Your passion and your work

Don't find work your passionate about. That is self-centered.

Do the work you should do and learn how to be extremely passionate about it.

A check up from the neck up

We have more access to information and technology than ever before.

Most of us do not have to produce our own food by raising crops which means we have more time.

Most of us reading this blog have two days for leisure activities to do what we choose. We can vote. We have internet access and cell phones. We don’t live in fear of our government. Most people around the world do not have these luxuries.

Shopping is a leisure activity for many of us. To others it is the most stressful activity imaginable. Most of us reading this blog (including myself) cannot comprehend what it means to only make four or five dollars a day; the very idea that if you mess up a purchase means someone at home suffers. In other words, if I were to leave the store and drop my eggs I would be frustrated but not crushed. If I drop those eggs only making five dollars a day, someone goes hungry at home.

If you made over $30K this last year, you are in the top 1% of income earners in the entire world but many of us walk around like the system is broken. No it’s not perfect but it's definitely good enough; more than good enough.

What I am simply saying is that some of us are living in too much fear. Making money is not evil and having possessions is not a bad thing. Be mindful of the stories we tell ourselves though. Separate our wants from our needs. Shed unnecessary labels - it's not good nor bad, right or wrong. We all need a checkup from the neck up: we live in the safest, richest country the world has ever seen in the history of mankind. Let's start acting like it.

It's not where you start

It's not where you start but where you finish.

It doesn't matter that you didn't come from money.
It doesn't matter what gender you are.
It doesn't matter what your ethnicity is.
It doesn't matter what kind of education you have.
It doesn't matter where you were born.
It doesn't matter how old you are.
It doesn't matter how you look or sound.

Don't worry about the constraints: Google's home page is so simple but yet so brilliant because the founder, Larry Page, was limited in his abilities to code. The beauty of Twitter is that it is limited to 140 characters not 140,000.

What does matter is that you are willing to start something that is so ridiculously hard, a project so big, that it consumes every bit of you; a project that will make a difference in people's lives.

Why does it matter?

Because you will be different in the end and the people you touch will be different too.

We are made

No one is born to be a doctor, a lawyer or a blogger. 

We are all made.

By saying we are made makes us feel uncomfortable because now we are accountable. Now we are on the hook.

What a shame for the person who was supposed to cure cancer but they never got around to it or never realized their potential. What a waste. They could have helped so many people but now we will have to wait.

Smaller tribes

Johnny Carson had ten times the audience of Jay Leno. Now Jimmy Fallon has even a smaller audience. 

Carson wasn't necessary better; he just had more attention when there were only four stations to choose from (not a thousand).

Tribes are smaller now. Back then you had a bigger audience but with only a few microphone. Now everyone has a microphone (Facebook, Twitter, Blogs). Now we can communicate, assemble the tribe and share a connection. Now we have choices to seek remarkable work. 

Too much weather

It’s funny listening to people talk about the weather.

When it is summer it is too hot or there is too much inversion.

And when it is fall of course the trees are too dead or there are too many storms.

When it is winter it is too cold and there is too much snow.

People seem to look forward to the magical time of spring, that it is one of the best times of the year. Then the 72 degrees day with blue skies comes someone complains that their allergies acting up too much.

We just need to be happy with our surroundings. There is beauty in every season (not just in the weather).

Preparing for the path

Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson completed the Dawn Wall Project in January, 2015. It was immediately crowned "the hardest climb in the world." The climb received national attention from all over the world. Spending 19 days on the wall to complete a 7 year long project, Caldwell put together a lifetime of climbing to set the new standard of what can be accomplished in the climbing world. 

This was without adversity. What began as curiosity, a spark captured the attention and imagination of the world. Why? Rock climbing, the sport, does not bring a ton of inherit value as shall we say being a doctor or a teacher. But yet watching someone overcome, to do the impossible, because it has never been done before inspires each of us to find our own Dawn Wall and climb it. 

Caldwell says his father as a huge inspiration and taught him "Don't prepare the path for your children. Prepare your children for the path." 

