It’s been sometime since my last post here, I’m trying to regain my mind’s eye of my mission and what it is that I’m doing here. The passions from the initial vision and quickening have faded, I find myself old and tired. Not convinced of the value at times. I am however convinced that there are those of you out there that need what I have to share and offer! My resolve to see this through is growing each and every day. My strength in my belief of what this could mean is developing. I know not what comes but here I go!
Sometimes getting started is simple, you have nothing else in your way you have nothing else on your plate and you have nothing to do except what’s in front of you, but then there are those times when you really want to do something, your vision is clear, your passion is high and you really have the idea that it’s the thing to do. But! There’s so much in your way, so much taking your time, so much distracting you, that getting started is a stumbling, lumbering, broken, jumbled and just the most difficult effort to continue. Such has been my life for the last four years since I started this; I’ve been busy with my multiple businesses, family and life in general. Just when I think I can pick it up and go, a deluge of other responsibilities storms and rains upon me to where I’m completely soaked with things that take me away. I painted this vision first in January of 2021 on the heels of the riots in Portland which to my amazement were still going on at that time . I could see plainly the need to develop some sort of help for business people that were being overrun and surreptitiously undermined by their own government. I thought I could pick up this side hustle, working in my free time, building into some things of value. Couple of problems though; I didn’t understand the time commitment was specific, how much my current responsibilities were going to drag me through the ringer and give me less time to even think about what was going on here .
Now of course to the most casual observer of you, will recognize these as excuses. I do too. The reality is, as much as you’d really like to do something, your previous obligations have everything to do with your ability to move forward. Kind of the idea that you can’t get there from here. You’ve got to go by way of some other place before you can get there. I’ve known these things for a long time but for a dreamer who has nothing but the highest hopes for tomorrow; all things seem possible. Which brings us here to today and getting starting again.
Since my last post back in May, I’ve had the busiest, most stressful work filled days of my life. Quite possibly, I’m older now and my perspective is cloudy, perhaps I’ve had more stressful days when I was younger and able to handle them better. In any case, it’s a new year, the old years laid to rest and with it a lot of my previous responsibilities. I’ve sold a few businesses, bought out a few partners and relieve myself of almost all of my obligations and now I’m faced with the reality of having very little to do. Which gives me no excuse not to dive into this head long and began to plow forward as I’ve done with so many things.
I suspect most of you know the feeling of building the interest, the courage, the vision, and the will to get started on something that is much bigger than yourself or even just something you’ve never done before. Here I am again trying to build up all of those emotions that motivate people to accomplish great things when I’m tired, rundown and not too certain of the value proposition. Although I have great confirmation throughout other parts of my life that this endeavor is not only greatly needed by our community and others as well; I too shall perish without a significant mission. Therefore it must be! So here it is, I’m getting started again. This shall be a new first post and should become a continuous line of posting every Tuesday for years to come. I know even before this hour that it should have been fairly easy for me to make 52 posts a year. It dismays me greatly to look back and see that in these years I struggled to be able to do that. A person only has so much time and energy to dedicated to the work effort, passion or not, and other things need to maintain precedent. So I’ll not beat myself up with what I could have done or should have done or didn’t do and focus on what I can do and the opportunities that lie ahead of me.
For those of you who are faced with similar situations I encourage you to do the same. Look ahead, opportunities are available in abundance! I taught my children when they were younger to look at their life from three perspectives. Past present and future (Obligations Responsibilities Dreams). Obligations being commitments from our past. Being people which with we have previously engaged on a level of personal involvement. The need for the human spirit to be faithful to the persons with which we’ve made profound connections and what it takes to maintain those connections. Marriage, child bearing, friendships and community. Responsibilities represent things in the present, more current things. As an example each day you have the responsibility to go to work whether it’s to support yourself or your family; you have the responsibility to go to work. Other examples of responsibilities would be make your bed, clean the house you live in, eat breakfast, pack of lunch to go, put gas in your car or answer a phone call or reply to a text. Dreams on the other hand are future oriented. “I’d like to go to Africa on vacation. I’d like to go camping this weekend. One day I’d like to own…” All of the things that cause you to muster the gumption to go to work and earn.
What I intended to illustrated for them in this previous description is a priority structure as well as a mental organizational structure for how decide how to handle the affairs of their lives. If we started off today at zero, with no obligations, responsibilities or dreams. One would only have dreams of the future. If you moved off and act in a manner to make that dream come to fruition you will have created and obligation. Once you made that decision and acted upon it, you’ve just created your first obligation that will have responsibilities.
