I Was Wrong About Success

I get so caught up in the projects, in the goal in life, that I miss the results. Success can't be completion of a project because there's always another project. So what is it? In today's vlog, I'm putting a finger on what really matters. You guys dry? Yeah, I know. It's actually drying nice. My nice mat's dry? Yep. How'd you sleep? Everybody awake? Yeah, we woke up once to the cows going through our camp. Who was the cows? Oh really? Did you get them back? You're kidding me. No, they literally walked through. You're joking me. No, we thought they were bears. And you didn't put the cows up? Just had told me not to. Was this more comfortable than the igloo? Yes, way more comfortable. It's actually This morning during my training, I was listening to Samir Chaudhry, I think his name is, from Calling Samir's Show. He was on the Residency podcast. He and the host were saying success is being able to enjoy the slow moment with a friend or family. What is that little moment for me? What is— for them it was coffee with a friend. What is it for me and probably you? It's probably the same. Incidentally, today's farm project was canceled. Uh, it's a rainy day. I kind of thought it might stop by this afternoon. I kind of thought— where is it? There. Locust posts. I thought I could be making our own trellises for the raspberries. Hey, go in there and finish. But the beautiful one And the rain had different plans. So I think we're gonna go shopping at Habitat for Humanity, see if we can't find a bookshelf or useful tools for cheap. Going with us now? Well, he's gonna have to go with us or he's gonna be left. Focus, do the dishes. Think I cheered you when I said I would get you a tool at Habitat for Humanity. Did that work? There's plenty I could do here on the farm, but beautiful She said, "You want to go to Habitat for Humanity?" Gentlemen, when a woman asks a question, they're not asking. They have a 50/50 chance of getting the answer right. Do your best at guessing what they want. I'm pretty sure she wants me to go with her. So I'm dropping everything to do that. Ding, ding, ding! The Garden of Peace.

This one, any gas, it's not gonna bust open.

That's good. That's a good lunchbox. Apple, orange, fruit. Yeah, okay, you're car boy. So really, the most important thing I can do today is be with my wife. Let's go shopping. What is it that you hope to get at Habitat for Humanity? Why are you laughing?

I hope to get some cabinets because I want to repurpose them for in the office. Oh, I mean, if they have anything that I can use in the office. Oh, there's another place we could go to too that's up here. So let's go to Habitat first. If there's a pressure washer too, that's another thing.

Yeah.

But like, if there's anything that, because this is my year that I am organizing and decorating in our home. Like, I'm, I feel like I am in a much better spot than I was when we moved in. When we moved in, my mom was dying, and then we had the hurricane, and you know, it just was a lot, and there was a lot of grief there after all of that happened. And so I just kind of last year I was like getting stuff done that had to get done but not getting the extra stuff done. So this year I feel like I am in a spot that I can do this, and I have the brain space to think about what I want and all that, so anything I find for the house. I want to like make this a regular thing where I just stop in when I'm up here in Asheville and see if I can find things that we can use to make our house a home.

My goal is to find any useful cheap tools since we go through them so quickly. It's part of our homeschool curriculum budget. Just replace the tools. The thing about saving money on cabinets, you're just gonna have to visit places like this probably time and again. You don't just go to the store and get it. Like this? Could you do chalk? I don't know where we put that.

I don't need all these.

No. Where to find me. One, if you like one.

This one. Look at this one.

It's always a win. A Mulberry— a Newberry Prize. What did you just find?

I found you your SodaStream. Oh, it needs to be cleaned. Wow, I can see I broke my SodaStream.

A new one's $160. I know, so I just didn't do it. I know, this is just $20. If I always get caught up in the project, what I'm doing next, what, what the goal is, I'll never be happy. You'll never be happy because it's like a treadmill. You get there and you're, what next? And you just, you just keep going. And I've been doing that long enough now, I know it's true. The result isn't happiness. We didn't get cabinets, but no, were we successful? I think so. I think we're very extremely successful. I got soda water again. It's like, it's like having soda but healthy, just with electrolytes and water and some ice. You want some gas water back in the house? You like my gas water though, don't you? You do, you do. It's carbonated water. Henry got 2 kids books and we'll put those on the shelf. And I got this pile of books, $6. That is literally tens of hours of entertainment, if not 20 or 30. Newbery Awards. This one's a hardback. Yes, buddy.

If you buy fake rice, I can play the fake rice.

