Turning Over Rocks

When I started in sales, my mentor told me my job was to turn over rocks to discover what was underneath each rock. Most of the time, there was nothing. Infrequently, a rock would hide a treasure.

I’ve found this advice incredibly helpful. It takes the pressure off of finding an answer or a remedy. It shifts the focus onto the discovery process instead.

Eventually, if I turn over enough rocks something new will surface, answers will present themselves, and next steps become clear.

Keep turning over more rocks.

You will be surprised what you find.

(Photo credit: Connor McCormick VW Museum Germany)

Why I Took a Break From Podcasting

I told a friend how I unplugged from producing my podcast earlier this summer. He’s in the publishing world, and he understands how difficult it is to build an audience and keep people’s attention.

The advertised best practice is to continue doing what is working. I’ve spent the last six years turning out new podcast episodes every month, and I’d grown it to 8,000–10,000+ downloads per month.

He used a term that summarizes why I needed a break from podcasting, “Fallow ground”

“…some farmers and gardeners let their land go fallow – or unplanted – so that the soil’s natural nutrient balance can be restored…it became more and more unpopular to leave land fallow and unproductive in Western societies. The production won out over soil health. ” Timothy Baron Hunker.com

To leave the land unproductive yes that’s why I took a break. I know that the podcasting world might say it’s crazy to walk away and intentionally leave my land fallow.

Is it possible that the health of my soil is more important than production?

My favorite wisdom literature says, “There is nothing new under the sun.” I choose to believe that ancient wisdom can help guide us through our present day culture. Land replenishes when you give it a break. The laws of our universe eventually apply to us also.

I’m excited to see what grows in my soil after “the soil’s natural nutrient balance can be restored.”

What fields in your life could use some rest?

Where are you demanding production as the priority over health?

If you choose unproductive for a season, what good things can grow later?

Simplify Your Life: Knowing Where to Start

Simplifying my life started with pocket knives. Two years ago our lives were extremely complicated, extremely expensive and going too fast in too many directions.

We knew things had to change, but it felt impossible to know where to begin. We needed to simplify our whole life and at a deep soul level, we knew it had to start with our stuff. Our stuff owned part of us and our prosperity was sucking part of our life away.

After twenty years of marriage and ten years living in the same house, we’d accumulated a lot. Every drawer and every closet were full of “one day” and “I might use”.

But it felt overwhelming to know where to begin. It felt like the yard size Jenga game-if we pulled out the wrong piece-we could be buried. I took an inventory and realized I’d unknowingly accumulated five pocket knives. I decided to locate each of them, line them all up and eliminate and retain only the “essential few” as author Greg McKewen says in his book Essentialism.

Starting small with pocket knives felt manageable. I choose a starting place that had very little risk. I meet a lot of people who like the idea of simplifying their life but they quickly get paralyzed by the idea of the movement towards simplification.

It is important to start small, but you do have to pick something. Don’t spend a week belaboring where to start. Make a decision to start with one drawer, one shelf in the garage or your glove box in your car. Progress will build upon itself once you begin.

Don’t start with the most sentimental box of keepsakes or your record collection you’ve curated since you were in high-school.

Our external life reflects upon our internal life. When we desire change, like simplifying our life internally-reducing the chatter and noise, it helps to begin by reducing the clutter and chaos of our external world first.

Owning five pocket knives was a microcosm picture of how bloated the rest of my life had become with TV’s, couches, clothes I didn’t wear and stuff I had to manage. Internally,  I spent most of my energy doing things I no longer enjoyed and managing my life more than actually living it.

I decided to keep three of my five pocket knives. Each were gifts from special people. Three pocket knives are still two more than I need, but I simplified my choices by 40%.

Simplifying your life is an inside job and it helps when your external world matches your internal desired state.

Big On the Inside

Some people are big. Big personalities. Big in size. Some people’s bigness is a reaction to how small they really feel inside.

Some people are small. Some people, big or small, are big on the inside.

Last night we watched Sylvan Esso live in Denver at the Ogden theatre. Lead singer Amelia Meath is big on the inside. Her four-inch platform heels make her stand five foot seven tall, but her big voice, big heart, and big insides make her powerful.

