Do nothing, become nothing. Do something, become something.
It’s been 8 days since Kelly’s surgery. We spent 5 days and 4 nights in the hospital. My leave of absence ends today, but that’s okay, because my FMLA has reset for the year. We’ll manage to get through her recovery without the stress of work breathing down my neck.
The thought of going back to doing the same old thing after these last few months feels surreal. Many ideas have come and gone in recent weeks (and Kelly is about worn out from how all over the place I’ve been) but one thing remains: I still want to make our faith, family, and freedom the focal point of life.
Brain(thunder)storming
My mind doesn’t stop running through scenarios. When I try to solve a problem, it’s often in a pretty linear way. There may be a dozen roadblocks between me and the solution, but I don’t see them until I’m right in front of the “ROAD CLOSED” sign.
Maybe there were signs warning me of what was ahead. It could be a lane closure with a detour, or a bridge that once got you across but isn’t safe anymore. Maybe I made a wrong turn and could’ve avoided the roadblock altogether.
Whatever the case, I build up a lot of momentum, fully confident I’m heading in the right direction.
This leads to me just spinning my wheels and burning up fuel (or battery, for you EV drivers), not moving at all. I find myself in a cycle: hope → failure → discouragement → hopelessness → back to hopeful.
As I’m writing this, I found myself Googling quotes about the brainstorming process to help me make sense of it all. One stood out:
“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”
— George Bernard Shaw
How true is that?
I’d much rather keep trying to make something of myself with a hundred failures than settle for doing nothing. That kind of outlook might be uncomfortable or frustrating to others, but it resonates with me.
So I’ll keep going.
The First Step Toward the Life We Actually Want
We’ve been talking about RV life for months. Dreaming about living simpler. Saying, “someday.”
“Someday.”
What a loaded word.
We write off our dreams because we don’t know what to do or how to do it, so when we say “someday,” it’s a straight up lie. There’s no intention behind it. Just an easy excuse to accept the idea that we can’t actually change anything.
We get convinced that life has to look a certain way. That we have to work a certain job.
Don’t even get me started on how expensive it is just to live.
We’ll talk more about that later. But we’re not there yet.
Starting is hard.
Not because we don’t want it, but because we don’t know what we’re doing.
We’ve got kids.
A mortgage.
Cancer.
Commitments.
Fears.
But more than anything, we’ve got this ache to change something.
To stop watching life go by.
So we did one thing:
We bought the domain.
We created The Raines Method.
Not because we know what it’s going to become…
But because we knew we couldn’t keep waiting.
It was small, but it was proof that we’re done living on autopilot.
It meant we weren’t just talking anymore.
We were choosing to move.
And that changes everything.
I never thought I’d be sitting on our back deck writing a blog post while my kids play in a puddle of grape Gatorade.
I’m living simply right now.
I’ve taken the first step and it took me so long to take it.
On paper, it should’ve been easy.
But we live in a world of filters, AI, hustle, and noise.
We’ve been blinded by what this world has become.
We may not have a camper yet…
Or a truck to pull it…
But we are moving forward.
Summary
It’s okay to fail.
In fact, I encourage you to fail.
Until we experience failure, we’ll never know we can overcome it.
Take an uncomfortable step forward.
It literally does NOT matter what it is.
Couch to 5k? Start it. Who cares if you fail?
Gardening? Who cares if all the plants die?
Want to learn a new language? TRY IT. YOU deserve it and you’ll be better because of it.
If you haven’t heard this quote before, it’s time you have:
“Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.”
I’m just some dude writing a blog in 2025, a blog.
The only time you’re wasting… is when you’re doing nothing.
If you do nothing, you’ll become nothing.
If you do something, you’ll become something.