Back at home in the USA, after a day of logistics, it was off to work an event at the Maricopa Home and Garden show in Phoenix. It was a time of 3s… We did about 58,000 CPO in 3 days, a new record (over the 54k mark) in national history for a 3-day event. Monday I delivered 3 messages at the division meeting: 1 to branches, two to general session, and another to 6k+ reps for big pushes. I sold $400 cash in blocks @ the meeting to new kids so they can close upgrades. That evening, back at the house, we had an excellent get-together, with some mentees who were in town from across the US and our local friends in the AZ area. The next 3 days we had 3 service events: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in Phoenix, Prescott, and Flagstaff respectively. I sold about 25k in the 6 days worked, and after the Flagstaff event we went out on the town in Flag. for a great time and then got up early for an Epic day hike up the tallest peak in AZ, Mt. Humphrey. It has always been the most challenging day hike I’ve done in AZ, but one of my favorites. Myself and 3 of my friends summited the peak, around 13,000 feet high, and could see snow (even in the middle of summer in AZ) because of our elevation. The following 3 days were pretty chill as we prepped to leave AZ again. We lined up our house for AirBNB, which we are officially a SUPERHOST for (yay), repacked the suitcases, got things in alignment for my 3 businesses (Coaching, Events Team, and Personal Sales), and readied our lives to disconnect in three ways: Email, cell, and voicemail as we headed out for the 5 weeks of August.
Back on the road, we started in North Carolina, landing in Norfolk and driving a few hours, sometimes through flooded roads, to get to our VRBO we had lined up with the Ledfords. Kiteboarding. That’s what we were doing on a peninsula off the east coast of the USA on the edge of the Atlantic. The first day of lessons was awesome. I thought it would take time to get caught back up, but I was able to control the kite well after a few minutes. Over the course of the next few hours I was able to get to the point where I could pop right up going right, and going left. I worked on maintaining my alignment with the wind (VS just going downwind), and worked on cutting upwind. For the second day I was ready to get my angles down, practice a self rescue, and more easily shift back and forth between sides. But the second and third day never happened: the dead wind and lightening saw to that. Justin and I found ourselves filling the time with some surfboards and catching some waves. We also threw the Waboba ball around while in the ocean surf and did some yoga on the beach. Nova and Jenna had a ton of fun together, allowing the 6 of us got to catch up, enjoy the Ocean, and spend some great time as a group before they flew back to Thailand, and us to Maine.
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| Kiteboarding Location - Hatteras |
Candace, Nova and I were soon off and driving across country to reach Maine: our little slice of paradise up in the mountains along the Appalachian Trail. It’s here we can hike to waterfalls; jump off bridges, take the boat out for beach days; skiing, freediving, cruises around the lake, and enjoy Maine lobster at a cabin that has been in the family for generations. With no cell phone coverage, it’s the perfect way to disconnect. And with the water of the lake being the cleanest in Maine (literally), it’s like swimming/diving in Fuji fresh water. Enjoying amazing stars, fireside smores in our fire pit out back, walks in the forest, and taking SeaPlane rides up into the sky to explore the back country of Maine are all favorites up at the camp.
Though we originally were going to spend only 10 days or so at the camp and then take the last few weeks+ of August to out to Thailand, Hawaii, Fuji or New Zeeland, plans change and it seems like staying at the camp is going to be the way to go. Perhaps it’s all the flights and travel earlier in the summer. Perhaps its just that I can’t seem to find a place I could truly say I love more. Either way, I think our thirst for new locations being satisfied, just being up here at the camp will satisfy our love for deeper connection: with nature, ourselves, and the family that periodically visit.
This year, up at the cottage, I have a few books that I want to read, a new goal to dive deeper in the lake than ever before, by more than double (the glacier lake is over 200 feet deep), and to swim AROUND the lake (over 6 miles). Some new fun goals have thus arisen. I also look forward to some simple things: special home-cooked Lobster dinner at the cottage, dips in the pond, ping pong & horseshoes out back, and introducing Nova to some of the timeless traditions that have developed over the years..
As I write this on the deck, overlooking the lake, hummingbirds hover just feet away, grabbing an evening snack from the hummingbird feeder as the sun goes down. I look back at the time up here so far and realize that it has always been a place to push limits. From SO many things as a child during our annual visits, to Whitewater Rafting, to the 3-day 55 mile hike with Ian last year to just the other day slalom skiing around the entire lake, which I’d never been able to do before. Now that I have professional Freedive training; limits in a whole new area arise. Like breaching the 63 foot mark the other day on one breath of air, penetrating a even colder thermocline than ever before - about 55 degrees at that depth. From my research, its about 44-degrees at 100 ft…. Which I’ll hit in the next week or so.
As my body rests from my 3000 yard swim earlier this afternoon, I’m excited for my 7000 yard swim in a few days, to test yet another limit and prepare for a 11,600 yard swim at some point during the last few days before we leave, end of August. I’m excited that this fall will bring another Jeffrey into the world on or around November 13th! It will include many amazing Date Days, Nova Days, Family Days, Gparent days, ME days, Personal Growth Days and all sorts of balancing, fun, intentional days AND evenings to create schedule that puts about half of the days of the month into things I love to do, and the other half into a few businesses that still continue to challenge and push me to grow every single Campaign. I look forward to completing my 300-cold showers this year challenge. I look forward to starting my 12-month DAD Growth challenge in September, including seminars, a book a month, and a focus to learn what is is that I don’t know about how to be an even more amazing parent that I could ever be, were I instead to have remained ignorant of the experience of intelligent others. I look forward to taking more time off this fall than ever before, and selling more than ever before. Such is life. Such is fact. And such ends this blog, as I look to honor the precious moments up here as summer 2018 comes to a close…
Although it started out as a journal for me, I’d like to think that a few people have followed along the way and I would lik to say thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to comment, that would be fun.
-Jason
