Sometimes the best thing you can do in life is to find someone to walk through it with you.
If you’re lucky (or a really good judge of character), that person will support you, believe in you, push you to greater heights, and love you unconditionally.
I hope you find that person. You deserve it.
One of the members of the 48 Days Eagles group posted a quote today which prompted some ideas I’d like to share.
“Our time is not for sale.”
Brene Brown, Dare to Lead
Two points I’d like to make:
Number one – being compensated for our time is a dreadful, soul-sucking way to make a living, a remnant of days long past, days spent mindlessly working as a cog in the machine that was factory work.
What is more satisfying than getting paid for results that you create or for thoroughly completing a job? Would you rather show up, punch the clock, and work half-heartedly through a mind-numbing shift where the minutes, not the work, are the only thing that matter for your compensation?
Why not instead go solve a problem? Find something that needs solving and do it, then get paid for it. Then go solve another problem and get paid for that, too.
Number two – our time is the most precious commodity each of us own, and therefore it cannot be squandered away. We are here for the blink of an eye – this time cannot be wasted staring at a clock or wasting away in front of a screen; it must be spent wisely. We are each here for a specific purpose, and we’ve been given a limited amount of time to fulfill that purpose. Don’t waste this precious gift.
Go find an interesting problem, try to solve it, get paid, and then do it again.
Do it.
The thing you want to learn how to do? Start doing it.
Start writing. Start playing the drums. Start drawing. Start reading the classics. Start creating a podcast.
How do you learn how to speak another language? Any teacher worth her salt will tell you that you have to immerse yourself in the language and start speaking it. All the books and college courses in the world won’t help you if you don’t do it.
This is scary, isn’t it? The resistance in your head is telling you that you don’t know where to start or that you can’t possibly learn how to do this or that without a rigorous amount of study. If you don’t know where to start, then yes – go and pick up a book. Watch a YouTube video or download an app. Hire a teacher. But all the reading about it, watching videos about it, being lectured to about it – that won’t get you anywhere until you take action. Once you have a grip on the basics, you just have to start doing.
Learning is easy once you start doing it. Taking action is what’s difficult.
There will be days, inexplicable days, where nothing seems pleasant, your mind heavy, restless, and frustrated. Your ideas won’t click; your hopes and dreams will seem frivolous or impossible…the words don’t come or the music sounds wrong.
On these rainy days, acknowledge them for what they are. They suck, but they happen to everyone. So take the day and do whatever it is you need to do.
Just make sure you show up again tomorrow…
Sometimes the easiest way to get an answer, the easiest way to get unstuck, is to just ask a question.
Want to know what comes next for you in your career? Ask your leader what he thinks.
Want to know how to market your latest work? Get around people who do it and ask them how they did it.
Want to know if the person you are dating will marry you? Ask them (hopefully not too soon).
Sometimes it is best to get out of your own head, away from the fear and uncertainty, and just ask someone a question.
Some of you may have read my post the other day about “Trump Straws.” This is a short follow-up to that particular post, so I hope you’ll forgive me as the historian comes out to write.
There was a time in the United States where concern over waste was of the utmost importance. Granted, plastic wasn’t the issue of the time – the United States was fighting a horrid war against the Empire of Japan and Nazi Germany. This fight required ammunition, tanks, vehicles, guns, and food. It was a time of total war, and the American citizenry was asked to help fight that war by…can you guess?
The US government called on its people to hold drives for scrap metal, to grow their own food in “Victory Gardens,” to live on ration cards which severely limited what one could buy at the grocery store. Even bacon grease was of vital importance – (save the bacon grease to help make ammunition)! These were the days when Coca-Cola bottles could be recycled for a few cents, when the milk man picked up your old glass bottles rather than having them broken and discarded in a trash heap.
We are not in a state of total war today; the government is not asking us to help fight anyone or anything by recycling and reducing waste. I simply wanted to point out in this post that at one point, it was quite an American thing to do. So let’s stop labeling things as “liberal” and “conservative” simply to inflame people who we see as “the others.” Let us bring civil discussion and disagreement back to our society.
We need civility and open communication more than we need anything else. Quit letting mass media and politicians pull us apart.
Please.
Sometimes the progress you get isn’t necessarily the progress you wanted or expected.
You might be trying to lose inches around your waist, only to get to measurement day and discover that result didn’t happen, but your shoulders, arms, and legs grew slightly bigger and more muscular.
Progress.
A really challenging exercise or song being learned on the guitar doesn’t sound any better, but you notice your fingers don’t hurt anymore from the biting of the strings, and your wrist technique has improved.
Progress.
Progress is change in a forward direction. Look for it everywhere, not just in the one thing on which you happen to be focusing.
Progress: notice it everywhere, celebrate it often, and keep trying to create it.
Progress.
Human beings are notoriously bad at two things: thinking about the future…and adapting to change.
Now before I go on, this article references something that was sent to me about President Trump’s campaign, but I am not trying to write a political post. This is simply an observation of how people are are being set against one another because of change.
