While designing a bio sheet for a renowned doctor recently it really hit me – some people spend their whole lives going toward a career and then if / when they achieve it, live the rest of their lives working in that career.
That's very respectable. In fact, I applaud the discipline and fortitude it must take, especially in this instance, for a doctor to go through an extra couple decades of post-graduate schooling and internships and climbing-the-ladder jobs in order to, in their 40's, make the big bucks in a private practice.
I thought about the routine though – one would need to be pretty "J" (in the P / J brain type quadrant) in order to be able to handle the routine of the same hours, same drive to work, same schedule.
I guess most of the 9-5 world does that though. Wow, this is a really deep observation, I know. Bear with me.
I have nothing negative to say about all that. Some of you are waiting for me to – but c'mon, stop. Everyone is free to do what makes them happy. Just like I'm free to go "man, that's crazy, how can anybody live that…repetitively?" :)
It was just kind of like a jolt of cold water for a moment thinking about the pathway of becoming a doctor, and what it really meant.
I literally stared at the person's picture and thought, "Do you ever have the urge to, say, go skydiving? What memories are the highlights of your life to this point? Will you go to a new year's eve party with a select group of friends in an exclusive neighborhood with a view, and chatter about current events over the tinkling of wine glasses? Someday, will you go on a cruise to the Bahamas for a week, and get really sunburned? Do you ever wonder what else is out there in this big world we live in?"
I just sat and wondered those things.
Not critically, just…wondering.
I mean, the person went to like 4 universities and worked in like 7 hospitals in 3 different states! And I'm thinking that where they're at now is their end goal, maybe, but it took so long to get there…(but I am just assuming).
But let's say it is. Let's say they are living the dream, and leave them there, happy, for a moment.
Now let's look at me ("oh, his favorite topic!" the smartasses say).
I'm still in my 20's. Since I left college some 7ish years ago, I've – man. Done a lot of stuff. Been a lot of places. Had a lot of crazy experiences.
None of them for an extended period of time.
True, I'm not wired "that way". In the, "give me routine and a white picket fence and 2.5 kids plus a golden retriever" way (although there's, again, nothing wrong with any of those things, especially golden retrievers).
But I get antsy if I don't have trips to Pluto to dream up and plan for, you know? I need to go explore. I need to challenge my mind with new things, go and have new experiences, push my body to its limits in new situations.
In some ways, though, I HAVE been on a path similar to the doctor's.
Face Level and Seamless Design have been in my life since I was 14 and 20, respectively (although I guess from looking back on my life Seamless has always been there).
And I'll dare say I have put as much time and energy into them as any graduate of 4 medical schools puts into their studies and work. Probably more.
And yet, I'm not bored with them, or ready to retire, or looking to find another career path.
Just like the doctor is probably not looking to do anything other than be a doctor.
It's who they are. And if they're really talented at it and passionate about it, probably who and what they were born to be.
I'm still refining that for myself. It's been fascinating to watch over the years as so many of my ideas have morphed into others and disappeared altogether only to reappear in some other format.
But they always come back better, more evolved.
I've missed a few, sure. Some golden opportunities. Mostly for lack of funding, or just not being in the right place at the right time, and other people who had also plucked the idea out of the universe brought it to life before me.
That happens. I'm never going to be bitter about that – I missed, they connected, the idea lives and people benefit from it. It's in the past, and it doesn't make me cooler or do anything for my ego because I had the same idea but failed to accomplish anything with it.
If I dwell on that, in the past, it makes me a fool.
So I move on, with the ideas I still do have, yet unbirthed, all my own. And I keep working on their evolution. Breathing life into ideas that could change the world.
Or at least bring a little ray of sunshine to a few people, a few places, for a few moments.
I love the analogy of a plane constantly correcting its course. If you chart a plane going from point A to point B, it's like a wave, back and forth and back and forth. As close to a straight line as possible, but naturally drifting and correcting.
I'm the same way – I'm not a machine (yet – the singularity might be coming though!), I'm a natural creation. So I can get off target, and I have to correct my aim.
I can only do that when I know what my goal is.
I don't care anymore about point A once I'm on the journey, I don't live in the past. It was nice, it fueled me up and launched my flight, but I can't focus on getting to point B if I'm stuck thinking about point A – either how nice or how shitty it was.
Nor can I get distracted by all the sights – the snowy mountain peaks, the dancing cottonball clouds, the endless glittering of lights far below…"hey, another city, let's go check it out!"
