Category Archives: Don’t keep your day job

I don’t know why, but I grew up into what I call an engineer’s mindset. It never really matters how well something works, how nice a day it is, or how well an event is going, I will always be watching (and even asking) how it could be better. I think there is always room for improvement.

That doesn’t mean that I’m going to stand around whinging about something, waiting for somebody to change to suit my view. I will jump in to help out (which annoys my wife when I leave her standing like a wall flower), or try my best to make the improvements that I want to see.

I’m not going to point to something midstream and shout that it needs to change, but I will try to be the change that I want to see in the world around me.

Therefore, I’m always looking around for the things that I can make that change in.

I make changes with the kite designs that I build, I (try to) make changes daily with the way I raise my kids, and I try to make changes within my community with my service to the scout units here in Lincoln County.

But these contributions are not enough. I want to make more changes, make bigger impacts in the world around me.

These desires have prompted me to listen to self-help podcasts, with the objective of keeping myself inspired to do the work whenever I have a few moments. Driven me to keep looking for new and exciting ways that I can contribute without investing more time or money than I have too.

The tool box

One of the tools that I see the most potential in is a mailing list.

Nick Loper’s Side Hustle School, and some of the other podcasts, have me convinced that a mailing list will be essential to maintaining an audience in a not too distant future where the social media platforms stop sharing posts from the people that want to see and hear me. I already have issues with facebook showing me a post 3 days later, letting me know that some kiter friends were enjoying the weather down on the beach, while I was busy taking advantage of that same weather to get some chores done around the house.

I have a feeling that I also need to work on my presence in Instagram. It appears that the folks that use facebook most are a bit more mature, and I will need some outdoorsy folks looking to try something new. Instagram seems to be the social media for the younger crowd, but the platform just doesn’t speak to me and I’d rather get more time on the beach than to invest a bunch of time in a platform that I don’t get.

Another tool that I’m absolutely eager to get to work on is building passive income. This seems to be the essential way really replace my income from the “day-job”, and free up real chunks of time for moving forward on other projects (like spending the day on the beach flying a kite show).

Also, the other day I came across the idea of using someone under 30 as a mentor (not mentoring someone young), so as to get their perspective on the bleeding edge that a more mature mentor would ignore entirely.

I’m absolutely convinced that there are other tools that I’m missing out on, but these will be more than I have time to work on for a while. The main point is that I need to grow a business around the things that are in my life and on my mind, and that business needs to GROW so that I can spend more time Living in Paradise than working near it.

On purpose

In the interest of getting some practice with these tools and learn about others, I’ll sheepishly admit that I have signed up for a couple of online courses that I’ve learned about through the podcasts. That’s right, I’ve stuck my neck and my money out for things to help me make some progress on my projects.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that I know it all. Some of the podcasts I’ve been utilizing will tell me that there isn’t any of this that I don’t know already, but I have to say that there are so many things that I’ve forgotten.

There are big reasons to get help, and there are bigger reasons to pay for it.

While there is much that I know, sometimes we all need a reminder. Someone on the outside can help to pull us out of the rut in the sand that we’ve worn down, when we don’t even realize that we stuck ourselves in it. I live were I want to be, but sometimes working there lets me forget that it is the situation that I chose for myself.

Another big reason to pay for help, is that while Tom Peterson taught us Oregonians that “free is a very good price”, it’s is even more true that we don’t value free advice. By putting a monetary value on the classes, I’m telling myself that the help is worth this much and that I need to make certain to recoup at least that much from it.

Although I don’t expect to participate in real time, I saw value in the tools offered, and am hoping that I will make time to apply all the tools from the courses over the coming year.

And yet…

While time constraints are the most significant obstructions to taking this instruction live, while listening to more from Cathy Heller on Impostor Syndrome I came to the realization that while my engineer’s mindset helps me look for opportunities to contribute and for ways to make kites of my own, it is also dragging on my progress.

I love kites. I love making kites, I love kite history, I love flying kites, I love kites of all sizes. I have been called a kite nerd in the past, but with my responsibilities to my family, I have not pursued my passion (and have forgotten things that I once knew) at the level that makes me feel as authoritative as I want to be if I’m going to blog or podcast about it.

This desire to be the expert, makes me pause before presenting offerings to grow a mailing list on the subject.

I feel that I have loads to contribute to the scouts in my units and plenty to give to the other adults leaders that I work with, but that doesn’t mean that I think that I should publish my thoughts on the national program that I volunteer for. Besides, I don’t have access to, or the knowledge how to use fancy sound equipment for putting out a podcast for other scout leaders.

Again my desire to be the expert is holding me back from making a difference in a market that I see a gap in.

I really think that I have found an interesting niche with the Living in Paradise posts, but I haven’t figured out how to make the living that I want to here in paradise, and I’m not convinced that I have the voice down, an audience to speak to, or a reason to show up regularly to light people up with my little sparks of inspiration.

I wonder if this too shouldn’t try to be a podcast, but where I see a market in a podcast for scouters, I don’t know that there is an audience that wants me to tell them to pick up their chins.

So, I have work to do

I’m less certain than ever what direction I need to be moving in, but clearly I have some work to do. I may need to start by addressing these limiting beliefs. By shining a little truth on them, I hope to find the way forward sooner rather than later.

My best idea for a scouting podcast is actually an interview show with other Scouters (volunteers), so I need to get over the idea that I’m telling anyone anything and start by formulating interview questions.

I love kites, and anything that I provide about kites is likely to show that love and will help me put that love out in the wind.

