Hmmmmmmm, can work actually be fun? Am I really THAT stupid? What kind of a question is that? Of course it can’t. Everybody knows that work HAS to suck. In fact I think it’s one of the Ten Commandments or at the very least it’s written in the Declaration Of Independence.

I know it has to be written down somewhere, some kind of Law that says that work and fun should never coexist. Like oil and water, they just don’t mix, no matter how much you try and shake ‘em up!

In fact, I think work is one of those four letter words that can only be mentioned in certain situations. You know what I’m talkin’ about, the ones that will get your mouth washed out with soap if you utter them in front of the wrong people.

But I find myself questioning this logic. Who started this whole thing of thinking that whatever you do to earn a living has to make you completely miserable? I don’t think it could have started as far back as the Caveman days, could it? I mean, they didn’t really have to earn a living, so to speak. Their main thing in life was survival.

Whether is was scroungin’ around for food or protecting themselves against a low flyin’ Pterodactyl, survival was key. Hmmmm, now that I think about it, perhaps this WAS the first instance of earning a living. After all, you need to be alive to live.

Before the exchange of so called money came into existence, the Barter System was the method of choice for getting ahead in life. If you wanted something, you better have something to trade for it. Which is kinda funny because bartering is still in use today.

In fact, just the other day, I watched a video of a guy that bartered his way from a red paper clip on up to a house. Yes, I said A HOUSE! Which he has since gone on to trade for a Cafe’. It was actually a pretty amazing story, well documented and no doubt he was able to meet so many people and have quite a few great experiences along the way.

I guess some things never get old. Free Trade has been a major building block of the world as we know it. Without it, where would we be today? One can only guess at all the things we wouldn’t be able to enjoy.

Here again though, I’d have to think that this method of survival probably wasn’t a whole lot of fun back in the ol’ days. No doubt either one or both parties would feel as if they got ripped off and wanted to cancel the trade but making somebody mad in those days probably wasn’t a good idea. So what if you ended up with a purple Dinosaur, at least you’d be able to feed your family.

Apparently the first use of an actual Monetary System didn’t come around until about 650 B.C. Perhaps this is when work first began to be considered dreadful. Once you had to break your back for someone else in order to feed your family, I’d have to think this was also about the same time that work became a four letter word. I can hear the bitchin’ and moanin’ from here.

Jeez, if it started this far back, no wonder people are so angry about having to go to work. Generation after generation, passing down their disdain for the mere thought of the word work would no doubt create an endless amount of hatred towards the mere thought alone. Not to mention the actual physical task itself.

Yet work is what me must do. Must do to survive in this world. And for the most part, if we want to get ahead in life, we must work even harder. Therefore it stands to reason that if we want more out of life, it will come at the cost of living an even more miserable existence. Something about this just doesn’t seem very appealing, at least not to me anyway.

Kinda seems like an inspiration killer for the most part. The harder you work, the more miserable you are? Just not making any sense to me. There HAS to be some sort of a mistake here. Who on earth invented this system anyway? Some kind of masochist? Must have been. Nobody in his right mind would have devised such a dream killer.

And to add insult to injury, who came up with this schedule of having to work five days and only have two off? Sounds pretty damn lopsided if you ask me. C’mon, doing something that you absolutely despise for five long, miserable days of the week, only to get two days to attempt some form of recovery and then to go right back to hell for another five days. Obviously this system is seriously flawed.

I wonder if anyone else has realized this? I mean somebody else has to have noticed by now that this entire work thing, this system as it were is messed up and in a big way. And if they have noticed, why on earth haven’t they done something to fix it?

Come to think of it, I guess they tried, if you can call it that. Yeah, they have implemented the four day, ten hours a day, work week in certain instances and while that might help, it’s surely not the best answer.

Either is the telecommuting thing, that’s most likely the best alternative as it eliminates lots of the nightmare of the five day workathon but it doesn’t completely remove the issue of spending your days performing a task that you hate.

So where does that leave us? We know we need money to survive. In most cases, in order to make money, we have to work. Ok, so basically what it breaks down to is we need to work to survive. But where does it say that we have to hate what we do for work?

I checked out the Ten Commandments and didn’t see anything about it in there. Same with the Declaration, nothing there either. I even went as far as Googling MUST HATE YOUR JOB and couldn’t find anything anywhere that stated that you must be miserable for a minimum of forty hours per week, half days on Saturdays and most Holidays when the rest of your family is at the beach. Nope, nothin’.

Then how did all of this BS get started in the first place? Perhaps it was handed down to us by our parents? That along with all the other outside influences that helped shape our upbringing, who undoubtedly passed down the information that they received as children.

Who knows, maybe it was our own assumption, based on seeing just how unhappy our parents were Monday through Friday and realizing at an early age just how precious the weekends were. How those two days were the reward for surviving the previous five days.

