The Goblins in Life.

 

I'm a slow learner so I apologize for this late(er on in life) epiphany, but here it goes. The treasures of life are masked and hidden under our fears, you know, the goblins of life.

 

I was terrified to walk away from an incredible job stacked with awesome benefits and even better people to go back on the road. I thought what are people going to think about my risk; I thought am I going to be happy with my decision. I thought very early on in the beginning, what the hell am I doing? I thought what am I going to do after this tour? But open roads (8,418 miles to be almost exact), random people, gorgeous sunrises, diverse terrain, overplayed playlists and random adventures I found peace, I made memories and I gained a new purpose.

 

Back to the goblins, besides the tour itself I faced two scary things:

1. Bikram Yoga

2. Tandem Bike Riding

 

Prior to the tour, my goal was to do yoga in every college town. While I fell short on that goal, I did experience Bikram yoga, you know hot yoga. My ass thought it would be a fantastic idea to rise up at 5:00am and PAY to be in a room with 15 other nut cases adorned in lycra to do almost impossible poses in a 107 degree room. Was it challenging? Pfffffttt! Did I sweat my ass off? (Eyes rolling) Did I feel a sense of epic accomplishment? Sure did. Did my body feel amazing? For days it did.

 

Tandem bike riding. Riding a bike sounds easy enough, right? I forgot to mention that I'm terrified of riding bikes. While training for a triathlon, I flipped off a road bike and fell down a gravel hill. The fall was so severe that it ripped my shirt in half, got gravel in my skin, and I still have scars on my legs, stomach and arms from the accident. So when Linnea had the bright idea to tandem bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge I was speechless. In her defense, she had no clue of my prior accident AND she was just trying to maximize my San Fran experience. After a really rough start, the kind of start where the bike shop guy says "Are you sure you guys want to do this?" we made our 5 mile hilly way to the Golden Gate Bridge. There's a lot of details I'm skipping, but just know this, that bike ride was the highlight of my ENTIRE tour. I haven't laughed so hard, had others laugh at us so hard, felt adventurous, felt nervous and felt so good all in one.

 

All in all, my point is that taking a risk and doing something that scares you is probably the thing that will make you feel most alive, most accomplished and most driven. Don't concentrate on what could go wrong, focus on the reward of things going right.

 

 

 

Daily Challenge:

There's something that terrifies you...that's exactly what you need to seek after. Is it going back to school? Applying for a new job? Asking for a raise? Starting your own business? Telling someone your new idea? Joining a group? Planning an event? Writing a book? Telling someone how they made you feel? Do that thing.

 

Song of the Day:

 HOZIER - FROM EDEN

 

 

The Road Less Traveled

It's only fitting that words like miles and travel are somehow incorporated into this Daily Good Start. I've had the opportunity to go from Rutgers University to the University of Alabama then over to the University of Georgia then Georgia Tech. After Georgia Tech I sweated my face off in Phoenix at the University of Arizona, BUT had the opportunity to lay out poolside in October which is prit-ty epic. After the University of Arizona, I drove twelve hours to San Francisco and am about to head north to Eugene, Oregon. After my last event at the University of Oregon, I still have to travel to Dallas then Milwaukee and then finally home.

The above paragraph has no purpose, I'm just showing off.

Now to the good stuff.

Go the extra mile in life, it is truly the road less traveled.

I had a tight deadline to drive from Atlanta to Phoenix, it got even tighter when the tour truck broke down in NOWHERESVILLE, Texas. You know Nowheresville Texas, it's on Route 20 about 70 miles from civilization.

I knew that I'd be passing right through Lordsburg, NM. It's a small dusty town where my grandma lives and my parents are from. Knowing that I'd be passing through, a few days prior I had picked up an extra copy of my brother's book to give to my grandma. I had visualized how it would all go down and how awesome it would be to surprise her with a visit. As the road signs started announcing that I was getting closer to Lordsburg, I had thoughts of just bypassing. I was SERIOUSLY short on time, but about 20 miles out an inner voice said go for it. I did. Mind you, I only spent 20 minutes with my grandma and uncle, but the hugs, conversation and homemade breakfast burrito were totally worth it.

Then there was the quick overnight stay in El Paso. Once again, short on time and energy, I decided to alert my almost brother Brett that I'd be in his neck of the woods. He was on text standby for about six hours. I got into town, we shared one (ok maybe two) drinks, a few stories, and a serious laugh  out loud moment. Right after that (due to social media), I saw that my friend Christian was in El Paso touring for Blue Man Group. A quick text prefacing my window of meet up opportunity and he was there. Once again, we were limited on time, but the quick hello and catching up was perfect.

Word traveled quick that I would be at the University of Arizona, the mecca of my extended family. My phone started blowing up by cousins, aunts and uncles to meet up. Mind you, I'm there for work. Serious work, like everything going smoothly weighs all on me work. Anxiety took over. I wanted to see everyone, but I knew my window would be small. What did my incredible family do? They battled their way through drunk tailgaters to see me for about 30 minutes. Big hugs were flowing all around. It was perfect. It was brief, but it was perfect.

I'll be the first to say that I've lived a life of non-yolo-ing (mom, yolo means You Only Live Once). I've done the "I'm exhausted, I have no time, my truck broke down, my schedule doesn't permit, I'm slammed, blah blah blah" which has all been true but (in almost all instances) those crazy detours of going the extra mile compounds to miles of happiness.

Seeing my grandma light up when I handed her Daniel's book was priceless. I know in that moment my dad was smiling down on me going "that's my girl".

The moment the Rodriguez/Sema clan showed up with bells and whistles to say hello was priceless.

That time that I saw Brett sing karaoke and get hit on by a drunk 40-something gay dude that managed an Applebee's. Priceless.

The extra mile could mean an out of the blue text message, picking up a souvenir, bringing home dinner, paying for a flight out to visit, tickets to a concert, bringing over soup for a sick friend, or a quick phone call to say hello on your lunch break....it could be a hundred other things....but you know once you've gone the extra mile because a smile will go from ear to ear and a memory will be forever embedded.

 

 

Daily Challenge:

I'm not going to spell this one out. Go the extra mile today, I guarantee that it will lead to miles of happiness.

 

Song of the Day:

Tomorrows Bad Seed - Nice and Slow

http://youtu.be/zWlfvNPpzMY