Obligations. Let’ say that you started a business as the venue that you will use to fulfill your dreams. A business at the very least is an obligation to oneself. No one makes the decision to start a business to fulfill one’s dreams with a light hearted commitment. Hard work should never be haphazardly wasted. This new commitment to oneself is an historical precedent that should by and large rule over your life. Few exceptions applied. Perhaps a family member is ill and requires your attention. Although you take time to attend that member when necessary all other times are dedicated to the obligation to yourself. We all must work to support ourselves regardless of our circumstances. An obligation is the requirement to do what’s necessary, when it is necessary realizing that these obligations are the building blocks of our foundation and the support structure of all we build into our life going forward. If you choose not fully invest in these, then too all that you build from here will be sketchy and unsuitable for the work that you lay upon it. I have found in all of my experiences throughout all of my life that I am much more satisfied with the outcome of what I have chosen to do when I do what I said I would do in all of my relationships.
Responsibilities. I really like this methodology as it makes decision making extremely simple in my everyday life. Largely a part of the reason why this project hasn’t been more than it is; is because it hasn’t been the best time for me and my decision making revolving around my obligations and responsibilities up to this point have got me to where I am today. I am a sum total of my choices wherever I find myself. Therefore, today I find myself set up somewhat perfectly to be involved here again. As I look over my responsibilities each day I first consider which ones relate to obligations. These are priority number one items. This means they come before other things within reason. Getting grandma to the grocery store is paramount unless the neighbor needs a ride to the emergency room and I’m the only person at hand. Questions that arise to help me plan my day; what things are imminent, do I need to do it at a particular time, are others involved and require coordination, can it wait until tomorrow or another day where it can be scheduled. These responsibilities I handle organize and schedule first; one thing I’d like to comment here is that if you develop a process in your life similar to mine you will find that these obligations are generally easier to do and more rewarding when you haven’t ignored them. Next, I assess immediate responsibilities like work, does my vehicle need fuel, do children need to go to school, do I need to go pick something up for the day’s work or what is the first thing on my To Do list. Another comment I’d like to make here is that no matter how you do it you should keep a To Do list. It’s a plan for responsibilities you’ve identified that don’t necessarily have a timeline but at the very least have a priority structure. Example: You must put fuel in the car before you can take the children to school lest you find yourself on the side of the road. Mostly, the thing to remember is that decisions involving responsibilities is that responsibilities associated with obligations come first in your consideration and almost always first on your priority list. Never trump an obligation, it will certainly come back to haunt you if neglected. If an obligation rears its head the responsibility is clear and goes to the top of the priority list of things to do. Once you’ve handled all of your current responsibilities and you have time left you dream
Dreams . Dreams are not only fundamental, they are instrumental! Without dreams you will have no vision, no hope and no desire for a better future. You must dream , you must dream often and you must dream big! You must find a way to share your dreams with like minded people so that your dreams will never die. Their encouragement will breath life into your dreams. I encourage you immensely to learn to ENTERTAIN yourself with your dreaming. Give up the social media, the idiot box and even reading unless you have developed the skill of dreaming. Take your free time and teach your brain to seek out the things that thrill you, that provoke your imagination , and cause you to wonder carelessly! One of the reasons that this project has been placed where it has, is that I live my dream. Does that mean that my life is perfect, the best it could be or even desirable from the outside looking? No, on the contrary what it means is that from the inside looking out; I don’t know how I could have done better. All of my days I wake up to toil and have turned everything into what I could have possibly made them! Have I made mistakes and have those mistakes hampered the outcome or diminished the possibilities? Absolutely! But here I am the better person for it; I have learned and grown along the way, which makes me a better person for it today. We all experience life this way. The question isn’t, “Did you hit the target?” It’s, “Did you aim high enough?” Every success is marked by a series of failures. No one rides a bike without first crashing, so it goes . The better you get at failing the better you get at succeeding until one day you realize that whether a failure or a success; it’s brought you to this day . If you’re good at dreaming, you’ll see that your failures are attempts at riding a bike. The bike which you now ride with considerable skill. I spend a copious amounts of time each day, building my dreams, envisioning in my mind the glorious outcome of these machinations. These glorious outcomes amazingly overcome the insignificant discouragements of my failures! Teach yourself to dream, dream often, dream big!!! It’s the most powerful tool of hope you can develop!
Getting started again is recognizing your past failures don’t need to be your future. That the good reasons for the failures of your past were lessons developing the current skills that will produce your glorious future! Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, sit down and make a great investment in your dream building! Reassess your obligations, prioritize your responsibilities and go kick some ass! This world is here for you to rule!
Peace and prosperity to you all!
Greg