This may be a weird entry but I thought it might be cool for you to know some of the things that I deeply associate with and why I like them so.

So here’s a list of my current favorites, they may or may not change in the future but for now they are all very important to me:

Superman

This one will always be my go-to and is actually the reason I thought to write this entry. While I was working out last week I was looking at my hand drawn Superman symbol on the blackboard in the Den. I have quite a few little motivators around the gym that I can look to when needed to help keep my mindset on track. This day I focused on the Superman symbol as my fire starter and told myself that there’s no way that Supes would stop when times got tough no matter how much he may want to.

While having this internal conversation I realized why I love Supes so much. Now this might sound a little egotistical or even narcissistic but bare with me, The thing I find myself in common with Supes is the huge internal battle between wanting to just be an average person instead of a superhero. Part of him just wants to work his farm with his parents, hang out with his friends and live a normal, everyday existence. But then there’s the whole other part to his identity, the other worldly powers and deep desire to do as much good as he can, even if it comes at the cost of a normal life.

Now, I’m not trying to say I have superpowers or anything but I have something in my mind that I can never shake that tells me to do more, to give more, to be better for those around me. Like this journey I’ve been on the past few years has opened more of my soul and I want to share that with as many people as possible. Do I want to change the world somehow? Heck yeah I do, I just have no idea how or what I’ll do yet.

I know I want to help people become better and find their own superpowers but with that mission comes the struggle of expectation, and nearly all of that is self imposed.

Through Superman’s literature this is usually his biggest struggle, not the nemesis he battles from time to time but the internal struggle of wanting to be normal, knowing he’s not, and accepting that it is his duty to be true to his powers.

He’s a country boy, he’s cool as shit, and that’s why he’s my #1

Hammer

This one is a bit newer to me over the last couple of years but I have gravitated to the motto “Pound the Stone” as my personal one so it’s become very important.

This motto originated from a passage known as the “Stonecutters Credo”

When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.

-Jacob Riis

For me this has become a way to keep myself accountable to my decisions in life and how I act and think day to day.

My interpretation and projection of Pounding the Stone is that I am a sculptor creating a large stone version of myself. Every strike of my hammer is forging this future version of me that will be presented to everyone.

My strikes are my thoughts, actions, feelings, words etc.

Every single thing I do is shaping who I will become so I need to choose accordingly. We all let ourselves fall in to a trap of doing things sub optimally for long periods of time because it’s easy and comfortable. The problem with this is that every time we choose that path, it’s a strike to our future self and creating that person. We need to make more purposeful strikes to reach our full potential. There is no other way.

My promise is to remember who I want to become so that my strikes are true. See, this motto isn’t about doing more work than someone else as no matter what – we will all have a sculpture of ourselves in 50+ years time, the question will be, will we like to look at what we have created?

Rocket Ship

This one has actually been relatively new and has recently taken on even more meaning.

I wrote a little passage a while ago about feeling like a rocket ship:

Sometimes I feel like a rocket ship.

Like I’m a bit too much for people,

A bit too full on or hard to keep up with.

Only accessible by a special few who are brave enough to head into the unknown.

I mean, I am more than a little crazy.

These would be valid concerns.

That leaves two options:

strap in and hold the fuck on or stay on the tarmac.

If you chose the latter, you’re safe.

You get to look up and watch a take off with probably more chance of explosion or countless other mission fatal issues than we would care to discuss.

But for the few,

The ones willing to stare into the sun,

Who can handle a little turbulence,

maybe,

just maybe……

We get to fly across the fucking galaxy!

Excuse the language but I write how I feel and this was just the way I felt one day, no big reason or catalyst. I just felt like I’m certainly hard to keep up with sometimes and wanted a way to express that.

So in my journal and in random places, whenever I got that internal feeling of not participating in the status quo, I just drew a little rocket ship. It’s kind of become my little mental buddy.

Funnily enough, and I probably knew this but either forgot or it just didn’t resonate with me at the time, but Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first 2 humans to step on the Moon on the 20th July, 1969. My birthday is also July 20 so when I re discovered that fact recently, it made the rocket ship symbol a little cooler to me. I can only imagine the amount of people that told those gentlemen that they would never walk on the moon.

We can do some pretty cool shit with enough belief and commitment!

Lion

Oh the mighty Lion. Your mum and I just love them.

We both loved Lion King as kids, we both love the symbol of courage, bravery, honour, and family that a lion presents and that’s why it quickly become our brand logo all those years ago. We started going through things that meant a lot to us and would provide a good message to those who followed along. It didn’t take long to get to the lion and we never left.

That’s pretty much it. The Lion will always be one of our favorites!

Lighthouse

I’ve written on here a few times about what a Lighthouse means to me and why it is so important.

It’s the symbol of strength and persistence in the worst of storms, guidance to those in desperate need and to light the darkness.

It perfectly represented my goal for this project: To leave knowledge and guidance and stories that would be here no matter what happens, no matter how bad it may get or what you may need, it will always be here…shining.

A huge thanks to Scott McGee for inspiring the creation of this project and for also presenting the idea of the lighthouse symbolism in his podcast ‘The Sisu Way’

Those are my big ones. I thought this would be a cool insight into some of the passions in my late twenties that I either may not get to tell you about or flat out won’t remember in the years to come when we can have deeper conversations about life. It’s been fun to even write this piece as it has reignited some of my fires for these symbols and why I gravitate to them so much.

I hope you enjoy this vision into mind sweetheart.

Love Dad x