Regardless of how it happened, we grew up knowing that work must suck. No doubt whatsoever. That’s why it’s called work instead of fun. Notice the different amount of letters in each word? Yes, work is a four letter word and fun isn’t. I have a feelin’ it was planned that way.

Ok then, what are we gonna do about this? Nothing? Just continue on status quo? Or can we change this entire scenario around so that we’re able to enjoy our work? Yes, I said it. Crazy as it may seem, I believe there is a great possibility of earning a living while doing something that you truly enjoy.

Stay with me on this. Think about it for just a second. Is it entirely out of the realm of possibility to believe that you could make money doing something you enjoy? Of course not. Think about all of those people all over the world, right now, who are making a living doing what it is that you like to do. So why NOT you? Why not just go for it? What’s stopping you?

Even if you start off on a small scale, kind of a part time thing, just pick something you enjoy doing and get started doing it. After hours, evenings, weekends, doesn’t really matter. While we all say that we don’t have any extra time as it is, I think you’ll find that even if you just sacrifice a couple hours of TV here ‘n there, you’ll be surprised at all you can get accomplished.

Just get going on something that you’re passionate about and see where it takes you. I’ll bet the next thing you know, you’ll be making other sacrifices to allow you more time to pursue your dream. I promise it will be so worth it.

Before you know it you’re rollin’ and you’ll find that there just isn’t enough time in a day to do all you want to do towards accomplishing your goal. And let me tell you, that’s a great problem to have. Next thing you know, you’ll actually be enjoying your weekdays! Maybe even more than your weekends. Can you even imagine that? Getting to a point where your weekends are more stressful than your weekdays? Who’d a thunk it!

So if you find that you’re like most everyone else out there, at least those that still have jobs and dread Mondays more than anything, maybe it’s time you started thinking of work as anything but a four letter word.

If you can relate to work being a nightmare, I’d enjoy hearing about it in my comments and if you enjoyed this Post, I’d appreciate it if you’d share it with your friends. Thank you.

Lately I find that I’m having to ask myself this question quite often. I mean, does there come a point when you just need to say forget it and push the delete button? I’m not so much referring to the dreams that you have while you’re asleep, who on earth can make any sense of those?

The dreams I’m referring to are basically day dreams, the ones that inspire you, motivate you, the unexplainable forces that drive you forward without any apparent reason. At least the reasons aren’t apparent to others. Noone else can see what motivates us on the inside.

If they could, it probably wouldn’t be a good thing as people, for the most part, aren’t usually very supportive of someone elses dreams and aspirations. Nope, it’s much better to keep your dreams to yourself or if by chance you’re lucky enough to have a significant other that is totally behind you in everything you do, then perhaps you can spill the beans to them.

But you have to be careful because for the most part, others want you to do well in life, follow your passions, live your dreams but only up to a certain point. Once your life, in their eyes, becomes better than theirs, then it’s time to throw a bunch of negativity your way in an effort to knock you back down to reality. Or at least the reality that they want you to be living.

But if dreams actually do have a deadline of sorts, that would really suck. To know that if your dreams don’t come true in a certain amount of time that you’ll have to chuck ‘em, just throw them away. Erase them from your thoughts. That would be like throwing all of your hope right out the window. And where the hell would you be without hope?

Pretty much nowhere. Hope is more than likely the main ingredient in all of our dreams. Hope is the basis for everything that drives us forward. Striving for better. Better lives. Better relationships. Better everything.

Surely hope can’t have an expiration date for if it did, we’d all be in big trouble. To lose ones hope, even worse, to just give up on hope pretty much spells disaster. If not the end of the road then I’m sure you can see the end of the road from there.

Oh, to lose all hope can be an inner defeat that is very hard to recover from. At least from my experience anyway. It wasn’t but a year or two ago, if even that long that I had pretty much lost all of my hope.

Long story short, I basically lost everything I owned along with quite a few other things that I didn’t actually own, I just had a ton of money invested in them. And if this wasn’t bad enough, along with all my possessions went all of my hopes, my dreams and my motivation.

Yep, right down the drain, never to be seen or heard from again. Whoosh, every reason I ever had for getting out of bed in the morning was gone. My worst fear was coming true.

Losing your stuff is one thing but when you lose your why, it’s a whole different ballgame. As long as you have your motivation, you can always get your stuff back. But without motivation, you’re basically over and done. Destined for a life of zero.

Luckily for me, I didn’t give up and I’ve been able to recover a good amount of my motivation. That’s not to say that I don’t struggle with it daily but I am getting better and staying on a forward path. Most of this has come from remembering that no matter what, I can’t give up.

And as I’ve gained back most of my motivation, slowly but surely my hope is beginning to return as well. Hope for a new beginning, for a better future, for a better life. And I’m super grateful for this because without motivation and hope, it’s pretty much couch time from here on out. That’s if you’re lucky enough to have a couch you can lay on.

