Life does go by fast!
The 7 year old version of you likely spent hours and hours wandering around and pestering people out of pure boredom. As that little kid grew up those idle moments were slowly filled with friends, sports, girls (or guys), work and life. There would always be sections of the day or week not color coded on the week’s agenda but as you inched closer and closer to adulthood you struggled to place your finger on the discrepancy. I mean you were getting older which meant you were finally ready for prime time and as you found a career, a trade, or whatever, the space time continuum seemed to betray you.
Now you have hit adulthood, signified by a kid or two, a mortgage, a student loan, a bar-b-que your mom didn’t buy you, and a job doing something that doesn’t allow you to sleep until 1pm. You might have looked around and noticed that the only real thing you have in common with your new group of friends is that your wives know each other. The adult you is exponentially more responsible than the kid version, yet you can’t seem to kick the desire to eat cheese out of an aerosol can. Tick tock, tick tock, time just keeps rolling along and your days end just as fast as they started.
The time you have to spend on you has reduced to mere minutes in a day and you find it impossible to even consider the dreams you held as a kid. I mean, life hasn’t beaten you down, you are NOT miserable, but in the pursuit of survival you have eliminated a few non-essential activities. The kid version of yourself was creative. How do I know, well it’s just part of being a kid. As an adult you worry about who to vote for, and how much to spend on dryer sheets. As a kid, you worried about having fun. Growing older didn’t balance everything out, it completely tipped the scale.
Working on this Podcast has taught me a few things and the first is that it is actually possible to balance a career, a family, and a creative project. Somedays it feels like I have no time and I realize that how much time I have I truly relative. If I reflect on my youthful days rowing an inflatable down a creek after a heavy rain, or maybe bobsledding my 1989 Ford Tempo down the street then yes, yes I have no time. But if I look at life, my family, and my job a little closer... and pull back the kid filter, I am pretty much punched in the face with opportunities. Opportunities to be a better dad, opportunities to be a better husband, opportunities to be a better employee or whatever.
I guess what I am trying to say here is that freaking seize the day. Don’t allow time to be an excuse do to something creative, to do something you love. There are enough reasons out there which already keep us unnecessarily grounded and topping that chart is fear followed by money. Time, well it always ends up on that list as well. In fact, just yesterday I heard this conversation between two strangers,
Tall guy: Hey man those shoes you customized look sweet!
Young guy: Thanks, thank you.
Tall guy: Where did you learn how to do that? I mean the airbrushing looks super professional.
Young guy: I don’t know, I just do it I guess.
Tall guy: Well they look great, you considered doing it more often or trying to market yourself?
Young guy: No, I just do it now and then, I just don’t have enough time.
Yes, this was a real conversation which I attempted to replicate as best I could. The gist was that the younger guy has real talent and the tall guy noticed it. So many people spend time skirting around their dreams that they never really grab hold and give it a go. Now I am not advocating that anyone reading this should quit their jobs but simply stating that we all have a lot more time than we let on. Being creative is so important and doing this Podcast has taught me it’s possible. If I can find a way to do a Podcast you should be able to manipulate that space time continuum a bit to allow yourself to do whatever it is you want. Make time to write, to record, to dance, or draw. Make time to run, or fly, or build. Find a few moments to recite, to snap, to sketch, or to play. Know that the tiny version of yourself is out there somewhere counting on you to figure it out.
So make a plan and find a way, then get your butt out there a go create!