2Weeks2aBreakthrough

Home Sweet Home

I made it back home!

9,400 miles done, 34 states visited.

It's drizzling in Seattle.....nothing changes, it was raining when I left!

Lots of breakthroughs catalyzed, tons of flapping going on. Keep flapping!

Hazel was amazing - no breakdowns. She deserves a big spa day soon.

It feels great to be home.

Thanks to everyone who helped to make this tour so amazing. I will write more about final reflections soon.

Thanks to my sponsor, Motto Magazine - what a great team!

I may take a couple days off blogging and emailing, but will be back in business early next week. I have two feet of mail to sift through and dogs and cats that are in need of attention. Hazel needs a serious bath to get rid of all the bugs embedded in her crevices. Bill gets back from India on July 2.

Yippee!!!! I made it. What an adventure.

Home Stretch

I made it to Kennewick, Washington today and enjoyed the pretty ride from Boise. I crossed the Snake River several times and then the mighty Columbia River near the McNary Dam. I did a lot of thinking about the last 39 days... yep, that's how long I have been on the road with Hazel.

I am feeling very reflective and have just a short 200 mile ride home tomorrow. I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to take this journey. The memories I have will last a lifetime.

I will write more when I get home and the tour is officially "done." There are still six months to this Year of the Breakthrough, however, so there's lots more catalyzing to do!

But for tonight, my brain is spent. Ride on.

Bubbling Brains in Boise

I enjoyed chatting it up with the group here in Boise tonight. As a speaker, it is fun when you can see people thinking about your talk and mentally applying the suggestions. The folks that attended the event tonight were sharp, curious, and very warm.

Special thanks goes to Dan Bobinski for sponsoring and arranging the event and to Michael Kroth for helping to evangelize the event. Thanks for being great catalysts!

As a result of the post-talk chit-chat, I have three new terms to share with you. You know about flapping - Flaps (butterfly flaps) are the small daily actions that we take to help stay focused and in action.

And here are a few new related terms:

• E-flapping - flapping by email
• Blog-flapping - flapping by blogging
• Pod-flapping - flapping by podcast

How do you flap? Try all ways! Whatever you call it, just make sure and flap. Do your daily practice (combination of sharing your goal, making requests, and taking action) every day.

The drive from Salt Lake to Boise was very nice. Boise reminds me a lot of Albuquerque. Here's a picture of the Snake River gorge in Twin Falls Idaho (this place is famous for base jumping off the bridge that goes across this gorge).

Tomorrow I head to Kennewick. I can't believe that I will be back in Washington! Here's a funny wee tidbit. I got an email from my pet/house sitter. The animals are getting restless because my husband Bill is also out of town (he's in India). They gave our 14 year old standard poodle (Jet) a haircut and I guess it looks a bit funny - he's a real old man and cannot stand long enough to be professionally groomed.

Hazel Seeks the Shade

The ride from Grand Junction, Colorado to just north of Salt Lake City, Utah was very pretty and fun. It was also hot! Hazel and I stopped often.

While in Fargo, I met the owners of the online business, The Grateful Goddess. I took some time to check out their website tonight in my hotel room. wonderful! They have lots of cool stuff for women and those who buy for them. Here's the artwork for their cards for the Goddess of Gratitude (artwork created by artist Darcy Simonson, one of the two owners). I love these cards! Click on over and order something for yourself or that special lady in your life.

Rocky Mountain High

I think everyone should take the drive between Denver and Grand Junction, Colorado at least once in their life. The terrain goes from foothills to alpine to high desert. Highway 70 winds its way through two box canyons, ritzy Vail, and along the raging Colorado River.

I loved this ride. I took my time and soaked it in. I did not get many pictures because there are few places to pull over along the route. I did catch this one with Hazel. This is pretty, but would not rank in even the top twenty for today's ride - it was THAT gorgeous.

About 20 miles west of Vail, the mountains are rocky and deep red - like they have blood veins. The air was cool and crisp. And it smelled great except for a few steep downhill runs that smelled of burning breaks (not Hazel's, from semi-trucks).

I have a group dinner tonight and an early morning event tomorrow. Then I am on to Salt Lake where I will have dinner with a friend and fellow writer.

I have two public events this week in Boise and Kenniwick. Details are here.

You gotta try the drive from Denver to Grand Junction!

Mount Rushmore

It took 14 years - Between October 4, 1927 and October 31, 1941, Gutzon Borglum and 400 workers sculpted the colossal 60-foot carvings of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. Borglum was 60 years old when he started and 74 years old when it was complete.

What's your project?

I love seeing monumental works like this because it helps put things into perspective. It's so easy to make everyday barriers and challenges seem bigger than they are and it can be tough to stay focused and in action when we feel like a victim. Your project? I bet you can do it!

The ride today was great (until the last hour). I took back roads through the Black Hills from South Dakota into Wyoming. The landscape was drop dead gorgeous - I love the wide open rolling hills. The skies were blue and the air warm but with a cool breeze (the roads were at about 5,000 elevation, so it did not feel too hot). And I had the roads to myself - often not seeing any other vehicles in front or back of me.

