Pushing through…

Well, yesterday was just too gorgeous of a day to spend inside on my computer so I didn’t post anything. The day before…we drove, and drove and drove. Our objective was to drive from Memphis to Nashville, but our parking plans changed in Nashville so I decided to push on towards Knoxville. My cousin told me about a great BBQ restaurant there and I figured we could make it there and have some good grub before finding a lot to park in…Nope, the entire Knoxville area was a ZOO of people…so we pushed on to Pigeon Forge and decided to go right to the campground we were staying at.

This was after an hour of fetch…kid ran himself out lol

Pushing through got us to where we wanted to be earlier, but at the cost of a tired driver and bored pup. Easily enough in this circumstance to remedy…but looking at my past I could give countless examples of situations where I pushed through for some intended benefit, and encountered some unintentional side effects. I don’t necessarily look far enough down the path I’m on to realize what these side effects may be (mostly personal relationship set backs), instead, I focus on the win expecting those closest to me will be cheering me on just past the finish line.

More times than I want to admit…they weren’t there, or they were already walking away. Pushing through on occasion is a worthy ability, but in the daily construct of your life…not so much. I’m sorry to my Family and closest friends who I know are proud of me for the work I’ve done, but who would have been happier to have spent more time together.

Pushing through often leads to disappointment as necessary time to prepare and gather important details is overlooked. Not having what you need, or not knowing what you need to know to get something done is frustrating. Too often you will hear me in the garage with every damned tool known to man at my disposal saying “I can’t”. It’s not that I can’t….it’s that I rushed into something with out the proper prep…why? Because I was pushing through…burning the candle at both ends and just not giving myself the time to figure something out. I’m done with this.

And old friend of mine posted a simple yet powerful message the other day on her face book. Melanie describes the power of YET…initially I was listening with some skepticism as I thought it would be used synonymously with the word TRY ( A word I LOATHE…the word TRY in my mind is a protective word that sets us up to be ok with failure…in my world you DO…and you either succeed or fail. Failure is ok…it’s what motivates us to DO again mo better). Anyways…Melanie, thanks for sharing this tidbit…it’s worthy of everyone’s ear.

A great example of someone in my life who does this WELL is my beautiful wife Nikki. She is an inspiration, and one I need to take more time to learn from. While I am away…she is making upgrades to our home. She has gutted my office, ripped up the carpet, painted and tiled :

Before I left, she had sanded and stained the stairway going upstairs and replaced all the balusters. Now she is working on wainscoting up the stairs…she is taking the time to learn about making compound miter cuts to go around the bends as the stairs turn. She chooses to do things outside her comfort zone, asks questions, watched video’s and figures it out!

This post covers a few days, as the weather has been in the 70’s here, and being inside on the computer just wasn’t an option. Plus with our friends and Dexter just across from us…Freedom wants to get out and hang with his pal.

Wednesday we took the short drive down into Gatlinburg…holy tourism mecca! It was a beautiful day and just about everywhere we went welcomed dogs inside except Blake Shelton’s Ole Red restaurant…which is odd because Ole Red is a dog lol…they even have a statue of him outside. We did order some nacho’s to go for later and then we proceeded to Guy Fieri’s Chicken Guy for some samiches…they didn’t suck.

Moonshine is a thing here…and we had our share at a couple of tastings. I “might” have bought some to bring home.