While it may be easy to say, "This guy is lucky to be blessed with such talent. I could never do something like this." His "overnight success" is the sum of 7 hard years of determination and vision and a lifetime of discipline. All this while losing a finger, being captured by terrorists, going through a divorce, etc.

This guy is the real deal when it comes to having the guts to say to the naysayers that anything is possible when you put your heart and mind into it.

What are you up against?

Big hat, no cattle

Wealth is not the same as a high income. If you make a high income (play great offense) and spend it all (play poor defense) you are not wealthy. Most likely you are collector of expensive artifacts - big hat, no cattle.

To clarify what a millionaire is, they have a net worth of at least a million dollars. In other words, assets minus liabilities equal a million dollars. If your image of a typical millionaire is someone who was given a massive trust fund, plays in the NFL or is winning the lottery; these would be common stereotypes of millionaires but don't actually fit the profile of a typical millionaire. Here is a list of top professions of millionaires:

74% of millionaires are small business owners / entrepreneurs
10% are professionals in their field such as doctors, lawyers, dentists, CPA's
10% are CEO's and executes
5% are consultants
<1% are professional athletes, movie stars, lotto winners, etc.

How do people become wealthy? Most millionaires attribute their success to a lifestyle of handwork, perseverance, planning and self-discipline. 

This is a challenge. A challenge for those who want to dramatically improve their lives, leave a true legacy for your children and your children's children, change your family tree, no longer be a slave to lenders (credit cards, car payments, student loans), improve your marriage, feel independent, manage money the way God intended us to, help those in need that you never were able to help before, live like no one else so you can later live and give like no one else - two resources that will change everything:

• Sign up today for Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University.
• Read or listen to the book The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko

The superior way of communication

Jesus new all the answers to any question and yet in the four Gospels, Jesus asked over 150 questions. Why?

It is because asking questions (even if you already know the answer) is the superior way of communication. 

Four questions that can help anyone get started in becoming a superior communicator is to ask:

1. What is going well?
2. What is not going well?
3. Where are you stuck?
4. Where do you need to change?

What do smart people talk about

Smart people talk about ideas.

Average people talk about events.

Dumb people talk about people.

React, respond, initaite

You have three choices when faced with a decision:

React. This is a physical impulse. No thinking, just raw emotions. This is the worst choice to make out of the three. When you are sick and you decide to go to the doctor, the doctor gives you a prescription. You come back the next day, not feeling better and the doctor says, "Bad news, your body is reacting to the treatment."

Respond. This is a better choice than reacting. You listen and decide on the best course of action. The doctor says "Good news, your body is responding to the treatment."

However, there is a third alternative and that is to initiate. Initiating is having others respond (or react). This is equivalent to taking care of your body and avoiding the doctor's office all together.

"With the way the world is going..."

You are either worried that the world is running out of resources (scarcity) or you believe that there will be enough invention and innovation to find new resources (abundance).

Or if you are an outside of the box thinker you believe in both, that when you have abundance in one area of your life you have scarcity in another.

"With the way the world is going..." it up to you and me to make it the best possible world it can be.

The 24 hour challenge

Make today the best day you have had all week. Go above and beyond what you normally do. Be extremely generous and genuine with your work and words. Go make something happen this next 24 hours that you have been putting off. Leap first into something that you normally wouldn't do. 

Go make something happen today. Make a ruckus.

The recipe for creating time

If time constraints are holding you back from creating your art, here is the step by step process to creating time: 

Step 1) Cancel your cable.
Step 2) Cancel your data plan.
Step 3) Cancel your least favorite social media outlet such as Facebook or Instagram.
Step 4) Commit to getting up 45-60 minutes earlier than you normally do.

That's it. Just follow the recipe and you will make more time.

Influence

If you have one idea that someone taught you that changed your life; take it a step further and share it with someone else today. 

