It's Never Too Late, Or Too Early, To Do Your Bigger Things...
And other insights from Benjamin Button
I’ve had various reactions to this writing project. From support and kind words (THANK YOU!🙏👊) to a friend asking if I’m worried about “being seen” and “putting myself out there”.
Great question. The truth is, YES.
Yes, I am worried and am insecure about what my high school friends, my university friends, my current friends, my business colleagues, my clients, and my family (and probably some other subcategories of people I’ve forgotten…) will think. Yes I have a fear of being judged, a fear of people disagreeing with me and criticizing me (which isn’t hard considering I write about Bitcoin every week and it’s so totally misunderstood), so why do this?
First off, I’m doing this because I feel, for some strange, unknown and unexpected reason, called to do this. By no means does that guarantee success. But I believe that when we are called to something, when we are called to our Bigger Things, we need to step into them.
What are you being called to?
Second, I’m writing about things that I feel very passionate about and a message that I feel I need to share with others and the world. If for no other reason than hopefully one day my boys will read these. So when I feel insecure about this, I focus on the why and purpose and in helping serve others instead of myself and my fears.
Who and how are you being called to serve?
We all face moments like this in life and it comes down to whether or not we will choose to do our Bigger Things. When called to our Bigger Things, a calling that we’ve tried to ignore but it just keeps recurring and coming back, over and over and over again, at those times, we have a decision to either:
Live in fear of what others will think of us and take no action, or
We can step into fear, take the plunge, run our own race and pursue our Bigger Things and live out the calling on our lives.
I absolutely love this scene from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button:
“For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.”
No one gave me permission to start this writing project. No one came and said, “okay Brad, you’re approved now, you can do this”. Nope. I just chose, on one random day in April 2024, just like that… snap of my fingers… I am a writer.
Life is like this, there are no rules to this thing. No one gives you permission. We all start out as amateurs in any endeavour and over time we improve. We are never really ready to start anything. Stop waiting to be ready. You just decide you are going to do something, and transition from theory to practice.
Stop waiting to be ready. Stop waiting for someone to give you permission. Do your Bigger Things. Now. 😁
As I would always tell the boys going into hockey tryouts, the only thing we can control is our effort but not the outcome. The same is true for any endeavour, the only thing we can control is our commitment and effort. For this writing project I’m going to do this for 52 straight weeks. I’m going to go 52/52.
That choice doesn’t necessarily make me a good writer 🤣 (Candace tells me that I need to stop starting sentences with “And” 🤦♂️… Look, I’m an Engineer not an English major) … but it does, in fact, make me a writer.
We do our work and we really have no idea what the “fruits” will be.
Thy right is to work only, but never to its fruits; let the fruit of action be not thy motive, nor let thy attachment be to inaction." - Lord Krishna (The Bhagavad Gita - 2.47)
I have chosen to write and I may be a great writer or a terrible one or somewhere in between. There is a big difference between theory and reality. There is only one way to find out where this is all headed and that is through action.
Here are 5 things that helped me take action:
Daily Morning Time - My morning routine involves getting up at 4:59am daily in order to have time to read something inspirational, pray, journal, and workout. It is through that time that I have discerned my next steps.
Curate Your Friends & Ideas - The most profound ways that your life will be different in 5 years is based on who you hang around with and the information and ideas you are exposed to. So curate both. Find people who will support you in your Bigger Things, not create resistance, criticize you and tear you down. Several people in particular encouraged me to pursue this project and for that and to them I’m extremely grateful. It’s hard to do things on our own, hang around with people who want to help you achieve your dreams. 🙏
Overcoming Resistance - Steven Pressfield’s book The War of Art correctly asserts that any time we pursue a calling in writing, painting, music, art, film, any entrepreneurial venture, any diet or health regime, and on… we face many forms of RESISTANCE. And he provides antidotes for combating and overcoming resistance. The book was instrumental in me finally moving forward on this.
One Specific Form of Resistance - I’ve written about this previously, do not take the feedback personally, whether positive or negative. If my writing doesn’t resinate with others, if they disagree with my ideas, that’s okay. And don’t get overly emotional about the positive feedback either. My hope is that my posts are meaningful or valuable to someone and if they are, that awesome. But either way, the key is to not take the feedback too personally, just keep going.
Find Someone Who Has Already Done It - This is one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received and I’ve applied it many times to many contexts. Brian Tracy said “The simple truth is that whatever it is that you want to do, someone (in fact, many someones) has done it before… If you do what other successful people do, you eventually get the same result that they do”. For this writing project specifically, my “someone” is Kristina God and I signed up for Kristina’s Online Writing School.
Adventure Together: Make Some Plans!
Every week, as I do my weekly planner for the week ahead, I try to plan an “Adventure Together” with my family, with my friends and a date night with Candace. Each of them don’t all get planned every week, but because I am intentional about them, they tend to happen most weeks. It doesn’t need to be fancy or expensive, a family walk in the woods with the dog, games night, sitting by the fire on the patio. Just intentional time with the friends and family we love.
It’s probably true that that 16 year old boys don’t really want to hang out with their parents 🤷♂️… so we very intentionally plan activities that the boys and their friends will love because we want to be around them and their friends as much as possible. It’s the reason that we always say yes to sleep overs at our place, it’s why we have a surf boat, it’s why we plan epic travel adventures to ski and kiteboard, and why we let the boys bring friends on pretty much every trip we go on! Last weekend we put the boat in the water and we were fortunate to have a calm day and got out for a surf. It was me, the boys, plus three of their best friends. Epic day on the lake!
What intentional plans can you make with your kids, spouse/partner and friends for the week ahead?
In the words of Benjamin Button, it's never too late, or too early, to do your Bigger Things! Take some action this week!
Brad 💕👊