Adventure & Experiences Archives - Page 2 of 2

Sinking Ships, Mermaid tails and Lessons from the Deep with Sir Richard Branson

I’m back from our 9th trip to Necker Island with our visionary host, Sir Richard Branson, in support of the Virgin Unite charity.

I sometimes have to truly pinch myself because I originally had written in my Life List, “Have lunch with Branson,” and now that’s turned into probably 50 lunches. Who knew? Over the years, we’ve developed a deeper bond from our shared belief that business can be the greatest lever to make a difference in the world and not taking ourselves too seriously.

Not taking ourselves too seriously was on full display as he went along with doing our Q&A in a mermaid tail that Sophia from our team beautifully set up. Yes, we went full “mermen” here…

The outfits were for the “Under the Sea” theme party celebrating an incredible project spearheaded by Maverick #61 Mike Cline and Aydika James.

It was actually an incredible “full circle” experience this year because last year Maverick members and invited guests on Necker were tasked with how to take an old WWII Navy ship and turn it into a self-sustainable impact project. Not an easy task, but we did it!

I believe the right people are in the room at the right time, and this was especially true last year. We had a last-minute cancellation, and Mike and Aydika were flexible enough to join us. As soon as Lauren Keil from Unite BVI started presenting this idea, I was so excited to see those two writing furiously. They have previous experience building Burning Man art cars, and this fit in perfectly with this project.

We took the YO-44 —one of the last five ships that survived Pearl Harbor from being scrapped for metal— and transformed her into a thriving artificial reef and adventure dive site. The project was designed to help rehabilitate heavily over-fished marine populations in ways that boost income for local dive operators and the BVI economy. And it’s a breathtaking art sculpture used as an artificial reef, providing marine science research as well as swim and marine stewardship programs for local BVI kids.

This project was featured in the NY Times, Travel & Leisure, Bloomberg, and numerous other publications for the breakthrough impact.

It was amazing to be able to have started a project last year during our week and have so many of the first donors who raised funds for this incredible project right on the spot. Mavericks Jeff Siegel, Mike Geary, John Ratliff, John Carter, Matt Curry, Tom Shieh, Steve Little, Melinda Wittstock, Jim Spano, Garrett Gunderson and Sasha Ablitt were some of the founding donors. And Mike and Aydika truly dropped everything to ensure this project became a reality. The degree of coordination and partnerships to make this happen was truly incredible. There’s a big lesson here because only an epic project like this can garner this type of support.

The ship was supposed to sink well before our week on Necker, but Mother Nature had other plans. So a few days into our trip, we braved stormy rain and wind to see the ship off. Richard joined us for this amazing three-hour-plus celebration, and as the clouds cleared, our anticipation grew. We weren’t sure how long it would take to sink the ship or if the giant Kraken sculpture would even remain upright.

At the end, when the ship finally sunk, it went down sideways, but the divers below were able to guide it safely to the bottom upright. Phew! Here’s an incredible short film documenting the build and sink.

It fit with my intention for the week. The very first day at sunrise, I wrote this in my journal after meditating.

In case you cannot read it –

TRUST

Trust the Universe has even more in store for you than you can imagine…Trust the divine timing…Trust your crazy ideas…Trust your wings will grow when you leap…Trust your nature…Trust you’ve been encoded with a Cosmic Alarm Clock…Trust the co-conspirators catalyzing your conscious evolution…Trust the perfect unfolding of your understanding…Trust your divine connection

Typically, I don’t read entries from my journal, but that’s how I started off our Growth sessions and conversation in the Temple house that first morning. I read this entry because I trusted who was in the room, the conversations we’d have, and how the experience would shape attendees in profound ways.

That always happens.

Typically, you come in with one intention, but you always leave with a breakthrough in some other way that you’d never expected. It was actually pretty amazing the type of conversations we had that really centered around conscious evolution and working with “invisible” aspects that show up in the material world later on. This would not have been the crux of the conversation several years ago.

Evolutionary Growth

I tested my own level of comfort with having a shamanic ceremony right in the Great House on the night before the full moon. I’ve realized it’s time to actually step fully into this other part of myself too and fully align and integrate that into what we’re doing to “catalyze the catalysts” and light 1,000 suns! I wasn’t sure if it would be too “weird” or not, but we had a good number of the attendees actually take part and many more who were interested in some of the shamanic work. I’ve been meditating and doing yoga regularly now for three-plus years, and it really has started paying dividends because I was in a deep meditation for about an hour and a half during this ceremony. We’ve changed the dollar sign symbol to a tree to reflect this evolutionary direction for Maverick around “growing yourself and growing your business” and not simply profits.

