I know it’s been really quiet around here the last couple of weeks. Sorry about that. However, it’s been crazy-busy and, rather than settle for putting out content I wouldn’t have been pleased with, I figured it was better to say nothing than write something simply for the sake of writing. And, while my schedule is nowhere close to calming down, I’m adapting to it which means we should be able to resume regularly scheduled programming.

If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves. ~Thomas Edison

I got an email from a friend of mine yesterday asking for some help and advice. I won’t reprint the full email but a line in it jumped out at me:

I would love to connect with anyone you know who is looking for someone who is entrepreneurial-minded, has experience in project management, business development, online tech, and marketing. I’m looking for a salaried position with a company that cares about its employees.

This friend is a very sharp, hardworking person who is undoubtedly entrepreneurial-minded. That’s why the email troubled me. He’s looking “for a salaried position with a company that cares about its employees.”

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I have big dreams. You probably do too. Or maybe you did long ago. But then, somebody uttered those two words to you: “That’s impossible.” And the dream died. If you’re like me, maybe you’ve even said it to yourself – to your own dreams. Perhaps, like me, you told yourself that today.

But the truth is that the dream never really dies. It just gets shoved into a corner of your mind where it lingers as a constant reminder of what might have been – what could have been. We’ll never know. Or will we?

What’s impossible anyway? And who gets to decide?

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“Are you doing okay?” Lisa asked as I watched my Yukon Denali being driven off by the gal who bought it from me. Lisa knew how much I loved that truck and I’m sure she wanted to make sure I wasn’t on the verge of a mental breakdown.

Without missing a beat, I replied with this:

I’d rather love what I do than love what I drive.

As much as I loved my Denali [pictured above], it was just a truck. It didn’t (and couldn’t) provide any long term satisfaction for me. In a few short years, it would be “old” and would begin to be a financial drain on us.

There’s nothing wrong with nice cars. I like nice cars. Lisa and I had made a choice though – we wanted to scale back our lifestyle so that I could pursue full time entrepreneurship and self-employment. The truck was the last hold out in the string of things being sold off.

It was also that last piece of debt that we had and, to tell you the truth, it felt great. The payment on that thing was oppressive. We had already sold our house, paid off our credit cards, sold my motorcycle, paid off our other car (which we still have), cut up our credit cards, and moved into a two-bedroom apartment which we lived in for a year.

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I remember my first trip to Paris, France. My wife Lisa and I were on a cruise and the very first port of call was Le Havre, France. It’s the port you’ll use if you want to visit Paris since the city isn’t on the coast. Getting into Paris involves a rather long bus ride from the port to the city center.

In all honesty, I really wasn’t looking forward to it. We were only getting about four hours of total time in Paris which is like being dropped in New York City and being told to “enjoy all the city has to offer.” It’s impossible.

Additionally, never having been to any part of France before, I wasn’t expecting much from the people. I’d heard they didn’t care much for Americans and were rather rude. All-in-all, I was going to Paris on that first stop because I figured we’d regret it if we didn’t at least see it, but I wasn’t expecting to have much fun.

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In my last post on using your vision to guide your life, I made the analogy of life being similar to those mazes on the back of a kid’s menu at a restaurant. I decided to use a post to expand a bit on the analogy because I think there are valuable lessons for all of us there.

So let me share with you the 4 Reasons Life is Like a Maze – Plus 3 Simple Ways to Hack It.

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I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving holiday. Or, if you’re reading this from outside the US, I hope you had a great week!

Before the Thanksgiving weekend, I issued a challenge to the DON’T SETTLE community. The challenge was to create a written vision for how they want their lives to look in 5, 10, 15 or 20 years. I also followed that up with a post on the 7 key areas of life your written vision should include.

If you followed my challenge and created a vision for your life, you’re now ready to move on to the next step. (Note: even if you’re still working on it, I encourage you to read ahead so you know what’s coming next.)

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When you’ve decided to live your life by the motto DON’T SETTLE, you’re quickly going to realize that you can’t do it on your own. Regardless of the area (or areas) of life you choose to change, you’re going to need the help of others.

Where you find that help is critical to your success so I want to share with you five groups of people that successful people look to for support.

“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” – Charles “Tremendous” Jones

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Welcome to the first DON’T SETTLE Open Forum!

Did you know that today is “National Entrepreneurs Day”? It’s actually the first ever Entrepreneurs Day and I’m honored to share it with you, the DON’T SETTLE community.

In honor of this day, I thought it would be fun to do an Open Forum. I’ll pose a question and you answer it in the comment section below. Pretty easy, right?

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Yesterday, we looked at How to Create a Vision for Your Life. I also gave you the challenge of writing down your 5, 10, or 20 year vision sometime in the next 11 days (it’s now 10 days – put it on the calendar!).

If you’re going to work on creating a vision for your life, it helps to know the areas of life you need to think about during the process. So I’ve put together this list of the 7 key areas of life that every vision (or life plan) should include.

You can get more detailed, but you should at least cover these seven areas. These are not in any particular order and you’re free to rearrange them as you see fit.

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First, I just need to take a moment to express my gratitude for the response and support to the launch of DONTSETTLE.org. I am deeply humbled that you’ve joined this community and I thank you for all of your emails, tweets, comments and Facebook messages.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you! I will work tirelessly to serve you here on this site by providing great content, great resources and actionable steps for you to take to aide you on your journey.

Now…let’s dig in!

On yesterday’s launch announcement post, a comment was left by Sarah asking for small ways she can start embracing “Don’t Settle” to begin seeing change take place in her decisions. It was a great thing for her to ask for.

We’ve all heard the saying “Life is a journey” so frequently that it’s almost become a cliché statement that we blurt out when times get tough. But if we stop and think about it for a second, it’s really true.

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