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Why? Why? Guys, my 4 year old is in the “why” phase. It really is a frustrating time, and a wonderful one. He is amazed with the entirety of creation. He wants to know the why of everything. Why is it raining? Why are the ducks walking? Why are we eating? Sometimes it’s exhausting, but for the most part it’s a wonderful opportunity to inspire my son to love the process of learning, and that is one of my greatest responsibilities as one of his parents. But today I want to talk to you about “why”.

You might be hilariously wondering “why?” Well I’m glad you asked!

What is your why? Why do you do what you do? I bet every one of you can immediately identify what you do, and how you do it. You go to work and do the thing that earns you a paycheck. The paycheck is not the why though, it’s just a result. It isn’t the real why, the purpose, the belief. Few people actually have a why for what they do.

I look at the world in a different way than most people, I process information and approach problems in a different way than most anybody I have ever met. I’m not saying I’m special, it’s more like I’m just really weird. When I go to a client’s site to help them develop their property, I always try to figure out their why first, then I try to put together the vision of what they want to see and do in twenty years. And we work out from that core.

I’m going to use my why as an example.

“I believe in inspiring you to realize one simple truth: that you deserve to live a life of authentic liberty”

It took me a while to pin that down specifically, and I almost named my podcast Authentic Liberty. But ever since I really defined my why, things got a lot easier.

My what, is a podcast, videos, writing books, teaching at events and doing personal consulting. But my why is inspiring you to live a life of authentic liberty.  And the only way you do that is to let go of the past, release your failures, and be bold enough to fail over and over and over again.

My wife loves to draw signs or phrases on sheets of copier paper. She’ll get out a pen and just sit there and draw these beautiful signs with all sorts of different lettering that just fit together, this myriad of styles all smooshed onto a plain piece of printer paper. And it’s beautiful. I want to share with you what she wrote the other day. I know you’ve probably seen this somewhere else, but if you haven’t I want you to hear it now.

Failure isn’t falling down, it’s staying where you’ve fallen.

If you’re still wondering “Why do we need to know this?”, then you need to realize that we are the results of our thoughts and our actions. What are you shaping your life into? Freedom and liberty? Or bondage and slavery?

What are you focused on? What do you tell yourself? I encounter people all the time who are beaten down, who feel overwhelmed, depressed, or like they have no power over what happens to themselves. Well I want to tell you that you’re buying into a lie.

I want you to eliminate the following phrases from your vocabulary:

• “This is going to be so hard”
• “I can’t”
• “I don’t know”
• “I’ll try”

And I want you to replace them with these phrases:

• “This is gonna be easy”
• “I can do it”
• “I’ll figure it out”
• “I will get it done”

A wise alien once said in a galaxy far far away “Try not, do or do not. There is no try” I know that’s kinda cheesy but it’s the truth.

Once you change that mindset from a failure mentality, from that over-analyzing or over-thinking perspective and instead just get off your butt and do something, you just might find yourself succeeding. Since I’ve come a little bit into the limelight I talk to lots of folks who want to do something, but as soon as they start researching what to do with composting for instance, they find lots and lots of conflicting information and lose confidence in their ability to do anything. So I’m here to tell you, turn off the “experts”.

There are so many people out there who make themselves out to be experts and say things like “you have to do things just right or else you will do it wrong!” the problem with that is that these self-styled experts have to tell you it is hard to do because they need you to validate their authority and think that you can’t do it. That’s the only way they can be important. So shut them off. Stop asking those types of people for advice and for instruction on how to do things. I am not an expert, the more I learn about anything, the more I realize I am totally incapable of doing things the best way possible.

But you know what I do? I just try to do it well. I don’t try to do it perfect. Now I’ll be honest with you, I am a perfectionist at heart. I want to do it the right way, and get it perfect. But the older and wiser I become, the more I realize, that perfection is an illusion.

We as a culture are so obsessed with perfection, the problem is that we don’t see all the failures of those successful people. The reality is that if you desire to be successful, it’s a matter of just deciding you are going to do something well, and doing something about it. Then when you fail, you try again, possibly a little differently, but you try again.

Many people will tell you why you’re mistaken, why it’ll never work, but if you really believe passionately in what you’re doing, keep going, keep pushing on, and then if you don’t succeed, pick yourself back up and try again. Ultimately, if you’re that determined, you will succeed in life.

Another quote by the same man:

You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over. –Richard Branson Founder of Virgin Group (owner of more than 400 companies)

We live in an age where more knowledge is accessible for free on the internet than has ever been known to-date. You can learn how to do almost anything through YouTube and articles written online.

