Vanilla To The Grave

by Nate Croft

If you could design your perfect life, what would it look like? That's not a rhetorical question. Take a moment and let it sink in. What would you do everyday? What would your scedule be like? Where would you live?

People at conferences and seminars, authors, and “lifestyle business bloggers” often talk about this kind of thing to get you motivated about your dreams. And while sometimes a little cheesy, I think they are on to something in that “you can't hit a goal you don't have” kind of way.

The thing they don't mention is the hard and awkward work that lays before to take action on those dreams. Why? Because you have to change. You can say you like change all you want, but what you really mean is you like change you have control over.

I'm currently working towards this and I'll be transparent here as I relate my adventures in dream chasing and change. Ready? Here goes.

Life Explodes

I've just signed divorce papers ending a 5 year marriage. It breaks my heart. Please don't ever do this. I'll keep the details under wraps because some of you have known us and I want to be respectful and kind.

As this process began last year, I was in pieces, shut down and checked out. I didn't care about anything. While FortySeven Media was doing great, I wasn't. But that was about to change.

Last October on the way back from a conference in Portland, I read that a friend of mine that I haven't seen in ten years was going to be in Nashville for a day or two. So right after a six hour flight I got off the plane and drove 3 hours to Nashville.

I no longer lived in a box…

Then next morning we met at a coffee shop and did our best to do 10 years worth of catching up. And over the course of the conversation, I found out that she was there to see some other friends who were driving across the country making a documentary. “I would love to do something like that!” I said. Her reply? “What's stopping you?”

Normally, this is where I would cough up some lame excuses and change the topic. But today, I had no excuses. None. I just sat there for a few moments before I actually managed to say “Nothing.”

All the garbage that I'd normally offer up was gone. It was gone because I wasn't as afraid of change anymore. The thing I'd feared most had happened, and you know what? It didn't kill me.

Wonderful Messy Advenutres

Over the course of the next few months, I packed up, sold off, gave away, and otherwise rid myself of the stuff I didn't want or need. Some friends needed a place to stay and I had a house I wasn't going to be living in, so that worked out perfectly thank The Lord. Everything I need to live and work from the road was crammed into my 4 Runner like a game of 3D Tetris and I no longer lived in a box.