I see our retreats and experiences together as something that can be absolutely transformative on a deeper level.

Authentic Growth

We are pretty selective with our guests and speakers on Necker because it’s more about the conversation— but I was so excited to invite Leslie Blodgett. She’s the former CEO of Bare Minerals who recently sold the company to Shiseido for nearly $1.8B.

Everyone loved her. Leslie doesn’t normally speak at conferences, so this was a real special treat to hear from her. She came in when the company was pretty small, and part of her message to us was to never change being authentic to your brand and yourself as you grow and not to listen to the “professionals” necessarily. For instance, as she’s in the beauty industry, she railed against the “fakeness” of perfect models and instead used real women who actually loved the product.

Leslie told us people love to connect to real people. She never had any media training and actually resisted it even when they started making more and more TV appearances, infomercials, and QVC work. The ethos was a girlfriend talking to another girlfriend. And that’s the way she ran the whole company, asking, “What would you do for your friends?” For instance, one time they had a defective brush that shed hairs all over women as they put on their make-up. Instead of waiting for customers to be upset about it and return them, they preemptively sent all the buyers a new brush.

Leslie also bucked convention because she wouldn’t hire celebrity spokespeople. The whole beauty industry was “fake,” and she was going the opposite direction. She wanted that authentic zealot to be her brand advocate. And Bare Minerals was able to build an incredible group of girlfriends before we had the technology to easily do it and help spur word-of-mouth. In fact, she was so committed to the community that five minutes before the IPO, Leslie told them the news before anyone else. Once the video of Leslie’s presentation is ready, we’ll have it for you in the Maverick Members learning library.

Ocean Conservation and New Business Ideas

Our week on Necker raised $251,033.34 for Virgin Unite, putting our total at over $2.2 million throughout our partnership together.

But it’s not just about a donation. It’s about putting our brainpower and resources together to make a difference. This year we were provided another challenge to take on….

The Ocean Is Everybody’s Business – Ocean Unite

The ocean is also probably the biggest business in the world. It is the world’s seventh largest economy with a GDP equivalent to US$2.5 trillion (about 5% of global GDP). Its key assets have an overall value of more than US$24 trillion.

Life on Earth depends on a healthy, vibrant ocean. Without it, we won’t have a livable planet. It is an essential life system. Habitat destruction, biodiversity loss, overfishing, pollution, climate change, and acidification are together pushing the ocean system to a point of collapse. Yet despite this doom and gloom scenario, we live in a time with unprecedented opportunities for reversing this trajectory of decline and restoring ocean health. Because it’s not too late to solve this crisis. The ocean is amazingly resilient and could recover, but it needs each and every one of us to play a part.

Companies, business leaders, and consumers can play a huge and positive role as force multipliers for positive change to benefit the ocean. Committing to implementing a business model that is both environmentally and socially responsible, will have multiple positive effects for the planet, its people, and the global economy. The private sector is a strong and compelling voice to governments on the need to ensure protection, and it has major reach in terms of brand and consumers.

Our task: to convince the world, especially the business community, that reviving the ocean is mission critical and to get on with making this happen. Just as business leaders helped drive ambitious climate action, now we need business leadership more than ever to reverse the ocean decline and put it on a pathway to recovery.

With that set-up, our task was to create an actual for-profit Evolved Enterprise that would help companies be more profitable, tell a better story, and be more conscious of being in alignment with ocean conservation.

We broke off into teams, and everybody presented to Richard, me, and the team at Virgin Unite as judges. There were some great ideas, and the winner was a business model for an agency to come in and help provide a trust seal and consulting work to companies, helping them reduce and remove plastic from their supply chain. We have allocated startup funds from our donation to support and provide resources for a team of young entrepreneurs to drive and run this new venture. You’ll hear more about this #Blue project as it continues to develop and take shape. I’m also excited to say the other teams that didn’t win are moving ahead with two or three other projects as well, so we are getting more and more seeds planted for this important work! You can find out more at Ocean Unite’s new site – The Ocean is Everybody’s Business.