We have scientific proof that there is more carbon in the air today than there was 50 years ago (which causes the Earth to retain more heat). We have documented, scientific evidence that our oceans are becoming cesspits overflowing with plastic and other waste which is harmful to the creatures that inhabit them.
So the culture is experiencing a change: companies all over are adding links to their “About Us” sections to show their customers how they interact with the environment. Start-ups and entrepreneurs are creating delivery boxes to help people go greener. Local businesses are trying to source their goods from local people with minimal or no packaging. And individual Americans (and humans in general) are making efforts to lower their footprint by using less plastic or finding alternative ways to commute.
Then you have something like this:
You can find more information about the item here if you want to look more into it.
A small idea like a biodegradable paper straw, innocent of anything except trying to save a turtle here or there, is politicized and given the label of “liberal”.
What purpose does this serve except to divide us Americans even further? Why take an idea like the paper straw, something that harms no one and has long-term benefits for everyone, and use it as fuel on a fire to incense one group of citizens against another?
Change is happening; change is inevitable and has been occurring as long as there have been people. And people have fought against change as long as we have existed.
Yet change is still happening. People are attempting to think long-term about some of the behaviors we have practiced over the past century and are trying to do something about it. We can either accept it, or attempt to fix it later when it’s too late to prevent it. Either way, change will occur.
In the meantime, we must stop politicizing EVERYTHING and making every single issue in our culture an issue of belief, of us pitted against them. And we must stop letting people drive wedges between us regardless of our own thoughts and beliefs. We must be able to have a civil discourse about issues that affect the future – perhaps not your future, but that of your children and grandchildren.
Change is going to happen whether we want it or not, but we can affect the sort of change that we want if we can only stop working against each other and ask questions, then listen
In the meantime, I will continue to take my own cup to restaurants and politely refuse plastic straws when offered. If you wish to ask me about it, I would be delighted to have a civil discussion with you.
What calls you? What pull do you feel in the pit of your stomach when you think about it? What is that something that fires you up, fills you with passion, excites you at the thought of contributing?
“You vocation will leave a legacy.”
– Dan Miller, 48 Days to the Work You Love
Vocation, career, and job are three different things, and vocation is the one on which you must focus first. Your vocation, your calling – that is what will leave its impact on the world.
I have been gifted with an insatiable curiosity all my life which has made me the consummate student, and the best teachers are always lifelong students. My calling, the pull I feel in my stomach, is to leave the world a better, more informed, more educated, and more beautiful place because of the knowledge and wisdom I hope to impart to others. Whenever someone talks about educational reform, or better ways of learning and teaching, or how to truly prepare others for the real world outside of an outdated, industrialized classroom, I feel called to contribute.
You see now that this calling can cover a variety of different careers: teacher, coach, politician, entrepreneur, musician, artist, writer. So many different titles could fulfill this calling as long as I use that career to leave the legacy for which I am striving.
So today, sit for a few minutes and listen to what your life has to say to you and about you. Recognize those moments when you feel truly inspired and truly tuned in to something going on around you or something to which you are listening. Ask yourself what you want to be remembered for when you are gone from the world.
What legacy do you wish to leave?
I am always amazed at the quality of thoughts that I have when taking a shower. Some of my most poignant ideas occur not long after I close the curtain. Solutions to problems, blog topics, business ideas – they all seem to happen while I am standing in the shower.
Why?
I am completely undistracted; there is no waterproof cell phone in there with me. My brain checks out of the actions of the moment as my body automatically goes through the routine, and the brain is allowed to work its magic. This was not always true, though, as I used to bring my cell phone into the bathroom and blast music or a podcast or an audiobook. These quirks may seem harmless, yes, but my daily shower is some of the only truly undistracted time I have.
Our access to technology has our brain so constantly distracted that it seems few of us are having the “a-HA” moments that we need to improve ourselves and the lives of others. This is not a rant against technology but simply a call to action for you to work a few moments of distraction-free thinking into your day.
You’ll need a few things:
Spend just a few minutes letting your mind wander; write down any thoughts you have which might seem significant to you. They may seem trivial, you may worry that other people think they are stupid or poor-quality (they aren’t), but write them down anyway. This is just for you.
I use my daily shower for this as well as my lunch break and the few breaks throughout my workday to just sit and think – no phone, no social media, no email, just my notebook, a pen, and my thoughts.
What do I write down?
Write whatever you want. Let your stream of consciousness take over for a few minutes. It is a wonderful feeling once you get used to doing it.
Everyone needs to carry a notebook with them at all times, something I learned from this amazing book (click here), and everyone needs to sit with their thoughts for a few minutes throughout the day. You will be amazed at how much better you will feel, how many good ideas you have, and how much more curious and excited about the world you will be. Try it out! Make it a habit for the next month to get 5 minutes a day of thinking time.
You don’t have to take your notebook in the shower – just leave it on the back of the toilet tank like I do.
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