Day 202 – If there is a trail, follow it.

When people started to migrate west there was a very specific trail that people followed. It was called the Oregon Trail. The trail was created over thirty years before it was passable for wagons and the safest route had been determined for settlers. Early fur traders discovered where the passes were easiest to cross and how to avoid the violent Indians. There were forts established along the way for supplies and rest. There was no doubt if you wanted to get to Oregon you took a path that was laid out before you. You simply had to follow the path of people who traveled to the place you wanted to be.

This is the basis of a pretty well known formula for getting what you want. The principle is the same. You simply find someone that is where you want to be, (physically, financially, or otherwise) look what they did to get there, and follow the same path they did.

In today’s world I come across all kinds of people. Most all of them want something more in some way. That is simply human nature. What boggles the mind is how people want to invent their own way of getting there.

Let’s go back to the Oregon Trail. What if your brother wanted to go to Oregon but decided that that trail thing just was not for him. He heard stories about somebody dying and so he was just going to go another way. Maybe he actually has some experience or a sense of direction but, for sure it would be more difficult than following a tried and true path.

I know there are innovators and there is a need for discovery but, I am talking about results. If you want to go to Oregon you follow the path, it is just easier and it is proven. If you want to do your own thing, that is fine but forging something new is always harder. I would like my trip to Oregon to be as smooth as possible.

Yes, there are still risks on the Oregon trail but, here is the difference: the experience of others has alerted to you to the potential dangers AND how best to handle them.

This is a lesson that I feel like I can apply to anything. If I want to know how to do real estate, I will find the most successful agent I can find and do what they did to get where they are. If I want to be happy, I will find the happiest person I can find and do what they did to get happy. If I want to make an extra $1000 a month I will . . .?

It is a pretty simple formula and I get so frustrated for people that say they really want something, yet when they are shown the “Oregon Trail” they just scoff and come up with some sort of excuse or justification.

While it is frustrating I have to tell myself that they are not my monkeys and it is not my circus. I really do hope to see them in Oregon some day in the meantime I am hitting the trail.

Day 201 – Love thy neighbor

Sometimes you get some negative motivation.

Motivation comes in all forms. Generally when the desire for what you want is greater than the pain of doing what you have to do to get it, you move forward. Finding those powerful things are motivation. Like the desire to go on that trip is greater than the pain of working another overtime shift. Maybe you want to be debt free so bad that you ignore the semi annual sale at Nordstrom’s. These are positive motivators and they are very powerful.

I think the negative motivators are equally if not more powerful. Have you ever said something like, “I never want to end up like my parents.”? That is a negative motivator. Success stories abound with negative motivators like that at the root.

Today I got a new negative motivator. I will do whatever it takes to make enough money to move away from my petty angry neighbor and the HOA that he wields like a sword at the peasant renter, me.

This is going to be a short blog but, necessary for me to close out my frustration. I hope that I am never so angry with my life and choices that I let some really stupid thing bother me so much I take it out continually on someone I don’t even know.

I have heard it said to be nice to people because everyone is going through a battle and struggle. I am not sure what this guys battle is but based on his level of anger it must be huge. As hard as it is for me to do it, my purpose wanting to help others and be an example I will pray for him and his family. I will take a higher road because I do not know him and what about my wheel barrow leaning on his fence makes him explode. I will pray for him because someone once must have made him feel so small that he as to make himself superior over others. I will pray for him because that is what I am called to do.

I will pray for him as I work my ass off to move out of this house and somewhere else where my house is not 7 feet from my neighbor. I am a positive person and I cannot have the kind of negativity in my life that surrounded me this morning.

I got a new negative motivator this morning and while I will use it to get me going, I will do what I am supposed to do in the meantime. Love my neighbor.

Day 200 – It is more than the pursuit of money

Every so often I feel like I need a new start.

It is like my own call back to focus, a re-commitment to my goals and my plans. It is not like I have fallen completely off the wagon, just that I can see it is getting close and need to re focus and put the hammer down. This week will be one of those weeks. I have made some pretty aggressive goals and there is not much time left.

