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Do You Want to Be an Overnight Success?

Do you want to be an overnight success?

When we think of overnight successes, we never imagine the sleepless nights, the anxiety to perform, the investment of time and energy, or the lean years before someone’s discovered. We just think of their big moments, the clutch wins, and the celebrated moments.

Michael Jordan comes to mind because I’m a Chicago girl. We all loved Jordan and the amazing 15-season ride we enjoyed as fans of the Chicago Bulls. But no one ever thinks about the fact that he didn’t make his varsity high school basketball team in Wilmington, North Carolina.

After Jordan dusted himself off and rebounded from early disappointment, the world would someday devour every minute of the mouth-gaping 32,292 points he would score during his unprecedented career that was marked by six championship titles.

What happened between that early disappointment as a high school athlete and the record-defying career?

That’s what I admire most about him. If you’ve ever watched the documentary The Last Dance, then you get a glimpse of his tireless work ethic and commitment to winning.

Jordan was known for phoning teammates who were late to practice or for calling out players who appeared to be dialing it in. He expected an all-in effort from everyone on the team because that’s what he was giving.

Two dear friends of mine recently hosted me on their podcast and said how they admired my push to continually grow. They asked what was behind my new energy and direction in life.

Have you ever been asked a question and the answer reinvigorated your clarity?

As I answered their question, I explained how grateful I was for the success I’ve had in the chiropractic and functional medicine world but that I was ready to bring those accomplishments to a new challenge that would expand my circle of influence.

I want to include people who might be inspired by my walk through cancer and how that experience tested something I always believed—you get to choose how you overcome adversity.

So here I am, a newly minted author and a well-traveled speaker with a new message for the stage. Making this pivot is going to take time and resources, but I’m coming from a place where I’m ready to start fresh, make new connections, and develop relationships that I’ll enjoy and nurture in my second career.

I know that I have to build a name for myself, and it will just be a matter of time. I get that no one’s an overnight success. Even the Jordans of the world had to rebound (pun intended) and work at it, rinse, and repeat.

I’m really comfortable in my medical world, and now I want to get out and be beat up a little bit because I know that facilitates more growth. I’m excited to see what my efforts bring.

Do you have something you’re meant to pursue? Are you too comfortable? If your dreams don’t scare you a little bit, they’re not big enough. Fear of Flying author Erica Jong said, “And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.”

Are you ready to try something new? Great!

  1. Take adjacent chances – The best risks are educated ones; they are adjacent to something you love or feel passionate about, or they tap into qualities you’ve proven. For instance, I love connecting with patients and audiences about their well-being and ability to positively affect their lives. While my new book and message are a departure from what I normally speak about, they build on my current career and draw on established skills.
  2. Get to work—incrementally – You’ve heard the saying “Nothing worth having is easy.” You have to be willing to put the time and resources into an idea that you love above and beyond what’s paying the bills. Just because you love it doesn’t mean that it won’t require nurturing. Decide how you’ll incrementally devote resources to your dream and chip away at it.
  3. Put more than one night into it – To me, “overnight success” is really a euphemism for giving your dream time to evolve into a fully formed idea or expression of yourself. Depending on what it is, the scale of your dream can take months or years. The important thing is to enjoy the journey and to do it your way; otherwise it won’t be sustainable.

Be positively altered,

Dr. Cindy M. Howard

P.S. If you want to listen to the episode with my friends Brad and Jay on TechTalk, join us here! If you want to book me for your next event and get the whole story, learn more.

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