I have been working on the verbiage for my website and in the middle of writing My Story, I shared what I would call a “Pivotal Moment,” that I experienced a couple of years ago.
Hey…You…Wake up!
Have you had a moment in your life where you were like – woah, there’s a lesson to be learned here…or whatever just happened had you questioning the direction your heading? I’m confident that this has happened at least once, likely many more times. If you’re like me, sometimes you recognize a pivotal moment right as its happening and other times it takes some reflection to realize what just went down.
I want to share this story with you and how it ultimately began steering me down the path I’m on today.
When the kids didn’t go back to school after Spring Break in 2020, our world (like everyone else’s) got “flipped, turned upside own.” With both Jessica and I working from home, it was important for us to keep a schedule with the kids. One of the things that got implemented into said schedule was a daily walk with Ian and Arianna, down to Walnut Creek. I loved these walks! The kids would talk about all sorts of stuff – what they like (and hate) about home school, what they had planned to do that day, how many kills they got on Fortnite, etc.
The Walk that Began the Journey
One day it was just Ian and I walking and we were talking about creative things…at this particular moment he was getting really interested in writing screenplay (hoping he comes back to that). I started sharing about my journey – spending time in Los Angeles and chasing my dreams there and then moving back to Iowa and how my dream was still to make a living acting and/or producing movies.
Then my 8 year old son looks up and says – “Dad, if you want to make movies and making movies would make you happy, then you should make movies.” I could have told him all the reason’s why I can’t just quit my job and start making movies. But instead I looked at him and said, “you’re right bud. If you’ve got a dream, you can’t give up on it.”
As Matthew McConaughey would say – Greenlight.
Be More Intentional About Pursuing Your Passion
That night I decided that, in addition to work and my other daily responsibilities, each day I would do at least one activity that would move me in the direction of that dream. Some days that may just be working out to get in better shape, but others I may send out out my demo reel, or spend time working on a screenplay. No matter what the activity, I committed and have stayed committed to moving the ball forward every day. The way this decision has snowballed is pretty incredible, and if you follow my blogs and check out the podcast, you can learn more about my story, and come along for the journey.
There will definitely more blogs on my Pivotal Moments because just writing this, I’m thinking of several more. How about you? What is a moment in your life that changed the trajectory of where you were headed, or made you pause and reflect?
Maybe several come to mind right away, but if not that’s okay too. Take some time to look back over the last year or few years and see what you can find. Once you’ve located at least one – think about what changes it caused you to make…and if it didn’t cause any changes, what changes can you make now to take advantage of that Pivotal Moment?
The moment may have passed, but that doesn’t mean the opportunity passed with it.
