Six years ago, I snapped this photo on my way halfway around the world. It would kick off a period of circumnavigating the world for the next six years, more than 250,000 and thirty events annually, reaching tens of thousands with an #alwaysinspiring story of growth and change.
This was the sunset that launched that journey.
Six years before that, I was sitting in my office surrounded by dozens of employees watching the sunset, grateful for the wonderful team we had assembled. For almost a decade they would answer over 30,000 calls a month, deliver 3000 webinars a year and support more than 500,000 sales professionals across America and a half dozen countries. What an effort that was!
Six years before that, I remember a quiet Fall day when I sat in my apartment wondering if my career had come to an end - maybe more than that - as I began the first of every-six-month checkups in the battle against cancer. What a struggle that entailed!
Six somethings ago, we were all someplace else. Six months ago you might have been sitting with clients in their kitchen. Six moons ago you might have been closing the first quarter of your new career, ready with excitement for the rest of the year. Six minutes ago your mind may have been fraught with uncertainty as you doomscrolled your way through this morning's news.
Life changes fast.
And yet the beauty of a sunset is that the sunrise can’t start without it. Day becomes night and night becomes a new day. A curve - six hours to the top then six hours to the rest, then six hours to reflect before we start again in six hours. It has done so for more than six thousand years of recorded history. It will happen again today.
You can count on it.
Six months ago, I took my last flight of this year, although I didn’t know it at the time. Six days later my calendar was wiped out and I was locked in the house. What would the next six hours bring, or the next six days, or months? Who could have guessed?
Then I looked up at this photo, which hangs large in our house, and remembered where I was six years ago and thought: How far I have come - and everyone else, too. Back then the concerns were things like leaving on time, landing safely and being ready to do it again in a few days. Those were the “stresses and challenges” that seemed big and important and the purpose of that day.
My how things would change!
Six months ago, I activated my camera and microphone and an incredible schedule of speaking online. Today marks 150 sessions, 200,000 recorded minutes and tens of thousands reached with a message of rebound and renaissance. When they shut the lights down in Vegas in March, little did I know that it was just another sunset -
An even more exciting adventure was just beginning!
And I suspect the same is true for YOU!