Motion Creates Clarity
How often do you downplay your own successes? I fail to acknowledge the magnitude of my risks and accomplishments often.
As soon as I achieve a goal, I just move on to the next, and this is something I am becoming conscious of.
My current location is on the West Coast in a beautiful region of Central California. A small college town by the beach. San Luis Obispo.
Within a few minutes, I can drive on the beach and sand dunes, go surfing, lay out on a beautiful public beach full of happy people, or park on a mountain top with panoramic views of the city and ocean while I edit videos.
This area is not congested and homelessness is far less prevalent than anywhere I’ve been in a long time. This mission of “Adventure, Kindness, and Wellness” in the pursuit of freedom and self sufficiency sounds foreign and crazy to some. To others, it sounds romantic and inspirational. Few, if any understand a journey like this if they have not engaged in some form of parallel experience.
Just over two-years ago, I was at the end of a 7-year phase, living in the place that I wanted to be most in the world. Breckenridge, Colorado. One of the two most visited ski towns in America. See the Book of Mike G YouTube for more awesome videos!
When I moved there in 2014, it was still possible to own a home, buy land, build something, and create a middle-class life through hard work and consistent income. Within a few years that dream became unobtainable. Even with jobs like grocery stocker paying $30.00 per-hour by the time I left in 2021.
Our housing economy and the community were changing quickly and in 2020, that process accelerated exponentially.
By 2021, our town of 5,000 residents had "lost" four-thousand housing units of all sizes to wealthy Air BnB and short-term rental owners from different states and countries… Housing for local workforce was effectively gone. Literally impossible to find. Thus the concept of a 4x4 camper that fits into a normal parking space and has room to comfortably work on my laptop. Sadly, after 7-years living the ski town life, I had to return to my hometown.
Once I lost my housing as the result of my divorce, I could not find anywhere else to live and honestly did not want to live in that small town and watch my ex wife move on. I knew everyone, everyone knew me. It was just time for a new chapter. I
came home to Wichita defeated, depressed, but out of debt with a couple thousand dollars in the bank.
I returned at age 39. After a few weeks, I stepped into the gym for the first time in years. Here, I developed habits and made changes that will be beneficial for the rest of my life.
I had the opportunity to take my contract work for the world’s largest custom motorcycle manufacturer, Big Dog Motorcycles and turn that work into a full time job for the next year.
During a moment like this, if one chooses, it is a wonderful time to truly assess what you desire your life to look like.
If you ever find yourself having lost a relationship, housing, possibly credit and additional objects, it can be one of the most liberating feelings, if you take the moment to acknowledge the gift of freedom that you have received.
My intention was to stay home for a year, save some money, figure out my next destination and make the move.
I obtained my Cannabis Masters Degree from Cannabis Training University and began pursuing that as a career path, but without any real direction. Previously, I worked in the industry and thought it could really be a good sustainable career path.
It’s funny how much time, money, and resources went into my prior university degree in video production and journalism, yet I never found the place I fit into the world happily trading my hours for dollars to make another person, party, or business profit.
So, I got myself locked into a 1-year lease to work with Big Dog Motorcycles. I stayed home for a bit over a year, then my engine broke down and needed to be replaced.
During this two-year period at home, I spent hours upon hours daily, thinking about Who I am, who I want to be, and what purpose I will pursue with this moment of freedom in my life. Remember, I was debt-free with cash in the bank when I arrived home.
Due to the engine replacement and taking a risk with a different friend’s business, which did not turn out fruitful, I was now $13,000 in debt on high interest credit cards.
Around this time, my mindset began to shift. Now that my eyes are open, I have been focusing on shifting from selling my skills and abilities to an employer to realizing all of my past challenges have been equipping me to pursue my own path if I can just find the right direction.
As a Video Producer of 17-years, I finally realized something so simple. I can make a legitimately sustainable career creating content for YouTube. The hard part is developing the concept, believing in myself enough to fully commit to the challenge, and being willing to see things through, even in moments of stagnation or hardship.
After deciding that I was completely serious about my YouTube career, I had to define my channel and content. With much time and thought, I developed the concept of “Adventure, Kindness, and Wellness” Three things that are important to me in my own life and will be appealing to others who are also interested in similar pursuits.
If you delve into my first podcasts and live videos, you can see how much of an amateur I am in front of the camera, even with nearly two-decades of professional experience behind the viewfinder. I was never interested in sitting in front of the camera in a studio and talking. At the same time, the adventure element that is supposed to drive everything was just not present in the flat, industrial conservative Midwestern city of Wichita, Kansas.
The clarity I sought was still far away. At the same time, I was 40, closing in on 41, living in my hometown for nearly two-years.
At this point, the reality of my own mortality started to become a prevalent part of my conscious thought process. Around that time, I realized that if I didn’t have a drop-dead date for departure and a destination, another year could pass and I might be in even worse financial shape, or something else could happen that kept me locked into a place and life that I did not want.
So, without having ever been there, I chose Palm Springs, California for my Winter destination.
Next, the Redbull Imagination freestyle motocross event popped up on my Facebook feed and happened to land on the last day of September 2023. This was pretty close to the time I wanted to depart for my next adventures, and even though it is one of the biggest and most progressive Redbull FMX events in the world, it was only a few hours away from home in the middle of nowhere.
I bought my tickets and set this event as my drop-dead departure date.
So much has happened since that time. Make sure to check out my channel to see all of the adventures I have shared since then.
The point of this story isn’t to describe the adventures, but rather to explain how important it is to start moving, even if you don’t know exactly where you’re going.
At this point in life, I know I can be some thing amazing for myself and I have the ability to make this world a slightly better place.
