FIND A REASON TO START

“You can’t cross a sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” – Rabidranath Tagore

How easy it is to get caught up in the process of dreaming.

Dreaming about the job you'd love to have or the business you'd love to start.

Dreaming of the relationship you have always wanted.

The problem with dreams is that they require action in order to make them come true.

If you’re anything like me, you have huge aspirations for your life.

Making a bunch of fucking denero.

Becoming famous and signing autographs.

Kissing hands and shaking babies…(That was a joke. Relax.)

After spending five years in a classroom knowing I was helping students better their lives and achieve their goals, I felt like I was living my dream. I was leading, teaching and influencing people to make something of themselves. It was so fulfilling.

Last year when I was told not to come back to campus after refusing to comply with district mandates, I felt like that dream had shattered. I sat at home feeling sorry for myself and thinking that I would have to find another job teaching or training in order to pursue that dream again.

For 4 months, I spent most days at home feeling like a piece of shit, applying for jobs in different states and hoping that one would come up that worked for me. Fortunately after some interviews and job offers, I accepted a position with a company in Eastern Idaho. This position would eventually lead to me moving into a training position where I would finally get to teach again.

This job was a great job for this area.

Most people would be ecstatic to work in a position like this for a company like this.

But not me.

Would I be teaching? Yes.

Would I be helping people? Sure.

Was it going to be where I would spend the rest of my career? No fucking way.

As I felt myself slipping even further away from my dream, I began to start using my break times at work more wisely.

I would spend my time reading, writing, thinking and visualizing my future brand rather than socializing.

People at work would give me shit for eating lunch in my office every day. “Doesn’t it get lonely up there in your office alone”? Hell yeah it does, but I was using that time to find ways to get better.

I wanted something more than what I had. Again, not that what I had wasn’t good, it just wasn’t enough for me.

As I write each blog post, I put a lot of thought and focus into the lesson behind it.

So the lesson here is this:

Sometimes it takes seeing what you don’t want to do or be to understand what it is you really want to do or be.

That was my reason to start this journey.

I could spend the next 30 years at this company and live a decent life. I could have spent the next 30 years at the community college teaching and living a good life.

But I wanted to cross the sea.

I couldn’t stand to just fucking look at it anymore.

I couldn’t stand to just dream of the other side anymore.

I had to begin my journey of crossing , because I couldn't help myself from having to know what was on the other side.

I had to take action. And that action required discipline and hard work; two things I hate. But it was going to get me moving in the direction that I wanted to go.

It was going to allow me to build my brand, and establish myself as the man that I visualized myself becoming.

It was going to unlock the opportunity to embark of the journey to becoming the hero of my own story.

This was the way. I just needed to start.