He wasn’t crying, but he was definitely uneasy.
My 6-year old boy cringed a little every time thunder clapped outside. The lightning flashed brightly, though his blackout curtains kept it from lighting up the room too much.
Still, that thunder.
“Dad? I’m scared of the thunder. I don’t like it.”
I wrapped my arms around him. It was bedtime, and he needed sleep badly. Lullabies played on his CD player, but they weren’t enough to drown out the storm.
“Hey pal, that’s why we’re so thankful to have a house, right? There’s a lot of thunder and rain and lightning outside, but we can just close the curtains and lay in bed. It can’t get to us. God gave us such a nice house to protect us!”
He nodded.
(I don’t know if it helped or not, but he did sleep that night.)
As I huddled with him, waiting out that first song so I could kiss him goodnight and head on my way to the living room, my own brain reflected on what I just told him.
It really IS nice to have a house that protects me and my family from the elements outside.
My focus has been off lately
Like any homeowner (or so I hear), there have been a TON of unfinished projects around the house:
- Leaky windows
- Wet drywall
- Garden revamps
- Roof leaks
- A garage that desperately needs shelving
- My office remodel
- Rooms that need carpeting
- Stubborn wallpaper removal
- A chimney that needs rebuilding
- An unfinished HVAC system
When you have all that in front of you 24 hours a day, it’s really tough to focus on the good.
I still find myself glancing at home listings, wondering if we made the right choice.
Maybe there’s something better out there.
But thinking about that conversation with my son, I realize: things are pretty good.
We have a house that is all ours.
It’s still standing.
It’s not collapsing on itself.
Nobody is in danger.
We’re fine! We can trust that the house is going to stick around and, as long as we put in the effort to make it work, it will provide a dream existence for us… a dream that seemed so out of reach just a handful of years ago.
Stop looking for “greener pastures”
I see writers fall into this trap constantly.
They’re not getting the results they want.
They think something must be broken.
So they spend hours searching up other solutions.
Other ways of getting clients. They figure they must need something a little more sophisticated.
- A personal brand to “demonstrate their value”
- A better offer to “convince” clients to hire them
- An email list to “build trust”
Then these things don’t work. And they’re left wondering why.
Well, it’s because you have a clear path to getting clients on demand whenever you want.
The Simple Formula That Gets Clients
Attention -> Trust -> Sale
You get in front of a client.
You build trust with them.
Then they hire you.
It’s a system that has worked for generations.
Appreciate it.
I’ve spent years struggling and not knowing what to do next.
Today? I’m never confused.
Even if the roller coaster is dipping, I know WHY.
And I know HOW to get out of it.
So I do it, and I trust the process.
If I didn’t appreciate having that process in place, I would spend downtime scrambling and panicking.
Stressing.
Focusing on what I DON’T have.
But having that process gives me peace. I just rest in that, fill myself with gratitude for it, and get after it every day.
I have everything I need with that process.
Whenever I focus on that attitude, I grow – not just personally and emotionally, but financially, too.