WordPress has become a standard if not the standard template based blog and website platform. It is written in PHP, is very easy to edit and customize with a plugin or two, and with the available themes, there is very little it can’t do. For those who have not tried setting up a WordPress site, it can be intimidating in the beginning. The good news is that there is so much knowledge out there available for free that can help you, so many free themes that look great, and many people that would be more than happy (for a fee) to help you. I have been programming for years and was very intimidated when I started my WordPress site. The more you work with it, the more you understand.
Waiting for the windfall
What is the next big thing? When will that breakthrough moment happen? How can we prepare? We can’t…
Success is built one step at a time. Some of those steps are big, some are small. I believe what Seth Godin says in this post, that we spend too much time preparing for a moment that rarely if ever happens. We can never prepare, but we can get started. We can do the little things that make success. We can satisfy one customer at a time. We can ship the next product. You can be remarkable one day at a time.
So, the next time you find yourself preparing for that breakthrough, consider what you can do to create your own moment.
The importance of hobbies
Hobbies are great. I tend to collect them. I will often have an idea that I want to accomplish or a item I want to make that will steer me toward a new hobby or skill. I have tried a variety of handcrafts including leatherworking, bladesmithing, woodturning, carving (wood, soap….. laser…..) and the ones I stuck with for more than a few minutes usually resulted in an end result I had been thinking about for months if not years. So, what’s so important about a hobby?
You can’t work all the time. I know, I know…… everyone understands that they can’t work all the time but how many of you actually work all the time? Not only that, how many of you do little else besides work, watch TV, and Facebook? Now, I am not knocking work, TV, or Facebook, but if that is pretty much all you do, you need a life. We all need a life filled with accomplishment (doing something, anything) rather than idle consumption (watching TV, mindlessly wandering the web, etc). To me, that sense of accomplishment is found in either a hobby or work.
I want to work all the time. No wait, did I just say that? What I meant to say is that I want to generate income as much of the time as I can. I want to help people with my work. I want to earn so much money I have trouble giving enough of it away. But….. I want to enjoy my work. In fact, I want to enjoy my job SO much that you not be able to tell if I am working or having fun. I wan to wake up in the morning saying to myself “They pay me to do this?” I want my hobby (or one of my hobbies….) to be at the center of my work. How do I get started?
The enemy of great
I am good at many things. No, I am not bragging, but I am good at a number of things. I am good at woodturning, fixing computers, computer programming, creating designs for laser engraving, cooking, making bread, catching llamas (long story…) and a number of other tasks. What about you? If you think about it, you are good at many things. Your list is most likely different (any other llama wranglers out there?) but you should be able to name a good number of them. But how many of those are you great at?
I want to be great at something. I want it to be something I really enjoy, but I want to be great at something. I want that thing to support me and my family financially more than my current job or any other job I can find. Not only that, I want my work, my creations, my life to be remarkable. No one can be remarkable by being good…. but great, now that is getting closer to remarkable.
What about being good? Being good gets in the way of being great. I don’t want to be good at many things, I want to be great at only one or a very small few. You will have to stop being good at some things so you can be great at others. You must make the choice. It is a choice you should only make after you have identified your life purpose, passion, and priorities. There will be sacrifices.
So, now I have this fork…
Choices. Everywhere there are choices. Some are good choices, some are bad, and some are over-the-top, life changing, mammoth choices that alter the path of your life and those around you in a big way (good and bad). But what do you do when presented with a choice? Do you choose “A” or “B”? Do you choose to wait?
Yogi Berra has a great quote I like to use:
“If you come to a fork in the road, take it”
Which way do I go? If I come to a fork in the road, do I go left or right? What if I just stand at the fork and do nothing? See, there are three choices in that scenario; go to the left, go to the right, or do nothing. Of course, you could always turn around and go back, but not in life. Time marches on. So do you take the more traveled road, the less traveled road, or stand there looking at the sign?
With all choices, there are consequences. Many of these consequences are seen and expected, but there are some that sneak up on you. Often, we don’t consider the opportunity costs as consequences. If I take the fork to the left, what am I missing out on? Same with the right. But, consider what you are missing out on if you just stand there?
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