New Worlds Opening

I had another transformation this week as well. About seven or eight years ago we did a trip to Iceland and dove the Silfra Ravine, which is in between the two tectonic plates of America and Europe. I had gotten certified a week before that dive and truly jumped into the deep end because it required a dry suit, since the water was freezing cold! I wasn’t very comfortable diving and even had a bit of claustrophobia under the water in my hooded dry suit. So I wasn’t sure if I’d dive the new Art Reef or not. Plus, I had issues before with clearing my ears and equalizing.

As we dove down, I started feeling like I wouldn’t be able to do it because at 12–15 feet or so, I wasn’t equalizing. My instructor was super patient, and we just hovered and then swam around for a bit until I realized I was at the bottom of the wreck. Amazing! I was totally comfortable down there, and again I credit my meditation practice for this. It was totally in awe and had deep feelings of joy and wonder playing in and around the Kraken. It seemed so much bigger down there than on land when I had previously toured it before it sank. I can’t wait for others to enjoy this dive and see the ripple of the impact created. Being able to face this truly opened up the world under the sea for me again. It seems totally appropriate with our theme and focus during this week.

Team Necker Finally Wins

We typically end our week on Necker with the annual Patron XO invitational Beach Volleyball match of Team Necker vs. Team Maverick. We are three-time champions, and George from Team Necker had been recruiting all year to make a better showing. The game gets pretty out of hand quickly as we have a shot each time the other team gets seven points. So if you’re losing, those shots add up quickly, as they did for me.

Richard was quite pleased with Team Necker finally claiming the title on their home court, as you can see. Here’s a great pic of the celebration following their victory. Next year, I’m already planning who is coming based on volleyball skills. And as a former “professional” (technically) volleyball player, I’m going to have to enlist a few big guns.

And speaking of next year, we have dates for Necker set. This will be our 10th anniversary of supporting Virgin Unite, so we’re planning some epic surprises. If you want in, I’d expect this to fill very quickly. The dates are March 22–29, 2018.

Striving for Big Change

by April Reyes 1 Comment

A few months ago at a Virgin Unite board meeting, I met Essie North, the co-director of ‘Big Change.’ Essie said I just had to join her in Italy for the STRIVE Challenge in September.

Ok, that sounded fun until I heard it would require swimming 2 miles, mountain biking for 70 miles, running a half marathon and then, just for good measure, hiking 6 more miles to a volcano summit.

I’ve never really done any of those activities beyond a few laps at the pool during adult swim or riding my bike when I was 15 years old before getting my driver’s license. And running? Sheesh – forget that. I stopped entertaining that silly idea after dry land training for hockey in college.

Even though the event was taking place in Sicily and sounded pretty epic I wasn’t sold yet…

Then I got a nudge from Richard Branson asking if myself and few other Mavericks would like to participate. He was going to be doing the challenge alongside his kids and they were doing the full route starting at the top of Italy and finishing at Mt. Etna in Sicily. The triathlon portion of the Strive Challenge was set to start the day after my birthday so I decided to take this on as one of the biggest physical challenges I had ever set for myself. I decided I would do it for the growth that takes place when we exceed our perceived limits.

And in Richard’s infamous words, “Screw it – let’s do it!”

I didn’t quite know what I was in store for, but I accepted the challenge along with Mavericks, Tracey Ivanyshyn, Pat Divilly, Samit Gehlot and Tom Shieh. Tracey did the hiking portion of the challenge and the rest of us did the triathlon portion.
I knew this was outside of all of our comfort zones, whether it was for never having done a long swim before or never been hiking at altitude. (Samit has an awesome story about his swim training in Kenya and I know Tom was training at12am – 2am so he wouldn’t miss any time with the family!)

Here’s a pretty typical training week as we neared the event:

Keeping up with this during travels and trips made this an even bigger commitment. Big thank you to Maverick #211, Steve Young, who introduced all of us to Coach Jason Kilderry at Etacoach.com. And huge thank you to my wife, Missy, for letting me go on my birthday, supporting all the long runs/bikes/swims, being my coach on the beach so I didn’t drown the first time in a wetsuit and for putting up with lots of extra laundry.

We all said that if exceeded our fundraising goal we’d come up with some sort of Maverick mischief for the challenge. I’m excited to report we raised over $15,000.00+ and still going. In fact, you can still donate here: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/maverick1000

All proceeds go to Big Change which is Sam and Holly Branson’s charity doing 3 big things:

Give young people the skills to believe in themselves and drive change in their own lives and the world around them.
Help young people access the opportunities they need to develop and grow.
Create environments of support for young people where change is possible – often that means understanding and working with key adults including parents, teachers or social worker.

