Last night a friend asked me what I planned to do for the remainder of my 365 Days here. "You should do something grandiose," she said.  

"Hmmm…" was my response.  

Then I told her the parable about the Mexican Fisherman and the Harvard MBA. 

There are several versions of this story, so bear with me if you've heard a better telling. Here's the part I remember, and shared with her. 

A Harvard MBA went on vacation to Mexico, where he met a Fisherman. He took notice of the fisherman's lifestyle, which was to sleep late, go fishing for a while, go home for lunch, make love to his wife, take a siesta, do a little more fishing and then spend time with his family.  

The Harvard MBA said to the Fisherman, "You know, if you got up a little earlier every day and skipped your siesta, you could catch more fish. Then, within six months you could afford to buy another boat and hire someone else to fish for you."

"And then what?" asked the Fisherman.

"Well, within five years, if you worked hard enough, you could have a whole fleet of boats!"

"And then what?" said the Fisherman.

"In 20 years you could retire," said the MBA.

"And…?" asked the Fisherman.

"You could sleep late, go fishing for a while, make love to your wife, take a siesta, and spend time with your family."

—

The moral of the story, of course, is to really get clear on what you want. What lifestyle. What purpose. What contribution to the world. How you want to spend your time.

To be continued…

My word of the day is: depleted. 

It's challenging writing a blog. You really try to make it interesting and honest, while also making it upbeat and positive. Sometimes those goals just don't align. 

So, do I put off writing on those days? Or do I go for transparency, even if it's a downer? 

I honestly don't know. I guess the answer to the question lies in what's the purpose of this blog. Is it to entertain? Enlighten? Share? Reflect? Rejoice? Is it for me – or for you, dear reader? 

A rhetorical question. Literally. One that invites rhetoric. Discussion. Response. Effect. Language.  What do YOU think?

I owe you, dear reader, another apology. Again, I've broken my promise to myself and to you. I'm not sure if my reasons are valied or just excuses. 

Time is energy. Life is energy. One of the most difficult things to master is how to manage that energy. 

While it's true there are only so many hours in a day, not all hours are created equal. Some are for sleep. Some for communing with friends or spending with people and relationships. Some for mindless but productive work like cleaning the house or doing research. And some, those precious few, are for creative endeavors. 

Like writing a blog. 

It takes a special kind of energy to write a blog every day. For me, if it's not done "when the iron's hot" (so to speak), then it's not likely to happen. Sure, I can write, but it becomes meaningless dribble. 

The last 2+ weeks have been bereft of creativity, and while it requires a special energy, it's also an energy that feeds me. Keeps me going, breathing, alive. 

What fuels you?  

I hope it's reading this blog. If not, I forgive you. 

I'm about to share something with you that you might not know about me. 

In addition to being a writer, I'm also an inventor and an entrepreneur. The business I created and own is called DrawSuccess. I haven't talked about it much because I put it on hold before I moved here and I honestly had (and still have) no idea what will happen with it. 

I do know that it's something I put enormous blood, sweat and tears – and immense love – into. It's one of, if not the, greatest accomplishments of my life. It's certainly one that I put the most hours into.  

15,000+

If you read Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers, he asserts that in order to be an "expert" at something, it takes 10,000 hours of diligence. So, in that way, I'm certainly an expert. 

Beyond the time invested, however, there's immense original intellectual property in the business. Things that I can confidently say that no one on earth has ever ventured or accomplished.

Still, it lays in wait. 

I honestly have no idea. I would like to see it come back to life. Especially DrawSuccess 4 Students with it's powerful anti-bullying program.

DrawSuccess is my baby.  I just know I wasn't meant to raise it myself. It needs someone with the right passion and excitement and connections to make it happen. 

In the meantime, I've spent the last 2+ days updating the website. (This explains another reason why I haven't written in the blog). After dozens of attempts, I think I finally got it right. Check it out. 

http://drawsuccess.com/

Apologies for being absent for the past – what has it been – 10 days? 

I've prided myself on both my diligence and my ability to draw insight for this blog (almost) every day for over six months, and now I broke that promise to myself. 

And, more importantly, to you, my dear readers. 

So why did I do it? (Or, more accurately, not do it)?

I wish I could say I'd met some foreign prince who whisked me off to a magical world (without internet) filled with all my greatest fantasies, and was dying to share all the sexy details with you. But, alas, I've just been busy. 

I do have a reason – and I hope it resonates as a valid excuse. I've been working sequential 12-14 hour days for many many days in a row to launch my new (collaborative) book, Fifty Shades Deeper. Getting the book edited and the cover designed, etc. in time for the movie coming out next week was laborious, to say the least. But it's out and I feel very proud!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MUEY6LT

This is a make-up post for Monday, January 23.  (Sorry, readers, I've been busy!)  

Here are some pictures and videos from the Women's March in Aspen on Saturday.  It was an honor – and a blast

Enjoy!

94596F79-882B-4608-9F93-E691D757B349

IMG_0071

94596F79-882B-4608-9F93-E691D757B349

Pride is a tricky concept. It's one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and based on this definition, I would agree. An over-inflated sense of self-importance is the hallmark of a narcissist. A sense of superiority. Ugh.

But then, when you do a search for synonyms, the original word – or at least the concept – isn't so off-putting. Delight, Happiness, Honor, Joy, Self-love, Sufficiency are all beautiful things. 

And what does it mean to be proud of your heritage? 

I suspect my great-great-great-great-great grandfather will be in the news more in the upcoming months. (Let's hope it won't take years, but that's another discussion). And, yes, I'm proud of him. Of having some fragment of his blood flowing through my veins. Does that make me superior? Of course not. Does that make me have an over-inflated sense of self importance? Not that, either. Though I do realize that some people will take it that way. 

You know what? That's their problem. I'm proud of being related to Grandpa George…

They said it better than I can…

.

This is a dark day. And I'm not talking about the weather, although it does seem like the heavens are crying in a lot of places, too. 

I'm not going to write more today. I'm just going to…

Face it

Feel it

(and, when I'm ready)

Free it.

Through action. Through awareness. 

Some days (or weeks or months or projects or relationships) feel like an uphill battle. Like we're trudging along, taking one step after another but never seem to get to the top. It's more like a treadmill or stair climber than a hike. 

One of the most profound quotes in my children's book says, "It doesn't much matter if we get to the top. What matters much more is what we do when we stop."  

While I still assert that's true (and confess it's one of my biggest lessons), it's still important to strive for something. 

I was talking with someone the other day who said to just "be" and stop trying to "do." She even suggested I write a book about "just being" with no attachment to the outcome.  

While I understand and appreciate her intention and advice, and acknowledge that I do, indeed, have an "attachment to outcome," I also believe in having goals. And that those goals should have some relationship to the amount of effort exerted. 

I created this graphic for my DrawSuccess program. The goal is to look at our tasks and projects (and really just about anything we do) and plot it from a scale of 1 to 5 on Effort and 1 to 5 on Reward. (There's a complicated microeconomic formula, but you get the gist). It helps you realize when you're laboring in the "E5-R1" box. You know, the things that you do that take enormous effort but the reward is abysmal. 

The uphill battle. 

The goal is to (a) identify these things and then (b) figure out ways to either increase your reward or decrease your effort. 

I'm sure I'll write more on this later. For now, it should give you something to think about.