Hiding from the real Hustle

So I have been at this hustle thing for 7 months now. What have my "7" hustles been?

#1 - To do one productive thing a day
#2 - To follow my calendar to-do list each day .... Oh and to get healthy
#3- To find a job .... Oh and to get healthy
#4- To take the stained glass class and work on my "big dream" .... Oh and to get healthy
#5- To prepare my clothes and food for the week on Sunday to make my new job easier .... Oh and to get healthy
#6- Summer School started and my plan was to find a way to make it all work together .... Oh and to get healthy



Hmmm see a theme there ever since month 2? Notice each month the one thing that I could do that would have the most impact on my life is always my side hustle or an after thought. I am roughly 35 pounds overweight. I take medication for high blood pressure. My dad's ENTIRE family is diabetic. I can NOT continue to let this sit on the back burner.

So why am I?

Why isn't it my up front most important hustle?

Truth be told I don't need to "hustle" to do glass art. I LOVE to do glass art. (I was thinking of setting project goals for my glass work this month) What I need is to exercise, what what I eat, and get HEALTHY. I have listed it each month but I have never made it a priority. Truth be told I know why.

Because it is HARD!

Because I don't want to do it!

Because exercise sucks!

Because I don't want to give up eating the crap that made me this way!

Because *sigh* want to do the easy stuff and call it hustling. That is what I have always done. I can be fairly successful with out much effort. Successful enough to impress most people with what I have accomplished with out tackling the really hard stuff.

But this isn't like getting all A's in school but not pushing to be #1 ranked because all As were easy but I might fail if I try for #1. Or being the very best at my job because I can do it with my eyes closed but not putting in for a promotion because "what if I don't get it" Or being the very best right hand man anyone ever saw but never being the one in charge in case I mess everything up.

This isn't just me chronically underachieving because that is safe.

This is my HEALTH. This is DIABETES. This is HEART DISEASE. This is me not able to walk up stairs with out being winded. This is me not being able to enjoy parts of my life because my stamina sucks wind.

And right now at this moment this is me saying my hustle is to lose weight and get healthy PERIOD. There will be no other hustles side or otherwise until I am truly  honestly putting that first. 

The good, the bad, and the ugly.... That thing I stink at.

So…Summer School. I think it is a fun idea. I am excited and I think it fits perfectly with where my brain was already headed with this Hustle.

Working on that thing I stink at. That thing that makes my stomach get all knotted and yucky feeling. That thing that deep down inside that makes me feel like I am not up to the challenge ahead. Because that is really what it all comes down to isn’t it?That thing that make us question our worth. That is the thing we are most afraid of.

So time to just lay it all out there. Shine a light on the ugly thing we try to hide. Or on the thing we use as an excuse even if we never say it out loud.

Here is my beautiful ugly secret. I have ADHD. I don’t mean I may have ADHD. I don’t mean I get a little distracted. I mean I went to one of the most prominent neuropsychologist in the nation to be tested. He did three days of testing and then gave me his opinion. “The most clear cut case of Adult ADD I have ever diagnosed” There is nothing like being special LOL.

But to make it more special I am twice exceptional (gotta love the terms) I am Gifted with co-morbid Attention Deficit Disorder. Ain’t that special.  So I struggle with realizing I could do so much more but knowing I lack the focus to make it happen.

I would like to just take a moment for a side note here. If you are of the opinion that ADHD doesn’t exist or doesn’t exist in adults or is just a medical gimmick please keep your thoughts to yourself. I used to be one of you and I really don’t have it in me to argue about it anymore. I have accepted it but I don’t want to make a case for it.

So now that I have admitted all that out loud, I want to say that I (and most other ADHDers) have a very special gift. It is called Hyper-focus. 

It is true I have a hard time staying on track...but when something catches my attention yea buddy it is laser tight focus time. I forget to eat, forget to sleep, forget hygiene, forget to pick up my kids, forget we need dinner, forget ANYTHING else exists. Now trust me this really truly can be a gift (you wouldn’t believe how much I can accomplish) This means when I truly decide it is time to lose weight I eat, breath, and sleep whatever method I have decided on as long as that is my focus.

