What motivates you to wake up each and every day? Lately, that's a question that has been rattling around in my head. This week I was fortunate to have lunch with a wonderful friend at the Melbourne State Library who openly discussed her goals. Her powerful, thoughtful words hit me like a ton of bricks with excitement. As I became silent, I could hear a loud voice say, "What drives you and make you want to jump out of bed every morning?" It's not an easy question, but it helped me to focus on the things that are important to me. For several days I have tried to ignore the voice that won't stop talking in my brain. When I avoid difficult topics I tend to find hundreds of things that I would rather be doing around the house, in the yard, or learning to turn flips on my walk to Newport Park where I could possibly meditate upside down.
After completing every task that I could think of doing, I finally gave in to dealing with that nagging question in my head. It may be an easy question for you, but it has been one of the most challenging for me. So I started thinking back on the early part of 2020 when every single segment of my life had been strategically planned. As a communications project manager every detail was researched, reviewed, confirmed and placed on my Kanban board for implementation. You may ask, what the hell is a Kanban? Well, A Kanban board is a visualization tool that enables you to optimize the flow of your work or project. I was prepared and ready to move forward, except COVID got in my way and put all of my plans, goals, and life in general to a halt. To be honest, it has been quite a struggle to dust the cobwebs off of my reliable board. Today, after hanging out in the pantry and the garage, I decided on a few things that drive me to continue surviving, and of course hop out of bed like a kangaroo every morning. Don't get me wrong, I won't be hopping anywhere before 9:30 or 10:00a. Here are a few items that popped out of my head:
Writing - Sharing lessons that I have learned in life, hoping that it will touch a part of everyone who reads it. I also want others to learn, grow and share ideas and memories from many of the lessons. One-year ago I started this blog to help me to remember life experiences throughout my life. Savouring those memories help me to be grateful for my life today.
Racial Healing - One of the projects that I love working on is called. the Right Within Experience. The founder of the project is more than the leader, but a true friend, motivator and coach that is committed to helping others, especially African Americans to heal from racial trauma that has been experienced for many centuries. It has been a year of learning how to be in touch with my personal trauma in order to start the healing process. My goal is to share this with anyone who is interested in desiring to heal and reach a state of joy, humanity and well-being. Holding on to trauma can have a strong impact on one's health.
Communications. If there was one word to describe me, it would be communications. Throughout my life I have always stood for truth and honest communications. After working in the field of broadcasting for many years, I slipped into a slump after watching the lack of integrity in the media. Today, media personalities have mastered how to lie and make up stories while looking as if they are telling the truth. I often sound like a grandpa or grandma when I say, "During my media days, most of us had integrity and searched for truth. Communications gets me out of bed everyday and I have regained my vision to complete the creation of my communications checklist to help organisations reach priority audiences that include African Americans, Latinx, Asian/Pacific Islanders, LGBTQ, Transgenders and older adults with messages that they can help to create. This communications project will be completed and released this year. It will be available at no-cost to community-based organisations.
Writing a novel. This is my hardest challenge to date. The easy part is coming up with an idea that you think others will enjoy. The most challenging part is developing a structure and following the road map of what needs to be done. As a young boy, I always coloured outside of the box and today I still do unless strict guidelines are enforced. The Kanban board is my best friend during these writing exercises. I have a strong love of mysteries with a taste of murder, so that's the type of book I am writing. I will keep you all up-to-date about my progress.
Friends - One of the reasons that I jump out of bed is to check in with my true friends that are living in many parts of the world. True friends mean the world to me because there is nothing that we wouldn't do for each other. True friends seldom call on you for help but when they send a message to say hello, there is something in the wording that makes you jump to attention. The most valuable lesson in my life has been learning to hear what is not being said. To be completely honest, I would not be able survive without my true friends. We may not chat everyday, but when we do, it's like we spoke five minutes ago, even though it may be a month or a year.
My partner. I leap out of bed to see where they are and if any photos have been taken of me sound asleep in bed and posted to Facebook or circulated around the globe to make all of my friends laugh and tease me the entire day. To be honest, it makes me happy to know that my partner is well, in our office working and waiting to greet me with a big smile and a hearty good morning.
Volunteering - Also on my list is volunteering a few hours for an organisation and possibly returning to doing more consulting work in the area of project management, social media, public relations and marketing. Most of my plans were put on hold in 2020, but it's a new year and an opportunity to broaden my vision of possibilities.
So what makes you jump out of bed each morning, besides the cat patting your face or the dog jumping up and down on the bed demanding their breakfast or the young children running around playing and singing loudly? I would love to hear your jump-up stories.
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