Hello!

Been a while since I have put up a post…The natural question is where have you been?

I understand that question.

One of the blogs I follow is www.screeninglog.com written by Frank Tabouring. The last blog post Frank put up was on November 21st, 2010- “See the brand-new ‘The Green Hornet Trailer’.” Every few days I go to Frank’s website to see if he has put up a new post. Last week I even googled “Frank Tabouring” to see if I could find out any news about him.

Nothing. Nada. Zip. I do not know what has happened to Frank. I hope that he is okay.

I know that some of you have had similar questions about me, ’cause I have heard from you. I have also had a number of people ask when I will get back to blogging.

Okay, Okay – I am back to blogging.

So what happened? A number of things…

My computer went down, and I had to take it to the Mac hospital to get it fixed. During the time my Mac was in the “shop,” I got out of the rhythm of blogging, and one distraction led to another..

I have been working at my day job as an AE , fighting my way through “The Dip” that you have to plow through when you are an AE and you go to work for a wholesale lender that not many of your clients are approved with or have even heard of. Thankfully – I am seeing daylight at the end of that dip! (even with the dip I am in, I am still glad I made the change I did. I really enjoy working for a wholesale mortgage lender that values mortgage brokers.)

For those who do not know The Dip is a great book with awesome concepts by Seth Godin  – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dip. If you have not read it, you should. With every new endeavor you will have to go through a “dip” to experience success.

My wife Gayla spent about two months  working a significant number of extra hours studying at night and on the weekends preparing to take the Oregon Real Estate Broker License test. (She did pass her test!) While Gayla was studying for that test, I happily ended up taking on many of the household chores and did much of the care of our kids.

Those are a few of the more significant things that seemed to get in the way of my blogging.

Well, I am back, and hopefully I will not get off track again.

Gary Vaynerchuk www.garyvaynerchuck.com was right when he said in his book Crush It that blogging is hard work. I cannot imagine anyone paying the price to blog about something that they were not passionate about.

Speaking of passion -the movie poster for Braveheart had this tagline  “Every man dies, not every man truly lives”

I saw that movie in the theatre 15 years ago. That tagline has haunted me and stayed with me more than even that powerful, heart-stirring movie did.

In 2004, I packed up my family, left MN and headed West for a better life.

I want to live life to the full.

I want to enjoy want I call The Good Life www.goenjoythegoodlife.com .

I want to enjoy the vitality pursuits that feed the soul that I am.

I want to see my dreams come true.  www.battleforyourdreams.com

I want to make a difference in the lives of (many) others – without burning out (again).

This blog is about my westward journey to all of the above and I invite you to join me for the adventure!

Steven Shomler

PS – Kathy Mattea has an amazing song entitled Where Have You Been. If you do not know it. check it out. www.mattea.com

Gayla and I saw Kathy Mattea in 2008 at the Oregon Zoo and we were lucky enough to see her perform this tremendous song live. Check out her website and next time she is in your neck of the woods, do yourself a favor and go see her.