Foundation

How ya'll doin? I'm doing Great!  The Best Day of My Life! :)

Anyhow, let's cut the crap and get down to brass tax...  Are you paying attention?  Ok, let's do this. 

Listen up.  No, not to me.  Listen to you.  Listen to yourself.  What do you want?  Don't ignore yourself.  Do you want different?  Do you want better for yourself?  Do you want change?  Do you want a beer (just kidding he he he)?  Do you want to talk to an old friend that you haven't talked to?  Perhaps you guys parted on bad terms over something childish.  Maybe it's a sibling.  Who knows.  What if I told you that the ball is in your court?  Would that change the way you think about it?

Maybe you feel like it's something that is way too big to tackle.  I have no means of telling people how to feel.  All I know is that as cruel as I was to myself and the thoughts that came into my head during them tough times, I believe that I have a little clue to how some of ya'll might be feeling. Not all of you, heck maybe none of you.  But maybe some.

How do you prepare for something so huge?  Well, the old saying goes, "You gotta start somewhere."  I'll assume you've heard that somewhere, before today, from this blog.  There is truth to that too.  You do have to start somewhere.  But, if you don't have a plan, that can turn into a fierce mess, in a hurry.  So, you have to lay the ground work.

Maybe the ground work consists of writing down goals.  For some that works.  They need to see it.  That is my wife to a "T". We shop at a rather popular store that has it's own brand of people on the inter-web of "Holy Crap is That Really Real?"-pictures.  Maybe you can guess?  But anyhow, they match prices from other local stores, so it makes it easy to do all of your shopping in one stop. When Katie and I get into a better spot, and we will, we'll support the local "Ma & Pa" stores.  Really, we will.  But when we go shopping, Katie asks me for the list.  We discuss it together. Then she gets in her finest surfing git-up and hops aboard the internet wave to go match the lowest prices.  She writes them down, in the order that we want to shop in.  We place all of our "price-match" items in the front of the cart.  When we work out, we have our own particular, individual playlists. We like our songs in order. It helps us. For being precise, creates more "us" time. For our family. For whatever. But, in a way, them things that we've had enough practice at, we've gotten into a system.  We don't even think about them anymore.  It's just second nature.

I actually worked in construction.  It was one of the most physically challenging jobs I've ever done.  You know what?  I did it for $8.00 per hour. No Over-Time Pay, no insurance, no pay structure for raises, etc... Just go to work, get dirty, really dirty, get hot, get sun burned, get sweaty, keep working.  Now, the guy I worked for, he had a system.  There were certain ways that we would prepare to build the foundation.  First you have to dig the hole.  Then you have to read your prints and survey.  You have to prepare to build the footings.  You then build the footings, but at that time, you're also preparing for the walls, standing up the rebar for structure. Then you tie the rebar together, but also preparing the correct areas for openings, like window wells, garage doors, etc... After tieing the rebar, you then finally start to put up your forms for the actual foundation walls.  While building the walls, you start with your corners and make sure they're square and level.  Then you fill in the rest between, but also preparing for your supports and planning their position, keeping an eye out for anything that may not pass inspection by the city.  Then after inspection is cleared, you can finally start to poor the mud to fill in your walls, but still, during the poor, you probe down inside the mud to pop any air pockets.

Do you get it?  You look at a foundation of a house and maybe you think, "Wow, that is cool how that supports the home.  It has to be there for the sound structure of the home.  If the foundation is compromised, it can get ugly.  Matter of fact, it probably will.  It's not just a Band-Aid fix.  It's a major repair. It has to be perfect to support the weight of the roof.  But you probably don't think all that work and planning and preparation go into just the foundation. Then again, maybe you're a contractor, reading this and thinking, "Boy, this Nick guy is full of crap!"

But, reread what I just shared with you. While you're doing one job, you're actually setting up another part of the next job. If you forget something, you could be jeopardizing or creating more work down the road.  But, if you're efficient, with a good game plan, you can build a fantastic foundation that is capable for withstanding the fiercest of storms and struggles.  The foundation will always remain standing.

This 24 Day Challenge is awesome!  That is for sure.  I love seeing the fast results.  But really, what it is for me is a string of days, that Katie and I put together, so far, for 18 days, that is building our foundation.  In order to be prepared for later, we must work now. Be it for health, for our kiddos, for our jobs, for retirement, for play, etc...

Good choices goes beyond any 24 Day Challenge, but I'm grateful that I have such a view now, before it was too late, of what I want.  I've always been a pretty good dude.  I've always liked cracking jokes or whatever.  Hey if you were moving into a new place, my brothers and I, would be the first ones there to help out.  Yeah, I've had some less than proud moments, but I'm glad those are over with. But in these last couple weeks, I've seen the person that I want to be and I am grateful to share that with ya'll.

I'm getting excited to see what results we'll see this Sunday when we measure, but overall, I'm extremely proud of my wife and I.  Tonight, I had a bad ass workout blasting my music.  It was awesome to see my kids, watching me sweat my rear off.  I had them WoooHooo-ing, yelling, jumping, dancing.  I'd have them yell things like, "I love you daddy!" "Good job daddy!" "Go daddy go!" "Go Broncos!" and we'd sing whatever song was on.  Tonight, I am very proud of Myself.  For a very brief 2 seconds today, I had some back pain revisit me.  I actually thought I was not going to be able to work out.  But, I kicked that old mind set's ass out. No room for that when you're making changes, like I promised myself, I was going to do it. 

Katie, I know you're reading this.  I am extremely proud of you.  You inspire me to be the best.  It's because of you that I wanted to prove that I could workout tonight. Thank you for that.  I love you.

To everyone else reading, just ask yourself: Do you want better?

Go get it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQE5PNRLZ40