BLOG: Where do I begin? 2026

Where do I begin?

In order know where to begin anything, you have to know where you are. Most people have no idea where they are. Many, that I can relate to, including myself, came up and over the years had jobs or careers to pay bills, met significant others, dated, married, divorced, brought children into the world, raised the kids according to what they knew and how they were raised.

Think about it, most people that live a spiritual life for one purpose or another do so based on what they were born into. Most people do not explore all ideologies with an open mind, and then focus on the one in which they find to be True.

Many people find jobs or careers based on what their parents or friends do, and or whatever is closest to their dwelling. Many people enter an employment pathway based on who is hiring, and if the pay meets their current needs, yet rarely move on to another employer based on comfort and fear of the unknown. Yet I tell you, nothing is “unknown”.

I sort of came up in an era when employees were dedicated to their employers and the employers were dedicated and grateful to the employee. I honestly believe that mentality died without remorse about 20 years ago.

Now in early 2026 we get caught up in comfort and boredom and have critically short attention spans and even less patience. Most things are applauded based on how fast it can be fulfilled, received and often returned. Messages are instant, feedback is discarded, and too many take a side of opposition, no matter the circumstances.

We need to be invested in ourselves and our communities. We need to stop looking outward (tv, tic tok, youtube, movies, doom scrolling, video games) and go back to focusing inward, (how I feel, what I like, why do I like it, what I believe to be true and why, what do I need to improve on, what would I like to get out of life).

Some of the 1^st questions all employers ask in an interview is 1: Tell me a little bit about yourself, followed up by “where do you see yourself in 5 years”. These are questions we should be asking ourselves daily. Who am I, what is my purpose and what do I want to do with the short period of time I have on this planet? Also, is there a Heaven, and I going to be allowed in, or will I have to repeat this Earthly experience?

Here is a great way to question yourself. “If I were hiring for a position, knowing myself, would I actually hire myself? And if I were in charge of Heavens gates, would I allow myself in?

When I was in the Marines our platoon had a modo, ““Let no man’s ghost say “if only I would have tried harder””

Life is terribly exhausting (meaning it takes a lot of energy to do most things). As humans we get our energy from whole healthy foods and plenty of water. Yet we often consume large quantities of things that steal our energy, like sugar, fast food, heavy oils and creams, alcohol, tobacco and drugs. All of this is like putting sand in a gas tank of a car. It ruins it.

There should be a strong drive in each of us to be healthy. I see obese people walking and wonder how they do it. I doubt I could walk far caring 250-400 lbs. It would take all the energy I have.

It sounds strange but I sort of enjoy discomfort. Mentally I find it gives me drive, motivation to know I can endure tough times. Over the last 50 some years I have endured a great deal of discomfort in every sense of the word. I know I can take loss, go without, and suffer a bit more. Because of my personal trials and tribulations, I know my threshold is strong. The first 100 times I failed were tough and I didn’t know any better to take away positive gains from the experience of loss. My next 100 failures hurt less and I only learned a little. At some point, I decided to learn from it all and take in less pain every time.

I have little fear/ worry about starting over, starting something new, and less fear about failing. I fail very good these days. I don’t enjoy watching tv, movies, fake news, nor playing video games and have lived sober for about 12 years. I decided to put away anything that was not serving who I wanted to be, and began to focus on discovering who it was I did want to be. This meant loosing family and friends, and more.

I stopped doing things because the world told me to do it, and began doing things I would be proud of myself for doing, not anyone else.

Change is easy, beginning is hard. Its very important to me to always be learning something new. Taking in knowledge makes me feel more complete. In the last 6 months I decided I would begin learning American Sign Language (ASL). I didn’t know where to being, so I got on Youtube and searched for lessons. I committed to one hour every day, and went through about 4 different instructors before I found one I connected with and enjoyed. Now I am pretty fluent and can hold a conversation about minimal things.

Its not about where you start, its simply about starting. If you want to learn to play a guitar, then go get a guitar, but make a deal with yourself to commit to it. You are going to be terrible at the beginning. Jordan didn’t get good at basketball by putting on shoes, he took shots. He was denied and didn’t make teams, and these failures drove him to committing hours a day to practice.

Try different things, discover who you are. Join groups, quit groups. Find your passion, find your desires. Start, commit and when it doesn’t feel satisfying anymore, find something new, but don’t stop trying. Failure is 80% of journey. Once I get really good at something, I tend to set it aside, because I am looking for the next challenge, the next growth, the next experience to find a better me.

Peace.