#Trust30-Day 6

Today’s prompt, from Jonathan Mead:

If you had one week left to live, would you still be doing what you’re doing now? In what areas of your life are you preparing to live? Take them off your To Do list and add them to a To Stop list. Resolve to only do what makes you come alive.

Bonus: How can your goals improve the present and not keep you in a perpetual “always something better” spiral?

Another “time is short” prompt…Hopefully, we’ll get a little more variety this week. These type of questions do give you an opportunity to reflect, but I’m ready for a change in topic.

To answer the first question—no. Of course I would do something different. Wouldn’t everyone, really?

If I knew I was dying in seven days, I would spend the whole week writing every lesson I have learned about life down along with every bit of advice I could think of to give to my kids. They could take it or leave it, but at least someday they would be able to see what their dad might think about some situation that came up. Other than that I would just spend the last week saying goodbye to friends and family.

The second question is unclear. I’m skipping it. If I figure out what it means, perhaps I’ll revisit it later.

For the bonus question:

Goals, if they align with what you like to do, will help you direct your energies each day. If you work daily towards reaching those goals, just putting in the work will improve the present. It is the process of work that is important. You can feel better just by knowing that you dedicated yourself to your craft for that day.

[For an overview of what #Trust30 is, click here]

#Trust30-Day 5

[This is another post for the #Trust30 challenge. More information here.]

If we live truly, we shall see truly. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today's prompt:

Not everyone wants to travel the world, but most people can identify at least one place in the world they’d like to visit before they die. Where is that place for you, and what will you do to make sure you get there? – Chris Guillebeau, author of The Art of Non-Conformity

It’s a good thing that I can work on this question in the afternoon. I never like to think about travel at night, because usually what follows is several hours of staring at the ceiling, thinking about all the places left in the world to see. I can drink espresso at 10pm and sleep fine, but if someone gets me thinking about adventures abroad, it’s going to be a long night.

Traveling is one of the most enjoyable activities on the face of the earth. When you travel, you get the opportunity to get away from the familiar, the everyday routine. You notice more things. It is like the wonder that a child has as she wanders through a garden. She has to stop and inspect every flower, insect or rock she sees. The world is animated around her and she soaks it all in.

That’s kind of what travel does to me. It refreshes my sense of wonder about the world around me.

You may have experienced something like this too. Walking through an airport or train station, the excitement of adventure starts to creep into your body. You feel as if you are almost floating in a bubble, an unseen force lightening each step as you get closer to the departure area. You are surrounded with thousands of people, all going somewhere, but at the same time you are all alone. Waiting for your departure gives you time to watch the diversity of people around you and create stories in your mind for them. Occasionally, you meet a fellow traveler and find that someone has the same love of travel that you do. Traveling fills you a with a feeling of exhilaration and an inner calm at the same time.

Traveling also helps us remember how big the world is. It reminds us that there are a whole lot more people on this earth than just us. They have hopes and dreams for their futures that are just as real as ours. Traveling helps remind us of our humanity.

Trying to pick a single place to go is a difficult challenge, so I’ll start with a list of places I want to see and try to narrow it down from there. First is South America, a continent I have not yet visited. Brazil and Argentina are at the top of the list. I want to see the beaches of Ipanema and the Amazon and its vast forests. In Argentina, Buenos Aires, the Pampas and the Tierra del Fuego are calling. I would also like to see the Incan ruins in Ecuador, Bolivia or Chile.

Africa is not short of sights to see either. Egypt is my highest priority, for its pyramids and the Nile River. I want to see the savannas of Zambia and Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River, then relax on the beaches of Mozambique.

In Europe, well, there are too many to name (I admit to being a Europhile). Greece and Turkey (yes, most of Turkey is in Asia, but it kind of straddles both continents) are high on the list of to see, though if I could go to Italy or Spain again, I would jump at the chance. I also don’t think that any traveler’s adventures are complete without a trip to St. Petersburg or Moscow.

In the Middle East and Asia, just a few places really catch my interest.  Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s attempt to build a sustainable city in the desert, is one of them. I would also like to see Beirut and maybe Riyadh. Moving farther east, a stop in India is a high priority, as is a stop (or several) in Thailand. Some good friends live there, and they would be able to show me the non-touristy side of the country. It would be a wonderful reunion to see them.

If I could somehow get into North Korea, I would like to see that country too. Visiting a country that has been so isolated from the rest of the world for the last 50 years would be fascinating. I just read Nothing to Envy, by Barbara Demick, and the stories were heart-wrenching. A trip there would give me lots to write about.

Completing the round-the-world wishful tour, I hope to visit Newfoundland, Canada and Mexico City. If I could get to Havana that would be great too. I once took a few voice lessons from a man who had defected from Cuba and he told me that the beaches there are unbelievably beautiful. Havana almost has a mythical status as a place trapped in time. I want to see if the myth in my mind matches reality. In the U.S., I have yet to see Washington, D.C., New Orleans and the Grand Canyon.