But even though things are starting to go in a more positive direction, there are still so many missing pieces to my life puzzle that it’s not always easy to remain focused and keep my chin up as they say. While some days are more difficult than others, it’s still a decision I have to make every day. Keep on pushin’ forward or just pack it in?

If I sit there and just think about all of the things that are missing in my life, all of the things that I had hoped would be a gimme by this time, then there’s no doubt I’m gonna be disappointed. Completely understandable I would think.

So that’s why I’m doing all I can not to allow myself to sit there and think about what I don’t have. Instead, I have to continue to concentrate on what I do have and what, if I continue to work hard, I WILL have in the future. In essence concentrating on my attitude of gratitude.

Speaking of the future, this brings me back to my original question regarding dreams having an expiration date. This doesn’t so much apply to any of my previous dreams as I actually only have two that have survived all of the melee of the last few years.

One that I constantly struggle with, finding myself unable to let go of but I know that at some point in the near future, like it or not I will be forced to come to grips with making a decision. I remain hopeful that before I have to make that decision, the outcome that I desire will manifest itself and I will be able to consider it a dream of mine that actually came true. Fingers and toes crossed, that’s for sure.

The other dream, as it turns out has a much better chance of coming true now than it ever had of materializing in my previous life. It’s kinda strange how that worked out. Kinda like the last domino standing, remaining by default.

Ok then, along with rebuilding my life I’m finding that I need to make a new Dream List. Sounds a bit crazy as all throughout our lives, dreams just seem to come to us from who knows where. It’s not so much that we have to create them, they just seem to be born from our passions, our desires.

But what do you do when almost all of your life long dreams have been wiped out basically overnight and you’re forced to start a new list? You can’t just fill it up with all those old dreams. Most of them no longer apply. Either they bring with them a sour feeling or they are no longer applicable to your new life.

Luckily for me I still have two dreams I can hang onto. Well, one for sure, the other is either going to manifest itself soon or I will unfortunately have to remove it from the List. One way or another, that will only leave me one and luckily, the remaining dream covers alot of territory so it would take quite alot to either have it completely manifest itself or to be removed.

It’s not like there’s a DreamMart or a House of Dreams that you can just bring in a coupon and pick up a few dreams. Nope, not gonna be that easy. I’m gonna have to do some soul searchin’ to come up with some new ones. That, and I hope that my new life will entail some new experiences and along with those experiences will come new dreams.

Dreams that I have yet to even imagine. Knowing that I’m a major Dreamer, I have a pretty good feeling that I should be able to come up with something worthwhile before too long. Something outrageous enough to be considered unobtainable which is basically the description of one of my dreams.

And as far as dreams having an expiration date, it’s possible but I’d like to think that it’s entirely up to you whether they do or not. I think the safest bet is to treat them like a gallon of milk at the Grocery Store, they put the newest containers at the back of the rack. So I guess I have no other option…. but to KEEP DIGGIN’!

If you can relate to creating new dreams, I’d enjoy reading about them in the comment box below and if you enjoyed this Post, I’d appreciate it if you would share it with your friends. Thank you.

I’m not exactly sure what’s goin’ on here. I mean, aren’t these iPhones supposed to have a mind of their own, to be the best thing since sliced bread? Jeez, I can’t even believe I just said that. Sounds like something my Dads Dad would have said. But you get the point.

When I got my iPhone, I was under the impression that they were the most incredible invention ever. They could do just about everything you ever wanted (with the correct Application downloaded, of course) except wash dishes or do laundry.

Seemed as if everywhere you turned, somebody was touting all of the wonderful things that could be accomplished and all of them in the blink of an eye. Clever marketing? I’d hate to think I fell for that stuff but it’s a distinct possibility. Typically I’m smarter than that but maybe they slipped one in under the radar on me.

Don’t get me wrong here. For the most part, I love my iPhone. From the sleek styling to the ultra smooth Touch Screen, this baby has winner written all over it. And I’m by no means a Tech Geek but it would be hard not to want one of these phones, based on looks alone.

In fact, if the Porsche Design Group ever ends up building a Concept Phone, I would think there’s a pretty good chance it’s gonna look very similar to Apples Smooth Talker.

Speaking of Techie, I won’t even begin to claim that I have 1/1000th of an idea of all the things this baby will do. I’ve never even been to the “App Store”, don’t know the address or the phone number. I’m not sure if they have one at the Mall or not but I have enough trouble workin’ the buttons it came with, why the hell would I want to add more gizmos?

I previously had a Nokia that worked really well. Bluetooth capable, nice and compact, never a dropped call, in essence the perfect phone. Then why on earth did I get rid of it you might be asking? Wasn’t cool enough? Behind the times? Nope, none of those.

