From your mind to your heart

I recently read that the longest journey we take in life is from our minds to our hearts. Wow, how true! This insight blew me away because I read it in transit! That is in transit both figuratively and literally, as I was making some major decisions regarding following my passion.

My last post was about leaving your fear behind and following your calling and purpose. It is amazing what happens when you speak and write down your inner most thoughts and emotions and when you pause to listen to your heart which is the core of who you are. At the end of that post, I wrote that “I have left”. That has turned out to be my prophecy over my life! Who says prophets only existed in the old days as described in the bible with rugged clothes and with countenances that display wisdom and seasoned Godly character? (Isn’t that how you envision Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the rest)

Leave

I BELIEVE WE ACHIEVE ULTIMATE HAPPINESS AND FULFILLMENT WHEN WE HELP OTHER PEOPLE SOLVE THEIR PROBLEMS AND MEET THEIR NEEDS USING OUR GOD GIVEN TALENTS.

I spent the last 5 hours writing the curriculum for the Leaders of New Generation program (LONG – www.goodleaders.org). I was so engrossed with the writing I did not realized I sat on the chair in the dining room for 5 hours! Anyway, as I got to the end, I wrote the above statement to make a point about finding where your talent and passion intersects with peoples’ needs as the starting point of exploring business ideas.

As soon as I wrote that statement, my internal conflicts about my business became crystal clear and my hesitation to pursue my true passion with 100% focus disappeared. I will share more on this later, but enough about me..

Shallow End

I trust all is well with you and that you are excited about life!

I am training someone to swim and I must say I am enjoying it a lot. As a matter of fact it has made me rediscover my love for swimming. It helps that the person I am training is a fast and determined learner! I also train my two daughters every Friday and I love it!

So why did I start with this introduction? Well, I was driving from my daughters’ school after dropping them off and for some reason I started thinking about swimming. Specifically, I started about the shallow end and the deep end. I was thinking about how people who can’t swim are terrified by water and the deep end. I was the same way before I learned how to swim: it was terrifying. To make matters worse, when I was learning to swim in high school, other students would playfully (nothing playful about it!) pull you into the deep end or swim under water and pull you down.

Life is a test

Life is a test. I am sure you have heard that before.

One of my favorite motivational speakers, Jim Rohn, had a very interesting and instructive question about learning. He would ask, “How long would you let your child stay in fourth grade? How many years? 1, 2, 3? And then he would say, “No! You can’t let your child stay longer than 1 year and if they failed the first year, you would work extremely hard to make sure they did not have to stay much longer”

Hidden in the humor of Jim’s question and answer is a very profound insight that applies to our lives. How long will you keep making the same mistakes or wrong choices in your life? How long will it take for you to learn how to manage your career and finances, to eat healthy and exercise, to manage your relationships, to manage your time well, to get organized?

Innocent!

Sometimes I think of what to post and sometimes I am led to post something. Today, I am strongly led to write this post. I strongly believe someone needs to read this. It could be meant for me or you. There is only one way to find out and that is to read on.

It is 4 am in the morning. I woke up at 3:40 am from a very strong dream. Unlike my wife, my dreams are always fuzzy, that is the few times I dream. I rarely recall what I dream and when I do, it is very fuzzy and unclear. Today is not one of those days. I woke up with tears rolling down my eyes. Not tears of sadness, or joy, but of revelation or inspiration. I am hesitant to admit but the first thing I did was reach out for my wife. I am not sure why, but I think the dream and revelation was somewhat overwhelming and crystal clear. As I am writing this post I just thought of something else that is startling, but I will wait until the end of this post to write it (Don’t skip to the end!).

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope you had a great Christmas holiday and New Year. The last week of the year, starting before Christmas to the end of the year is definitely a time to cherish, spend time with family, relax, reflect, and yes eat a lot!

I love the excitement of a new year. It signifies a fresh start. It is telling that we get so excited about a fresh start. It implies we think we can do better than we did in the previous year. It ushers in new hope and anticipation and for many of us New Year’s resolutions.

I recently read that if you start the year with momentum and use it to accomplish most of your goals within the first 90 days of the year then you are well on your way to a great year! Momentum not only refers to motion, but the power residing in the moving object.

Questions

I love to get up early in the morning. It is quiet and peaceful. It is unlike any other time of the day.

It is 5:45 am. I woke up early to develop the curriculum for leaders of a New Generation (LONG). LONG is a youth leadership training program that is focused on training a new generation of leaders by equipping them with leadership, entrepreneurship, community service, and health skills. 1 am very excited because we have expanded the training to 6 high schools in Kenya and are looking to have 20 schools by the end of 2012.

Anyway, I digress. As I was preparing to write the curriculum, I thought about “questions” and how they impact our lives.

Be true to yourself

It is 4 am in the morning and I can’t sleep. I woke up with this thought in my mind and I felt the urge to blog about. Hopefully it will stir something within you.

Are you true to yourself? What does that question actually mean? When I think about it, my initial reaction is that I am probably true to myself in some areas of my life and not in others. That is probably the case for most people.

The key question however, is “Are you true to yourself in the most important aspect of your life – your purpose in life? This is a more profound question that demands a more definitive answer. If you are honest with yourself, no pun intended, you know the answer right away.

I have struggled with this question for a long time. Interestingly, my struggle has not been to discover my purpose, but to reconcile my life and what I do for a living to my purpose. It is amazing how much we can rationalize and squeeze our current vocation into the smallest crack of the realm of our purpose in order to pacify our conscience.

Peak’s 3 Month Mission

I am always inspired by people who sacrifice their time, finances, and even careers to make a difference and touch other people’s lives. I have met many such people through Peak Coffee & Tea. I met Ed who works with Climb for the Child Project.  Ed hikes and bikes in Africa to raise money to put disadvantaged kids in school. I also met Chermaine, who left a promising career at Raytheon to work with Intervarsity Fellowship. These are just a few of the people I have met.

I know many of you are making a difference and that is why I am excited to announce the official launch of the Peak 3 Month Mission, a Peak Coffee & Tea initiative to partner with you in making a difference.

Watch out for the Weeds

Yesterday, I had a very busy and productive day. By 8:30 am in the morning I was in Brunswick, Maine visiting a coffee roaster. I spent over 2 hours talking coffee, tasting coffee, and learning. I had so much coffee that my head was buzzing when I left at 11 am headed to Worcester. By 2 pm I was in Worcester before returning home to mow my lawn and tend to my “flower garden” if it qualifies to be called that.

I had not tended to my lawn for a few weeks because I was in Kenya, so it was “standing out” if you know what I mean. I worked on the lawn from 2 pm to 7 pm before dropping dead on my couch!

Why did it take me so long? The weeds!!!!!! This brings to me to my thoughts for the day – “watch out for the weeds”. After just 3 weeks, the weeds (my youngest daughter would love that rhyme – 3 weeks, the and weeds) were everywhere; the lawn, the flower bed, the side walk, and the front steps. Mowing the lawn took me 30 minutes, but removing the weeds took me almost 4 hours!