Facebook did it. Instagram too. All of them. They cracked my code.

Not a day goes by that I don’t get at least 458 offers for the exact thing that I was just talking about yesterday. Sometimes (and I swear this has happened) all I have to do is think about it.

You too?

It’s almost like they’re spying on us.

That’s sarcasm. It’s EXACTLY like they’re spying on us.

And the offers are laser-focused, finely tuned, and uberhyper promising.

“Make $50k a month, doing the thing you love.”

“50X your revenue with this one simple secret.”

“Get more leads.”

“Make more sales.”

“Grow your audience.”

“Turn what you’re already doing into $20k a week without ever using a single facebook ad.”

I saw that one on facebook.

Ironic.

Pause. This isn’t a post about the depravity of internet marketing or a conspiracy theory about how Google has a direct line into your amygdala.

There are lots of those out there.

Just google it.

You’ll get 50 more by the end of the week.

No no, it’s pretty clear. I signed up for something . . . or clicked on something . . . or said something out loud . . . or had a thought about something without wearing my lead helmet . . . and they cracked my code.

The algorithm elves figured me out and I know full well, that’s how this works. Quite frankly, if someone knows how to do exactly what I’m doing and make 50 times as much, I’d kinda’ like to hear them out.

They’re offering a change that could change everything, and in a year that has been wrecked by negative, damaging, painful change . . . I would kiss a good one on the lips.

BUT

Sometimes the ONE CHANGE that could change EVERYTHING can’t change ANYTHING because the RIGHT CHANGE hasn’t happened yet.

Quick story.

A few weeks ago I was driving to see a good friend that I hadn’t seen in almost two years. The trip was supposed to take 4 hours.

It took 9.

To be transparent, it was snowing pretty hard when I started but this particular friend and I don’t typically begin our time together by making GOOD decisions. So I braved the snow (pausing to acknowledge the fine line between bravery and stupidity).

By the time I arrived, I had seen 37 wrecks.

Here are some actual pictures I took while sitting on the highway lined up behind miles of fellow “brave” drivers who had not yet earned their place in the ditch.

It was carnage.

Halfway through the trip, the GPS elves found a route that would “save me 30 minutes.”

Heck yeah! Lead on wise elves.

As I turned onto the frontage road I passed by a woman who was spinning her wheels on a slight incline just meters away from level road. Her car was moving every direction except forward.

I drove for less than two minutes before I realized that GPS elves are sitting in a control tower someplace much warmer than where I was. They had zero clue which roads had been plowed and which roads were a guaranteed date with a tow truck.

Using my slow but better judgment, I turned around. As I came back I saw the same woman, car still running, wheels still spinning, and driver door open. She was pushing her own (otherwise unoccupied) car.

I’m not sure what she was planning to do if it caught traction and took off.

Being the gallant hero type (and feeling enough like a jerk for passing by her the first time) I stopped and offered to do the pushing if she would guide the car. It didn’t take much and she was on her way. She yelled “thank you” out the window but didn’t dare slow down.

I watched her as she made it to the main road and then turned onto the highway.

I’d love to play it humble here but it felt really good. While dozens of other cars callously drove around her, I was the one single Samaritan who stopped to help. I did my good deed . . . I mean, after I drove around her once . . . but still.

I gave myself a mental pat on the back and looked around to see if anyone was clapping.

They weren’t.

And then — just as quickly as it had come — the good feeling was gone.

In fact, I was a little sick to my stomach.

It hit me. This woman FELT like her biggest problem was not being on the highway but clearly, IT WAS NOT.

Her MOST pressing issue was that she was trying to move forward in a vehicle that was NOT EQUIPPED to make the trip.

HER TIRES WERE BALD — and I just pushed her into faster, more dangerous traffic.

Way to go Dudley Do-Right.

See where I’m going here?

This past year was a snowstorm (to put it politely) like the world has never seen. It changed a LOT of things for a LOT of people.

Slowed forward movement for a LOT of people.

Rerouted a LOT of people.

Put a LOT of people in the ditch.

WE ARE SO READY TO GET MOVING AGAIN.

BUT regardless of how inspired or driven or anxious you are to get back on the highway and move ahead fast, if you’ve got bald tires then that is the LAST PLACE you should be in a snowstorm.

CHANGE YOUR TIRES FIRST!

One more time with no metaphors just in case you’re still not getting it.

If anyone is offering you the “one simple change” that will “change everything,” I’m not here to judge that. It could be a total scam or it could very well be legit.

BUT

You can’t plug a magic formula into bad habits and expect it to perform well.

BEFORE you go searching for the “simple secret” (or more accurately, before you click on the ones that are searching for you), maybe now (in this chaotic, messed up, “everything is changing” year) is the ideal time to do a deep dive, and take a hard look at the patterns, habits, and routines that are inevitably going to leave you in the ditch.

We’re all ready for some good change — but good change doesn’t come before right change.

How about you?

What has changed this year?

What do you want to change?

What needs to change first?

Dare you to be honest.