Weekly Wednesday Inspiration #41

By Jaime Willis


Leslie, one of my teammates at Camp Mighty did the below visual journal entry of the talk Brian Piotrowicz did at Camp Mighty.  I love this so much, I've got it hanging on my wall at work.

The big takeaway from Brian's talk for me was learning to Set Your Intention.  Every day. For every decision.  When you live your life intentionally, you add focus and direction to all of your actions.  You infuse your daily life with things that you value.  You are happier.  You are more fulfilled.  You are you.

How can you be intentional today?

By Leslie from lightsandletters.com

Camp Mighty update, part 1

By Jaime Willis

Even though I was super excited to go to Camp Mighty, my excitement was equalled by nervousness. Camp Mighty attracted a "best of the best" blogger crowd -- big names that were pretty intimidating to think I'd be mingling and goal-setting with. I was definitely worried that I'd stick out like a sore thumb as a "nobody."

So, I talked to my coach about it on Tuesday while I was in LA. After a fair amount of coaching, she helped me set the intention to "be powerfully motivated and impacted and to powerfully motivate and impact others." I also decided to think of Camp as going in and meeting my friends (that I'd never met) before.

Boyo, did Camp Mighty deliver. On Thursday evening, we had a sort of ice-breaking 'meet and greet' dinner. I arrived at the tent at 7:05pm (the longest I could hold back in the "fashionably late" category), and NO ONE was there.

"Wow," I thought. "These ladies must be serious fashionistas."

I went back to my hotel room, watched another episode of House Hunters on HGTV (I don't have a TV at home, so it was a bit of a guilty pleasure to watch HGTV all weekend).

At 7:40pm, I went back to the tent and a smattering of people were there -- maybe three or four. I thought, "Ok. I don't know what's going on, but let's do this."

I went in with smile on my face and said, "Hi!" A woman greeted me with a pleasant, but quizzical look.

"Is this Camp Mighty?" I asked.

"Ah," she said, "You are in the wrong place -- let me walk you to the commune."

(Seriously. It's called the Commune. Camp Mighty was held at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs, which is a very popular renovated Howard Johnson in the mid-century modern style. It's pretty much Hipster Mecca, so of course the property has yurts and a commune, and each room comes equipped with Joseph and the Technicolor Coat robes, a walking stick and two crystals.)

We walked around the hotel to the commune, where, at 7:45pm, the party was in FULL swing. First, I was afraid of being too early, but now I *knew* I was coming in late. Bummer.

I looked around the room for a minute from the comfort of the buffet. Bam! There's Jon and Heather. There's Maggie and Laura. There's Holly. There's AB Chao. Alice. Eden. Heather Spohr's brilliantly red hair stood out in the crowd.

I almost wanted to pinch myself. Am I seriously here? In this room? With these cool people? Wow! I found a smaller, less occupied table and bravely introduced myself to the two attendees who were sitting there, Anna and Sara. They also came to Camp Mighty alone and we spent some time gushing about how nervexciting it was to be here.

And then, the networking began! I met Keryn that night who became my partner in crime the entire weekend. An events planner for Pop Tech, Keryn is the living embodiment of Tinker Bell. She's tiny -- a dancer's body, a pixie haircut, a penchant for large beaded necklaces, and a permanent twinkle in her eye. She's the kindest person -- so incredibly nice, in fact, I think she could successfully rehabilitate the hardest of criminals in a single conversation. She taught elementary school prior to her current gig, so we geeked out a bit on education reform & coaching before we decided to mingle more.

I sat down at the table with my Team Two teammates. I met Jules, who has this amazing smile that makes you want her to like you, just so she'll smile at you more. She was so polished looking that night (and throughout the whole conference). I envy people who can wear a suit jacket with style, as I always feel both incredibly stifled by the structured cut and a bit of a faker -- "I'm not adult enough to wear a suit jacket," I think. She's a non-practicing lawyer (like me) and I swear lawyers must have some innate attributes in common because I could just tell we'd been through the same hell that is law school.

The night begins to blur a bit after this -- The TonTons came on and did an awesome set. I sat down next to Holly and took a picture of her and Anna Beth, who were wearing matching Navy-striped shirts. I even danced a bit. And then, I collapsed back into my room into an almost instantaneous sleep.

To be continued.....

(p.s. I'm posting this from a hotel room in San Antonio, where I am going to another awesome conference. The wifi here is clocking in at late '90s internet speeds, so I apologize for the lack of pictures with this post. I'll update it with photos next week and then you can come back at read it again!)