Leading up to the event I was having a really hard time sleeping. Probably a combination of staying up late to get a lot of stuff done before leaving and the unknown of the event. I flew overnight to Heathrow and arrived in the UK on my birthday. I decided to spend the day in Avebury in the English countryside. It was the perfect place to recharge and meditate on what would was ahead.

I couldn’t sleep at all the night before the Strive Challenge started. I had to wake up at 4:30AM to catch my flight to Italy but no matter what, I just tossed and turned. I finally got a few winks in and then my alarm went off. There were 7 of us late-comers on the final chartered flight. Everyone knew we’d go straight from the airport to the swim but we had no idea just how tight it would be. After we landed, we took a bus to the beach and then 10 minutes later we’re in the water.

The entire rest of the group was ready and had already started their swim. Our late group raced to get into our wetsuits and for the debrief and then we were off too. The current was quite a bit stronger than I had anticipated and made the first mile swimming feel a lot slower than typical. My goal for this whole challenge was to finish, put my best effort out there and to NOT be last.

Pretty quickly I realized I was last of that final group of 7 – and hence the whole group. Agh! I finally gave in and realized if I was last, I was last and it didn’t really matter except to my ego. It was a strong moment of surrendering. After that I just kept swimming and ended up passing a few swimmers before the halfway buoy and then a few more on the backside. Closing in on the final buoy was a great feeling and then being welcomed in by hugs from fellow Mavericks. A pretty fast welcome to day one and we were off.

Day Two: Mountain Biking Challenge

To give you an idea of what we had in store for us here’s the topography for our ride:

Some pretty damn big hills including one that was 5 miles at a sharp incline. Yikes! I realized I hadn’t quite trained for enough hills. We started at the same beach we ended our swim at and took off on mountain bikes. This time I had props for the boys, green butterfly wings:

Our wings actually made it really convenient to stay together in a pack during our long, tough day. We started at 9am and ended thoroughly exhausted at 6:30pm. We rode 65km this day with a few breaks in-between, certainly my hardest bike ride ever. They kept saying there was a lunch but by the last checkpoint we realized that wasn’t happening. Samit said he’d love to have a kebob – we laughed and said we’d just manifest that. Well on the last stop, Tom’s bike needed to be repaired and while we were waiting a Sicilian man came strolling down the mountain. Our guides said he’s a little strange but not dangerous as he takes care of some of the animals here.

Okay.

He sees a 2 liter Pepsi bottle on the table and told us he has Coca Cola. This man proceeds to whip out a 2 liter Coke bottle but with strange red liquid inside. We find out this is a homemade wine and then he pulls out homemade sausage and 2 loaves of bread. We all look at each other and pretty quickly decide those are the kebabs we asked for. It was perfect and delicious. Definitely a welcome change from the Clif blocks and gels we were eating all day. Then we found dessert too on the side of the road too with a few ripe prickly pear fruit we picked. Afterwards is was all downhill for the final descent to the finish line in butterfly formation:

Day Three: Mountain Biking Challenge pt 2

The organizers originally had an even more grueling day planned for everybody for the second mountain biking day but they reworked it after everyone had such a tough day one. The first part of the day two took us by the seaside and then into the mountain trails. It was pretty muddy and bit wet from the previous days so lots of splashing around. At one point we came across a small concrete bridge with moss over the top of it making it extremely dangerous and slippery. Tom & Samit both went down. Afterwards, Tom took it upon himself that we would all stay put to help ensure the next groups of riders made it across, including a pregnant ‘Baby on Board’ Striver. Truly going the extra mile as I try to teach my kids as one of our 13 Silver Keys.

The very last climb of the day took us into a small village and we realized we hadn’t had any gelato this trip. We told each other there would be gelato waiting for us at the top (hopefully). As our pack rode into town we asked a police officer for gelato and he said no. We asked another person on the road also she also said there wasn’t any gelato. Undaunted we went off the route and found a gelato shop. Perfect again!

And here’s the obligatory bike celebration pose –

Day Four: Mt. Etna Run/Hike

Today’s costume change was green super hero capes and rainbow wristbands.

We started at the foothills of Mt. Etna and everyone took off for their trail run. Our plan was to do a 7 min run and 1 min walk – but pretty quickly realized there was a lot more incline and tough terrain then we had accounted for. Again all the Mavericks stayed together and helped push each other.

