THE PLAN

I've been asked 2 questions pretty frequently lately and want to talk about them here.

1) WHY?

The funny thing is I find myself giving a different answer to everyone who asks. All the reasons are true and I am passionate about them so I find it really funny that I divulge different things to different people!

At the core of it all, I need a break from corporate life. For the first 30 years of my life I think I've dedicated all of me to my success. My achievements. But it's more than that, it's 'business' achievements. That corporate ladder deal. A few months ago I was in a lecture that encouraged me to draw a pie chart and separate out how much of your time is used for each part of your life. I really thought I was more than my title, but as I stared at this paper I felt a sense of shock overcome me. My pie chart allotted around 75% of my time/effort to work. Socializing, traveling, learning, exploring, giving, sweating... all of those combined was only 1/4 of what I am actually doing with my life. That's so wrong.

I also never thought I could achieve all the things I have. If you would have told me I'd be managing a sales team at a publicly traded company I would probably have had to look up what that meant. I feel great about who I've become professionally and am very proud of my accomplishments.

But the reality is that's one part of my life. 75% of it actually. But does the value of the reward I feel equate to the time I spend on it? Or in my business terms, I have the propensity to spend a lot of time at work but my engagement and value in such action is under-indexing.

Another reality is the direction my mind is heading. It's not in one direction, per se, but it's looking around and looking waaaaaaay out there. That is the kind of curiosity that drives you. In fact it won't allow you to stay still.

I'm really proud of where I've come and feel like I've achieved more than I thought I ever could. I want to feel that high and move on to what's next. I've dedicated a third of my life to my career and the things I learned are valuable and will still be valuable in 6 months or a year. And if I want to return to business I really feel confident I can do so and my relationships, experience and karma will help me in every step.

But until then I am exploring other things that are now 100% of my pie. Traveling, impacting the vitality of wildlife in Africa; learning about the animals, cultures and plants in Botswana and Uganda; photographing nature; living under the stars in nature; learning different cultures and languages; scaring the shit out of myself by daring myself to fear not what is unknown in my path; .... and I could go on for pages on this...

2) WHERE?

I am driving to my parent's place in Florida in about 2 weeks with my pets and ... dun dun dun!!!!... michelle/t3/chuck (this is just decided and awesome!!)

April 21st I head to Cape Town, S Africa and am there through the end of the month.

MAY: Cheetah Conservation Project in Botswana: http://www.cheetahbotswana.com/
There I am a Research Assistance way the eff out in the bush. I'll be working with a few scientist that are based in a camp that track the behaviors of Cheetahs and work with the farmers to educate them about the nearing extincting of Cheetahs and help them protect their livestock from Cheetahs (so they don't kill them).

JUNE: Heading up to Uganda to help my friend Justin with his not-for-profit, In Movement: http://www.inmovement.org
Justin has been over in Uganda for 3 1/2 years and is a friend of mine from when we lived in SF. His organization provides the Kampala kids with art education. I am just there to pitch in wherever they need it. I anticipate this will be the difficult part of my trip for me, emotionally. I am also looking forward to it for that reason.

JULY: I am moving to Barcelona for 6 months! I've been there twice, the last time 4 years ago. My mom flew out too and I expressed to her at that time that I wanted to quit and move there. I love the language, the people, the nature, the people, the ART. I never did it. Of course I didn't. Don't we all dream like that when we're on vacation?

The thing is, that thought never left my mind. It may have faded at times, but I can truly say it's the only city I've REALLY wanted to live in that I haven't. I've got NYC, San Francisco and Seattle down. To me this is a natural progression. Especially since I've been looking for my next step to me bold.

So yes, I know Spanish un poco. Yes, I have an apartment in place for when I arrive there July 1st. Yes, I've saved enough money so although I'm in unemployed world I will not starve. Once there I'm planning to take Spanish lessons. I picked out the school when I was there with my mom. It's 1 week classes so I can pick it up and drop it based on the other 99% of my life. I plan to take pottery and painting classes. I plan to live on the beach July and August with the exception of the Burningman-inspired 'NoWhere' - http://www.goingnowhere.org/ - in July. It's like Burningman... in the desert of Spain! A few less people... only 500 (compared to 35000ish in the states)!!

I really also want to study Yoga as my part-time job there... 'cause I can!

OK, there's the background. I am glowing. Excited! SO effing excited!!