My life has been filled with opportunities that have turned into wonderful adventures. Sometimes I count the cost and other times, I have this gut feeling that my life will be changed through this experience.
I want to be an inspiration for anyone who has been faced with a life changing decision. Life will always bring “curve balls” that don’t make sense and are not easy. However, life cannot be used as an excuse to not go after dreams and fulfilling the bucket list! Hopefully, I can inspire young people to not lose sight of their dreams and goals in order to inspire others to do the same. Dreams and goals sometimes get lost as we get older and responsibilities seem to crowd our wonder and dreams we had as kids. I hope that my experience will encourage others to create beautiful memories and not hold on to regrets…
I am a fitness, wellness, and adventure coach as well as trainer.
The main points of my business are as follows:
a) Help clients get in shape in order to live life as an adventure using fitness training, nutrition, and preventative fitness…(fitness that helps people to mitigate doctor and medical bills by living a healthy lifestyle).
b) Promote fitness as a lifestyle and not a fad!
c) Inspire young people to incorporate fitness into their lives in order to build character, foster a hard work ethic, and become confident in being able to accomplish dreams. Life is an adventure! Why not be prepared to deal with what life throws at you by being healthy physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
d) Motivational Speaker and Public Speaker to share this important message.
In my decision to go on the journey to be on Ted Talks. Begins with me standing in front of Ajit George, Organizer of TEDxWilmington, pitching my idea about inspiring youth at the National Publicity Summit in New York City. This opportunity to speak to Ajit is not only a lifelong dream, but one of the most important opportunities that I will have in my lifetime. I am excited about this and want to make the most of our time together. As I am speaking with Ajit, I see his “wheels turning” in his head while talking.
My hope is that I haven’t been boring and he is thinking about something entirely different. He asks me some questions about my background and shares that I would be a good addition to speak at the TEDx Wilmington Salon in December 2017.
What does stand out in my time with Ajit is the timing of my submission. If it’s before December 1st, 2017, then I can possibly be on the speaking lineup to speak this year. If I submit my application after December 1st, 2017, then I can possibly be on the speaking agenda for December 2018. So far, in the process to be approved, selected, and asked to diligently prepare to speak, I am remembering when I listened to Majora Carter’s Greening the Ghetto TEDx Talk. Her passion and enthusiasm, she brought, touched my life and I wanted share my story too.
I attended the National Publicity Summit in New York City last year October 2017. While there I met with the head organizer and pitched the idea to present to them about the importance of getting youth off of social media in order to live life as an adventure. The largest hurdles that I had to overcome was funds. I had to still present my idea to the board to be accepted to speak. Once I was accepted to speak, then I had to meet deadlines each week otherwise I would be dropped from the speaking roster. I had to submit a filmed presentation to see if I could speak in front of an audience. And, last but not least, I had to come up with the funds to fly out, find a place to stay, and provide myself transportation to get to the venue. I didn’t know that I would have been able to make it until the day before I was supposed to speak.
What happened along the way was an adventure in itself. I had agreed to not go into debt without really thinking through what was at stake if I didn’t go. Although, I wasn’t sure how I would get there…I wavered at times if I was actually going to make it as I was completing the tasks for the TEDx Talk. Funds were tight and there were a lot of discussions in regards to how this was all going to happen.
Plus, I had the opportunity to see family whom I haven’t seen in years. I have cousins and aunts that live in Maryland that I had a feeling that I needed to see. I had contacted friends and family to see if I could get help regarding the trip and only 1 person gave towards my trip. I was so grateful for the gift and believe that this act of kindness gave me the faith to figure out how to get there no matter what…I had friends that didn’t give but did send my information to their friends to pass on…The day before I needed to get there, I was able to snag a deal through a credit card company to purchase tickets and get air mileage for future trips.
Once I qualified, I purchased the tickets and left the next day to travel. I stayed at my former employer’s adventure camp while in town and secured transportation to get to the venue. The difficulty came because I committed to not going into debt, yet I had a feeling in my gut that I had to go…So, I want to be a man that commits to doing what I say. I don’t want to make an excuse that it was good to break my word. And, it taught me a very important lesson to not make hasty commitments.
I saw my family and made it to the TEDx Talk a little late, but I made it! Once I slid into my seat, I was rewarded by the head organizer that I could finally relax because I was there and we would be ready to speak that evening. I can’t tell you how much this impacted me because I’m pretty sure I had been holding my breath quite a bit through the whole process. After the TEDx Talk, I had the opportunity to spend time with my family. I had a chance to see my aunts; especially, my aunt who was in assisted living at the time. I hadn’t seen her in about 10 years. We had such a good time talking and reconnecting. She fed and took care of me as well as my family when I lived in Maryland for 11 years before relocating to Colorado back in 2007-“08.
The TEDx Talk was an intense process of meeting deadlines. I don’t want to go over the exact process because it’s important that people go through the process fresh as I did in order to confirm how much a person really wants to speak and share. I liked the process and the deadlines because it challenged me to give it my all! And, it confirmed my passion for fitness and wellness since it helped me to have the confidence to go after a “bucket list” goal for my life in becoming a speaker at a TEDx Talk.
Faith, prayer, fitness, wellness, and adventure have been so important for me in my life. I have no problem sharing that I love God and His Word. Without it, I would not be able to handle the trials and situations that life has thrown at me. The waiting wasn’t the issue for me. Once I was accepted, then came the adventure of meeting the deadlines as well as figuring out how I would attend.
The cost of going after this dream was breaking trust with my family at home and my relationship with my spouse. As difficult as it has been since making the decision to go and speak at TEDx Wilmington Salon, I am so grateful that I did go. Not long after I went to speak, my aunt whom lived in the assisted living facility, passed away…That gut feeling to see my family was the most important reason for me to go. I would have regretted not going for the rest of my life if I had not seen her. As much as I don’t like the hard things that came out of the trip such as debt and family difficulties, I would do it all over again to have seen my aunt.
The most important thing I have learned on this journey is to make sure to never forget the importance of dreams and goals. I was inspired by reading a book called, A White Stone by Jim Corbett. That book inspired my faith and the importance of being the best person that I can be even though I still make mistakes. My business is based off of my inspiration of living life as an adventure. I don’t want to lose my wonderment for life or be responsible for killing the dreams of others. I hope to inspire people to live life as an adventure. Our young people today need hope and inspiration. I want to be remembered for reminding people the importance of going after dreams!
This experience has changed my perspective on the importance of not giving up…As difficult as life can be, I would rather try and fail then fail to try with regret as the reward for not going after dreams…This journey has changed me to never give up on dreams…No matter how long it takes to go after a dream, DON’T GIVE UP!
Next on my bucket list is to travel around the world offering fitness, wellness, and adventure to clients and young people. Who knows? Maybe there might be a show in the future to reach more people. Through my success, I want to highlight the importance of things that are inhibiting people from reaching their goals and dreams. I want to raise awareness on human/sex trafficking around the world as well as how to rescue those caught in its terrible grip. Join me on this crusade at www.xodusadventures.com. Like us on Facebook at Xodus Adventures as well. Get in shape with me and come train with me to be a part of the Xodus Adventures Universe! Purchase a fitness package and contact me about trips I have planned to help people accomplish their bucket list goals! Be Super Strong!
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Interview by Jacqueline Jax
host of A.V.A Live Radio