Don't let anyone tell you, you aren't good enough to try.

You're doing things right this very second in your life that most people won't or can't partake in.

The hobbies you play with, the tools or parts you tinker with, the tiny little fabric things you create, the weird and awkward poems that you scribble in a secret notebook, the spice rack in your cupboard that you combine, create, and mix, and more, are all things YOU do, that other people do not do well.

For you, they are normal.

• Maybe you have a unique way with animals.

• Maybe you can look at an outfit and recreate it on the fly with scraps you have in the backroom.

• Maybe you're scary accurate with almost any weapon you wield.

• Perhaps nobody takes you fishing any longer because you'll end up with fish at the end of your line every single time when others do not.

• Maybe you're that person in your neighborhood that can eyeball the couch, the bunk beds, and the shelving, and know immediately whether the new piece of furniture fits, and you're always right.

These things come easily to you. For others, they struggle, and you wonder why. You think, "Can't everybody do that?"

If life has you busier than you'd like, you don't even see how easy it is for you to integrate your gifts and talents. You use them as tools constantly, naturally, without even thinking about it.

Today, I want you to stop and see how meaningful each of these things is to the people you impact.

I'm talking about the tiniest actions you take that make a difference.

In turn, the next person feels positive enough to do a good thing for someone else, often integrating their gifts and talents (again, without realizing it.)

In this community (although many of you choose to remain silent and super stealthy), we have:

• A great-grandmother who creates smiles with fabric, slow-stitching, and one-of-a-kind craft creations. Each squeezable. Each is a miniature hug and a silent reminder of "I love you," for the recipient.

• A young woman who is equally skilled in the kitchen as she is on the firing range.

• A businessman who thinks profoundly and shares his nuggets of wisdom with strangers.

• A young woman who breeds Ragdoll cats.

• A young man using internet templates to create intros and outros for video creators. You only have to "kind of" tell him what you're interested in, and he almost nails the feeling you were trying to convey every time.

• People who thrive on writing and receiving handwritten letters.

• Businessmen and women who secretly crave the quiet of being able to focus on their odd hobbies if only life would let them.

And, of course, many, many more that are too numerous to mention.

Everything you do starts with ideas. Those ideas or curiosities led you to learn more.

At some point in this journey, you wrote something by hand, even if it was random scribbling to ensure the pen still worked.

You wrote something:

• A grocery list for your next recipe

• Your signature releasing liability to the establishment you visit

• A rough design of the next creation

• Color splotches by stylus onto an image

• The note you passed to a friend

• Notes from your research

And on and on and on.

Friend, these seemingly inconsequential acts of writing by hand are literally helping you progress in who you are as an individual. They are helping you discover, practice, and hone the crafts that positively impact others around you.

Never be afraid to jot something down, to trace something back, or to scribble an idea.

When you don't scribble, you rob the world of your greatness.

Dear Scribbler

Q. I’m just kind of sick of everything, and I don’t know if that makes any sense or not. I get up, lounge around watching videos, and go to work. I feel -meh- at work. It’s not terrible or anything. I come home, I play video games or watch movies. Sometimes I meet up with friends, but I feel like there’s more for me, but I have no idea what it is, where to look, or how to come up with ideas. What should I do?

A. This is both normal and interesting.

First, know that I’m not a doctor, lawyer, or anything like that, and I’m not giving legal, medical, or financial advice.

I have some questions. I have a lot of questions. Your ask doesn’t provide much background info, and that’s alright. Let’s see if some of these questions can help you get to the next step.

1. Do you feel OK most of the time?
   
   I mean, you know, blah is OK. Dissatisfaction is OK. But do you feel hopeless, dark, sad, or gloomy most of the time, or do you feel OK most of the time, even if it is just indifferent? If you’re feeling dark, hopeless, gloomy, and stormy most of the time, the internet and some medical sites will tell you to see a doctor, OK? But that’s up to you.
   
   I know what it’s like to have people tell me stuff like that, and they don’t even know me. It’s a little irritating when they assume you’re on the brink of disaster and you’re really just angry and fed up with life and want to choose a different direction, or just needing to vent a little, and they literally cannot tell the difference between the two.
   