Your situation has nothing to do with what you can do right now. I’ve seen amputees become amazingly graceful dancers. People so paralyzed with fear of speaking to strangers become eloquent speakers. Just because they decided to do it.

I’ll tell you something about myself that few people know. When I was a kid, I was so scared of speaking to people, and my stuttering was so bad that I could hardly string together three words. It took me minutes to convey something that would normally only take seconds. I have my own podcast now. And before that I was asked to be part of an expert panel speaking to over a hundred thousand people every episode. I’m potentially speaking to millions of people right now.

I teach groups of people about plants, and growing things, about sustainable agriculture. I talk to strangers on the phone, buy a plane ticket, fly to their city, get in their car, sleep at their house and help them learn and discover the abundance waiting to be cultivated on their properties. I get to help people! As a young man, maybe 13 or so. I was so terrified of talking to girls that I would start to literally black out at the thought of approaching a girl I thought was pretty. Just going up to her and saying “Hi!”

I thought it was impossible. But I decided one day to just stop being that kind of a person. So I did. I felt like I was faking it, and maybe I was. Or maybe I was just re-programming what I thought was reality for me by changing my belief system. I decided to be different and I just did it.

I want you, the person listening to me right now, if you haven’t already decided this for yourself. Right now, decide to be a learner. Be passionate about pursuing new ideas and new skills. Pick a new thing you want to be good at this year and just do it. Put down the smart phone, stop wasting your time watching sports, and for all that is right and good in the world, TURN OFF YOUR TV!!!!!! I have never seen so much negativity and blaaaaaahhhhh from anything, like I do from major network news. Seriously folks, turn off the news.

Do something amazing with your life! Be an inspiration to others, help someone tomorrow, be a blessing to someone.

Don’t say “I can’t” don’t say “I don’t have what it takes”. Choose to make something beautiful this year. Pick up a coloring book, or a block of wood, and make it something good.

If you’re stuck in a situation you know is negative. If you are overweight, or drink too much. You don’t have to anymore. Just decide you are going to be different, and then do it.

And then when you fail, because you will, get back up, dust your hands off, pick the rocks out from under your skin, wash up, bandage yourself, and get back on the bicycle. You’re never going to be a better you, until you decide life is worth living.

So please, for your sake, for the sake of your loved ones, choose to live a real life. Get off your butt, get out there, and live life to the fullest, you never know when your last day will be.

Don’t wait for the right job, or the perfect mate, or the right income… Stop thinking too much! Just do something good! Notice I didn’t say do something right, or do something amazing. I said do something good. Good is enough. Good… is good……. enough.

Step outside of your comfort zone! Get outside of the normal for you. Find something that you want to pursue and just jump.

In natural systems, where is life found? Where is the greatest diversity of living elements found in a natural system? At the edge. It’s found at the edge of a forest, or the edge of a lake.

Someone recently was talking about how there is so much conflicting information on composting. Listen, it’s plant and animal materials that have rotted and turned into soil. If you want to make some compost and are over analyzing the right way, do this instead. Go get a lot of leaves that have fallen from trees, run a lawn mower over them or use one of those vacuum leaf blower attachment things with a collection bag that shreds the leaves and make a real big pile of shredded leaves.

That’s it… just make the pile of leaves and let it sit there until you want to use the compost. It’ll take a few months, but as long as they stay moist, it’ll make beautiful compost. Simple. I know I harp on it all the time, but if you want to learn how to garden, learn a simple easy method and just do it. Don’t worry about if it’s the best way. Because I’ll tell you a secret. It’s not. But beginners don’t ever do things right, or perfect. So don’t think about what’s perfect way to do it. Just do it some way and as you grow and learn, do it better the next time.

The reason you listen to this podcast is most likely because you believe what I believe. That every person deserves to live a life of authentic liberty. So if that is you, I want you to think about someone else who you think believes the same way, or maybe it’s a couple people, or a whole group. Please share this episode with them. We need more people like us who are willing to jump. Who are willing to risk failure for the sake of doing something good.

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s show, If you’d like to get in touch with me, please send an email to

nick@homegrownliberty.com

I hope you have a wonderful day, God Bless. And as always “Go Do Good Things”

Useful Links:

Tedx Talk on simple composting

https://youtu.be/n9OhxKlrWwc

#DGT

#HGL

#DoGoodThings

#HomegrownLiberty