I’m working away on the narratives for The Geronimo Project, my new online writing project that celebrates people who took big leaps in their careers and want to share their stories to inspire others. I’ve been kicking around this writing project for a while and on Leap Day I put out the call into the world. I’m astounded by the interest and the truly inspiring stories that have come my way since. The project will launch formally in late April.
While hunting around for some images on Pinterest to go with the posts, I came across this quote from Steve Jobs, one of my Geronimo heroes (and one of my favorite yogis of all time). He was the king of people who took big career leaps of faith. The quote is pulled from his commencement address at Stanford shortly after his pancreatic cancer diagnosis. It still gives me chills. You may be thinking Steve was super human and that’s why he could afford to live this philosophy. He wasn’t. He was simply and wonderfully a man of conviction. He had guts, and lots of it.
One of my favorite lines is “Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. “ We do this all the time. Too often we settle for living with the consequences of the actions of others rather than the consequences we create. Stop. Just stop. Go live your life, on your terms.
Steve didn’t wait to follow his heart. We shouldn’t either. The clock is ticking.
I went to an event yesterday and in all of the ending hoopla, the organizer asked everyone to join him in signing up for his new mission. To be entirely fair, I applaud people who put themselves out there and clearly explain who they are, what they care about, and what they intend to do. I wish more people were as transparent as this organizer.
That said, I didn’t sign. I actually left the event early. I was criticized a bit for it, but I didn’t mind. I knew in my heart it was the right thing to do. While I respect the transparency of this organizer, we just aren’t on the same page. Our values don’t fall in line together so I know our roads will be taking different directions.
A few years ago, my former boss and mentor, Bob G., said something that I think about almost every day. “You always get to choose what bus you want to be on.” The problem with deeply studying yoga is that it leads us to deeply study ourselves – who we are when we strip away every title, every accomplishment (and failure), every relationship, every part of our history. Yoga is about knowing our true essence, about knowing the company we keep in the empty moments. And in this intense study, we find that we can only be true to our heart. We cannot be on a bus that we don’t want to ride. Our bodies and minds literally don’t allow it.
Yoga forces us to return to our true home, to the place where we belong in a very deep and meaningful way. We lose the ability to fake it. We lose the ability to lie, to ourselves and to anyone else. All we can do is live the truth, our truth. We can’t conform to someone else’s expectations. All we can do is live up to our own.
It’s a wonderful problem to have, but it’s not always the easiest path to walk. And instead of lamenting the difficulty, I encourage you to embrace it. Look in, way in, and see what’s there. Get on the path and walk it. It’s the only way forward.
I recently had a small group of people over to my house. As I was drafting up my grocery / to-do list, I wrote down “buy ice.” And then I started laughing. I have a freezer. I have ice cube trays. Did I really need to buy ice? No – I had everything I needed. I just had to take the time to fill the trays with water a few times and then crack the ice into a bowl.
We play this game with ourselves all the time. We put off doing what we really want to do because we need more – more training, more money, more contacts, more experience, more time. We have enough. We are enough. We have everything we need to get going right now. Sure, it’s scary. It’s a risk to let go of the familiar, to go off the well-planned, well-worn path. But that’s all it is – scary. It’s not impossible and we’re not incapable in any way. It’s going to take work but we can make it happen.
So many people have stories of a breaking point – an illness, a loss, a tragedy – that awakened them to the passion of their lives. I certainly do. All of a sudden we realize in a very real, non-negotiable way that our lives are finite, that we only get one time around in this form, and that it’s our obligation and deep responsibility to make the most of it.
Don’t wait for the breaking point. Breathe in and breathe out. The anticipation of leaping is much scarier than the leap itself. So gather up your courage and know that whatever you need to get your dreams to take flight, you already have. “Sometimes you just have to take a leap and build your wings on the way down.” (Kobi Yamada)
Hoffman was photographed at his home in Los Angeles in January by Hedi Slimane.