I will be selling myself short and depriving the world of the gifts I can produce if I throw out all of the skills, experience, and fortitude I’ve developed… This is exactly how I see trading my hours for dollars to build something for someone else, literally throwing away my strongest attributes that I have painstakingly developed throughout my life.
What happens when a person like myself with this much experience and professional skills begins working for others? most of their skills and experience are disregarded.
That person is trained to follow directions, produce the result they are told, and use a small portion of their knowledge and experience. Meanwhile, all of their capabilities and strengths outside of those directions are not utilized, even if they are the most valuable skills the employee possesses.
When I recognized how much of my time and energy will go into selling myself to others for their benefit, I realized that I was disregarding my ability to do amazing things with my life for myself and for others.
The amount of work, stress, dedication, education, time, and energy that goes into seeking an employer is substantial.
I’ve come to the conclusion that in my life, I can dedicate that time and energy to my own pursuits… If I have the self discipline and dedication needed, I will be able to produce a far better outcome in life that will last the rest of my life, and it will only take a few years of hard work, dedication, and discomfort to get off the ground. The hardest part is getting started.
Living in a world full of modern comforts, conveniences, and working for others while eliminating the need to figure things out and make them work, I see American culture turning weak, soft, and dependent. Not to mention depressed, unhealthy, and addicted.
One of my biggest pursuits in life is freedom.
What that means to me is that I am able to thrive without having to depend on an employer or clients to allow me the ability to feed myself and pay for shelter.
It means living beneath my means, owning land outright, and building my piece of the American dream with hands-on sweat equity instead of trading 30-years of my life for the currency to pay interest and taxes on, while not being able to save enough to comfortably retire.
Realizing that I am selling myself short following the directions of others for their profit, and understanding that life is getting shorter by the day, I no longer have time to waste, dreaming, thinking, and hoping while living a soft life full of comfort and convenience.
All of the comfort and convenience was coming at a high price. It was keeping me from moving forward and pursuing the man that I am capable of becoming. It was making me numb my dissatisfaction with alcohol, and it was not allowing me to become my authentic self.
Instead, it was forcing me into a mold that I was not suited to fit into.
This is where I do not give myself enough credit for what I have accomplished… Check out my channel to see all of the hard work I did to prepare for this new life I’ve decided to design and pursue.
I’m now on the West Coast, living in a place that I really like, making 4x the same income for literally the EXACT SAME JOB with the same company.
My location is perfect for my vision of parking my 4x4 mobile office camper in beautiful places to work on my laptop and shoot amazing, visually appealing videos.
By the time I began generating an income in California, I had accumulated several thousand dollars in credit card debt from the second friend’s business I wasted my time with, combined with travel expenses, and 20-days without income.
At the same time, I’m years ahead of where I could be if I stayed in my hometown with low income and a low cost of living. Especially sense my transmission is now failing and will also need to be replaced with credit over the next few weeks.
But…
Imagine if the transmission broke down in Wichita and I did not depart on the day that I set. I would likely still be there, working for so little that I can’t pay for the transmission or get on the road. I wouldn’t have the subject matter or visually appealing locations to capture content and tell my stories… Who knows, maybe I would have gotten myself a DUI or worse. (I’m 81-days alcohol free today, by the way.)
My path is still fairly undefined. It is coming into focus and I am learning more, while improving my plan, tactics, content, and online presence daily.
When I think about how far I’ve come over the last two-months, I realize how substantially vital this decision to move forward and risk everything I had left to put into this life truly is.
When I consider the monumental challenge of my failing transmission, I recognize that it is just another opportunity to build more fortitude, overcome a hard moment, and become even more dedicated to the mission that I am on.
Now, this challenge is part of my story that I am still writing. At the same time, I’m locked in. I’m on the West Coast, I have solid income, and even though I will be able to move on soon enough, I’m going to embrace this moment. Work hard, pay off the transmission and some additional debt, while continuing to create content, learn, develop, evolve, and pursue my mission of self-sustainable freedom with the theme of Adventure, Kindness, and Wellness.
When I think back to the moment that I chose the date 9/30/23 for my departure, I know that it would have been much easier to work for even another month before departure, yet I also recognize the substantial progress I have made on my mission over the last two-months, and in the long run, I believe that a single month’s progress is worth far more than the money I would have been able to save and dedicate to this adventure.
Now, my blurry vision of the future is coming into focus… Choosing a departure date and location were possibly the most valuable things I could have done for myself at that time.
Now, I am in a position where I cannot find a better path or option than to stay the course that I am on, sail straight through the rough waters of transmission troubles.
Along the way, I have come to the conclusion that I have a far FAR higher likelihood of achieving the financial freedom for myself on this path, than wasting any more of my precious hours begging employers or clients for work, or going back to college for an MBA.
When my mind finally realized the substantial limits of the career world, it became obvious that the world the Boomers experienced will produce less buying power in my lifetime, and basically no chance at a comfortable retirement if I try to do things the way they did.
When my mind was able to break free of the idea that I must do what education and society says I should, then I began to realize that every moment not spent pursuing my dreams, goals, and vision were moments lost that I could never get back.
And now, here I am on the coast, proud of the progress I’ve made over the last few months. Moving towards my dreams on a daily basis, and making good enough money to pay down debt promptly and free up more time and money to focus on my desired outcome in life.
If I didn’t set that departure date and location, I would not be as far along as I am now, even if this is just the very beginning.
So if you are ever feeling stuck or lost, take some real time to understand your personal mission. Choose an outcome and a time. Commit to it, even if it is uncomfortable, then take action.In the end, you will develop courage, self esteem, grit, and joy. True joy.