At Least I'm Ahead of Carl Spackler!

I’m 19 days into my personal challenge. (Check out #TR30days on Twitter) For those of you who don’t know this was peer pressure prompted by my significant other Susan and our best friend and Talent Revolution CEO, Amanda Hite. It’s pretty simple – you create a bucket list for 30 days of your life and you focus on accomplishing everything you committed to on that list. Ha! Piece of cake, like taking candy from a baby…. Or so I thought. Now that I’m more than half way through I feel compelled to share my thoughts.

The first learning is real change is not easy! Emphasis on the word “real”. During this 19 days I have not missed a weekday workout. At the age of 56 I thought working out 5 days a week was a thing of the past. Today I received the ultimate compliment from my son’s friend – “Hey Mr. Camp you are cut” – I thought I was bleeding or something. He was referring to my physique. Are you kidding me? Amazing what happens when you don’t allow your thoughts to get in the way.

During the week I’m up every morning at 5:00AM. I know that sounds a bit militaristic however I have rediscovered the mornings. For me there is something magical about getting up early. How many of us have uttered these words more than once, “There aren’t enough hours in the day”? Now I have more hours in my day and it feels fantastic.

What is interesting is the way I’m spending my early mornings. I call it me time. I get up and put on my workout gear. I start the coffee and sit at the kitchen counter and write my Morning Pages. The Morning Pages are handwritten notes of whatever comes to my mind. I need an entire blog to share with you the benefits of Morning Pages. Let’s just say it is a therapeutic exercise I learned while reading Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way. Much more on this in a future blog.

After the Morning Pages it’s off to the gym for cardio and weight lifting. After an hour to an hour and a half it’s back to the house for the morning get ready routine and I’m at my desk and ready to take on the world no later than 8 am. That’s right 8 am. You will notice I spent the first 3 hours of the day just doing stuff for me. On day nineteen I’m having a difficult time imagining what my life was like or would be like if I didn’t have this cherished time for myself.

I guess the biggest benefit for me so far is gaining a higher level of consciousness. Which reminds me of that famous scene from the epic motion picture Caddyshack…

Carl Spackler: So I jump ship in Hong Kong and I make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas.

Angie D'Annunzio: A looper?

Carl Spackler: A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald... striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one - big hitter, the Lama - long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga... gunga, gunga-lagunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

I’ve secretly been longing for an opportunity to quote that legendary groundskeeper and hero to all Baby Boomers, Carl Spackler in a blog. I’m just glad I’m receiving consciousness before I’m on my deathbed!

The thirty day challenge is all about creating enough time in my life for me. I think I’m not alone when I say I’ve spent most of my life on the hamster wheel. Runnin and gunnin, blowin and goin – afraid if I stop I will fall behind. What the 30 day challenge has made me realize is that the only way to keep up is to stop and take time for myself. To improve my level of consciousness and live my live more intentionally. To tkake the time to clearly define what I want for the day, for the week, for the year and for my life. As Susan reminds me often, “The way you spend your day is the way you spend your life”. I’m learning through my 30 day challenge experience just how true that is!