This is not abnormal for me and I have learned it is pretty normal for most people actually. I don’t beat myself up over it I just am able to realize that I am of course a bit and make a correction. Just like an airplane pilot or a ship’s captain the journey is full of corrections to get back on to course. The ebbs and flows of life can easily get me off track and given enough time they usually do.

I feel something actually changing inside me as I continue on. I feel like there is a desire to become something better. Not just wealth but, something more. I am 44 years old and have chased this dream like a puppy for a long time. It seems different now. I feel like it is partly, or mostly for that matter a result of really searching and narrowing down my why.

It is easy to put up a dream board of cars, houses, and “things” in my office. It is an entirely different thing to ask why. I have started to ask myself that question more and more lately. Instead of simply saying I want to be financially free, I ask why I want to be financially free. By asking why over and over I get to the heart of the matter. I get to my heart.

My heart wants something more. I want to be a good steward, I want to be an amazing husband and father. I want to be merciful and forgiving. I want to be a giver and caring. I know I can be all these things without money but, for my particular why, money will be an inevitable by product of fulfilling my purpose of helping others in the way I desire.

This journey on the surface may seem shallow or materialistic but if you have been following my blogs for a while I hope you can see it is so much more. Yes I want money but, only because of the freedom and flexibility that I feel like it will give me. I am not apologizing about wanting to make money at all. There is in fact nothing wrong with wanting more especially if you don’t have anything to start with. Our society has put some negative ideas on the desire to make money and I think that such a broad stroke is wrong. We need more people in this world that not only want more but, more importantly are willing to do the work to get more. I have a feeling that farther down the road on this journey the money will take a far back seat as I am able to focus on helping others as I will be in a better position to do so.

 

Day 199 – Planned rest is necessary

Today was what I would call a recharge day.

Well maybe it was a lazy day. I had plans of getting up early and having breakfast with Amy but, it just did not work out that way. I have been pretty tired lately and I am not too sure why. Well I am sure it mostly has to do with me staying up late again. Time to get back on that schedule that I had during my 24 Day Challenge. I was unstoppable during that time.

I woke up and basically piddled around the house today. Amy and I got to spend some great alone time just watching some shows and relaxing. Tonight we got to go out and have dinner with one of our oldest and dearest friends who is visiting for just a couple days from Arizona. It is amazing to realize how much you really miss close friends that live so far away until you get to see them again.

After hugs and just a few minutes it was like we never missed a beat. Laughing and sharing a meal is such a great way to spend time with friends I wish we could do it more often. Soon we will be able to do things like that more often.

It is one of the reasons we do what we do. So we can do what we want when we want. Just getting a glimpse of the future is motivating to keep moving forward.

For me it is important to take time like that and I think I need to set more short term goals. Most of my goals are huge and seem so far away. I like the idea of smaller goals to help keep me on track and motivated. Instead of having what I would call lazy days and feeling guilty about them I will be trying to set smaller task goals and plan more time like today. That will do two things for me.

First it will keep me motivated in the short term by giving me a sense of accomplishment. Second it will alleviate the guilt I feel when I have a day where I do not get much done because it will be planned.

As busy as I am I am beginning to really understand that one cannot just go 100% of the time all of the time. There has to be rest and organization.

My short term goal is to institute this and try to plann one day a week of rest. A day that nothing is planned and I will follow through by accomplishing all of my tasks for the week. If I miss the mark then I will adjust the following week either adding more or taking away based on how my accomplishments stack up versus what I set out to do for the week.

Day 198 – Friends, old and new!

What a great day!

I spent a great day moving forward and working on my purpose. It is really awesome to be able to share things with people that make a difference in peoples lives.

I met with an old friend from the fire service and got to meet his wife and beautiful little blonde daughter. They live on a farm in Snohomish and have ducks and chickens and goats! A farm is definitely a fun place to visit but I am not the guy to be able to handle all of the craziness that comes with that!

Had great meeting with Jesse, our new intern and talked about the future and came up with some broad planning strokes for Eve’s Apple Pie. 100 new placements by the end of the year and three new states! Look out Eve’s Moonshine is on the move!