Read More

#Trust30 Day 4

[For an overview of what #Trust30 is, click here]

Today’s Challenge:

Identify one of your biggest challenges at the moment (i.e. I don’t feel passionate about my work) and turn it into a question (i.e. How can I do work I’m passionate about?) Write it on a post-it and put it up on your bathroom mirror or the back of your front door. After 48-hours, journal what answers came up for you and be sure to evaluate them.

Bonus: tweet or blog a photo of your post-it.

It was a short assignment today (though not as easy as it sounded). If you have your own answer for the question, feel free to share it.

Caffeinated links for June 3, 2011

Here are the links for the week. They come with lots of sunshine and warm weather (hooray!), so enjoy:

From the legal department: a woman is suing Dunkin’ Donuts for putting sugar in her coffee. A legal liaison for DD was quoted as saying: "If you fail to request a sugar substitute, we can't read your mind. We sell doughnuts, not crystal balls." Ouch. link

Groupon, who filed paperwork this week for a $750 million IPO, had better look out. Google Offers debuted this week with a successful sale of over 1600 $10-vouchers (at a price of $3) for Portland’s own Floyd’s Coffee. Floyd’s is known for having outlets at all its tables, as well as serving Stumptown Coffee. link

Speaking of Stumptown—in case you missed it, here’s the NY Times article about the PDX-based coffee roaster’s expansion plans. link

On the same day that he published the rumor about Stumptown’s alleged sale to TSG, La Colombe’s Todd Carmichael was the subject of a feature in the Philadelphia Inquirer. La Colombe is investing in the revival of the Hatian coffee industry. link

In a contrarian move, Nectar of Life is lowering the prices for its Coffee of the Month club. link

McDonald’s, the coffee giant (what, you didn’t know?), is apologizing to Australians for the sorry state of the coffee the chain serves and is promising to do better. link

Another one from the legal department: Peet’s is being sued by Aegis, its development partner for the New York City market, who claims that Peet’s is trying to cut it out of the deals it had secured for the coffee company. link

Sumitomo Metal is going to buy used coffee grounds to fuel one of its power plants in Japan. The company isn’t going to use a lot, mixing 1% coffee with 99% coal, but it’s a start. link

Coffee juice, anyone? Coffee fruit flavor might be the next new fad in the cold beverage market. link

And finally:

Beginning August 1st, if you visit the Oregon Convention Center, you will be able to drink coffee at Portland Roasting Coffee’s first signature café. The venue dropped Starbucks and switched to the Portland company because of Portland Roasting’s commitment to sustainability. link

#Trust30 Day 3

[For an overview of what #Trust30 is, click here]

The prompt for day 3:

“The world is powered by passionate people, powerful ideas, and fearless action. What’s one strong belief you possess that isn’t shared by your closest friends or family? What inspires this belief, and what have you done to actively live it?” – Buster Benson

Yikes. Now we’re getting personal. Who was it again that accepted this challenge? Oh, yeah, that was me. By nature, I’m a private person—so these questions are pushing me a little beyond my comfort zone. On the other hand, I have written a quite a few personal stories on the blog over the last ten months, so maybe the vision I have of myself is a little outdated. Besides, sharing yourself with other people is what makes life worth it, right?

Just so you know, Resistance (from The War of Art) is winning today. The whole day has been a struggle to be optimistic, to feel good and to get anything done. This post is no different. Now, where should I start?

[Pause…]

After some thought, I think I have a topic. I considered writing about several different topics—legalizing drugs, immigration reform, the role of the US in the world, gay marriage—these are all topics where I differ from a lot of my friends, but I haven’t done much to actively try to change the world or other people’s opinions and attitudes about them.  I haven’t ‘actively lived’ them, so to speak. Finally, this is what I came up with:

Certainty and security do not substitute for experiencing life.

People, in general, like to take the “safe” route in life. They want to work for a good company, go to their jobs every day and be paid a nice salary that keeps a roof over their heads. They are looking for a comfortable life.  This can be a great way to go through life (assuming you don’t get caught up in a Great Recession and thrown out of your job, like so many have been over the last few years), and there are definitely times when I look at others’ lives and think I should try to do the same thing.

Usually, though, the thought of taking the safe route is disheartening. You put in your time as a cog in a corporate machine, wasting away and paying for someone else’s dream. I imagine getting on the phone with a supplier in China and trying to bargain over two cents on 50 different cables for some product that people don’t need in the first place and I think to myself, “should I settle for a life like that? Is that all I was meant to do in life?” The answer invariably comes back a resounding no.

You might ask, what I am doing to avoid that type of life? How am I going to put food on the table for myself and my family? That’s a difficult question and I’m still trying to figure out exactly what the answer is.

I will say, though, that I started this blog because I think there is something better out there. I am writing daily, to build my skills as an interviewer and storyteller, to learn as much as I can about the world and share it with others. I write and I write and I write, because at some point, the work is going to pay off. On many levels, it already has. I may not have the certainty and security in my life as I would have at a traditional job, but I have some great experiences to reflect on that I would not change for the world. And that, dear reader, is what I am doing to ‘live it.’

[Wow. I don’t know if that makes any sense or not, but I’m shipping it just the same. With a pounding head and a burning throat, I bid you good night.]