But it is also a curse because I eat, breath, and sleep that method until… yep until the next thing that catches my attention. Then that thing becomes the ONLY thing I think about and what mattered a month ago isn’t even on my radar.

This is why monthly hustles have both worked for me and haven’t worked for me. Because I don’t blend it all together well. Instead I move from one thing to the next leaving whatever the last thing was about 80% done. I am really good at 80% not so good at 100%.

So what do I stink at? I stink at pulling all the shiny things together into one big picture I can work on. And that is my summer hustle. Finding a way to juggle my short term hustle (getting healthy enough to truly live), with my long term hustle (stained glass studio on my little homestead), with real life (my house and my day job and my word of the year… community).

Wish me luck because this will be the biggest thing I have ever attempted.

But I should be fine cause I have a motto:

“Make a plan not an excuse!”

Shell

It is All in the Timing.

So, do you believe things happen when they are supposed to? So you think we can miss windows of opportunity that we just can't get back or does everything happen exactly the way it is supposed to?

What would you give to have 4 months off with pay to do nothing but work on your Hustle? I just had that time and I feel like I blew it. Some of you may remember that my hustle for the month of March was to find a j. o. b. Now that I am working everyday I am looking back on my time from December-March when I was on unemployment and I am so sad that I let that time slip away.

It doesn't matter that it was 4 months well spent since I didn't even know what my dream was before I signed up for that January Hustle. It doesn't matter that I met the goals I set for each month as I fleshed out the plan for what I really want my life to look like.

Now that I know how I want to spend my days I can't believe I let that 4 months slip away. I mean seriously can you imagine 4 months paid leave. Husting on your dream all day! How cool would that be? Now here I am coming home tired and trying to find an hour to hustle. Trying to balance my family time and my hustle time on the weekends.

Honestly I know my time wasn't wasted. It took me a month just to process the shock of the company we relocated half way across the country for shutting down with no notice. Then it took my first month of hustle to put myself back together again. Logically I know that, but still deep inside there is this voice that says "Think of all you could have created" "Think of all you could have learned" Think of how much further you could have been on your hustle" If only...

But I did not use that time to create physical projects. I used that time to recreate myself. And the simple fact is I can't get that time back. Would I do something totally different with my time now than I did for those 4 months? You had better believe I would because this hustle has changed who I am and what I believe I am capable of. It has allowed me to tie a vision to my dream. I can't get those 4 months back so I need to stop beating myself up about the wasted opportunity and get to Hustling now!

Okay May! Here we go!

So here we are in May. This is a busy month for us as both our kids birthdays are in May. I am looking forward to warm weather and being able to get outside. Doesn't the nice weather just make you want to make your dreams come true!



Last month (month 3 for me) we were challenged to think about our big dream. I have one! You can rad about it here The Big Dream! My dream is long term. I am talking years. So what I did last month was form two hustles. My long term hustle and my monthly hustle. I am still working on both. I am not changing either one this month. I am still working on learning Stain Glass art techniques and I am hustling my way to healthy.

But for these two hustles to work there are things that are going to have to change... Great tie into Jon's email for today. It was all about change.

"For the next week, honestly write down what being faithful to your dream will mean to other parts of my life."

Boy, what a question. I have been thinking about it all day and there are things that I will have to change to make these two hustles happen. For everything you add to your life there is something that has to give. I will be working on a plan this week and taking a look at where I am wasting time that could be put to good hustle use! 

I do know what my goals are for this month. I know is that for my getting healthy hustle I am adding exercise this month.  My plan right now is to take this first month slowly and walk my dog because I am so out of shape I don't want to do to much to fast. I know if I do that I will get discouraged and quit. For my stain glass art I want to do one stain glass project and attend one fused glass workshop.

I will work on my "change list" through out the week and let you now how it is going.

Hustle Up! April where did you go?

Well I had a good April. Things got kinda crazy mid month and I stopped blogging each day but still April was a good month. Here is a bullet point list of what I accomplished.