“And just how long have we got the magic?”~ Dustin Hoffman to his cinematographer regarding the last hour of daylight for filming
Today I’m off to SXSW 2012. I’m excited to be teaching and speaking about the benefits of yoga and meditation for the start-up / tech community. This will be my second year attending as a presenter, and I’m so honored to be a part of the celebration. While many people are sent on behalf of their companies, I’ll be there independently and ready to be inspired by anything and anyone who crosses my path. I feel so much excitement and anticipation of good, good things to come from this experience.
And all the while I’ll be thinking about Dustin Hoffman.
The New York Times featured this mammoth film figure last weekend as he hit the beginner button again. At 74, he is making his directorial debut with Quartet. Termed “a joyful movie about old age”, it explores how four once-famous opera singers have one last opening night by putting together a concert at their retirement home. Is Hoffman scared about starting over, taking this kind of turn in his career at 74?
“I do believe in luck myself,” he says, “but also in fate — it’s a duality. They had been working on ‘The Graduate’ for two years or something. They had a script and were casting, and I was at the end of the list. They had been through the Redfords and all those people. So in a sense, it has all been an accident.”
So if it’s all an accident any way, then what is there to lose? It’s like every win is just gravy and every loss is just another way to learn. And this is a wonderful reminder as I head for Austin and SXSW, a gathering of people who are taking on the role of beginner every day, exploring, experimenting, and with every action trying to make the world a little bit better than it was yesterday. This is the Tao of Hoffman in action – the magic is only going to be around for just so long and it’s our responsibility to make the best of it while we have it.
My house is full of lists – things to do, places to go – far and near, people to contact, things to buy, things to look into. You name the task, and I bet I have a list for it.
Over the past few months as I’ve started my journey to make The Leap into entrepreneurship and a new way to live my working life, I’ve been kicking around an idea that began to take root yesterday, appropriately enough on Leap Day. The timing couldn’t have been more synchronous. Introducing The Geronimo Project, a community of people who took The Leap and share their stories to inspire others.
Back in 2009, I started a column on entrepreneurship for Examiner.com to showcase inspiring entrepreneurs. The column did very well and I wrote a free e-book (please download and share!) to highlight the interviews that were most meaningful to me in my quest to get inside the entrepreneurial mindset. I’ve missed conducting and writing those interviews and since closing out the column in 2010 I’ve wanted to find a way to continue that journey to celebrate the brave people who took a chance to realize their dreams. Also, I’ve become increasingly interested in finding a way to begin doing more video and podcast work. Wrap all that up with my love of teaching (yoga, meditation, personal finance, personal action plans) and it becomes The Geronimo Project.
The site and Twitter feed are incredibly bare bones as I work behind the scenes to bring it all to life. And here’s where I can use your help!
Have you taken The Leap from a stale day job into a career that you love? Do you know someone who did? Did you read an interesting article or see a news clip that highlighted someone who took The Leap? Have you got links to resources, ideas, and advice that you think would be valuable to someone considering the Leap? Do you know someone I should connect with? Send all your ideas on over via email or Twitter – your choice. The more the merrier.
“When you are inspired by some great purpose … dormant forces, faculties, and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.” ~ Patanjali
I’m not sure how or why the world conspires to grow great ideas.
I have seen in my own life that when I’m inspired by a mission, a mission that seems greater than I can contain on my own, the resources to bring it to life show up in the most unusual places. I wished to move back to New York City after I graduated from Darden to work in product development. Once I committed to moving, the pieces finally aligned after months of effort. When I deeply wanted to find my teaching purpose, Compass Yoga fought its way from just a tiny seed in my mind to a growing organization of people passionate about improving the health of New York’s under-served communities.
