Seth Godin says, "want to is a choice, and is often squandered. When our day is drawing to a close and we’ve done everything we have to, the choice of how to spend/invest/waste the next few minutes often ends up with mindless stalling or entertainment."
For the longest time, I used all the things I had to do as an excuse not to do the things I longed to do. I lived a life longing for the day I didn't have to do the long list of things I had to do so I could get started chasing my dreams. Then one day it hit me just how many hours in the day I had available to me that weren't consumed by 'have to.' It hit me just how many hours I had available to chase dreams instead of the next episode in my latest Netflix binge. Or ESPN. It's easy to get to believing the goal in life is to be entertained. But I have yet to find entertainment as rewarding as growing. I suppose there's a necessary balance in there somewhere, but I assure you I've lived most of my life on the lopsided edge of needing to be entertained. And I have found entertainment to be a pretty quick path to stagnant. Maybe that's the choice. Do I want to primarily be a consumer of the world or a producer of it? Do I want to audition for a part in the play of the world or do I want to write the story of it? More and more I am driven to be the writer. Both literally and figuratively. Sure, there are parts in the play I HAVE to play, but what if I use more of the time I do have available to write parts into the play that I WANT to play. What if I create a world where even the 'have to' spots start to feel like want to? Maybe that's the ultimate form of entertainment. That day when we wake up and discover that I would never trade the chance to put me into the world for what Netflix is putting into mine. It starts with realizing we don't have to watch Netflix. We don't have to consume. We all have those want to moments. Gift them to yourself. Gift them to the world.
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Robert "Keith" CartwrightI am a friend of God, a dad, a runner who never wins, but is always searching for beauty in the race. Archives
July 2025
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