My sparks of inspiration may be small so far, but there have been firestorms that started with a spark. My thoughts have already been shared and appreciated in self-help communities, there is no reason that I shouldn’t put more weight behind a thought that I took the time to write out.

It is my responsibility, my obligation to myself, to my family, and to my communities, to set aside the things dragging on me and get moving on these projects. To bring them into being and to make them pay me for doing it, so that I can reinvest that payment into growing them further and giving more ideas the opportunity to grow from them.

Your turn

There you have it. Nothing is ever good enough, not even me.

But there is no need for it to be good enough, it is enough that it is.

What is keeping you from seeing the paradise around you?

Please leave a comment to share your limiting beliefs.

I was raised studying the Bible. My family attended various Churches of Christ, where I was taught to do as the good book said, simply and without a lot of fuss.

One of the tenants that I was taught (and that I like to think grew in a fertile mind) is to let your light shine, or not hide your light under a basket.

I have found a few ways to let my light shine over the years.

In my kiting, I am proud of the results of my kitemaking, sharing the results with friends at kite festivals. Also sharing them, and any other kite related nuggets with the public at large when I make it to the beach to fly.

I participated in a community chorus for some years, growing my skills and contributing to that community where I was able.

I try to show up fully for any work that I do, and always endeavor to really hear my customers.

I like to think that my light shines in the ways that I am raising my sons and also in the ways that I help the local scout units keep moving.

If you haven’t noticed, I feel strongly that actions speak louder than words (thanks dad) and that our light shows in the work we bring to the world.

Filters

In Physics class some years ago, I learned that you can make rainbows from white light. That if you place something in front of a light in the right manor, it can break the light into segments.

Looking at the process a little closer, my classmates and I saw that not only can the light be divided, but parts of the light can be blocked. With the right tools one could take a light that was not white (say yellow or blue) and get a red or violet light.

Something over the last couple months has triggered this concept of filters, and had it quietly circling in the back of my head.

Collision

This morning while I was absorbing an episode of Johnathan Field’s Good Life Project featuring Elizabeth Gilbert, something was said that catalyzed a realization for me

Mr. Fields was presenting a quote, that I can’t attribute at this time, that we are the average of the five people that we surround ourselves with. I won’t go into an analysis of the validity of the thought, but the idea made it into the same particle accelerator that the concept of filters had found to run in, and I think I like the results that I got.

I will present that we are indeed beacons, the temperature of our light being determined by our mindset and the level of our own enthusiasm for our current occupation(s). Further, that the people that we surround ourselves with serve the light that we project as filters.

Choose wisely

Assuming that I’m on the right track (and I always do until presented with better evidence), it can be difficult for our greater communities to see through to the true light that we project if we are allowing our light to be blocked by a dark individual, keeping our light from the world. If we let our light go through a mindset that is incongruous with out light, our community is far too likely to see us filtered in a way that incompletely represents us.

Further, if we choose wisely, there is the distinct possibility that bringing ourselves close to those that compliment, and brighten, our light can present us to a larger community, and that we may even be able to find some to bring into our orbit that can focus our light, to make it even more powerful, or let it reach communities that it would not have been able to on our own.

The best laid plans …

I have been remiss in posting. So much has been happening in my life, and none of it involves the path that I want to be traveling.

I’m still where I want to be, but my family life has become a bit more messy, and will likely take another month to get things cleaned up.

I have made time to run a training event for den chiefs to serve between the troop and pack. It was a good event, and I learned that when given time to develop it, I can still feel some jitters about making a public presentation. I’m accustomed to opening my mouth and making a nuisance of myself in front of large groups, but rarely have the opportunity to organize programs.

I have also volunteered to give away more time to help the girl troop that is starting out as an extension of Troop 47. I have also refocused some of my energy with the troop to get the patrol leaders council functioning. I was disappointed this last weekend to miss an event for higher functioning Scouts.

I have promised myself to help with the Blue & Gold banquet (another opportunity for me to face the fear of group presentations) and Pinewood Derby for the pack, but have avoided helping with the district race to protect what little time, energy, health I have reserved. I have even refused to serve as a Nova mentor for my youngest and his associates in the pack, but have tried to get another parent to volunteer for the position.

In January, I’ve gave away some back-stock of miniatures to the kitemakers events that I’m familiar with and contacted a former supervisor about using her as a mentor (since then I learned the origin of the word Mentor and will have to share that with her and then her reaction to the info here). That was the limit of my progress on the kiting front.

I haven’t applied any energy to the “Paradise” posts, finding a home to buy, or toward the kite guide service this year. I keep reminding myself that once I have things straightened out on the home front, then I can apply some energy toward the passion projects, but the enthusiasm that I had for the works doesn’t effectively carry over to the expanded list of chores.

As it is mid-winter, work has slowed to a crawl. I’m getting the bills paid, but I’m not bringing in enough to pay for the things that lie broken around the house, or for that growing list of chores.

I’m working (and resting, although, I ought to get off my butt and try a yoga routine or two) to not get depressed. But, too much of my energy right now is going into buoying my attitude, and not to preparing myself for another grueling summer.

I’ve continued listening to self help podcasts, especially Johnathan Fields “Good Life Project” (starting from 2016), but haven’t come away with quite enough enthusiasm to sit down and write out a post. I haven’t even had any inspiring outings to catch up with the meet up group, in the woods, or just along the beach.

Here’s hoping that my luck and health holds, and that the hole that I’ve been living in doesn’t get any deeper. I can hardly wait to get back to sharing this life in paradise.