X-Men – Walk Into the Future

Poetic Fridays

(Image by Christine Sponchia from Pixabay)

Motivated?

What motivates you?

I would guess things quite different from what motivates me

The drive I seek comes from things I have seen

Some good, some bad

Some fair, some foul

The secret here is to use them all

Never let the opinion of others sway your desire

To reach the pinnacle you aspire

Continue to work to meet and exceed your goals

Remind the doubters that you are in control

Dreams will become reality soon enough

Got to keep working because life can be rough

Find your motivation, live your dreams

A motivated life is a wonderful sight to be seen

Knowledge

The series of daily challenges presented

Provides a template to view

How to conquer the challenges?

It is all up to you

Life provides many opportunities to grow

The direction you chose, only you will know

Continue to strive through the growing process

Knowing that you hold the key to it all

The knowledge you gain

Helps to move your journey forward

And makes the challenges easier to maintain

Note: All original verses by the author.

The true anniversary date

anniversary image

(Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay)

“A year from now, you will wish you had started today”.

(Karen Lamb)

Dictionary.com defines an anniversary as the yearly recurrence of the date of a past event and the celebration or commemoration of such a date.

The first Walk into the Future article was posted on this site on 6/18/2018. The true anniversary date for me is 4/14/2018—let me explain why I say this.

I sat on the beach at St. George Island (SGI) on 4/14/2018 with the idea of deciding which direction I wanted to pursue moving forward. The Walk into the Future concept was not on my radar but needed the beach atmosphere to help with a huge decision.

So, I sat on the beach on this prophetic day with my beach towel, cooler of beer, reggae, pen, and paper to figure this thing called life out (Prince reference).

I have used the concept of a pros/cons list in the past to help with major decisions and my goal on this day was to identify pro/con items to inform the decision I needed to make. Dr. Henry Cloud identifies successful people do not hang on to bad stuff for long in his book 9 Things you Simply Must do in Love and Life. The only way to label something as bad is to take a true look at it without emotion, hence the pros/cons list for me.

I finally admitted I spent too much time determining if I should stay in my old role. The interactions I had with students, employers, faculty, staff, and community members still appealed to me but there was always something daily to eliminate my joy. Turns out it was too much negative workplace energy. This is not a complaint just a stated fact from my perspective—negative energy can and will wear you down over time.

Fast forward to the list and the decision was obvious! There were 5 pros and 15 cons. I tried to manufacture some additional pros just to see if I could even this process out a bit, but this was the final tally. The 15 cons were present EVERY day and only 3 pros were daily items. I was amused when I saw the disparity of my two lists. I subconsciously knew this to be true but never wrote it out to examine more in-depth. Sadly, none of the cons listed were fixable—not one.

I laughed when I was able to view the list for the insight in front of me. So, on 4/14/2018 the Walk into the Future journey began after I made the decision it was time to move on from what I was doing. The work and making a difference daily were not the problem it was the negative energy—the opposite of the Irie mindset I seek in life. Dr. Cloud has another principle he calls Pull the Tooth. I decided to pull the tooth and Walk into the Future after I finished my beer and listened to a few more Bob Marley songs.

I decided to write this post after looking in my journal and coming across the page with my pros/cons list. Just happened to be 2 years to the date I wrote the items and wanted to share with my readers I just had an anniversary.

So, happy anniversary to the Walk into the Future blog. Here is to a few more years of writing, sharing adventures and making a difference in the world. Thanks for walking with me!

What tooth do YOU need to pull? How could the pros/cons list help with your decision?

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing”.

(Walt Disney)

Superheroes are all around us—open your mind to see them!

(Image by John Hain from Pixabay)

“It’s not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me”.

(Batman)

My current Walk into the Future provides multiple opportunities for me to discuss life, travel, interests and potential blog topics with tree branches.

I’m lucky to identify future blog topics from the great people I interact with daily. I can’t develop every idea into something useful for the Walk into the Future blog, but I try extremely hard to never miss a topic to help others on their walk. Thank you to everyone who has sent me topic suggestions so far. Please note, if you haven’t seen your topic then I’m still working on the development process.

Superheroes

I published an article back in October 2019 discussing the challenges superheroes face daily:

https://walkintothefuture.blog/2019/10/31/superhero-work-is-tough-but-worth-every-minute/

This article led to an interesting phone conversation with a tree branch while driving to Orlando for two networking events. Normal conversation but we detoured onto the subject of superpowers. Not the Batman versus Superman hype or who would win a fight type conversation but what superpower would I have. We laughed a bit and I had to put some real thought into what superpower I display.

There are a lot of things I bring forth daily. My main mission has evolved to make a difference daily. Simple enough but I’ve found the best way to accomplish my mission is to find ways to inspire others to reach or exceed their stated goals.

So, my superpower is inspiration! You can still call me Calvin when you see me, but I will answer to Inspiration Man! Nice little ring to it, huh? 😊

Seriously, I view my ability to help others achieve things in their personal and professional lives as making a difference daily. The concept of serving others has been with me for a while now. It started with my many roles in the Air Force (instructor, mentor, leader) and continues to expand with my consulting work as well as former roles in higher education. I don’t have a fancy Inspiration Man uniform (yet) but take pride in being able to guide others and provide tough love when necessary.

My current Walk into the Future provides maximum flexibility to work with diverse people with differing needs for inspiration. I take pride in my ability to listen and then help generate outcomes to assist people I partner with. This process can be formal or informal, but my goal is to leave folks inspired to go tackle their day.

My tree branches get daily and weekly check-ins from me to let them know I’m always here for them. It may not appear to be a lot of inspiration in this process but I’m sure someone smiles when they hear from me—just guessing! 😊 My #1 client is my niece Jayla who will graduate from UCF in May—she gets the full-blown Inspiration Man act daily—even if she doesn’t want it—so lucky!

Speaking engagements and presentations provide me with additional ways to inspire others. I make a point to never turn down a meeting or presentation request because Inspiration Man needs an audience. I see these as opportunities to generate additional tree branches and continue to make a difference in this world. Just finished speaking in 3 Student Success classes at Tallahassee Community College—received the topic the night before the presentations but I willingly accepted the challenge and opportunity to inspire students to find their why. Again, I don’t turn down opportunities if I can help it.

“Be your own hero.”

(PictureQuotes.com)

Tree branches

Recent conversations highlight superpowers for several of my tree branches:

Positivity	Persuasion	Writing
Relentless	Analytic Organization	Connecting with others
Activating Destiny	Adaptability / Positivity	Writing / Editing
Unstoppable Energy	Caring / Empathy	Networking

You can see I’m associated with a team of superheroes with diverse and impactful powers. They are making a positive difference in the world and I’m excited to watch them change lives daily—well done team!

Think we need a cool team name—Avengers, Justice League and X-Men are already taken! ☹😊

So, what’s your superpower? How do you use it to make a difference in this world? Can you match the superpower to one of my tree branches? 😊

Thanks for walking with me!

“The most important thing is to try and INSPIRE people so they can be great in whatever they want to do”.

(Kobe Bryant)

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31

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