I never got my iPhone to keep up with the Jones’. I’m not one to care about that sort of thing, which might sound a bit strange at this point because the main reason I bought it was because it was compatible with the ‘Hands Free’ Bluetooth System in the car I had at the time.

My BMW had warnings everywhere, saying that pairing up an unauthorized cell phone to their system could possibly damage the entire electrical system in the car, causing major damage. And knowing that everything in that car was computer controlled, I couldn’t take a chance on hurting my baby. And so I got the iPhone, which was ok’d on their list. In white of course. Hey, I AM color conscious.

As I sunk down in that sweet leather, watchin’ the Nav screen with all of the codes poppin’ up, enter this, press that, I just knew I was gonna be in cell phone heaven. And I wasn’t dissapointed, not in the least. That phone never worked better than when it was hooked up to the BMW. It was like drivin’ around in a giant antennae, reception central.

It was even voice activated. All I had to do was speak the words “Call so and so” and the next thing you know, I could hear a phone ringing somewhere off in space. It wasn’t actually in space, it was coming from my stereo speakers but it did seem like space. Just a touch of a button on the steering wheel and instant disconnect. I must say, it had to be one of the sweetest inventions ever.

I’m not a huge fan of those Star Trek earpieces and I’m semi ok with the headphones but this eliminated the entire nightmare. No worries about Cops giving me tickets, always able to keep both my hands on the wheel. It was a dream come true.

But unfortunately, I no longer have my Dream Car and I’m beginning to wonder if my iPhone knows that as well. They were a pair, those two, they went everywhere together. They were inseparable and I wonder if my phone is really starting to miss her partner. Like they say, one is such a lonely number and I think it’s taking a toll on my “iBaby”.

These tantrums seem to come much more often these days and no doubt with much more severity. I’ll be carrying on a conversation, not really moving at all and next thing you know, I’m talkin’ to air. Yep, another dropped call.

A quick redial leads me to ask “Are you driving?” to which whomever it is that I was speaking with responds, “Nope, didn’t move an inch.” Hmmmm, wonder what happened?

“I’ve got five bars (thanks to my latest update. Only used to get three bars), it can’t be from my side.” Only to hear on the other end “Me too, I’ve got five bars so it’s gotta be your phone!”

OH no you DIT~N’T, don’t you go dissin’ my iBaby!! And then IT’S ON! All the accusations start flyin’, the My Droid is better than your iPhone BS. Next thing you know, you’re havin’ a knock down dragout over a stupid dropped call. Jeez, I’m feelin’ the stress from here and I’m not even on the phone.

What’s even weirder than that is this seems to happen more often when it’s iPhone to iPhone. Call me crazy (I know, what’s new) but I’m beginning to wonder if our old friend Steve Jobs installed some kinda software that links all these iBots together in some way so that they know they’re talkin’ to one of their own and they play these damn games, just to piss us off.

I’m sure you’ve heard how these phones are watching us, keeping track of everything we do and say. So then why not have the phones keep track of each other? And to take it a step further, what if all the Aspirin Companies are in on it as well?

I mean, just think of how much Bayer Aspirin they’re selling to help us get rid of all of these stress headaches that are caused by all of these friggin’ dropped calls. It’s a conspiracy I tell you. It’s Big Brother and he’s attacking us through our phones.

Kinda makes you miss the days of the old rotary dial phones. Back when it would take you so long just to dial the number that you could come up with tons of stuff to talk about while you were waiting for the call to go through. S..E..V..E..N..dut..dut..dut..dut..dut..dut..dut..F..I..V..E..dut..dut..dut..dut..dut..

And hopefully you didn’t have to dial a zero somewhere in there, got a bit sidetracked and didn’t get your finger all the way around. That was major trouble for sure. You totally had to start all over again.

At that point you really had to think twice about even calling that person. Did you REALLY wanna talk to them THAT BAD? Bad enough to risk screwin’ up another dial job?

Those were the days that people knew how important they were to you. If you actually took the time to call somebody, you must have really wanted to talk to them. Jeez, it was nice bein’ wanted but come to think of it, I didn’t really get that many calls. Hmmmmmm…..

Which brings me back to my iPhone. Does it drop all these calls just to piss me off or does IT just want to be wanted? Can’t it feel me massaging it when I rub it’s beautiful screen? Is it lacking attention, feelin’ like I just take it for granted? I sure hope not, that would be terrible.

So perhaps it really does have A.D.D.? Is it possible for a phone to have Attention Deficit Disorder? I know it sounds weird but in this day and age, why not? I mean, when I was growing up, all us kids acted out and did things we weren’t supposed to. Seems like we were always doin’ something wrong just to get attention. Attention of ANY kind.

But back then instead of giving us pills to put us in Numbville, we’d get our butts spanked, have to pull tons of weeds in the yard and be grounded all summer. Ah, those were the days.

