"Do it with joy, or don't do it at all."

Three things to talk about in this first post of the new year: The quote in the title, vulnerability, and the main reason I actually started this thing.

So first, "Do it with joy, or don't do it at all." That is my quote of the year. Last year I had a word of the year, often I have vision boards, this year it's one simple quote that I can apply to basically all the things. If I am not entering into a relationship, a conversation, a work project, a meal, a workout without some sort of joy then I need to rethink why I'm doing that thing. We waste so much of our lives doing shit out of obligation or tradition or because we're unconsciously moving through the day doing what we've always done and I don't want to do that anymore. I want to choose my life and I am choosing a life of joy.

Second, can we make it a collective goal to start talking about real shit? I am by far the worst offender of this, so please don't think this is judge-y towards anyone else. I owe a lot of people in my life some very hard conversations. Last month, for whatever reason (holidays, excessive booze, being fed up with my own crap?), I started opening up to people more about things going on in my life and what I'm currently struggling with, and guess what? All those people had a lot of REALLY BIG THINGS that they were struggling with too that they had been silent about. This is just fucking dumb. Why the hell are we all suffering in silence?? What I realized is as soon as you start talking about these things, it's no longer suffering. It's living. Living isn't meant to be butterflies and rainbows. It's hard, and we all have shit, most us have really big shit, so why aren't we connecting over that and building real relationships over something other than drinks and gossip? I spent a lot of time last year thinking I didn't have "people" and that I was pretty alone. I have people, a lot of them, and phenomenal ones at that, I just had to let them in.

And last but certainly not least, this whole website/blog/whatever it is I'm doing. . . One of the main reasons for this is to share my wealth of knowledge about building a business (or multiple) from the perspective of a real person who started with basically nothing. I honestly can't even say I started with a dream, because all of this kind of just happened. As things have kind of just happened though, I realized I'm actually really fucking good at building something from nothing and getting others to buy into whatever crazy idea I have. And while my current businesses seemingly have nothing to do with one another, what they do have in common is my ultimate goal of helping others figure out how to build a life they are in control of and love and choose. Life be design, not default. So this website/blog/whatever at some point will include coaching options, e-books, and whatever other random thing I decide I want to add. In the mean time, if there's something you think I can help you with, let me know! Despite what the voices in my head are constantly telling me, I actually know a lot of really useful things and especially if you're trying to build a business and are just starting out, I can definitely help.