Category / vocation

by Nathan Coumbe

How much is enough?

I asked myself this question a few days ago and elaborated on it in my journal. Specifically, I was asking myself, “How much money do I need to make to feel like I am making enough?”

Honestly, making more money right now would not bring me any more happiness. It’s not money that my conscience is crying out to gain: it is meaning, purpose, the ability to use my God-given talents and strengths to serve and help other people.

The income I make now is actually more than enough to satisfy my needs at this moment. So why am I not doing something that fills my cup?

Have you ever asked yourself what enough is? If you made $40,000 a year, could you live on that if it meant you were doing something you cared about so much and so thoroughly enjoyed you couldn’t dream of doing anything else?

My answer is yes. Yours may be different. At a certain point, making more money is just making more money. Studies tend to cap the increase in happiness that comes from money at about $75,000.

So what goal, idea, or passion is the quest for more money preventing you from pursuing?

Are you, perhaps, an artist who wants to paint? A musician who wants to play and teach? Or are you, like me, a teacher who simply wants to teach?

Ask yourself this question: could you, honestly, make a living knowing the starting or average income that job in your head receives? Could you survive, or even thrive, if it meant you were doing what you felt passionately called to do?

The irony is most of the time when you quit pursuing money and start pursuing passion in the service of others, more money than you imagined comes into your life.

How much is enough? Could you make it doing what you love?

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by Nathan Coumbe

Successful people do ONE thing all the time

Successful people are normal. They have no superhuman abilities, no extreme discipline honed by years of meditation or special operations training. However, they do something the rest of us don’t always do:

They choose.

Successful people choose what is important to them; they choose to prioritize what is important throughout the day; and they choose to carry out those things regardless of feelings or external triggers.

You must plan to do the things that matter – the things that will get you where you want to go. These are the achievements, contributions, and attributes for which you want to be remembered at your funeral.

Before you can plan them, however, you must define them. How will you achieve what’s important if you don’t know what is important?

You won’t.

But even if you lay out what is important and plan your day accordingly, it will not matter unless you choose to carry out the items of importance. This is what separates successful people from the rest.

“The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don’t like to do….They don’t like doing them either necessarily. But their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose.”

E.M. Gray – “The Common Denominator of Success”

Even if something is important, and you are aware of its importance, you will find times when you really don’t want to do it. You won’t want to exercise; you won’t want to read your kids to sleep after a long day at work. If you don’t, that’s fine. But you are making a choice based on feelings or circumstances, relinquishing control of your own life.

Every action you take or don’t is a choice. Choose to do the things that further your mission, rather than choosing to let other people, feelings, and circumstances choose for you.

Choose to be successful.

In summary

Define what really matters most to you.

Plan your days based around what is important.

And most importantly, choose to act regardless of how you feel, what other people do, or what is going on around you.

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by Nathan Coumbe

This one is just for me

(These are simply thoughts I needed to work out yesterday. Feel free to skip today’s post, as it is rather selfish. However, if you, for whatever reason, read all the way through this post, think about where all the signs in your life are pointing; ask yourself why you are hesitating going down the road.)

What do you do when all the signs are telling you to go a certain way? Why don’t you just go?

All the aptitude tests, interest assessments, and personal inventories tell you to go do this one thing, but still you hesitate.

Is it because you don’t know the next step to take? No, because you know the next step – get a graduate degree.

Is it because you don’t know the field in which to get the degree? Maybe…you do have trouble choosing between your varied interests.

Is it because of what you read and hear? Perhaps so.

“Professors don’t make a lot of money.”

“Most professors are adjuct, so they have work at multiple schools without receiving benefits from any of them.”

“Colleges are slowly dying – it’s hard to get a job at one, and it isn’t the most secure form of employment anymore. The cost of college is keeping people away, and the student loan crisis is going to cause all of them to fail.”

“You may be teaching in a field you love, but the students might not care about the material.”

“Half of the Ph.Ds out there are working in fields unrelated to their studies.”

Or perhaps it’s internal. Students are borrowing small fortunes without thinking to study things (or party but still somehow get the grade) that won’t guarantee them a stable job and a livable wage. That is something in which I cannot, in good conscience, involve myself.

Is it because you might have to stop working, taking a severe pay cut in order to attend?

Are you afraid you’ll fail? Perhaps you are worried you might get the degree, but you won’t be good enough/smart enough/talented enough/hard-working enough to be the best, which means you might not be sought out by the people who need the expertise you went to obtain.

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by Nathan Coumbe

Wisdom and Mission

Life is like a tuning fork: when struck, the tuning fork resonates a true pitch, one that doesn’t alter as long as it rings. Each of us is like a musician in an orchestra: we must strive to tune ourselves to that tuning fork, the true pitch ringing in our lives.

