I know I haven’t written here much lately. Actually, I pretty much abandoned this blog for quite a while. I apologize for that.
With the start of a new year + a month of new beginnings + reading some of your positive comments here over the past few weeks… it really inspired me to starting blogging again.
I’ve got a lot to share. Even though I haven’t been writing here much, don’t mistake that for lack of activity. Far from it! I’ve been real busy working on a few exciting online projects.
Coincidentally, today was (and as I type this… still is) an absolutely perfect day. It prompted me to dust off the ‘ol Potash blog and write you here.
Today is Valentine’s Day.
Now, don’t worry… I’m not going to get all mushy on you here and talk about love, how I love my wife (which I do), romance and all that. This is much deeper than that. I think that this day really crystallized to me why we all bust our backs to build a successful online business.
Here’s what happened to me today… I’ll spare you all the little details and give you the 45-second version.
I woke up this morning with my oldest son beside me in bed. Then, my wife arrives with a tray filled with breakfast treats — heart shaped pancakes, pink smoothies — the works! As the kids pile into our bed one by one, we all have a nice Valentine’s Day breakfast — some of us eating with one eye shut, half awake!
We take a some pictures, have a few laughs, give the kids a grab bag of goodies (red cinnamon hearts, greeting cards, etc).
It’s the start of a great day! And it’s still only 7:30 am.
As I walk down the hall from our bedroom to my son’s room, I take a peek out the window. I notice a blanket of snow covering the street. But also, patches of black rectangles on my neighbor’s driveways. Those patches are from cars that hit the road an hour (or more) ago. Dads getting up well before the kids and on the road for another daily commute.
Normally, I wouldn’t think anything of this sort of thing. After all, it happens everyday, right? But today was a bit different.
As I paused, looking out the window at those vacant driveways, I thought… look what I got to experience today.
What a contrast to most people I know. They are up at 6:30, on the road by 7:15 and already stressed out by 9:00. Zombies by 3:00.
I slept in (kinda), woke up with my kids jumping into my bed and got to create some great memories within 30 minutes of waking up! It was incredible.
A few hours later, the missus and I hopped in the car and surprised the kids by picking them up at school and going out for Valentine’s Day lunch.
Can you guess how many other kids there were in the restaurant? None. By the way, this was not a fancy place. All day breakfast is their specialty.
Then, when I picked up the kids after school, we had a good chat about how great this day was and what they liked best about it.
Magical.
You see, I often hit the pause button, reflect and count my blessings.
So, what’s my point here? Am I saying this to brag about how great my life is? That was not my intention.
My point is…. how badly do YOU want it?
By “it” I am referring to you living a perfect day, every day: freedom, doing what you want, having complete control over your schedule and time, not having to answer to a boss-hole or be somewhere every weekday between 9-5.
I know friends, family and even some neighbors who make sarcastic remarks to me (or behind my back I’m sure) saying things like, “Geez. Must be nice”…. or “working hard or hardly working Jason?”… or “what exactly do you do all day, anyway?”.
They don’t get it.
They never will.
Success isn’t some fluke. It’s not like you winning the lottery.
Go buy a ticket, BAM… millionaire.
Entrepreneurial success doesn’t work that way. Ok, I’m sure there are some exceptions like if you were born with the last name Trump...
Success is about sacrifice, determination, unwavering commitment and yes… even some pain.
It’s about knowing what you want… and then doing whatever it takes to get there.
Nobody here on my block knows what I’ve done to get here. (Perhaps I’ll save that for another long post).
All they see is the end result. Things look easy from that end of the table.
Yes, today is the perfect day.
It’s perfect because I have orchestrated my past activities, effort, direction and passion all towards living this very day. This day is the end result.
It’s the fruition of my doing.
I knew this day would come… even when I was commuting 90-minutes each way to work with a new born baby at home who I rarely saw.
I knew how good it would feel to be free and here for my kids, my wife, my family… whenever I wanted and whenever they needed me.
So, my question to you is…
What would your perfect day be?
How would it start?
What would happen throughout the day?
Who would you spend it with?
Replay that video in your mind often. Make it as REAL as can be.
(I’m not asking you to share the details of your absolute perfect day here in the comments… but if you want to, that would be cool. Might be a good way for you to put a commitment down in writing… digital writing… and then hold yourself accountable to stick to it).
Make THAT your motivation for continuing to build your business… dealing with criticism or negative remarks from your family and/or friends… for spending an extra 2-3 hours online each night working when other sane people are sleeping.
Work on your business. Work to make YOUR goals turn into reality.
There’s a great saying that is very relevant here (I forget who gets the credit for this one). It goes like this …
“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll never get there.”
In other words… if you have no idea what your perfect day looks like, you will never live it.
Make it happen. Starting today.
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