The Dream Dean

Sunday, December 5, 2021 (Day 338)

NEW Relaxing Music for the week: Night Light: Liquid Mind (11:13) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPe3gwRE69g

Question: Write a letter to yourself in 10 years time. Include all of your hopes, dreams, plans, and aspirations for the future.

Answer: Instead of writing an actual letter, I will share my thoughts to this writing prompt in this posting, probably writing bits and pieces as I grade my classes today. I’ll address those hopes, dreams, plans, and aspirations “Brian Johnson-style,” where I’ll focus on three different areas: Health, Relationships, and Service. First, in 10 years, I’ll be close to 69 years old, which is hard to imagine. Of course, when I was in my 40’s, I wondered what my 50’s would be like. Now that my 50’s are coming to a close, I wonder what my 60’s will be like. But knowing me, it will be significantly different than my 50’s, since I plan on doing Life Design Catalyst work somewhere else – or in a different way. The work itself will continue, I just won’t be doing it at UNCG – unless a miracle happens, which I don’t see happening. Anyway, let’s think good thoughts, right?

Health

As I mentioned in the previous activity, since fitness and health is my #1 personal core value, I can’t see myself neglecting this area of my life. What I do see happening is that I stop doing the CRAZY workouts I’ve been doing for the past few years, ever since I had my blood clot. Although I have this crazy goal of 1,000 miles running/walking, 3,000 miles biking, and 10,000 push-ups and sit-ups every year, (which is 6,000 workout miles for me, where 1 mile of running/walking = 3 miles biking). For the past two years, I’ve exceeded that despite the pandemic, where I’ve hit 7,000 workout miles a year – and this year might be the most of the three years, at 58 years old! Here’s where quite a few people are slowing down, and I’m trying to ramp it up and go crazy obsessed on the workouts. Don’t know how much my body can take of this, but I think I can give it another go next year at 59, then decide my “what’s next” for workouts in my 60’s. I wouldn’t be shocked that in 10 years, I’m still doing these crazy workouts, but maybe in a different form. I know I set a step goal this year of 6,000,000 steps (which I already surpassed), so maybe I’ll focus on a steps challenge, where I look at averaging 20,000 steps a day for an entire year. How’s that for ambitious?

Relationships

In ten years, I will have more and stronger relationships with the Life Design Catalyst Tribe. Tribe members know that I will bend over backwards to help them move forward, personally and/or professionally. LDC Tribe members are the bomb, especially those that I’ve been able to connect with on a regular basis. And as I facilitate more and more workshops and trainings, here in North Carolina and in other parts of the country, I seem to be growing this group of people that have become more than associates – many have become friends. I hate surface-level conversations; let’s just dive right in and hear your story! I think the hard part of me in personal relationships is that my partners have a hard time understanding that my work and my play are one of the same. When I talk about Life Design Catalyst work, it’s what I do, who I am, and how I play. It’s always funny when people ask me about the amount of reading that I do. Is my reading books and articles on self-help and entrepreneurship work or play? Or is it both? And people who get that, get me. So it’s my hope that I can surround myself with people like that, people who like to engage in deep conversations about education, business, and life. I laugh because when I go play golf and people want to talk about work, I keep the conversations REALLY short because when I play golf, I just want to play golf. Or tennis. Or pickleball. Just go out and play the activity. And having a partner that gets all of that is what I hope to have in 10 years.

Service

In ten years, I plan to continue to do Life Design Catalyst work, maybe in higher education, maybe in some other capacity. I imagine that I’ll be outside education, since Life Design Catalyst work impacts SOOOOO many different people in so many different ways. It’s not just students that this work impacts; I can imagine that I’ll be working with church groups, prison inmates, and a whole host of other populations that could use help in creating a meaning, purposeful life. So in ten years, I’d like to just be at a place that values the work – or just create the place myself (and with the help of a few friends).

I’m sure there’s so much more I could write about, but I have to get back to grading my classes. At least this is a great start!