I'm Not Lost, I'm Exploring
Apr 20, 2021Today is day 15,101. The average lifespan of a human being is 28,000 days. For me, it's 15,101. Every time I say the number, it always brings a little bit of that existential feeling. Did this day count? I know we've been away from the podcast for a little bit. The way we've been doing things is that we've been in three different cities over the course of the last, I don't know, seven days, trying to keep covid free, trying to move throughout the pandemic and exploring new avenues in which we're going to take the organization that we've been working on. We've been talking about here on the podcast and so plenty to talk about today. As we traveled as we explored the new avenues, I couldn't help but think most people may think we're lost at this point, lost during pandemic times, lost during all these things that have happened over the course of the last 365 days, that have been an ordeal.
To be sure, by this point, last year, we were already in a situation where fear had gotten the best of us, where trips were already cancelled, where the NBA was already gone, from the books, where our organization had already canceled all of its programs, all of its events scheduled for the month of June, July, August, and it sent us into this deep downward spiral of Where do we go from here? And so as we come out of these pandemic times, the big question for me is, what are the new avenues that exist? What are the new roads which we can plow down, explore, figure out if it's an Avenue worth pursuing, and if not, hop onto the next one and figure out if that's the right Avenue? Of course, we can go back to the way things were done before. But as I've discussed before, I tend to refuse to live life as it is. Yes, there's established paths that will come back into the game, into the game of life in a matter of weeks. In a matter of time, we're already traveling. I'm already traveling with face masks and face shields and all of this jazz. The reality is we're not lost. We're just exploring and the social conditioning that we are all subjected to on an everyday circumstance. We need to put a pause on that. We need to make sure that we don't let those normal, conventional ways of thinking get in the way of making big things happen. So that's what I bring to the table today in terms of our discussion in terms of wanting to explore things with all of you. As usual, we are bringing our show live to you on clubhouse. We're also going to be doing some really neat things in terms of media here shortly. We're going to be doing some things differently than we used to do before, and I'm pretty excited about it. Oh, yeah. And there's a conference coming up that I want to talk to everyone about. So welcome to today's podcast. It's awesome to be back.
As I've developed over the course of the last seven to eight years leading the organization, I have this awesome privilege to be at the helm of is that most of what I've been doing has been trial and error. And so I just got to thinking when we're in our everyday lives, when we're looking at work, there are certain tasks we need to do, and we think we need to do them because, this is the way we pay the bills. We need to stay in this job because this is the way we pay the bills. And I find that most of life keeps us in these patterns and that it keeps us from exploring, from going down adventurous roads, from traveling. But one of the big AHA moments of this covid affair has been the fact that we don't necessarily need to be tied with a ball and chain to our desks. We don't necessarily need to be in one office space or another. We can be anywhere in the world. We can be anywhere we please and still be productive. So as we emerge from these pandemic times, I can't help but wonder how many of us will choose to go down the path of exploration, how many of us will choose to go down the path of adventure? I chose that path.
In 2013, I left my job, the stability, the big title, the big salary. I left it all. When I left it, I left it with the knowledge that even if I failed, I was going to have an amazing not only adventure, but learning experience that no one else could ever take away. And so as we look at where we go from here, I'd be curious to know our individual is going to make that leap. Our individuals going to make the leap of choosing to explore and not necessarily be labeled by society as lost. So that's a conversation that has been going on in my mind. As I traveled into Denver, Colorado, I was pretty aghast at the fact that, well, the airport, the airport was pretty full. People hustling and bustling, some with their masks on, some with their masks midface. But people are already trying to figure out, all right, what's next? So are you figuring out what's next? How are you navigating those waters? How are you going to choose to explore?
One of the areas in which I'm intrigued as to its future is the area of travel. For so long, the travel industry has been pretty much very touristy. It's been an industry where, you know, pretty much where people are going to go. If they fly into Italy, where, you know, pretty much where people are going to go. If they fly into Mexico, you pretty much know where people are going to go. But today things have changed. Things are radically different, completely different today. You may not want to go to a hotel because of the touristy very many people aspect to that. You may want to go into an environment where you control your surroundings a lot more than you did before. So you may choose an Airbnb by the beach. You may choose an Airbnb with the view of the city, and you will selectively choose when you go out, how you go out and you will be scouting out places that are open air. You will be scouting out places that are filled with very little people. Or perhaps you'll be wanting to look for people, but at least people that are taking care of themselves. At least that's what I do. That's the routine I've been taking. I've been in three different cities in the last seven days, and that's the routine I've been taking.
So we're not lost. We're exploring. We're exploring new ways of life. We're exploring how we're going to go from this point forward. And if this conversation speaks to you, then I want you involved. I want you to not only partake in these kinds of conversations, you can always feel free to join us up on stage on clubhouse. We record every single podcast live on clubhouse. But I want you involved in the conversation beyond this point because we're building a group of individuals that believe the same way we do. We're trying to figure out, where do we go from here? Collectively, we're building a group, and the group is different countries. Some are in Mexico, some are in Panama, some are in Argentina, some are in the United States. And what we're trying to figure out with one another is, how do we do things differently than we did it before? Under conventional norms, people would think, oh, yeah, these people are lost because people were used to climbing their ladders. People were used to having their cushy job in their cushy desk with, I don't know, maybe what, 25ft by 25ft. They were lucky the corner office. Or maybe they just had a cubicle, which was like 5ft by 5ft. The point was they were used to climbing the ladder. They were used to the same old, same old and the way that they told themselves that everything was okay and everybody else was lost. Everybody else did not know what they were doing was by pretty much following the pecking order. Rest assured, COVID has been a deep disruptor of that entire line of thinking deep disruptor. And so if you're not asking yourself these questions now, when are we going to begin? When are we going to begin asking ourselves the questions of where do I want my next 15,000 days to go? I've been counting my days, and I've been tracing this journey with you in English y en Español on the podcast. And the reason I've been doing this is more like beyond a personal journal, but it's also my way of keeping myself in line with this vision of these days have to count. And if this is day 15,101 on one for me, then okay, that means I'm lucky. If I'm lucky, I'll get 14,000 more, hopefully 15,000 more. Heck, maybe even more than that. But we never know. On average, it's 28,000 days.
So everything we do must be an exploration. Everything we do must be something that we do differently and that we explore in different ways. So I want to know from you, what are you doing as you move forward with your life in pandemic times? What are you doing in terms of asking yourselves these deep questions? Are you rejecting that social stigma that labels you as lost? Will you decide to go down an adventurous exploration path, or are you succumbing to social pressure?
Listen to the full episode on Spotify:
