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Action always beats intention.

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.

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Why it’s so hard to figure out your calling.

Quitter March 9, 2012 • Comments

The first session of the Quitter Conference is about figuring out what your dream really is. Why?

Because that’s the thing that stops most of us in our tracks.

We don’t know what are dreams are. We don’t have a sense of what our passions are. We feel like everyone but us knows exactly what their calling is.

Why is figuring out our passion so hard? Why is finding our life’s purpose feel like such a struggle sometimes? I think it’s because figuring out your dream is an act of recovery, not discovery. As I detailed in Quitter, we often want Eureka moments. We want to be walking across the street at 42 years of age, get hit by a lightning bolt, and suddenly say, “Eureka! I’m meant to be a beekeeper. All these years I’ve been an accountant, no wonder life has been so difficult! I’ve discovered my passion.”

But, more often than not, figuring out your calling is an act of recovery, of rescuing something from your past that you loved and you lost. Something that life got too busy for and you stopped doing, or something that someone who mattered to you told you didn’t matter.

“You think you can do that for the rest of your life?”

“How could you ever make money doing that?”

“It’s time to grow up. That idea is silly.”

The older we get, the more our dreams get chipped away by life, until eventually a passion we’ve always had gets covered up by years and years.

Finding your true passion is a reunion, not a first date. It’s an act of recovery, and recovery is not easy.

I love the way David Whyte talks about recovery in this short section from his brilliant book, The Heart Aroused. In it, he takes a modern look at life via the lens of the famous poem “Beowulf:”

Keep Reading —›

When should you quit your dream?

FinishYear/ Quitter March 5, 2012 • Comments

A few weeks ago, I took a trip to Arkansas.

Since I didn’t know the area that well, I decided to do my half marathon training in the hotel gym instead of outside. Like most hotel gyms, they had a large list of disclaimers on the wall, but the last sentence on the sign stuck out to me:

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Sunday Summary – FinishYear Week 9

FinishYear March 4, 2012 • Comments

Week 9 of FinishYear is behind us! (It’s not too late to join FinishYear with us! Here’s what we’re doing.)

Every Sunday during February, let’s share 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.
The February conference was a blast. Stay tuned for a big announcement about this goal in a few weeks.

2. I am going to finish reading 12 non-fiction books this year. One per month.
Still working my way through Henri Nouwen’s The Return of the Prodigal Son. Did not make much progress this week.

3. I am going to finish running the Nashville half marathon Saturday, April 28th in under 2 hours and 10 minutes.
I ran Tuesday and Thursday, but at the time of this posting I have not done my long run yet. My hope is that I’ll knock it out this afternoon (Sunday.)

4. I am going to finish writing a new book in 2012.
Great progress this week! I wrote about 10,000 words and am starting to feel good about the outline.

5. I am going to finish a box of thank you cards this year as a sign of my gratefulness.
Wrote three this week. Chipping away at this goal.

6. I am going to finish handwriting out the entire book of Proverbs in a moleskine notebook.
Wrote three times this week. Still loving this goal.

That’s my week.

How was yours?

What on your Finish List went well? What on your Finish List needs more attention next week?

How to get 10 hours of extra free time in 10 seconds.

Quitter March 2, 2012 • Comments

You and I are very busy. We’ve talked about that before on this blog. We work an estimated 163 more hours than people did twenty years ago.

We don’t have much time to work on our dreams. We have to be selfish at 5AM. We have to hustle in the margins of our days. We have to squeeze in a million activities. But, fear not, today I am about to give you 10 hours of free time. And it’s going to take less than 10 seconds. Ready? Here it is:

Keep Reading —›

3 magic words that help your spouse support your dream.

Quitter February 29, 2012 • Comments

One of my favorite parts of the Quitter Conference is when my wife Jenny joins me on stage for a special Q&A.

I love it because, at that point, the idea of chasing a dream as a couple is no longer just a theory. It’s a reality. Jenny doesn’t pull punches and tells everyone the things we did well and the things we totally bombed. (And by we, most of the time it was me!)

So, in the middle of the last conference, someone raised their hand and asked a great question. Here is what they said,

“How do I get my wife to support me in my dream?”

Jenny, without missing a beat, said three words:

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1 thing none of us get enough of these days.

Creativity/ FinishYear/ Quitter February 27, 2012 • Comments

For years, I’ve been carrying around a secret list in my head.

For decades, this list has been banging around in my heart causing all manner of chaos and shenanigans.

For, centuries … well I haven’t been alive for centuries but if I had that would have been a pretty dramatic third sentence.

What list am I talking about?

The “Doesn’t Count List” or DCL.

Keep Reading —›

Sunday Summary – FinishYear Week 8

FinishYear February 26, 2012 • Comments

Week 8 of FinishYear is done! (It’s not too late to join FinishYear with us! Here’s what we’re doing.)

Every Sunday during February, let’s share 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 one is finished … for now. Big announcement coming in the next week or two.

2. I am going to finish reading 12 non-fiction books this year. One per month.
Right now I’m reading Henri Nouwen’s The Return of the Prodigal Son. I read maybe 20 pages this week, but since this is actually the book I had scheduled for March, I’m still on track to finish it.

3. I am going to finish running the Nashville half marathon Saturday, April 28th in under 2 hours and 10 minutes.
I ran Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday morning. I’m in Arkansas right now and had to get up insanely early to get the one treadmill in the hotel gym. I got to the fitness room at 6:45 on Saturday morning and someone was already on it. So on Sunday I was bound and determined to get up early!

4. I am going to finish writing a new book in 2012.
Didn’t make a ton of progress on this one this week. I’d mark it up to fear and focus. I’ve got a bit of the “blank page” fear going on right now. I also needed to focus on my speech for Blissdom and the three speeches I gave in Arkansas over the weekend. It looks like March might be “book writing month.”

5. I am going to finish a box of thank you cards this year as a sign of my gratefulness.
I wrote three cards this week, which I feel pretty good about.

6. I am going to finish handwriting out the entire book of Proverbs in a moleskine notebook.
I wrote 4 times this week, and am currently in chapter 17 of Proverbs.

That’s my week.

How was yours?

What on your Finish List went well? What on your Finish List needs more attention next week?

Stay dangerous.

Quitter February 24, 2012 • Comments

CBS recently reported that 84% of workers want to leave their jobs in 2012. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that record numbers of people quit their jobs last summer. And as the author of a book called Quitter, you might think I was all for that. But, if you’re thinking about quitting your job right now, I have to warn you about something.

There is a land mine looming that you’ve probably not considered: remaining dangerous.

Keep Reading —›

VIDEO: Kurt Vonnegut on the Shape of Stories.

Blogging/ Creativity/ Writing February 22, 2012 • Comments

Kurt Vonnegut is one of my favorite writers. He’s written a ridiculous amount of brilliant books and in this short video explains the shape of stories. If you’ve got 5 minutes today, watch this. Whether you ever want to write or not, this is a perfect example of how to communicate an idea. (Heads up, there’s one profanity.)