   But, for the sake of argument, and being considerate of someone who might genuinely need some medical care who might be reading this, we need to ask those questions.
   
   Remember, even us irritating question-askers care. ☺️
   
   Ok - so let’s say you DON’T feel OK most of the time. Consider getting checked out by a medical professional. While you’re at it, drink more water, get some fresh air, go for more walks, watch more comedies, and consider journaling for a little bit. There is always some kind of help available!
   
   Now let’s say you DO feel OK most of the time. This brings me to my next question.
   

2. When you say you’re sensing something “more” for you, can you describe what that looks and feels like for you?
   
   In other words, what types of images first pop to mind when you’re trying to describe this to others? Most people see things in their minds or feel something in their bodies but sometimes cannot find the right words.
   
   Try coming up with images of what “more” looks and feels like to you. Jot them down. When someone else asked me this question, I answered, “It feels like chocolate cake in my soul.”
   
   Your answer doesn’t have to make sense to anyone but you.
   

3. This part has three questions:
   
   A) Write down what you liked to do as a kid.
   
   This might look like: “I liked trying to recreate movie scenes with my toys and things from my surroundings.”
   
   B) Write down the the things that surprised you and fascinated you for a moment during your childhood.
   
   This might look like: “Once, I found an old Boy Scout handbook that gave basic first-aid instructions. My dad was an EMT for a time. This led me to take the book back to my room and notice all the other survival methodologies it would contain. Later in life, I would fall in with the ‘prepping for the zombie apocolypse’ crowd. I never monetized this knowledge, but I know how to survive now during emergencies and off-grid scenarios.” 😜
   
   C) Write down activities you found yourself feeling wholly carefree and engaged in.
   
   This might look like: “For me, it was walking by foot with a backpack full of a day’s supply of food down the street. (Really, it was just lunch, good enough till dinner, because, let’s be honest, I was 11 and wasn’t allowed to do much). The other thing was coasting on my bike or rollerblads on smooth pavement. Later in life, I would take to vagabonding for a bit.”
   
   You’ll notice that most of the answers you come up with have a common denominator to them: being curious, being present, and trying new things without being attached to the end goal.
   
   What activities do you do today that leave you with feelings curiousity, being present, and leaving you willing to try new things without being attached to the end goal?
   

4. Is there anything you’ve been toying around with lately that you’d like to try? Do you want to learn a new language, visit a new city, or enroll in a beginner class for a topic entirely different for you?
   
   My follow-up question to this is, why don’t you?

We often think we have to have everything figured out to accomplish our “more,” but that’s not it. The key is to be curious and to permit yourself to try something new.

Yep, it could fail. It could be terrible.

Just try. You don’t even have to tell anybody.

Around here, we pride ourselves on being stealthy.

If you have limited funds or maybe only have time to try one thing: physically visiting your local library several times.

Look up books on your chosen topic and see if your curiosity lasts.

You do not have to READ all the books you’re looking at, but rather skim the contents to see if anything else stands out to you.

If your itch is satisfied or you feel like it’s “forced” for you to continue down that path, hand the books/media back. No problem.

It’s free.

Keep trying this with different topics and interests until your curiosity remains. You’ll know when you’ve hit on something when you keep going back for books/media on the same topic OR when it sparks another idea you didn’t know you were looking for! That new idea might take you down a completely different path. That’s super encouraging because you wouldn’t have had that idea unless you were looking at the first thing. 😍

The thought of you discovering what your “more” is very exciting.

Happy hunting!

One Line

One-liners are sentences meant to prompt your memories and stimulate your creativity. Use them, if you want, to see what your brain comes up with. Do you see an image in your mind, feel something, remember something?

Whatever it is, start writing it down. There's no right or wrong answer. 🥳

The ink on the letter still looked fresh when I unrolled it.

Mission

Imagine you just found a letter in a bottle. The letter is still readable. Write down the first thing that comes to mind.

More

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