Searching for success has always been a focus of mine. Even as a child, I would live my life years ahead, dreaming of the days of my future.
I look at my kids today and remember myself at that age spending hours and hours sketching scenes of what my life would one day become. Fast cars and speed boats dominated my “gallery”.
I lived in a loft bedroom that my dad and I finished in the attic together when I was 11. The “gallery” were the walls of the closet housing the pull-down attic stairs which were only used when we needed to access the attic with anything larger than would fit up the small hatch and ladder that was my daily entrance. Many of those pencil sketched dreamscapes remain pinned to those “gallery” walls today, yellow and stained with age.
When Annmarie and I launched our small firm in 1999, I had big dreams then as well. I have previously shared on the podcast my past plans to grow Fivecat Studio to a national brand of residential design and construction, and here at Entrepreneur Architect, my mission to become an influential force in the profession for all small firm architects. I have never had a problem thinking big and working to pursue my goals.
Living in the present though has always been much more difficult. To this very moment, I struggle with living each day; experiencing life as it is happening. I still work and work… and work, and wait for my future to arrive.
Another year is coming to an end. A new year is only weeks away.
My kids are growing up. My parents are growing older. Every day my future is getting incrementally smaller.
The year 2015 will be my best year ever.
Starting on this day, today, and not waiting for my future to arrive, my focus is to live my life with more intention. Experience life moment by moment, choosing each day, to live a life worth living. I will continue to pursue my passions, but I will live the life that I am truly meant to live.
Do you struggle with these same challenges?
In the coming weeks, I will share more specifics on what I am planning and how you too may have YOUR best year ever.
Stay tuned.
Hello Mark,
You ARE living your future, and you are doing it well. Do not allow the scope of your imagination to diminish your enjoyment of your already achieved success. I just sent out a Thanksgiving Day email to our ArCH members and in it was this little story about perseverance:
Bob and Sarah were shipwrecked and lived in a jungle on an island in the middle of the ocean. There was nowhere for a passing ship to land to save them, and passing ships were rare. They had nothing with which to communicate with the outside world. There was no beach, just leggy mangroves all the way into the sea. Sarah said that they needed to build a beach so that they could write a message in the sand for airplanes to see and to provide a place for a rescue ship to land. Bob and Sarah used tiny plastic cups, remnants of their earlier wreckage, to dig sand from the middle of the island and carry that to the edge of the water. Bob became dispirited rather quickly, as the ocean’s waves washed away their meager piles of sand grains. But Sarah hugged Bob and said to keep at it. He did so and so did she. A week. A month. A year. Then, one day Bob stopped, after depositing his latest cup of sand, wiped his sweating brow with a forearm and watched Sarah walking back to him with her latest cup of sand. He noticed that she had a big smile. She walked to him, dumped her cup of sand near his feet, hugged him and gave him a big kiss. He smiled too. They looked around them at what they had done: they were standing on a mighty beach.
So my friend, you are in the process of each day, lifting one grain of sand at a time. Do not despair that the beach does not grow immediately completed. Good things often take some time.
Happy Thanksgiving
Thanks for the encouragement Rand. I appreciate you for commenting and sharing that story.
I see the beach before me. I am just concerned that I am missing each cup of sand : )
Yes sir. And that you for publishing this channel.
Know that you are carrying those cups of sand, each and every day. Knowing that, you will also realize that you are building the mighty beach, one grain at a time, by virtue of your diligent and focused efforts to take care of all the little things that make up most days. Once in a while, you may have the opportunity to do something grand. Know those when they appear and do them with gusto. But also know that most day’s successes (and those of all of our futures) rely on all of us doing all the small things well. Take satisfaction in that and be on the look out for the grand opportunities.
Oops. I meant: “Thank you for publishing this channel.”
This could not have been timed any better! Thank You!
Hey Joshua; you’re welcome. Thanks for your kind words.
Thanks Joshua.
Big thumbs up. I just ordered this year calendar that I plan on placing front and center in a room in my house to keep me accountable for goals; and similarly pulled a moleskine out of a moving box to start keeping a journal to keep me accountable for living in the now. Can’t wait to see what plans you have.
http://acuff.me/2014/11/1-way-double-goals-accomplish-2015/
Acuff is great. Very inspirational.
The cup of sand you have dropped each week have indeed grown, since I followed your updates and podcasts I realize I have personally seen triumph in my career. Despite the odds five cat has gone through remember that your experience is a great achievement never despair.
We are so relieved to hear from you each week and the news entrepreneur architect caries.
So please your cups never drop empty, your reward is in the plain sight do not waver.
Maache Mwiinga
Director
@Renovate Properties
Thank you Maache. I appreciate the encouragement. I will not stop.
I believe we all have an irreplaceable role in the “larger story” going on all around us and it has everything to do with the relationships we find ourselves in. I believe that is where we make the most difference and that is where true joy comes from. I don’t believe anyone on his death bed ever said he wished he had spent more time at work. I suggest a book, “Wild at Heart” by John Eldredge, it literally changed my life.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
I agree. Thank you Dick. I will add that book to my reading list. Have a great Thanksgiving.
Awesome post! Good for you Mark! Your doing a great job!!!