Year29

Year29, not just a catchy hashtag. Year29 is the idea behind this entire website/blog/outlet. If you read my first post, I’m pretty sure that I made it clear who this website was for, me. While that might seem out of the ordinary hopefully, I can shed some light on why that is the only way that it can be. I recently hung out with about twelve guys over a meal of grilled wings and a plethora of sides, the topic of discussion for the night was motivation. See, there are so many things in life that we can do, good and bad with the correct and incorrect motives. I got into a car accident the day before Halloween and whilst dealing with a bummer of a brain injury it gave me time to pause and do some reflection.

I realized that I was struggling to follow through on things that I had said I was going to do or commitments I signed up for. Part of this was because my short term memory was completely shot, but I started to come to terms that I have not been the greatest with follow through in general. This really came to light in my job because in sales, follow through is everything and you don’t get many do-overs. What I started to realize was that I was wasting a significant amount of time because I felt like I didn’t know the “right” thing to do next. I was using this as an excuse to watch YouTube videos to fix my golf swing or do some random house project that I might tackle in the next five year, or binge-watch some tv show that I had to catch up on. In reality, I was escaping to that realm of learning because I didn’t have to face the fact that I wasn’t accomplishing anything because I felt like I was accomplishing things by learning.

I made some changes to counteract the concussion and after about three months I turned a significant corner. What I also noticed is that I was gaining a lot of momentum now that I had established some new habits and gotten rid of some old bad habits. I deleted Facebook and Instagram off of my phone. I made an effort to wake up before my three kids (five, three, and one, all boys) in the morning. I started writing everyting down and journaling every single morning in an attempt to get my thoughts flowing and out on the paper.

I started to notice that my follow through, and output began to increase. Not only that, but my boss made a few comments on changes he has seen and my wife also told me that she noticed a complete difference and appreciated all that I was doing around the house and for the family.

This leads to my Year29 revelation. Part of my morning routine after journaling was to read the bible. I started at the beginning like most ambitious bible readers tend to do. There must be something about making sure that I was reading everything without the chance of missing something. Anyway, I was praying one morning and reflecting on all the changes that I had made while also thinking about my birthday coming up. I had just got done listening to a book on habits that has a section on when your habits plateau and I was starting to think about what I could do to challenge myself. I feel like I heard the Lord say that this would be a year of zero inputs for me.

Let me take a quick detour. If that language–feel like I heard the Lord say..– is strange to you, don’t be weirded out. I believe that we as Christians have a Father who loves us and wants to communicate with us all the time. If you have ever gotten an impression or felt like you should call someone and found out they really needed that or had some “coincidence” that happened that you couldn’t have planned for, I would call that the Lord communicating with you. I can say a lot more on that, but I had an impression that I should make a small comment about that–see what I did there? 🙂

Anyway, back to it. Zero Inputs. Not only was this a challenge, but this seemed like a nuclear option. I can’t count the number of shows that I have seen every single episode on. I have probably a dozen podcasts that have over 300 episodes that I have listened to every one of. My audible list has over four pages to it. Let alone the youtube subscriptions, hours spent on Facebook and Instagram….okay, I guess I am starting to see the benefit here. Seriously though, the level of inputs in my life was off the charts. Every time I was in the car, I would be listening to some educational piece of content. When the kids would go down I would watch or listen to something while cleaning up or just hanging out, to beat a dead horse here, there were a significant amount of constant inputs.

So what then?

Output.

Flipping the valve. Output over input. Creation over consumption. Not wasting mindless hours obsessing over friends and acquaintances who post only their highlight real while I have FOMO looking at my behind the scenes. Being comfortable in the silence. Letting my mind wander and think and try new things, not just research them.

So what does this all mean? I’m not sure, but I put $100 from my birthday to hosting this website to give me a place to do precisely this; create. I plan to have videos and write-ups on everything from golf to cooking to DIY projects and anything else I feel like. I plan to write general ponderings to keep the flow of information out. Above all else, I plan to stay motivated by myself and not you. This was a very long post to get there, but this is why this website is not for you. It can’t be. If my motivations are external, then I am at the mercy of something that I can’t control. That’s why I also don’t want to constrain or challenge myself with a posting schedule because I don’t want this to ever turn into an obligation. This website exists simple to facilitate the output of ideas, and that is good enough for me, which is precisely the point.