Evan Sanders's Blog, page 86

Unshakeable Resolve

There’s this beautiful balance in life.

At times, it can come on as quite uncomfortable if you are scared of it. Suddenly, feelings wash over you like water to the shore, and if you try to fight them eventually the undercurrent gets the best of you. Sometimes, you just have to float out into the water and see where it takes you.

For me, I have always been one to get very excited about things and when new opportunities arise my blood has electricity run through it. I think the hardest part for most of us is staying consistent and grinding through the repetition of what you are attempting to do.

It’s hard.

It’s hard to bring it to the table day in and day out especially when the only person telling you to do this is yourself.

Recently, I read a quote that stuck with me. Hugh MacLeod said…

The pain of making the necessary sacrifices always hurts more than you think it’s going to. I know. It sucks. That being said, doing something seriously creative is one of the most amazing experiences one can have, in this or any other lifetime. If you can pull it off, it’s worth it. Even if you don’t end up pulling it off, you’ll learn many incredible, magical, valuable things. It’s not doing it—when you know full well you had the opportunity—that hurts far more than any failure.

He then went on to say later

Nobody can tell you if what you’re doing is good, meaningful, or worthwhile. The more compelling the path, the more lonely it is.

It’s a strange feeling going for something that you have wanted for the longest time. Things get very quiet. It’s not like leaving to start a life over in a different place where you don’t know anyone. That type of feeling I know very well. No the feeling is much more different. It’s like, the quiet times…get quieter.

As I write this, the image to actually describe this phenomenon just came to me.

IF the world is one big forest, and you are headed off in a direction that most people are not going, then you are…in time…going to hear less and less of the crowd off in the distance. Maybe that is a sign that things are going right?

I just have to say it was a little bit unexpected.

The interesting thing is that you are only left with the people who believe in you and what you are doing. Everyone else kind of falls off the face on the planet. They don’t want to go down that road with you because they aren’t really true true believers in the cause. I used to take offense to this, but over time I have started to see things for what they really are.

To travel into the unknown and to come back with stories is one of my favorite things to do.

Every time I go fishing I try to see just how far I can go up river. A year or so ago I went far far beyond where my dad and I had ever been and discovered what is now called “The Pool.” The perfect place to fish…with huge fish just waiting for you. The Pool is now where we hike to from the start, about a mile or two past where we would always stop. I would never have found that place if I wasn’t curious enough to see what was out there.

I am 5 days away from being halfway through this journey. If I were hiking that path to The Pool I would be almost halfway there. My faith in the process and what I am set out to do are not weakening…but growing stronger as the days go on. It is unshakeable resolve that has brought me to this place. I will continue to hike no matter how long it takes.

In taking a drastic turn, I want to say this.

I deeply respect those who are working on their dreams day in and day out…and who are making the sacrifices they know they have to make in order to accomplish their dreams. In my mid twenties now, I still see a lot of people my age going out and celebrating, drinking their life away, and partying like they used to in college. Everyone of course is free to make their own decisions, but in knowing a lot about these people, and knowing that they aren’t even close to where they want to be, I sometimes wonder what they are celebrating for?

I used to be caught up in the same thing as well.

I think it comes down to the fact that it’s really easy to actually go out and celebrate and party…just because. It’s incredibly hard to stay in on a Friday night putting in hours at the gym or editing or getting ahead on the clothing brand or whatever it is that you are doing. I tip my cap to those people out there who are making the sacrifices.

I never used to make them.

I would do things because I thought they were beneficial, not because I had fallen in love with them.

Now, I devote my time to what I have fallen in love with, because it gives so much back to me. I have bowed down to the process and am thankful for being given the strength in my mind to go through that process every single day and be able to see the results of my actions.

You have to save your own life.

If you aren’t where you want to be…if you aren’t the type of person that you wish to become, then you have changes to make. Those changes are difficult at times, but like anything, you get used to it. Like anything, you will be a beginner and if you pound away at it enough, you will begin to master it.

Have faith in the process and in yourself.

Put out good vibes today…it matters.

- Evan Sanders

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The Secret Of Change – Quote Of The Day (XI)

The secret of change

For those who understand that there is no tomorrow or yesterday

Is to build in the now

And forget the old buildings in ruin

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How Do You Spell Love? – Quote Of The Day (VIII)

How do you spell love?

It’s something that you feel in your heart.

When it happens, you know.

When you know, there’s no better feeling in the world.

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Why Being Yourself Is Underrated

Let’s have an honest moment with each other.

Be yourself – because you suck at being everybody else.

