[In]action

Disclaimer: Lately I have felt more prone to blog when I am in a melancholy mood, so if the tone of my posts seems a little off, please forgive me, I'm not quite sure why I feel like blogging to de-stress and clear my head lately... That having been said, I will move on to today's subject, action! (Or lack thereof)

Now let me make this clear, I am not talking about the kind of action you think of associated with movies, like lasers and explosions and very well choreographed martial arts, I am simply referring to action in the sense of "doing something." And reflecting on the problems with not acting. (Again, don't think of this word in a movie-esque sense) Inacting is one of the easiest things in the world to do, especially for me. I have many ideas and opportunities all of the time that end in inaction. But, how can this be when I read so many books about taking action and so forth, how can this be when I know that inaction is much worse than acting and then failing because at least there is a chance of succeeding if you try. How can this be when I know and have oft recited the platitude that "you miss 100% percent of the shots you don't take," and I don't even like basketball! Well, I figured it out. I searched my own brain for the thought processes that were allowing me to circumnavigate around all of this knowledge and justify a course of inaction. I outline this particular stream of consciousness here, just in case it is similar to your own, and in hopes that identifying it will make it easier to overcome. But be warned, I often have a difficult time translating streams of consciousness and abstract thoughts into coherent paragraphs, but I will do my best, so bear with me...

It is not hard to identify the demotivating factor, because it is almost always the same... fear. But this much I have always known, of course fear causes inaction, but to date knowing this has rarely helped me to overcome my issues with inaction. I remember my best teacher, Bro. Little once explained to me how many people would rather have the possibility of success, than know for certain whether or not they would actually be a success. He explained that he had a friend who for years and years would talk about a business idea he had, and loved to bask in the praise that people offered when he explained the idea he would eventually implement. Finally, Bro. Little offered to help him get his idea going and make it a reality, but his friend declined. From an observer's standpoint, his friend seems absolutely ridiculous! Who would rather have the possibility of success than the real thing? Well, I think most of us, but I could be projecting.

I did not understand how I could go against everything I believed about seizing opportunities, until two things happened recently. The first thing is that we talked about time in my family recreation class. We discussed how valuable we hold time in society, how efficiency and busy-ness are highly regarded virtues in our culture. We discusses a book called "In praise of slowness: challenging the cult of speed" and it got my mind going about time, and how in order to feel valued by society we must be busy, and not waste time. The second thing is that I watched "Dead Poets Society" and realized that I really do always feel like there is more than enough future left to do everything I need/want to, but of course, there is not, mortality is carries with it an inevitable, unknowable deadline, by which time you had better have done what you wanted.

Ok, now that I have got that out, I think I can explain my thought process. First, fear makes it possible for me to convince myself that the endeavor I am undertaking cannot succeed. It leaves no room for the possibility of success. Once my subconscious has convinced itself that failure is inevitable, it is easy to conclude that any time and effort applied to aforementioned task would be wasted, in addition to resulting in the sadness affiliated with failure. The mind then decides that facing possible failure it can handle, and wasting time it can do, but both combined is not worth the risk, especially since we are already secretly convinced of our inevitable failure. I can then go about wasting time in some other way that does not involve any risks, and therefore there is no possibility of failure, something that my emotions are not invested in, like Facebook or YouTube.

So, having now identified how I think this awful process works, I am hoping that I will be better able to avoid it in the future. Here's to hoping. Well, I better get going, I have a few calls to make to potential customers for a business idea I have been working on lately, but maybe I will go check my messages and notifications first...

On Dreams...

School has been super awful this semester. And sometimes it really gets me down. These are the times when I wonder why I am even in school at all. Why don't I just leave? Then I think, "What would I do if I left?" It is at this point that I realize that I don't really have much of a clue what I am going to do when I finish anyway, so why not just leave now and figure it out sooner than later? I know I want to be an entrepreneur, I have some ideas I could get started, and all this I want to do so I can live my dreams. It was at this point in my stream of consciousness that I realized I don't really have many dreams...

