"I hated every early morning workout I ever had, but I loved being a champion." -- Mohammed Ali

Hello friends. I’m not calling you any names this morning. Nope. This is the question that I asked myself today, and you can see my answer. I wish I was joking but it’s true. The reason that I’m an egotistical narcissist today is that I am a terrible delegator. People don’t call you that though when you’re out there in life, they call you a control freak or if they are kinder, a perfectionist. They whisper behind your back and say, “he won’t let anyone help him.” They let you blame it on OCD or whatever.

Dan’s NEXT Interview

Interviewer: What’s your greatest weakness?

Dan: I’m a bad delegator.

Interviewer: NEXT!

–the truth hurts.

Now I know I have other weaknesses, but the heart of the matter for me is that now that I know about this one; I need to get busy being the best delegator that I can be so that I can get on with the main task at hand–doing what I do best.

Let’s break it down a bit. Why? Well, for one thing. I’m good at a lot of different things. I’ve spent my life learning things and perfecting the things I love doing. If you look at my CV–not the abbreviated resume that I have on LinkedIn, you’ll find that along with computer, information, and data science, I studied religion, psychology, philosophy, business, and photography; I was a rock climbing guide, a whitewater raft guide, a musician, a farmer, a miner, a youth minister, a pizza cook, a horse-wrangler (cowboy), a post-hole digger, a landscaper, a waiter, a bartender, a mentor, a curriculum writer, a teacher, a lecturer, a salesman, a counselor, a song-writer, an artist, a wedding photographer, a tailor, a builder, a webmaster–and these are just some of the things I’ve been paid to do in the past.

Didn’t see CEO on that list, right? Successful company owner? Foundation starter? Why the heck not? I believe now it’s because I couldn’t get the help I needed because I WOULDN’T ASK FOR HELP. And maybe I wasn’t meant to do those things. We are going to see in real-time if this part of my life will truly help me achieve what I’m meant to do on this Earth. Because at the moment I realized my greatest weakness, I realized my greatest strength.

I am a creator.

I think all of us know what we should be doing in life. It’s that little voice you hear whisper to you, it’s the part of you that sometimes, and in my case, you want to push back against. A lot of my life’s choices were not just at odds with that little voice–I was in active rebellion against it. I was determined to do the opposite. I was specifically taking the wrong path thinking I could get to the destination I wanted. I’m fully listening to that voice now. I’m writing it to you now as you read this. When I reflect back on the people in my life who have told me, over and over again what my greatest strength was… I never heard it. I listened, but it never got me until today. Thank you to all of the people in my life that tried to tell me what I needed. I’m with you now.

I can create something from anything.

Daniel Hwan Oostra

Growing up I had religion in my life. A lot of it. Unfortunately, I started to look at religion as something bad, and therefore everything associated with it was bad. I wanted to be different from my adoptive family, I didn’t want to do the things they thought were right. I wanted to be independent of them, so I would sometimes decide that if that was the right way to do things, I’d do it the wrong way. If stealing was wrong, then I’d make it right to steal. If cheating was wrong, then I’d cheat the right way. I wanted to win the wrong way. Luckily, as a younger man, I adopted the philosophy of being a force for good in the world. My wife’s grandmother taught me that. That helped me overcome many of my character flaws. It didn’t take care of all of them–but, it probably kept me out of prison. Now, I hope you can see I’m in beast-mode in regards to finding my blindspots and getting the full bright light of the sun on them to either kill or plant new things that defeat them. I’m in command. Watch out universe, get ready to get dented.

I hope that you find some inspiration today to figure out what your blind spots are and to take action to make that change that lets you know what to do. It’s taken me a long time to be able to write this article, to be so open about my thoughts, but I’m grateful. I can tell you my morning workouts have been tough, maybe not Mohammed Ali tough–but I love being my own champion.

I love you! I hope you know I’m cheering for you and sending love every morning. We are the best. We are winning.

Featured Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash

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