If I have the choice between getting something extremely important to me done or getting a good night’s rest, I’m choosing to get things done. I want to use every minute I have to make valuable things happen. I love to work constantly on what I think is valuable. I find when I’m not happy about something, it’s because I am not working enough. Now, when I say work on things, things can be anything…a business idea, family, having fun, or whatever. When it’s time for a vacation and I haven’t planned something that is exactly what I want, what my wife wants and what will instill curiosity and verve in life for my kids, I’m pissed at myself for not taking the right amount of effort on something so important. Or, if I am in Yosemite, one of the greatest climbing areas in world, and I haven’t been properly trained at multi-pitch climbing, I’m thinking, “damn it!”
I’ve mentioned vacation examples, but it is extremely important to bust ass when it comes to work because work enables life. You may or may not have to work, but more than likely it was someone before you busting ass to create that for you. If you aren’t working on something, then you need to make good shit happen and fast. I want to work on what makes me interested and enthralled. In order to do that, I need to come up with what should be done because I like coming up with ideas that work and driving them through to done. That excites me. Being responsible is exciting. It requires a lot of effort to do this. You have to walk uphill with a heavy pack and influence people to enable or help you. But, getting what you want takes work. If you don’t work for yourself, you will be doing what others want to get to done. It’s actually a much harder life if you aren’t working on what you want. It’s a much harder path to follow. It may feel easier, but not when you look back and ask yourself if you have really lived the way you wanted to. If your answer is no, there is nothing worse than a wasted life. Doing what you want may seem like work in the beginning, but it changes. It changes to not feeling like work. That’s the ticket.