The support for my personal missions has come from sources that I never even imagined were possible, much less probable. I work hard to find them, to prepare myself for a lucky break, though I’m still always surprised when that lucky break arrives. Relationships that I thought were long-since withered away find another bloom. Talents I never thought I could cultivate become so prevalent that it’s as if someone else is performing them. I’m often surprised that my own story resonates so soundly with others, and so I keep telling it, hoping that it opens the door for someone else to dream and do.
So why should this latest jump I’m planning be any different? I have no proof to the contrary. The odds of the way opening are up to me. I just need to believe, and then act accordingly. I’m willing to bet that the same is true for you, too.
Emma Stone, Viola David, and Octavia Spencer in The Help
“Write about something that bothers you and nobody else.” ~ The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The holiday slew of movies at the box office makes this one of my favorite times of year. I love going to the movies, watching movies on my couch, on a plane, or in an outdoor venue. One of my favorites this year was The Help, based upon Kathryn Stockett’s wonderful novel.
The heroine, Skeeter, wants very much to be a writer. (I can relate.) A publisher in New York gives her just one piece of advice – write about something that bothers you and nobody else. In other words, find what gives you pain and invent something to alleviate that pain. Pain in its many forms – anger, angst, anxiety, sadness, disappointment, heartbreak, injustice – is useful for writers and innovators. There’s genius in there.
I founded Compass Yoga on this same philosophy – simply, I was irritated. I’m glad that there are so many beautiful, shiny studios in New York City for people like me to take classes. What really bugs the heck out of me is that there aren’t a lot of places for people to go if they don’t have the financial or physical means and the confidence to take that first step. I’m also highly irritated that there isn’t more scientific research about the benefits of yoga in treating disease.
It’s terrific that 16 million Americans practice yoga. What about the other 291 million, especially those who don’t even know how much they could benefit from yoga because no one told them it could help? Who’s going to get to them and teach them and help them? And why are we so astounded and pleased that a measly 5% of Americans practice yoga when 100% of Americans could benefit from it? And why on Earth doesn’t it seem to bother anyone else? You see, my irritation is readily evident. And growing, right along with the Compass Yoga business plan.
People sometimes ask me what my big, audacious, out-of-this-world goal is with Compass Yoga. My answer: I’m going to get to those other 291 million people and at least give them the chance to give yoga a whirl. We, as individuals and as a society, have so much to gain and all I’ve got to lose is my irritation. It worked for Skeeter and this thinking can work for all of us.
Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett in The Mountaintop
“Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop.
And I don’t mind.
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!” ~ Dr. Martin Luther King
My friend, Pam, insisted that I see The Mountaintop, a play that chronicles the fictional last night of Dr. Martin Luther King’s life, which he spends speaking with a maid at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Angela Bassett is stunning in her immersion into her character, exhibiting a wide-reaching array of emotions from one moment to the next. (She’ll be getting a Tony nod, no doubt.) Samuel L. Jackson played Samuel L. Jackson, and I really wanted him to play Martin Luther King. Surely, he is capable of it, right? Why was he directed to be so, well, normal? Where was Martin Luther King, the most inspiring speaker in recent history?
I mulled this over from the moment he stepped on stage. And then Aretha Franklin sat down next to me, a few minutes after the lights went down. She is the closest we have to royalty in the this country. And she is regal. Elegant. And reserved. When the lights came up after the bows, I stood up, smiled wide and wished her a good evening. She smiled wide and nodded. People all around us noticed her – there is no way to mistake her for anyone else – and she quickly sat back down. She is after all, just a woman watching a show that her friends are performing.
It struck me how ironic it would be that I would be watching the story of one legend while seated next to another. We expect a lot of public figures. We do expect them to be perfect at every turn, to inspire us, impress us, and all the while maintain constant composure. We hold them to impossible standards, standards we never meet, standards we never even attempt.
In The Mountaintop, Dr. King talks about how death doesn’t look or feel the way he thought it would. It wasn’t what he expected. And death responds, “You’re not what I expected, Preacher King.” And then I realized what Samuel L. Jackson was doing in addition to playing Samuel L. Jackson. He was showing us the fear and the humanity of a man who we have canonized when in truth he was just a man. A dedicated, passionate, empowered man, with flaws and doubts and inconsistencies.
