Just one drop...

Even the greatest oceans started with just a drop of rain, which is made up of molecules, pretty simple science. The greatest movements have stated with one thought that led to a passion which led to an action, which led to a movement. Our life is made up of years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds. Every action that we take thought that we make and idea we have has the potential to change the world.

The greatest oceans started with just a drop of rain. The ocean is massive body of water going on for miles and reaching miles below the surface. Can one drop really matter? Can one decision we make in our life truly make a difference?

Every action you take may not seem like a lot but it is. The best part, its okay to screw up, its natural it teaches you a lot and it gives you an opportunity to improve. Every action can change the world. My friend Christian Jensen followed his dreams because of a video. The video lasted five minutes, changed his life, he found his passion, he took action and began changing the world. One drop matters. I have been lucky in life to have amazing opportunities, people and events change my life. Rotary Youth Leadership Awards is one of them. One of the biggest gifts I have ever been given is a note, on sticky pad, letting me know the gifts I have given. It was a drop in time for my life but made an impact. One drop matters.

Your one drop creates a ripple; it carries the energy out to the world. Christian has made an amazing impact on me. His passion, dedication and love for what he does has changed my life. Imagine the ripple affect, imagine a child at the age of 13 having chancer, what is the impact he can make? The impact he made is great, his name is Bo Johnson and sadly he passed away on September 28^th 2012 and let me tell you about the impact he has made. He has inspired thousands to love one another, give the gift of themselves and change the world. I have witnessed it first hand. A complete stranger to the family and friend of my self, Brian Gruender dedicated to running 100 miles to honor Bo and the passion, love and lessons he gave to the world. A close friend of family and my good friend Heather Goodwin dedicated to following Brian for the first 50 miles. It started at 9:00 pm and ended at 6:30am the next day. Now how can a child of just 13 years old impact a man who lives over an hour away, who he never met, never knew and never would. He chose to add just a drop to the ocean and watch the ripples create magic.

One drop matters but think what ten drops can do, 100 drops and 1,000 the impact is inspiring, you actions matter. Brian’s journey to honor Bo, started with just one step, a step in the miles he would run to honor Bo and his legacy. Take the first step. The Grand Canyon, one of the greatest wonders of the world was formed by trillions of drops carving through stone. Keep giving you drops, its what will change the world.

Do not get lost in the ocean of life. It is an amazing and fascinating place and at the same time it is easy to feel alone and see you actions as nothing but splash in the pan, but it is so much more. Your actions, thoughts and ideas are what will change the world. The greatest movements, innovations and achievements started with one thought, that led to a passion, which led to action that led to a movement that changed the world. The greatest oceans in the world stated with just a drop of rain

Embrace the spirit of a marathon

I recently had the great opportunity and privilege of being able to run in the Cellcom Green bay marathon. It was amazing for a number of reasons. First and foremost I had the ability to run, others cannot. Second I was able to work with an amazing organization called myTEAM TRIUMPH. They help challenged athletes compete in endurance races by having Angels push them in buggies. Third the atmosphere and spirit of a marathon is amazing.

I have the ability to run, it is a gift. A gift that far too often many of us see as a burden, “I have to run today”, “I need to train today”, “I need to run x miles today”; yet we forget that there are people in this world who cannot even walk. They can barely move themselves. In my book the ability to run is truly a privilege. The speed you go at, does not matter, the distance does not matter, just be happy you can run.

myTEAM TRIUMPH is an organization that is dedicated to helping challenged athletes compete in endurance events. The challenged athletes are called captains; they are the ones in the race, the ones who get the shirts, medal and whose name is behind the time. They are the inspiration   behind every step we take. Angels are the ones who push or pull the captains. It is an honor, privilege and pure motivation to be able to be an angel. I an inspired constantly by the passion, greatness and love these captains live there life with everyday. Thank you to everyone who cheered us one. Thank you for your inspiration and the ability with a phrase to power us through the run. I had the privilege of running with a father who was pushing his daughter the whole way. The words, signs and smiles meant more to us than you can ever know.

Embrace the spirit of a marathon, it is truly amazing. Runners, your dedication to training proves that if you believe, you can do pretty much anything. Getting up for at 7am for a 20 mile run then getting on with your day is fantastic. The sport is addicting and even though running seems like it is a solo sport, we are all in it together. The power and awe of a marathon goes beyond the runners. To the trainers, staff and volunteers who dedicated their time just to ensure we would be okay, thank you. We could not compete without you. Last but not least, lets not forget the fans along the course who cheered us on. Many of them had no one to specific to cheer for, but they choose to stand out in the heat just to cheer random strangers on. They made signs, turned on their hose and handed out water just to see a total stranger succeed in a dream.

