I don’t remember if I was crying, but I probably wasn’t.

I wasn’t sad. I was angry.

Sitting there in that dark car in that dark parking lot, I was mad about what I had to do next. After fighting Atlanta traffic for another soul crushing hour, I was about to go to my job.

I felt invisible. I’d rage inside about all things I was going to do some day. I’d metaphorically shake my hands about all the potential I had. I was going to write a book! I was going to do big things. I was going to …nothing.

That’s what was happening, a whole bunch of nothing.

It felt like I was wearing rollerskates on an ice skating rink. I was flapping around furiously, expending tons of energy, but not actually getting anywhere.

When I was 9, I promised myself I’d write a book someday. At 34, I’d spent 25 years lying. No book. No plan. No hope.

I had a full time job. I had a long commute. I had a beautiful wife and two young kids under the age of 5. Toddlers are amazing, but they are also a crisis. They never stop moving, like raptors constantly testing the boundaries of their containment for weak spots. Your life is upside down when you have young kids. I also had freelance clients. I had bills and mortgages and all the things that come along with being an adult.

I didn’t have time, space or the resources for a big dream. I just didn’t.

There wasn’t a eureka moment. Maybe other people have them. Maybe other people get lightning bolts or wise old strangers named Cornelius with long beards and corn cob pipes they’ve whittled. They come across your life, drop off some truth bomb and then recede to the shadows never to be seen again.

That’s not exactly how it happened for me.

There’s not one moment where everything changed, one bit of progress that made everything different.

It was nothing more than tiny, tiny bits of hustle.

That’s all I had.

I started with goals so small they were practically microscopic.

I couldn’t write a book over night, but I could write a blog post this morning.

I couldn’t pay off our mortgage right now, but I could work on our car loan.

I couldn’t run away to a mythical writer’s cabin for a weekend of writing, but I could get up 30 minutes before everyone else did and hustle.

Bit by bit, goal by goal, I started to chip away at the marble of my life to see what was really inside.

It wasn’t easy, but I figured out a few things. I figured out a few tricks along the way. I found some potholes, mostly by falling in them, and learned to avoid others.

Six years later, I don’t cry in the car anymore. (At least not over my broken goals. The suspension of Tom Brady still has me misty eyed.)

In the space between that morning in the car and this morning as I write this, I’ve published five books, two of which hit the New York Times Bestseller’s list. I’ve traveled the country sharing ideas as a public speaker. I started my own company and gave myself 8 weeks of vacation because awesome.

It hasn’t been perfect. I’ve failed more than I’ve succeeded, but perfect’s not the point.

The point is I tried. I got out of the car and got into my goals. I got messy and I worked.

Is that you? Are you in a car somewhere? Or a cubicle somewhere or a car rider pick up line right now reading this?

What are the things you want to do someday that you could start today?

The goals we ignore don’t disappear. They become ghosts, haunting the quiet moments of our life. In the shower, in the 30 seconds at a light when you’re not staring at your phone, they show up and they are not silent. They whisper to you. They say:

Remember, you said you were going to start a business?

Remember that book you wanted to write?

Remember you wanted to be in shape?

Do you remember?

I bet you do.

I know you do.

How?

Because I spent the last year working with thousands of people on goals just like yours.

I took the steps I used to get out of that car and onto a bookshelf in a bookstore and created a 30-day challenge. It’s called the 30 Days of Hustle. The concept is simple. I help you pick a goal you care about and then I walk you through 30 days of video exercises.

There are a million online courses and challenges, but here’s why this one is different, it actually works.

We had an independent researcher working on his Phd in personal development test the results of people who use the materials. Here’s what he found:

People who did the challenge are 28% more successful than other programs.

People who do day 9 are 52% more successful than other programs.

Those two numbers are insane to me, but what’s even crazier is putting off your goal for one more day or one more week or one more year.

It’s scary to try, it is. There’s a false comfort to hoping but never acting. You get to pretend that someday you’ll do it. You get to imagine that you could if you really wanted to. But you’ll never know unless you try.

[Tweet “The only thing scarier than trying and failing is not trying and living with “what if?” “]

If you want some help, if you want some support, if you want some encouragement, this is your chance.

This is the last 30 Days of Hustle of 2016. Signup ends this Friday night. You only have a few days left to join the 1,000 people from around the world who have already joined.

We made it even easier to get involved with three different access levels.

Don’t stay in the car and wonder what if.

Get out.

Get going.

Join the 30 Days of Hustle.