Tonight I was able  to have some new friends come over and help Amy and I share our Advocare experience with some new people. It is so weird that we have been able to create a new business in just 2 months that is generating an extra $400- $500 bucks a month without really even trying. We literally just joined Advocare to do the 24 day challenge and get healthy. We did that and gained so much more.  Energy, fitness and extra cash in the pocket is a pretty good deal for $79.

Tomorrow we get to have dinner with one of our oldest friends visiting from Arizona. Life is pretty good right now and by the looks of things, it is only getting better!

Day 197 – Having fun is the key!

So I have not heard back from Kenny yet. Apparently Mr Chesney is not taking this partnership as serious as me.

I love to have fun. That is what drives me. If it is fun, I am there. For most people Work is not fun and there are certainly aspects of what I do that are less fun. Typically I hate to do the actual sales part of business. I will admit it is not my strongest area. In the past I have brought on people that excel in this area and it has served me very well.

Moonshine is different. Selling moonshine is fun! Seriously I had a great day today and I was in the zone! This deal with the Blazing Onion has really charged me up! I had to get to the remaining stores today and stock them up for the week and everyone was happy to see me. Why not? I am the Apple Pie guy! I made a few other stops as well. I am courting a few other chains and stopped in to Applebee’s to drop off samples to the regional director earlier and it went well. I am very excited about the prospect. Also the Rock Wood Fired Pizza is another local chain that I have been talking to.

When I walk into a restaurant to share my product it is just that. I have a great product and I am just there to share it. I do not have to “sell” the product. I simply have to pour a taste. Seriously that is my job and it is almost laughable. I get to share moonshine for a living! The product is so good it sells itself. I just tell my story and how we came to be. I tell them we are an all natural and all Washington product. We have, with the help of some very talented bartenders. put together some great recipes and I really feel like we have a great product. The branding is edgy and eye catching and it draws people in.

I have a lot of hard work ahead to get us noticed but I feel like we are on a upward swing of momentum and it is getting fun. I am so excited to see how things shape up in the next couple months. Stay tuned because this is where you will hear all about it!

Day 196 – Proud Papa!

When I create a product or business, it is like giving birth to a child.

Everything I do is to nurture it and help it grow. When I see it on a shelf for sale it is like nothing that I can describe. Today was something completely different.

I got a call a couple days ago from one of my restaurant accounts. This was the first chain that we secured. A great local growing Washington chain called The Blazing Onion. I have been working with a couple of the managers about developing a specialty drink that would be featured in the specialty cocktail, appetizer and desert menu at every table.

About a month ago the manager that seemed to be taking the lead on the project left the company and I was uncertain on how it would progress. They had created a great drink with Kenny Chesney’s Blue Chair Bay Spiced Rum, pineapple juice and Eve’s Apple Pie.

Today when I made a delivery to the 3rd Blazing Onion in as many days I realized why.

When Amy and I looked at the drink menu we saw the drink! The top of the drink specials was our drink. Kenny Chesney and Eve’s Apple Pie! There was a picture and everything! They promote it even more on what they call Moonshine Mondays!

I know I may sound silly to some of you but it was a really cool thing to see something we created in a menu. I feel like we are starting to really get some momentum and traction and I am a very proud papa!

Day 195 – Baby Steps!

Sometimes when you turn around you will see progress. 

I am a child of the 80’s. I want it all and I want it now. I grew up in a time where instant gratification was born. I saw the invention of the microwave oven, drive thru’s and the Sony Walkman. These were all things created for the person on the go and in a hurry. From there we have evolved into a society of people that cannot stand to wait for anything. How many times have you complained that a website is loading slow or you computer cannot keep up with the things you are asking it to do? Newsflash! That computer is doing thousands of calculations a second retrieving information from around the world. We get information and news from around the world now and as it happens. Anything less is unacceptable.

To put it in perspective I remember talking to my wife’s Great Aunt Helen about when the Titanic sank. She was alive and living in Kansas at the time and she said they did not even hear about it until 3 weeks after it had happened.

This acclimation to having information so fast transfers into every part of our life. Mine at least, you may be different.  I am impatient standing in a line or waiting for a text response. I also expect to see results right away too and that is my challenge now.

