My Story

The best way to learn something, is it to teach it.

This is absolutely true. I’ve been working on personal growth for, it seems, my entire life. It wasn’t until the last few years that I seemed to finally get some good traction going. My anonymous personal growth blog of the last 3 years had a lot to do with that, and I decided that after a lifetime of being in the shadows it was time to step out into the spotlight.

Believe me when I tell you this was a very difficult and challenging course of action for me. Downright terrifying, in fact. That said, I’ve a reached a point where putting the rubber on the road is what needs to happen. It’s time to start teaching what I’ve learned in order to really bring it home for myself and take it farther. I’ll make mistakes, but I’ll also succeed.

So who am I? In a high-level overview

• I am what I call a Synthesizer. I have a huge range of interests and a constant curiosity which drives me to keep learning. I take all these different things and synthesize them into something new. The objective is to put knowledge to work, since theory doesn’t really help me in a practical sense.
• I am also a Process Innovator, always seeking new, better, faster, and more accurate ways of doing things. If this means I have to learn a new skill in order to innovate what I see a need for, I have no problem at all doing that.
• I’ve long been a Storyteller, using my stories to give inner work a voice so that I can better examine things. My storyteller is also a huge player in my work with history and using that to understand personal development challenges.
• New to be recognized is that I am a Teacher. This pulls together everything else in order to find the best path to empower the students I am dealing with. Nothing makes me happier than knowing that I have contributed to the success of others.

And now for a real quick biography

The first 7 years of life were spent in Massachusetts, but I mostly grew up in Virginia. I’m unusual for my generation in that I started using computers at the age of 12, when my electrical engineer father brought home our first computer. I wrote my first book on that computer using MEDIT, which predates word processing software and is a parent of HTML. The moment HTML hit the streets, I began building websites and haven’t stopped. I started an online business in ’96 for custom wedding favors, and by 2002 was earning more than a quarter million in revenues and climbing. In 2003, after a divorce, a bankruptcy and some other very hard emotional hits, I left everything and moved to California to start over with just a carload of stuff and a 6 month old German Shepherd puppy. That was it. No savings, no friends, no family, no job waiting, heck not even a place to stay ironed out. I moved across the country in a pure leap of faith. Fortunately, I landed on my feet though it was a hard landing. I know what it’s like to lose everything, but what I learned is that I can recover. All it takes is a willingness to learn from mistakes and a refusal to give up.

My degree is in Medieval history, and you’ll see history related hobbies and interests all over the place. I have learned that understanding where a person or culture has been, makes it much easier to see where they are going. If changes are to be made, they must take into account the historical momentum which is pushing events and choices. That said, I love learning so I’ve been to more than a handful of different colleges taking everything from business and accounting to pattern making and fashion design, even the foundations of an MBA. Consuming classes, workshops, books and seminars is a regular for me and I absolutely love the ability to take top notch training online.

I have a few lifelong hobbies, including: sewing (especially historical garb), horseback riding (gymkhana and medieval style games), a love of animals and a fierce desire to get into canine agility once I find the right dog, and a passion for inner exploration in almost all its forms. New hobbies include financial management (I said ‘never again’ to the mistakes which lead me to bankruptcy court), photography and volunteer audio book work at LiberVox. The only foreign language I can speak is Latin, though I know a handful of phrases in about 8 others. Languages are fun, since they are expressions of the way the mind works for a culture as well as an individual.

You’re likely to see pictures which include a variety of animals, both past and present. I currently have 2 cats, but am looking forward to getting another dog once my elder cat has crossed the Rainbow Bridge. My grumpy girl barely tolerates the other cat as it is, so bringing in a dog would just be torture for her last few years and that I won’t do. The other pictures will be from my travels, and for some reason I love odd patterns and close-up detail shots.

As far as physical, I’ve had lifelong issues with my back beginning with scoliosis for which I wore a full-torso brace from the age of 13 to 21. Picture a Victorian corset, but made of hard plastic. Due to errors in judgement as that young teen, I damaged the SI joint for which I am now paying. The first time my back completely spasmed to the point of being unable to move was about 6 years ago. I work to keep the supporting muscles limber and strong to prevent the back from spasming again, but it is not always successful.

In Conclusion

Typically, it’s easier to tell other people’s stories than my own. It’s a good challenge though. I am sure that this page will change and refine as I figure out how to better frame my story within the context of this blog and the objectives I have for it. All good things take time though, so this is draft one and I’ll keep wordsmithing it until it’s concise and clear. Until then, it’s better to have something done adequately than nothing done perfectly.