Monday, October 14, 2013

It's Not About Having Time, It's About Making Time




That's one of our mottos here at The Outdoor Report. One reason we use that motto is to encourage people to MAKE TIME to go fishing, or hunting, or camping or hiking. Whatever way you connect with the great outdoors, we hope you are able to make it a priority in your life. Furthermore, we believe if we wait for there to be ENOUGH time, we will miss out.

Another reason I chose that as a motto is to remind myself of my own journey. Whenever I catch myself whining about not having enough time to do the things I NEED to do, or WANT to do, I remind myself; "IT'S NOT ABOUT HAVING TIME, IT'S ABOUT MAKING TIME." Or as Fred Smith put it; "Great men never complain about the lack of time. Alexander the Great & John Wesley accomplished everything they did in twenty-four-hour days." That's it, every single day is exactly 24 hours long, and it is the same for every single person. On top of that, we don't know how many days we get! I for one, believe life is way too short, & precious, to be wasted... waiting... stuck in "The Waiting Place" as Dr. Seuss describes in the book Oh, the Places You'll Go!, waiting for something to change.

We tend to prioritize our TO-DO list according to importance. For me, simply trading hours for dollars didn't seem that important. Don't get me wrong, I like money, A LOT! And having worked in the financial services industry for nearly a decade (and what a decade it is was), I understand the importance of money. I too have bills to pay & mouths to feed, but there has to be more... doesn't there? After all, this crazy thing called life isn't a dress rehearsal. I also came to the conclusion that if I was pursuing my passion, I just might end up with more money than if I kept working jobs I didn't enjoy.

Keep in mind, it's not as if I just came home one day & told my wife I quite my day job. Years of preparation & sacrifice went into this transformation. Like any business venture, it started as ideas. I've always believed there is no such thing as million dollar ideas, there are only million dollar actions, so I went to work. I put pen to paper, literally. I wrote my ideas down, set goals, created timelines, wrote a crappy business plan, talked with people who were smarter than me, asked for advice, spent little, saved lots, payed down debt, drove crappy cars, changed my timeline, acquired equipment, booked gigs, worked hard, acquired more equipment, worked harder, hired a business coach, wrote a better business plan, booked more gigs & then, finally, I made THE DECISION. I decided I did not want to be on my death bed & look back on life & say "I wish I had."

"Dost thou love Life? Then do not squander Time; for that's the stuff Life is made of."- Benjamin Franklin

or as we like to say here at The Outdoor Report; "It's not about having time, it's about making time."

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