Snow Forts

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I loved build­ing snow forts when I was a kid. For those of us who grew up in cli­mates with frosty win­ters, it was a clas­sic child­hood pastime.

After a big snow­fall, it was it was easy to start vision­ing what sort of fort you would build. Your imag­i­na­tion kick­ing into high gear, you’d think about build­ing two lev­els, with win­dows — and tur­rets! — along with a few secret pas­sage­ways and, of course, extra thick walls to pro­tect against enemy snow­ball attacks.

Here’s the thing: no mat­ter how grandiose your plans, you always start out with a plain, untouched pile of snow. And if you caught sight of the neigh­bor kids’ fort — the ones who got started a few hours ahead of you — it might be easy to get a lit­tle jeal­ous. I mean, they have a freak­ing moat. And is that a snow­ball CATAPULT?

No mat­ter. You are deter­mined to make your snow fort even bet­ter. You know you have it in you. But first, you fig­ure you should prob­a­bly get an extra layer of clothes on. (You’re going to be out here for a while, after all.) Then you think it might be wise to draw up a plan for your fort. Prepa­ra­tion is power! In the mid­dle of decid­ing how big to make your win­dows on the sec­ond floor, you notice an elderly neigh­bor is out retriev­ing his mail. Per­haps it would serve you well to ask him for some expert snow fort build­ing tips. After he regales you with amaz­ing sto­ries from his child­hood and arms you with some cru­cial advice you’re sure those neigh­bor kids don’t know about, you are ready to get going. But then you notice your toes and fin­gers are get­ting a lit­tle chilly. Might as well head inside for a bit to warm up with some hot choco­late. You’re going to need to be 100% for this undertaking!

While sip­ping your warm drink indoors, you spy the neigh­bor­hood kids’ fort. You’re pretty sure they now have three sto­ries on that thing, and they seem to be hav­ing quite a blast play­ing in it. Dis­cour­aged, you lament the fact that they had bet­ter snow, stronger mus­cles, more help, and two sheets of ply­wood from their dad’s shed. “Must be nice,” you scoff.

It’s get­ting dark now any­way. The snow fort of your dreams will take shape…tomorrow.

We all have dreams. We can think about them, pre­pare for them, write about them, and talk about them. We can learn new skills, gather data, and col­lect all kinds of wise advice to give us the best chance of success.

All of these activ­i­ties are impor­tant, but none are shortcuts.

But there is absolutely, pos­i­tively, unequiv­o­cally no sub­sti­tute for show­ing up and doing the work.

by Jason Kotecki

Jason Kotecki is an artist, author, and pro­fes­sional speaker. Jason and his wife Kim (a for­mer kinder­garten teacher) make it their mis­sion in life to fight Adul­ti­tis and help peo­ple use strate­gies from child­hood to design lives with less stress and more fun. Stop by www.KimandJason.com for more tips for escap­ing adulthood.

Jason Kotecki

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