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I don’t remember how old I was but I remember wanting a skateboard when I was a kid. Not just wanting it but feeling like I NEEDED it to survive. I cut a picture of it out of a catalog and hung it right by my bed. I was obsessed by the need to own this skateboard. Funny, as I was typing this I checked ebay and found the skateboard. It was a Variflex Splash!

Variflex1 Variflex2

That skateboard was the first material item I remember getting just crazy over. But it hasn’t been the last. There have been tons of things over the years that I felt like I just HAD to have. Like my life wouldn’t be complete without them. And then I’d get whatever it was I was chasing after and guess what? My life still wouldn’t feel complete and there would be a new something out there. That was true with cheap toys and skateboards when I was a kid and it’s been true with computers, gadgets and really expensive guitars and music equipment. They are just things! They can be the newest, shiniest, coolest things in the world but they are still just things!

In some of the first self improvement material I encountered, I was encouraged to think of who I wanted to BE, what I wanted to DO and what I wanted to HAVE, in that exact order. I have always gone at this backward. I have always focused on what I wanted to HAVE, DO and BE as if having materials things and doing certain things would let me be who I wanted to be. Boy was I wrong!

I’ve confessed in other articles that I am bad at BEING. Just One More Time is an attempt for me to move out of the HAVING and DOING categories of my life and move into BEING. It’s a realization that everything important to me has something to do with those I love and the time I spend with them.

Thanks for BEING here!
Matt

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