I like being near people who are big on the inside. When they project their bigness it invites me to do the same.

MicroAdventure: 105℉ July Summer Heat in Plano, TX

Texas hot is no joke. Between wedding events, we had two-hours to kill. Perfect micro-adventure window. My son and I agreed that our two options were going to see a movie (lame and predictable) or find the weirdest pool we can locate. Google found this small neighborhood pool, Texas Pool on the Creek, in the shape of Texas. Perfect match.

Photo credit: Texas Pool on the Creek in Plano

Get weird

I always think of Jim Carrey from Yes Man visiting a chicken factory in Nebraska. Adventure is everywhere you look.

Neither of us had proper swim trunks. We improvised. No towels. We air dried. $10 each and thirty minutes of cool soaking. The point is that if we can find a small adventure in the middle of summer in Plano, TX…you can too.

Here are a few ideas to get you thinking

  • Where would you take guests visiting from another country, the most unique, the most local, outside of their normal?
  • What have you always said you’d do, but haven’t?
  • If you treated every day like a mini-adventure, what would you go investigate and explore?

Freedom of Choice

A good friend told me about a big check he is about to deposit. He’s a pro. He is a professional mercenary. He plays the game for money. He’s repeatedly found a way to play the corporate slot machines well enough and consistently enough to line up the cherries. For him, the one-armed bandit flashes “We have a winner”.

Big paydays-yes. And he’s also had health problems, stress problems and occasionally opts out of family vacations to keep the game going. His college funds are funded. His house is paid for. His retirement is secure.

People who are good at the money game seem agreeable with the trade offs. Or at least when they start the game, the odds seem in their favor.

I went fishing with a new friend and he told me about a different game he plays. He has avocado trees and chickens in his backyard. He has a fleet of surfboards to share with guests. He’s driving back home after a six-week long family road trip across the West fly fishing, camping and speaking at breweries.

I asked him what his routine is. He said he starts most days in his writing shack or at the beach surfing. While he was romping the West, he rented his house to a friend and his family. His renter ate from their garden, huddled together in their simple 1,200 sq ft bungalow and slowed their life to a simple, sustainable idle.

His renter returned home to his suburban beige box home and is going through withdraws. For thirty-days, they lived a life they didn’t know was possible. Living simply, unhurried and connected with the people they love. Now they know too much.

They cannot unsee what they’ve seen. They cannot unlearn what they’ve learned.

The irony to me is the professional mercenary’s reward for crushing it is wealth that is measured in freedom. Freedom measured by daring adventures, sleeping in late, fishing with friends, lingering conversations, time at the beach with family, fresh meals, and being fully present in their chosen life.

Some of the wealthiest people I know long for wealth in time and connections with the people they love.

The most grounded, balanced, connected, loving, unhurried, people full of wonder and curiosity are the people who chose Life first. Financial wealth may be a byproduct, but it is rarely their aim.

Which path to freedom is best for you?

The Economy of Free: Wendell Berry

Last evening I was introduced to Eighty-three-year-old Wendell Berry, Poet, author, essayist and voice of the local farmer by way of a private screening of the film, Look and See. A sound bite from his writings and living voice was, (paraphrased),

“The world believes there is one economy, of business and profit. There in fact is more. The economy of free is available to all like the delightful viewing of a flower.”

Mr. Berry’s writings, public speeches, and off-screen interviews created the steel girdings of this poignant movie. Since the early 1970’s, his sustainability advocacy transmits from his local farm plot in Tobacco alley Kentucky. Simple. Unhurried. Connected.

I told my wife last night he reminds me a lot of Yvonne Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia. Who Yvonne Chouinard has been for the wilderness, Wendell Berry has been for the local farmer. Both fathers have helped save and restore our lands from the other economy.

With deep gratitude, Mr. Wendell Berry, I thank you for sharing what you see. I have lived disconnected from the food I eat, the local communities I rely upon and the impact my consumption has driving the machine of “progress”.

Our inaugural little six foot by three-foot suburban garden plot has awakened in me a gratitude for the toil and reward that our food possesses. Today, I will take a walk and enjoy the free economy of flowers by the old farm house.

