The most difficult goodbye’s for me is saying it to old habits. Ironically, I think those are the easiest to keep around and justifying it. Let’s be clear: there is nothing inheriantly wrong with habits. After all, brushing your teeth every day to keep your teeth and gums healthy is a habit. Regular exercise can be a habit. Reading a book every night before going to sleep instead of being on a device is a habit.

But, here’s the question: Where are your habits leading you? Do you want to end up there at the end of the day? The week? The month? The year? 5 Years? 10? 25? After all, we are only going in one direction at a time. We cannot being going forward and backward at the same time. So, understand where that road leads and choose whether you want to be on it.

Often times we continue doing the same thing mainly because it’s familiar to us. It’s the known. Like it or not we know what it’s like to be out of shape, 25 pounds overweight and not having any passion for specific work. We must move beyond the known into the unknown. We have to be healthy enough (mind, body and spirit) to realize the road we are on – and it may be a difficult one straight uphill, is the perfect place for us and where it leads. This becomes the unknown.

The unknown can be frightening no doubt about it. But, we must understand that pure creativity comes out of the unknown as well. If we can allow it. That’s the challenge. We must learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable in the unknown.

Even though we might not know where we are on this road in the middle of nowhere, we have the instincts to realize if we stay on it long enough by putting in the work, it will lead us to somewhere.

When have you traveled through too many countries? When have you given enough of your time? When have you seen too many sunsets? When have you refined your craft enough? When have you met too many people? When is enough, enough? Maybe never.

That’s okay most people want more of a good thing. We all do. There’s nothing wrong with that, but when we’re not able to appreciate the moment we’re in how could we possibly believe we’re going to be satisfied with an end result somewhere in the future. It’s a vicious cycle. It’s the child at Christmas tearing through gifts so he can get to the next one and tear that open. The adrenaline of opening up multiple gifts and not even noticing what they are is more of a rush than opening one gift and enjoying it for what it is.

Slow down. Look around you. Go within. It’s not a race. You’re not competing with anyone. Focus on what’s important to you and develop that. Enjoy that. Love that. Although it may seem important to have the accolades, the money and the posts in exotic places, in the end all you have is your own life experiences and the relationships you’ve created. Invest in those.

In “A Soft Manifesto” by Cortney Cassidy, she writes about creating as an artist in the face of Capitalism. Cortney says, “while there is value in the unplanned results of creative output, there is more long-term value in knowing what you want to say and figuring out the most effective way to say it.” This resonates with me because I feel like as an artist I can get lost in the process. The creation, the message, the delivery and ultimately who it’s for. I suppose we could argue the artist receives as much as his/her audience does in the end and probably more.

What interests me is the “long-term value in knowing what you want to say and figuring out the effective way to say it.” As I grow older, I would like to think I am a bit wiser and am able to come to the table with life experiences that enable me to not only bring a unique perspective, but to do it in such a way that I’m able to fit these “pieces of art” into a larger picture in order tell a bigger story. Maybe not.

What can be problematic for me is to worry so much about the type of art or the larger picture – I end up not creating at all. That’s the real shame. There is a part of me that subscribes to the way Apple creates it’s products. Just get it out into the public and worry about getting the bugs out later.

Maybe what’s more important is to create.

Who am I? That’s a bit much, huh? As a person – who am I? Probably many different things. A Father, brother, son, an artist, a businessman, a coach, teacher, student, hero, antagonist, friend, author, and on. Does it matter? Probably not. Not really. We may THINK it matters, but it doesn’t.

I just want to be me. Who I am. And it’s probably changed over the years. Evolved. Grown. Changed even. I’m sure of it. It’s had to. I just want to be true to who I am. I want to follow that. Sometimes I think I’ve been so influenced by my environment – both good and bad – that I can never truly become me. Or maybe that’s exactly who I need to be. The person that has been forever changed by all of his life experiences up to this point in time. After all, we don’t live in a vacuum.

Maybe what I need to do is to accept who I am. That might be a better way to spend my time. Accept who I am in this very moment. And be present in it.

Not real complicated, but nevertheless a challenge in itself.

What does it mean to be whole? Maybe it means to be fulfilled. Happy. Done with life. Satisfied. Accomplished. Evolved in every aspect of your life.

Another way of looking at it might be to be fully present in the moment. Without an agenda, wondering where this will eventually lead or asking “what I am going to get out this?” It’s not easy to remain focused in the present moment in today’s world of distractions, short attention spans and the micromanagement of social networking and responses.

Here’s an idea: Focus on the whole. The whole universe. The whole population. The whole you. You as a complete and whole entity. Already perfect as it is. One that doesn’t need to acquire anything in order to be complete. Nothing. No higher social status. No more money. No new titles. No more followers. Just an acknowledgement of being whole in this very moment.

What does that do to you? How does that make you feel?

I know what it does for me. Slows me down. It makes me want to stop the frantic race to nowhere. To breathe. To be still. To observe.

To be.