Rosa became obsessed with films after watching Back to the Future at the age of eight,

and subsequently decided she wanted to be a movie director.

There hasn’t been any other ambition for her ever since.

She always kept her goal of directing in mind,

even though for the next twenty years,

she never made any concrete steps toward it other than to be an avid movie watcher.

Her knowledge of arcane movie trivia was second to none.

Whatever hours she didn’t spend watching films she spent on the Internet and in history books reading about them.

If she could have gone on the trivia television show Jeopardy,

she would have been a long-running champion.

Rosa had read multiple biographies of all of her favorite directors: Spielberg,

Kurosawa,

Fellini,

Miyazaki,

and more.

Yet she never translated this research,

knowledge,

and information into action.

She had a fairly expensive video camera that she kept confined to her closet,

as well as an archive of film editing software that she had only used a handful of times.

They were all too intimidating and confusing.

Moreover,

what if she discovered that all her knowledge and preparation weren’t enough and she was destined to fail at becoming a director?

It was easier to take the path of least resistance and remain in inaction.

At least learning about Fellini and Miyazaki’s favorite films made her feel productive to some degree,

even if she was avoiding the elephant in the room.

One day,

she discovered an acquaintance of hers had started a YouTube channel that was quickly amassing millions of views.

Out of curiosity,

she started viewing the videos and was struck by what she saw.

This wasn’t art—the shots weren’t framed adequately,

her focus was wrong,

and the narrative structure was reversed!

None of the viewers seemed to care,

however,

as the views continued to increase.

What’s more,

the reviews of the videos were all glowing and encouraging.

No one cared about the framing or focus.

It was impossible for Rosa to ignore the fact that this person had done far more than Rosa and with far less knowledge and expertise.

So Rosa made a dramatic decision.

If she can do it,

why can’t I?

For four months she was going to make real,

concrete strides toward becoming a director—of anything.

It was time to buckle down and keep going when all she wanted to do was give up.

No more retreating to her comfort zone; she was going to translate her dreams into reality through sheer willpower and self-discipline.

She already had the knowledge; it was just time to put it into action.