Summer Is Almost Over. What Have You Done With Yours?

I asked myself that question recently and was not happy with the answer.

My summer has been so inundated with football that it almost blew right past me AGAIN. Just about all of my clients know, and some of my readers. But, for those of you that don’t know, I also play minor league football.

Sometimes get so caught up in educating and helping others, I forget that sometimes forget that they want to know about the person that is educating them.

So today, I thought I would fill you in on a little more about me and throw in a revelation I had over the weekend while headed towards one of the highest points in North America.

So, back to football. Despite the time commitments, aches, and pains, I love playing. Actually I really dread the day I have to give it up, which I fear is drawing near. Its something I am really passionate about and, as warped as it can seem, knocking someone into the dirt (all in fun of course) can be rather therapeutic.

But the downfall to this is, I have been letting it get in the way of things I truly love to do like spending time with my son or backpacking.Well the this weekend I decided to stop letting everything around me decide what things for me and I chose to make what I wanted a reality again.

So being that there is only about two more weeks of quality summer time left I have decided to take advantage of every last minute of it that I can. Saturday I got to spend the whole day with my son. It was great, minus a few fits because being the novice dad  that I am(he is my first and just started eating baby food last Tuesday) I could not shovel the food into his mouth fast enough.

Talk about a face that can stress you out in an instant! It didn’t matter to me though. Everyone tried telling me how hard fatherhood was going to be, but the few who tried telling me how great it is, were understating greatly. Because for every one of the faces above I have seen, I have seen 20 of the these.

And for everyone who told me how much less sleep I was going to get, well, I have never slept so good!Then, after a great Saturday with my son, I took Jessica (my girlfriend) and my good friend Brian on their first trip up a 14′er. Sunday morning we headed for Mt. Evans just about 30 minutes south of Idaho Springs Colorado.

I was like a little kid at Christmas. It has been 4 years since I have had a weekend in the summer available to do something like this! And this was their first true trek, other than a leisurely stroll through a forest on a man made path.

We stopped for lunch at about 13,400 ft and made fun of Jessica while she tried to work on a tan while munching on some trail mix.Then had a brief “Awe how cute” moment before moving on to the last 800ft+ of climbing.
As we neared the summit we found out we were not alone and ran in to some Mt Goats taking a nap in the sun. Now that I’m sitting here at the computer writing this post, I am rather proud of my camcorder for taking such great still images. The Mt Goats let us get surprisingly close considering the young ones they had with them.

But, all good things must come to an end. I almost became one of those idiots you see on TV who got too close to a wild animal because I was hoping for a great picture.

I had just taken this shot when I looked to my left and mom/dad/auntie/uncle/cousin J/somebody decided I was too close to Jr. and was walking towards me with a low head. Realizing that no amount of football had me prepared to go heads up with a Mt Goat and my heart racing about 300 beats per minute, I crossed my fingers and backed off slowly.

He gave me a nice long stare while I tempted fate and snapped one last picture and the bully moved on.

We finally reached the summit and I got a few amazing shots from 14,264 in the air.

So what is all this about? Well, you see, I had spent the last 4 years wishing I could do something like this. I spent my weekends every summer blaming football and life for getting in the way of what something I really wanted.

Instead of taking control of my own life and making my own decisions, I blamed work and house cleaning and my broken down motorcycle and my blah blah blah for not getting what I wanted out of life.

So, my challenge to you right now is to write down some thing (at least 3) you have been wanting to accomplish or do.

Next, I want you to write down what it is that is keeping you from doing it.

Then take that paper to someone you trust and ask them to write out two realistic solutions to that problem and how they are willing to help you accomplish this.

I promise you, if you want something, you can make it happen. You have it within you to do it! Do it today! I would love to hear what it is you want to accomplish! Then I want to hear about how you did it!

Get going NOW!