MY STORY

On January 20th 2010 I departed for my Colorado adventure. Final destination is Telluride, CO. My previous employer closed our Boston office on October 31, 2009 and this seemed to be the most opportune time to do something different. My inspirations are two things really. They are both movies. First is "Into the Wild", a movie about a person who leaves his life behind to pursue a life in the Alaskan wilderness and along the way he meets people that shape his life. The second movie is "The Bucket List", a movie about two terminally ill men who escape a cancer ward with a wish list of to-do's before they die. The #1 item on the wish list is "Witness something truly majestic". My adventures are not exactly similar to these movies, but underlying themes and life changing perspectives are. As far as the location, I thank my sister for that. She lived in the beautiful & remote town of Telluride for five years and met Paul there. Their 1997 wedding was in Telluride (Trout Lake). Telluride is nestled in the dramatic Rocky Mountains of Southwest Colorado.

BLOG 101

If you are new to blogs so am I. Here is an intro. The home page http://mycoloradoadventure.blogspot.com/ has all the posts (the write ups) in order and they work so that most recent is at top of the order. i.e. Day 1, my first post/write-up, is on the bottom page of all the posts/write-ups. On the left side of the blog site there is a "Blog Archive" section where you can navigate to pick and choose year, month and then specific daily posts/write-ups. I wanted to share this in the event you are new to blogs.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Day 51 - 3/11/10 - Work








"People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost." ~H. Jackson Browne






Today is Thursday March 11th 2010. I've attached a picture map of the mountain I have grown so fond of. I worked on it today. It was not the cold chilly day I had on Monday of this week. Thank god. Today it was warm. I had energy and I was looking forward to my growing interest to work and capture memories with and of people. Here is a video showing the crux of what I do leading up to the actual portraits I take of people:


Looks kind of boring but that's just one minute of a six hour day on the mountain. And unfortunately the video does support the downtime we see in a day. It's the time when we walk around and talk to people. Those talks can lead to photos and some times they come up to us wanting the photos. I always just tell them they are no obligation and they have nothing to lose. It is the varied reactions that I get that lead me to the quote of the day.

I encounter quite a few people doing the mountain photography job. Some people are thrilled to do the photos, others get agitated. In the end, I have a tendency to think people that are agitated are the ones who are unhappy. Yet, "just because they are not on your road" I have to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. They are here to enjoy the mountain and if one person views my time taking pictures as an interruption, then I have to respect that. If you cannot tell from my videos, I very much like not to be interrupted when I'm snowboarding. I would probably say "No" to a photographer and in that particular moment it may seem like I am not happy. BUT. Truth is, I am at one of my happiest periods of time because I am snowboarding on a mountain.

This quote likely applies to all of our lives. It depends how you interpret it. My take on this quote is 'respect people for who they are because every person is different. What makes you happy, may not make another person happy'. I think there are different levels of happiness. If you're content, are you happy? Surely when you are laughing you're happy, right? Or is it really a moment covering up mediocrity? What makes all of you truly happy? Here's my top ten list:
  1. Snowboarding (had to say it) and Telluride Mountain (pictured above)
  2. Family
  3. Friends
  4. Food
  5. Meeting new people
  6. Working out
  7. Writing to this blog
  8. Coaching soccer i.e. actual coaching...not the admin part
  9. Feeling like I've accomplished something in a day
  10. The show Modern Family. It's on ABC Wednesdays at 9 Eastern. It's hilarious. Check it out if you have not had the chance.
Levels of happiness come into play with all of these. What if #4 (food) is a restaurant meal that is not good? To complicate that question, what if that restaurant is one that has never let you down? What if #5 is someone I just met who is not nice? We'll call those scenarios bumps in the road. Maybe we could apply Pareto's principle to happiness? Pareto's principle is the "80-20 rule". I've understood it only in business really, but here's 2 interesting thoughts:

80% of your happiness is derived from 20% of people you know.
80% of your happiness is derived from 20% of things you do.

Each of those is interesting to think about. One basically says you meet few people in your life that make you happy. Family, friends, co-workers, etc. The other essentially says that we do too much in a day and only a few things we do make us happy. It's interesting to think about both. How does the 80-20 rule fit with your happiness?

Happiness is something that is studied over and over. One popular phrase is "Happiness means healthiness". The older I get, the more I believe it. I hope this note finds you happy and healthy in some capacity. Good night from Telluride.
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