18km in 2 days never left my property... [🐝U]

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Catch the stumbles & stutters … & soreness.

I walked 18km in 2 days this week.
& I never left my own property.

Technically never got past the path from the trailer to the barn to the front gate.

To put that in perspective …
my trailer sits about 50 feet from the barn.
The barn sits about 300 feet from the front gate.
It's not a big spread given the 12.5 acres I’m on

It's that I moved a whole barn's worth of building material into it.
By hand.

The stuck-truck chaos meant the solar guy couldn't get the load inside.
So it sat behind the barn.
Thick insulation, plywood … the thick, heavy stuff … & 2x8s.

Roughly 60 trips.
One armload at a time.
Somewhere around trip 40, I stopped thinking about how much I'd already moved.
& started thinking about how much was still sitting there.

But here's the part I want you to notice 1st.
Before I carried a single board, I spent a good chunk of time looking for a way not to carry a single board.

I checked every place I thought a key might be.
Because moving that trailer 50 feet would've saved me hours. (& my body a lot of soreness)

Everywhere I looked I kept thinking:
"Please let there be a key."

There wasn't.
So I started hauling.

The questions I asked halfway up the wall

Day 2, I started packing insulation into the exterior walls … the mechanical room my contractor's framing today.

& I had questions.

Not how to do it.

Should I … here … like this?

Something looked off.
I couldn't tell you exactly what it was.

Just 1 of those moments where you stare at something & think:
"That doesn't look right."

The problem was I didn't know enough to know whether it was actually wrong.

I don't know framing.
& here's the thing … I knew enough to know I didn't know.

That's saved me more money, time, & pain than pretending I know things I don't.
Knowing where the edge of what you know actually is.

So I didn't guess.
I didn't barrel ahead just because I'd started & didn't want to look like I didn't know what I was doing.

But I also didn't do the thing most people do.
I didn't take a poll.

I didn't toss it into a Facebook group & wait for 30 strangers to weigh in …
people with no context, no eyes on my actual wall, guessing right beside the ones who actually know.

Consensus isn't the same as correct.
& a crowd of non-experts will hand you a very confident wrong answer.

I asked an actual expert.

Someone who knows enough to ask me the right questions back.
& who understands what they’re seeing in the photos.

That's the difference.
The expert didn't answer immediately.
They started asking questions.

Experts are usually slower to answer because they're trying to understand the problem.
Crowds are usually faster because they're assuming they already do.

An expert pulls your context out of you before they answer.
A crowd just answers from their own perspective.

Got what I needed.
Kept moving.

The part I left undone … on purpose

I got most of that wall done.

Except the very top.

The top needs a ladder. & a stool. & honestly … a 2nd person.

I've been sore & off-balance all week. Doing that solo, up high, feeling the way I'm feeling?

Could I have climbed up there anyway?
Probably.

That's exactly why it was dangerous.

Most expensive lessons don't start with:
"This is a bad idea."

They start with:
"I'm sure it'll be fine."

A few years ago, I'd have climbed it anyway.
That's exactly how I ended up learning some of the most expensive lessons of my life.

So the top of that wall's still open.
It'll get done today.
With help.
The right way.

That's not quitting or procrastinating.
That's the 1 part you don't force alone.

& then the gravel did me a favour

Here's the part I didn't expect.

Some of that insulation was wet. Inside the bags.

It got soaked on the way in … muddy roads the whole drive out here …
& then it sat outside in the open, because it couldn't get into the barn.
The 2nd stuck dump truck saw to that.

So I cut the bags open & spread the insulation out to dry … on the gravel piles.

The same gravel that showed up the day everything went sideways.

Then I realized something strange.
The exact day that caused the problem had also delivered the solution.

The same gravel pile & giant tire-ruts I was annoyed about became the reason I could save the insulation

That "ruined" insulation dried right out. & a good chunk of it is sitting in the walls as you read this.

Standing there cutting open those bags, I was pretty sure I was looking at wasted money.

Wet insulation isn't exactly what you want to find after the week I'd had.
But before I hauled it to the burn pile, I cut one bag open.

Then another.
Spread it out on the gravel.
… in the sun.
It was slowly drying.
A day later it was usable.

The thing I thought was ruined ended up going into the walls.

Funny how often that's true outside construction too.

So what's this got to do with you?

Here's where it connects.

So much of building something feels like it has to be figured out completely before it counts.

You think you need to know everything. Do it all yourself. Finish the whole wall, top to bottom, before you're allowed to call it progress.

That belief is the thing keeping you still.

Because movement doesn't look like having it all figured out. It looks like …
→ checking for the easy way 1st
→ doing the part you can
→ asking the 1 question you actually need answered … to a real expert, not a crowd that doesn't know your context
→ leaving the part that needs help for when you have help
→ & not throwing out the thing that looks ruined before you've let it dry

I watched it happen this week with people I coach.

1 of them had been circling for ages … & finally got clear on where to actually start. Not the whole map. Just the next real step. That's movement.

Another finally got their international affiliate setup working. Money came in.

$1.70.

I know how that sounds.
$1.70.

But it's not $0.

It's proof the thing works.
The 1st dollar through a system that, last week, made nothing.

My 1st month doing this newsletter… $2
50 subscribers.
Almost talked myself out of it all together.

$1.70 is a start.
Anyone who tells you it isn't has forgotten their own.

& the client I’m supposed to be writing emails for …
They landed in the same place on a call this week.

What they're running isn't right.
They know it.
We know it.

So we’re fixing it in the open instead of pretending it doesn’t exist … with the holes.

Every system has holes.
The danger isn't having them.
It’s pretending you don't.

You don't have to do it alone …
& you don't have to pretend it's further along than it is.

You just have to move the part you can move …
say what's not done out loud …
& stop treating "imperfect" like it means "doesn't count" or you’re “not ready”

So let me know …
What's the 1 thing you've been refusing to start because you don't have it all figured out?

Or the part you've been white-knuckling solo …
that you could just ask someone about instead?

Move 1 of them this week.
Even $1.70 worth.

It counts.
I promise it counts.

Make it a great "1 load at a time" week!
EG

PS:

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Thanks for being here. 
Seriously! 
I do appreciate your support.

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