Pushed or pulled

People that push: generous, self-reliant, go-getters, goal oriented, artists, DIYers, driven, hungry, explorers, map makers, entrepreneurs, risk takers, time tellers, professionals, linchpins, disrupters, visionaries, teachers, start right away, ship

People that are pulled: critics, trolls, devil’s advocate, haters, finger pointers, bureaucrats, fear mongers, spoiled, time readers, ask for the manual, write policies and procedures, worried about being sued, takers, fakers, scape goats, trash talkers, for letter users (can't, won't, nope), wait for tomorrow, miss deadlines

It is exhausting (and at times futile) to pull people into greatness but it is even more exhausting to maintain the status quo (average).

MVP

Decide what perfect looks like. Then define what good enough is.

Too many of us are caught up in polishing the edges that we avoid doing the hard work.

Get your MVP (minimum viable product) out the door for people to use, love and criticize.

Ship it.

Repeat.

Remember what you need

What you need is oxygen.
What you have is comfort.

What you want is luxury.

Don't confuse your needs and wants while forgetting what you have. 

Casting call

How do you wake up in the morning?

A hero hears the alarm, gets up and says: I am going to go out there and kill it today. Then I am going to drag it back to the cave.

Maybe you are the victim and your first reaction was: Why is this happening to me? I am not a morning person. Leave me alone.

Maybe you are the villain and by an act of self-sabotage you hit the snooze button on your alarm and then you turn it off and maybe you turn off your spouse’s alarm. A villain goes out to break the rules so that others can't play.

Cake and candles

People generally will react in one of two ways:

First, their view is similar to a piece a cake. There are limited resources (finite) and that if someone gets a bigger piece of cake that means I must have got a smaller piece.

Second, their view is like a candle. When we share our knowledge and generous with what we can offer we are lighting another person’s candle. As a result we are adding more light in the room.

Why do we want to make more money?

One common answer you may hear is that we want to give it away.

That isn't enough of a reason why we should be blessed with more money. We can already give away our money now, just less of it.

Making money is proof that we are being a generous giver. You are providing (giving) a service or product in exchange for a certificate of performance (money).

If you believe in God (and I do) he has built us to be givers not takers. Give all that you can. Make all that you can. Prosper and continue to bless the lives of others. The simplest way to do is to put your focus on what others want, not what you want.

The sum is greater than all the parts

Many of us are born with extraordinary opportunities. We are completely in charge of our future and our dreams.

Someone is always doing more with less:

• Albert Einstein was able to develop the Theory of Relativity with only 10 digits.
• Michelangelo was able to complete the Sistine Chapel and yet there are only 3 pure colors.
• Abraham Lincoln was able to write and deliver the Gettysburg Address in 272 words using 26 letters.
• Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin with only having 118 chemical elements available. 

The sum can be greater than all the parts.

Do we see constraints as way to avoid the work or an opportunity to make art? What is your Sistine Chapel look like? 

The rest step

The rest step is a mountaineering technique to keep moving in the mountains when you are tired. It is particularly effective in resting your muscles and putting the stress over your skeletal system. Here is how to perform the rest step:

1. Inhale while taking a step forward.
2. Exhale while extending your back leg into a locked knee position.
3. Repeat.

The rest step will help you find rhythm. It is not the fastest way to the top of the mountain but it will likely be your best chance getting to the the summit.  

No more talking. Just climb the mountain one step at a time. This is your moment. When you are tired and don't feel like you can move, take a rest step, and then another, and another. Inhale. Exhale. Repeat. Find your rhythm. 

No one said it was going to be easy but it will be worth it.

1 star reviews

No one ever got better by just reading the one star reviews. The troll who gave the review is just seeking attention. They didn't earn it. So don't give them any. 

Not every product or service is meant for everybody.

They didn't get the joke so there is no use in explaining it to them.

Financially rigged games

A rigged game is something that is fixed in a dishonest way to guarantee a desired outcome. 

