“Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose”

Did you ever watch the Friday Night Lights TV series? It’s only one of the greatest American sports drama’s to light up the small screen in the history of television. The series ran from 2006-2011 but even now, if you’re lucky, a favorite line or two from the show will pop up unexpectedly in everyday life and make you think.

The most popular of these lines, “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose,”  is the one you’re most likely to hear. Fans embraced the memorable mantra the moment it left Coach Eric Taylor’s lips. The phrase—which references the power of drive and optimism—has made its way beyond the lights, still inspiring us to this day.

I was sitting on my porch the other Saturday sipping coffee and soaking up the sunshine while some boys in my apartment complex tossed a football around the parking lot. One of them uttered the famous idiom and the others echoed back: Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose!

They played a role in inspiring this post.

If you haven’t noticed (and you probably have) we took some time away from posting on pretty much any ZCM Channel you’ve consumed content from us on—YouTube, social media, here on the blog. Truth is, we got a little burnt out from our project load last year and needed to take a step back.

In addition to this, we’ve undergone some major life transitions. Nick got married, I had a novella published, Nick started a new job, I started a new job, the list goes on. Life is happening at full speed, fast and beautiful.

And it’s made us think:

What does it mean to us to make an impact on the world and live a good life every day?

Nick and I were exploring this thought back before Christmas. Reflecting on it over the holidays and into 2019 only left us with more questions:

Why do we live in a world where we accept narrow definitions of success from other people? Where we consume material goods to achieve purpose from within? Where we seek constant validation from people online? Where we take our insecurities out on the people closest to us?

Deep shiznit, right?

But then, while I was watching those kids play football in the parking lot, it hit me. This frame of mind isn’t something we can just read about and know. It’s something we have to learn and cultivate for ourselves.

We get caught in loops of other people. People who influence us to click ads, buy clothes, try restaurants, drink smoothies, see this movie and not that one. We get caught in loops of other people who we allow to disconnect us from our beliefs because it’s rare when we pause to question the masses; or the people with the biggest influence over us.

We fail to see ourselves as worthy of being invited to dinner, getting in that photo, writing that book, pursuing that dream, or even being loved and appreciated because our wallet isn’t big enough, or our shoes aren’t right, or we’re just not as successful.

Adjust Your Perceptions

Together, as teammates and friends, Nick and I made a major decision for the future of Z Coast Media and for ourselves in 2019. This year we’re adjusting our perceptions. We’re adopting “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose” in the form of Personal Growth for Growth of the Team.

This year is about us. It’s about pushing ourselves and each other to grow and be comfortable in every weird and unique aspect of our skin. We refuse to let our sparks dissolve. That means we’ll write when we want to write. We’ll make videos/podcasts when we want to make videos/podcasts. We’ll edit photos when we want to edit photos.

We will go for hikes. Meditate. Travel. Read. Try new food. We have made a commitment to be fully aware of our insecurities and allow them to push us beyond the boundaries of our identities as they are today and take the shape of our hearts.

Hopefully, you’ll begin to see those shapes take form over the remainder of 2019 in the things we create and the goals we achieve.

With that, we want to leave you with a challenge. The same challenge we’re giving ourselves/ZCM this year:

Forget about what everybody else is doing. Forget about what’s working for every other business owner; forget about the entrepreneur, shoe designer, best friend, brother, whoever the heck you get caught up stacking your life against and focus on you.

Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.

— Paige & Nick