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I was recently featured in a documentary called I’m Fine, Thanks. Fueled by a successful Kickstarter project, Adam, Grant, and their team hit the road on a journey across America to film the stories of a few people with stories to tell.

It’s hard to grasp how much was filmed, edited, and shipped on time, but the final render of the film was exported at 3pm on the day of its initial screening in Portland at WDS. I was fortunate enough to be there for the screening, and I’m incredibly proud to have been involved in such a powerful project.

What’s it about?

I’m Fine, Thanks is a new, feature-length documentary about complacency. It’s a collection of stories about life, the choices we all make, and the paths we ultimately decide to follow.

We examine the factors that motivate and drive our major life choices. And, most importantly, whether or not the path we follow through life – and the habits we form based on that path – are truly connected with who we really are as individuals.

This is a movie about the moment people realize the life they’re living is not the life that’s true to their heart… and, as a result, what they decide to do about it!

To me, it represents the story of my generation: a falling away of dated advice about careers, and the emergence of a new order. The story is one that needs to be told, and it’s a topic that’s close to my heart.

The video will be available soon (this month) and available for a few bucks. I hope you’ll take a look.

If busy people see you helping yourself, they’ll move mountains to push you along the path to your goals. If they detect laziness, perhaps not.

My mentors lament the disposition of this generation of graduating scholars and young professionals who “outsource their thinking” (to quote Frederick Townes) and refuse to do the hard work of…actually trying.

The universe itself will conspire in your favor when you set an intention and make approximations towards your goals, and the path towards your dreams rarely starts with asking for help.

I try to write here not from a position of an advisor, but as a student who’s learning out loud. I’m enrolled in what I’d like to think of as a real life MBA right now, which is absolutely what I need.

I’m not looking for shortcuts or an easy way out, and I know that the only way to go through the fire and not die is to move quickly. I do the work I do because it’s important and worth doing.

It requires a constant re-evaluation of my goals and progress, and ultimately, I’m the only person responsible for my own success. And failure.

Thanks for reading along.

I don’t know where he got the quote from, but my dad says it all the time:

“Oh ’tis a new day dawning, tell me will you let it slip uselessly away…”

We have access to the world’s information at our fingertips, and the barrier to entry in almost any field worth mentioning is lower than ever.

When you get right down to it, we aren’t really precluded by time or capital or access or opportunity. What we’re really precluded by is fear. Fear, stubbornness, and self-deception.

There will never be a perfect time to act (aside from two years ago), but this doesn’t stop people from launching businesses, having kids, and joining the circus every day.

The only issue worth discussing is whether or not we have decided that we are willing to put in the necessary work to achieve our goals.

Not the emailing and research and planning and operational items, but rather the emotional labor of beating down the brick wall of Resistance every day.

We surround ourselves with people who implicitly and explicitly reinforce the lies we tell ourselves about why we’re not further along, what we need in order to progress, and how much time is needed before we’re ready.

What we really need is to surround ourselves with is people who have long since sold out for excellence, to take an honest look at our own pathetic efforts, and to be ashamed.

Ashamed every day that we haven’t done more, sooner, and with more conviction.

And the next step — the only possible next step — is action.

The ideal position for you is unlikely to come from a Monster Job listing, or to even involve your resume. I’m willing to bet that it’s not something that you even apply for.

My friend Carl tells the following story:

I crossed the street with the Naked Cowboy last year. I asked, “how’s it going?” He said, “I have the best job in the world.” He may be right.

You might need to create what you’re looking for.

[Fun fact: Mr. Cowboy owns the trademark to his character and operates it as a franchise.]