It's 9AM
I guess it’s how you look at it, he said.
I believed him.
Even though sometimes it felt like all evidence to the contrary.
Perspective is a unique opportunity.
Lucky to get up, lucky to live where I do, lucky to have a job, lucky to be able to use my mind.
Every now and then.
Roof over head, food in the fridge, AC that works when the summer sun decides to fry.
Very lucky.
There is a whole world out there that is missing that.
Some or all.
It depends on what you believe in.
And maybe on some of what you believe.
It’s tough being an unbridled optimist knowing that it’s all going to turn out okay when life decides this is the month to test you.
I know it’s all going to be okay because nobody is getting out of here alive.
Sad hard truth.
And how I spend my time, how we spend our time between this moment and the everlong dirt nap is a choice.
Even on days when the choices feel hard.
Maybe that’s the problem with optimism.
Sometimes it gets confused with rose colored glasses, which chooses to see the good in the world.
Chooses to think people are good and helpful.
Even when evidence seems to indicate the opposite.
Not just news, but watching.
Observing.
That’s when the Memes make sense.
Cabins in the woods, neighbors miles away and good books lining the walls.
Peace.
Quiet.
But…
Nothing gets done in the cabin because we’re too busy fishing for food, and tending the garden, and peaceful cabins still have bears, and mountain lions, and wolves.
And gentle deer that eat the garden.
If the crops don’t grow and the fish don’t bite, you go to bed hungry.
In other words, a whole new set of problems.
Or things to deal with.
Perspective.
Which is why I celebrate so many milestones.
Some of them are huge!
Some are little, because I learned once that the little W’s get added up in the win column and create momentum.
Momentum equals action and action equals more opportunity.
The problem with a lot of “action” is it looks like hard work, or a lot of work.
Like Amazon.
I have/had a perspective that if you put me in any job, I’ll outwork most of the people around me, and move up.
A SEAL said it better than I ever could.
“Give me an aisle at Home Depot, and it will be the most squared away one you’ve ever seen in a week. In three weeks, I’ll have four aisles to manage. In three months, the store, and in three years, the District.
Because I will outwork anyone and get noticed.”
A formula that has never failed me throughout my career.
Until now.
And now, I’m a little older, and wise enough to know I’m a lot less wiser than I should be.
Hard lessons should teach hard truths, but as stubborn as I am, those truths don’t always sink in.
I got told I’m “fantastic” at everything I do, at work.
Which is a truth, but not hard to do.
I work with a bunch of people who…
Have a different perspective than I do.
Easy to outwork them.
But I can’t grow with this company, not in this role, not that I even want to.
Which are also truths.
My perspective is to grow outside the company.
And it’s happening.
Just not fast.
Or as fast as I would like for a man with simple needs for simple solutions.
Which makes me wonder.
Are my needs really that simple, or am I letting my optimism get the best of me?
Or is my perspective skewed?
My grandparents were pragmatic people.
Tough to dream growing up in the depression, dirt farmers scraping out a living in tiny homes that look like they belong in Memes.
I learned hard work from them.
My parents were dreamers.
Mom always searching for some better life west of anywhere, and my Dad chasing rock and roll dreams.
Until their worlds crashed up against reality, but by the time that happened, I was already infected with it.
Dreaming and planning.
Combined with the capacity for work, it seems like the perfect combo.
It is the perfect combo.
For what, I can’t yet say.
Last week, we hit a milestone on this daily newsletter.
One hundred delivered to over ten thousand subscribers.
Over 5000 people open and read it every day.
Five or more organic subscriptions per day, which means growth.
Just not big enough. Yet.
Last week we hit a milestone on Youtube.
622 on a target of 1000 subscribers, which tells the algorithm to show the videos to more people.
Slow and steady growth this year.
Books added to Barnes and Noble, and Kobo and available at libraries across the country.
Added to international markets and more planned so we are everywhere all at once by Christmas this year.
And more, going on in the background and behind the scenes, work being done in spurts and rushes on series and new things.
All so slow due to time, and lack of enough resources, and life throwing curve balls.
Because when you don’t live in a cabin in the woods all alone, people with their own lives and agendas and priorities pull at your attention.
Nothing happens fast enough.
Maybe that’s one of the reasons they call it “the grind.”
Because it feels so slow sometimes.
From my perspective.
Are you an optimist, a pessimist, or somewhere in between?
A FEW WINS:
SNAFU - a free sci fi audiobook
Planet 9 - a sci fi adventure
This 9 second clip got 2000 views overnight!
AND
The Center Cannot Hold: A Ray Elkins Thriller
An Ignorant Witch (Witch Kin Chronicles Book 1)
A Life for a Life: A Mystery Novel
Optimistic pessimist ... see all that can go wrong, then have a plan for it, so that one can sit back and enjoy the ride. Also, it means it is better to be wrong than right.
Problems are opportunities dressed in overalls.
The optimist says this is the best of all possible worlds, the pessimist says that is the unfortunate truth.
My motto is hope for the best, expect the worst. I have plans for both possibilities as well as a range of intermediates.