How much effort do we expend trying to create our lives, our careers, our families, based on how others have succeeded? We strive to emulate other families – keeing up with the Joneses next door. We constantly research which careers pay the most or have the most advancement potential, hoping that the next job is the right fit.

It doesn’t work.

Each of us has unique characteristics and traits we were either born with or developed over time. Would not we be better served in trying to find things in the world that matched us, rather than attempting to mold ourselves into something “out there” in the world?

It would be like a musician seeing a tuning fork then creating his own, hoping that it was the right pitch but with no knowledge of the subject (himself). Were he to use it to tune his instrument, he would find that the pitch isn’t correct.

Your mission in life isn’t something you create; neither is wisdom. Victor Frankl said that we detect rather than invent our missions in life. It’s already there: you must simply align yourself with it, not strive to create it.

Wisdom isn’t created – you cannot make yourself wise. You must seek it out, finding it in others who have come before you, in scripture or great writing, and in your own experience of the world.

“Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life….Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone’s task is as unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.” – Victor Frankl

Seek your mission; seek wisdom.

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by Nathan Coumbe

How do you ensure that you are pursuing your version of happiness?

You must define it.

What is it that you value? What principles do you want to guide your life?

Love? Kindness? Generosity? Education? Career?

What kind of person to you want to be?

Curious? Successful? Entrepreneurial? Intelligent? Understanding?

What do you want to do?

Write a book? Go skydiving? Play at Carnegie Hall?

What do you want to have?

A five-bedroom home? Two children? A golden retriever? A BMW?

What do you want people to say about you at your funeral?

Until you start defining your vision for your future, you cannot truly determine what your path to success will be.

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by Nathan Coumbe

What is the art that is yours to do?

How do you identify it?

Seth Godin asked the question, “Where are the spots [in your personal/professional/creative life] in which you are most afraid?” 

Find the places and things you are afraid of, and determine why you are afraid of them. Then you can identify what you need to go work on.

“Begin with the thing that scares you.”

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by Nathan Coumbe

Become an apprentice

During the Renaissance, it was common for an artist or craftsman to apprentice under a master for a period of seven years before she set out on her own as a journeyman, plying her trade. The Renaissance may be over, but it is easier now than ever to become an apprentice to one of the many masters of whatever craft you are pursuing. Most of them are just an email, blog post, podcast, or book away.

It is unlikely that you will be able to spend seven years in an office or workshop with your favorite writer, musician, or thought-leader while attempting to learn at his or her feet, but you don’t have to do that anymore. I will illustrate the point with my own journey:

I have had a number of pseudo-mentors over the years. The first that I remember was Mark Verstegen; at a time in my life when I was passionately consuming all the knowledge on athletic performance and nutrition I possibly could, he was the paragon to which I upheld others in the field. He was a scientist, trying to find new and better ways to improve his craft, a writer, a coach, a teacher…I consumed every video I could find, every article he wrote, every book he authored.

The next mentor that truly stands out to me is Dave Ramsey. By age 26, my wife and I had accumulated close to $90,000 in combined consumer and student debt. We were drowning and didn’t know it. At some point, I had this middle-aged hillbilly (his words) yelling at me over the radio, telling me how stupid I had been and what I needed to do to fix it all. It was just what I needed. Not only that, but due to his recommendations, I started consuming leadership and business material by great leaders in those fields. Dave’s book-lists and constant radio show guests continued to fuel my passion for learning by giving me an unending education.

Also thanks to Dave, I discovered Dan Miller, who has become (again from afar) my life and career coach. Even now, he is teaching me how to live a fuller life; to set goals and achieve them; to redefine what work can be.

Dan led me to Seth Godin. My latest and most influential mentor, Seth is the reason that I write this blog post everyday. His constant assurance that we are all artists, regardless of the medium, as well as his passionate defense of realistic education, has put me on the path to writing each and every day about how others can continually improve themselves. He reminded me of my passion for education, real education that makes a difference in people’s lives and in our culture. I have read nearly every book he has ever written, hundreds of his blog posts, listened to his podcasts twice through already, and am saving up the money to sign up for some of his Akimbo workshops as well.

These people have all been mentors to me, even though I have never met a single one of them in person. The internet makes apprenticeship easier than ever. Being an apprentice to someone is simply observing what they do, consuming any and all lessons they offer, imitating them, and synthesizing the information until it becomes your own.

Sometimes it’s free; at the most it only costs what you have to pay for a book. Find someone that inspires you, who sets your heart and mind alight. Read, watch, and listen to everything you can as often as you need until you learn it. This is the essence of an apprenticeship. It worked for Leonardo and Michelangelo; it will work for you, too.