The days of discipline, when you learned the difference between right and wrong, by the seat of your pants. Or sometimes on the back of your thighs, perhaps your lower back, all depends on where the belt landed.

Never thought I’d look back on discipline as a good thing but I have to think that like kids, our phones need to know when they are actin’ up and doin’ wrong. But how exactly do you go about teaching your phone the difference between right and wrong?

Do you stop using it for awhile? Who is that really punishing, you or the phone? Perhaps throw it on the ground, breaking the screen? Again, who really loses here? Sure, the phone doesn’t have to work so hard anymore but your wallet is sure gonna get a workout. Maybe just take the whole damn thing apart and never use it again? I really don’t know the answer.

I guess we just have to accept the fact that technology still has it’s flaws and that nothing is perfect, especially when any part of it is man made. But between you and me, I still think my iPhone just ain’t that smart!

If you can relate to your iPhone or any cell phone for that matter, not living up to the hype, I’d enjoy hearing about it and if you know of anyone else than can relate to this post, I’d appreciate your sharing it. Thank you.

Further back than I can even remember, I’ve held onto a dream. The dream of someday owning a 911 Porsche. The appeal has always been there for me, the mystique undeniable.

Even before my first real job, which as it turned out was as an Apprentice Volkswagen Mechanic when I was 15, I have dreamt of owning a 911 Porsche. And I’m sure it goes without saying that if you like the original air cooled Volkswagen Beetles, then a 911 Porsche is without a doubt the end of your rainbow.

Even before I had a Drivers License, I knew I wanted a 911 Porsche. This fact was only reinforced after my first ride in one. As primitive as they were back then compared to todays Models, they were amazingly quick and handled great. Their following was built on their Racing Heritage and attention to detail, both are still very true today. In fact, even more so.

But of course, they were just so far out of reach cost wise that all one could do back then… is dream. And boy oh boy, dream we did! All of my friends were into VW’s. We all belonged to VW Clubs, attended all of the various VW Events throughout Southern California. Basically we were addicted, it was our life. The above picture of me was taken sometime back in the early 80′s. I was driving one of the many VW’s I owned through the years, my 1958 Volkswagen Cabriolet. At that time, I was extremely fond of that car. Without a doubt it was one of my favorites. But like everyone else, no matter how much customization we did, it still would never be a real 911 Porsche.

And as such, all we could do was to continue to take what was left of our meager paychecks and sink every last nickle we had into custom wheels, tires, suspension, engines, interiors, paint jobs, etc., etc. in hopes of someday walking out to our driveway and having our VW pumpkins mysteriously turn into real 911 Porsches overnight. Of course, it never happened. Only the Big Time guys with the big time paychecks had the money to do all of the trick stuff that we dreamed of. And I’m sure that lots of them were chasin‘ the same thing, a REAL 911 Porsche.

This VW Cabriolet (above & below) is a perfect example of “Porsche~izing” a Volkswagen Beetle. All in an effort to live an, at that time, mostly unattainable dream. Known at the time as the “California Look”, the style has taken on quite a few changes since then. But the basic idea behind this customization still remains the same. To morph a Volkswagen Beetle into a 911 Porsche.

And that’s not to say that more money wasn’t invested into this car than would have ever been required to purchase a 911 Porsche but most of these truly beautiful custom VW’s took years to reach the point they did and that was much different than just going down to the Porsche Dealership and plunking down a big chunk of money at one time. Most of these guys did the same thing we did, spent endless hours and paycheck after paycheck, working on a dream in the obscurity of their garages.

Now, the crazy thing here is that this particular 1952 Volkswagen Cabriolet, while undoubtedly one of the rarest VW’s out there and obviously restored with the assistance of a wide open checkbook containing an endless balance, was(is?) For Sale at one point and the asking price, while it might be comparable to the actual cost of purchasing a 1952 VW, then paying someone to restore it, locating all of the incredibly rare parts and accessories that adorn the car, etc., etc., one would really have to LOVE VW’s as the $120K (yes, you read that right, $120,000.00) Price Tag makes a real 911 Porsche look pretty darn inviting. As if it wasn’t already but this would bring the decision front and center in anybodys mind.

For that price you can pick up a super nice Porsche GT3 that’s a year or two old with maybe 5K miles on it. Sure, it won’t be brand new and it might have a small blemish here or there but when you have a Volkswagen that’s worth $120K, chances are you’re not going to want to drive it anyway for fear of putting a scratch on it. Basically it’s just a “Trailer Queen”, something you just sit and stare at. Which is fine, if you have that kind of money and just want something to look at, more power to you. But for me, I’d rather have a car that I can drive and experience as it were. But to each his own. Everyone has their own Dream. Mine has always been to own a super sweet 911 Porsche. Not sure if I mentioned that or not.

