Wifi on flights and trains is starting to become common place. It worries me because flights and train rides used to be the only places were I was forced to unplug from everything and just stare out the window. The allure of the next great email is just to powerful to ignore for too long if I know I have access. As one psychologist put it: 

“What the Internet does is stimulate our reward systems over and over with tiny bursts of information (tweets, status updates, e-mails) that … can be delivered in more varied and less predictable sequences. These are experiences our brains did not evolve to prefer, but [they are] like drugs of abuse…”

But when I don’t have access, it doesn’t matter. I get time to daydream. To wonder. To be with my own thoughts, at my own pace. All of which is extremely beneficial for the brain.

But of course now, there’s Gmail Offline so when I’m “stuck” on a flight for two hours, now I can burn through my inbox instead of stare out the window because, on paper, that seems to be more productive.

Soon, I suspect I’ll have unlimited access to wifi anywhere I go. The allure will be to always check in. The real skill then is to learn how to check out. With every new technology comes opportunities and challenges. This generation is going to have to learn the skill of checking out whereas their parents didn’t have to learn it because it was given to them whether they wanted it or not. Maybe purposeful checking out will end up being a good thing because we’ll value the time more because it was our choice to check out instead of being forced to check out.

Last month I went on a ski trip with friends to Mount Snow. It was my first time at Mount Snow and only my second time skiing in many years. Growing up in a flat-land state, Illinois, didn’t provide many opportunities to ski beyond the local converted garbage hills.

I like skiing, and now that ACbert and I live on the East Coast, we’re making it a point to get better since there are plenty more opportunities to ski here than back in the Land of Lincoln.

To challenge myself on this year’s ski trip, I went down a blue hill that was narrow and steep. Mid-way down the slope, I braced for a hard fall as I lost control and wobbled on my skis. In my mind I kept saying, “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.” I knew it was going to hurt. Yard sale, here we come!

But then, just as I thought I was going to fall, I caught myself and regained balanced. I was safe.

When I got to the bottom of the run, my legs were still shaking from nerves.

“Oh shit” moments happen when you go past your comfort zone, when you do something that may, or may not go well, but based on your skill level you should be able to successfully complete and live to tell about.

Trying something that is too far beyond your skill level brings you into the danger zone because either you will get seriously physically hurt or mentally/emotional over whelmed with the difficulty of the task that it becomes depressing. In skiing, this would be like me trying a double black diamond slope.

If it were a video game and I just completed Level 1, replaying Level 1 would be my comfort zone, playing Level 2, 3, or 4 would be my growth zone, and anything past Level 4 would be my Danager Zone. If life were a video game, no one would think about sitting around in Level 1, but so many do.

Too few people push themselves into “oh shit” growth moments because it’s a lot easier to not. But growth, and thus life, happens during the “oh shit.”

Without a doubt, ACbert and I have the perpetual travel bug. I suspect she has the bug more than me because she enjoys all the planning leading up to the actual trip. Much of the fun for her is in discovering the perfect location at the perfect price. I just like the trip.

Our trips, however, aren’t how most people travel. Instead of a vacation, we call it a relocation. Instead of seven to ten days of solid vacation where we say goodbye, unplug, and turn on our email vacation auto-responders, we bring our laptops, only rent places that include internet, stay much longer, and continue to do work as usual, except our “office” view is much different and breaks/evenings/weekends are filled with adventure. Even little things like buying cereal are new and exciting if you are in a different country. You’d be surprised how remote you can get and still get internet. While in the past we’ve done an eight month relocation, the last two trips were a month each and that feels about right.

One of our life themes (kinda like goals but more a way of living verses an end point) is what we call The 3-2-1 Traveling Plan. What it means is that every year we do three extended weekend trips, two week trips, and one month relocation.

We’ve already started 2012 off strong with our January relocation to Utila, Honduras and an extended weekend trip to Vermont to ski with friends and another extended weekend trip with friends in the works.

So now back to Utila. It’s a tiny island off the coast of Honduras. Roatan is its bigger brother and where most people who come to the area go. We went one step further by riding on Captain Vern’s catamaran to and from Utila. The island is only seven miles long but has some of the world’s best diving and snorkeling. We spent the majority of our time about two miles outside of “town” in a tiny 250 square foot hut with 280 degree ocean views, and sounds, waking us up and putting us to sleep. We had more adventures than I have time to write about, so instead, below is a list of our highlights. If one sticks out to you, next time we see each other, ask and I’ll share.

