Your lane doesn’t exist. Yet.

AI is going to replace you.

But only if you don’t keep chasing what makes you, you.

I spent countless years ruminating on how to start writing and talking about what you’re reading now, because I know I have an important message that’s way bigger than I can throw into a ‘hello world’ message — but now everything is important and there are millions of messages. I get excited, then I create, then I feel overwhelmed for more reasons than I can recall. Or worse, I design the way I’m going to do this, I start working on it, I feel overwhelmed, then I stop, then I get down on myself.

Pretty heavy walking around being convinced you can change the world for the better and then not doing it, right? Even heavier thinking someone else is going after it similarly, but they could (and should, because they owe it to us to) do it so much better.

Now though, that heavy world is hitting home for what seems like all of us — whether we’re trying to change the world or just survive it. We’re told that AI is coming for our jobs and almost everything else in our world that’s not nailed to the floor.

Here’s the thing though: computers didn’t take all of our ideas and skills, neither did the internet, neither have other humans and neither will AI. What has happened step by step is each of us has had to dig deeper into what makes us, and humans in general, valued. And if anything, humans using these technologies have done far more to move the bar than the technologies themselves.

You might find yourself thinking, “There’s nothing new about what I have to give the world.” You feel like you’re going down a crowded highway, in a lane with lots of cars next to a lane with lots of cars and another lane with lots of cars.

I’m here to tell you, you’re not. You’re 1 of 1, and your top task every day is to identify, refine, and execute (but not overthink) your definition of what makes you different as a human. This exercise extends to everything you touch, from how you put on your socks to how the business you created, lead, or work for operates to the family and friends around you who shape their own definitions in part from what you share of yourself with them.

AI, like everything that came before it but perhaps to a greater degree, makes this thinking more important than ever. But it can accelerate and maximize your ability to share your value and change the world. And like any force, you can choose the path of friction or embrace the opportunity to do bigger things than you thought possible in far faster time.

Today is where you start (re-)creating your own lane. No one will travel the entire road you’re traveling. Don’t overthink it, don’t wait, don’t let your not-so-perfect results stop you from defining and doing what makes you valuable. And let me be proof: I’m convinced this is one of the hardest, worst posts I’ve ever written but yet I’m writing it and sharing it with you now (I wasn’t really funny, which sucked by the way because I pretty much live to crack jokes). I didn’t get to say about a million things I wanted to say, but again that urge for completion and perfection over iteration is why I’ve not gotten this far in the past.

In short, I’m saying one thing: just start.

Actually, one more thing: follow me here and let’s take this leap together.

Happy new year.