Yesterday, there I was at 8:30 pm in my home office typing away on the computer.
I committed to writing a blog post everyday. I’ve got to do it. Today will not be the day that I break the chain of daily blog posts.
Some days I get the blog posts written before work stops. Other days I find myself pounding away on the keyboard before I retire for my much beloved slumber.
I had already worked 14 hours that day. The first thing I did when I got home was lie down on my bed.
I was completely spent. I found something to watch on my iPad, so I could unwind and decompress from my day.
A few minutes later, I noticed myself dozing off. I can’t begin to tell you how much I love sleeping.
It had been a productive day. The only reason I was spent was because of the sheer amount of time I had been working.
Returning to my home office, I was staring at the screen as words came pouring out of my fingertips.
Sometimes I’m amazed at how quickly the thoughts find themselves on the computer screen.
Writing has been tremendously rewarding for me. I’m recalling events, beliefs, and struggles that I’ve had along the journey of my business life.
I had forgotten about that. Oh my, that was amazing.
Other times I’m finished writing something, and I look back at my words. I’m astonished.
Where in the world did those thoughts come from? That was pretty good what I just wrote.
Those were the thoughts running through my head when my dear two-year-old Zoe walked into the room.
There were only three of us in the house yesterday evening. My other two daughters were away at a sleepover, and my wife was out of the house.
Dad, my boy Levi, and Zoe. Levi was off playing a game. Zoe was playing with some toys.
I was typing a blog post about what the Apollo space program meant to me.
I was in the zone.
Then Zoe wandered into the room with all the delight and zeal that every most two year- old possesses.
She talks a mile a minute but most of her speech is unintelligible. Every day I understand her a bit more.
Currently, I understand maybe ten percent of what comes out of her mouth.
Shoes! Shoes! Shoes!
I had some wooden shoes on the floor next to me. The Dutch call the wooden shoes klompen.
I had bought them when I had lived in the Netherlands so many years ago.
The klompen resurfaced after my most recent trip to the land of tulips and windmills.
Zoe kept chatting away at me, trying to get my attention.
I was in the zone. Didn’t she understand?
When I’m in the zone, I’m in the zone.
Zoe wouldn’t relent. She keeps talking to me.
Then I had a flashback.
About twelve years ago, I was in my home office typing away at a computer.
Back then, I was in business school and always had more work than I had time.
Norah was my only child back then
She was almost two years old.
It was right before bedtime, and I had to get my assignment done.
Norah had a plastic toy set of farm animals. The toy set included a picket fence. Norah and I would play with the animals.
I would form a square with the picket fence. Then Norah and I would take turns putting the animals inside the fence and then put the animals outside of the picket fence.
Except for that night. I was too busy. I had to get my assignment done. That night I asked my wife to take Norah away.
Norah would just have to wait for another night to play animals with me. Another night when I wasn’t so busy.
Now Norah is a teenager.
I came back to looking down at Zoe. Zoe wanted time with me.
I made a different choice this time.
I got over my self-importance.
I picked Zoe up and put her in the wooden shoes. Then I remembered I had a pair of klompen on the shelf that were just her size.
I grabbed the toddler-sized klompen. Zoe squealed with delighted to have klompen that fit her just right.
Then I put my feet in my klompen.
Zoe grabbed my hand, and we walked around the kitchen.
Klompen pounding against wooden floors makes for a very noisy kitchen.
We trounced around and around the kitchen.
Then we sat on the stairs and chatted for a while. I don’t remember what she said, but I remember she talked.
After the stairs, she dragged me over to the freezer.
“Ice Cream! Ice Cream!”
I guess its time for ice cream.
“Where’s mommy?” she asked a couple of times.
“I don’t know, where’s mommy?” I replied.
Then my wife came home. I went back to my writing.
I thought for a moment and realized I had just relived my life from twelve years ago.
I’m a driven person. In the beginning of any endeavor, I throw everything I’ve got into it.
I did it when I was in business school. I’m doing it again with my new business, Ideal Money Life.
At first, there’s a lot of action, and not much happens.
It’s exciting because I start to figure it out. I begin to see the path unfold as my ideas and dreams start to sprout.
I realize that if I just keep at it, winning is a foregone conclusion.
Just show up, and I’ll claim the prize.
It’s intoxicating. This business game is the best game out there. It’s a big puzzle. It’s a blast.
Then the results start to appear. Joy erupts as all the effort bears fruit.
The business game becomes all-encompassing and it takes over my life.
I have to take the time to capture the moments when I’m pounding the ground with my klompen as I hold my two-year-old’s hand.
Work will always be there tomorrow.
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