• Taca Airlines Breakfast Service
• Seat Upgrades?
• 2 Hour Wait for Captain Vern
• Expat Robert Johnson (sand flies, cocaine, and toothless)
• Captain Vern’s ‘Front Row’ Seat
• A Whale!
• NYC Cable TV?!?
• Bogart The Cat
• R.J.’s Bar & Grill
• Booze Hound R.J.
• Another Rumanade Please
• The Locals
• Kid Golf Cart Drivers
• Caskets And A Dental Check Up
• Doh! Forgot the Kindle Cable
• Cheap Beer is Cheap Beer
• Imperial Wins Best In Show
• The Island Costco Run
• Country Music Shopping
• The Wednesday’s Boat
• Avocado Everything
• The Bootleg Library
• Island Mas
• Island Annie
• Mary Lee’s Tuk Tuk
• Morning Sunrise
• Bed By 9, Up By 6
• The Bug Infestation (Chuckie)
• “Are we over 500 Lemperia?”
• Eastwood the Eagle Ray
• Paloopa The Dog
• “Paloopa, Don’t Eat My Throw Up!”
• Paloopa Walking To Town
• Sally? Her Name Is Sally?
• $150,000 For All Tradewinds
• Plastic Washed-up Everywhere
• Cocktails On The Palapa
• Icabad, Ebob, Half-Tail, and Petey The Iguanas
• Jingle –> “Annie Colbert Expert Iguana Spotters”
• Tom’s Wealth Of Iguana Knowledge
• Land Crabs
• The Broken Sandal Walk
• Our Electronic Hiding Places
• The Moving Ghost Chairs
• Random Power Outages
• Joshua’s Camera
• Island Time
• Gill the Gecko
• Gecko Poop
• La Hucho Gang
• Bat Swram
• Instagram it!
• The Electrical Shower Handle
• Hopeful Hitchhikers
• Me Casa, Su Casa (Private Property)
• Too Many Drinks At El Picante (John)
• NPR Is Sponsored By The New School and Porgy and Bess
• Toasted Tortilla Shells
• Finally Natural Peanut Butter!
• The Biggest Chip Bag Ever
• Sh*t Mas Says
• Sh*t Annie Says
• Millie The Macaw
• “Is The Water Calm Today?”
• Butterball Turkeys
• Baby Crabs On The Curb Scramble
• The Water Shortage
• Where The Heck Is Coral View!
• The Secret of Coral View
• Societal Division At The Public Beach
• Hammock Work Day
• Oatmeal Mask
• “I Just Got Stung 3 Times, One In The Lip.”
• Roundtrip Private Island Snorkel #Fail
• The Pelicans Are Taunting You
• “Banana Spiders Are Harmless.”
• Jellyfish Killed My Wife
• Haircut On The Palapa
• Plata, The Local Rum ($2 Liters)
• Our Prisoner Passenger
• Let’s Play, Where’s The Shotgun?
• Stained White Diving Shirt
• “Can Glen Adopt Me?”
• “Now That We’re Heading Home…”(Cockroach & Spider)
• Bu-Bye Utila, Hu-Low 200 Student Leaders (Pace University)

ACbert and I are now 26 days into our month long “relocation” in Utila, Honduras, and I thought it appropriate to share another edition (here’s Part 1) of the joyful oddities of this island paradise.

1) Country Music Serenade

The main grocery store in town is owned and operated by locals, but don’t expect to find any local music playing while shopping. Instead they will serenade your ears with classic recordings of country greats like “Waltz Across Texas” by Ernest Tubb and “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” by Waylon Jennings.

2) Cornflakes Meatballs

When I think of all the wonderful ways to consume cornflakes, meatballs and salmon loaf might be somewhere near the never part of my list. But FANS doesn’t think so, so they printed the recipes right on their box. Between Part 1 and Part 2, you’d think I was hating on FANS, but turns out they are a modern company and even have their own website.

3)  Cruising The Strip in a Pimped-out Golf Cart

Utila has one main road with zero traffic signs and no legal driving age. Couple that with the fact that people own Golf Carts to get around and you now know what most of the kids in town do for fun. They cruise the strip in their pimped-out golf carts. Ok, their carts aren’t pimped out, but ACbert and I would love to bring the pictured cart above to Utila and cruise the strip in style…

4) Paloopa our Friend

She’s (actually might be a hermaphrodite) covered in ticks, will bite your feet, go crazy after touching salt water, and might have a mild case of rabies, but if you can get past all that, she’s extremely cute and loving. She comes to check on us 2-3 times a day…every day. She just wants love. This picture is the only time during the whole trip she wasn’t moving so fast that we couldn’t snap a picture! We named her Paloopa on our own because we didn’t know her real name, but yesterday, I met her owner (an expat) and found out her real name is…drum roll…Sally :-/.

5) Avocado Heaven

If I could inject a steady stream of only two food items into my body to live off of, it would be peanut butter and avocados. I love avocados, but in NY they are, at best, $2 per avocado. In avocado heaven, also known as Utila, Honduras, they are just under .50cents for each perfectly rip creamy avocado! You better believe we’ve been figuring out ways to incorporate avocado into every meal.

ACbert and I are now 17 days into our month long “relocation” in Utila, Honduras, and I thought it appropriate to start sharing some of the joyful oddities we’re discovering.

1) Do You Have a Costco Membership?

Once a week (Wednesdays) a boat arrives on the island filled with supplies from the main land that then populates the various store shelves. The funny thing is that most of the product sent over is Costco brand. On Wikipedia it shows the closest Costco locations are in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Florida. I can only image someone going to Costco to buy produce for an entire island of people. That’s one huge shopping cart.