On the way up I was able to enjoy each moment as the woods actually smelled like Italian spices & herbs. And I picked some wild blueberries to eat on the way up that I wouldn’t have noticed if we were actually racing. In fact, our timing was perfect again as we caught up to Sam, Holly and Richard at one of the water stations. And then we ended up running the final leg together with Richard for an epic photo op with the Maverick caped crusaders:

That was the midway point of the day and after lunch we set out for the final 9 miles up Mt. Etna to the summit.

I had started feeling a little bit of elevation and tiny bit lightheaded but I couldn’t stop here. I kept moving. One foot in front of the other, plodding up. At one point I turned on a few songs for a little dance party up the mountain. That winded me a bit more but it was so much fun! As we kept creeping up the mountain our cut-off time became a real issue. Our mountaineering guide finally said we would not reach the summit if we didn’t get a small ride from one of the buggies. I couldn’t believe it. We had come this far on human power and now we’d need to drive up a bit. It took me a minute to reset inside the buggy and realize I could continue to be frustrated and miss the rest of the amazing summit or let it go. It was like a small ‘piggyback’ a couple hundred meters up the mountain but enough to give us the time we needed to ascend the final 300m.

The summit was incredible.

You could actually feel the heat rising from being on top of an active volcano – and being above the clouds was unbelievable. I took a moment to meditate and lock in the feeling of this accomplishment and culmination of everything we had worked for.

And here we are at summit with the Kenyan flag in honor of our Maverick brother, Samit’s home country & celebrating Tom’s birthday in style:

Surprisingly it all hit home in the shower when we got home. I literally thanked every part of my body, especially my knees. I’ve previously had 2 ACL tears but took the approach that every cell in my body had changed so I could do this.

Building a Capital Community of Fans and Family Ties

by Yanik Silver Leave a Comment

My 9-year old son, Zack and I had a bit of a ‘boys night out’ with just us two dudes last night.

We went to a Caps game against Buffalo and on the drive there he was asking about some of the classic games I’d seen.

I’ve been a fan for the last 25+ years, so I have lots of memories. I was at the Cap Centre for some of the best moments like the Hunter OT winner vs. Philly and also some of the most heart-breaking ones. Yes, I was there for the ’87 4- OT loss to the Isles in Game 7! I was 14 at the time with my father, Joe. His rule was you never leave a game until the very, very end. (I can still remember going into the 4^th overtime and my entrepreneurial spirit kicking in saying we should be selling Cokes or coffees.)

I shared with Zack some of the other big games I’d seen too like the Game 7 win against the Rangers in ’09 with Federov scoring in the third. That was such a great comeback series! My wife, Missy, sacrificed her birthday that year to go to the final game. We actually managed to get amazing seats for that game right behind the bench. Here’s a shot that appeared in the Washington Post the next day with my brother, dad and wife all in the background behind Boudreau:

(Missy is 1-1 on her birthday with another game 7 on April 28^th that we didn’t win.)

I told him my list also included both Winter Classics including the first time one in Pittsburgh where I showed up as “Captain Capitals”.

Zack was really happy that I mentioned this year’s Winter Classic because he was with me and now he was part of our shared Caps history.

Fact is, I love the way a sports team can bring together generations.

In Ted Leonsis’ wonderful book, The Business of Happiness, he mentions that when he bought the Caps franchise from Abe Poulin, he told Ted that owning a team is a true ‘Public Trust’.

Well after tonight I get it even more – but to really understand that you have to go back in history a little bit…

My dad is responsible for getting me into hockey and the love of the Caps. We came to the United States from Russia in 1976, and he brought his affection for hockey from the Soviet Union here to DC. I started attending games when I was 7 or 8. I remember vividly the “Save the Caps” tele-sales drive in ’82 and asking my dad to buy some tickets. He picked up a 10-game plan so we did our small part to save the team.

And it was only fitting I invited my dad along for Zack’s first Caps game a few years ago. It was pretty perfect because he caught a puck from Semin by yelling puck in Russian (shiboo).

With the Capitals 40^th Anniversary year this year, I started thinking about how many different threads and memories the Caps team and community have been in our family.

I remember way back as a kid skating on the mini ice at the Carousel Hotel in Ocean City, MD with Rod Langway and Yvon Yabre. We had some cheapo plastic sticks and I was still rocking the rental skates.

