The Secret Ingredient to Doing Cool, Inspiring, Remarkable Things

This post is a companion to Episode 6 of the Radical Redirection Podcast: “That One Special Secret Ingredient that Makes Great People Great.” If you want to go deeper, listen to the full episode below or wherever you get your podcasts.

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The Secret Ingredient Behind Every Cool Thing You've Ever Wanted to Do

Do you ever watch someone in your life do something amazing and think — must be nice?

Around 2018, I found myself in this exact place. My friend Alex moved to the UK and landed a job in visual effects. Another friend, Evan, quit his job, built a van, and spent over a year doing van life across the country. People I knew were publishing books, building robots, running YouTube channels, DJing on weekends.

And me? I was busy. Tired. Dealing with health stuff. I had a long list of reasons why the cool things weren't available to me. And underneath all those reasons was a quiet, heavy belief: they have something I don't.

I was right, actually. They did have something I didn't.

It was self-belief.

The Invisible (And Self-Imposed) Barrier

If you don’t have self-belief, then you likely have its opposite: self-doubt.

Self-doubt is sneaky. It doesn't show up as fear — it shows up as wisdom. It sounds like the cautious voice in your head, the one that thinks of every possible way things could go wrong. I used to think I was so smart for doing this. So proactive. So thorough. And I stayed stuck for years.

Here's the biggest lie self-doubt tells us: you'll be happier if you stay the same, if you don't take risks, if you avoid failure.

I believed this. I checked all the boxes — stable job, good pay, stable relationship. I thought: I made it. Now I'll be happy.

What I got instead was stagnation. Coasting. Autopilot. And eventually, feeling so stuck and miserable I didn't even know why.

Here's the thing: stuckness feels worse than failure. Failure affects your mind and emotions. Stuckness affects your soul.

Don’t Bother Looking Where Your Self-Doubt Came From

Self-doubt develops as a defense mechanism — in response to conditioning, to the environment we grew up in, to messages (direct or indirect) that said: you can't. You're not enough. That's not for you.

It's not useful to go digging for the root of it. Reliving it only reinforces it. Focusing on the “why” — why am I like this, why did this happen to me, where does my self-doubt come from — is not a great use of your time. Focusing on the negative strengthens that brain pathway and makes it harder to break out of.

In a way, it doesn’t matter what traumatic event made you lose your self-belief. What matters is understanding that the voice of self-doubt is not the voice of truth. It is not wisdom. It's an outdated neural pattern, doing its job a little too well — trying to protect you, and keeping you stuck in the process.

The barrier feels very real. But you’ve always had the power dissolve it.

Building Self-Belief Is a Daily Practice (Here Are 3 Ways)

This is not a one-time fix. It's not a mindset shift you make on a Tuesday and then you're done. It's a practice — and the results compound over time.

1. Notice the pattern without judgment. When self-doubt shows up, simply name it. Oh, there it is. My brain trying to keep me safe. No blame, no shame. Your brain is doing its job. It just needs an update. Recognizing the pattern diminishes its power over you.

2. Envision how you want to be instead. Your imagination is powerful — use it. What would it look like to do the big, cool thing you want to do? What would it feel like to be good at it? Ask yourself: if I had unlimited self-belief, what would I go for? Sit with that. Expand it. Let yourself want it fully.

3. Pair action with encouraging thoughts. Take a step — even a small one — toward the thing that scares you. And pair that action with new self-talk: It's scary, but I'm going to do it anyway. I intend to do this, and I learn from the result, whatever it may be. That last one? I say it to myself constantly. Combining scary actions with new thoughts creates neural pathways. It creates evidence that you can.

Over time, the scary thing becomes less scary. The wild dream becomes less unreasonable.

My “Cool Thing” - What’s Yours?

A few weeks into this podcast, I realized: I love this. But I want more. I want to do this in more forms and on bigger stages. And through a series of breadcrumbs — a bookstore, a green book, a favorite comedian, a local event — I found my next step: The Moth. A storytelling organization that hosts live events around the world.

Telling stories on stage, in person, to real people. That's it. That sounds so cool!

Three years ago, I would have thought: That sounds amazing. But that's not for me. I would have seen the vision and immediately looked away from it. Now? I want to sign up. I want to hold myself accountable to actually doing it.

The pull has always been there. I just didn't believe I could follow it.

Your cool thing might be totally different. Maybe it's writing a book. Starting a business. Creating something no one else has created in quite your way. Whatever it is — it's calling you for a reason. That pull is real. Trust it.

The Conditions Will Never Be Perfect

If your soul is pulling you toward something, that something is yours. Not someone else's. Yours.

The special secret ingredient behind every remarkable person, every history-making project, every "how did they do that" moment? Self-belief. It's not talent. It's not luck. It's not circumstances. It's believing — even on the shaky days — that you can.

You don't need to feel ready. You just need to start.

I intend to, and I will. I can.

So can you.

This post is based on Episode 6 of the Radical Redirection Podcast. If you're ready to do the cool thing you've been sitting on, I'd love to help. Reach out — sometimes all we need is someone to see our potential and reflect it back.

How to Be “That” Person: Doing Cool, Inspiring, Remarkable Things