The Grind

Sorry for the months off – but I do have news that relates to the topic of grit. The first edition of my new novella, shown above. WOOT! It’s in beta, and I’m not charging for it right now, so if you want to understand how to get unstuck in life, get your goals, and have fun doing it, check it out!

I’ve labored on this book since the summer. It’s a fable, so I hope it’s entertaining as well as informative.

Book
My e-book is in Beta!

Now onto the topic – Grit!

One of the things I love to do when I travel is behaving differently. When at home I love to be as efficient as possible, but at the hotel, after a long day at a conference, and other work, which can add to over twelve hours typically, I like to relax. This means binging. At a recent hotel stay, I binged all of the HBO hit, Chernobyl and then the movie First Man, starring Ryan Gosling.


A child’s doll in an abandoned orphanage in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. (Cheryl L. Reed/for the Chicago Tribune)

It’s fascinating the similarities. Both have human accomplishment at their core.

Human accomplishment you say? Didn’t Chernobyl nearly kill over 80M people? Didn’t the core nearly melt through into the water table, which would have resulted in most of Ukraine a horrible fate? (by the way, the show Chernobyl is so well done I feel like a nuclear scientist. you should watch it just to understand how a reactor like this explodes. It was an incredible lack of caution and openness.)

I won’t spoil the story for you, and there are spoilers. But the story, as bleak and horrible as it is, gave me hope.

Mankind is always stretching, always reaching. In the First Man, I was surprised to see both the social unrest surrounding the expensive program, but the number of deaths that it took to get that thing on the moon. We paid our price to get there, and more. This is why Buzz Aldrin, at 80 years old, knocked a guy out when it was suggested that the moon landing was a fake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPyTaZDPK2w
Interestingly, Bart owns the copyright on this…lol

As the customer, we don’t see the grind, as a customer. You think these people just get there and stay there, but good schools or luck or both. You don’t see the work. The fact that they barely made it, and even a sense that their victory was almost phyric. But we don’t have a choice. Humans need to strive for bigger things. To make it happen. to be the one who gets there.

In book writing, creating nuclear energy, or landing on the moon, you’re going to have haters, deniers, and fools who misuse what you create. Humanity, however, needs these creations! We thrive on making our species safer, and now we have our biggest challenge – how can we repair the world?

We do it by pushing the boundaries, staying optimistic, and making way for those with the vision and ablity to create the future.

That’s it for now –

Stay happy my friends 🙂