Jesse Brisendine is an internationally recognized life coach, personal trainer, speaker, and author who motivates, educates and inspires people worldwide.
Jesse has worked with 1000's of people from all over the world. Fortune 500 business leaders, Hollywood celebrities, entrepreneurs, musicians, and many more enlist Jesse’s help to ensure their success in business, relationships, health, and in life.
Jesse's passion is helping you live your most fulfilling life.
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 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.
International Sunrise and Sunset Day around the world was nothing less than amazing.
I wanted to post a quick blog so that there was a place to view the photo albums as well as the video from the event.
I also wanted to extend a huge thank you to all of you who participated. This event more than exceeded my expectations.
I feel so blessed to have been able to be a part of something that brought so many of us together from all over the world. One of the greatest things about technology is the ability it creates to bring people together and make the foreign less foreign.
Seeing all the money that was raised for Reach Out World Wide by our 1000 Challenge Community has really inspired me to look for more opportunities for more good that we all can put out into the world. We are becoming a community with a very powerful voice. This gives us a lot of leverage in hosting more amazing events in the future.
Imagine what we can do if we had similar numbers for Trash Clean Up Day or if all of us gave up sugar for a month... do you think companies would be willing to start being more transparent if 46,000+ people stopped using one of their products??? Something to certainly think about.
The point of this blog is this: when we come together for a greater good there is no limit on what we can do/achieve/accomplish.
I am so grateful to all of you and extremely excited about future projects that we can all do together.
I have been tossing around some ideas for our next community challenge, but wanted to check with you all first to see if you have any suggestions.
What should our next 1000 Challenge Community Challenge be?
I still have not come close to downloading all the Sunrise, Sunset, and ROWW donation confirmation pictures yet. There are 1000's of them. The process of downloading them all is overwhelming at times. One minute I will be smiling, the next I will be updating my "places to travel list," and then the next I may be crying and having to step away because wounds that have not fully healed began to hurt.
I will keep this blog brief as I still have a couple hours of downloading I want to try to get in before bed time.
Sunrise/Sunset numbers: All seven continents, even Antarctica, submitted pictures!! I don't know if I have ever said "So Fucking Cool!!" out loud as loudly as I did when I saw the Antarctic picture pop up.
I have seen pictures from at least 50 countries, but I am pretty sure there are many more than that. My goal is to have a final count by the end of the week.
Here in the USA it looks like we got a picture from every State!! Way to go!! :)
Amazing!!
As for the Reach Out World Wide fundraiser: Paul once told me, "It takes about $50,000 to fund one deployment." I am proud to say that because of our efforts we have raised almost exactly $50,000 to date. On the official donor page (see picture below,) because of the donations of nearly 1,300 people we have raised $46,000!!!
I know many of you bought merchandise in lieu of direct donations. I also know that many of you donated directly through Reach Out World Wide vs using the donor page (I have received many emails explaining this). So I am willing to bet that our fundraising efforts came in just about $50,000, enough to fund a future Reach Out World Wide deployment!! How amazing is this!
None of this would have been possible without all of you. Please, do me a favor and allow yourself to soak this in for a moment: because of You, next time a natural disaster happens and Reach Out World Wide is deployed to help, You have made that possible. The kids who need medicine are going to get medicine because of You. The person who is trapped will get rescued because of You.
This is a prime example of what can be accomplished if like minded people come together to work for a greater good. If we can accomplish this now, imagine what we can do over the next year? After all we still have some work to do to reach our goal of One Million. Keep sharing the link and keep getting people involved.
With all my heart I thank you all for making this happen.
Being a part of this has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Stay tuned for the Sunrise Sunset album as well as video in the next couple weeks.
I remember being a little kid, sitting in school, feeling like the days crept by and summer vacation seemed like an eternity away.
I can remember so many different adults telling me to enjoy the time while I can because when you get older time moves a lot faster.
I did not believe them then, but I sure do now… I cannot believe 4 years has passed since Reach Out World Wide made its inaugural mission into Haiti to help with the Earthquake recovery. In honor of this anniversary, I thought it would be fun to share with you all a few memories I have from those days as well as the days leading up to Haiti.
I have included several pictures below with a little story that goes with each. I have more pictures from Haiti on my personal Facebook page if you ever wish to check them out, here is a link ( Jesse Brisendine Facebook page ).
Paul first told me about his dream to start a charity called Reach Out World Wide on June 21st, 2009. I can remember the exact date because it was the Sunday after my friend had committed suicide, and Paul chose then to share his dream with me in hopes that it would lift my spirits.
Periodically over the next 7 months leading up to Haiti, whenever Paul and I would hang out, ROWW would always be a topic of conversation - how it would run, what it would grow into, and the difference it could make in the world.
When the decision was made to go to Haiti, as fate would have it I happened to be in Costco, and so I immediately started running up and down the isles grabbing what I thought would be essential provisions: calorie dense food, medical supplies, and toilet paper. I remember my heart was beating so fast; I was nervous, but more than anything I was excited because I knew I was going to get to be a part of something very special.
Over the next several days Paul and I made runs to REI, the military surplus store, several different sporting goods stores, as well as various medical facilities. Paul wanted to make sure we were prepared for anything, and that we would be self sufficient; meaning that we would not require resources or supplies from any other agency. In short we could fully take care of ourselves, which would make us more effective and able to help others.
This is also the reason that you will see us all wearing "military style" outfits in the pictures below. You see at the time, the media was reporting about how people, desperate for help, were showing up at various aide areas with machetes and having confrontations and taking supplies. We felt that if we looked like American Military, people would be less inclined to mess with us and try to steal from us.
Our "costumes," ended up becoming a running joke for us all while in Haiti because we never encountered anything remotely violent while there. I felt like we were G.I. JOE and we had showed up to scare off COBRA, but COBRA didn't get the memo to come. hahaha.
Anyways… before we could get into Haiti we were in the Dominican Republic at a shelter helping to pack up supplies to be sent over to Haiti. The below picture captures just a small amount of the activity that was going on and the effort that was being put into helping the Haitian people.
It was time to cross the boarder and we wanted to check supplies one last time, see picture below.
At the center of this picture was my proud contribution to our supplies. Toilet paper :) There is nothing scarier than to be stranded without toilet paper.
The below picture was from the helicopter ride into Haiti from the Dominican Republic. This was the first time I had ever been on a Helicopter.
Much of Haiti looked like the below picture… absolute total devastation. This picture is powerful because it shows how in need of help much of the world is, especially after a major disaster strikes. All of us can always do a little more to help others. Whether is is going there directly, donating money, or raising awareness about charities, like ROWW, all of these actions make a difference in helping others in need.
The spot where we set up camp looked like this when we go there. People sleeping out in the field, bunched up together, with a small tent or two to help with the more severely injured.
I will never forget the below moment: the guy giving the thumbs up, came up to me and said, "Sir, sir will you record my picture please." I happily obliged and took this picture, which I still have on my wall today. I remember thinking, "I bet he has never had his picture taken before..."
One night we were woken up by a bunch of big semi trucks that showed up filled with supplies. In addition, two UN mobile medical trucks also showed up. It caused quite the commotion.
In the above picture I am wearing "Dog Tags," Paul and I got these made to commemorate ROWW's inaugural mission. The below picture is a close up of them. I have been wearing them this week to honor ROWW, Haiti, and remind myself of my experiences there. In addition, I have been wearing these camouflage pants a lot the last seven weeks as they remind me of Haiti and of Paul.
Note: you will see on the id's that it says "REACT." REACT was the original name of ROWW, but we later learned that there was some legal mumbo jumbo that would prevent us from using the name "REACT." Because of this "legal stuff," ROWW became ROWW. :)
There were more wounded than we had supplies to accommodate so we had to make do and use things like mattresses, as pictured below, as makeshift stretchers. People would be moved from the initial assessment area to a separate section of the field based on the severity of their injuries.
Like I said we did not have a lot of supplies/modern technology to make certain jobs easier. So this left us to do things the old fashioned way and make a human assembly line. You can see me below holding the box. There are probably another 6 or 7 people inside the truck on the left, as well as another 6 or 7 completing the line going into the building on the right.
This guy (pictured below), and I did not share a language, but really formed a bond and mutual respect for one another as we unloaded this massive truck. The entire process took over 3 hours in the nearly 90+ degree heat. After we finished we exchanged high fives.
When we got to the spot that we camped at in Haiti, everyone was sleeping out in the fields. Eventually we were able to get ahold of a bunch of tents. The below picture is the beginning of setting up "tent city." As they say: "Team work makes the Dream work."
Below is a picture showing the fruits of our labor. When we first arrived at this spot we were 5 friends who wanted to make a difference and help people who were less fortunate. When we left we were Reach Out World Wide, a group of people who knew we could make a difference.
What difference did ROWW make on its' inaugural mission? To give you an idea: when we first arrived in Haiti the area we were based out of had about 40 people there all sleeping outside, with minimal supplies. By the time we left there were over 400 people, tents to house most of them, a well stocked supply room, and an accelerated system of treating patients.
Every single human being has the ability to make a difference in the life of another.
The below picture is me, one of the doctors, and a few of the kids who helped out as interpreters.
The original 5. From left to right, Lucas, Dave, Me, Brandon, Paul. Also pictured a couple doctors who were there volunteering as well as a few new friends.
Four years later Reach Out World Wide has grown by leaps and bounds from our initial trip into Haiti, AND, as long as you all continue to support it, spread the word about it, "share" it with your friends and family, ROWW will keep on growing.
Paul had big dreams of what he envisioned ROWW becoming. He and I would have those "Rocking Chair" talks… You know the ones where you imagine that you are old men sitting around in your rocking chair talking about the "good ole" days. When we would have these talks, we always talked about how cool it was going to be to see how much ROWW had grown and to know that we were there at the beginning.
With Paul gone, it is now up to us all to pick up where he left off and keep ROWW thriving so that it can continue making the global impact that it is. Each and every single one of us has the ability to make a difference. Remember the smallest of gestures, a smile, can change someone's life.
I hope you all enjoyed this trip down memory lane, I certainly did.