Here are some examples of rigged games:

• Credit Cards - The national average is 15% interest.
• Buying a new car - The average car payment is $485 over 86 months. Cars lose an average of 40% of its value in the first 4 years.
• Leasing a car - A term that many won't know about is residual value (how much it will be worth when the lease ends). For example, the lender may figure that a car selling for $30,000 today will be worth $15,000 4 years from now, and will calculate monthly payments to cover that loss in value.
• 30 year mortgages - You can save over $85,000 in interest alone just by switching to a 15 year fixed rate (example used: 3% interest on a 200K house).
• Personal Mortgage Insurance (PMI) - There simply is no need for it if you can be patient and put 20% down on your house.
• Out of State Tuition - Average price is about $16,000 per semester for an out-of-state public university. That is about $9,000 more per semester for in-state universities.
• FICO scores - You could have an income of over a million dollars this year with no debt and have a FICO score of 0. This is not a true measurement of wealth.
• Waiting on Social Security - Those who are starting out in the work force simply put away $100 a month in growth stock mutual funds with a long track record with returns in the 12% range will retire as millionaires. It is that simple. If you can't put $100 away right now, can you do $80? $60? Just start putting something away.

Resist the foolish choice. Be patient. Challenge the status quo. Ask the question do I really need to play this game? Is there a different game I can play? Do not accept or comply with the idea that you need to have something. We are all smart and very capable people.

Where are you going?

I want you to ask yourself one simple question: Where are you going?

Not how did you get here. Not where are you at. Where are you going?

Now ask yourself another question: Is this where you want to go?

If what you are doing is not helping you get where you want to go then it is time to stop hiding.

You may feel locked in, you may feel scared, you may have a family to feed and a mortgage to pay, you may feel that you don't have the resources, time, education, money, background to try anything different, you may feel too old, too young, not athletic enough or you could be feeling all of the above. And you may be right. These are all things we are afraid of but it doesn't give us a pass. These are all things we tell ourselves but it’s not actually how it is. It is a form of hiding.

This is not about opportunities but about obligations. We live in the richest, safest county in human history with technology and information to give us the platform and voice to go do work that matters.

Start wrestling with what you are doing and how you are going to get there before we start telling ourselves it’s too late. It's not too late. We need you.

You don't have to have all the answers you just need to have curiosity and ambition.

Go. Make the future you want it to be.

The little kid

We have all gone shopping and seen the little kid in the cereal aisle crying and begging his mom for his favorite cereal.  

Inside each and every one of us you will find that little kid. The little kid is the enemy in each of us.

This little kid is a former version of ourselves, he screams that we are hungry, angry, lonely and tired.

He tells us that we need to have that new thing because the old thing isn’t as good. If we just had the new thing we would never ask for another thing ever again. We would be so happy if we just had the new thing.

We need to teach this little kid to behave and to be generous.

Delaying gratification is the only way to make the little kid behave. Teaching ourselves to delay gratification is the number one way to unlocking wealth.

Give yourself permission to be an artist

Give yourself permission to be an artist. Give yourself permission to be whatever it is that you want to be. No one is waiting to anoint you as a professional writer, musician, poet, designer or blogger.

Giving yourself permission will you give you confidence. It will give you a chance to be an artist, someone who changes how we think, what we feel and how we do. You don't need credentials to be an artist. You don't need to sell a platinum album to be a musician. Just start being one and start creating art to change the hearts and minds of people.

Reader’s first reaction: I am not an artist. I can’t paint a picture.

You are an artist when you spend emotional labor to deliver a project in a generous way.

Blogger: I made this blog for you. Here. Read this. I hope it helps you find what you are looking for.

Be generous with your gift. No need to sell it for money (it’s too valuable). When we sell our gift for money, it is no longer a gift but a commodity and when it turns into a commodity it is no longer art.

Be an artist. Paint the picture of the future you want then go there. 

The ruckus revolution

Better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.

Create a ruckus. Be bold. Be unpredictable and unusual.

Put aside the mundane work. Start something new and exciting. Start something that comes out of left field. Start something that shakes up the establishment. Start something that doesn't follow the recipe, the checklist, the order of operations. Start that book you always wanted to write or post that blog that you were always too scared to share. Surprise your spouse by making that dish you always wanted to try. Grab that camera and start taking pictures. Start creating art.

Start today. Right now. Start small and finish it today. Go. Then tomorrow start a ruckus again.