One Year Later... Remembering My Best Friend

Hi All,

With this being the one year anniversary of my friend Paul's passing, I wanted to say a few words. I will keep the text brief since I said pretty much everything I want to say in the video below.

I want to be clear: I choose to be happy, I work hard at it every day, and I also have my own personal struggles; just like you. I am human and when I feel, I feel very very deeply.  Happiness, Joy, Love, Laughter, Sadness, Frustration, etc... I feel all of it and I feel it all at equally deep levels when emotions are appropriate.

This last year has been a hard one.  I lost the two people I was closest to in my day to day life.  One of them, Paul, died a year ago today.


One thing I forgot to mention in the video is that Paul, in this last year, has taught me a great deal of patience. It is hard to lose someone you love, it is even harder when that person is someone the whole world wants to talk about. This last year there have been many times I have gotten pissed off and angry to the point where I have wanted to say or do something that is out of character for me.

Each time I feel my blood start to boil I take a breath and hear Paul's voice, "Jesse this is not you."

There have been times this last year I have not wanted to be me, but Paul has always reminded me to be me because me being me is what our friendship has been built on.  Me being me and him being Paul, not the actor, not the movie star, just Paul.

My personal life is very similar to all of yours.  It is one that is filled with all that comes with living a complete life: Love, Loss, Happiness, Sadness, Laughter, Hurt, Joy, etc...

My life is far from perfect and I do not want to mislead any of you in thinking that it is, nor would I want it that way.  The "hard stuff" of life does not happen to make our lives become hard.  The hard stuff happens to give us an opportunity to grow, to learn, and to make our lives better.

I hope you find value in this video as the message is one I believe in with all my heart.  If you do find value please share it with someone.  Here is a link to share: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBrn9GtJF0U&list=UUJnymgVGKg2WQSv-wXotRdA

I have also included links to donate to ROWW.  The following link goes to the fundraising page that I started for Paul's birthday.  It is my goal to raise $1,000,000 for Reach Out World Wide. I believe that we can reach that goal. Please donate by clicking here or using the link below.

Carpe Diem,

Jesse

www.jessebrisendine.com
www.facebook.com/1year1000challenge


Here is the link to donate to ROWW: https://donate.roww.org/fundraise?fcid=339063

Here is the link to the Sunrise/Sunset video from Paul's birthday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbAek5oTPdc&list=UUJnymgVGKg2WQSv-wXotRdA

Here is a link to the Facebook photo album on the 1 Year 1000 Challenge page that has all your photos from those of you who sent in ROWW donation confirmation pics: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.967604023266338.1073741835.187115434648538&type=3

An Adventure Within an Adventure

I recently returned from my first ever Fall Foliage tour of New England - it was amazing.  I wanted to share with you a little bit about my adventure.  First, a couple important updates:

Save the date!!

Sunday, November 23rd, at 7:30am PST is when the next #Youtube chat will be held

The topic will be: How to keep your spirits up and attitude positive when others are unconsciously bringing your down.

You can join the chat by clicking here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgbHRe1ghso

Secondly, boy I am really excited about this one: On Monday November 24th or Tuesday November 25th I will be opening enrollment for the Zero Limits Mastermind.  (Insert happy dance).  More information about the program will be coming out over the next two weeks in addition to what I have been sharing on the 1 Year 1000 Challenge page.  This will be a year long program that is open to those of you who are fully committed to making 2015 your most epic year yet.

As many of you know I love to travel and do it as often as I can.  Whether it is for business or for pleasure I love going on adventures, making new memories, and creating new experiences.

As I mentioned earlier I recently visited New England, specifically Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.  For years I have wanted to visit New England in the Fall to take in some of the fall foliage.  This year I finally made it happen.  I met up with one of my best friends and we embarked on a multi day multi State road trip.

What was especially fun is the adventure within the adventure we created.

The first night we were in Boston Massachusetts and it was cold (maybe not that cold for most of you, but keep in mind I live in Santa Barbara AND I am a weenie when it comes to the cold) so we sought refuge in a local restaurant/bar.

As we were sitting there ordering our food it turned out that the place we were in happened to be one of the oldest restaurants in the USA.  This intrigued me so a quick google search later and I discovered this list: the 10 Oldest restaurants in America.  What I was excited to see is that I had already been to the one in New York and since I was at the present one in Boston, I had two out of the 10. Further reading revealed that three of the remaining eight were located in Connecticut and Rhode Island. 

The idea was born to visit these and make a little mini adventure of visiting all the top 10 within the next couple years.

I have found that being flexible in my travel plans, meaning, being able to let go of an itinerary and go with where the road takes me when time allows, really opens up the possibility of new and unplanned experiences for me. 

