by Nathan Coumbe

Change happens

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.

by Nathan Coumbe

Leave a legacy

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?

by Nathan Coumbe

Make time for your mind

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:

  1. Peace and quiet
  2. A notebook and a pen or pencil
  3. A timer (only if you truly need to keep track of your time, as I do when I am on a break at work)

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?

  • Questions
  • Answers to questions
  • Business ideas
  • Problems
  • Solutions to problems I have at work and in my personal life
  • Observations of things I see around me (there is one entry in my journal about a very interesting bird…)
  • Drawings
  • Lists
  • Workouts
  • Music practice sessions
  • General randomness

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.

by Nathan Coumbe

Take the pressure off

Seth Godin said something in his podcast “Pizza & Sushi, Joy and Mediocrity” that really resonated with me today. One of the listeners asked him a question about whether he should find a job while he pursues his art or just dive straight into creating. I’m paraphrasing his answer here, but in essence his response was that sometimes less-than-ideal work allows you to create your art unhindered.

Let’s think about this for a moment: what if the only source of income, of survival that you had was your reliance on producing your art, of developing your craft? How much pressure would that put on your shoulders? How stressful would your art, that thing you love to do so much, become if it was the only difference between feeding your family and going to bed hungry? How generous and authentic would your art be if it was the only thing keeping you from losing your home?

There are plenty of creatives that I know who would be just fine eating beans and rice and living in a van. For some of them, that is the life. But for me, with debt to pay off, a roof to keep overhead, and a wife who leans on me (and I on her) for financial support, it is too much stress.

So get a job.

Do something, anything, to keep the wolf away from the door. Drive for Uber or Lyft; deliver pizzas; wait tables; work in retail. It will not be glamorous, and it might be boring and tedious to the creative mind. But it isn’t forever, especially if you start down a path to your dream job.

If you can take the financial burden off of your art, whether it is visual art, speaking, music, theater, or writing, it will be that much easier for you to produce meaningful work. You’ll also learn a lot of useful skills you might not otherwise gain working on your art, such as leadership, communication, planning, business skills, and countless others. You also will make a lot of contacts with other people who might someday benefit from your art.

More than anything else, you’ll worry less about survival and focus more on creating and making the world a better place for us all to live.

Again, I am not advocating working in something you don’t want to do forever; I certainly don’t plan on doing that. So get to work, make some money, and make your art without worrying about where your next meal will come from.

If you would like to start down the path to your dream job or start your own business, I recommend going through the 48 Days to the Work You Love Seminar and joining the 48 Days Eagles group, a community of creative, like-minded individuals supporting each other in finding and creating work that is meaningful, purposeful, and profitable.

by Nathan Coumbe

But I want it all!

Our choices seem unlimited, the resources at our disposal infinite (at least compared to other countries), and our interests are wide and varied. It’s no wonder so many of us still don’t know what we want to do when we grow up. We have too many choices, too many roads we could take.

I’m slowly coming to the realization that I cannot do it all. The many passions I have, the countless skills I want to learn, the dozens of projects I want to start and complete…there isn’t enough time in the day. My choices are either pick something, or a few things, or stop working and do a dozen things. Even then, I still wouldn’t have time to do everything (and unless one of them made money, I’d have a whole mess of problems to deal with).

At some point we have to start focusing on something. It might be the wrong choice – but you won’t know until you try. It’s that fear, the fear of making the wrong choice, that keeps us paralyzed; it keeps us from making any significant progress. We are so caught up in the future, that if we take this one path, we might fail. We might not enjoy it. Or worse…

We might get so far along the path and succeed that all the other things fall by the wayside. All those other things you wanted to do don’t happen. How horrible!

Well…maybe.

by Nathan Coumbe

You can’t expect crops if you didn’t plant seeds

It seems rather absurd to imagine a farmer standing out in his field, scanning the horizon, scratching his head, and wondering why his crop of corn didn’t come in. It’s rather obvious why…

He didn’t plant any corn in the spring.

Why do we think the same rules of farming don’t apply in our personal and professional lives? We expect a raise or a promotion without putting in any extra work or without doing anything extraordinary to earn it. We ask for a big gig or a huge project but don’t have a portfolio of work backing us up to show that we can handle it.

This is very similar to a message in one of my previous posts about preparation for the unknown opportunities that come our way. However, this is about the things that we know we want and are actively seeking out.

If you are a part time freelancer, you may have to create some work on your own time outside of your day job in order to back up what you say you can do. If you want to move up into management, you’ll have to start leading and developing other people before you get a leadership or management position. They don’t give you the role and then have you show that you can do the work; you have to start showing and doing in order to get the role.

