John Paul Strong

Keep Moving

The New Year has brought on a new mantra for me. I have started using the phrase “Keep Moving” and am telling it to myself multiple times a day. In fact, this new mantra is part of the reason why I have blogged so little about things going on in my life. I have found myself moving so fast that there is very little time to stop and do things like writing a blog or spending time reflecting on things that have just happened.

The ”keep moving” mindset has been a fun way to start the year and makes sure that you will never have a dull moment in your day if you are constantly in motion. I listened to a guy give a speech about how to effectively keep yourself mentally sharp and focused as you progress in your career. (In other words, he was telling people in their 40s and 50s how to still be as vibrant and excited as they were about work when they were in their 20s and 30s – which really made me start to feel old). The context of the speech focused around the question of who do you want to be when you grow up and was aimed at making sure you had some purpose in your life, that there was something meaningful so you didn’t get to the end of your life with any real regrets. Part of what helps to get you to this point is to always be in some form of motion. People who sit down all day become their own worse drain of energy while people who will stand up and move around from time to time are able to stay alive and energetic more so than their peers.

The locational aspect of “keep moving” had an impact on me but also reminded me that it was time to put my feet in motion and get back to being aggressive about travel so that I could put a lot more things in motion. Since 2020 and the pandemic brought on a lot of restrictions, it has been easier to not attend every client meeting or call a meeting in by doing a Zoom call, which does get very boring if I am just being honest. So a big part of “keep moving” for me has been to get back to being gone a little more. I love being home and around the ones I love but there is also something that makes me want to get out and see the world. Therefore, some part of me will always be in motion as I “keep moving” around throughout my career.

The last part to me of the “keep moving” approach has been to cram more shit into my life than I can even imagine. I fully reinvested myself to grow my company from a revenue and ability perspective, so I have mentally recommitted to working my ass off to build the business bigger. This includes working at night after everyone is in bed, working on the weekends when I can find time, working from a treadmill or shooting house – anywhere I can find a spare moment. I just decided it was time to work more to build something bigger. If building a business wasn’t enough, I decided after putting it off for years that it was time to build a house. Building a house wasn’t enough, so I decided my kids are going to need a place for hunting and outdoor recreation just as I had growing up, so I decided to build a farm. If building physical structures wasn’t enough, I decided it was time to build more memories, so I have more trips planned with Amy and the kids than we have ever had before. With all this building, it is requiring me to stay in constant motion and to “keep moving.”

I can say that so far this year it has brought me to a point of exhaustion, but that was only twice. And lastly, I can say that I am having more fun while I “keep moving” than anything I can recently recall.