Cease & Desist

Stop. Start.

Not tomorrow.
Not in 5 minutes.
Not next week.
Not when you're in shape.
Not when you have the money.
Not when the opportunity presents itself.




The perfect time is an illusion.
It doesn't exist.
Just start.
Failing isn't failing as long as it has purpose.
Losing isn't that so long as it has purpose.


If you're like me, you have to figure out a lot of the ways to NOT do it before you know to Do it.
It's okay.
Progress sometimes is just not quitting and being willing to fail again.
Progress isn't pretty.
Success looks good after 10 years of heartbreak and sacrifice.

I packed it in.
I got married.
I was at my wits end.
I was drinking the point it was causing me serious psychological and emotional trauma.
Fortunately, I got help.
I was willing to learn some new ways of looking at and doing things.


I've never been naturally good at anything. Hint: the research shows very few people actually are and in fact, over the course of what it takes to get really good at something, natural ability has no actual indicative power as to long term success.


I could have a materially more comfortable life if I was still married.
It's been a tough road regaining my freedom.
It's been costly and lonely and a struggle.
Sometimes success for a day is simply not quitting.
Sometimes success is just showing up the next day.

The Hero's Journey:


Porn, alcohol, social media, Television, video games....the new opiates of the masses for our gender.


Everyone has a vice.
Every man who can be a hero has a tragic flaw.
Mine is alcohol.
What is yours?


Every man has/can live the archetype of the hero's journey in his waking days. . No great story exists without tragedy. NO great man is great without a great adversary. In our modern time, that adversary is the lotus, the soma, the quiet temptation of porn and anti-depressants, and all the other fucking bullshit blinding you to living the same boring, meaningless life of quasi-addiction that our modern consumerism sells so cheaply for the low low low price of your soul and purpose.


Killing you softly with feathers and teases and cheap thrills. A million deaths over a million hours until you're lying in bed watching TV or whatever we'll be watching in the future with the feelies and soma and lotus and no pain and no loneliness and no quiet questioning.


Without pain there is no triumph. Without struggle there is no victory.
Without effort and sacrifice there is no progress.
---




You can start whenever you choose.
There is something redemptive about making a choice to change/be different. It takes many choices. It takes many starts.
Every day is a new beginning. It sounds cheesy but each day I can move forward, move nowhere, or more backward.

It's not about being better than anyone.
It's about objectively looking at your life and asking if you are happy. What do you truly desire?
Are you living a life of sour grapes and rationalizing that you don't want what you think is beyond your reach?
Are you willing to try and fail and know that even in failing in pursuing what you want more than anything you'll still feel better than the quiet life of mediocrity?

The struggle is real.
Sleep is for those who grind.
Sleep is for those who pursue.


I remember the squandered hours and opportunity but I let that go and try to focus on simply making the most of the seconds, each of them precious, that I have under my command each day that I breathe.


Good luck and happy hunting,
     - Yrs. in Christ