Slow and steady wins the race

“Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all of one’s lifetime.” – Mark Twain

Much time has passed since the last post. I can't say that it has all passed as time well spent, but there has been some progress since August. The majority of the month of October was spent doing one of the things I enjoy most in the world, and that is traveling. I was fortunate enough to spend time gallivanting solo to the Pyramids in Egypt and across the Mediterranean Sea on a Carnival cruise. On the cruise, I was joined by my wife, her little brother, my dad and several of his cruise buddies. We "sailed" from Athens Greece to Malta, Italy, France and ended in the beautiful city of Barcelona Spain. A Mediterranean cruise had been on my bucket list for many years and finally the opportunity presented itself. Using frequent flyer miles made the trip affordable but the experience is impossible to quantify. 

The most humbling part of the trip was when I decided that I would walk the original marathon route from Marathon Greece into Athens. It was a little over 40KM and made for a long day of walking. I completed the course, and it only took 11 hours, 5 different asks for directions (for when wanderlust becomes wanderlost), several protein bars, two giant blisters, one meal at Everest which was a milestone in and of itself, and one treacherous stretch through a protest flush with police in full riot gear in Syntagma Square.

In the months leading up to this trip I had originally planned on jogging and only walking short portions which would have improved my "time." I decided against it though since I don't really like running and it was quite literally a marathon, not a race. The only time I jogged was when there was a car that needed a push-start. I greatly enjoyed going slow and was able to discover many interesting things along the way and cliche as it is, even stopped to smell flowers. I feel like I am ordinarily in a rush from one thing to another, and it is nice to just sit and appreciate being in the moment. Turns out a better way to improve my "time" was to enjoy the journey and finish when I was good and ready. 

Meeting Artists

Considering it has been a few weeks since last post I figured I would provide an update for those that might read this. The last time I was on I had set a goal to do one arm push ups a la Stallone in Rocky thanks to some motivation from my dad. The good news is, they are not as hard as I imagined. It looks nothing like Rocky montage, but one armed push ups have been added to the daily exercise. I have also started to incorporate a mindfulness / deep breathing thing for a few minutes afterwards.  It seems to help round out the whole mind/body connection. 

Enough about my health, let's talk about Art Attacks. We have been busy meeting with local artists here in Omaha and are beginning to form the thing that might one day become a thing. Everyone we have talked to so far has been incredibly encouraging and it is inspiring to talk to people that have such talent. We have a couple events in the works but are mainly focused on meeting new people and developing relationships with artists we have been lucky enough to be in contact with so far. We have been able to add a couple new faces to the artists page so please check out their work!

Learning to Earn

I feel that it is important to say that all of this is a work in progress. Not trying to make any excuses, but it is by design. There is a proverb that says the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time to plant it is today. As one can clearly see, this website is not nearly as beautiful (or functional) as it could be but it is better than it was yesterday, and that is improvement. I think this holds true for most things in life as well. It is easy to compare ourselves to those around us and think that we are spinning our wheels while everyone else is winning at life. Instead of being covertly (or overtly) envious of those around you, be happy with their success, and instead of comparing yourself to them, compare yourself to your past self. Are you better off than you were yesterday? If not, why not? What can you do today that you hadn't done in the past that your future self would be proud of? For me, it is putting some thoughts down on something I am working towards creating. It's not much but I do get a smug sense of accomplishment by it and it's tangible. 

I had a good conversation with my dad yesterday when I told him that I was doing twenty push ups a day in order to justify joining a gym. In the past, I would buy a membership then invariably stop going for whatever excuse I could come up with. Now, I am forcing myself to earn the right to buy a membership once I can commit to doing a set of push ups everyday.

He told me a story about how when he was in college, he went to see Rocky and was amazed by the one-armed push ups Sylvester Stallone did in the movie. He decided he would make a goal to do one arm push ups just like he did. Since they are not easy, he would start with regular push ups, then advance to one arm push ups with knees on the ground eventually culminating into real, full-on badass Stallone one armed push ups. 

Now since I am a skeptical judgmental asshole, I looked at my 61 year old dad I had to ask if he ever even did one. Of course he had. He had set his mind to it and put in the work to accomplish it. I was impressed and felt bad for even doubting at this point that he had achieved what he set out to do. I was happy that he shared that with me and decided that would be my new goal. Now that I have put my goal into text, I am accountable and am taking the steps to do it. Today isn't the day I will be able to do a one armed push up because I haven't yet put all the work in, but I am closer than I was yesterday. Someday down the line, I hope that my future self can tell my kid about the time that I set out to do one armed push ups as well. 

Whether it's one armed pushups, or creating a business, I am learning to earn.