Fast forward a couple few years. Hmmmmm, there seems to be a slight problem here. I’m beginning to notice a pattern of sorts. The dream I’ve held for most of my life has yet to manifest. Which of course, is not a good thing. Not a good thing at all. So that basically leaves me with two options. I can either continue on with my life as usual, leaving my dream to fester somewhere way in the back of my mind. Back in the maybe someday it will happen zone, where it’s been for quite some time.

After all, it hasn’t really bothered anybody by sitting back there collecting dust. Nobody, that is, besides me, the dream holder! And to be honest, it’s really been buggin’ the heck out of me for quite some time now. Like to the point that I either have to just completely forget about it(I know what you’re sayin’, good luck with that one) or else I have to actually DO SOMETHING about it! One way or the other, for better or worse, I’ve got to bring it to a conclusion of some sort. Either move forward with it or erase it from my List Of Dreams completely.

Now, as I’m sure you’re well aware, letting go of a dream is no easy feat. In fact, nearly impossible. Especially when you’ve lived it almost your entire life. How do you go about forgetting something that has been there since childhood? And that’s when it dawned on me that there really is no way to just let it go, at least not without giving a serious effort anyway. If after that, things for some strange reason don’t go as planned and my dream doesn’t come true, then I will still be able to hold my head high in defeat, knowing that I truly gave it my all. But to merely walk away without trying, that’s just not gonna happen. That’s just not how I’m wired.

And therefore I’m left with no other option than to persevere, to push forward towards manifesting my dreams. To finally be able to say that I have achieved the dream of a lifetime, the dream of MY lifetime, means more to me than words can even begin to express. And to be able to demonstrate to others as well that if you truly do your best and give it everything you’ve got, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE in this world. ANYTHING!

If you can relate to having a life long dream, one that you’ve never fully explored, let alone done everything possible to make it come true, I’d enjoy hearing about it in the Comments below and if you know of anyone else that might be able to relate to this Post, please feel free to share it with them. Thank you.

“IF NOT NOW….WHEN? That was it, the final straw. Just one short sentence was all it took. All it took to get this Amazing Adventure to change from being merely a dream, a dream that I’ve had for longer than I care to remember, into reality. There’s a saying that goes something like “Everything begins with a dream” and that couldn’t be any more fitting here.

Actually, this journey consists of a combination of three dreams, morphed into one. Creative? I’d say so. Crazy? Without a doubt! I’d prefer to think of it as Crazy like a Fox but everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Some might be leaning a bit more towards insane.

We all have goals, dreams and passions in life that we would pursue….. IF we could. If we had the time…. the money…. the knowledge…. basically, if we didn’t have this huge list of excuses keeping us from chasing our dreams. Yes, I said excuses. Sure, these so called reasons all seem so legitimate, so permanent and so impenetrable but I’ve come to learn that they are just more excuses for not pursuing ones passions, for not even making an attempt to make ones dreams come true.

Is it a fear of failure? Fear of looking foolish? Fear of actually admitting to others that you have a dream and all the negativity that is likely to come from those around you that think you’re quite possibly out of your mind for even thinking that you might be able to manifest this dream? Now, keep in mind that 99% of these nay sayers are the people that would never take risks in life. On anything. Day after day, they live their lives like zombies, going through the same ol’ routine and feeling safe in their Comfort Zone.

But for me, my Comfort Zone isn’t really all that comfy. I’d have to think that if it was, then I wouldn’t constantly be thinking about my lifes passions, my true calling in life and asking myself why I’m not living it. And this hasn’t been going on for a short time, this is an entire lifetime of wondering what if.

What if I would have pursued my passion for Writing? Where would I be in my life right now? Would I be a well known Author with numerous ‘titles’ to my credit? Or perhaps like so many other struggling Writers, another frustrated unknown wannabe that should have gotten a clue and changed job descriptions many years earlier? And that’s my point exactly. It’s not a case of whether or not the pursuit of my passion for writing would have turned out to be a good or a bad decision but the problem lies more in the fact that I never took the chance and so now I have no idea how it would have turned out. And it’s that ‘wondering’ that eats away at me on a daily basis.

As well as my passion for travel, again it’s the wondering what if that gets to me the most. While more of a fun pursuit as opposed to a job, this has still been a Burning Desire within me since my teenage years. I would have to think it stems from the weekend camping trips with the family. Growing up, some of my best memories are of waking up in a tent, somewhere new and different and spending as much time as possible exploring everything available within my new surroundings. And the feeling of thinking how fast time seemed to fly by, already time to go home and the disappontment in knowing that there was more that I wasn’t able to experience. Next time, I’ll make sure to check it out…..next time. But next time didn’t always come and so I was left wondering again.