It was years later that I finally played youth hockey for real. Both my Bantam years I was chosen from my team to be part of the shootout they used to do in between periods. I think I was the only one to have ever won 2 years in a row, at least at that point.

I had, and still have, pretty much one breakaway move – forehand, backhand, forehand wide and bring it back to the backhand to roof it. I kept going back to that move over and over as my goalie bailed me out to win in the 2^nd year. Actually my men’s league team now calls “Oscar Meyer” if I get a break on net.

And coming around full circle, Zack, was part of the ‘mites on ice’ program last year.

I love the fact that Caps really go out of their way to be part of the community. Just one example is for the past few years I’ve been involved with DreamsforKids.org. It’s an opportunity for special needs kids to learn about hockey and meet some of their favorite hockey players.

My brother, Adam and I have been there multiple times, and I take Zack out of school to be involved in serving others.

I always ask him if he’d want to go to help the kids if no Caps players showed up (we never know who will be there or if there might be a cancellation). His reply is always ‘Yes’. I’m proud of him for helping here with our buddy Jonathan.

And that kind of hospitality and involvement starts at the top. I was fortunate to have the owner, Ted Leonsis, come out to keynote the Underground® seminar one year. I loved his book and message so much that I wanted to share it with more entrepreneurs. (His ‘Business of Happiness’ really is a wonderful book!)

Now simply speaking could have been enough, but he went out of his way to actually invite us to the owner’s box so I could surprise my dad with meeting Ted.

And then last year my brother Adam’s company, ParkingPanda, that he co-founded is an official parking partner of Monumental sports. Adam deserved a big thank you because he was able to get us into a cool skate at Nats Stadium following the Winter Classic. Zack loved being on the same ice as the Caps and hanging out on their bench.

I’ve seen Zack grow up through the sport of hockey and at tonight’s game I really saw a big moment.

He wanted to go watch warm-ups so we got down to the section 100 seating pretty early on. This time he was determined to get over the glass where the Caps come out of the locker room. (It’s actually really nice that they allow kids and fans down early for warm-ups.) So Zack is about 3 rows up and in a pretty good spot but then the actual ticket holders for those seats show up and the usher graciously escorted the kids out of the row.

Zack came back to me and asked what he should do. I told him he can figure it out. It surprised me that he walked right up to people in the row he wanted and politely said, “Excuse me” to get up front again. This was a big step because Zack really doesn’t feel comfortable all the time speaking up like that. He ended being the very first one at the bottom of overhang so he got high-fives from all the Caps leaving the ice. He was ecstatic!

After warm-ups were over we headed up to the concourse and started walking to our seats. We got a few feet and ran into a kid from Zack’s squirt hockey team. They both said hi and then he whips out an official puck that’s still wet from the ice. He told Zack that Eric Fehr had tossed him a puck. He wasn’t showing off – just excited. Now I thought Zack might get pouty or be upset that he didn’t get a puck but he just looked at his teammate and said, “Cool!” No big deal and no complaining. I was really proud of Zack again here again. He was happy because he managed to do exactly what he had set out to do.

I really do think I saw him grow right before my eyes. It wasn’t just two guys eating chili dogs at Verizon Center and enjoying a solid 6-1 rout by the home team – but a shared memory in the tapestry of our family. I’m so thankful I can continue the tradition my dad started with me so many years ago and hopefully we’ll get to see the Caps raise the cup one year soon with all of us in the stands. But that might even be secondary to having this unique bond.

I remember watching the final episode of the TV show Parenthood with my wife and thinking how appropriate it was for the Braverman clan to have a send off for the patriarch, Zeke, with a game of baseball. It was something they all shared as a family and it goes beyond just the sports side of winning or losing. There’s truly something magical with the joy and connection that comes from these shared moments.

The NEW Way to Better Goal Setting and is 40 is the New 20?

by Yanik Silver 4 Comments

Lordy…Lordy guess who’s 40?

Yup…yours truly.

Missy has been waiting for this day for awhile since she’s 2 ½ years older. She thought it would never come but I’m officially in my fourth decade. Several of my friends have asked me how 40 is, and I’m pleased to say I’m truly happier and more content than ever.

I feel like I know myself better than ever and have done quite a bit of work in that area in the last 2 years. Part of it has really been digging into what makes me happy and what I was meant to do here.

The picture I posted is part of a quote from Joseph Campbell.

“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.”

