Improvisation and inspiration

I've completed Twenty First Century Leadership last week and I am now taking advantage of the extra days in Seattle before returning home. I am now a three-time graduate of 21CL.

Last week I came out to Seattle without booking my accomodations for the days that I would be staying after the workshop ended, or what I would be doing with those extra days. Work out the rest when I get there, I told myself. Well that is just what I've been doing. I'm learning to trust my instincts more, trust myself more, trust that I will handle whatever situation comes up. Trust that I have all I need to get where I'm going (physically as well as metaphorically); trust that I need to deal only with the next step and that I will handle the next step after that when the time comes.

My coach often tells me that to inspire others I need to be myself inspired. I am learning that the more I trust my instincts, trust my intuition, trust my gut, and act on that trust and see things work out, the more I find myself in a place of inspiration.

Rebuild, reimagine, renivent

Just a couple more days before I head out back to Seattle, back for another Twenty First Century Leadership workshop. In some ways it's going to feel a little strange, returning to the journey I took last year. A journey I took last year when my life was quite different than how it is now. A four year chapter that ended with a sudden plot twist.

I will be staying in Seattle for a few extra days after the workshop ends. Where - I don't know yet. I haven't booked my accommodation yet. It's not like me to leave this kind of detail so close to the wire. Yet a part of me is saying go with it. Go to Seattle on Monday and work out the rest when I get there. That wouldn't be like me at all.

ITIL certification

I passed my ITIL certification exam this week. Now I'm in recovery mode.

I did a lasagna Mile tonight to get out some of the stress I've been handling this week. The lasagna Mile was one lap jogging, one lap walking, one lap jogging, and one more lap walking. Did it with wrist weights on.

I'm starting to slip from my goal of doing my Mile three times a week. Only got it in twice last week - preparing for my ITIL exam took quite a lot out of me. As for this week, well - it's already Wednesday and I just did my first Mile for the week. I can still hit my target though, if I do one on Friday and one on Sunday.

Recording vocals

Tonight was the third session in this series.

One thing I learned after the first two sessions, when it comes to coordinating studio schedules where several musicians are involved, is to pick a focal person and coordinate everything around that person's schedule. The first session, the focal person was Cindy on keyboards. The second session, the focal person was Aaron on drums.

The focal people I wanted to bring to the third session were not available due to summer travel. However, David (guitar) suggested that he and his wife Diane (vocals) come in and do their parts in the same session so that they would only have to make one trip to the studio. Now logically I would not plan to do vocals and guitar solo in the same session, but the circumstances directed that this was my best option since I wanted to move forward and not wait until August. So David and Diane became my foci. Steve O and Vern were both available tonight as well, so I had four vocalists (including myself) plus one guitarist.

This was a challenge for me because it was the first time I'd done a session with multiple vocalists - in past projects I've always worked with one vocalist at a time.

It was particularly challenging syncing up the vocals on Thank You. There are many syllables and most lines are sung in unison, so it is very important to get the syncing bang on. We did a couple of run throughs and found we were most off on the verses; the chorus and tag were fine. A couple of run throughs of verse 1 and it just wasn't coming together. So we did it line by line and finally got it together the best we could. David then added his guitar solo to the instrumental and added some picking to the tag, and that was the evening.

There are still some guitar and vocal dubs I'd like to add, but those will wait; I'd like to move on and start recording some of the other songs.

The Mile is getting flatter

I did my Mile last night. I've been noticing that each time I go out to do it, the uphill parts seem to get flatter.

Jan decided to get out and do her own version of the Mile. I felt a sense of accomplishment in thinking that by being an example I may have inspired Jan to take this action and further her own recovery.

I find a certain irony in this as well, a sense of coming around full circle, because I myself had been inspired by Jan's example years ago. After she did her 21st Century Leadership years ago, she continued to do her Mile regularly afterward. She continued to do that for some four years after. It was knowing that, that inspired me to start doing the Mile last year after I returned from Seattle.