All it took was a leg drop.
In Guy Evans’s “Nitro: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner’s WCW”, there is of course a nice section on Bash at the Beach 1996. In a few seconds, Hulk Hogan goes from hero to villain.
Seemingly out of nowhere, with his unsuspecting devotees enveloped in celebration, Hulk backed up to the corner. With the coldness of a serial killer, the once-honorable hero shockingly shoved referee Anderson, and executed his patented finishing move—the leg drop—to the helpless Macho Man below.
On the bright side, It takes more than a few seconds to turn yourself into a heel.
(Or, okay, the version of yourself you don’t want to be.)
That said, we tend to default to unhealthy things: staying up late on our phones, eating junk, sitting instead of working out. So you’ll get there if you don’t take the effort to do a little good for yourself each day.
- In Atomic Habits, James Clear describes daily habits as votes for your future self. If you want to become that image of yourself, a little over a long time is the path to get there.
- In The Slight Edge, Jeff Olson describes a beach bum with no direction in life and the other a business success. Spoiler: they’re the same person at different times in life. The “after” comes after the person decides to make small positive changes every day.
Creator lesson: Remember that it’ll take more time than a Hulk Hogan leg drop to turn into the bizarro evil Hollywood version of yourself. Little positive actions each day (training, saying your prayers, eating your vitamins) will keep you running toward the good hulk version of you.
Small creative acts over time add up: 250 words a day, write ten video ideas a day, write down one new idea you came across each day, DM someone and let them know you enjoyed something they made…
It all adds up.