When I was in my teens, I spent a whole lot of time not trying to figure out who I was, but trying to be everyone else. I tried being the sports jock. I tried being the artsy guy. I tried being the guy who was in a band. I tried being the guy who was quiet and careful with his words so I could seem a little more interesting. I tried being the ladies man. I tried being one of the popular kids. I tried being…everyone else.

And to be real about it, I sucked at all of them.

This caused a whole lot of turmoil in my life when I finally lost the one thing that truly defined be: baseball. Going from student athlete to just…student…was a horrible transition. The days become a lot longer. For anyone that has played sports through high school and college they understand what I am talking about when sports end. You have a lot of time to yourself and you feel like a big piece of you is missing.

When I was a junior in college, after the foundations had all burnt to a crisp, I set out on a journey to figure out who I really was. It sounds kind of funny, but I had spent my entire life not knowing who I really was. All that time I tried being someone or something else landed me in the mud. I knew a few things about myself in terms of character traits, but as for the rest of the stuff, your guess would have been as good as mine.

So I started writing.

I wrote like crazy. I was smacked with adversity. I kept writing. Right from the start I had a pitcher of reality poured all over me. Sitting there soaked in daily realizations, I continued to type away. Those first few months, I learned something incredibly important about myself. I learned that I had this ability to open my heart up for the world to see, to express myself fully and to make connection with each person as if they were sitting right next to me. In fact, that is one of the things I appreciate the most about being given the opportunity to write every day…being able to connect with someone 1 on 1…no matter where they are.

Through this time, I learned how to deeply love, despite being deeply hurt. Alright hurt doesn’t cut it…legitimately…I was devastated. If you need an idea of what I was going through, listen to “Beautiful” by Eminem.

A few months in, I came up with this idea of going cave diving into my soul. I guess from the time I was little I have always loved having a visual with a saying…so that become my goal every day: to dive into my soul, no matter how black it got, and take something positive out of what I found. That little last nugget…the taking something positive out of something you have found…is crucial. Because I promise you, when you do this type of thing, you are going to find some deep dark blacker than black stuff. It’s going to get nasty, and you are going to be scared to death about what you found, but the thing is…if you can put some light on it – it becomes a lot less scarier.

Being yourself is incredibly underrated.

In this world, there is a constant pressure to fit in with everyone else. Not only do you have to fit in with everyone else, but you have to be trendy, cool, fit, popular, talkative, sexy, fashionable, smart, cultured, well-traveled…and everything else in between. You have to be everything that the media and the population pumps out to you, but yet when you try to be all of that, you come off as a…poser.

Why?

Because everyone else is trying to be everything as well…at least most everyone. Most everyone is chasing shadows and things that don’t actually matter. Think this is just now? Nope. Read Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” if you need some old proof that it has always been this way…and will most likely always be.

But there are people who break free of this type of thinking and do the one thing that the world doesn’t actually want you to do…be yourself.

Why?

Because when you find yourself and you start acting like the one person you should act like…you…you become original. You become this beautiful thing. And once that seal cracks, oh boy do you start taking off in the other direction. You give yourself the ability to see past the skin you were wearing and you start seeing yourself and the world for what they truly are…big playgrounds for you to build totally unique sand castles on.

Which you will…big awesome gravity defying sand castles.

To take it a step further, when you become a man or woman who avoids being built on other people’s compliments, you avoid the risk of being destroyed by their criticisms.

That voice in your head telling you to do things, pulling you to be creative, admiring your efforts to accomplish your goals and pushing you to constantly be more than what you currently are…that little voice that we don’t fully understand but we love…is something special. When you can tune out the rest of the nonsense and change that channel to what is going on in your mind…that is a very very special day.

It takes work at first. Don’t be discouraged though, because the work always pays off in the end. You might not get exactly what you thought you were going to, but you always get what you need.

I got exactly what I needed…and I have never been happier. Every day, despite uncontrollable circumstances, I am always finding out new things about myself that I know I can take to the bank when I need them. My journey will never end by the way. I have given up the phrase “I made it” in terms of success. If I say “Man I made it” then that means I am done…that I have stopped “making it.”

I always want to be in the process of creating.

So here’s to the next slew of decades. Here’s to being yourself…to learning about yourself every day…to slaying dragons and building giant castles of sand…and to making more day after day.

Be yourself.

- Evan Sanders

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The Man I Needed To Be – Quote Of The Day (VII)

The man I needed to be was there all along

I just had to stop forcing it

Who I thought I should become

Was the farthest thing I was meant to be

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Ambition Is Priceless – Quote Of The Day (VI)

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Ambition is priceless

But without hard work

Ambition is useless

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The Voice In The Night

2:36am

“You will return”

And bam I was awake.

