Some Background
This blog has been years in the making. I eventually plan to turn it into a book. But, a book needs content, and all the content in my head doesn’t do me any good. So, this blog is an exploration into where my life is, how I got here, where I want to go, and a guide for those who want to follow a similar path.
To start off, I am a spiritual guy. This is important for me to call out at the beginning. I will reference things like prayer, meditation, and even scriptural books like the Bible and the Book of Mormon throughout this journey. These are things that are central to my life, but, can be skipped or ignored if you choose to.
Additionally, I am going to do a bunch of exploration through many, many books I have read over the years. I will link to these books on Amazon.com. There are two things you should know. First, these links will often be affiliate links. That means that if you purchase something from them, I will get a small commission for pointing you to them. I will only link to things that I believe in, have read or used, and have found to be a positive influence in my life. Secondly, these links will probably all be through smile.amazon.com. Amazon Smile allows for the purchases to support non-profit organizations. My current one selected is Going Beyond Borders, a non-profit I’ve worked with for 10 years now.
Many of my ideas have come from other places. If I can I will link to them but some are so internalized that I might think they came from me. I doubt that most of my thoughts are original but know that I only am where I am because I am standing on the shoulders of giants.
Life is like climbing a mountain
There are many, many models that have been used to talk about life and our journey here. I’ve decided that I would go old school and use the idea of climbing a mountain as our final destination. I love the image of the climb taking effort and work, that sometimes we have to go back and forth as we climb, that the journey is filled with dangers and risk, and that in some situations we hit dead ends and cliffs we can’t pass and we need to re-route our path.
I recently heard an excellent story by Jon Acuff. He was relating the story of a world class skier. (I know, now I’m mixing metaphors and switching to going down the mountain, but bear with me here.) When talking to this skier he asked if he planned out his whole path when he was at the top of the hill. The response was that he didn’t and that it would be impossible. From the vantage point at the top, he can’t see all the dangers that lie in the path he might choose (cliffs, trees, etc.). Instead, he chooses to plan only 4 steps ahead at a time. He knows where he is going (where the finish line is) and the next few steps to get there, but he doesn’t know which path he might take to get there.
How will this process work?
To figure out our life, we will need to explore a number of questions. I don’t think I have them all yet, but to start I’m going to look at:
- What is my goal?
- Where am I now?
- What is the next step I need to take?
Simplify + Consistency
There are 1000 ways we can look at our lives. I’m going to take the approach that seems the most simple, and apply those changes consistently over time. If we want to actually change, it is usually harder to make big sweeping changes and have them last indefinitely. Instead, we need to make small changes that we slowly build on and watch those small changes add up over time.
by small and simple things are great things brought to pass
– Alma 37:6
Let’s start our journey!