What if we lived everyday like that? What if we invested our time, energy and passion into helping people succeed, with nothing but the satisfaction of knowing we helped them succeed. In my opinion, life is not about us, it is about everyone else. How can we live each day to provide inspiration, motivation and dedication that helps people achieve their dreams?

The greatest pleasure in life?

The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do - Walter Bagehot

With all do respect to Walter, I have to say his belief is absolute bull. Since when is the greatest joy we get in our life from showing the people that never believed in us that we can do what we knew all along? More importantly what kind of culture and society does this build? The question you need to ask yourself is, who are you living your life for? Are you living it for the ones who denied you the power to believe in yourself or the ones who stood by you, the ones that are willing to push you along and show you how much they loved you? The very concept of seeking pleasure by showing the non-believers is a slippery slope that can only end in disaster.

This quote instills in us, that if we want to truly be happy we must prove that someone is wrong. It sets us on a path to search and find the ones that do not believe in us and waster our time on them. This takes away from the time we could be spending with those who have supported us all along, degrading the true friends that we have. Instead of spending time with and appreciating the true friends in our lives we try to justify our every move to the ones that do not matter. The fact of the matter is, it does not matter who started it, where it came from or why it started, what matters is it stops, that we choose to change the world.

Our life is full of choices, one of the most important, is who are we living for? We can choose to live for the negative or we can choose to live for the positive. I believe whole-heartedly that if we choose to seek pleasure in proving others wrong, we will never truly be happy and if we choose to live for the positive, nothing will stop us.

It is time that we start living our dreams for the ones that believe in us. These are the people that have always been there for us throughout the journey. What greater joy can you have then showing everyone that believed in you, that they were right?

So here is my challenge, lets start believing in the people we care about. Let’s start helping people achieve their dreams and start to take them seriously. I believe that we all have gifts that will change the world.

Change the world

The difference between those who change the world and those who don't is that those who do believe they can.-Simon Sinek

I believe this to be true, and that is why it scares me.

In our society today as it stands, hardly any focus is being put on helping people realize that they can change the world. Yet we question why not everyone is not changing the world, it is simply because they do not believe they can. Our focus has been on finding out how we will change the world, which will not work.

Rarely in your life will you ever truly change the world in the way you imagined. While this may sound bad, I believe it is one of life’s greatest gifts. I believe that we are all put on the earth for a reason. Yet this can be discouraging for many people, because they road is rarely paved and the path is never clear. Every step that we take is a step in the right direction.

When we “fail” we lose faith in ourselves, when we lose faith we stop believing. This creates one of the greatest tragedies in life, when we stop believing we can change the world.

It is time we start to engage others to believe that they can change the world. We cannot do the work for them but we can help them believe. Start telling people what they mean to you and how they have changed your life, it will change their world. Let them know that you will support them, be a friend. If our goal is to truly change the world, we must give people the courage, belief and power to realize that they can too.

Go out and change the world

Start with why

To begin, I should mention that much of this is inspired by Simon Sinek’s video that explains his golden circle. In the outer layer is what, the middle is how and the bullseye is why. It has to do in which the way organizations explain their product or service. However it has so much more to do with life and how to live one with passion and achieve your dreams.

For the longest time I have been involved with a lot but most of the time have not felt connected. As much as I could find a reason for the other members, mission and vision or it all being part of the progress, what it comes down to is I never gave my self permission to understand why. Why is it that I take part in everything I do? Why do I want to have an impact and why do I have the dreams I do. It is great to have a dream of changing the world but until you understand why, something will be missing.

They why is your story. It is the inspiration you drive from and help create the difference. Everything that you do is built on the foundation of why. Don’t believe me, here are some examples. A company has a choice on how they want to market themselves. They can choose to talk to their customers about what and how they create or do what they do, or they can talk about the why. Telling the story of the passion, commitment and drive they have every day when they walk in the door. The fact of the matter is, what and how will change frequently, just look at Nike. What they did in the past, selling shoes in retail markets has now changed. They sell almost any sports equipment one could imagine and a lot of it online. Yet what they do has not changed, they provide people the ability to become athletes, the ability to live a healthier life.

Live your story and start with why. In my life I have had the amazing luck to have met so many people who have the story of why down, you can tell the moment you talk to them. They have a passion and fire that cannot be put out, because they will not let it. They know that what and how is just a vessel for why and the impact they will make on the world.