We cannot ask for benefits, rewards, and extra responsibilities if we have not put work that shows we deserve them and/or can handle them. Employers and clients just don’t work that way. You still have to earn it.

by Nathan Coumbe

Irony

My reading today got me thinking about education and our attempts to fix it. A bunch of people who grew up in the industrial education system we know today are trying to fix and/or revamp the way we learn using the very education they seek to change.

I have hope, though. It’s going to take a lot of hard work, a lot of failures, and a lot of bravery on the part of us that seek to make it work. If we seek to push through and get it right, however, it will be worth every second.

by Nathan Coumbe

Resources for you

Today I felt like sharing some of the magnificent people and resources that have helped me along my journey to this point in life. I may turn this into its own page at some point as I am sure the list will grow.

Dave Ramsey – what can I say? He really hit me over the head with how stupid I had been for close to a decade. If you want to know how to handle your money and get on the path to becoming wealthy, his book The Total Money Makeover is a must-read. Dave also first planted in my mind the idea that I should find something meaningful in my life to do for work which led me to the person that I will now offer up as my next recommendation.

Dan Miller – writer, speaker, coach, entrepreneur, mentor, Dan is one of the kindest and most giving individuals I’ve ever known (and we’ve never even met in person). He truly inspired me to look inward to find work that is meaningful, purposeful, and profitable. 48 Days to the Work You Love is his masterpiece; it will completely change the way you view work and will put you on the path to doing what you love for a living. He also has the 48 Days Eagles community, an incredible group of people who are supporting each other in stepping out on their own as entrepreneurs. His book recommendations and his idea of investing 3% of my income back into myself led me to discover some of the most powerful learning I have ever experienced as taught by…

Seth Godin – quite possibly one of the most influential people I’ve ever encountered, Seth is a serial entrepreneur (as are Dan and Dave), a master of marketing, storytelling, business, leadership, and one of the greatest teachers from whom I have ever had the privilege to learn. His blog is brilliant, to say the least, and his many books and courses will change your life. That is not an exaggeration. His podcast is one of the most entertaining, thought-provoking, and enjoyable I have ever heard. I have never failed to learn something when I hear Seth speak. As an aside, he is also the reason I decided to get out of my own way and start writing and publishing my ideas.

I hope these resources will benefit you in some way. I will attempt to update them as I have more time and as I continue to put together my “best of…” lists.

by Nathan Coumbe

What is school for?

Today, I am simply posing a question to anyone who wishes to leave a thought. Please feel free to comment below or at one of my social media sites.

This particular question hit me very hard after listening yesterday to Seth Godin’s podcast (click here). I recommend you listen to the podcast in its entirety at the link above as you think about this question. It’s only about 20 minutes long.

So tell me – what do you think school is for?

by Nathan Coumbe

Prepare the way

I have been guilty many times in my life of sitting and waiting for things to happen for me. It is only recently, in the last couple of years, that I decided to be proactive and seek out opportunities for myself. 

How many of us have sat with the mindset of, “When [some random opportunity] happens, then I will start to learn/practice/develop [the skill needed to accomplish said opportunity]?” I will bravely raise my hand. Great opportunity may come to those who wait, but I think we’d all be better off if we started preparing for things while we wait. 

“Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation.”

– Zig Ziglar, See You at the Top

We cannot sit on the couch, twiddling our thumbs, waiting for the phone to ring with that new job offer. No one is thinking to themselves that they should call you with a gig or a show unless you have proven yourself by developing a following, building relationships, developing your skills, and making a ruckus in the world already. This idea is very similar to my previous blog post “Take your eye off the prize” in that sometimes you just have to work, learn, create, and do without thought of reward, without letting the notion of “What’s in it for me?” hold you back.

Be persistent, find out what you need to learn and do to get where you want to be, and start doing it. The opportunities will come, but you have to be prepared when they arrive. If you get an offer for the NBA, and you’ve been sitting naked on a bean bag chair eating Cheetos for 3 months, you aren’t prepared and will therefore fail in your opportunity.

If you want a job in marketing, you are going to have to learn it on your own time and start doing marketing, maybe for a friend while you hold down another job to pay the bills. If you want to make a living as an artist or a graphic designer, you are going to have to start doing work and putting it out into the world whether or not you get paid for it. People have to see you and know you before they will want you. You will have to sell yourself as an expert in what you do and that means you have to do the work, build a following, make noise in your little area of the world.

You are going to fail, probably more than once. That’s fine, just start another project, call another business, reach out to another person who might need your expertise. Just keep working.

“When you work and develop your skills and talents, your day will come…[and] if your day never came, you would still be the big winner. Inside you will be the knowledge that you’re doing your best with what you have.”

– Zig Ziglar, See You at the Top

I’m going to keep preparing myself so that I am ready when opportunity comes knocking. What about you?