No. Point B. That's where I'm going – so focus!
I was inspired by Michael Jordan to "fill in the details" in my life. So that when I or anyone else steps back and looks at the whole, big picture that is Joshua David Galt III, it'll be a masterfully designed image.
Because the details are my product, so the little moments combine to make the sum of my life.
In another decade or 2, I want some kid to try and make a bio sheet on me, and to condense the really marketable parts into bullet points, as I'm doing for the doc. (People don't want to read the full bio, they want to scan for the highlights.)
And when that happens, I want that kid to run out of space on the page. To not be able to use a readable font small enough to fit all the highlights of my life to that point, onto one page.
It's not a comparison with anybody – I respect that Doc I mentioned earlier for who they are and what they do and their dedication to the perfection of their craft.
I think though that I'm wired and was placed on earth to experience and create variety.
It's funny how a lot of things have been percolating the past few days.
Talking with a friend about "life lists" – I, uh, I'm not sure? I don't really have one, I mean, I'm living, isn't every day about going after the things on the life list? I don't want a life list, I don't want to cross things off, what happens when the list is done?
I want to take the opportunities that come, to rise above the storm on a jetstream, or plow right through the middle of it. There's always an experience to be had.
Sure, I have a few things I'd like to do, but very few of them for their own sake. Mostly, they all are parts of a bigger whole that I'm keen to accomplish.
Travis Pastrana – I saw a blurb about what he's going to do on New Year's Eve for the Red Bull New Year No Limits thing. Crazy, jumping a car onto a barge in the middle of a lake.
That'll go along with his other bullet points: the first
double backflip in moto, jumping out of an airplane with no parachute…
And snowboarder / skateboarder Shaun White, practicing new tricks over and over and over in the half-pipe that Red Bull built him in the backcountry of Colorado. Able to focus, attempt never before done tricks, evolve the sport.
I think every athlete has different motivations for dreaming about a Red Bull sponsorship, but the way they approach pushing boundaries at any cost is legendary – what athlete wouldn't want that golden marketing machine behind them?
And yet, what athletes have the discipline to focus enough to make Red Bull's support worthwhile?
What humans in general can be at the pinnacle of their profession, as is Kobe Bryant in basketball, and still spend their offseason (vacation) getting up at 5:30AM every day to go work on their skill, develop new skills, push their prowess to a different level?
"Somewhere, someone is practicing right now…and when you meet him head-to-head in competition, he will beat you."
So in a way, the doc's straight-line course from A to B on the resume was an inspiration – though not in the details, definitely in the metaphor.
Know who I am. Know WHY I am.
And then
Be.
Do.
Have.
Give.
But it has to be in that order. Because that's the only way it works. (Most people get it all mixed up and backwards, thanks to altruism and religious error…)
And I only need to focus on the first step – the "being".
When I am what I am supposed to be, I do what I was put on earth to do;
in doing, I accomplish, and in accomplishing, I am rewarded with my earnings;
in reward comes the ability to obtain whatever goods, services, and experiences that I wish to have and enjoy (and this is good and right, because I earned them);
in having, also, is the ability to give, to whom and for whatever reasons I so choose to give.
But it all starts with me, working on the Be.
I've had that little 'mantra' if you will, for many years, but I've never shared it, primarily because over the years I've been figuring out for myself what it means.
It, along with a myriad of other things (among them "FOCUS" and "KEEP MOVING"), was written on my whiteboard in my office for a long time. As a reminder.
Heading into 2010, the evolution of all my ideas and crazy plans is coming to life in a concise entity, and I've never been more excited about living.
If a doctor can happily make the same 20 minute drive in traffic everyday, to the same medical facility, to do the same highly sought-after procedures…for years and years and years…
Then I can definitely be inspired beyond belief about waking up with the sun wherever on earth I may be, chasing the joy in each day that I live, cutting out all unnecessary distractions, firing up the internal engines, and focusing on BEing.
Be me.
Do what I do.
Have – and unashamedly enjoy – the rewards that I earn.
Give hope, the most valuable commodity, to others willing to look inside themselves, take responsibility for their lives, and then jump…
into
Be.Do.Have.Give.
Life.
Here's to living every little moment fully, beautifully, and from rightly-ordered motives, in 2010.
Josh Galt
Casa de Piedra, Costa Rica
PS – don't forget your Creator – He might have a thing or two to offer in the way of helpful advice on who you are and why you are…