Sincerely,
Aaron McHugh

Interested in hosting a local screening of Look and See in your community? Details are available here.

Searching For Walter Mitty’s Slide #25

We found a new trail today. Dave looked it up on satellite view where he could trace the outline coming down the ridgeline. Our plan was hatched. Parking lot-10:30. We ran until our noses detected the desired detour and we headed up. We scrambled, hacked and climbed the wrong way. At a clearing, we could see across a ravine, our new path.

We both love the movie, A Secret Life of Walter Mitty. We share a mantra phrase together inspired by the movie, “Searching for slide #25”. Walter spends most of the movie chasing down leads, accumulating a resume of “Been there and done that’s” to find the “quintessence of life” missing slide #25 for the final cover issue of Time Magazine.

Walter’s life gets redeemed because slide #25 went missing.

Dave and I pretend that slide #25 is mythically true and specifically the reason to explore detours and hunches. Chasing slide #25 is becoming a way of life for each of us.

I hope I never find it so that I can keep having an excuse to keep searching.

I hope you’ll go searching for slide #25 in your life with the people you love most.

Photo Credit: Chasing Slide #25 Dave Eitemiller in Wind River Range Wyoming

Let the World Know You Are There

I opened a letter my late grandparents wrote me August 6th, 1994 it read,

“Congratulations: School may be over, but you never stop learning so go and let the world know you are there. Sometimes it takes a while…”

Twenty-four years later, I’m emotional about how concise and pungent their wisdom.

If they were here, I would write them a letter of gratitude, “Grandma and Grandpa, thank you for the twenty-five-word letter, twenty-four years ago. When I graduated Baylor that summer, I thought my life was going to be full of blue skies, rainbows, and lucky breaks. We lived that summer in a one-room four-hundred square foot chink-logged cabin with a wood burning stove and a sink. Life has looked a little different than I originally imagined it would. But I bet you knew that would happen.

Per your advice, I have never stopped learning. “So go and let the world know you are there”. Wow-how did you know that would be so important? Back then I would have thought that just happens automatically, “Hi everyone”. At forty-five, I’m continually stepping into my greatest loves and areas of strength, like writing and speaking.

“Sometimes it takes a while” I agree, it does take a while to become a craftsman. I’m finding that there are no guarantees on how long it can take. I have learned I can’t control the outcomes, but lucky breaks are more readily available the longer I keep at it.

I’m going to hang this letter on my office wall so that on days when it feels like its taking longer than it should, I’ll remember your loving advice and belief in me.

Love you and miss you guys,
Aaron

Grandpa’s letter from August 6th 1994. His Disneyland club was called the Order of the Red Handkerchief after the old Mine Train ride in Disneyland during the early 1950’s. He was a ride operator as his first job on the Mine Train. Which is now Big Thunder Railroad.

Reframing Your Story

We gave away free ice cream to one hundred of our friends, strangers, new neighbors, kids from school and construction workers. We setup two VW buses, one with adult beverages and one Scoop Bus. Instead of taxing our closest friends with the crummy obligation of helping us move our stuff, we decided to reframe the story instead.

Instead of “Hey can you help us move?” we reframed the offer to “You should stop by for some FREE ICE CREAM”.

Free ice cream from the Scoop Bus

I’ve helped a lot of friends move and I’ve hired moving companies. It is never really fun to move. As part of our Reboot, we decided to start our new move in a story like a carnival. “What if we rented the Scoop Bus and gave away free ice cream to everyone who even stops by?”

My wife was down with it.

Josh and the Scoop Bus rolled up and we chalked the sign to read “FREE ICE CREAM”. Boom. You should have seen the crowds of kids that turned up. I had friends text to see if their wife could stop by with their pre-schoolers just to get a taste. We had bikes and trucks and mini-vans stacked with our remnant belongings.

I learned that day that any story can be reframed and transformed. No longer was it a moving day, it was a full blown circus with all you can eat ice cream.

What story are you living that could use to be reframed?

Thanks friends for taking the “Free ice cream” bait.