This isn’t a story of building all the parts before you have a working product. No, that would be obvious. This is about needing a working motor before you can even get started on the trip. After years of going into an office, accomplishing tasks from 9-5, and trying to fit in the other priorities of my life around that timeframe, it’s tricky to build out a day and a schedule where you can balance all those priorities in your own way.

It is also important that you have all the pieces in place. I wanted to break up my working days with a few things:

• Bake some bread and get some cooking experience and build hand strength
• Do 20-40 miles of cycling to accomplish my weight loss goals
• Read more, which will expand my literary capabilities and get me away from a monitor

The thing is, I also needed my finances in order, which meant opening a checking account with a bank that doesn’t charge me because I lack direct deposit (Chase, you suck). Also, changing out car tires for summer, bicycle tires for the same reason, dentist, etc. I need to get all these financial burdens spent so I can more clearly define my goals, timeline, and know when the failure line should be drawn. Current estimates put me at, if nothing changed, an end to this adventure with the end of 2011. Of course, I have no intention of letting ‘nothing change‘.

Here’s the point, so thanks for sticking with it. Before you can focus on the task at hand, and really engross yourself in the project(s) you will love, you need to make sure that you can start the engine. Get your world in order, and then it will be easy to do everything you want to accomplish, regardless of whether it is financially or personally motivated.