And then, sure enough, it happens to the best of us, as we get older life gets in the way. Responsibility. Priorities. Reasons. There’s that awful word again. It’s funny how it seems so easy to come up with excuses reasons for not doing something but it’s so difficult to find reasons that allow us, propel us to take risks, take a chance on failure, to pursue our goals. Which is a shame because the reward that can come from achieving our goals can be so huge that you’d think that a fear of failure wouldn’t hold us back. But I’ve come to learn that your Comfort Zone can really hold you back, with it’s false sense of security. Combine that security with what I believe prevents most people from taking chances in life, which is an overwhelming fear of failure and you have the perfect recipe for a life full of regret. That motivation depleting monster known as regret.

Yet, when you think about it, we tend to regret the things we didn’t do much more than the things we did. Regardless of their outcome. Even if we perceive that we have failed at something, the regret of looking back and not knowing what could have happened had we made an effort is always so much worse. But that pesky ol’ fear of failure keeps our minds occupied to the extent that regret isn’t our number one priority. Until later. After a bit of time, regret rears its ugly head and mocks you for all of the time you’ve wasted. Time you’ll never get back.

Due to a few recent changes in my life, time has been brought to the forefront of my thinking. In a Big Way! Not that it hasn’t always been there, but it’s importance in my life has become even more apparent than ever lately. And as such, I found myself having to really dig deep inside and ask just exactly what is it that I truly want for me in my life? What are my deepest desires? Where does my passion lie? What is my true calling? It didn’t take long at all for me to answer this question. It’s on my mind constantly. For almost as long as I have had a passion for writing and travel, I have held the dream of someday owning a 911 Porsche.

Even before my first real job, which as it turned out was as an apprentice Volkswagen Mechanic when I was 15, I have dreamed of owning a 911 Porsche. I’m sure it goes without saying that if you like the original rear engined Volkswagens, then a 911 Porsche is without a doubt the end of your rainbow. Even before I had a Drivers License, I knew I wanted a Porsche.

This fact was only reinforced after my first ride in one. As primitive as they were back then compared to todays Models, they were amazingly quick and handled great. A true Drivers Car. Their following was built on quality and performance and both are still true today. In fact, even more so.

Ok then, now that I have my three main passions laid out in front of me, Writing, Travel and a 911 Porsche, now what? Which one should I concentrate on first, put all of my effort towards? Without a doubt this is a difficult decision. But of course it is because if these were easy choices, I would have already made the decision and gotten started. I would already be an Author, traveling the globe, living the “Laptop Lifestyle” and my Porsche GT3 RS would be waiting for me in my garage. Perhaps in the garage of my Villa in Greece or my Apt. in Paris. Sadly, I’m unable to say that any of those are currently in place. And so the dilemma of choosing which one to concentrate on first becomes even more difficult because obviously, each of them means a great deal to me.

I’ve always considered myself to be an outside the box thinker and without a doubt, lately I’ve been on motivation overload. So, rather than make an attempt to tame it, to tone it down, I’ve decided to throw some major creativity at this situation, just to see what could happen. To see what I can come up with. And let me just say one thing, I get the feeling that I have taken the word creativity to an entirely new level. Yep, the Dream Vision that I have created here is in essence thinking so far outside the box that there’s a really good chance that you’d need binoculars just to look back and even see the box itself, let alone the inside of it. Undoubtedly outside the box thinking at its finest.

You might be wondering how could any endeavor be THAT crazy, that outrageous, that unfathomable? Well, I’d venture to say that not many people have taken on a project such as what I have planned for myself. And to be honest, I don’t blame them. If this was anybody elses Dream Vision and they were explaining it to me as I’m doing here, chances are my first reaction, once I got back up off the floor after hearing such an unbelievable pipe dream would be to say good luck with that one. Knowing full well that the dedication and perseverance required, in the face of what would without a doubt be a severely uphill battle, would surely take out anyone that wasn’t fully committed in every way possible to making this dream a reality. And to be that dedicated to a dream just isn’t something that you find in most people.

Keeping in mind that I’m able to enjoy the freedom so to speak necessary to pursue my goals as I don’t have a wife, kids, etc. Not that I have any money to chase my dream (yet) but I’m not about to let something as small as that stop me. So rather than look at any of that as a negative, I’m choosing to take advantage of this, in essence, freedom in my life. Not having to worry about possibly hurting someone else as well as their life by taking on these risks is a huge relief. It allows me to make decisions that quite a few people wouldn’t be able to make. Not a guarantee that they would make these decisions though, no matter what their circumstances were. Excuses are easy to find if you’re looking for them. Believe me, I know. I wasted alot of my creative juices on excuses for why I wasn’t able to live a life that I was passionate about. I’m done with that.

