A dream you don’t have to fight for isn’t a dream—it’s a nap. One changes your afternoon. The other changes your world. Keep fighting.
Mad at someone you’re following on Twitter? They tweeted too many times? Or maybe said something you weren’t happy about, or tweeted a link to a blog post too often for your taste?
Here are the 3 things you should do immediately:
You have a gift. You have something unique and special and important. You’ve always had it.
Even if you don’t believe in God, it’s hard to argue that you showed up on the planet empty.
How do I know?
One time I got to hear business guru Seth Godin speak at a lunch.
There were about 15 of us in a small room in a conference center.
Godin spoke for about 30 minutes, and then opened up the floor for questions.
Here was one of the most successful marketing minds in the last 20 years.
Here was someone who has sold millions of books.
Here was a keynote speaker who gets paid tens of thousands of dollars, asking 15 strangers at lunch if they had any questions. And do you know what happened?
It’s not just the climb.
It’s the grind.
It’s the getting up while other people are sleeping.
It’s the checking your blog 100 times a day and realizing there’s not a single comment. And then writing again tomorrow. And the day after that.
It’s the walking by your TV and not letting it suck you in to find out who got the rose.
It’s the ignoring what you’d like to do because what you’d love to do needs your time.
It’s sucker punching Monday morning and starting your day before fear has a chance to find you.
It’s the swallowing your pride and playing the concert to nobody but the waitress.
It’s the filling out all the annoying paperwork it takes to turn your dream into a business.
It’s the 12,000 tweets.
It’s the asking people for help even though you’d like to pretend you’re too strong to need it.
It’s the realization that the scale isn’t your boss, it’s a tool. And if you didn’t hit your weight goal today, you’ll get back on the bike, back on the run, back on the steps, and hit it tomorrow.
It’s losing the client, losing the job, losing the opportunity, and realizing you didn’t lose your identity.
It’s getting back up.
It’s the 4 AM alarm clock to catch a shuttle to the airport.
It’s the measuring your success against your own actions, not the accomplishments of others.
It’s the remembering that hard work still beats 100% of the shortcuts everyone else thinks social media offers.
It’s the being willing to fail.
And fail.
And fail.
And fail.
And get better. Slower than you’d like. In increments smaller than you’d like, but better is better.
It’s the not being ashamed of your success or apologizing for the wins, but having the courage to celebrate them without stumbling into the land of arrogance.
It’s starting all over again every time the sun does.
Is it just the climb?
No. If you want to change your life and the world, it’s the grind.
Keep grinding.
3.5 million kids play little league football in the United States.
1,696 people play football in the NFL.
Mathematically speaking, that means that 0.048% of the kids who put on a helmet in elementary school will put on one professionally.
What do you do if you don’t get drafted? What do you do if your dream hits a snag? You train. You practice. You do what running back Giavanni Ruffin is doing in this video as he tries to get on a team.
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine was looking at a piece of art. He didn’t like it and said, “Why create something like that? Why?”
I thought about that question for a while and then put my thought down on a photo I took in our town.
Here’s something I think we should all remember when it comes to art:
May you spend yours not laboring.
See you Wednesday!
Jon
Dear Sunday Jerks,
That is what my wife used to call me too. Not because she is mean, but because I was a jerk on Sundays.
On Saturday I was fine. I was happy. The day felt light.
But on Sunday? Everything changed. I could feel the weight of Monday rising up. I could hear the sand of Sunday falling quickly through the hour glass and knew what would happen soon.
I’d be back in my cubicle.
Back at a job I did not love. Back to leaving my personality in the parking lot on Monday morning when I walked into the building.
Monday felt like forever. And even worse, it had four brothers called Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
I spent 10 years like that. And I deserved every inch of the title “Sunday Jerk.”
I lived half weekends grumpily growing darker as the day got closer to Sunday night.
If you feel that way, there are two things I want to tell you today on this Sunday.
1. You are not alone.
One of the first things fear tries to do is put you on an island. To isolate you into believing you are the only one who feels a certain way. You’re not. Don’t believe that lie that you’re some kind of unique failure because you’re a Sunday Jerk.
2. You don’t have to be miserable.
Oh the lies we’ve all been taught about our day jobs. “Work is supposed to be miserable! That’s what makes it work. Welcome to being an adult. It’s the humble thing to do! Who are you to dream you’ve got some sort of gift you’re supposed to share with the world? It’s just a job.” Nonsense. Do you know why we were both Sunday Jerks? Because you can’t be miserable 40 hours a week and then flip some magical switch to “happy” on the weekend. Just a job? Are you really OK with donating the majority of your waking life to something you hate? It took me 10 years to realize I wasn’t, I hope you don’t mortgage that much of your life to the belief that being miserable is what work is all about. It’s not. It doesn’t have to be this way.
I wrote Quitter
We’re streaming the Quitter Conference live because we want to share hope with as many people as possible.
But even if you’re not able to take part in either the book or the conference ever, please know this.
Monday is not your identity. I hate how heavy it feels for you right now, but it is not your forever. And you’re not the only one who has been a Sunday Jerk.
I was one too.
Week 34 of FinishYear is done! September is here! (It’s not too late to join FinishYear with us! Here’s what we’re doing.)
For the last 8 months we’ve been sharing a quick summary of how we did that week on our Finish List.
Here’s my list of goals, and the summary of the progress I made:
1. Make the Quitter Conference awesome for people who attend.
This week I announced a special 7AM session we’re having on Saturday morning. And I announced that we’re having a fellow Quitter design the stage as a way to celebrate someone’s dream of being a set designer. The conference sold out, but you can watch it live on Friday night online. Sign up for the broadcast!
2. I am going to finish reading 12 non-fiction books this year. One per month.
Finished the book “18 minutes.” I’ve started a new one about the difference between an insight and an idea.
3. I am going to finish running the Nashville half marathon Saturday, April 28th in under 2 hours and 10 minutes.
Done! Good week. Crossed over half a million in “fuel” on my Nike fuelband. I’ll review the product in the months to come.
4. I am going to finish writing a new book in 2012.
This week I get the book back from the second round of edits with the editor!
5. I am going to finish a box of thank you cards this year as a sign of my gratefulness.
No cards. This surprises no one.
6. I am going to finish handwriting out the entire book of Proverbs in a moleskine notebook.
Finished!
That’s how I did.
How was your week?
What on your Finish List went well? What on your Finish List needs more attention next week?
For four years I’ve been playing around with an idea. With each book I wrote or blog I started, the need for this got more and more obvious. But, something was holding me back, something was preventing me from moving forward. What was it?
My ego.
I have a hard time admitting when I need help.
I’d rather be self succient, have it all figured out, be all strength, no weakness.
But the truth is, the idea I had was something I did not have the ability to execute. Try as I might, the skills needed to pull it off where not in my wheelhouse or toolbox or other metaphor people end sentences like this with.
And so I learned two really important words you need to say a lot when you chase a big dream. They’re not that fancy. They probably won’t brighten your teeth when you read them. You might not retweet them. Here they are: