Mon 4/18 - Mon 4/25... Day's 109 - 116

I miss blogging!!!!

It's funny because I feel like so much of my life has been lived on the road these last two months.  It seems like every other day I am waking up in a different country, immersed in a different culture, exploring a new world.  I am still in shock and sometimes giddy with delight when I look back at the last two months... I have seen some amazing places (Machu Picchu, The Harbor at Rio), I have ate some amazing, and not so amazing (anyone remember the Guinea pig) food.  I have learned new sayings and expressions.  The word amazing does not even begin to describe it.  Amidst the whirlwind of travel I have experienced the last two months it is funny the little things that I am really starting to miss, amongst those being blogging, who would have thought?!

I think blogging for me is a way to stay grounded, to stay connected to people in this rapidly flying by year I am living.  There are times where I am so busy with work, the 1000 Challenge and just plain all out living my life to the best of my ability, that I feel I get disconnected from the world.  It is funny because ultimately one of my goals of the 1000 Challenge is to hopefully gain a greater understanding of and a greater connection to humanity so I can better teach/help people to live fuller, richer lives.  I guess sometimes you got to disconnect a little and get out and explore life in order to better reconnect in the future.  It's like those movies whenever someone is trying to hot-wire a car.  They usually have to hit the wires to together a few times... disconnect, reconnect, disconnect, reconnect, before the car finally turns over and works.

I love teaching and I love helping people that is why I am in the field(s) that I am.  I feel like blogging is a way that I can teach and pass on the wisdom I am learning via the 1000 Challenge to all of you.  Which by the way, those of you who share your stories with me via email or comments on here; I really appreciate all of them and I do my best to read every single one of them - thanks for sharing and contributing and please continue to do so.  My hope is that through this blog we create a little mini community and we all grow together over this year.  I know many of you are already taking part in your own self created challenges; keep them up and keep me posted on your successes! 

Being on the road has given me a lot of time to reflect and think about what I want to blog about more so than when I am at home.  As I told you a while back I typically do not plan my blogs out, I just start typing and see what happens.  For the most part that is how this one has been written, but the central theme I want to share has definitely been thought about over the last week.

Life is what you create of it.  I have read 100's of books written by everyone from self help guru's to successful business leaders that focus on this topic.  I have believed in the concept of it for a long time, but never was successful at living it.  And as much as I wanted to believe in it whole heartedly... every time life would throw me a curve, no matter how big or small, I would use that curve to disprove it.


This year I wanted to change that.  I wanted to remove the word concept from the sentence "I believe in the concept: Life is what you create of it." And instead of believing in it as a concept, I wanted it to become just a way of living, a way of existing.  Not only that instead of just "wanting" to believe in it, I decided I would just set out to believe in it to embrace it.  Hence one of the underlying themes of the 1000 Challenge, "Little Fact about life... it is Meant to be Lived."

One of my goals this year was to spend at least 100 days on the road away from Santa Barbara.  I want to do this to practice for how I envision my career evolving.  As I make more of a transition in my career, I envision more traveling with clients, more speaking roles, and A LOT more teaching to large groups.  This is what I want.  So the 100 days came up as a great way to practice life on the road.  Only problem how am I going to successfully pull this off?

Peru was the only planned trip prior to the start of 2011.  Then all of a sudden opportunity presents itself to go work in Europe, South America, friends suggest ideas like a boys weekend in Monterey... suddenly the goal is seemingly like a strong reality, why?  Because life is what you create of it.

I lived so much of the last year and half of my life haunted from the all the pain and loss that I discussed several blogs back (for those of you who are newer here it is the blog entitled "Why the 1000 Challenge.").  This year I wanted things to be different, I wanted to live, experience life free from the pain, the hurt, the loss... I wanted to live like I have never lived before, and guess what, I am.  Not just this year, but for probably the first time in my life I move through the day free from hurt, free from pain, free from stress, anxiety etc... Sure there are some hiccups here and there, I have plenty of times when I feel down, sad, stress etc..., but as a whole, I feel free! Why? Because life is what you create of it.

I wanted to laugh more, play more, achieve more, work with more people, broaden my client base, be able to communicate my thoughts, ideas, feelings to people all around the world.  I wanted to help, inspire, work with, motivate, teach more people than I ever have at any other time in my life!  And guess what, I have! Why? Drum roll please.... Because Life is what you create of it!

I am not telling you any of the above to brag, on the contrary I want to share with you what I have learned.  Life is what you create of it is not just a concept or a fanciful ideology.  No, it is real and it works, I am living proof of it.

Yesterday one of my friends asked me, "how do you do it?  How do you function so well and get so much done on so little sleep?"  My reply, "I am more excited about being alive right now than I have ever been at any time in my life.  I wake up and for the most part I am not tired, but rather I am excited, excited to get up and see what the world has in store for me." I told him about how I used to wake up tired all the time... I used to stress out about "having" to get eight hours of sleep and I would be so stressed about it that I would go to bed frantic; if I was setting myself up to only getting maybe seven hours and 33 minutes.  And as a result I would wake up tired, all the time!  Now, for the most part, I wake up refreshed, motivated, and excited, (note: there are still definitely some times where I am sleepy.  At the end of the days especially when I am tired, I am TIRED!!  Right now it is almost 11pm here in Amsterdam and I am typing to you through half opened eyes... I will be going to sleep as soon as I finish here).

I talked a little about travel and creating opportunities to explore.  Last night I visited the famous "Red Light District."  I returned back to my room about 2:20am, I answered a few emails and finally went to sleep just before 3am.  I awoke when my alarm went of at 6:37am.  At first I was groggy, but jumped out of bed reminding myself that the reason I was getting up was because how often do I have the chance to explore Amsterdam!  So I got up, got out and explored, why?! Because Life is what YOU Make of it, and I wanted to make the most of it.

I can't say it enough... Life is what you make of it, LIFE is what YOU make of it, LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE OF IT.  None of this just happens over night, it takes time, hard work, dedication, desire and resolve, but the above is not just a concept, it is real and it can be your reality if you want it.  Over the course of the 1000 Challenge there will most likely be 100's of life lessons I learn in addition to the ones I have already shared with all of you.  If you forget everything that we talk about over the rest of this year, save for one thing, make sure that one thing you remember is this: Life is what YOU make of it.

Enjoy the pics,

Carpe Diem,

Jesse