This turned out to be quite a startling thought for me. I felt like I had just grown so accustomed to a life of school and schedules and jobs, that I had a hard time answering the question: "What would you do if money was not an issue?" So I have thought about that question a lot lately. And it has been a lot harder than you might think to come up with dreams that matter to me, rather than just stealing other peoples because they sound cool. But I have thought of a few things, and I know I am going to need to make this list longer, but these are some of my dreams that I am going to live... Starting this year.

1. Someday, I want to live in Dominica with Katie, even if it just for a month or two. For those of you who don't know, I am not referring to the Dominican Republic. Dominica is a southern Caribbean island we visited last November, and one of the most beautiful places in the world. They call it "The Nature Island" as well as "The Island of Longevity" because they have one of the highest percentages of people over 100 in the world. They grow everything you have ever heard of and more, and the produce there looks like it is on steroids. Plus, dozens of waterfalls, rivers, beaches, and even a boiling lake. Hurricanes are rare, and there are no deadly animals on the island. Paradise...

2. Learn a martial art. I am not 100% decided on which one, though. This is another one that Katie and I both want to do together. For most of my life I was not a fan of this idea, but recently it has sounded more and more appealing, and I am excited to give it a try.

3. Fencing. Weird, I know. But it is another thing I really want to learn and am excited about. So I will.

4. Travel. This one has always been on my list, and I have various specifics destinations I would like to go to, but I will not bore you with the details of each one. I just want to see and experience as much of the world as I can.

5. Become an [amateur] survivalist. I really want to learn more about this kind of stuff. Not like I ever plan on just marching into the mountains one day to live there indefinitely, but I would like to be able to just in case it was ever necessary, or for a weekend or something. But I think I should throw a disclaimer in there, I do not want to be Bear Grylls and learn how to survive in any environment in the world and eat camel dung or whatever. Just be able to live in the mountains like that crazy guy in southern Utah. Except without all of the felonies...

6. Rock Climbing, this could kind of be paired with the last one, since it could be described as a survivalist skill, but I figure I would learn them from different places.

7. Kayaking. I feel like I might like this one, I pretty much need to give it a try and then see if it really is one of my dreams to get god at it, I have it on here as a potential dream.

8. Become a hot-air balloon pilot. Yeah, I pretty much can't think of many things that would be cooler than owning and piloting my own hot-air balloon.

9. Write a book. I am not sure what on, how long, or even what genre... I just want to.

10. This last one is no secret or revelation, I have dreamed of being a successful entrepreneur for years, and in fact I view it as the dream that makes the others possible. For this reason it should probably have been first, but it seemed rather poetic to have the last be the first, so I kept it the way it is.

Well, that looks like a good start to me. I am going to take a lighter class load in the fall and sign up for either martial arts or fencing lessons, and have somewhat of a "mini-retirement." Except without the travel. (Unless of course you count the cruise I will go on in November) So there you have it, and more importantly, there I have it. This is mostly a post for me. One to help me get my thoughts down in writing and give some clarity to them. If you have any dreams, fulfilled or not, comment them below. It might help me get some more inspiration...

Book Review: "The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It"

This book by Michael Gerber is truly a must-read for anyone who aspires to be an entrepreneur. It is also good for people who want to better understand entrepreneurs. It dispels the common myths surrounding people who start their own businesses and the myths that those same people believe that lead them to fail.

Among the most valuable things that this book helps you to do is see the future of your business, and to visualize what you want your business to go, and how to get it there. I imagine that there are people out there who believe they have no interest in entrepreneurship, but after reading this book and getting a new perspective, they may find the prospect more appealing.

Two weeks ago I reviewed another book on this same subject, both of these are important to read, as they help you understand the difference between owning a job, and owning a business. This one contains information on how to remove yourself from the framework of your business so that it can run independently without you, through other people. The other book will help you remove people altogether from your business and run on an even higher plane of automation. Very fascinating for anyone who wonders how business works. Check it out.