So awake, and so aware of what had just happened, that I opened my phone and wrote down in my notes “I will visit LA again, soon, a new man.”

That voice was loud enough to wake me up. That voice was loud enough to keep me awake for another 45 minutes just sitting there thinking about what I had heard. And then, as if some sort of self fulfilling prophecy, today reflected many of the ideas and thoughts that were put for that last night.

There are two types of people in this world. Those, who when ignored, feel sorry for themselves…and those who find a special spark in their hearts to ignite the pain and strive towards greatness, ultimately being so good…that they couldn’t possibly be ignored anymore.


At times, when going down a path, one that has never been traveled before, things can get very very quiet. This ins’t the first time that I have talked about this, but it continues to come back up over and over again. As I dive farther into what I am up to, everything stays the same, yet the volume gets turned way down. Maybe that’s why I was able to be woken up last night? Because I am actually open enough to listen?


Who knows?


But what I do know is that I have this desire to continue feeding off of the pain of being dismissed and ignored by those who I reach out to. Like I said above, you can either feel bad for yourself and sorry for yourself, or you can use that pain as fuel. For some reason I am attracting this type of thing into my life, but on the other hand, it is a dose of motivation I need in order to push myself forward.


There is this great quote that says “Hustle until you no longer have to introduce yourself.”


That really gets me going. The idea of putting all of the sweat, blood, soul, and tears into something over a long period of time and then having the world see what you have created. Hopefully it is a positive thing that can inspire people to live powerful and bold lives as well. Hopefully, you can be incredibly proud of what you have done because it improved the lives of many many people…and your own.


One of the hardest things to do is love when you feel unloved.


I mean, this is really hard.  But I am always sent back to putting out positive energy and love. No matter how many times it doesn’t work, I am making the effort to try. Maybe that is the key to this whole thing. That eventually something is going to stick against the wall. I am banking on that happening.


How we treat others is a direct reflection of how much we like ourselves.


When you can treat the person you have never met, or the one you might think is a little bit weird, with kindness and compassion, you truly value what is inside your heart. I have my moments, I think we all do, but in general my compass is pointed in the right direction.


This post took a turn down a different direction I thought it was going to go…or maybe, it didn’t. Maybe it ended up precisely where it should have.


“You will return”


I think this is part of what I am coming back with.


- Evan Sanders

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Forget Yesterday – Quote Of The Day (V)

 

Forget yesterday

The only day you have is today

You can’t go to tomorrow either

You haven’t been introduced yet

Live in the moment

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Going All In With A Blind Hand

There are these moments where I feel like I am standing at the poker table of life, the heavens above are standing across from me on the table, and I am challenged to go all in…with a blind hand…and I have to take it or else I may never understand the victory I could have accomplished when I am able to flip those cards over.

Life has been working in mysterious ways for me lately.

Over the past 6 weeks I have learned many lessons about what it means to chase your dreams. The fun and infuriating part about getting halfway through your journey is when you realize that you have expanded your limits and you have more in the tank.

More in the tank…

How could this be possible when you were battling it out only a few weeks ago to even start the journey? We grow and grow and grow and constantly are bettering ourselves…and then eventually…what once was can no longer be returned to.

I believe that once your mind has experienced something, it can never return back to a smaller size. You can never get rid of that experience and your thoughts are permanently altered because of a concept or idea entering your mind. At this point in my life, I have had a few things happen which have been mind altering to say the least. For the longest time, I have been scared to take every leap of faith that I know I should take because I wanted to hold onto what I had. I wanted to keep it safe, to live in the zone that I was in…but I realize now that is no way to live life.

To have accomplished something, and not be willing to risk it once you have achieved it, will not lead to growth.

The only way I have arrived at where I am now is by taking big risks and despite not seeing the cards on the table, going for it anyways. There are things that I know I should be doing that I sometimes don’t and I feel physically sick when I don’t act on them.

Not doing what you are called to do is spiritual suicide.

You slowly melt inside and you go to sleep with regret. I can’t do that anymore. No more regret. No more what if. There can only be “I did.” I did these things and this is the result it got me. I did these things because I believed in them.

You have to put your butt on the line each and every day in order to see what wonderful plans life has for you.

Just some thoughts this afternoon. More this evening.

- Evan Sanders

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Karma’s A Beast – Quote of the Day (IV)

Karma’s a beast

Just make sure yours is good

Because if it’s not

It’s coming back around for you

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