Stoke the Fire

Dreamers and doers, you know what is difficult? Maintaining the fire.

It's been a tough month with juggling time and fatigue. The full time job has been consuming. The babies, not sleeping. Home projects falling behind. The entrepreneurial side-hustle? Coals cooling.

If I'm going to use the locomotive as a metaphor, you can't pull a train when the coals are cold. As I'm looking at my train sitting on the tracks, I know what it's going to take to get it moving. I need to re-apply myself. One-step at a time, picking up where I left off. While it's important to break and rest, the train needs to get to it's destination.

What's going to get the steam moving? Fuel. What's my fuel? My purpose. What's my purpose? My faith and family. Both of those get me up in the morning. I wake up alongside my wife and the kids act as an alarm clock, at 4am, 5am, or 6am and anywhere in between. That's ok. I know I'm here to serve my purpose, the rest is nuts and bolts. Sometimes, you just need to remind yourself of that to get the fire going again. All the other stuff that slows you down is smaller and inconsequential. You just need to get the fire going again to blow through to the next train station.

As we dig and build out our visions using the various tool belts at our disposal, it's important to feed the engine that drives it all. What is your purpose and are you feeding it? Are you stoking the fire?