A momma turkey walked her babies across the road. They were so tiny - perfect little renditions of an adult turkey. So cute. I also saw lots of deer. The meadows smelled sweet.

No buffalo. It's not that I have never seen a buffalo before, I just would have liked to see a herd in the territory where they once thrived.

The last hour of the drive was windy and painful. My knees were not happy. Wind is a big issue in Wyoming and they have lots of wind breakers installed along the north-south running highways to help reduce waves of wind coming west to east.

But overall, the day was great. A wee bit of pain and wind is no problem and that's what it takes to keep moving forward. We all have to deal with challenges to keep moving forward.

Tomorrow I head south then west and end up in Grand Junction, Colorado. I have a private event there Monday morning that I am really looking forward to.

Only five more days left to my tour!

Butterflies

If you want to fly, you need to flap.

Before my event at Barnes and Noble today, I visited the Sertoma Butterfly House in Sioux Falls - I just could not resist!

It was fun to stroll among these beautiful flappers.

I did not get on the road until my bookstore talk ended at 1:30pm, and the ride was about 5.5 hours, so I got into my hotel in Rapid City, SD somewhat late. It was a nice ride - no rain, not much wind. and I love the open space. I am a big sky girl. Not at all boring.

One downside - both Hazel and I got covered in bugs. My finger tips and the front of my calves got hit by lots of bugs - splat! And poor Hazel has a thick layer on her front facing surfaces.

Tomorrow I head to Cheyenne, Wyoming by way of Mount Rushmore.

Soupy and Windy in Sioux Falls

I got to Sioux Falls today and the ride was a bit wild. It started out wonderful because I was escorted by two cool Fargo biker gals. They turned around to head back home after about 40 miles. As I drove south, the sky got darker and darker. I hit about 10 minutes of rain but managed to skirt it most of the way.

But the wind! Today I experienced the strongest winds yet. It was so windy that I sometimes had a hard time keeping my head turned straight and my bike was getting pushed around. I stopped at a Starbucks for a rest in Watertown, SD, and almost got blown over while sitting on the bike.

And now, a line of strong storms with hail and rain and thunder is moving through. The nice people at my hotel let me pull Hazel up and under the front awning in case it hails a lot. That's a relief because it looks like the worst of the storm will be coming through overnight.

Tomorrow I have a talk at the Sioux Falls Barnes & Noble and then I travel west to Rapid City, South Dakota. So far, the weather report says the weather will be fine.

I really have been lucky on this trip - missing most of the bad weather. Knock on wood.

There is something really neat going on in Fargo, but I can't give you all the details yet. I will just say that several people have engaged with each other and embraced the breakthrough challenge and the result could be a fun new Fargo based business project/venture that might benefit a lot of people. I did four events in Fargo and the butterfly flaps were happening at each meeting - the ideas got developed even though there was very little overlap in the participants.

Thanks for your emails - I am enjoying reading them. I will spend some time in the next couple days on writing down specific stories and will share them with you.

Make this a great Friday - share your goal with three people and take two actions that support your goal. Go to bed focused and in action and have an awesome weekend.

Fabulous Fargo

It's 9:23pm and I just finished my final event in Fargo, North Dakota. What an amazing two days! Thanks so much to Jodee Bock for being a great catalyst and connector and spending these two days with me. Jodee,  you are a rock star!

I will have more time tomorrow evening (from Sioux Falls, SD) and will tell you more about what has happened in Fargo. I am physically and mentally spent - in a great way - and need to relax, reflect, and rehydrate. For now, I just want to say that I met a lot of amazing people and the butterfly flaps are already starting.

Each stop built on the one prior.

I have some great stories to share - wonderful people dong extraordinary things.

For now I need to chill.

And tomorrow morning I have a special treat. Two fellow lady bikers who attended my event tonight offered to ride with me out of Fargo. I can't wait! Three biker chicks heading south.

This breakthrough catalyst work is really fun.

Have you told people about your goal? Get out there and share what you are up to and what you want to create. It is powerful stuff. I promise.

Stretching our Definitions

I had never been hailed on while on the motorcycle. I can now safely say that:

Fat rain hurts more than skinny rain.
Cicadas hurt more than fat rain.
Hail hurts more than cicadas.

I feel lucky though, I only had to endure about 10 minutes of hail until I got Hazel back to the hotel. I feel for her, she is getting soaked right now while I am snug in my room watching the band of strong storms march east. I feel lucky that the hail was small - pea sized. Anything bigger would have caused me to pull over.

I am thankful to have ratcheted up my experience level on the bike. When it rains fat in Seattle, I can now say to myself, "this is nothing, no problem at all."

Although my little story may seem silly, it does have a point. The more we experience, the more we can experience. Like yoga, or golf, or tennis, or hiking or whatever sport you enjoy - when you stretch yourself, you see new things.

The same goes for your experiences in business. Each week, ratchet up your experience in some way.

If you want to break out of your normal way - or get to another level of results, you need to stretch. I am not suggesting you run out into a hailstorm, but do go beyond what's comfortable.