Lighting a Fire Under Yourself

You know, writing this blog has turned out to be something I thought I could really excel at. I could buckle down and write something every week, or every day even, and get the floating ideas and words in my head planted on something palpable. I never thought I would get into a spot or a break...multiple times already...where I find trouble coming up with something to write about. I have billions of ideas, sure, but getting those first couple words and sentences into something concrete has really been a challenge.

I have been writing this blog on and off (mostly off) for over a year now, and I only have had a small number of posts. That's pretty shameful, I have to say. A truly excruciatingly slow pace for anything to surmount to something. Writing this post, even, was something I really just had to sit down, take a deep sigh and just do.

Hey now, writing a blog about writing a blog seems like a fun idea.

My normal writing process goes like this: I carry a notebook with me every day in my back pocket with a reasonable amount of pens. I mean, you never really know when you have to write A LOT. As I go about my day and duties, if an idea or something else of note pops into my head, I whip out my trusty notebook and write it down. If it's for a blog idea, or something I need to do, the act of writing it down really helps you remember. Ever have something in your head that you thought you will remember later? Maybe something along the lines of, "Oh I have to do that later," or "I should do this." You will just do it later because it is stored in your super strong memory, right?

Wrong.

The simple action of writing something down with a pen or pencil, associating a thought or a memory with an action, will do so much for your memory than simply storing it in your head. Not to mention, you will literally have it written down in your handy-dandy notebook.

But anyways, at the end of the day or whenever I find a free moment, I will go through and process my notes. If it is something that I can't do right then and there, I will transfer it to google keep (wonderful software, btw) and cross it off my notebook. When I am done processing, I make a double line at the bottom of where I left off, and continue on with my life.

If any of those ideas I can flush out into a whole blog post, well then there you go. Just find a moment and bang out one of these as eloquently as possible. If I happen to be driving and come up with something I want to write down, I use an app called Speechnotes to transcribe my vocal words into text. It's not perfect, as nothing can be 100% as of yet, but it is damn good. In fact, this blog post was mostly "written" on my commute to work...me talking aloud as a try not to frustrate myself being surrounded by incompetent drivers. New Jersey needs better driving instructors, let me just say.

Now to the title of this post.

Recently I have been into some deep thought about how I am living my life. Am I enjoying it? What am I accomplishing? I owe it to myself to do more and work hard. Will I take this blog further, or will I find another alley to push my talents towards? Who knows. All I know for sure is that honest-to-good hard work cannot be beat. Every successful person, whether they be a TV star, singer-songwriter, or what have you, has worked their butt off. How do you think they made it there? Time and time again you hear that there isn't an elevator to success, you have to take the stairs and climb. Working hard, grinding. Chasing after what they want and not stopping to take a breath.

I need to do that. We all do.

We all have to find that one thing that we absolutely want to do in life. Take the risks involved and just go at it. Take all the failures along the way and keep chugging along and you will find your way. I had an older post about making a 2.3 million dollars, it is about time I read that myself and take the leap. I will do something. I will accomplish what I want to do and so will you.

2016 wasn't that great of a year for most people. Let's push for something greater, we can do it.

By the way, if you haven't read Nick Offerman's book Paddle Your Own Canoe, I strongly suggest it.