It’s a bloody teacher only day today. For those of you without school aged children, 'pupil free days’ are random days throughout the year when the students just aren't required at school. They are normally planning days or professional development days for the teachers. I have quite a few very good friends that are teachers and as much as I love and respect them as community leaders and educators of our children, I’ve never been able to graciously accept the student free day.
Coincidentally Matt is also away in Melbourne so I have the kids all to myself this morning. My normal Friday routine that has been carefully designed for optimal writing conditions, has been replaced by a sleep-in with two extra kids wriggling around in my bed, whispering in my ear every 5 minutes, ‘Can I play Nintendo now Mum?’.
Fine, go play bloody Nintendo.
I’ve given myself 1 hour and 20 minutes to write this week's blog because that is the exact time it takes to do a quick cycle in the washing machine. It’s also the same amount of time that the kids can watch devices without wanting something from me so I’ve got to be quick.
Working from home is a real pain in the arse! The wi-fi we have is on the blink and my little desk by the window has a climate of its own. When I woke up this morning it was -0.3 degrees but felt like -2.4. Ballarat is bloody cold. Everyone knows this but our house is so poorly insulated (well not at all insulated) so the outside temperature makes its way inside through single glazed windows and cracks in floor boards. Unless you're sitting right in front of the gas heater (where the kids are huddled right now) you’ll be cold at our house.
I was talking to someone the other day about how we are so unwilling to be uncomfortable in our day to day life. My parents' generation would’ve just told me to put on an extra jumper if your house is freezing and get on with it. But I hate it. I don’t want to walk around my house with a beanie and gloves on. I want to be warm. I want the kids to be warm.
This idea of being comfortable with being uncomfortable was the theme of this year's Commerce Ballarat Business Day Out I went to on Wednesday this week. The final speaker of the day was Nedd Brockmann. I had absolutely no idea who Nedd was but 265K followers on instagram would suggest he’s a pretty popular guy.
Nedd is only 24 and he is famous for raising 2.6 million dollars after running across Australia. WA to Bondi beach. 100km per day. It was a massive achievement and his talk was eye opening. He goes into gory details about how he had maggots under his toenail at some stage and he had to basically tie the front of this foot to his shin because his foot was so badly injured that it would just drag along the ground otherwise. He had a pretty great stage presence (and mullet) and was a good choice to get the crowd riled up before going to the pub for networking drinks.
After listening to Nedd’s story and hearing the other speakers, such as Matt Nunn from Nunn Media, a common theme was starting to emerge and that was discipline. All of these people started off as regular people, just like you and me. What sets them apart is discovering a goal. A plan. A purpose. Then they execute on that plan with such energy and commitment. Such discipline, that they don’t stop, they can’t stop until they achieve it. They’re not super heroes with super powers. Their success doesn’t come from old money or winning the lottery. It comes from saying they are going to do something and stopping at nothing to do it.
I love these types of underdog stories. Our story is an underdog story. Small husband and wife team with a young family try to take on the building industry by designing an cost effective, sustainable prefab building system that means everyday people can afford a fully insulated home. I sit here typing right now in my fingerless gloves, beanie and a woollen blanket over my legs while the air conditioner and gas heater are blasting all the heat and money through our paper thin walls.
Being uncomfortable right now is the fuel we use to keep ourselves motivated. Everytime we think we’re fucked. Everytime the outgoings dwarf the incomings. Everytime we get a final warning on a bill we remember why we’re doing this. We are reminded every day we wake up to a 6 degree bedroom during winter. We’re living proof of the need for more fully insulated homes in Australia.
When I hear people’s success stories being peppered with discipline I get excited. Discipline is something I'm good at but I haven’t always been. In regards to HUCX our business the commitment from myself took a while to evolve.
You see we’ve been at this for about 8 years and in the early days it was very much Matt’s thing. I also was in charge of mothering a couple of kids and working in my own graphic design business so there wasn’t much left to give Matt for a while there. Over the last few years as the kids have become more self sufficient and we leaned into daycare, kinda and school there was more time to give Matt and HUCX. This also coincided with some pretty heavy work on mindset, especially on a limited belief I’ve always had kicking away in the back of my brain. A limited belief that was presenting itself as doubt.
Self doubt is responsible for the death of billions of ideas, dreams and goals. The antidote is to show up. To be disciplined. To keep showing up. Keep going even when every bone in your body screams no. Once I realised the power of believing in myself, believing in Matt and appreciating that if I don’t feel that commitment, that strong pull in the depths of my soul then I’ll never succeed. I owe it to Matt to believe as much as he does and since we have fully aligned we’ve gone from strength to strength. You have to believe in yourself before you can believe in anything or anyone else.
