Over the past few years I couldn't help, but see the progress that people around me were making. It was awesome. The farther I looked back on my own time passed, I also began to realize the progress I had made. Explaining how you reach success can be weird.

There always seems to be one problem though. We make it to a point... we reach a greatness and then we feel stuck. We have are awesome, but we know we can do better.

It can be hard to relate our problems to others or talk about where we are stuck. Not everyone is on the same page. Most of us are in unique situations. As cool as being different ca be, it can suck. When life sucks, it can teach us so much about ourselves. It's the challenging stuff that makes us better versions of ourselves. It can make us awesome. Still ... we try to fight it. We don't think we have to upgrade our own life. We think we are fine. We think that everything will just fall into place.

Upgrade? What? Yeah you and me both. Sometimes you need to do some maintenance on your life. Even more so, there are parts of our life that need upgrading. As much as You have been trying already... You have to keep trying. I want to present another way to look at your life that may making upgrading easier to tackle. Not only that, much more enjoyable.

How the book is structured and why.

More recently in my life I have had the opportunity to test and use unreleased versions of new upcoming mobile and desktop applications. Every time I would test a version, I would provide feedback I would relate it to my own life. It was cool to see the pubic updates of an app from version 1.0 to version 1.7. You could see the bugs getting fixed over time. You could see functions getting enhanced. Eventually you hit a wall though and are limited by that version and how it's structured.

This can be very relative to how we structure our lives. We can only go so far with a certain routine in our life. We need to evaluate it and figure out how to make it even better from the ground up. 

When testing the next version of a product, version 2.0, it was usually a big change from the first version. Walls were taken down and new ones were built. Potential was much greater in the new version. By the time the product was ready for distribution, it had passed multiple small changes through out testing to make it an awesome product.

It didn't happen overnight.

All the changes were not made at the same time. They were small. They were tested. Changes focused on bugs and a function with value that needed to work well. This book is a technical approach to breaking down how you can take on the hard stuff in your life. How you perceive your life and it's problems in a better light. How to find the bugs, fix them and create functions that have value in your life.

How to go from version 1.7 to version 2.0. From ordinary to awesome.

Personal development stories.

None of us are iPhone apps or software that has bugs and updates. We are human. We are perfectly imperfect. It's a bit ironic, but I believe there is great value in our imperfections. Life is supposed to be imperfect for us. It is how we evolve as people, fathers, mothers, colleagues, leaders and friends. We change and adapt to survive.

We adapt not only for ourselves, but for others. Some of us have a greater responsibility to others than we do to ourselves. If that is you, I commend you. Serioulsy, you rock.

Every single we do creates who we are. We are a product of our own actions. Our choices have a huge impact on us over long periods of time. It can be hard to see those changes day to day, but they are there. Fractions. Pieces. Fragments. They all mend together over time.

Life is cumulative. It all adds up. I hate math, but this is my favorite kind. Life math.

I'm going to tell you something that might surprise you. I hope it doesn't crush your dreams...

You can't do everything.

Yup. It's true. It's impossible to do everything we want to do in our life. I have a million hobbies I wish I could pursue. Well... maybe not a million, but I have a ton of crafts I wish I had time and resources to pursue. There is a problem with the idea of wanting to do everything. I used to be that guy. I still am. I wanted to do everything. I see something cool and I wish I would spend time getting as good as someone else.

Human beings do not have the capacity to pursue everything they want to do. Mentally, physically, emotionally, the resources, the time... There isn't room in your life for everything. If I had it my way, I would be a full time professional musician, recording engineer, carpenter, graphic designer, web designer, writer, photographer, guitar pedal builder, guitar tech, fishing guide, filmmaker... and the list goes on. It's would basically be impossible to be really good at all of those things in one life time. Some of those I have dabbled in or have become professionally skilled at, but never a master of all.

When it comes to your own life and what you "really want to do" I want you to think about a few things to help you find focus. The list of questions in this chapter will help you find a path toward mastering something in your life. It doesn't mean that you have to do things professionally, but you could. That's the beauty of it. Our life is a balance of family, work and passions. The less you can focus on, the more you will get out of each part of your life.

Discovering your calling. Your function.

tw