I’m going to keep it a bit more on the lighter side tonight. Not everything needs to be profound and awe inspiringly brilliant, it’s not sustainable. Instead of digging deep and writing something prolifically life altering I’m just going to lay out some goals, dreams, and aspirations. There has been, over the years, TONS of things that I have wanted to do but have rarely ever followed through, following my passions is one of them (currently living and pursuing that dream). Recently I’ve been creating a bucket list or a goals list to start visualizing what is important and what is not important. I have recently discovered that the more I put things down on paper the more I’m committed to them. They move from being just a thought in my head to a task on a piece of paper, which then makes them a real object of desire and that motivates me to actually completing the set goals. In the last few months I have, in nearly every way, started a new chapter in my life. With that, I have needed to adapt to that lifestyle change so that I can ensure success and sustainability. Sustainability has always been a troubling factor when pursuing my dreams and aspirations so this time around I’ve taken a different approach: write EVERYTHING down. While sometimes this is extremely difficult I’ve been pushing myself to do it more and more often. If there is a spark of an idea, I stop what I am doing and jot it down in my notebook. If something good, bad, or nothing happened I write that down in my journal every night (yes I keep a journal, I’ll talk about the importance of doing so in another post). I free write every morning (this will be the topic of Wednesday’s post) and take notes on things I see, feel, and do everyday. By doing this it helps me flesh out a lot of the details to the millions of thoughts and ideas everyday. It’s not always easy but nothing truly worth doing is easy, it’s work to keep yourself happy and fulfilled, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. So back to my goals, dreams and aspirations. I get off track sometimes and because I get off track I need to stay focused. In order to stay focused I need to have goals. In order for me to give that goal 110% I need to have it written down to remind me whether or not I’ve checked it off the list. Anything that I have accomplished up to this point pertaining to the following major goals will be null and void because I want to be able to do all of these as a photographer. These goals won’t be in any particular order or weight to them, not right now at least. While some of these goals have time frames associated with them many currently do not. I’m only going to discuss a handle full of them and why they are important. If I did them all, we’d be here for hours reading through a plethora of pages. So here we go.
Visit ALL 50 states by the time I’m 30. Seems like a fairly typical task for someone but I’m currently 27, that gives me less than 3 years to accomplish this goal. I’ve already been to quite a few of the 50 states but I decided that on my 27th birthday I would hit the reset button and start fresh. I wanted to accomplish this task as a photographer and have all of those moments frozen in time. I want to be able to show, share, and tell the stories of my travels as a photographer not just a bystander. I want to be able to keep those moments in time and the people I encounter fresh in my memory. I want to have a story worth telling to other people aspiring to accomplish their own goals. What are the rules for this goal? I have to stay a minimum of 24 hours in each state and only ¼ of that time can be in traveling, otherwise I have to be on my feet, seeing the state, meeting the people, capturing the moments, and get a basic understanding of the place I am in. Preferably, I will spend a few days in each state visiting different parts but no less than 24 hours. The reason behind this is primarily to travel but to travel with purpose and meaning. I want to understand our country, meet new people, see beautiful sights, taste amazing foods, learn new things, and search, just for the purpose of searching for something interesting. Currently I am at 2 states checked off the list: Wisconsin & Illinois. There is such a vast array of things this country has to offer but due to our lack of traveling outside of our geographic location we seldom ever get to experience the rest of the country, let alone the world.
Which brings me onto this goal, slated to be accomplished by Summer 2015. Visit and live in Europe for a minimum of 1 month, currently I am set on France specifically, Italy is a close second. World crisis’ will further designate exactly where I will land to spend my month of exploring, learning, and experiencing different cultures but January will be my deadline for where I make my decision to hang my hat. Why you may ask, why not will be my retort. Just like Wisconsin is not the United States, the United States is not the world nor is Europe but it’s a start. Even though we have cultural backgrounds from nearly every civilization in the world they have been homogenized to “American” ways, softening the major differences between cultures and ethnicities. Europe has a very different pace and style than the US which I would greatly love to experience. France has been a dream of mine for many many years now so I have officially took the dream, put it to ink and made a real desire. This goal is also a task in being uncomfortable. Living in a land where English is not the dominant language, the pace very much differs from the US, and completely being out of my element will allow me to grow in a positive way further appreciating other cultures. Secretly, this is a two-parter, my other reason for wanting to stay in France is because of the 24 hours of Le Mans. I’m a huge sports car racing fan and the 24 hours of Le Mans is like my Mecca, Vatican City or Dome of the Rock. It is the site where every true race fan should pilgrimage to bathe in the glory of the motor Gods. The 24 hours of Le Mans so happens to fall on the third weekend of June in Le Mans, France. Might as well kill two birds with one stone.
A more immediate and recurring goal will be this site. I am setting a goal that EVERY Monday and Wednesday there will be a new blog posted; no, ifs, ands or buts. Additionally, a minimum of 20 photographs will go up each week. This will help me stay focused on developing my creativity, photography, and most importantly myself. This sounds like a simple task and for the most part it can be but things are always easier said than done. I will often feel like I don’t have the time, ideas, or energy to do this but I will need to learn to overcome those fleeting moments. Hell even tonight I was saying to myself that I’m just too burnt out and I have no idea what I’m going to write about but I pushed through those thoughts and carried on with what I needed to do. Now that all being said, I will continue to post content to this site even when it isn’t a Monday or a Wednesday because I’ve got so many things rattling up in my cranium that it’s just not feasible to keep it all to myself.
A lifetime goal that is absolutely essential to my general happiness and well being is to continue to develop my creativity and my photography. These two simple things have become my life blood. They’ve shown me many things about myself and what I want from my life. They have also given me a sense of fulfillment and joy where I no longer receive those same feelings from my day job. My day job has become a mundane task that I don’t look forward to anymore. It’s the mornings, evenings, and weekends I look forward to now, they are what is currently giving me value in my life. While I enjoy and very much grateful for the work I do, the people I meet, skills I’ve developed, and the paycheck I receive every week; it no longer satisfies and fulfills me. Which is OK and it is exactly why I’m doing the things that I am doing now. However, I don’t see this as being a sustainable aspect of my life but for now it is working. The thing I won’t sacrifice is my creativity or sense of joy & fulfillment. Things always have a way of working themselves out and currently I’m following my dreams, passions, and aspirations. I’m doing things for me, not to conform to a societal expectation.
Finally, I’m going to finish the list of goals with this; it’s simple, easy, a bit meta, and will keep me accountable to completing these goals. I’m setting the goal of setting more goals, I’m going to add a page to this site within one week of my list of goals, my bucket list so to speak. You will be able to look upon my progress, hopefully get inspired by some of things that I want to accomplish, create your own list, or join me in the journey but there will be accountability to stick to the goals. I need to do this so I continue to keep breaking my own barriers and pushing forward, sometimes it is incredibly difficult to keep up the momentum.
Well there you have it, a few goals, dreams and aspirations. This post wasn’t intended to be profound or inspiring, it is exactly what it is, an ability to keep me accountable and set the standards high for the things to come. I find it to be extremely therapeutic to be able to put all this stuff down for the world to see. Keeps my ass in check. I hope that you have gotten something out of this or that you will join me for the journey to accomplish some of my goals. Hell, I really would love to travel the states or the world with some of you. Going after your dreams all by yourself is a lonely journey and my dreams are not unique so why don’t we experience some of them together.