I work to move forward every day. It may be baby steps but I move forward. I have trained myself not to look back 14 times a day because I know it would frustrate me. So I have conditioned myself not to look back very often.

What I have found is that small things over time certainly add up. I remember hearing the concept first listening to Tony Robbins Personal Power tapes back in 1988. He said that if you make little changes every day it would add up. He used the illustration of a ship’s course. If you are steering a ship and you change course by 1° you would never notice the difference. However that 1° change in course could make you miss your destination over a long distance. Add in more small changes daily and you could literally turn around in 6 months.

Today I had a bunch of good things happen and it is a result of baby steps. As I look back over the last two months of baby steps I have actually covered quite a bit of ground. We have a Distributor and approvals pending for several major accounts. We are courting distributors in 4 states and I have major projects that are becoming complete.

I am learning patience and when I can actually see the rewards and results it inspires me to keep it up. Baby steps add up over time and just like the saying, slow and ateady will win the race.

Day 194 – Sick and tired of being sick and tired.

How many times have you said “That’s it!!”?

How many times have you decided that enough was enough and you finally did something about it? What was it? Was it someone who picked on you? Maybe it was trying to master that skateboard trick or you just got tired of failing math.

I think we have all had that moment before in our lives. I have for certain. It is in those moments where we dig deep and muster whatever is necessary to change and succeed. I roll through my days now and I hear people all day every day talk. They talk about wanting to change or things to be different but. until they decide that they have had enough they will just keep talking.

When you make a decision and decide whatever is happening is not good enough you will search out any means of getting it done. At that point you are only looking for solutions and you do not see obstacles. It is a magic time. A time when vision is clear and focused. It simply does not matter what the solution is or what it looks like or what it costs. It is simply the solution and your mind makes it happen.

“I’ve never done that before”, “I can’t afford that”, “My uncle tried that and it didn’t work”, “I don’t know how” – these are all excuses that people use to deny themselves of what they want.

The problem is that they do not want it bad enough. The excuse is more powerful than the want and until it switches they will remain where they are.

We throw around qoutes about doing the same thing over and over expecting different results being insanity and blah blah blah but, do we really understand what they mean?

Are we really ready to do what it takes to get where we want as long as it falls under God’s laws and man’s laws?

I am a Entrepreneur. I have owned and operated businesses for 20 years. I ave been working only for myself for the last 2 years. It boggle my mind that when someone asks how they could do the same and I tell them, that they scoff and turn their nose up. Really?! you want success and independence but, do not like the package it comes in?! You are kidding yourself and you are just where I used to be. It is fine. You will change when you stop kidding yourself and really want it bad enough.

When you are sick and tired of being sick and tired you will stand up and say “ENOUGH!”

The sad thing is that it has always been right there for you and like me, you probably turned it away more times than I would care to admit.

Funny thing about success . . . it just does not look like we imagined it to. It is dressy rough and looks like work. It may piss off some of those close to you and you make get mocked. They will ask you why. Soon after you succeed they will ask how and just like you at this moment, they will not believe you.

You are just not as fed up as you think you are but, it will come.

Day 193 – Just keep moving

So yes I am a Seattle native.

I have lived in the south, the deep south and been in real heat. Standing on the steel deck of a dive boat in the Gulf of Mexico, no wind on a hot August afternoon. Why the hell do I lose all energy when it gets 90° in Washington?

Seriously it is 7:30 at night and still 80° and I am drained and have been all damn day! It is hard to find motivation when I am tired. If I do not just force myself to stay busy and do work I will just sleep all damn day. Maybe I need a vacation?

HAHAHAHA! Duh! Yeah I need a vacation alright but I have not deserved on yet. Not by my standards anyway. When I go, I will go and I will leave as much behind as I can.

I feel like I am committed at this point. I mean at some point in any venture you become so vested in it that there is only one way to go, forward. To give up or stop is more painful at this point. To think about how hard I have worked and how far I have come, and just toss all of that away would probably kill me. It would break me for sure.

So even though I am tired and even though I am hot and out of energy, I will press on. My purpose motivates my desire, my desire fuels my faith, faith creates action and action fuels the purpose to keep the perpetual cycle going.

It all starts with purpose.