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Carpe Diem

It's a rising sun kind of day. To feel the flow and be fearless you must be present.

Wake with the sun to seize the day.

Solitude

“The more powerful and original the mind, the more it will incline toward the religion of solitude.” - Aldous Huxley

As much as I enjoy being around people and gain energy from others, I value and appreciate the self-reliance of solitude. Most of my best thinking has come in times of purposeful isolation. (This is not nearly as depressing as it sounds).

I took the above picture of my friend who I ventured deep into the Canadian Rockies with. The remoteness, size, and complexity of the terrain and snowpack left me humbled and happy. For me, the mountains awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are often inaccessible.

All natural objects make a kindred impression when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance – neither does the wisest man extort her secret, nor lose curiosity by finding out all her perfection.

Nature never become a toy to a wise spirit.

Wabi-Sabi

In traditional Japanese aesthetics, wabi-sabi is a worldview centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete". It is a concept derived from the Buddhist teaching of the three marks of existence, specifically impermanence, suffering and emptiness or absence of self-nature.

As I have gotten older, lines on my face have deepened, grey hairs have begun to appear, and I have developed an acceptance (even an appreciation) for the imperfections, ephemera, and incompleteness of life. This recognition often occurs during states of “suffering” and challenge that lead to a heightened self-awareness and growth. What is left are the marks of experience and a life well lived.

Authenticity

I've been thinking a lot lately about the choices we make. This is true of us as individual people or as the brands we build.

Are the decisions we make motivated by intrinsic or extrinsic factors? What are the short-term vs long-term implications? What is the desired outcome? Why are we choosing to do or not to do something? And, ultimately, are we being true to ourselves and who we want to become?

Either way, these choices have tradeoffs and consequences. I took this picture a decade ago in New Mexico and think of it when making important decisions in my life.

Something I have come to highly value in my life is authenticity. While this world has become buzzy in marketing and business, I find few people and few brands to really be authentic. In the short-term, the veneer of perfection is shiny and bright, but in time the truth shows through and can have consequences for those who have never really been true.

Choice

The paths we choose are lined with choice, to stay or to go, for how long and how far.

Decisions, like directions, swirl in dizzying patterns among the wild, untouched landscapes of our mind.

With lessons of patience and trust, fleeting moments of what we do and where we go, all waiting for WHO we do it with.

We move forward by analyzing our past, flashing images of hopes for the future — and suddenly, the choice seems simple.

Reflecting on My Story: Flight 232

I recently wrote about how I heard so many other stories from my classmates about resilience and strength of character, but here is a little more on my story.

It was incredibly hard for me to talk about. I haven’t talked about it to anyone in a long time and never to a roomful of people.

I tried to think of other stories, but they all felt like bullshit.

I debated using the lower photo, which is of me being pulled from the wreckage. What you can’t see are that my legs look like splintered matchsticks. Also, there is a deceased man just over my right should in the middle of the frame.

Life is crazy. The day I shared this story, a company based in near Sioux City, IA (where this crash took place) reached out to me with a potential life-changing career opportunity that I have decided to interview for.

I am grateful for the opportunity to share and, in some ways, wish that I had 20minutes to get into more detail of my experience and more of the ways that it has impacted my life.

Mother’s Day is HARD

In an age of social media, everyone gloats about how awesome their mom is, but Mother’s Day goes unspoken in my family. Even as time as healed physical wounds, it’s strange to look at this picture now and know that I am now older than my mom was in this picture.

I have probably subconsciously put off moving into the marriage and children stage of my life because a subconscious (and irrational) fear having children who lose a parent at a young age.

Signatures

Sking on an untouched mountain face is an exercise in self-expression and creativity. The mountain is a blank canvas and the tracks are the signature of the person who “signed” their work. Although ephemeral in nature, how one skis an untouched mountain reveals the personality of that person at that exact moment in time.

The shape of the turn, the depth of the cut, the choice of the line, it’s no different than ink on a page. This is WHY skiing in the big mountains away from the crowded resorts is such a visceral experience for me.