Campbell was a mythology expert and author of the Hero with 1,000 faces, studying the “Hero’s Journey” and how in a multitude of cultures this hero’s story is played out over and over again.

I ‘found’ that door coincidentally in the restaurant a group of Mavericks commandeered following part of my birthday celebration. It’s a great piece of art and it showed up just as I’ve been studying Campbell’s material more intently. (I wrote a little bit about the Hero’s journey in the last post about the 22 excuses for playing small.) I always love when things like this happen into my life just at the right time or wherever my attention has been. There’s certainly something more going on than we realize.

And that’s partly what I want to share a bit about here…

If we go back to the focus of attention I was just talking about – goal setting for many people is focused attention on their intended course. You’ve probably been taught all sorts of things about goal setting. Throughout the last 20 or so years when I became a student of success traits, I’ve tried a lot of different experiments. I remember my first time being really exposed to goal setting was at a Brian Tracy seminar. I think I was probably 22 or so at the time and Brian had us write out our 10 most important goals we truly wanted. I can’t remember all 10, but I remember one of the goals was buying a Mercedes SLK.

Interestingly enough I misplaced that workbook and found it a few years later. I think something like 7 out of 10 of the goals were hit, though the more interesting thing was, most were even “better”. For example, I had made more income and I ended up getting a much cooler Mercedes – SL55 AMG.

Seeing how that came together, I then changed up how I wrote my goals to add the words “or better”, “or sooner”, “or more” thus giving myself more flexibility around what I was working toward.

The New Way to Better Goal Setting

But most recently I really feel like I have an even better method that strikes to the heart of what I really, really want.

A few years back in my journal I wrote out what my ideal day was like when I was 40. I wrote out some specifics about net worth, the car I was driving, what I was doing that day, etc. Trying to really capture my ideal, perfect day for when I was 40. A few weeks before my birthday I went back and found that entry and at first glance I didn’t really hit that many of the specific goals.

I told Missy about the entry and after seeing what I wrote, she asked if I was upset that it wasn’t quite here. I thought about it and said, ‘no’. And that’s because the essence of the goals were there and even exceeded.

For instance, instead of driving a specific car – I would rather figure out what is the essence behind the car I want. It’s about having joy and satisfaction from driving it, and something that reflects a bit of my fun-loving spirit. So instead of writing I want a Fisker Karma as I had indicated, it’s leaving it open but focused on those previous criteria. (Interestingly enough I wouldn’t want a Fisker on my 40^th with all the issues they had.)

And the dollar amount I wrote in my journal was I wanted $2M in profits coming in from various business ventures per year. But what’s the real essence behind that? It’s the freedom to work on what you want, with whom you please and on what gets you excited!

I don’t need 2 million a year to have that and you wouldn’t either. I already have the essence of that goal. It’s just about creating enough freedom from passive income or designing your business to support your most important contributions.

A few more specific items included the dollar amounts of giving, number of young entrepreneurs and start-ups we’ve helped, and a Maverick gala. Sometimes those goals that still match up your deep passion are coming. It’s just not in the right time but like a train coming down the tracks – you know it’s coming. For instance, I didn’t hit the $5M in charity contributions in my goals, but we are at over $1.2M and growing so the momentum is building. And once again the essence is there with or without the specific dollar amount.

The requests most of us make are for things (better car, bigger house, etc.). Those are not at the same level as requests that come from your heart and a deeper place.

“Learning to receive is learning to ask for the essence of what you want, rather than the form” – Sanaya Roma, author “Living with Joy”

Each year on my birthday I usually make a list of accomplishments from the previous year. In my journal, I wrote that in the previous year (my 39^th) I had gone up into space on Virgin Galactic. Well…that timing is not of my own doing so it’s still happening and I can continue savoring the anticipation.

Coincidentally, Virgin Galactic threw a 400+ person party on my 40^th birthday. They had a big ‘Behind the Hanger Doors’ event in Mojave right on September 25^th so a perfect excuse to take my birthday on the road.

400+ well wishers for my birthday…or maybe they showed up for the rocket

Sophia doing her best impression of the flying Galactic lady on Spaceship2

Richard Branson had factored into my journal entry about my 40^th but it appeared in a bigger way than what I thought about. I wrote “In a few weeks the family is going to Necker Island again with Maverick members and Richard. It’s become a yearly tradition since 2011 when they first came. I was just reminded of the trip because Richard sent over a wonderful surprise gift for my birthday.”

