Whims - 18Sep26
00:00:00 Chris Golden: It's Friday and welcome back to Whims. I'm actually surprised that I've kept up this show four days going. Now, for those of you who might wonder why, well, I think I discussed it a little bit in that first episode where I have this sort of hyper focused two seconds of energy into many of the things that I do. At which point I then run into a proverbial wall. Sometimes it has to do with analysis paralysis. I find that I get into a place where I'm not entirely sure where to go next. Because there's so many different sort of directions I could head. And other times it's the absence of the directions. It's, "What next? Like, what do I do? Where do I go?" So the fact that we're here, what, four days in the fourth episode. Um, is interesting, at least to me. But I've, you know, come to realize in a lot of what it is that I do, you know, this does happen. I have started a number of different things over the last, well, five, maybe six years that remain unfinished. I started and then faded out learning how to program in Python. I've taken a number of different sort of online classes. I've taken a class through Udemy, a class through LinkedIn learning, Futurecoder, Codédex. Codédex was actually a good one. It's a program that I actually completed. So in fairness, that didn't quite fade, though I didn't progress beyond the introductory course they had. There was an intermediate level and I didn't really get into that. I've also done the University of Helsinki MOOC, Python course, which is really well regarded. But again, I get to this point where I'm taking the content and I'm, you know, enjoying myself, I'm getting value. I have that sort of intrinsic drive, that motivates me to do more. And then, you know, at some point something comes up. Maybe it's a life event, maybe it's a lack of time, or in some cases, it could be just a matter of, I've run into a wall and I feel as my own self critic that I'm, I'm not getting it. And not that I'm not so much a failure, but insomuch as that I'm too old or no longer capable, and I know that that that's sort of self-defeating to think that way. And it's it's something that I continue to try to overcome, but it is just the reality of what it is that I currently currently face. I've spun up podcast ideas. I think I sort of spoke to you about that on Tuesday and the introductory episode. I had actually registered a domain name by mistake and, uh, Respawn Point Set that wasn't actually what I had meant to, to register. And someone had said, oh, that sounds like a great title for a video game podcast. And so I had actually gone through and created pretty much a brand for this video game podcast that never got off the ground. I've registered the domain, Let Chris Cook thinking that I would go and build out sort of a, a blog or a video experience documenting how I'm starting to explore the culinary arts, so to speak. Uh, I, I enjoy, um, experimenting, uh, within the kitchen, uh, much more than I once did. I still would describe myself as having very rudimentary basic understanding. I'm good at following recipes, but there's that sort of, you know, self critical component that comes into play. I've allowed myself, uh, to, to serve the food to my, my wife and my daughter and my parents and some extended family. That was tough sort of to get to that point where, hey, here's some of the things that I can, I can whip together. And I'm, I'm kind of embarrassed that, you know, I'm a middle aged man. And that's a topic that I'm only just starting to get into now. But, you know, again, I, I, I registered that domain and I had planned to document it, But the problem with that I face there was a combination of time. It takes a lot of time to record videos, to document the recipes, to take those pictures. I give credit to, uh, you know, the food influencers and the cooking influencers who spend the time and effort to make that happen. Um, I'm not entirely sure I'm at this point in life where I can get the value proposition quite right, considering I've got a day job, I'm busy with my daughter and everything else that I have going on. Um, the Nerdy Dad Cast podcast that I recorded with my friend Jon. I mean, you know, realistically, the reason that that podcast sort of pod faded had everything to do with me. Uh, Jon was more than willing to take part. And when I actually visited his family, um, recently, we were talking sort of, well, hey, you know, our kids have now grown up. Wouldn't it be cool to, you know, restart and record. And I, I agree, I think there's a lot of cool opportunities there, but the amount of time that it would take to, to produce is just not time. I'm realistically thinking I have, I can, I can make whims happen at a whim. I record it for five to ten minutes. And I do a lot of the basic production in Adobe Podcast Studio where it's click this button and off you go. Like I realistically understand there's a lot more that could go into this to make it even that much better. But again, I'm really focusing on what it is that I can do. But I'd love to revisit the nerdy dad cast. And you know, I've, I've also played around, um, thinking at one point that, you know, being a cruise consultant or travel consultant, uh, would be interesting, um, as a sort of like a side hustle, but again, the time that it took to, to drum up business to, to, to have that hustle to, to make it work. It was just something that I, I didn't possess And that unfortunately also coincided with just before the pandemic in twenty twenty, which would have guttered pretty much anything that I would have done had I continued, you know, beyond that point. But it then kicked off an idea, well, maybe document, you know, local travels, the trips that you go on, create video content. Um, you know, things like that. Uh, another opportunity I had sort of thought about but never really got off the ground was walking tours. Uh, where I previously lived in that community. I, I knew a little bit of the history actually came out of my schooling. I had taken some locally developed courses and content that focused on that. And I thought I could, you know, create a walking tour, uh, that people could hang out with and learn more about that community. And I had a couple of different, um, angles or approaches so that not all walks were the same, but, you know, again, it was sort of the time that it would take to make it happen. The marketing I'm I'm like that. Uh, that guy in the, the dancing video, I think it's, uh, Derek Sivers who talks about it in a presentation about, uh, leadership. And he talks about the first followers. I'm really probably not necessarily better suited as the first follower or the second follower. Like I'm, I just gravitate towards that role and getting something off the ground. If someone were to do that and elevate them really good in a team, I'm really good in a group. And that's not to discount my ideas. I'm constantly thinking of things. It's just the get it up and go part of it that unfortunately, uh, seems to be the, the, the point of failure. But hey, here we are with Whims. Maybe this is a sign of, of change or personal growth or evolution.
00:08:45 Chris Golden: We've been here for four days, three more. It's been a week and who knows where we go from there.
00:08:53 Chris Golden: Whims is recorded on the traditional and unceded territory of the Semiahmoo, Kwantlen and Katzie Nations. You can email me at whimsfyi@proton.me, that's W H I M S F Y I at proton dot me, with a casual hello, comments, questions or the winning lottery numbers? No, I don't need any help with website redesign. You can find all the links mentioned in this episode, in the show notes on the website whims.fyi and the song you hear at the start and the end of the show is "The Homestead" from Logan at musicformakers.com.