2) 1976 Cornflakes

By looking at the box, you’d think it was made in the 1970′s, but this box is indeed a current box that is good to eat. The manufacturers must have just decided it wasn’t worth their time to update the design because, after all, the best designs happened in the 70s, right?

3) The Bootlegged Library

Believe it our not, our tiny little island has a library with books and DVDs you can rent out. The selection of DVDs is actually rather large and fairly current too. But you’ll notice, by the picture, that 90% of the DVDs are bootlegged copies. If your conscious can handle that, then this is a great resource to kill some nights at home.

4) What’s better than Rum? Cola Rum!

I don’t drink pop (soda for my east coast friends), but if you trick me by putting a little rum in there, I’m sold. Yes, that is a straw coming out the top that I drank it with. Free Cuba!

I’m on an overnight bus to Boston for a full day training I’m doing tomorrow with UMass-Boston. She is five rows behind me on her phone. She’s talking loud enough for everyone to hear about how she’s sleeping with a married man that she’s had sex with everywhere from a train to Atlantic City, but it’s all done in private and she doesn’t want to be kept in the dark anymore. Oh, and she might already have a baby with him too. As I’m trying to fall asleep my mind is racing about my program tomorrow with 40 student leaders and my new idea I’m launching soon that will have a massive impact on co-curricular engagement.

We’re both riding the same bus to the same place, but it’s amazing how different we are choosing to utilize our limited time on this earth.

Relationships are built on the number of emotionally charged shared experiences between individuals. 9/11 was a huge emotionally charged shared experience for America. The experience started on 9/11/01 and lasted for weeks and months afterwards. It seemed like all of America opted to put down their differences and pause to love their neighbor. It was unreal and amazing, but I missed it all.

I was studying at the Goethe Institute in Berlin, Germany during the Fall of 2001. Berlin is six hours ahead of New York City. When the first plane hit the North Tower at 8:45 a.m. EST, it was 2:45 p.m. in Berlin. I just got home from school and sat down to watch the BBC. I didn’t have a computer then, so the BBC was my only source of information. A few moments later, my parents in Chicago called. We cried on the phone together. Then I hung up and I sat alone in my apartment. My girlfriend, now my wife, called and we talked. We cried. Then I hung up and watched the BBC for the next 12 hours. I didn’t sleep because I couldn’t sleep. My parents called a few more times and we talked and cried. Then I was alone again. I wanted to so desperately talk to someone, a fellow American face-to-face. But I sat in my apartment and watched BBC. Too shocked to move.

The next day I went to class and everyone’s face was ingrained with hours of crying from the night before. We broke our “German Only” rule to vent with one another even though most of the class weren’t native English speakers. It helped. It made me feel like I was home. We cried some more. It was sad. The next day, one of the other Americans in the class decided to end her trip early and fly back home to Texas to be with her family. I stayed.

The next couple weeks I read, heard, and watched more and more stories of massive vigils and gatherings happening around the U.S. It was as if America was one big family and though we had our differences, it didn’t matter. Every house flew an American flag. The pictures were amazing. The videos were amazing. The stories were amazing. I spent hours at the internet cafe absorbing as much as I could.

I stayed in Berlin through the New Year for my class. By the time I flew back to Chicago, the emotionally charged shared experience of 9/11 was mostly faded. People were getting back to their routine. There were no more group vigils and the number of flying American flags went down.

My wife does her best to try and explain what it was like the days, weeks and months after 9/11, but explaining it is secondary to actually being there. It’s as if I went to the bathroom during the critical part of a movie and have to keep asking people what happened. But unlike a movie, I can’t rewind 9/11. I forever have to experience it through the lens of other people.

I have my story, but it’s not the same emotionally charged shared story as the rest of the country, so I still cling to every new story I hear as if somehow it’ll help me piece together what it was really like to be here, in America, with fellow Americans.

It’s the end of August and most schools are gearing up for students coming back to campus. That means it’s also my busiest travel season. As an example, over the past three days I took three flights, stayed in three different locations, and rented three different cars. Fall travel craziness gets insane really fast.

But for me, it’s all worth it. The past three programs were almost euphorically amazing. Three standing ovations at three different schools. I crushed each program. I mean REALLY crushed them. I felt so amazing on stage and the students just got it. I mean they REALLY got it. I can’t tell you how awesome it feels to have people come up afterwards and tell me not just how excited they are, but also tell me how it’s going to change the way they think about their student leadership position…and life! I mean to be in a position where I get to do that to 1000s of students every month is freakin’ awesome.

Over the past seven years I’ve played many roles within both Swift Kick and Red Rover. Every position came with it’s own learning curve and challenges. But the excitement of trying to figure it out didn’t always sustain after I did figure it out. Doing trainings and keynotes is something that took me a long time to figure out, but now that I have, it is still just as exciting to me. I love building a speech from the ground up and then presenting it, and I love growing the Swift Kick community so we can impact even more lives with our work and message.

It took me seven years to figure out what within Swift Kick was most exciting to me, but now that I have, I don’t know why I’d want to do anything else.