Weekly Wednesday Inspiration #39

By Jaime Willis

Last week, I had the awesome privilege of attending Camp Mighty.  While I can't wait to share all of the stories I have from that great experience, I wanted to give you a brief preview of one of the inspirational speakers I saw there.

Kenna, a grammy-nominated musician, born in Ethiopia and raised in Virginia Beach, Va, was inspired to do something BIG for clean water a few years ago.  When Kenna goes big, he goes BIG.  Check out the climb he put together with 42 people, including actress Jessica Biel, to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise money & awareness for clean water. (Seriously -- the web page reenacting the climb is AWESOME).

Hear from Kenna why clean water is so important to him.

Hear from Water.org cofounder Matt Damon on the water crisis:

If this story inspired you like it did me, consider liking Water.org and Charity:Water on Facebook, donating money, spreading the word about the world water crisis, or volunteering your time!

At Camp!

By Jaime Willis

Hello Reader! Hello Blogger!
Here I am at Camp Mighty (roar)!
Camp is very entertaining!
And they say we'll have some fun today even if it's raining!

I met some great friends at last night's dinner --
Everyone here is such a winner!
Today's schedule is full of fun things to do --
I'm so excited to share them with you!

I have to go now -- breakfast is calling.
I'm sure by the weekend's end, I'll be balling -
So happy to have met new friends,
and so sad to leave them when this ends.

Help Me, Help You, Help Others...

By Jaime Willis

As I mentioned last week, I am going to be attending Camp Mighty in just under two weeks.   Part of our homework assignment is to raise $200 for Charity: Water.  I didn't know a thing about Charity: Water until this assignment, but man, is this organization cool.  In the "teaching people to fish" vein, Charity: Water funds water projects that help people in developing nations that don't have access to clean water get it.  They don't just ship over pallets of bottled water -- they build wells.  Right now, they are fund raising to buy more drilling rigs and other machinery that is required for well-making.  It's not enough that they are drilling wells, they want to drill faster.  This is truly a scalable model for sustainability and a truly worthy cause.

If you are interested, take three and a half minutes of your time to watch their video:

I've been a little lax in my fundraising efforts thus far, but that is about to change.  I am raffling off an iPad (1st Generation) to raise money for Charity Water.  This is my old iPad, so it is used, although still in great shape.  It's a 64 GB 3g + wifi iPad and it comes with it's own case and usb charger.  It was $900 when I bought it last year, and the used versions are going for $400 - 500 on eBay right now. But you could win it for $5!  How awesome would that be?  (AWESOME.) 

For $5, you will have one chance to win the iPad.  How?  Go to Paypal.com, and buy as many raffle tickets as you'd like between now and 12:00pm (noon) EST Friday, November 4th.  I'll randomly pick a winner (using a random number generator) at 12:00pm and announce the winner here on our blog.  

You win either way -- each raffle ticket will help Charity: Water bring more clean water to those in need, and you may even get a iPad and I complete my Camp Mighty homework!  Win - Win - Win!  

Don't like iPads, but want to help?  Check out what my teammates are doing to raise money:

Eden is raffling off jewelry, a cool camera, and an Amazon gift card here.

Amy is raffling off a $25 gift card, homemade brownies, a mixed CD, and other stuff here.  

Lisa is selling some awesome artwork here.

Erica is baking banana bread in exchange for donations here.

Linz is offering 20% off her design services (logos, t-shirts, and more) here. 

Alison is selling greeting cards here. 

Leslie is giving away prints of your choosing for your donations here. 

Andrea of Four Flights of Fancy is selling ad space on her blog here. 

Christine and Asha are teaming up to raffle off a $350 gift basket here or here. 

My Life List

By Jaime Willis

A few years ago, veteran blogger and internet maven Maggie Mason decided to write a Life List.  This isn't a new idea, and Maggie certainly wasn't trying to start a revolution -- she just wanted a list of things that she could accomplish written out for her and her readers to see.  The difference with Maggie's Life List is that she's doing it.  Making plans, big and small, to cross off items on her life list.  Her Life List truly has taken on a life of its own -- companies have sponsored some of her items and she created an  'summit' to bring together some of her favorite internet friends together in person to life-list-it together.

This year, Maggie went even further.  With her partner in crime, The Queso's Laura Mayes, they've created "Camp Mighty."  Camp Mighty is a three-day 150 people super-summit for regular folks to tackle their life lists in a really neat way.

Of course, I'm going.

I'll be honest -- I'm so excited to be a part of this because Maggie and Laura are so fun in their blogs, I'm certain they'll be as fun in person.  But I'm also a little bit nervous.  I'm not bringing anyone with me -- so it'll be just like real camp -- walking into a room with a 150 strangers and hoping you walk out with 150 (or at least one or two!) great friends.

