2008 September :: JonathanManske.com

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Mr. Eat, Pray, Love

Dave Bravdica’s friends often refer to him as Mr. Eat, Pray Love.

(This is in reference to the book Eat, Pray, Love written by Elizabeth Gilbert. Her book was #1 on the NYT Paperback Nonfiction List for over a year!)

Dave has a great story. He got clear about what he wanted and then took the courageous steps to make that happen.

When I first met Dave, he was working for a company that was very hierarchical and old school in philosophy.

This was a terrible fit for Dave and it showed. He looked worn out, stressed out, uninspired and his self confidence was circling down the drain.

His biggest challenge was the "golden handcuffs". He couldn’t imagine that he would ever be able to replace his income while doing something that he enjoyed. He had a lot of head trash around this issue.

Dave spent a while having a tug of war with himself: I should do something different – I cannot do something different and make money. This only further depleted his vitality.

Finally on his birthday, Dave said to himself, "I either need to do something different or resign myself to the way things are now.

He decided to do something different.

He quit his job and enrolled in chef’s school. After chef’s school he went to Italy to learn more.

Dave believes that in order to understand the food you need to understand where it comes from and the people. To this end, he spent time working in a winery, a cheese farm and a cured meats farm. He really immersed himself in Italian culture.

Now he’s back in Denver and has opened his own catering business, Flavor Cater, and is also teaching at the chef’s school.

I recently saw Dave and was delighted to see how good he looked. He looks so much more happy and full of vitality. He’s excited and optimistic about the future. And, he is doing what he loves.

Dave is all about food and wine and how they can bring people together.

We can all learn something from Dave’s story.

We have all done what Dave did when he got trapped in an either/or perspective. (Either I can stay here and be miserable or I can do something different and make much less money.) In Dave’s mind those were the only two possibilities.

Here’s an analogy: There are two kinds of light switches, on/off and dimmer. With on/off you only have two options. With a dimmer switch you have a wide range of options.

Whenever we seem stuck or trapped, we are doing the on/off switch. When we change our perspective and start to see more possibilities (dimmer switch) the sense of being stuck or trapped tends to disappear.

Dave will be my guest this week on The Inevitable Success Radio Show

You can tune in to that show on Thursday September 18th at 1:00 Mountain Time at www.realcoachingradio.com.

The show will also be archived if you want to listen at a later time. archive link

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Keep On Moving Forward

This spring I went on an adventure. As it turns out, my adventure is a pretty good recipe for success.

My motto during the adventure was "Keep Moving Forward!"

Four friends and I decided to ride the Kokopelli Trail. This is a mountain bike trail that runs from Fruita Colorado to Moab Utah. It is 150 miles of very tough riding.

Going into the ride, I had concerns about my ability to complete this ride. Simply put, I had not prepared enough. The longest training ride I had done was 20 miles and I was exhausted after that. Now I needed to do three 50 mile days in a row.

I decided that as long as I kept moving forward I would be all right.

I kept this idea, Keep Moving Forward, in mind throughout the ride.

When I came to really steep sections of the trail, I got off my bike and walked. I have the ability to ride those sections but the energy it would have cost me was too much. As long as I was walking, I was still moving forward.

My goal was to complete the ride and if walking 50 yards here and there helped me to complete that goal then I was fine with that. In fact, there are numerous mandatory hike-a -bike sections on the trail that nobody can ride. I just had a few more hike-a-bikes.

This strategy served me well. I kept moving forward and I completed my goal.

Other elements were necessary in order for me to keep moving forward and achieve my goal. (Do you have these elements in place to support you to keep on moving forward?)

Support:
Jason’s dad drove sag. He met us about every 20 miles with food, water, tools to fix our bikes and our camping gear. Without him, we wouldn’t have been able to complete the ride.

We also had the support of each other and of friendship. This helped immensely. (What’s your support?)

Rest and Recovery:
Part of moving forward is taking breaks where you are not moving forward. Without stopping to rest, eat and sleep we wouldn’t have succeeded. In the face of stress and effort, we still needed to take care of ourselves. (How do you rest and recover?)

Snacks:
I ate a lot of powerbars and other energy snacks on the trail. Whenever I would start to feel tired, I would put some more fuel in my tank which would allow me to keep moving forward. Without these snacks, I would not have succeeded. (What are the "snacks" that put fuel in your tank?)

The Right Equipment:
Obviously the right equipment was an important part of being able to complete the ride. A road bike would have been destroyed 5 miles into the ride. This is a serious mountain bike trail.

I also needed my pump and a spare tube.

My camelback carries 120 oz of water, has storage for tools, food and extra layers of clothes. (Do you have the right equipment?)

Trail Map:
All of the other things I have mentioned would have been useless without a plan of where we were going and a map to guide us. (Do you have a map and a plan?)

Remember, your success is a long journey. As long as you Keep Moving Forward , you constantly move closer to achieving your goal.