Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Celebrating and Appreciating

Today, I decided to take some time to celebrate some recent milestones and goals achieved. I had three things to celebrate:


So, I did what I've decided to do to celebrate my achievements in this business venture... I went for a walk on the beach. It is a beautiful day here in San Diego today, so I got to go barefoot and get my feet wet.

Nice
I also collected shells, as I usually do on these walks. Here was today's haul:

Today's shells
I'll let the kids pick 2-3 each, and the rest go in my "success jar." Here's the current status of that jar:

Previous day's shells

All in all, a good day.

As I walked, I thought about how unbelievably lucky I am to get to live this way right now. You better believe I appreciate it.

I also thought about how much I enjoy giving seminars like the one I gave today. Before the seminar, I'm always nervous, and at least partly convinced that I have nothing useful to say. Then I give the seminar, and people ask smart, interesting questions, and I have fun, and they seem to appreciate the content... and there is a lesson for me there. I am trying to learn it. I'm also trying to find my way past my fears of self-promotion so that I can do more seminars and workshops. I've worked out a pricing system that seems right to me ($200 per instructional hour, plus travel expenses... get in touch if any of my offerings- or potential offerings!- sound like a match for your group.) I'm thinking of new online seminars I can do to build up my offerings. I am also happy to develop something custom, although the price will have to go up unless I get to keep the right to use the material elsewhere.

I have three (three!) books in flight for Annorlunda Books right now, which also makes me really happy. They are all great books, and I plan to write a post about them once I have all the contracts finalized. After I post this, I am going to dive back into editing one of them.

So, in short. Life is good for me right now, and I know it, and am grateful for it.

Not long after I got home from my beach walk, I got a call that reminded me that life is also unpredictable. My parents called to tell me that a good family friend has died. He was not old enough for this to be at all expected. I am shocked by this loss, and devasted for his family. I am reminded why I chose not to wait to try to live my life how I want to live it. None of us have any guarantees. Our family friend lived a life I would judge as "good." I'm sure he expected to have more time, though. His story is not mine to tell, but it is a powerful reminder to appreciate what I have, and to always take time to celebrate the good things.

Wishing you all your equivalent to a walk on the beach, sometime soon.

4 comments:

  1. Congratulations on all the new and the good! I'm glad you're taking the time. I'm with you - we aren't promised tomorrow. We'll plan for it but also make time to enjoy today.

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  2. Congratulations on all of this great news! Can't wait to hear more about the books :)

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  3. Anonymous8:17 AM

    Hey Cloud, did you see this? So sad...
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/16/the-remarkably-different-answers-men-and-women-give-when-asked-whos-the-smartest-in-the-class/

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  4. Walk on the beach, pick up shells, put them in a jar like marbles: brilliant and inspiring!

    ReplyDelete

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