The Joy of Children

*not my child

One of the best things about moving to Chicago has been to see some of my cousins grow up. Here, my cousin Laine just turned 4 and we have a close bond. I am old enough to be her dad, but she is like a sister to me. Every time I see her, she lights up. No matter what is going on in my life, she is happy to see me.

This is a good reminder to not take ourselves too seriously all of the time and to allow ourselves to feel the joy of a child.

Live a Great Story

I recently heard so many powerful stories of adversity from many of my classmates. I was reminded that – like the lines in this park, people start with a blank canvas and grow together, grow apart, adapt to their environment, chart their own course, etc.

While I will forget many of the stories over time, the resilience and strength of character on display has already left a lasting impression.

The Important Places

Come as you go.

In youth, you will learn the secret places. The cave behind the waterfall, the arms of the oak that hold you high, the stars so near on a desert ledge.

The Important Places.

And, as with age, you choose your own way. Among the faces of a busy world, may you always remember the path that leads back,

back to the important places

Most Meaningful Moments of my Life

Surviving a Plane Crash (United 232)

Learning to Walk again at 7 years old

Leaving home to attend boarding school

Playing Division 1 NCAA lacrosse at a top tier program

Raising money for the purchase of a “sit-ski” so people with disabilities can enjoy skiing as much as I do.

Moving to Austin, Texas with nothing but what fit in my car!

Successfully starting a business from scratch and growing into national distribution

Escorting my mom’s engagement ring from Denver to Chicago, the same route

Proposing with my mom’s ring in the city that we never reached (Chicago).

My Wedding (coming in June 2018).

My actual bookshelf. Confession: I am a really slow reader, but I am a sucker for books. Too few people still keep personal libraries, but I think you can tell a lot about a person based on the books they keep. We are what we read.

For example: Books read = who someone is Books owned, but not (yet) read = who someone wants to become.

Here are a few of my top books in no order (though there are COUNTLESS others):

1. Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies and Why

2. New Capitalist Manifesto

3. Let my People go Surfing

4. Born to Run

5. The Ecology of Commerce

6. Walden, or Life in the Woods

7. On the Road

8. Fooled by Randomness

9. The Power of Habit

10. Guns, Germs, and Steel

#books #reading

Passion “What are you passionate about?”, I was asked in a recent interview. I could have said anything, but I struggled to answer. Not for LACK of passion, but for my BREADTH of interests. Some people are singular in focus and dedicate a lifetime of passion to one thing. Good for them, but that’s not me. I believe that my passions shift as I enter different life stages or discover new things. Life just seems too short and the world to big to narrowly define “passions”. To dig deeper, I compiled a list of my “passions” over time. Some of I don’t think much about anymore, some are still a big part of my life and identity. When listed in rough chronological order, there are patterns that emerge of growth/ development over time. • Fire Trucks • Ice Hockey • Lacrosse • Music • Skiing • Cycling • Running • Human Potential • Coffee • Cooking • Natural Foods • Environmental Sustainability • Entrepreneurship • Brand Building • Leadership • Coaching / Teaching / Helping Others • Design • Architecture

#Passion

Thoughts, Feelings and Dreams “The Unexamined Life is not worth living” Based on feed back from my posts to date, I am committing to the following topics/ questions in my coming posts: Who are you today? Who would you like to EVOLVE to become? What makes you happy and fulfilled? What is for you a life well lived?

More than a dozen other people were injured in what was one of the worst mass killings in the modern history of Canada. The police said the driver was in custody.

Can Creative Thinking Work?

In light of yesterday’s senseless killings, I feel both regrettably numb and unempowered to do anything.

These stories seem to happen weekly which, outside of new regulations and an unwanted police state, are there creative solutions to fight back?

Can cities, school, and other public spaces be designed to be both welcoming and safe?

#minassian #alek #design #designthinking

As a backcountry skier, I’ve noticed that one person might climb to the top of a mountain or leadership position, look out over the landscape, and consider it to be a spectacularly beautiful view.

Another person might make that same ascent and stand there shivering and shaking, unaffected by the view because of the fear of plummeting down.

One is concentrating on the scenery while the other is concentrating on a dangerous fall.

Sometimes the enjoyment of life is based on what you focus on.

#perspective #fear #management

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