Time flies; it’s been a couple of months since I’ve blogged.   We did a lot of traveling last Autumn to celebrate my 60^th and it took me a while to regain my balance after our last trip.  I came home exhausted. Unfortunately, I spent much of our trip bathrooming due to a nasty fish dish from the Arabian Sea outside of Mumbai. 

No surprises there, Mumbai with its 24 million people is chaotic, polluted – an assault on the senses.  It’s a smokey grey machine that never stops.  It contains a vast see of taxis, tuk-tuk’s, cars and trucks, all honking at one another.  The Indians do not negotiate through traffic by visual means but rather the sound of the horn.  In the brown water of the sea, there is little sign of life. 

Yet the city is remarkable.  The community strength of the Dharavi slum is something that I haven’t witnessed since my childhood neighbourhood. Everyone looked out for me.  Our neighbour, Mr. Brown taught me how to ride a bike when the firefighters gave me one for Christmas.  Mom was too busy raising 4 kids on her own.  The money she made fed and clothed us.  Purchasing a bicycle was far out of reach.  Yet compared to so many in the world, we had plenty. I had a warm bed, indoor plumbing and an education.

Traveling to poor countries provides me with an opportunity to take stock of my life.  Our last trip was perfect timing because I knew I wanted to change my focus from coaching to something else that could broaden my horizons.  A new decade was before me so, I started this year with scrubbing my space.  I turned my office upside down and threw out anything that wasn’t serving me.  The result of this cleansing process is that I am crystal clear on the work that I want to do.

I have realized how much I love writing.  That’s why I blog.  So, I’ve said goodbye to coaching.  Instead I’m writing a book and designing a series of podcasts. This allows me to reach a far greater audience while feeding my soul with creativity, doing something that I adore.

Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple said that getting fired at Apple freed him to enter a creative period of his life.  He created a little thing called Pixar Animation Studios, famous for the Toy Story series of movies.  He said, “When hit with a brick, don’t lose faith. Find and do great work.  Love what you do.  You’ll know when you find it.  Don’t settle.”

The fact that I’m excited about the projects I’m working on, that it FEELS really good to me, tells me two things:  this is what I am meant to be doing now and it’s in alignment with my values. You’re on the right road (for you) when you follow your values.

I came across some incomplete projects as I scrubbed my space.  This is how I handle an incomplete:

DO IT

DUMP IT – if it’s not necessary                                   = TIME FOR IMPORTANT THINGS

DELEGATE IT – can I hire someone?                                                   = JOY

DATE IT – reschedule