Ah, and that ought to be good. Thank you, Rebecca. You're welcome. Get it all nice and— These boys went on a tool shopping spree with their own money. With Jonah's money, huh? Hey, there's no greater life— joy in life than go and spend somebody else's money, right? Yeah. Air compressor, hose reel, a lot of dance tools, and then a socket drill. And we got a new vise. Oh yeah, and you installed it. Yeah, heck yeah. The old one was broken. Where did the old one go? In the metal stall. Now to pay for it all, you guys could take all that to the metal pile. I wish you could pay for it all, but it won't. Oh yeah, I think you needed a new new one. I do. Let's see if it works.

I don't know if this—

I don't know if you have to go till it goes. It's probably good. Oh, and we already had the glasses. What are the chances? Okay, we're not gonna drink bubbly water.

We're not drinking this one though. We're letting it— we're gonna do a couple.

Okay, does anybody want some orange soda? I have dissolved A portion of— it's Redmond's Orange. That's my new favorite. You gassed it? Oh yeah, look at that. Look at that.

Look at that fizz.

Remember when we were on the first 100-mile bike ride and we made a mistake and we ended up being like 6 hours without water? Holy smokes, it's a good water source. Oh my gosh, Shona, I've never been so thirsty. I started fantasizing about this very drink right here, and I said if I ever get a Relight gas water with ice in it. I will never— if that's always available to me, I have nothing to complain about. And here I am. Is it good?

So good.

Want some?

No, I guess I'll try a little bit. I'm gonna move and I don't want to be—

so many of those, Papa. Oh, it's so good. Henry, you want some? No, the water's dangerous. I get so caught up in the project and advancing the farm that I don't enjoy the cooking. I feel like I'm somewhere else. I should be somewhere else. And the mills too, I don't really enjoy the mills. We'll have a meeting at the, at the mill or whatever. For me, that quiet successful moment would be the mill with the family. What else are we doing this for? I mean, we're growing our own food, we're not going to enjoy the mill. We've got to enjoy the mill. That has to be the moment. That has to be success. Soup. Gaps soup from the land. Chuck roast, broccoli, carrots, onions, most of it from the farm. This is my version of success right here. Yeah, lunch was plain, and that's gonna happen when you're eating 3 meals a day. You're limited to what you're growing on the farm mostly. Sometimes it's gonna be plain. I almost felt bad, but then I remembered, and I said to the kids, you know, this is why we do a special meal Friday night. Cheap meal, you know, we can look forward to that. Let's grind. Not every meal is special, but I did start to think, you know, if, if we need to enjoy these meals, they do need to be good. And I could do better by supper. I could, I could create something different. Burn it up. Cooking Joe lamb ball soup. These two sewing adventurers, what you working on?

Lily's working on something. This is Lily's, not mine, so I'm not gonna say anything.

Okay, this is a secret. Curtains incoming as well?

Um, yeah, but I'm helping her first. How does one cut 14 inches all the way across? Taking my life.

I'm so mad.

I just go— but like, I'm gonna lose it in here. I'm not gonna have the straight line.

Mm-hmm.

Well, you could have that. And they can stop, and now move it to the next one. Yeah, but I feel like it's gonna be off because I don't see the line, you know what I mean?

Mark a line. Do you want to get there? The boys' string? No, I haven't. And you, you make sure this is lined up. This has got to be square. You can make it square based on your lines down there.

This isn't a square piece of fabric.

As I was writing this script here, I went back to this podcast to see exactly what Samir said, and I think it opened my eyes even more to get exactly— because the question wasn't, well, what is success? He says, what is enough? But that is what success is, right? When you feel like you have enough. So what is enough? And what Samir exactly said was, "Enough is the opportunity to have coffee with a friend without feeling I need to be somewhere else." I'm bad for that. I'm FOMO. I always feel like I need to be doing something else. As I was writing this, this happened.

Papa.

Hey, baby.

I made an apron for you.

Oh! You did! That's what you were doing. You sneaky thing. How cool! How cool is that? Wow! Can this be my cooking apron?

That's what she wanted.

I like it. I love it. Look at this. I will use it every time. That's why you wouldn't say Man, y'all worked hard.

Yeah, it took forever.

I like it. This is special. How's it look?

Looks good.

Does it look ruggedly handsome in this?

Yeah, here, let's fix the neck. Thank you. Well, give her a hug.

I will. Thank you. This is the best kind of thing. Every time I put this on, I'll think of you. Oh my gosh, if that's not success, I don't know what is. I'm making a meal for them, they're making an apron for me. We're just all helping each other and we're all there together. That was beautiful. So going into this supper, I got my own quote. You ready? Success isn't the completion of a project because there will always be another. Success is feeling like now is enough during the project, during the cooking, and especially during the eating. Happy day.