What do you do when it’s the middle of the winter and you’re on a boat in Belize, cruising around the crystal blue oceans with some awesome people? You get some introspective discussions about life, passion, and why you do what you do.
“Why aren’t we doing the things that we know we should be doing?”
That is the question that Martin McGovern, Rajiv Nathan, and I discussed last January. Between snorkeling and exploring, we found some time to sit down and talk about our experiences and try to understand what stands in our way. We all know what we want to be doing, but so many things seem to get in the way.
One of the things we kept repeating was not to get bogged down in the “shoulds”. There comes a time when you have to stop listening to the voices that have been engrained in your head (which can be everyone from your well meaning parents to your high school guidance counselor to your cool roommate) and start listening to yourself. Just you alone with your thoughts and inner desires.
It feels selfish to focus on you, but how can you really focus or help anyone else when you aren’t honest with yourself?
We also discuss partner dynamics (I love to fire people up and get the creative juices flowing…thank you Jared for making sure we have a dose of reality and can actually execute!), how to live in the moment but also plan for the next, and letting go of the expectations that bombard and stifle us.
Sound Bites
“Observe yourself, the market you want to go into, just the state of the entire economy. And push people to follow their passion, their calling, what they actually want to do.”
“We’re working in the system designed with the survivalist mindset.”
“We have probably been knocked down more times than people haven gotten into the ring in the first place. But each time you get knocked down you find a way to get back up.”
“What I don’t know a lot of people understand is that you do have to be selfish first in order to be altruistic. If you don’t know who you are how are you going to serve anyone else? If you don’t love yourself how can you love anyone else?”
Photo credit: Courtney Slade