The first person is Christian Jensen. He is on a mission to change the world and understands why. He wants everyone to know that they are not valued by their disability, speed or talent, but by the gifts they bring to the world. Christian realizes the why, if we let everyone know that they are not judged by their disability, they will be set on fire to change the world. Choosing to include everyone and help them be part of the team, will let them know they matter. That is what we are all looking for, to know that we matter.

Second is Peggy Eserkaln, she is on a mission to help people build better teams with communication, acceptance and trust. Peggy realizes that these three qualities are the building blocks for a great team. When this is set in the foundation, teams and organizations become dynamic and truly achieve success. She also realizes that at the very inner of every person people want acceptance and trust. They want to be supported in their dreams and help others achieve their dreams.

Third would have to be my father. He wants to help everyone succeed because he believes in the potential that every person brings to the table. Where people are right now does not determine where they will be or who they can be. The path we are all on, is meant to be a journey and every step we take will bring us closer to who we are truly meant to be.

Not once in any of these stories did I tell you what these people did, I did that on purpose. Unless you know any of the three above, you have no idea of what they do and how they do it. Yet you understand why. Do you feel inspired?

fearLESS

I have made an awesome choice to join a group that is truly changing the world. The name of the group is my Team Triumph-Wisconsin. For those of you who do not know the short story of this group is they help disabled athletes compete in endurance events. I am sure you will soon see that is just the surface.

Fear is something that we all have to deal with. The world creates fear around us daily and rewards us to give into it. We fear we will not fit in, so we buy the clothes, home and care we cannot afford. We are afraid we will lose our job, so we agree and go along for the ride. We are afraid that we actually have the potential to change the world so we let the evil take control and let our soul be taken. I do not write this as a judge of the rest of the world, I write this as someone who has done it and continues to do it.

However as life does almost every day, people are put into our life that changes it forever. This is where my Team Triumph comes in. I had the great opportunity to run with a group of Angels and Captain Mary to train for the Cellcom. The path had hills, more hills and then you guessed it another hill. However what struck me most about the run was not the miles, the scenery, pace or finishing it. It was a simple comment made at about mile 12. We were going up a hill (there were a lot) and I was able to push Captain Mary up the hill. The whole time we had “light thoughts” to help us get up the hill faster, it helped. Mary told me about the time she went out on a hot air balloon. The experience, seeing other balloons takes flight and the scenery. She talked about how she saw the horses in the field, then moved on to the time she rode a horse. While this may not seem like a feat to many, what you may not know is that Mary has Muscular Dystrophy. Many of the things that you and I take for granted and many of the things you and I complain about doing, she cannot.

What struck me about this conversation was not the fact that she rode the horse; it was what she had after “I have very little fear”. Mary has many problems, so few of us could imagine. She has to deal with difficulties most of us could only dream about, yet she chooses to not let fear hold her down. She puts fear to the side and takes on whatever life gives her. Mary will not let fear control her life, she chooses to control the fear. This may be the point where I say if Mary can make this choice, we can too. However that is unfair to Mary, you and your future. The fact of the matter is, we should be making the choice to not live in fear regardless. Comparing our self to someone else builds fear that we are not good enough. Just like the hot air balloon, it is not until we let go, that we can see all the world has to offer.

Forgive but don’t forget

Forgive but don’t forget

There is a difference between forgiveness and forgetting. One is a powerful tool that will set you free and open your future. The other is a truck that will blindside you if you do not pay attention.

In my journey I have gotten the two mixed up far too often. I forget what happened but refuse to forgive those involved, including and probably most often myself. Looking back I have noticed that it does nothing for me, I forget the cause of the problem and what should have been done and just focus on the people, looking for what they did wrong. When in reality I should forgive those involved, because 99% of the time they did it with their best intentions, and I am willing to be trick by the 1% to see the awesome power the 99% has.

When I forget what happened, I forget to learn the lesson that came along with it, most likely the reason why it happened. The lesson sits on the side of the road as I run pass it chasing those who “did wrong”. As Pat Hopkins of Imaginasium writes in a blog post “It’s about the Experience, Stupid”, I have far to often forgotten to realize the awesome potential the experience will teach me if I take a minute to learn from it and remember it.

A failure is not the end; it is a fork in the road. It is a point in time where you can realign, regroup and look at what is a head.

I will start to look for the opportunity, experience and lesson from each step in my life. I will start to forgive and love people for who they are and the talent they bring, I will be set free. I will not forget the lesson I have been taught making them propel me forward, not hold me back.

Here is to forgiveness, an awesome virtue that far too often I have forgotten. Let’s remember is all about the experience.