I love that I see so many hawks on my drive home from work.



So after weights last night, I went to an in-store event at the Lululemon in Oakville: a free life coach session on kick-starting 2008. I have to say that I was pretty tired and dragging my butt by the time I got there but it was worth it.

You know how I'm all about the little signs. Well, at Sunday brunch we had a brief conversation about potential trip destinations for this summer. Someone brought up India. Two people thought India would NOT be a good destination and two of us (Marisha and I) thought it would be worth it. The two negatories presented all kinds of arguments against and all we could say were things like, the Dalai Lama lives there, how bad could it be? What about the Taj Mahal? Maybe we could get visas to travel in Tibet. And so on. Really though - isn't anywhere different worth seeing?
So, back to Monday night where the speaker, Leslie, offered up this example for goal-setting ... "so, let's say your goal is to take a trip to ummm...India. This is how you would keep yourself on track."

Okay. India. Check.

We're supposed to be in Malaysia in late June/early August so it is clearly an option.

The rest of the session was about setting a goal and defining the ways to bring it about. My goal is to get a new career, preferably in the outdoor adventure/travel industry. After we laid out our plans we grouped up and discussed; I was grouped with an obviously well-cared for Oakville-ite I'll call Mindy and Jess, one of the 20-something clerks from Lulu. Mindy went first and said her goal was to meditate for at least an hour every day. And she would accomplish it by setting aside the time (??). I went next with a plan to start an outdoor-something business which could be anything from an adventure racers training camp up north somewhere to a surf hostel in Tofino. My execution included taking some entrepreneurial and travel & leisure courses and getting building quotes and projections on land cost from my friend Karen the carpenter. Jess, wants to effect change in our world by volunteering in a developing country. She would be would be researching and contacting the multitude of organizations involved in facilitating it and earning the money to underwrite the trip.

As I was leaving the session, Jess called me over and gave me the name of a friend's company in Toronto that organizes wilderness tours in Northern Ontario. She said at the very least I could talk to them about what's involved in this kind of business and at best, maybe apply for a job! It doesn't even matter if anything comes of it - I loved being reminded of the network of coincidences. My time these past few years has been so defined by the training, the team, nationals and worlds that I'd closed the doors on everything else and hadn't even realized it. Plus, it was an enjoyable way to pass a couple of hours. And it definitely gave me a kick in the ass to quit whining about how much I hate my job and take control of things.

I was so motivated about grabbing back the reins of my life that I even stepped on the scales this morning. I've been avoiding it but discovered I've lost 6 of the 10 pounds I gained after Australia.

Moving on.