One of our homework assignments is to create (or update) our Life List.  Since I've never really sat down and written a full list of awesome things I want to do, I'm creating mine now.

And, fair warning, I'm going to cheat a little bit to add in some of the really cool things I've already accomplished that I'm pretty proud of. I'm sure I'll be adding and subtracting, but here's what I have so far.

Jaime's Life List

Travel/Location

1. Visit all seven continents (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, Antarctica) 

2. Visit all fifty U.S. States (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming)

3. Visit the top 50 cities in the Foreign Policy Index (New York, London, Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong, Chicago, Los Angeles, Singapore, Sydney, Seoul, Brussels, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Toronto, Beijing, Berlin, Madrid, Vienna, Boston, Shanghai, Buenos Aires, Stockholm, Zurich, Moscow, Barcelona, Dubai, Rome, Amsterdam, Mexico City, Montreal, Geneva, Miami, Munich, Sao Paolo, Bangkok, Copenhagen, Houston, Taipai, Atlanta, Istanbul, Milan, Cairo, Dublin, New Delhi, Mumbai, Osaka, Kuala Lumpur, Rio de Janeiro, Tel Aviv)

4. Visit at least 50 countries (Antigua, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbardos, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, England, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, South Korea, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Monaco, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Northern Ireland, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, Samoa, San Marino, Scotland, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad, Turkey, Ukraine, United States, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Vatican City, Venezuela, Vietnam, Wales)

5. Live in New York City (at least part time).  

6. Buy a cottage in Michigan. 

Health

1.  Reach Goal Weight (-35 lbs from today's weight); Maintain it (+/- 10 lbs) for 2 years in a row.  (I've reached the goal weight in question in 2009, but didn't keep it off.  I'd like to get down there again and keep it off!) Total weight lost: -25 | -50 | -75 | -100 | -125  | -150

2.  Run, run, run! (5k, 8k, 10k, 15k (Running Hot Chocolate 15k in December 2011), Half-Marathon, Sprint Triathlon, International Triathlon, 50 10ks in 2011)

3.  Be stronger!  (50 real pushups in a row (10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50),  1 pull-up, 100 sit-ups in a row, 3-min plank)

Education

1. Graduate! (Bachelors, Juris Doctor, Masters, Medical Doctor (I know this one is not likely to happen unless I get fabulously wealthy, but I don't want to give up all hope!)) 

2.  Credentials (Pass New York Bar Exam, Get Sworn In, Get ELI-MP Certified, Get Associate Certified Coach Credential) 

Finances

1. Pay off Student Loans.

2.  Have eight months of savings. 

3.  Buy a house. 

4. Pay cash for a car. 

5. Be able to work for myself full-time. 

6. Buy some real artwork for my house (Done and Done!). 

Cool Experiences

1.  Zipline through the rain forest of Costa Rica. 

2. Climb the Wallace Monument in Scotland. 

3. Watch the sunset in Oia, Greece.

4. See the Sistine Chapel.

5. Touch a real Van Gogh (don't tell, but I touched it very carefully!). 

6. See inside a Volcano (at Pompei and New Mexico). 

7. Visit the remains of Pompei. 

8.  See Stonehenge. 

9.  Ride a camel to the Egyptian Pyramids.

10.  Ride a boat in Cambodia. 

11. Have a hot-air balloon ride.

12.  Take a class at Trapeze School. 

13.  Parasail over a Tropical Island. 

14.  Take a Zero-G ride.

15.  Go on a vacation with the whole big family. 

16.  See Wootstock live. 

17.  See a TED talk live.

18.  Be on a Oprah show. 

19.  Be interviewed by the Today Show.

20.  Write a book.  (Want to write another one though). 

21.  Take a flight booked the same day.

22.  Try Parkour. 

23.  Rappel down something.

24.  Run an obstacle course confidently. 

25.  Play in a Scrabble Tournament.

26.  Run the bases at Yankee Stadium.

27.  Make cookies with my nephews.

28.  Visit the first Starbucks store. 

29.  Spend a summer at the beach. 

30.  Set up a college scholarship.

31.  Make a (silver jewelry) ring from scratch.

32.  Chase a Tornado. 

33.  Eat at a 4-star restaurant, watch a Broadway show, and stay in a glitzy hotel in New York City. 

34. Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.

35. See the Northern Lights. 

36. Do a talk in front of a crowd of 1,000+.

37.  Pick a lock. 

38.  Be quoted.

39.  Learn at least one dance. 

40.  Take a painting class.

41. Climb Dumyat.