Believing It Can Be Done

"There's a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don't, and the secret is this: It's not the writing part that's hard. What's hard is sitting down to write." - Steven Pressfield (From The War of Art.)

Do you know how hard it is to sit down and do something (like try to write a book) that you know might not ever make you any money, or even be seen by anybody but yourself and your trusted friends? Well, in all honesty you might know exactly how that feels, and I salute your continued efforts and perseverance.

But for those of you who don’t, ask yourselves how many great ideas you’ve had over the years, or how many fantastic things you could have done, but didn’t or couldn’t. Does doing the things that allow your mind free reign really make you happy, even when they might not have the desired outcomes you might have wanted? I thin they do.

Take me for instance. I’m sitting here at my desk at 10:00pm on a Saturday night, letting my mind have control of my fingertips for a few minutes, hours, days (who knows) all with the knowledge that these words might never have a public eye set upon them. Is that discouraging? Only if you let it be. I could go on. I write a blog about renting movies and I started my own media business, specializing in Multimedia Subtitling and Contextual Language Consulting, neither of which make me a great deal of money, but nonetheless give me something to be proud of.

The point, in all of this, is that I do things like writing so that what I have to say and ultimately what I want to do can be accomplished, even if it’s done in on a small scale. It doesn’t matter. The new slogan of this decade is going to “Small is the new Big”, or “Size doesn’t matter”, mark my words. People are already writing books about these very subjects.

And do you know why I believe in this process so fervently? It’s because I don’t want to harbor any more regrets in life than I absolutely have too. I look back on parts of my life already and feel regret of one kind or another. Dammit, I’m too young to be feeling regret! And I don’t want anyone else to feel unnecessary regret, by which I mean the kind that can be avoided by making a choice, whether your 18 or 80, I don’t care! It shouldn’t have to be a part of your life.

The good news is, regret is theoretically easily outmaneuvered. Make a choice, and find a non-harmful way of expressing what you have to say or doing what you want to do. However, I do understand outside of theory, making a choice is difficult, and that carrying it out is even harder. It’s not easy in that sense, but think of it this way; if you wake up in the morning and you say to yourself “Bob, I’m going to spend 30 minutes today doing research on skydiving because I’ve always wanted to do it”, or “Joe, I’m going to get on the internet and spend 1 hour making a website about mountain bikes vs. cycling bikes because that is my hidden passion”, what are you really risking, besides your own potential happiness? Granted these examples are about repressed and secret desires and interests, but it can just as easily incorporate things that people who know you have already figured out. If your friends come to you when they want a good restaurant recommendation, then maybe you should think about writing a small culinary review on a blog or a local newspaper. Like the quote at the beginning of the post says, it's not the doing that's hard. What's hard is the commitment to giving time so that the doing can be done.

All I can say is that the possibilities ARE indeed almost endless. No hesitations, no boundaries. And it feels ridiculously good during and after you achieve your goal, whatever that may be.



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INTRODUCTION: THE FIRST POST

"We're wrong if we think we're the only ones struggling with Resistance. Everyone who has a body experiences Resistance." -Steven Pressfield (Author of THE WAR OF ART)

The quote above deals with Resistance, but in effect, doesn't change always come hand in hand with fear? And fear is just another guise behind which Resistance hides. So, if this blog is to be about Entrepreneurial-ship, un-schooling, professional interests and anything of the above, then I suggest that you become very well acquainted with Resistance, because it will be your biggest obstacle and your most knowledgeable teacher. (I urge anybody seriously interested in reaching their full potential in any field or category to buy this book, and read it regularly).

The first thing I am going to say on this blog, and possibly the most important as an individual comment, is that no one is EVER too old to un-school. It doesn’t matter if you have a masters degree or you’re a top CEO at a huge architecture firm, or even if you’re in middle school. It makes no difference.

Granted, the process will be different from person to person, but that’s that whole point. Unschooling is not just a way to circumvent conventional learning, but a thought process, a mind set that allows for the individual to have easier and faster access to what he/she wants from the world and from life.

Am I making any sense so far?

Let’s start with me, and maybe get the ball rolling that way. I’m 18 years old and I live in Boulder Colorado. I stopped going to school after eight grade and un-schooled for the 2 and a half years it took me to complete high school. I went to college when I was 15 years old, and graduated this spring with an Associate Degree of General Arts. I have worked at restaurants, been a French tutor, owned my own business in Media Subtitling, and am currently a snowboard instructor at Eldora Ski Resort here in Boulder. I started this blog because I felt the need to share my insights with other people like myself who have had similar experiences. I also started this blog to identify and maybe try and answer frequently asked questions in situations I find myself in at this age, like finding a job you like, or volunteering your time in an industry that you love, or getting an internship at a respected firm or company. Even going to the right school, if school is indeed the right path for you.

None of the above is an attempt at self-glorification, merely an introduction of myself to you, the reader, in the hope that my experiences and knowledge can benefit others in similar circumstances, and maybe even form a community in the long run.

Having said that, the posts on this blog will be written from personal experience, new situations in my life, and daily discoveries, where I will try and clarify questions that I have about life, careers, and any other topic I think merits mention. Hopefully, this will help those people in similar circumstances. There’s no use in everybody madly struggling by themselves when it’s so easy to get input from various different sources to solve a problem or answer a question. I’m going to say it again because it took me a long time to realize this; you are not alone, there is always help to be found. It just takes practice to find it.

Like all things, this blog is a work in progress. I have no idea what it will ultimately turn out to be, but for now it is simply existing, and that is all that matters.
In closing, if my blog were a term paper, then the theme would be that you are never the only one that has questions about the world but no answers, or not knowing how to solve a problem, that no one is ever alone. There are always whole untapped communities out there waiting to come together, especially now that the Internet is such an accessible tool for the layman and the professional alike, waiting to be taken advantage of. All that’s needed is a spark.

(If you read this, I urge you to post any comments you might have. Discussion is the best way to answering a question.)

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