As the road took us through miles of beautiful fall leaves and fall colors, it also took us to some delicious places to eat.  Furthermore I already have one restaurant picked out for when I visit New Orleans next March with the Exercise Accountability Group, as well as one to visit next time I am in Colorado (which I am plan on doing next year as well).

AND one final surprise that came as an unplanned adventure - I participated in and completed my first 5k race in over three years.  This was... surreal.  As many of you know I have had numerous health challenges over the last few years that have really limited much of what I have been able to do physically.  Running this race was a significant step in the healing process for me.

To sum up: whether it is travel, work, play, or anything else limitations (and your belief in them) will only do just that, limit you.  Even as I go through the healing process physically I acknowledge that I have some physical limitations at this time, but I do not believe it will always be that way. In fact I believe the opposite that I am healing, I will heal, and that the day will come where I will be better than ever. Along the way I focus on what I can vs what I am temporally unable to.

Oh, and if you find yourself in the middle of an adventure remember to stay flexible and open to new experiences.  Breaking away from the itinerary may lead to your most memorable moment(s) of the experience.

Enjoy the pictures.

Carpe Diem,

Jesse

www.jessebrisendine.com

www.facebook.com/1year1000challenge

What If the Past Was NOT Real?

I know, I know, I have gotten a little behind on blogging, but I promise I have a great excuse!

My Excuse is: I have spending a lot of my free time developing my Zero Limits Mastermind program that I hope to be able to share with you all by the end of this month.  It is going to be a year long group program that will run from January 1st 2015 until December 31st 2015.  My intention is to help those who participate make 2015 the most epic year of their life!!

Today I wanted to share with you something I have been thinking about a lot... the past.

At present I am attending a 15 day long seminar in an area of psychology and communication that I find very fascinating.

The other day we had a discussion on the past and how the past is constantly changing and therefor not real.

Some of you may have just read that and said, "HUH! Jesse you totally lost me... are you smoking something?" 

No I am not smoking anything nor have I gone crazy (well maybe a little crazy), I do have a point; stay with me.

The example the instructor used was this:

In America, as kids we are taught the story of the first Thanksgiving.  When I was a kid the story went something like this:

Many years ago a group of settlers from Europe called the Pilgrims sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and made landfall on the East Coast of the United States.  These kind people were setting up a society and met some very friendly locals called Indians.  These Indians lead by a man named Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to farm and utilize the land.  When the time came to harvest some of the first crops the Pilgrims and Indians came together and celebrated Thanksgiving as friends because they had so much to be Thankful for.  The End.

Over the last several years this story has changed to go something like this:

Pilgrims came over they took the Native American's land infected them with diseases and tried to force their way of life on them.  The pain they caused ran so deep that we are still dealing with the repercussions of it today.  One of the latest examples is the movement to have the name changed of the professional football team "Washington Redskins," saying that the term Redskin is offensive.  Several years ago this was no problem, now people are calling for a Congressional move to ban the name.  The end... or is it.

How can the past have changed so much if the past was permanent.

The reason is because the past is and always will be subject to our interpretation of it and how we choose to interpret things can change from moment to moment. 

Have you ever had a really bad day and when someone asked you about the past you remembered it unfavorably?

Have you ever had a really great day and when someone asked you about the past, something that once was so painful for you, was remembered, in that moment, as not being that big of a deal

Two of the greatest examples of this are little kids and dogs.

The other day I was at a friends house and watched as their one year old son hit his head so hard on a table.  He cried, his Mom comforted him, and 10 seconds later he was back running around the table with no fear.  For him there was no memory, or perceived painful memory, keeping him trapped in the past... for him there was just the present and the experience that comes with it.

Dogs... dog owners know that dogs have a tremendously quick rebound rate.  They do not hold onto pain because they want to experience as much love and joy as possible.

Think about yourself - how often have you found yourself trying to remember who said what in a movie, which one of your friends shared the latest gossip with you, or who sang what song lyrics.  Do you even remember what color shirt the person next to you in the elevator was wearing yesterday?  Do you remember specifically what your boss was angry with you about?

My point is this, how can you be 100% certain the past is real when we often do not remember what just happened five minutes ago? Yet we base so much of who we are today on our past, specifically the painful parts of the past.

If the past is ever changing, and we can be certain that we may not be 100% certain of how things happened (think Thanksgiving story) doesn't it seem to make a little less sense to live your life today based off of what may or may not have happened in the past??

What do you think?

I look forward to reading your thoughts.


Carpe Diem,

Jesse

http://www.jessebrisendine.com

http://www.facebook.com/1year1000challenge