I love the fresh start that a new year brings. The first few weeks are often a time filled with goals, aspirations, and resolutions.  It is invigorating, enlightening, and empowering!  Unfortunately, as we all know, reality often sneaks back in sometime around mid-January or early February when the daily grind chips away at those New Year’s Resolutions. We soon find that that our lofty plans have become a vague memory and our priority list is overwhelmed with “have to do’s”.

My challenge to you in 2019 is to take a different path.  Utilize that new year, new start energy to wipe the dust off one or two of your deepest passions and actually do something about them. Do something BIG in 2019!  Twelve months ago, that is exactly what I did, and it has made a HUGE impact on my life.

Those of you who know me well know that my faith, my family, our freedom, and my company (RES) are huge components of my life.  What you may not know is that I also have a passion for engineering – specifically extreme off-road mechanical engineering.  It started when I was around 8 or 9 years old when I got my first 4-Wheel & Off-Road Magazine from the grocery store. I’ve been tinkering with 4×4 vehicles ever since.

Fast forward a few years—in 2007 a group of 13 off-road enthusiasts decided to challenge themselves to see who could complete a circuit combining high-speed desert with the world’s toughest off-road trails at a place called “The Hammers” in Johnson Valley, CA. It was here that “King of the Hammers” was officially launched. Since then, the event has grown to become the largest and toughest off-road race in the world, with over 100,000 spectators expected to attend and millions expected to watch the live feed online in 2019.

Not surprisingly, I quickly became fascinated by “King of the Hammers”.  The fact that less than 10% of entrants actually finish the race was intriguing to me.  Last February, while my wife and I watched the 2018 race, I turned to her and said “I would LOVE to do that someday!”.  Her reply? “Well, why don’t you do it next year?”

Now, how many times have you had a similar discussion with your friends, spouse, or significant other about a passion of yours?  Of course, like all of our dreams, there are MILLIONS of reasons why we shouldn’t follow them.

We don’t have the money.

We don’t have the time.

We don’t have the experience.

We don’t have a fully vetted plan.

The list goes on and on…but 2018 was different for me.  Instead of allowing the weight and doubts of reality to sneak back in and crush my dream, starting my own company with my partners had taught me that simply starting is often the most difficult part of doing big things.  So, that weekend I prayed about it – a lot – and the following Monday…I started!

That first, simple step has led me on a journey that I never could have anticipated or predicted. Almost twelve months later, I have a team of 25+ sponsors and countless fellow off-road enthusiasts who have worked tirelessly with me to create one of the most innovative vehicles to ever attempt the world’s toughest off-road race.  The final step of the journey that began last February culminates next month when my team, SteelCityRacing, and I compete in the 2019 “King of the Hammers”.

Now, I know that most of you don’t share my passion for off-road.  However, I do know that everyone has a dream they’ve always thought about, whether it’s baking, teaching, computer programming, mountaineering or something else. But most of you are hesitant to actually start pursuing it.

So, JUST START.

Post an idea online.

Share it with a friend, spouse, or significant other.

Take that first, small action toward it and hold yourself accountable.

It doesn’t have to replace your day job.  But, maybe one day, it will grow so big that it does.

At RES, our passion is helping organizations make great decisions based on big data and predictive location analytics, and our dream is to revolutionize the way our clients and the healthcare industry plan their ambulatory strategies.  If you’d like to hear more about our capabilities, please schedule a demo with us today.  And be sure to pull for Team SteelCityRacing (#4602) on February 6^th as we compete in the 2019 “King of the Hammers: Every Man Challenge 4600 Class”!