Stepping Into Action

Monday December 1st, 2008 - Chicago, IL/Lake Villa, IL

I had a fantastic day today and it didn’t have anything to do with winning the contest at Zanies last night. I barely even thought about that as a matter of fact. What put me in such an upbeat mental space was actually getting off my ass all day and getting things DONE.

It’s hard enough to focus on just thinking of doing something but then physically doing it is something completely different. It takes guts to take action and too few people in life ever actually make anything happen. They talk about it and dream about it but getting out there and making it happen never seems to come. I don’t want to be one of those people.

I have to fight it every day though. I get in my moods and wander off course and worse yet I don’t really have a course. How can I expect to make myself a winner if I don’t even know what game I’m trying to play. Random effort produces random results. I don’t want that. I want to make my life something to be proud of for me and other people to study.

I got up early and looked around to see what I needed to do first. I saw many things I’ve been letting slip and rather than let it get me down I decided I would use this first day of a new month to do my running around chores I’m not thrilled about and get them over with.

First on the list was breakfast. I know I need to make a habit of eating one every day but I totally don’t and I’m going to have to work on it. I should plan it the night before and be ahead of the game but today I went to the Red School Café to see if my cutie waitress was working. Bingo! There she was. I hadn’t seen her in a while and she still remembered me.

I finally got to ask her if she wanted to come to see me at Zanies this week. I gave her a business card and told her to call me if she wants to come. If she does I’m sure she’ll do it and if not it’s not the end of the world but at least I got to ask her. That’s really the reason I went there. The food is just ok and pretty expensive but the people are very entertaining.

After breakfast I went to get a haircut. I’ve needed one for a couple of weeks and as I’m getting older I like them less and less. It’s fun when there’s a hot babe rubbing her female charms all over me from the shoulders up but that happens way too infrequently. Usually I have to settle for Edith Bunker with garlic breath telling me about her stuttering nephew.

No hot babe today either and I’m sure she was probably disappointed with me too but at least I got it DONE. It’s out of the way for another few weeks and then I went to do a load of laundry that’s been piling up for a couple of months. It always feels comforting to have my socks and underwear repertoire at full strength in case my waitress cutie works out.

A guy has to have some quality underwear, especially early in a relationship. If I skip to blown out waistband and moth holes it doesn’t bode well for any chance of a long lasting love relationship. If I want a quality woman I need quality underwear and now I have it. If things go well I can go five or six pairs deep with funny slogans before I have to retreat to the solid colors. And NEVER would I wear the ‘tidy whiteys‘. I can’t stand those at all.

After laundry I went into the city to drop off my dry cleaning and pick up my mail at the UPS Store near Zanies. There wasn’t a show tonight but if I don’t go once a week it really starts to pile up so I figured I’d just get it out of the way. Plus there’s another hottie I like who works at the dry cleaner named Belle. She’s Korean and her parents own the place.

I’m sure I could probably get my shirts done cheaper in the suburbs but they are directly next door to my mailbox place so I go there because I got to know Belle and I really think she’s a sweetheart. Her birthday is September 11th and I brought her a card and chocolates last year and I thought she was going to jump over the counter she was so happy to get it.

I doubt if anything will come of it and her parents are very protective of her and I totally see why. If she’s by herself she’s really fun but if they’re there she’s very quiet and she is almost a totally different person. All I know is whenever I see her it brightens my day so I go there to get my shirts cleaned even if it costs a little more. Life is too short to nit pick.

After that I went to eat dinner with my speaker friend Todd Hunt. Todd is probably one of if not the best marketer I’ve ever seen and I always learn from him. I help him with the jokes in his presentation and he throws some of his marketing ideas my way. It’s worth it.

After that I went to Jim McHugh’s house to drop off a master copy of my one day class seminar notes. He and his partner Rick Young are trying to get more corporate stuff going for the new year and he thinks this could be a possible sales tool. I think it could be too.

The bottom line is I got out of bed and scrubbed up and went out and planted some nice seeds today. Whether I ever have a date with my waitress or Belle doesn’t matter. I put in face time with both of them and that’s a positive. Getting laundry and a haircut off of my to do list really clears it up for some much more important stuff. It was all very positive.

I intended to start answering my once again growing stack of emails and phone calls to return but I didn’t have time. I will make time tomorrow and I intend to pick right up and keep the momentum going I started today. One day is great but now I need to make habits of all the things I’m starting. Time is running out and wasting any more days isn’t smart.

This is the best way to overcome depression and laziness and even the idiots in my life I don’t respect who are trying to pimp my efforts. Not thinking about anything else but that which I can control is exactly the right thing to do. I need to drop out of whatever the rest of the crowd is doing and keep listening to my inner voice. That’s where all successes lie.

I sincerely hope I’m able to keep this mindset going the rest of my life. I don’t expect to be perfect and always make the right choices but choosing action over idleness is exactly the right choice. Especially now. I’ve had some lumps in my life but they didn’t beat me.

This is the time to rework as much of my life as I can. Starting today by tackling a few normally undesirable chores was a momentum builder and a slump buster too. ACTION is what’s important and today I spent an entire day taking it. Maybe I do have some hope.