Start: Punch Fear In The Face; Escape Average & Do Work That Matters, by Jon Acuff
If taking the first step on the road to awesome were easy, then everybody would already be on it. The first step isn't easy, you have to get comfortable with tension. You have to be:
a realist and a dreamer
practical and impractical
logical and illogical
You have to be brutally realistic about your present circumstances and wildly unrealistic (optimistic) about your future circumstances. You have to embrace this tension and make it work to your favor. Realism doesn't prevent you from chasing your dream, it keeps you from chasing the wrong dream.
Dream Honestly
We have to be brutally realistic when we answer the question "Where am I right now?" Answering that question honestly, is critical to our career and our life. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end, with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality. Avoid the temptation to believe that being honest about your current reality is somehow not the right way to dream big. Honestly looking at where you currently are in life, turns your present into a platform you can move on from, instead of a prison that holds you back.
Be honest with your present and turn it into a friend. This won't be easy, because the world's definition of dreaming is just the opposite. People will say things like, "Step out in faith," or, "Follow your dreams and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls." Those statements are code for, "Don't make any plans," and at worst, Abandon your current commitments."
The world's definition of dreaming is incredibly selfish. It involves ignoring everyone you know and love. We start to believe that dreaming or walking down the road to awesome is an inherently selfish idea. It suggests you only have two options: abandon every commitment you have and dream, or resign yourself to an average life in order to honor your commitments.
There is another way! Honor your commitments, even while you completely change your life and the world in the process.
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Personal Notes:Where Am I Right Now? Be brutally honest, right? While I'm ready to be brutally honest, I don't think I can completely "let loose" here. I'm angry. I'm frustrated. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. I'm hurt. I regret having lived the average life, all of my life. I'm not sure when I gave up on the dreams. I did have dreams. At some point I pointed my expectations on achieving average. I just did not believe in myself. I thought that "comfortable" was enough.
I remember how it felt, a long time ago, after I spent a full day watching television. I'd never been allowed to freely watch television growing up. (I look back at the way things were in my parents house, and I realize now that that was a good thing, to not be able to be a television addict.) So to move out on my own and be able to spend a day watching television, one program after another, and do nothing else....that seemed appealing. All of a sudden I was "free". I could relax and not worry about whether I was gonna be caught chillin' in front of cable TV. (Cable TV not a norm in their house, back then.) I also remember my feeling of having wasted an entire day. It's hard to put into words, but I do remember my feelings when I realized that I had accomplished nothing. It wasn't an appealing feeling, it was kinda depressing. What I do not remember, is when that went from unappealing, to comfortable. I am angry that I allowed myself to be deluded into believing that the comfort zone was desirable.
I cannot honestly sit here and say "Where did it all go wrong?". There is a lot of good in my life. I can, however, look back at decisions that I made when I came to a "fork in the road". This type of thinking is what leads you into deceptive thinking. That is what causes you to think your life is over, or past saving, when you're in your mid-40's. This book is good for me. It's helping me to realize that it honestly is not too late to START over.
There were moments, as I was reading, where I was honestly connecting to what the book was saying. It made sense. I wanted to stop and message Mary, and tell her that "omgosh, you managed to find another book that makes sense to me." I honestly didn't think that after "The Compound Effect", that the second book could be as relatable as the first.
This journey of my life is at another "fork in the road". It isn't going to be easy to change and abandon the "comfort zone", now recognized as a self-imposed prison. Every day is a new day for me, and another chance to write the future pages and make them average or awesome. No matter what I have done in the past, I will NOT give up. Today IS the first day of the rest of my life.
Average? or Awesome?
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