The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

Jeremiah 17:9

This is an anonymous guest post from a friend in response to my question: “What motivates you to keep going?”

Trust me it gets dark for everyone.

I feel it gets darker for people like us. Because we hold ourselves to a much higher standard.

I’ve struggled with pride for a long time so much that even a person gave me a book on humility.

Moving past that, people like us have this outgoing and ongoing effort. I don’t feel we can help it, it is a gift from God.

There are big ass road blocks we and others face.

Granted all of us take time off from it and get into slumps.

But we see these glimmers of Hope and Sparkles in our kids. Will see our friends and Associates doing creative things that we know we’re capable of. We are supposed to be around we are supposed to be enjoying, we are supposed to be growing. 

And it reminds us that we are Ultra creative and we may not have an immediate answer but we know multiple paths around something. And if we want something we find ways to achieve it or angles to try and eventually it comes.

Then there are plenty of surprise blessings that can’t be explained other than mini miracles. So even being hard on your self there are so many positive reinforcements that your like I have to keep at it.

We run from it sometimes my wife gets mad because I follow many mentors and should put everything up to God.

When I talk to friends and I know they’re going through things and they ask for advice one of my favorite quotes is look no matter what the struggle is ” work like it’s up to you and pray like it’s up to God” dont just sit there and dont dwell on it.

The take-home message for me is I’m always falling forward.

I’ve heard it as failing forward. However that’s not how i feel. Im always falling/leaning forward.

Like an analogy of being top-heavy. But in the sense that I’m always going to push myself toward something I’m going to be working on something, I’m going to be progressing, I’m going to be learning, I’m going to be asking for help.

Personally I’m not the type that can sit back. Some people are like rest and be content.

Me I’d rather be working on something or listening to a podcast. Or talking with a friend or family member.

 Even listening to interviews of people struggles and what they did in the amount of years or decades it took them to achieve what they were after. There’s a few rare things if maybe you’re an Einstein or a Tesla.

Most other things you can find someone that’s done it and even written a book about it which proves to me it’s all possible. 

There are lots of people that depend on me, but more motivating knowing people BELIEVE in me. 

So take home message personally I’m always leaning forward.

Then scientific side being  work to get hydrated for 3 days straight and see if you feel better. And workout even if its simple it will change your day by 20-80%

Lean forward.

One of the biggest challenges in life is balancing the “big picture” with the details. You have to have a macro and a micro view of your life at all times.

In life as in film editing, when you’re working on some minor detail, you have to be thinking about how it fits into everything that has happened before and after.

Everyone intuitively understands that years are actually made up of days and days are made up of minutes, but those people who are able to take those minutes with the year in mind – those are the ones who are the most successful.

Jason Cobb said in his video, Your Ideal Day, “When you design that ideal day and you start living it out, you know what starts to happen? You start to have an ideal week. And then you start having a great month. And then you look back and you say, ‘Wow! Look at the year that we’ve had!’”

You have to be balancing that at all times and just try and keep perspective by going from micro to macro. The people who do that the best are the ones who are the most successful in life.

Modern Designed Bible Prints from Jason Cobb and Justin Bessinger

Sycamore Creative Bible Prints was a company that produced Bible verse poster prints that gave us a better view of Christ (like the Sycamore tree of Luke 19) and foster a “Deuteronomy 6” lifestyle — where Scripture is fully integrated into the believer’s, schedule, conversation, and home. Jason Cobb handled management and finance while Justin Bessinger (of Little Tuba!) developed the branding/logo, built the website, implemented print rating feedback system and email subscription, and designed the poster prints.

Sycamore Creative Bible Prints were quality pieces of art, pairing the timeless words of Scripture with a modern design. They fit in with today’s home decor yet reminded you and encouraged you with full and potent verses from the Bible. They launched their products on Kickstarter in 2014 and raised over $2000 to help fund their initial round of prints for their e-commerce store.

Founded by Jason Cobb and Justin Bessinger, together they wanted to encourage their children with Scripture in their home. However, when they looked for Bible prints for their home, what they often found was often sappy, featured only a phrase or summarized idea from Scripture, or just too old-fashioned for our taste. So, they set out to scratch our own itch and created Sycamore Creative to produce 11″ x 17″ Bible Prints that were affordable, housed in high quality real solid wood frames, and professionally printed on thick, high gloss material.

Jason and Justin believe that Scripture is the inspired Word of God that teaches us wisdom, history, poetry, and most importantly, God’s plan for our salvation by grace through faith in Jesus.  That’s why 10% of their proceeds went to Wycliffe Bible Translators which sends translators around the world to translate the Bible into languages and regions that had no access to Scripture.

In September of 2014, I helped Jason and Justin launch Sycamore Creative. Jason and I traveled down to Justin’s house in Kentucky with an aspiring film producer, Chris Rihm. I was his production assistant. After the video shoot, we all drove to Madison, Indiana to eat at Harry’s Stone Grill. The Colts were playing their first game so we asked if we could sit in a room with a TV. They cleaned a room with TVs just for us.