My day starts kind of late.  I wake up at about 8:30 on the couch.  My youngest son is usually wrapped around my arm sleeping cozily and I gently let myself out of his grasp to take a shower.  I get ready for work, kiss my wife and eldest son good-bye for the day and head to work.  I usually work from 9:30-6:30, but typically in a week, I go till 7-7:30 at least once and even take home some work at night like tonight.  I am also on 24/7 support call rotation because our installations are critical systems.

As soon as I get home and have a bit for dinner and some conversation with my wife, I spend some time with my sons, usually wrestling, sword-fighting or playing some video games together while my wife catches a break and does some cleaning up.  I bathe my sons and put them to bed.  My eldest usually goes to bed around 9:30-10:30.  My youngest usually sleeps at about 10:30-11 because he’s had multiple naps during the day.  If I’m lucky, I get a chance to spend some time with my wife before she heads to bed around 11:30, unless she is tired and sleeps early.  My wife has the toughest job – taking care of us, the house and they yard all by herself, so I’m more than happy to take care of the kids at night.  Especially because I’m a night owl and I have learned how to sleep in less than a blink of an eye.

My Saturdays are spent with my boys.  I take them to the park, to museums, or exploring in the backyard while my wife has some time alone to catch up on chores that are difficult to do with small children underfoot.  My Sundays start with going to Church and my sons and I play some more, but on a more relaxed pace than a typical Saturday outing.

As it is, my days and weeks are typically very busy.  Making time to be social with friends is already an ordeal because my wife works pretty hard to take care of me, the boys and the house and I understand that leaving to see friends is imposing more time on her on top of unfinished chores.  Even more difficult is making time to go on a date because we have to find and pay a babysitter to take care of our two small rambunctious boys and we fall even further behind on chores.

Any reasonable person would say that what I have is enough.  It already is a full-load and there isn’t any reason I should want more.  I have a beautiful wife, two healthy growing sons, a good job and we live in a great neighborhood.  Why should I pursue more?

Because I cannot not pursue my dreams.

Ever since I realized that I could punch lines of BASIC on an Apple II+ when I was 7 years old, I’ve wanted to make games.  And I’ve grown tired of making excuses why I can’t make them:

• That I’m not smart enough.
• That I don’t have the right education.
• That I don’t have the right game programming book.
• That there is some secret technique that I don’t know.
• That I lack talent.
• That I lack skill.
• And most of all, that I lack time.

Now, with a typical week like I described above, when did I make time to work on my own projects?

From about 11PM to 3AM every night, I work on my own projects.

Sometimes it is take-home stuff from my day job.  Sometimes its my own game projects or freelancing job I picked up for extra cash to pay off some debts.  Sometimes it is my own art work.  But more often than not, I am working on something in the middle of the night.  Around 2-3 in the morning, my youngest son stirs from his sleep and calls for me to comfort him.  So I hold him for a bit to let him settle down.  And more often than not, I don’t make it to bed.  I fall asleep on the couch with him and wake five hours later to my beautiful wife gently shaking me, and to the aroma of coffee close behind.

I am told that to truly be successful, you have to put in at least 10,000 hours of blood, sweat, and tears into it.  That is the difference between the merely pedestrian and those that the world would call a “genius.”  If that’s the case, then I will have to manage to put in that time now.  Otherwise, I will never realize my dreams.

I am often asked if I should be catching up on sleep.  What I love to say in response is, “I could either be asleep and be dreaming or I can be awake and be building them.”

Above all, it is most important to remember that no dream is worth building without being able to share it with someone.  I must accomplish this without compromising that which is truly important – my wife and children.  This is why I wait till everyone is asleep before I do my damnedest.

If you think 10,000 hours is just too much then you don’t want it badly enough.  And don’t begin to tell me that you can’t find the time.