s thrown on your desk, you will write those two thousand words. It’s habit. It’s expected. That’s it, there’s nothing more to it.

Apply this simply, sound logic to whatever goal you want to accomplish, and you shall have it after much time, struggle, and tribulation.

Read this next: The #1 Reason Why You Won’t Reach Your Goals This Year