I’m also a big believer in modeling which is the principle of finding someone else that is or has done what it is that you want to do, study them, repeat whatever it is that they did(or are doing) to achieve the same goal that you’re after and it’s only a matter of time before it happens for you as well. As they say, “What one man can do, so can another” and I’m a firm believer in this theory. But despite my searching, I wasn’t able to locate anyone that has done anything such as what I’m attempting. Which is both good and bad.

I enjoy being independently unique as well as being the only one to accomplish a certain goal but I have to admit that it would have been so much easier had I been able to find someone whose foot steps I could follow but alas, no such luck. So I find that I’m having to dig extremely deep into my own well of creativity to design as many ways as possible to make my dream a reality.

That’s not to say that I’m not asking for the help of others, without a doubt I have no choice but to rely on friends whose knowledge in areas which I have no experience can only increase the probability of my dream coming true. One very special person, in addition to all of her technical assistance has given me something that was worth so much more. She showed me that I’m not the only person that sets beyond imaginative goals in life and that it’s Ok to Dream Big! Up to this point, I have only gone into detail about my journey with a couple select people, her being one of them, choosing to minimize the opportunity for negativity but she showed me that crazy is only in the eyes of the nonbeliever.

Perhaps I’ve gone on a bit long here as a way of making it a bit easier for me to swallow as well. I tend to be ok with this vision in smaller chunks but when I put it all together as a package deal, that’s when things get a bit overwhelming but another lesson in inspiration that I learned from my friend is that I shouldn’t worry about how it’s going to happen, just get started taking action and concentrate on how great it will feel when it DOES HAPPEN!

Now, at this stage, you’re probably saying Ok ok, enough of this buildup already, get to good stuff and I don’t blame you. After rereading this story up to this point, I’m anxious to find out what this Dream is as well. And it’s MY Dream! Luckily for us all, my Burning Desire isn’t to be a Traveling Balloon Animal Making Blogger and if you were hoping for something along those lines, sorry to disappoint you. Nope, it’s just a bit more intriguing than that. At least I think so anyway.

My plan is to combine all three of my passions into one creative package. Each one will help to create the opportunity for the other two. In a nutshell, my goal is to drive a Porsche GT3 RS across the lower 48 States, approximately 6K – 8K miles (probably more like 10K), visiting each of the States and various locations within each state.

At this point I’m unsure if these stops will be tourist highlights, perhaps Porsche Dealerships, Car Events, Antiques & Collectibles stops, all of that is still as of yet unclear. More than likely the emphasis of this entire journey will be on the world of Social Media sites like Facebook,Twitter and Google+ are what have made all the online connections possible, helping to create a community of sorts all across the U.S. Actually, around the Globe but that is another story, one which I’ll save for another time.

So along with this cross country Road Trip, I will be recording lots of video footage as well. I have quite a few ideas in that department but until I explore a bit further, lets just say that the videos will be something special on their own. And I am in the process of partnering with a few online friends to explore the possibility of syndicating these videos and having them spread virally throughout the Internet, not just on my main YouTube Channel.

There are so many online Video sharing Sites these days that for those Companies and Businesses that are seeking nation wide exposure and decide to advertise with us, both on the Porsche as well as on our Websites and Videos will garner all sorts of on as well as offline exposure that only an adventure as unique as this could provide.

So right there we have two of the main ingredients, the Porsche as well as the Traveling (especially since I’ll be driving cross country in a car that’s undoubtedly meant more for the Race Track than a Griswolds Road Trip) which when combined, those alone will create all kinds of attention. And when you add the Blog Updates(writing) throughout each week, there’s the third ingredient to complete my Trifecta. I also have a vision of writing a much more detailed book after the adventure has ended, which will really go a long way towards my dream of being an Author.

Tentatively I’m expecting to be spending a minimum of two months, if not three on the road, depending on the funding sources. We’ll have to see how all that unfolds. Speaking of unfolding, we’re also not quite sure about lodging at this point. I’m sure most have heard of Couch Surfing, where people offer a couch in their home(hopefully it’s in their home anyway) for a night. There are a few Websites online that focus on people that have couches available as well as people who are in need of a couch to donate. While the logistics of this might be a bit much to add to our long list of Things To Do, without a doubt that would only add to the adventure as well as the ‘online connectivity’ aspect so it’s still a distinct possibility. Again, this entire adventure is Internet based and we want to explore every bit of that connection. 

Well, there you have it, in a very lengthy nutshell. How does one go about reaching their goals, lofty as they may be? One thing is for sure, it requires action. And plenty of it. In one way or another, we have to get started. Once we make the first move, then we can decide on what to do after that. Like they say, “you can’t begin to steer the boat until you leave the dock” (or something along those lines) and so hang on, we’re about to shove off!

If you can relate to a Burning Desire within you to follow your true calling, to live a life that you’re passionate about, I’d appreciate hearing your comments and if you enjoyed this Post I hope that you will share it. Thank you.