Each of these dynamic, funny, smart, and talented young men have left behind families of their own. They had dreams they never fulfilled – cars they never raced, songs they never sang.

I guess it’s about time to start my bucket list, and start marking things off the list. When I reach my expiration date, I don’t want to leave behind a long list of things I wish I’d done. And maybe, I’ll add a few extra things to the list for Jake and Dustin.

I don’t mean to sound like one of those “find your authentic self” people, but that pretty much is what I’m trying to do. I was telling a good friend tonight that I default to “work” mode. It’s great for my employer, but not great for me. If I’m going to throw myself into hours and hours of work, I need to do more work on myself. If what I decide is my passion (for now) relates to work, then all the better for them. But I’d like to have a little something to default to after the 6-6 shift ends.

So, here’s a question for you: What do you default to? TV? Video games? Reading? Let me know in the comments!

No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich.

Rice farmers worked throughout the course of the year – unlike European farmers who would rest, and essentially hibernate while the fields lay fallow. The rice farmers worked at side tasks during the off-season, making baskets and taking care of the fields so that they were prepared for the next growing season. During that season, they were in the fields starting before dawn, weeding and working.

The rice farmers not only worked hard, they had meaningful work that defined their lives. They figured out how to do things on their own, and perservered against the odds. They worked three thousand hours a year, and taught their children to do the same.

I’m not sure if I am striving to be like a rice farmer because I admire their 3000 hours of work (That’s 8.2 hours a day, 365 days a year), or their perserverence. Either way, I do love me some rice.

I’m guilty of trying to be perfect. Even if it’s being perfectly “messy.” When SPJB was in town this weekend, he noticed that I had a book laying on my office floor – “The Doodle Formula.” I think it was hard for him to understand why I felt like I needed a book to teach me how to doodle. Its just quick, slightly messy drawings. Its simple shapes, outlined and shaded in different ways. In his mind, you don’t need a whole book to tell you how to draw squares and lines and circles.

But, me being me, I don’t feel like I can doodle, or draw, or write, unless I’ve read a book or taken a class or watched a video about how to do it.  I’m not much of a risk-taker in that sense.  I don’t know if it’s because I’m afraid of being made fun of for a mistake, or because I don’t want to let my facade down long enough to let the rest of the world know I’m not perfect.

Just for today though, I may try to do a few things without making them perfect. Rather, at least just for today, I’ll try to be human.

Well, after reading this, I honestly felt like it was OK to take some of those projects or activities and say “I’m not willing to put the time into doing that enough for me to be amazing at it. So its best for me to just not do it at all.”

I normally am not the type to gush about a book, and suggest that everyone I know read it, but this one I do.

Buy. Read. Change.

The Dip by Seth Godin