April 3, 1997 (Day 15 – milepoint 156.6 – Cable Gap Shelter)

I spent a little extra time relaxing on Cheoah Bald this morning and got a slow start. The sunrise was not remarkable to look at, but the lack of a climax made waking up extra peaceful. Just me, my poptart, the open air, and a few bodily functions.

I was a little disappointed that I never saw those Russian Wild Boars. But not really.

Fourteen brutal miles today. I got worked! My “dogs” were barking all day long and went unconscious as I hobbled in for the final mile. Thankfully there is a nice stream here near the Cable Gap Shelter where I’ve been able to revive them a bit.

Good conversation at the shelter. Like most good conversations out here, it was quickly reduced to food and bodily functions.

The shelter is full and I’m too tired to put up my tent. That patch of dirt sure looks nice.

-Aquaholic

April 3, 2009

Hey Aquaholic,

You’re not going to understand this right away, but when I turned 30 and our first son was born, I went and got a job selling advertising at a newspaper. It was “just a temporary job with benefits” at first, but it didn’t take me long to find something to love about it. Aside from working with some great people, I was responsible for a geographic territory of more than 50 businesses. As I got to know the different business owners, I was fascinated by what made one succeed and another struggle. Good, smart people succeeded and failed. Ignorant buffoons succeeded and failed.

I fell in love with and found my own entrepreneurial spirit. I pursued different opportunities in the marketing world for a variety of reasons, but always to learn more about the motives of people and their behaviors. And to learn more about myself.

I took risks. I pushed boundaries. I succeeded and failed. I learned constantly!

When I lost my job in January, it felt like the universe said, “okay, time to take a short break, get your bearings, breathe a little… we’ll bring you back after these important messages…”

It’s April 2nd and the past couple of months have been one constant enlightening commercial. I’m starting to find some clarity in regard to realigning myself professionally. One of the things I felt I had to question when I lost my job was, “Am I completely off track? Is marketing and the Internet and social media and creative development where I belong?”

I was considering this question a lot in the first days of my unemployment and it was in my head when I took a day to go skiing at Vail in January. As soon as I arrived, I connected with a couple of guys from the East Coast (my age late 30′s) and we skied together all morning. I enjoy meeting strangers on ski lifts because you’re “stuck” with each other for 10-15 minutes and the energy is always positive. More often than not, you exit the lift no longer strangers, feeling better than you did when you got on. My morning at Vail with these two guys was like that. We skied hard and on the lift we talked about life-changing events, about personal values, about being men, and about the balance between our personal and professional lives. We even got into food and bodily functions.

Interestingly, we talked about aligning with life purpose, a timely topic for me. One of the guys referred to an interview he heard where a famous plastic surgeon discussed why he is so effective at making the face of a 60 year-old woman look 30. The surgeon said that, as a rule, he never moves anything more than two millimeters. Just subtle adjustments to accentuate the desirable features and diminish the undesirable.

In truth, most people are only a few minor adjustments away from a desirable transformation.

After beating myself up about my failures for so long, I have been shifting my focus to what I’m doing well and want to accentuate. I embrace that every professional experience I’ve chosen to pursue over the past twelve years has equipped me with the tools I need to get me where I want to go, not where I need to go, where I want to go. Every minute, an asset.

(This is true for me personally, too, but that is for a different day’s entry).

I was drawn to marketing for a reason and my expanding interest in marketing on the Internet was no accident. Internet Marketing provides a landscape for unlimited creativity and it has become inherently interactive. I have made use of it all, and I have found meaning in it.

These past two months have consisted of a series of minor adjustments. More are in order, but I am clearing the clutter and unloading weight.

O’