Once again we’re blessed to be heading out to Necker with the whole family in March 2014, and it has become a family tradition. Richard did send over a surprise birthday gift in a personal video that was pretty funny. But even better, I got to see him on my birthday for the Virgin Galactic event and roughly a week later on Safari with Richard in South Africa. Amazing!

(I’ll have some interesting recaps from South Africa in another post.)

Sophia (who heads up our incredible events for Maverick) and my wife, Missy, had their hand in quite a few surprises lined up for me in LA. I actually like surprises since I’m frequently involved in planning them for others and for Maverick members – so I enjoyed not prying and letting it play out.

The first night we arrived late in LA, Missy and I joined an old high school friend of hers in his yoga studio for kirtan chanting. If you’re around the LA area or Santa Monica drop into Govindas’ Bhakti Yoga Shala studio.

If you’ve never done kirtan – it’s worth trying. Essentially a wonderful experience of sacred singing, repeating and chanting with tremendous group energy. Afterwards, we went to dinner at a delicious restaurant in Santa Monica, Tar & Roses. The pork chicarones on the menu is frickin’ amazing! I’ve been working on mindful eating to really savor each flavor, texture and scent of my meals. I don’t always do it since sometimes we’re just too busy and wolf down our meals without thinking, but at times when I do pay attention I enjoy my food so much more.

This dish really deserved it. Yes, it was that good that it deserves a picture here:

Using the little mini wooden skewers with cubes of pork, just the right amount of crispiness and moistness. Then the black mission fig to add the sweetness and a pickled pearl onion. Like I said amazing! Even Missy, who doesn’t like pork, enjoyed this dish.

The next morning more of the surprises started up. Sophia had arranged for about 35 or so different Maverick members and friends to show up at various times during the day and for different parts of the event. I first saw Robert Hirsch waiting for me in the lobby with my first scavenger hunt clue. And then heading out to the parking lot was Sara Roy and our video biographer, Alex. Something’s up – but I’m playing along.

We have to battle LA traffic to head from Beverly Hills to Santa Monica for our first set of clues taking us to the 3^rd Street Promenade. Anytime there’s a Maverick(esque) event you don’t know who is a random bystander, an actor or willing participant. I got a great impromptu ‘Happy Birthday’ song and dance from (I think) a maintenance guy strolling along. But that kind of interesting stuff frequently happens to me.

One of my favorite missions was to convince a bartender to hand off the reigns of the tap and let someone from our group tend bar for a bit. I was pouring some of the poorest pours I’d see in quite a bit. Lots of foam and not much beer, definitely one of those “don’t quit your day job moments”. I was giving out free drinks to the 4 patrons there at lunch on me and one guy wouldn’t take a free Goose Island beer because I asked him to honk like a goose first. He paid and quickly got out of there.

We got bonus points if there was something a bit unusual or daring as part of this mission, so I laid out on the bar for an upside down beer swill from the tap. Elegant!

After a bit more mischief we ended up on the Santa Monica pier awaiting the next rendezvous. We played a few carnival games to pass the time and I have no idea what I’d do with a gigantic stuffed animal, but they are so compelling to play for.

As I was tossing rings onto the jugs, a small contingent of ‘things’ in all-green, head-to-toe spandex suits comes out from the corner.

You can just see parents immediately grab their children’s’ hands and usher them away from these crazies. They kidnapped me and took me down below the boardwalk where a big group of Mavericks were waiting to celebrate with me.

That night more surprise guests showed up for dinner and then we moved into a private library room for drinks and a video. Sophia has compiled together 40 well wishes from friends, family and colleagues. Watching these videos made me realize how much of an impact I’d had on so many different people. It was actually a bit overwhelming and humbling. Really moving. In fact, one of my buddies came up to me afterwards and said, “I need to really start living my life the way you do – you are an inspiration to me.”

Having a video like that was one of the most meaningful things I could receive. And the other gifts had thought behind them too. I don’t need big things – I’m more interested in the why behind them.

Really I’ve been enjoying the feeling of love like this…

At 40 my life has become one big adventure, and that’s way it should be. Life reveals itself through whimsy and play, if we let it. And everything seems to happen in the perfect time. As I mentioned, I’m more content and happier than ever. I really understand myself on a deeper level, and I’m ready to enter the next chapter of my life. I’m hoping many of you will be on that journey with me, to uncover our biggest contribution yet, in an interconnected Destiny of Greatness.