• I started a new job!

• I planned 5 outfits each Sunday completely put together and ready to just put on.

• I planned 7 dinners each week so lack of planning would mean bad for us expensive take out.

• I planned 5 lunches each week and actually took them and ate them.

• I planned 5 breakfasts each week that I could take with me and eat on the road.

On a side note all this planning for the week ahead was revolutionary for me and I don't want to ever go back!

• I took a stain glass class and finished my first project.

• I joined the 5 AM club.

• I started going to bed at 10 PM so I will be rested.

• I traded my blazer for a car that gets good gas mileage for my commute (cha-ching)

I want to add that I did all this while learning a completely new and fairly complicated job. I might not have done everything I wanted to do in April but seriously it was a pretty darn good month. I am proud of what I accomplished and can't wait for next month.

Gettin' Schooled

So I have spent the week thinking about Jon's week 2 email. I love to learn so the idea of treating our dream as a learning experience is awesome to me. Here are my answers to this weeks questions:

1. Find alumni. This one I am working on. I have a plan though. I will be attending festivals and art shows all this year hoping to meet other stain glass artists.

2. Find professors. This one is fairly easy. There is a person who owns a shop an hour from my house and he is who I am learning from. 

3. Find classes. I am actually taking classes so I don't have to design one I am taking one. However, I have thought of things I would teach. 

4. Find out what the diploma is. For me the diploma would be selling a piece of my stain glass art. 

Loving the Hustle: My new idea.

So when I first found myself unemployed last December (Merry Christmas we are closing the company) I did what I always do and I went to the library. I started reading everything I could about searching for a job. Some was good advice some was not. Some was useful and some was dated but without a doubt the best book I read (actually listened to in this case) was 48 Days to the Work You Love by Dan Miller.

He talks about options you could consider other than traditional 9-5. I would love something other than traditional 9-5. Not meaning I want to work less just meaning I want to work different. I just had no idea what I would do. I wanted to avoid anything remotely MLM related. I just couldn't think of anything. He said "Has the loss of your job caused you to be an accidental entrepreneur?" But I was at a loss. What skills could I offer other than sales (I do NOT want to be in sales again).

So months passed and I found a job. Awesome. I have been dreaming big about stain glass art and hustling monthly on getting healthy and everything is rolling ... rolling like a river.

And then .... today I was driving to work.

I  kept thinking about what Dan Miller said. I thought about Jon Acuff hiring his Virtual Assistant, then I thought about a couple of people in the 30 Days group who are working as virtual assistants and I thought that would be awesome. I would love to be a virtual assistant but I don't have the experience for that. My Microsoft office is passably good but aside from that I don't really have those skills.

I was thinking what a shame it is that I didn't have the skills to do something like that at home. I mean really what skills could I use? In my last job I managed 165 employees. You can't do that from home. I mean other than that the only thing I know is Real Estate (I sold real estate for 7 years). Then it hit me...

I could offer my services as a Virtual Real Estate Assistant. I could do all the busy work that agents use as an excuse to not do what they really should be doing.  I can create newsletters, ghost write blogs (is that ethical?), update social media, hand write notes, call FSBOs, manage contact data bases, prepare mailings,  update web pages, create flyers, create virtual tours, and on and on. I am no longer licensed, as I have no interest in selling real estate, but I do all those things listed really well.

Ideally, I would like to offer my services to numerous agents in small time blocks so it is affordable for them and then the smaller, newer agents could afford some help. I have no idea how I will get clients or how I will decided what to charge. I am working on that part. But I am loving the idea of using what I did for 7 years and turning it into something I would enjoy doing.

However, I would like to say that I wish my brain could work on my schedule. It would have been great if I had of thought of this while I was still home instead of having to learn a new job while this idea is trying to dominate my thoughts!

Now for those who know about my Stain Glass studio on some land with my chickens and goats dream have no fear. That is still my big dream. This idea is an idea of how I could use my life experience to bring in steady income what I work on my big dream.