So this is the New Year.

Happy 2011 everyone!

2010 was a phenomenal year. A lot of great (and some not great) things happened: Continued building myself up at my first job at BMW of Seattle (and eventually quit) that job, started a new job at Mini of Seattle, took up Stand-Up Paddleboarding and became a teaching assistant at Surf Ballard, took a trip to California's central coast to see San Luis Obispo and trekked around up and down the beautiful coast, competed in my first Stand-Up Paddleboard race through Deception Pass, made a lot of new friends, re-connected with a lot of old friends, unfortunately had to say goodbye to a few friends who passed away, ran my first half-marathon, swam one mile in my first open water swimming race, saw a large number of my friends tie the knot and start a new chapter of their lives, saw a ridiculous amount of concerts and live music, drank a lot of wine/whiskey/beer, continued to keep my hands in photography with three assignments completed on my own, made sure that despite my good intentions my golf game didn't improve and still sucks, spent my 27Th birthday in Mexico, spent a lot of time with my family, grew a lot personally, got a lot of things figured out about life, and last but certainly not least: Came to the realization that I feel very good about life and where I am in it right now.

2010 definitely had it's high points and low points, but even with the tough times came endless opportunities to learn and grow as a person and that is something I definitely did.

Looking ahead to this year: I've got some big goals. While I have some road maps laid out, I'm keeping it simple and leaving it largely up to how the dice roll when it comes to a lot of things. In the beginning, I adopted the approach to just letting go and letting life unfold with out working so damn hard at things, because I finally realized last year I was working harder as opposed to smarter and found myself spinning my wheels a lot of times more than anything. I learned by keeping my head and heart in the right place, the right people/opportunities showed up to me at the right places and at the right times and a lot of great things I both imagined and never imagined ended up becoming reality in my life.

So far this year has been awesome. I've already started and finished an amazing book called The Energy Bus. The Energy Bus is a great story that talks about 10 rules to fuel up your life, work, and team with positive energy. I highly recommend everybody read this book! http://www.jongordon.com/theenergybusbook.html Work is going from five days a week to four days a week so I'll be enjoying more time off effective immediately. My first four day weekend was an amazing success filled with running, skiing, reading, relaxing, and just being me. I'm off to Las Vegas for my first trip of the year in a few weekends for a training seminar which I'm very excited about. Last but not least, I signed up for a half-marathon in May which I'm beginning to work hard for.

Some goals for this year:

-Read more books.
-See the world and people with more emotion.
-Ask myself what difference can I make with everything I do?
-Constantly share my gifts and wisdom with people.
-Be a consistently positive influence in every ones life.
-Sweat the small stuff even less(I don't really sweat the small stuff as it is already, but there's always room for improvement).
-Sit on the sidelines less and make 'Acting Now' a priority when it comes to life and my decision making.
-Travel more
-Learn to Kite-Board
-Progress ahead with my investments/business ventures
-Spend more time outside doing all of the sports I love
-Spend even more time with family.
-Indulge even more than I already do in all of my guilty pleasures in life. (you can pry my vices from my cold dead hands).
-Have even more fun than last year!

You've undoubtedly noted all of the quotes I've posted up in my Facebook page this last year and I've received a ton of positive feedback from people about it. I've even seen more of my friends start doing it themselves on a daily basis and love seeing more people jump on the bus and see that the positivity is spreading even further! It is my intention to post up a lot of positive information and inspirational quotes/subject matter in this blog for people to read and see (aside from the play by play updates of my life events) so keep tuning in if you want to see more.

With that being said, my laptop is about to die so that's the end of that.

Happy New Year everybody and hope it's a great year for you.

-Jeff

What are you inner gifts and talents?

I learned something new last night that really grabbed my attention while I was reading a book.

The subject of the chapter was "What are your inner gifts and talents?" and "How can I share them with the world?"

I read a short story about a cellist from Sarajevo named Vedran Smailovic. He was a cellist from Bosnia and Herzigovina and played in the Sarajevo Opera, the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra, The Symphony Orchestra RTV Sarajevo, and The National Theatre of Sarajevo.

During the Seige of Sarajevo and the war in Bosnia, like hundreds of thousands of other residents, he survived the cold, food and water shortages, and the dangers of constant bombings and sniper fire in the street. Amongst the accomplishments in his life to date, he's best known for playing his cello each day in the streets and for free at funerals regardless of the dangers to honour each of the 22 people who had been killed by a bomb while they were standing in a bread line. All of this, simply to honor the dead and give people heart in a time of unspeakable adversity.

It got me thinking, what can I do every day to share my inner gifts and talents so they help and inspire people to live better themselves?

Still thinking about that question myself...but, I wanted everyone to read this story and toss that very question around in their minds and think about what you can do to spread good life and energy around to others.



Love and heart are contageous, so be sure to spread it around as much as possible in whatever ways you can.

so yeah...we need to play a little 'catch-up'

Alright, it's been a while since the last post. Needless to say life's been busy since I left Portland...BUT, I've kept a blog religiously when I was in college so getting back into this shouldn't be that hard getting back into the swing of things.

So here goes...

I needed a big change in my life for a multitude of reasons. I left Portland behind after 5 years and after a long round of deliberations of where I should start the next chapter of my life. In the end, it came down to Sydney, Australia or Seattle. For several reasons, I chose Seattle for the sole reasons of getting back with my family, as well as other reasons. I came back in late August and been busy establishing myself since then at BMW of Seattle, as well as personally here in Seattle with family, and friends both old and new.

It's been nice in so many ways being back home. Being around my family more often is great, as well as seeing old friends. After all, nothing is above them to me, so naturally it feels right to be back here with them. I've had a lot of fun so far...I had a great winter Skiing (I never got to go as much as I wanted to, but all the days I went were EPIC) and the spring has been great as well. I'm enjoying my three day work week a lot, having four days off a week to have personal time has been amazing for me. I love having more time for myself to travel, work out, and sometimes just do nothing. It's definitely allowed me to slow down and give me more opportunities to smell the roses, relax, and just clear my head of old thoughts and really align my thoughts and energy into the 'right' places.

I've tried a lot of new things since I've been up here be it with people, activities, and whatever else. Many of these attempts haven't been successful for whatever reasons, but I've learned a lot from them. On the flip side, many of these attempts have yielded a lot of great things and I've benefited greatly from my successes. Life's certainly a mixed bag and I've learned that in the last two years more than ever!

Everything else aside though, life's good, and I have little to complain about. Deep down I feel as if I'm not completely content, but I'm using what I feel I lack as motivation to drive me to where everything is right! Each day is a great opportunity and I've been doing everything in my power to make the most of it and see where life takes me.

Just taking things one day at a time and remembering to breathe.

If you want to know more, just keep reading...new chapters are being written everyday ;)

-Jeff

Time To Change Things Up

Title says it all: I'm going to change things up in life. I am going to leave Portland and move back to Seattle.

I've thought about doing this for quite some time, but it became official several weeks ago when I accepted a job offer in Seattle.

Portland has been an amazing city for me...I've learned a lot in life, I've grown a lot as a person, and I've had the privilige of becoming friends with some AMAZING people since I've been here. However, I've come to a point in my life where both personally and professionally I feel it's time to move on to bigger and better things. I've been searching far and wide for what opportunities might fit me best, both in the U.S. and abroad, and I've come to the decision that moving back to Seattle is the right thing to do.

More details to come of course, but here's the official announcement, I'll be having my last day at work two weeks from now and be out of town shortly after.

From the few people that know so far, the support I've recieved has been overwhelming. I cannot put to words how much I appreciate it.

That's all for now.

-Jeff