Keyword: field

  • Space Invaders

    “Space Invaders” by Jason Kotecki. 12 x 12. Oil on canvas.
    Original is SOLD 🔴 Shop this art!

    Some of you are old enough to remember the Atari video game system. A far cry from the advanced graphics we see in games today. And only one button!

    One of the most popular games was called Space Invaders, which I have featured prominently in this painting. It was a simple concept: you try to shoot as many aliens as you can as they descend down your screen. As the game continues, the aliens descend at an ever-increasing speed. If they reach the bottom, the alien invasion is successful, and the game ends.

    To me, this is a great metaphor for Adultitis, a disease that Kim and I have committed our lives to help defeat. All of you are familiar with this enemy, even if you’re hearing the name for the first time. It’s what happens when you lose your sense of wonder, your curiosity, and your childlike zest for life.

    Quite literally, Adultitis means “swelling of the adult.” And when you’re walking around with too much adult, your life is more stressful and less fun.

    Although I wish there were a magic potion or miracle cure that ended Adultitis once and for all, there just isn’t. Adultitis is always coming after us, just like those aliens. You can blast down a whole screen by going to Disney World, but on your first day back to work, another wave is ready to strike.

    The key, I think, is to look at fighting Adultitis as a game. It’s most deadly when it hides in the shadows, convincing you to take yourself too seriously and getting you to focus on the negative.

    But if you notice where it tries to sabotage you and laugh at its advances, you can diffuse its power.

    Our family has had great fun in acknowledging when Adultitis has gained the upper hand, and we encourage one another to fight back. Extreme cases call for a pajama run or a spontaneous dance party in the kitchen.

    My Dad always says, “Everything happens for a reason.”

    I make it a game to try to figure out the reason. Anytime something bad happens, I start thinking about what good could come from it. What if you looked at the challenges you face like any other game?

    • Instead of looking at making payroll as a life-or-death situation, make it into a game.
    • Instead of worrying about not getting everything done today, make it into a game.
    • Instead of stressing out over how you’ll ever be able to conform to the new regulations in your industry, make it into a game.

    Instead of acting like your current challenge is something found in the bad-tasting medicine aisle, mentally repackage it in primary colors and take it from the toy section. Breathe. Smile. Have some fun with it. By looking at it as a game and clearing your mind of the useless worst-case scenarios, you’ll actually be MORE likely to notice the people, opportunities, and ideas you’ll need to win.

    You may believe that the stakes are much higher now compared to a silly game of Space Invaders. But are they really? With VERY few exceptions, the truth is that our fear of failure is worse than the consequences that come from actually failing. Sure, the project very well might flop, your efforts might go to waste, or someone may laugh at you. You could get rejected, dejected, or fired.

    Sometimes, like the aliens, Adultitis advances past your defenses and wins the day.

    But you know what? The good news is that you can hit reset and start again. Life WILL go on. It’ll be ok. You’ll be able to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get ready for the new — even better! — opportunity right around the corner.

    Are you game?

  • Jump Around

    “Jump Around” by Jason Kotecki. 16 x 20. Oil on canvas.
    Original is SOLD 🔴 Shop this art!

    This painting was inspired by a tradition that Badger fans have at University of Wisconsin football games. Between the third and fourth quarters, the song “Jump Around” is booming through the loudspeakers, and all of the red-clad fans do exactly that.

    It reminded me of those old electronic football games in which tiny plastic athletes buzzed around on a green metal field. Readers of a certain age will know exactly what I’m talking about, and this painting will bring back all sorts of memories.

    For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, well, I guess you had to be there.

    With football season now upon us, I am reminded of a cool idea the leader of an insurance agency shared with me at one of my speaking programs. During pigskin season, he allows his employees to wear jeans and the jersey of their favorite college or pro team. (He even buys the jersey as a welcome aboard present!) Then, if their team wins over the weekend, they can wear it again on Monday. He reports that those days are always the most light-hearted and energized.

    Even if you work in an environment where jerseys wouldn’t be appropriate, perhaps everyone could represent their favorite team with a necktie, lapel pin, socks, or coffee mug.

    I think it’s worth figuring something out, because this sounds like a pretty good way to keep a team buzzing to me.

  • Pie in the Sky

    “Pie in the Sky” by Jason Kotecki. 20 x 20. Oil on canvas.
    Original is SOLD 🔴 Shop this art!

    In December of 2016, I wrote the biggest check of my life. Not in size, but in importance. It was the final check to close out a business debt that totaled $100,000 back in 2008. We paid it off seven months early, and for the first time since we launched in 2000, the business was completely debt-free.

    That felt really, really good.

    Deep down, I always knew we’d pay it off, but it seemed like it would take forever. In 2008, the year 2017 seemed a million years away. And before that, as we racked up said debt staying afloat while we tested business models, and funded small successes (and a few big defeats), surviving — let alone thriving — seemed pie in the sky.

    At least it did when we spent two whole days at a craft show in Milwaukee and only sold $7.94 in greeting cards.

    Or when my hometown newspaper, which ran my comic strip free for a whole year, decided to drop it when I asked for $10 a week.

    Or when we were down to the last $100 in our bank account more times than I care to remember.

    Pie in the sky.

    Coined in a song written in 1911 by a Swedish-born American named Joe Hill, we understand “pie in the sky” as something good and pleasant to contemplate, but very unlikely to be realized.

    I don’t know what the odds were of us actually building a real business with no experience, no proven business model, and no money. Were they as long as the Cubs rallying from a 3-1 series deficit to win the World Series? Or as unlikely as the Patriots coming back from 25 down with a little over a quarter to play to win the Super Bowl?

    The real question is this: How great does the deck have to be stacked against you before you give up, labeling your dream as pie in the sky?

    Only you can answer that, and every person has a different one. But we are often too quick to chalk something up as pie in the sky when it really isn’t. It can keep us from even starting. It lets us off the hook, thinking our dream was impossible anyway, because sacrifice and hard work and hope — yes, even hope — hurts sometimes.

    I don’t write this to place myself on a pedestal. If I have done anything well, it has been to persist. But my persistence was fueled by a belief that God placed this dream deep in my heart, and that he would see it through. Every day I woke up thinking, this could be the day — the day that we got our big break and everything would turn around. Some of the things that seemed to be big breaks turned out to be pathetic spurts and epic fails. Mostly, we got a lot of small breaks that added up to something pretty great. It certainly tested every bit of my patience and nerve and good sense, and made me question my sanity on more than thirty-seven occasions, but here we are.

    Not everything is worth seeing through till the end. As we grow, our dreams and desires, and priorities can change. But don’t be tricked into stopping just because the odds seem long. Everything is impossible until it isn’t.

    Yes, the odds may be long. Your stamina may be depleted. Your hope may be dim.

    But if the cause is great enough and your soul is on board and your motive is pure, keep going.

    You may just be able to grab that pie and eat it, too.