Day 6 ... Post gone...work, some books & 3FJ

What do you do when an hour of writing, photos & formatting disappears? Learn from it, don't have so many tabs open at a time. Write it earlier. Copy & paste prior to saving and closing the browser. Oh, well. It was actually ok and some pretty good stuff. But it doesn't matter.

“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Here's the 20 second version.

I've been out of town for work since Friday. It was busy. I didn't run until today, it was wonderful.

The ducks & geese at Drake Park in Bend

I'm pretty stoked to go backpacking this weekend with my brother. That whole thing's a miracle...i'm sure that theme will get more space later on at some point.

I'm reading a couple of books right now - Ralph Waldo Emerson's Nature & Dr. Richard Oppenlander's Comfortably Unaware. Google "Rich Roll Cowspiracy" for the cliff notes, behind-the-scene story on the movie (where i was introduced to Oppenlander), which is available on Netflix. Office movie site.

I had pictures & galleries & all kinds of stuff too. Oh, well...Day 6 in the books!

In love & service,
AB

This was not supposed to be the plan...

On the 3rd day in, I failed. I've been caught in a period of inaction and reduced desire, fear and anxiety over how to restart this writing project. I've decided that the best way to restart the 31days writing challenge is to just start with this admission.

I could talk and talk about how i've been out of town for work, haven't had anything to write about or blah, blah, blah...but those are all just justifications and rationalizations. And i try not to do that anymore today, which made for an interesting interaction when I got pulled over last month and had to just simply admit that I should have been paying better attention to the speed I was going.

I could tell you about how i've checked to see if I could manipulate the publish date to make it look like I'd succeeded in writing & posting everyday. I could do a ton of this, but i won't. 

What i'll do instead is to learn from this process and embrace opportunities to become better. A better steward of my time. More committed to my commitments. More resourceful in capturing ideas when i have them throughout the day (of which there have been many).

But in the end, it doesn't really matter anyway because I'm writing this for me, not for anyone else. Any excuse I make is to myself, not to any readers (of which there are few anyhow).

So, this will cover days 3, 4, 5. I'll attempt to right this train tomorrow and write in a timely manner about something. What? We'll see. I'll be traveling back over the mountains tomorrow, then am going to see Everest and get some books back tomorrow night. 

I've admitted and accepted my imperfection on this one, my failure and now all i can do is learn from it.

N'amaste

Creating space for quiet

Most of my favorite activities involve quiet. I love doing things like backpacking, hiking, fishing, reading, meditating, making fires on the beach, taking naps, going running. 

And I have a confession to make - noise really bothers me. Noisy environments. TV. Traffic. Chaos. Parties. And on and on and on. It drains me energy. I need reprieves often. I'm been reading Susan Cain's Quiet: The Power Of Introverts In A World That Can't Stop Talking and it's been insightful. I'll be posting a more detailed review here when i finish.

However, sometimes i fill the calendar so full that i don't have the time to breathe, let along find quiet or become still. Lately i've started getting up very early (like 04:30 way too early) to ensure that i get centered and calmed before the chaos of the day gets underway, because if i don't get it then i can't ever catch up.

The schedule is full. It's always full. And if it's not full, i fill it. I know that one of the practices i need to do more of is scheduling space and doing less, fewer commitments and being OK with that. Self-care and rest are becoming more valuable to me. It's a work in progress, but I started with an awareness and now i'm moving into action. What it all means, i don't know. But a proactive approach to changing what doesn't work in my life and letting go of things that i hold onto has become a desired activity in my life.

                                                             photo credit @jonacuff

In those quiet moments I'm able to hear the quiet, still voice within and ask myself questions such as: what makes me happy? what gives me purpose & fulfillment? what space do i need to create to allow more abundance into my life? what do i need to let go of still? what needs more attention and work to become a better me? am i fully ready and available for whatever i'm called to do?  

These are just a few of the questions that i've been exploring lately, through time alone spent outdoors.

What questions are you asking yourself?

Shoot me a note and let me know. I'd really love to hear from you...

Write for 31 days? Let's give it a go!

October's a busy month for me. Lots of work deadlines and I'll spend about a 1/3rd of the month on the road traveling. So why not throw another thing in there.

I'm going to commit to 31 days of writing. Specific for this thing, for this purpose. We all write everyday, all day. We email, text, journal, create content, post to social media - but i'm committing to this thing.

Who knows what i'll write. I'm going to meditate & pray on it each morning and we'll see what words come out together. It's gonna be interesting (at least for me) to say the least.

If you want to try it with me, check the 31Days writing challenge. If i had to guess, it's probably going to be largely about nature, quiet and creating space in my life, my journey toward essentialism and pursuing less, likely some ruminations on self-reflection, on choices and direction and who knows what else. 

Have any questions for, shoot me a note. Don't want to do that, join this silly little Facebook group called Great Minds Book Club I started because i couldn't get anybody to do an in person book club.

He Lived His Legend

Scott Dinsmore died this week doing what he loved, sadly becoming his legend all too soon. Scott died climbing Mt Kilimanjaro on a year-long around-the-world trip with his wife Chelsea.

I first discovered Live Your Legend earlier this year, read his stuff, followed him on Facebook, got the emails. I didn't know him, yet I felt I did. 

He exuded passion. He was inspiring. Anything was possible. You could do this he said, whatever it was.

Scott was probably best known for his inspirational TED talk How To Find And Do Work You Love. I recommend you watch it.

In the beginning he references the start of one of my favorite Henry David Thoreau quotes from Walden.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation...

I received Scott's last email on August 20th and it included a quote that really resonated with me: 

“Some people are so poor, all they have is money.”

His last blog post was titled I’m Going Off the Grid: Therapy for an Addicted & Over-Connected World and issued a challenge that i'll accept.

My challenge to you is simple – find a way to disconnect over the next couple weeks.

You get to make the rules. I’m not talking about suddenly going dark for a week or two. I realize that takes planning, so do whatever makes sense for you.

The work will be there. Nobody will miss the social media posts. Email can wait. 

None of us can take any of it with us. Not money, not job titles, not things. Scott too doesn't take any of it with him, but by living what he spoke, wrote and shared so passionately he can surely take the impact he's had on others and the adventures he experienced.

Photo Credit: zenhabits.net 
Read what Leo Babauta's wrote about Scott's passing.

An intro, a beginning, a process...

So i'm just now beginning to find a place for years and years of what i really didn't do anything with or put in appropriate locations. Today i launched this site as a content house for all the stuff & things i do, create, work on and am passionate about that get scattered all about on hard drives, social media, work servers, back up drives, posted, shared and stored.

It's rapidly becoming a different economy and to be a part of it with the freedom & flexibility i desire, i've realized that i've got to pull it all together to showcase what i do and who i am. Show it, not say it. Feature it, not sell it. I'm also hoping a little bit that it helps in creating some clarity in how i want my days to look, my projects to entail and my life to be. If you've made it to this, welcome. If you have any feedback, i'd love to hear it.

Namaste