Sean Ritchey

I’m not sure if it makes sense to write a blog post on leaving my comfort zone while sitting on my porch, in a comfortable chair, with my feet up, and a delicious cold beverage by my side.  Maybe this post should be about irony.  Or how privileged my life is that at 4:00 PM on a sunny June day, I can just sit around and ponder about life and the world – that I didn’t have to walk seven hours to get drinking water today.

*Sips before mentioned beverage*

Making the jump from knowing to being is not an easy undertaking.  It so deeply depends on ones willingness to leave their comfort zone and step into the unknown.   Right now, I feel myself on that edge.  I see what I want to do next, but I’ve come to that boundary where I can no longer play it safe.  I have to step out of my comfort zone.  Make the leap.  Take the risk.  I’m been on this edge for a few weeks now, walking back and forth trying to see if I can find another, more comfortable step forward.   But there isn’t one, the time has come, to take a deep breath and do it.

I think in order to attempt to create anything of scale in this world, you have to be somewhat delusional.  Because statistically, you’re so likely to fail. As just one example, 90% of new companies fail in the first five years.  But every entrepreneur believes they are the exception.  Otherwise, they wouldn’t bother starting their company in the first place.

It’s such a balancing act though.  If you’re too delusional, too disconnected with reality, you’re nearly guaranteed to fail, since you won’t be responding to your environment.  But if your overly realistic, you’ll just say, “There’s a 9 in 10 chance this company will fail, why bother?”

What I feel like I’m rubbing up against right now, is that I’m less delusional than I used to be.  Which on a the whole, I think makes me a better…what’s the word…person.  But I also think that I need to push myself off the edge a little bit more often, and get outside my comfort zone.  After all, it’s good for our heart to beat really fast sometimes…And it’s the “holy-shit” moments that we remember in the end.

And as the chinese proverb says, “A man grows most tired while standing still.”

Dear Sean

1. Cut yourself slack
2. Ask for help when you need it
3. Most decisions don’t require extensive research (follow your intuition)
4. Make sure you’re grounding your decisions in reality (do your research)
5. You’ll be amazed how much better you feel after you sit quietly and have a cup of tea and a cookie
6. It’s important to be nice to people
7. It’s important to be nice to yourself
8. Bring a jacket
9. By doing a little bit each day, you can accomplish incredible things
10. You can choose what you do; you can’t choose what you like to do
11. What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while
12. Stay hydrated
13. You don’t have to be good at everything
14. Put your hands in the dirt
15. If you’re not failing, you’re not trying hard enough
16. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good
17. Good can sometimes be the enemy of great
18. Remember to floss
19. Love with all of your being
20. The abundance in your life is in direct relationship with your gratitude
21. Slow down
22. Bring yourself fully to everything you do
23. Where are you right now?  Be present
24. What do you want?  Do it now
25. Go to sleep (and stay asleep for a long time – every night)
26. Breathe

Today, I was thinking about a blog post that Derek Sivers wrote in 2009, called No more yes. It’s either HELL YEAH! or no.  The post can be summed up in Sivers’ words like this:

If I’m not saying “HELL YEAH!” about something, then say no.

Meaning: When deciding whether to commit to something, if I feel anything less than, “Wow! That would be amazing! Absolutely! Hell yeah!” – then my answer is no.

I feel like I’ve spent much of my life aspiring to this [rather extreme] decision making model – using it more as a guiding principle than dogmatic doctrine.

Currently, I’m working full time doing something that doesn’t make me say “HELL YEAH” but which I recognize as having immense educational value for me personally (building an extremely high-end second home for someone).  I have a conversation with myself on a nearly daily basis, where I questions whether I should be living more boldly, pushing myself harder (but compassionately) to reach my fuller potential – doing work and living in a way that feel like a more authentic expression of my beliefs and passions.

Is becoming a master builder really a skill-set I want to devote 10,000 hours developing in this life? Probably not.  But does deepening my [already pretty good] mechanical skills as a builder seems useful and in line with my life goals?  Yes.

More and more, I’m coming to the conclusion that I’m not prewired to become a master at any one, clearly definable thing.  So far, I seem to have proven good at learning something about or getting good at a lot of different things, and then finding connections and leverage points between then to make successful combinations.

Building mastery tends to be about drawing clearly defined framework around a specific set of knowledge and skills, and then devoting the time (usually at least 10,000 hours) of practice and experimentation to hone mastery within that framework.  Ironically, what I seem to be really good at is drawing lots of different frameworks around situation, that allow for new and alternative possibilities.

In some ways, I see my life as an experiment in the art of possibility.  This consists of seeing how much I can expand the framework I’m drawing around my life and the world around me to open up new and exciting possibilities.

But where does that leave me today?  Who knows.  But I feel grateful to be living a life so full and abundant that I even need to ask myself these kind of questions.  What a gift, to have the space, privilege and support to conduct these kinds of experiments in the art of possibility.  What a gift it is to be alive.

And, I think perhaps my life is due for a little more “HELL YEAH!”  Why not?