That is where I feel I am, I’m in the calm right now, but very much looking forward to the storm. So to speak. After a pretty active month of March, which saw me return to many of my work related duties and deliver the Coins for Cancer Drive, I have taken the past couple of weeks to recharge and relax. Still being active and doing some work but not keeping any serious schedule or crazy pace, just relaxing and picking away at things as I feel the want or need.
Taking that time to slow down has been a Challenge, I won’t lie, as I was very right to recognize that resuming some work duties would expose me to the opportunities that are ahead, and when seeing them I would be Challenged not to chase them. I was and I am. I was Challenged that is, and I am chasing them, but not as I once would. And the word chase gives a connotation that I don’t like, how about exploring them. I am exploring some of those opportunities that are ahead, both those that I am able to create and those that are just lying there waiting for me. However I am proceeding with a new set of principles, and at the core of those principles is “me first”, health, rebuilding, recharging, and rest are all part of that “me first” principle.
As I have said, that is something that I was never very good at, but I’ve been working on it and feel I’m making great progress.
The storm I am referring to is scheduled to start Tuesday morning at 8:30 a.m. when I will visit a high school that I had planned to visit many times this year, prior to my relapse last summer. This whole week will be filled with visits to high schools that I was supposed to visit throughout the year, as well as new ones who are open to what we are doing. This week I will hit 6 schools, and connect with students who I haven’t seen before, I will begin to establish partnerships with new schools in new parts of Newfoundland. This week I will get the opportunity to talk about Challenge and Positive Attitude with thousands of young people, hear their stories of Challenge and share some of my own. I love storms like this.
It has been an interesting process of preparing for the upcoming storm, the organizing and planning are important steps but my favourite part is the writing and visualizing of my presentation. As I go through my presentation I always seem to remember different parts of my experiences from the past 3 1/2 years and it is often tough to represent over 3 years in 30 minutes or less. As I reflect back I seem to end up in much the same place, and I am in that place now.
It’s a place of thankfulness, happiness and enjoyment, there’s lots of warm fuzzy feelings in this place, it the kind of place that can be summed up with the words “I’m just happy to be here”, cause I really am. Forget everything that is going on, and that will go on in the coming days, weeks, months, right now I’m just happy to be here, cause it is great to be here. In fact I can’t imagine being anywhere else than right here.
Perhaps my favourite topic to discuss is Challenge, as I have a special relationship with Challenge as have spent some serious time with it. When I talk to groups about Challenge I explain that I look at it in two categories, on one side we have the Personally Selected Challenges. They are our goals, things we choose to go after. Then on the other side we have Unexpected Challenges, these are Challenges that hit us from behind and that we don’t see coming. I am no different than most people, I’ve had a collection of both types in my life. The Unexpected have been quite prominent in the past few years and I do make the effort to get up for them and tackle them to the best of my ability. But I will tell you that I have a special connection to the Personally Selected group, perhaps because I’m a dreamer, but whatever the reason I love to create a vision in my mind and then go after it.
That is what this week’s storm is all about. It’s about having a dream, working through it, and then going after it. Not quite sure what it is but there is a calm feeling inside me when I’m “running down a dream”, as Tom Petty would say. Hope you can feel my energy in your inbox. Have a fantastic day and I’ll be back before, during or after the storm.
Always…
Live Life. Love Life.
Geoff