Also – make sure you thank them for their impact. Let them know that you were a good student.

by Nathan Coumbe

Play your music

“Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out.”

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, Former U.S. Supreme Court justice

The other day I wrote a blog post about exploring the things about which you seem to be innately curious. I was discussing this subject the day before I wrote it, and during the conversation, I had something of a heartbreaking thought: I believe each of us has a unique purpose, a unique interest that, if nurtured, will allow that purpose to be lived out. And yet it seems as though a great majority of the human race never achieves their purpose.

Why is this so? Is the curiosity squashed out of them before they have a chance to develop it into something meaningful and lucrative, simply because it is different from what others think is a viable vocation or career? Is it that many are so focused on simply eking out a living that they never raise their heads long enough to look their purpose in the eye and pursue it? Are they so caught up in fantasy worlds, technology, and social media that time that could otherwise be spent on pursuing these inclinations is wasted? Or worse still, is the opportunity to live a purpose-filled life literally taken away by violence, famine, or disease?

Perhaps it is all of these reasons and more, but while you still breathe, while you still have time on this earth, I encourage you to listen to Mr. Holmes and play your music. Listen to Ralph Waldo Emerson and follow the beat of your own drummer.

Your curiosity, your natural affinities towards certain skills, subjects, passions, and interests – they were all given to you for a purpose. Follow them where they lead, ignore the naysayers, shun the nonbelievers.

Start today. Do something you feel you were meant to do.

by Nathan Coumbe

The peculiarity of curiosity

Human beings are weird…

I had a conversation yesterday with my cousin, Erin, in which we discussed curiosity and the peculiar inclinations each one of us possesses.

I believe Robert Greene needs to be quoted at length here:

“[We each have] a deep and powerful inclination toward a particular subject.

This inclination is a reflection of a person’s uniqueness…it is a scientific fact that genetically, every one of us is unique; our exact genetic makeup has never happened before and will never be repeated. This uniqueness is revealed to us through the preferences we innately feel for particular activities or subjects of study. Such inclinations can be toward music or mathematics, certain sports or games, solving puzzle-like problems, tinkering and building, or playing with words.”

– Robert Greene, Mastery

I vividly remember discovering my own inclination: I was 9 years old, in the library of my elementary school, looking for a book to read. I picked up The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins by Walter Dean Myers and was hooked. I am not exaggerating when I say that that one (seemingly) random book changed the course of my life. I became a voracious reader, taking a deep dive down the rabbit hole of World War II history, attempting to put my hands on any and every book I could on the subject.

By the age of 10, I was reading college-level historical monographs, encouraged by both my parents and my teachers. This interest gradually spread out until I was gorging myself on stories of American history, colonial times, European battlefields, and ancient civilizations.

Why?

Why is it that reading one book propelled me into so an extensive study of a particular field? Why am I so drawn to this subject, and yet I care nothing for sciences (unless I’m looking at them from a historical perspective) or cooking or any other number of subjects? Why am I drawn to history when another person is delighted by math or chemistry? And yet another person is drawn to space, theology; to beauty and hair care; or to art and photography.

I don’t have a true answer to the question. It is simply amusing to me. We can be so alike, and yet each of us seems to have a curiosity, sometimes more than one, which separates us from every other human being that is or ever has been.

All I can think is that we have been uniquely created by God, the universe, the Higher Self, or whichever spiritual ideal in which you believe. We have each been created with a unique curiosity that, if satisfied, if given the opportunity to develop enough, will help us fulfill our purpose on Earth and make it a better place for those curious beings that come after us.

I hope that you will follow your own curiosity, wherever it leads. It is quite possibly the most necessary thing you can do with your life.

by Nathan Coumbe

It’s never too early…

It’s never too early to declare to the world who you are.

If you are writing and want to be a writer, go tell people you are a writer. Put it in your bio; put it in your social media description. The same goes if you play music and want to be a musician, or if you draw and want to be an artist.

“What we believe about ourselves has a way of coming true…”

Jeff Goins, Real Artists Don’t Starve

The narrative that we tell ourselves, if said often enough and with enough emphasis, is more likely to become true. In Jeff Goins’ book, he retells a conversation that he had with author Steven Pressfield. He asked Pressfield, “When does a writer get to call himself a writer?” Pressfield answered, “You are [a writer] when you say you are.”

Tell yourself what you want to be. Then go tell others.

Decide.

Then, if you later find that you no longer want to be what you say you are, decide to be something else.

After that, declare it to the world.

It’s never too early to tell the world who you are.