Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
If I have an impulse to do something I’ve always wanted to do, I see it through.
Sounds ridiculous, does it not? I’m sure you can poke holes in that, but… Well, hear me out. And this is not worldly advice–I have none of that. This is simply what I’ve learned along my path of merry memories (some not so merry).
It’s best to never wait for anything.
There’s no time for that shit. Have an idea? Do it before the passion leaks out into the gutter. That fire only flames once. If it comes back, it’s a rerun.
For that reason, patience has never served me well.
Others say it’s a virtue. Who said that by the way?
Here’s what I found on yourdictionary(dot)com:
It’s most commonly believed that the line originated from the poem, Piers Plowman, said to have been written around 1360 by English poet William Langland, about a man in search of faith. One line in the poem states that “patience is a fair virtue.
YourDictionary.com
Well, shit has changed since the 1360s, am I wrong?
Just because patience has never served me well, doesn’t mean I am impatient.
Impatience is no good. There’s a difference in my head. In my head, impatience is acting out of negative emotion–fear, perhaps, or maybe frustration.
Patience on the other hand is second-guessing if it’s really a good idea. I find that what is most important is to never regret anything. If I’m too patient, I will regret not acting faster. Now that is bad.
Regret is the enemy of life.
Good news is, due to my impulsive behaviors and addictive thought patterns, so far I have remained free of regret by doing whatever I want to do as fast as possible in the least perfect way. I don’t set out to be imperfect, but nothing is worse than perfection.
The path to perfection is grueling, and the outcome is heartbreaking–especially when it doesn’t pan out the way I hoped it would. What was the use of all that time preparing? All that detail-combing? Why’d I spend so many hours meticulously crafting that book when people generally like the crap I scribble out without thinking? When I just go with my gut, I basically have the same success… only difference is it’s way faster.
The more things I do, the better. Even if they’re done bad.
I have lost money, ruined relationships, and crashed businesses that way, but at least they all happened, and that is the important thing.
So what if life doesn’t work out the way I want it to? It should work out. That’s what I focus on: working it out.
Life is a muscle and it needs to be exercised with action.
My Grandma died last week, but I have no regrets. The idea popped into my mind one day about seven years ago that I better spend as much time with her as possible in her last decade of life, though at the time, I believed she may only have a year or two left. Lucky for me, the woman kept living and I was able to spend seven years with her, very closely, joining her for dinner, listening to her wisdom, and sharing how my life had been shaping up. I even played deadly games of bingo with her.
Had I not acted on my impulse to leave Los Angeles and relocate to New York to be close with my grandma, I may be here with regret. Had I not told her every week that I would join her for bingo, I may not be able to smile back on those times right now and relive them whenever I so choose. That is only one example.
Even when shit I wanna do seems vain, it’s important I do it, ASAP
Had I not demanded to the world I become the most famous traveler in the world, I may never have applied to The Guinness Book of World Records to break the world record for longest road trip in a single country. Had I been more patient, I may have let that feeling subside and I may not have been fortunate enough to go on TV, do interviews in magazines, see all the national parks, and visit every city in the domestic USA, and had it not been for that, I may not have settled in what I deem to be the best town in America, Beacon.
Had I asked myself: Is this a selfish goal? To become a “famous traveler”? I would have clearly answered yes. I mean, after all, who in the world would this grandiose goal better other than myself? But still, it remains one of my greatest accomplishments and sources of pride, as well as one of the best financial investments I’ve ever made. With those travel tales, I was able to write many stories and build my life as a travel writer for two years, enabling me to continue my travels to South America.
Don’t Look up to people.
People get lucky, some don’t, either way, people are only people.
Had I sought business advice from college or other people “more successful” in the world of business, I probably would’ve never set out to produce a midnight vaudeville festival in Hollywood. The numbers didn’t make sense at all, and I lost a lot of money, but I had the greatest time seeing that whimsical idea into a born event. Then I actually used that publicity I got to venture into building a marketing agency.
That mistake actually made me over a hundred grand (just took some time).
There are no models to be followed.
There are only carved paths, and nobody can carve your path. And the sand along the way will only take shape at every mishap, so to avoid mishaps would be a grave disappointment. Make many mistakes, it’s the only way.
Never question yourself
Had I not told my boss how idiotic the job I was doing was, he may not have asked me what I would rather be doing, and I may not be sitting here today as the head of digital marketing at a multi-million dollar company.
Had I stopped writing books after I realized the first one was riddled with typos–not because I didn’t see them, but because I was unaware they existed due to my lack of knowledge of grammar, I may have just let it sit on the Amazon bookshelf collecting internet dust forever. It’s silly to invest money to advertise a book in which the royalties would amount to far more than the cost of advertising it. Only a fool would do that. To sell one book may cost twenty dollars in advertising costs, and the royalty from that one book is only five dollars. To do that would be silly…
Right?
But I just wanted to see that book sell so badly, I was willing to lose some money doing it. But would you believe it actually cost me closer to five dollars to sell a book than twenty? Well, that means if I had one more book, I may have a profitable campaign. So I wrote another. And then another. And then I was offered my first speaking engagement by a woman who found my advertisement.
I gave my first speaking engagement to the Indiana Department of Child Services.
Whatever You love to do, do as much of it as possible.
Things happen in random ways and to predict the best way to do something with math or logic usually keeps me in a very dull place. Just fucking jump in and if you find the excitement you desire, yes!
If not, oh well. Better to know you don’t love it than to not love it.
Had I not gone on that silly sober rafting trip, I may never have met my fiance, a woman who completes me. Without her, I am lonely, drifting, scared. With her, I can accomplish feats that require a stable foundation; a person I never envisioned I would become: stable. Had I not decided to give up random sex with transactional partners, I would never have found the stability that allows me to springboard to every new endeavor.
What I learned this week, as I have learned from many weeks, is if I am fortunate enough to have an impulse–take it. Don’t be patient.
Jumping into a cold lake always works out, even when it doesn’t.
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