pursuing your passion
2009 10 01Purpose + Passion
It’s important you know a bit about my history and the things that have influenced me to get the most out of this blog. So if you could spare a bit of time and patience and get through this longer, reflective post, I think you’ll find it useful.
Life is filled with challenges, sometimes we have things happen to us that are life-defining or altering. It is what we do at times like these that profoundly changes the course of our lives and can give us a second chance. This is part of my story.
When I was young, I was confronted with a serious medical illness. Unfortunately, for 4 years I went undiagnosed. It was one of the most difficult things I’ve had to endure. I was in college at the time and thus not really paying attention to my health or under the care of one M.D.
Then slowly, over my sophomore year I started to gain weight, lose my memory and get depressed. As my illness progressed, I lost most of my hair on the top part of my head and began to forget things.
I lost my interest in exercise, which for me was very unusual since I had been active my entire life. By the time my senior year came around I felt and looked completely different and was living in a nether world, sort of floating through life, cut off from my physical and emotional self. By then I had blown up from a lean, muscular 155 pounds to 195 pounds of pure fat. My face was bloated and puffy and I was extremely pale.
I graduated college but even today remember very little of that time.
Fast forward two more years and I am at the very bottom. Depressed, heavier and drifting through life. I was working as a teacher and had to get some blood work done so I went back to my MD who I hadn’t seen in many years. He took one look at me and said: “You look sick”.
They started testing me for everything but at first couldn’t find anything. My Doctor seemed concerned or nervous. But they weren’t saying anything. Even my sister and mother were silent. Not a good sign since both of them are nurses.
After a series of tests turned up nothing, my Doctor referred me to a blood specialist. I arrived in his office without a clue as to why I was there. I sat down on a couch and waited for him to come in. As I sat there I started to look around. As in all Dr.‘s offices, there’s all kinds of diplomas and certifications on the wall. I casually glanced around.
Then I came to one which made me pause.
Oncology.
I had a very close friend’s sister come close to death with cancer and knew what a diagnosis of cancer could mean.
The next second the Dr. walked in. He sat down and immediately asked me a question: “Do you know why you are here?”
“I’m hear to get some blood work done?” I said tentatively.
“Well”, the Doctor said “You are actually scheduled to have a spinal tap. Do you know what that’s for?”
“No” I replied
“We do a spinal tap to look a white blood cells.” The Dr. said and paused.
“We look at white blood cells to make sure they’re healthy, and that rules out cancer” He said.
There was a seriousness to him that I had never experienced with a Dr. before.
I froze. My thoughts were suspended.
“But, you know what,” he was looking at my file. “They haven’t done a few other blood tests which I’d like to do first, so let’s do those and then if we need to you will come back for the Spinal Tap,” he said with a smile, trying to reassure me.
They took 4 vials of blood and I scheduled a follow up appointment for two weeks later.
To this day I remember leaving that office thinking that I was dying. I waited for the phone to ring and give me the bad news.
About 10 days later, I got a call from my Dr. saying:
“We got the results of your blood work back. Great news, you have a severe case of hypothyroidism causing severe anemia and other problems. We need to start you on medication right away.
Silence. I was paralyzed. Honestly, I didn’t believe it and waited almost a month before taking any medication. It’s hard to explain what it’s like to think that you are dying and then find out that you are going to be ok.
When I began taking my medication, I felt a difference in just 24 hours. I began to “wake up”. Although it took years to get me on the right dose, every day, I felt better and better.
Once I started to feel better, I made a promise to myself. I guess it is the promise that everyone makes when you think your life is prematurely at an end: “if I ever survive this I’m going to….”
I was not different. I knew that I could easily fall back into the same monotonous life.
So I spent time soul-searching and taking actions to do what I really felt I wanted to do at the time. I made a promise to myself that I’d try my ideas no matter what other people might think of them.
At the time, I was working as a teacher, and I really was enjoying it but I wanted to travel the world and learn Spanish. One day, our teaching intern told me about a position at a small private school in Central America. I applied and got the job. 6 months later I was living in a small town in the mountains of Costa Rica, teaching Science and Art to grades 1 - 11.
My friends and family thought I was nuts. It was the best decision I’ve ever made. It taught me one of the most important lessons about how to live a fuller, richer life and meaningful life. One where I felt connected to myself and my loved ones.
Rarely, if ever do we get second chances. I did and have tried to never take my life for granted since then.
Change like this is not easy. I think it is similar to what happens to most lottery winners in the sense that the real work becomes embracing this “new perspective” on life and integrating it into an everyday experience.
In addition, some fundamental questions come up in the process which are difficult to answer and profound in their implications:
- What do you want your life to be about?
- What do you believe in and what is most important to you?
- How can you integrate what you believe into your everyday life?
- How do you support and achieve your personal, professional and financial goals, taking your beliefs and purpose into account?
- In essence, how to you live your life with an optimal balance?
Unfortunately, life gets in the way a lot of the time as well as old ways of looking at the world. I was and in many ways still am a survivalist.
I know how to live hand to mouth, but not create the conditions to thrive. I have had to learn them. To learn is to take risks and fall down and make mistakes. I had to make a lot of mistakes before I was able to really integrate my life with my beliefs and new sense of purpose.
This brings me back to why I’m writing this blog in the first place. My intention with this blog is to teach people how to create the optimal conditions for themselves to thrive on their own: Physically, Emotionally, Intellectually and dare I say Spiritually.
After years of trying to incorporate some of these ideas into my life, I’ve had the benefit of learning lots of new things in a wide variety of fields. I use this broad knowledge to help me shape my practice as a trainer and teacher of young people.
The following is a list of the major areas that inform my decision making and will inevitably be a part of this blog.
Teaching: Children and Adults
Fitness & Wellness
- Functional Training
- Functional Play: Play as Fitness
- Circuit based strength and conditioning
- Fitness & Hypothyroidism
- Fitness & Allergies
- Fitness & Nutrients focused nutrition
- Sport Specific Training
- Surfing
- Skateboarding
- Snowboarding
- Soccer, Basketball
- Tennis & Golf
- Climbing, Hiking, Adventure Sports
Biology & Ecology
- Sociobiology
- Ecology
- Darwinism
Psychology + Science of Optimal Experience
- Child Psychology
- Positive Psychology
- Existential Psychotherapy - Behavioral Psychology
- Group /One On One Therapy
Play
- The Study of Play
- Play as Optimal Experience
- Functional Play: Play with a Purpose
- Play in Cognitive Development
- Functional Play: Play as Fitness
Expert Performance
- How to Structure Conditions
- Methodologies for the Application of Expert Performance
- Theory
