Day 269

Fresh Start_269: No rhyme, reason, or idea for today
“Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” This quote was said to me about 6 years ago by my grandmother as we were crossing the George Washington Bridge on our way home from the cemetery. I don’t know what the conversation was about, but I can remember her saying those words to me and it got the 14 year me thinking. It got me thinking what I liked to do and what I enjoyed.

My mother always said that I would do something in sports, and if I didn’t I wouldn’t be happy. I guess it is true; mom does know best because if it wasn’t for sports, I wouldn’t be happy. But, the 14-year-old me didn’t know how to do it. As I’ve said before, growing up I wanted to work at ESPN and do the morning Sportscenter, at the time I had no idea how that would happen. Why would I, I was a 14-year-old heading into high school. If I knew the answer to that question; I can tell you know, I wouldn’t be here. I would be in a broadcasting program somewhere with an internship already. Turns out I wasn’t that passionate about being the broadcaster on Sportscenter in the morning. I want to be the guy who they bring on ESPN and talk about that piece I wrote—discussing what I truly think. I also want to be the guy with the daily radio show that gets to be listened too around the country.

Over this past week, I was in the car on my way to Pittsburgh to visit family and an article in the Monday morning issue of the New York Times brought that discussion up again. Only this time it was a different set of grandparents and we were discussing why it is so simple to do that, but yet, hard to execute… In other words starting.

I believe that I shared the Gary Vaynerchuck video about starting on this blog, allow I could be mistaken, in which I’ll leave a link above to watch it again (or for the first time). The whole idea of starting is daunting to some people including myself. When I first started this blog almost 3 years ago, I didn’t know what to write or what to write about. I didn’t know where to post, how much, or how long—but I figured it out. I’m actually still figuring it out as I go and learning each and every day. My mom asked me this week if I would stop after an entire year of writing an article every day. I told her, “I’m like 98% sure I won’t, it’s too much fun!” And it’s true, everything that I have done on this blog from the first Admin post, to game balls, to introducing this “Fresh Start” series, all of it is making me a better writer.

I was stuck in a rut with this blog last summer because I knew I wrote a few pieces that I really enjoyed writing, but I didn’t feel challenged by writing those. So, I took a jump off the deep end of the pool and committed to writing every day, and for 269 days in a row I have, and unless something drastic happen, will continue to do. But, it isn’t that easy, challenging yourself to expand in the thing that you love is scary because of failure. Throwing that out the window of the car moving 110 MPH isn’t so easy. I challenged each and every one of you to do what you loved on January 1st this year. It’s now May 18, and I’ve gotta ask—how’s that going?

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