December 1st, 2017. The date of my last blog post. The title of the post was “Burn the Boats”. I talked about the word “decide” meaning “to cut off from.” I encouraged us all to be relentless in our pursuits. To move past the “I can” mindset and into the “I will” mindset.
Ironic, if not hypocritical.
I didn’t decide. I didn’t keep pursuing. My “I can” became an “I should,” rather than an “I will.”
I didn’t burn my boats.
I apologize for my absence, both to you and myself. I have no good or worthy excuse. Trust me, I tried them all on myself and quickly became annoyed.
But, as they say, the past is in the past, and there is no use in dwelling there.
I have decided to come back. To once again pursue my dreams and my calling. I have started speaking again, although quietly and without full confidence, in terms of “I will.”
I have started burning my boats, but they are not yet fully destroyed. I cannot guarantee I won’t try to escape the island again someday.
But, not today. Today, I will start anew in the pursuit of my legacy; the pursuit to use this one life I’ve been given to positively impact the lives of others. I again invite you to join me on this journey.
A journey that I hope will inspire and motivate us. A journey where we can work together to change the world!
In the beginning, I wrote about how legacies matter. I believe they still do! And because of that, I want to make a slight change to the content I write. Let me explain.
Every person we meet has a story to tell. Hidden within those stories are valuable lessons. Lessons about how to overcome, how to cope, how to achieve, and how to change the world!
Through being an emergency physician and doing international mission work, I am constantly meeting and interacting with people of all ages, ethnicities, socio-economic classes, faiths, and stages of life. I interact with them at their worst and at their best. In their happiness and in their grief.
In these moments of interaction, there are lessons to be learned. I have gleaned so much from these lessons and continue to learn from them every day. I want to share their stories and those lessons with you.
All of their lives and legacies are important, not only for their impact in their world, but for the lessons they can teach us so that we may impact our world.
We will revisit some stories from the past, like Michael, Jax, Katie, and Arcadio. We will meet and learn from new people as well. I hope to hear and learn about some of your interactions also!
We can learn so much from people with whom we interact. If we allow it, their lives and stories can deeply impact and shape our own.
My hope for us is that through the stories of the lives and legacies of others, we can finally decide to pursue with reckless abandon the building of our own legacy that matters.
We can finally decide to burn the boats and accomplish all of our hopes and dreams.
