Happy Sunday, fellow humans! I'm sitting here this morning having coffee looking at the beach (as I do most mornings), but reflecting a bit more then usual. My morning routine is far from routine, but I like to use some of my wake up time to remind myself that we're lucky to be here, and all the hard work and chaotic times were worth it. We definitely have worked very hard to be here and have accomplished a lot in a short time, but for once, I'm looking more forwards then backwards. Which strangely has me looking backwards as well- in this case to when we originally set our goals and assessing how the journey has been. I don't believe I've ever written about it but I'd like to share this part of our journey:
Just over 4 years ago my wife Caity and I left our Maryland lives behind to move to California to start on a new adventure in our lives in hopes of a fresh start moving forward. Sounds like a fairy tale, right? It gets better- we bought 1 way plane tickets 2 weeks before we left, brought with us only what we could fit into 2 backpacks, and headed to Cali with no jobs lined up, no car, and no for sure place to live. We put all out ambition into Plan A and never once considered a back up plan. Many of the people we knew and worked with back east had told us how badly we would fail at this idea, but we didn't need anyone's approval to live our dreams. And much of that negativity is what we wanted to get away from in the 1st place anyways. We landed in Santa Ana, destined for Huntington Beach- a place I had visited a few years earlier checking out an art school and fell in love with the area. We got our rental car and headed out on to the roads of Orange County to check out the area while the sun was still up. Later that evening we met some people via a Craigslist ad looking for roommates that we would end up living with for a few months and becoming great friends. Our 1st week here both Caity and I landed jobs- me at a local hot rod shop as an apprentice, and Caity at Disney Land. Both pretty sweet jobs, I think! The same week I bought us a 1974 Vw Beetle as our everyday transportation which added quite a bit to the fun of life (this Vw was in no way in concourse condition, but never left us stranded). This was just the beginning of our fresh start.
I'll share what progressed next in another reflection post, but what I wanted to really get at is that we were able to hit the ground running here despite what people were telling us. In our 1st week here we got right in to the groove of life and have been working hard ever since. Our lives are quite a bit different now, but the route is commitment to success, just as it always has been. I'm not saying quit your job to become a rock star (which you are more then welcome to do), I'm saying you can be anything you want to be if you are truly driven by it. No matter what, there is going to be a lot of practice, trial and error, new people, new bosses, new everything- you just have to stick with it with your goal in mind. It's easy to get distracted or discouraged when you see how well someone else is doing or you don't see progress as fast as you'd like, but life is a journey- you have to see it all the way thru.
And to digress to my original statement about looking forward today rather then looking back (although I've now spent a lot of time looking back)- With such a fun journey to get here, I am super excited about what is ahead of us. While our goals were clear, we still could have never predicted where it would ultimately land us. And now as we've met so many of our biggest goals, it's time to create new seemingly impossible goals to work towards.
One of my favorite quotes of all times about success, and is something I agree with very much:
"There's no reason to have a Plan B because it distracts from Plan A"
-Will Smith
Have a great Sunday, everyone! Feel free to share some of your stories with us- we always love to hear about the journeys of others!
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