The WHY Of Strong Dogs
Strong Dogs is more than a name. It’s more than a brand. More than something to market. More than training your dog. It’s an Ideal. My purpose if you will, it’s a moment, a decision, when you needed a desperate change but were too scared to jump. My goal, or my ‘WHY’ for any Simon Sinek fans out there, are two things:
1) To help you train and develop the best dog possible. Taking the time to train your dog can be deemed a chore. Taking your dog out to go to the bathroom especially when you’re tired can be deemed a chore. But if I can assist you to ascertain this isn’t only just plan fucking irritating and your dog Isn’t a chore rather than the best Decision you’ve ever made so you guys have the longest, most endearing, meaningful relationship possible. Then it’s a win.
‘Every Action Is Measured By The Sentiment It Proceeds’ - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Selfless VS Selfish
I definitely understand that a meaningful life means you submit yourself to serve others which makes you selfless. To have purpose is to serve. That’s what all the good solid, righteous literature tells us. That’s what we were told as kids. You need to serve others to have fulfillment. But fulfillment isn’t always from serving. We see it everywhere, with what people do, who they are serving, defining their purpose. Are they serving who they want to serve? Or are they just serving a boss and all their requests. People are miserable serving what they don’t want. With that can serving actually be unfulfilling?
And if you do anything for yourself, that means what? That you’re selfish? Do you have to be miserable in order to provide for yourself or family? That it’s wrong to think of yourself or to put yourself before anything else? That it’s a sin to want more for yourself. If you haven’t any of those thoughts or feelings, great for you! If you’re 1,000% happy and satisfied… and above all, fulfilled. Then ignore me. Or don’t. Cause I thought I was, I thought I was doing what I wanted to do. Big reason was because for the first time ever in my life did I make over $100K. There’s a cost to everything. And as much as a money whore that I was, I realized money isn’t everything. It didn’t fulfill me like I thought it would.
So what do you do? Serving others is great, but if you don’t believe in what you’re doing, what’s the point? Then if you think of yourself, its easy to feel like an asshole. That’s quite a heavy burden and a lot of undue stress. However that’s what a helluva lot of people around the world do every day. As of writing this I’m still dealing with it. Trust me I had this burden and stress. And dealt with that psychological warfare, consistently battling those two opposing thoughts of what to do.
If you can’t beat them, join them. If I couldn’t decide on which - way of life so to speak - to go with then why not join those two actions. One is good two is better. Pull out the old Venn diagram. On side you got ‘selfless’ and on the other there’s ‘selfish’. However there in the middle there’s that thin little slice of overlap. Is it possible to get what I want out something while still serving others? To get that fulfillment and purpose creatively, intellectually, prevailingly.
2) If I can inspire someone else to jump and to go after their dream. I can’t stress this enough that’s why I word vomited “Why I Started STRONG DOGS”. But I want to be as relatable as possible. Every mental hurdle and fear that you may have ever felt in your life so have I. So when I decided to jump it needed to be for a reason. It needed to be in something I believed in, whole heartedly. That’s why my ‘WHY’ is so strong. Pun intended.
If I do those two things. I get everything I need in return. Selfishly, I want to continue to gain knowledge and get better in dog sport and overall training for my dogs. The process in of itself is selfish. The pursuit to get better is meaningful. And everything I know and even the things I don’t know but once those things are acquired, I give away and put out into the world so others and their dogs can benefit from, is selfless.
Thus Strong Dogs.
