While the Cats Away, This Mouse Is Playing

I’m taking this time early Sunday morning to write something a little different as I woke up at 6am and couldn’t fall back to sleep after staying up ’til 2 a.m. last night watching TV.

I’ve had a lot of spare time the past couple of days as I ended a very intense period of work in May that culminated with a marketing funnel workshop on Wednesday, June 3rd.  Add to that my wife, Anne, leaving for a long weekend with her mom and sisters to connect with family members in Ireland, it has created a nice relaxing opportunity for me to enjoy the early days of summer, alone.

I believe there are two times in our lives where our true personality shines through, one is when we are under severe stress and challenge, and the other when we are alone, relaxing and we have the power choose any activities the universe has available with no outside interference.

For me, as much as I like to try new activities, I tend to default to the things I enjoy most of all, some say to a fault. But, there are just some things that I just don’t get to enjoy as fully as I might when other people are around (including the love of my life and best friend). So, I’ll save the new experiences for when Anne gets back. For now, for those who care and want a little insight into what I do when nobody’s watching, here’s what I’ve chosen to invest my time on since Anne left for the Emerald Isle on Thursday:

Business:
1) Updating web site to reflect new speaking gigs just scheduled and creating registration pages and marketing material for those newly scheduled events.

2) Follow up phone calls to all those attendees from my June 3rd workshop to learn more about their business and how I may be able to help.

3) Playing on Twitter and finding a new friend/colleague for whom we are going to collaborate on writing guest articles for each other’s blogs.

Personal:
1) Yoga - For the first time ever I took time out of a work day, mid-day to do something non-business related. I went to a Friday, 11:30am yoga class.  That was followed up by an early morning (7:45am) yoga session at my favorite yoga studio on Saturday, and an 11:30am yoga/pilates fusion class at my regular health & fitness club.

2) Guitar Practice - With a goal of playing/singing a couple of new songs (new for me, written by my musical hero Bruce Springsteen) I’ve been spending at least 2-hours a day practicing since my Thursday evening lesson. I’m working on four songs, “The Rising”, “The Wrestler”, “Darkness on the Edge of Town” and “Long Walk Home.” Not sure which of these are closest to being ready for live performance, I’ll leave that up to George, my guitar and voice coach to tell me. I even got so bold last night to actually record a video of my rehearsal session last night and posted ‘em on YouTube so George can critique them. Let me know if you care to see ‘em and I’ll send you the links. But, be warned, their not as melifluous as I’d like ‘em to be, just yet.

3) Watching my favorite movie, “City Slickers.” I’ve seen it over 100 times and can recite most of the scripting throughout. Drives my wife and others crazy so I don’t get to watch it much when other people are around. I have to get my kicks in times like these, when I’m alone.

4) Watching the National Hockey League  - Despite my 20-year baseball career, hockey is now my passion and the NHL Playoffs are a marathon journey to win the most historic trophy in team sports, The Stanley Cup. I’ve been able to watch two of the Stanley Cup Finals games without the guilt of having exiled my wife to the upstairs bedroom to watch TV while I watch the hockey on the 46″ high def flat screen downstairs in our living room.

5) Tennis - This weekend is the Final Round of the French Open. Last year Anne and I were in Paris for the opening week of the French Open and knocked one item off our bucket list by attending Day 2 of the Grand Slam tennis tournament. This year, I have to watch from home and this weekend is the Final Round. I watched the Svetlanda Kusnetsova defeat Dinara Safina in yesterday’s women’s final and in about two hours I’m going to watch Roger Federer go for tennis immortality (not that he doesn’t have that already) when he looks to win the French Open and become only the second “Open Era” player to win all four tennis Grand Slam events, the other being my favorite player of all-time Andre Agassi.

6) Sitting in our adirondack chairs on our screened-in front porch, surfing the net, playing on Twitter and Facebook and other laptop past times, in a state of complete and utter relaxation in what we call our “Vacation Room.” It is the most relaxing, calming place I’ve ever experienced in a home I’ve lived in and literally could see myself using this as a vacation stop without ever leaving our home. It’s quiet, peaceful and I get to watch birds in our bird bath, humming birds take a drink from their humming bird feeder, and maybe even do a little yoga and meditation. It’s the perfect “home away from home” in our home!

So, with all that as a backdrop, here’s my agenda for today:
1) Water the plants in the house and our new garden. Anne left very specific instructions for me so I don’t kill the vegetation while the Master Gardener is away.

2) Watch the French Open Men’s Final.

3) Finalize a client project proposal to be delivered on Monday.

4) Mow the front and back lawn.

5) Practice the guitar and my four songs.

6) Finalize marketing materials for upcoming August/September workshops so we can begin to get the invitations out.

7) Read the book I started reading two weeks ago, “Under the Banner of Heaven” by Jon Krakauer, less than 100 pages to go.
Maybe, just maybe they’ll be time at the end of the day to watch “City Slickers II-The Legend of Curly’s Gold” so I can complete the trilogy (ok, there are only two in the series, but you get my drift).

Wow, that’s a full agenda, I better get started, garden needs watering in the AM Anne’s instructions say and I’ve got an hour before the French Open. Got to go…