Dr. King has inspired generations of people around the world, and he did what all of us can do and few of us actually do. He picked up the baton and ran with it, passing it off when his time had come. How many of us will have the courage to do the same?
Upon the very strong advice of my friend and mentor, Richard, I bought a ticket to see the Metropolitan Opera’s final performance of Satyagraha (“truth force” in Sanskrit), an opera by Philip Glass that tells the story of Gandhi’s life in South Africa through the ancient Hindu text of the Bhagavad Gita. The Gita is also one of the primary teaching tools in yoga classes and in yoga teacher trainings. Yogis live by its lessons.
The visual representation and innovative use of puppetry in Satyagraha was stunning. The lighting and sound of Sanskrit (rarely heard today in this country, save for the occasional phrase in a yoga studio) set to music lit up all of my senses while also giving me a true sense of peace and resolve. I was in a very meditative state during the entire production. In the program, I learned that it took over 10 years of tireless effort by Philip Glass and his collaborators to complete.
The Gandhi we know who changed the world with his campaigns of nonviolent resistance against social injustice spent over 2 decades testing and refining his methods in South Africa after facing fierce personal discrimination. His movement began on an incredibly small-scale and remained small for years. It was his persistence and absolute confidence in his mission that brought him to prominence and influence.
Satyagraha was a particularly personal performance for me on a number of levels:
Yoga
I went on December 1st, the 19th anniversary of my father’s passing. The circumstances of his life and death have fueled my own yoga journey and the healing found along that journey spurred my desire to teach and to form Compass Yoga.
South Africa
While I was a graduate student at the Darden School, I went to South Africa as part of a cultural exchange class. For many years, I dreamed of going to Africa. As an elementary school student, I was fascinated by learning about the cultures there and somehow felt as though I oddly belonged in Africa even though I was very young and had never even left the East Coast of the US, much less traveled to Africa. For me, South Africa was a dream and I hope to return someday. Perhaps to even live there for some time.
India
In May, my friend, Rob, and I will be traveling to India on another long-overdue trip of a lifetime. India is the seat of so much philosophical history and the root of yoga. I expect it to be one of those places that changes me forever, how I see the world and how I see myself in this world.
Gandhi’s Lesson: Do or Don’t
Choosing to begin and undertake an auspicious project – whether it is a mission of social justice or an opera that chronicles the life of a towering historical figure through an ancient text in a language that few people understand – takes courage and faith. There are moments of grave doubt, fear, and anxiety for all people who choose to live a life of meaning and service to the greater good. What separates those from those who do and those who don’t is that those who do see something that bothers them, really bothers them, and decide that they have within themselves the ability, endurance, and dedication to generate great change.
It really is that simple – either we do or we don’t. We get the lives that we have the guts to begin and create.
“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” ~ Leonard Cohen, poet, novelist, and singer-songwriter
We don’t start a business because our plan isn’t perfect. We don’t invite people over to our homes because our decorating isn’t quite done. We shelter our writing, canvas, or song because it isn’t just right. An addiction to perfection is what keeps us from sharing and asks that we hold ourselves to an impossible standard. We will never be perfect and nothing we make or do or witness will ever be perfect. Perfection is unnatural.
Whenever I feel the little monster of perfection hopping up on my shoulder, tugging at my hear, and whispering counterproductive, sour nothings into my ear, I remind myself of Leonard Cohen’s beautiful sentiment. We needs these cracks and flaws much more than we realize.
So start that business on the side, have people over to your home, and share your art with others at every step of the way in its creation. We are all in the process of becoming – it’s a very human thing to do. In becoming, there is always something just a bit out-of-place and we must learn to love each other, and ourselves, for those glaring, exquisite imperfections.
Christa Avampato 