Subscribe to new site

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to remind you that I have shut this site down for 30 Days of YES. If you are subscribed to my blog, you need to go to www.yes30.com and subsribe to my blog there.

Sorry for the inconveniece!

Travis

Moving Sites!

Hey everyone! If you are getting this blog – it is because you are a subscriber to my page and blog. THANK YOU!

Well, I have now moved my site from WordPress over to it’s own host – with the new url of http://www.yes30.com

So, you can change your bookmark from the wordpress page to the new page. I will no longer be posting to this site.

Please go to http://www.yes30.com and subscribe to that blog!

Thanks everyone!

Travis

Back to the Start

What was your favorite Super Bowl commercial?

Do you even remember any of them now that we are a few weeks removed from the big game? You probably remember images more than commercials. Beer, soda, and women in bikinis. That is what the Super Bowl commercial has become.

Appeal to the lowest common denominator.

It’s actually rather insulting. “Hey, put a woman in a bikini – and they’ll buy our web hosting!” “Men are idiots, give them talking dogs and boobs and they’ll buy beer!” (I assume that is conversation in the ad rooms.)

I am not saying the morals of Don Draper are any better, but I think Mr. Draper would at least make us think…

right?

But there it was, sandwiched in between the junk and filth –  just the kind of commercial and message I was looking for.

It is brilliant. Low-energy. The haunting voice of Willie Nelson laid over retro animation. Yet the message is SCREAMING.

It reminds me of an improv exercise about listening. In a room where everyone is talking loud to be heard over everyone else – it is often the person who speaks quietest that captures your attention. You are drawn to it. In fact, it is a lot easier to block out all of the other pointless “noise” when you sense a message with substance.

This brilliant ad from Chipotle did just that. Maybe it is because I am an avid Chipotle supporter, and love their stand for being a socially responsible business, and hearing Willie Nelson cover the Coldplay classic nailed it home. But the fact that they were able to powerfully tell their story in such a simple way is amazing.

“Going back to the start!” The message of going back to our values, morals, and reason for being. Is there anything more important than that?

On March 1st we will begin another 30 Days of YES. Are you ready to go back to your start?

Grab a burrito and meet me in the YES!

6 Days Until the Next YES Begins!

The next 30 Days of YES begins March 1st.

Recently a friend of mine shared her yoga blog with me (thanks AG) – and she included a picture taken by her husband (thanks BR).

I had to share it because it is the perfect YES pose – arms extended…freedom, strength, balance, courage, joy! It’s all there.

30 Days of YES starts new in 6 days. Are you ready for Unlimited Transformation…

Just say YES!!!

Walking the street of YES

It’s been 8 years since my wife and I lived in Boston, but here I am today, walking the same streets that were the center of my life for those few years.

The street of YES.

Looking down a corridor to Belvidere Street, a memory flashed in my mind. There, along the street between the Prudential Building and the Christian Science Center, was the street where I said YES.

I had recently begun taking improv classes at a fantastic theater in Boston called the Improv Asylum. We had seen a show a few weeks previous, and there was no doubt I wanted to be able to do what that talented cast of performers on stage had done that night.

Walking along that street with my wife over lunch, I remember the moment when I mentally gave myself consent. I told her, “I want to make it on the main stage. I want to perform at that level.” Fortunately she didn’t shoot me down. She could have. I was barely a few weeks into classes, and had a long way to go. I had her support, even if I crashed and burned.

A year and a half later I had progressed from a student to a performer, and a year and half after that I was performing on the Improv Asylum main stage. After a wonderful few years in Boston I went on to start my own group in South Florida, and continue to perform to the day (when I am in town).

Being back in Boston today is very nostalgic, but it is the memory of saying YES on Belvidere Street that stands out. Even today, I sit in Starbucks on Mass Ave and am surrounded by Berklee Music students and dancers from the Boston Conservatory. To play a game at that level requires living your YES. I can feel it all around me.

To stick your neck out and try for BIG things means being confronted with NO on a daily basis. NO wants you to settle. NO wants you to play by the rules. NO wants you to listen to the statistics. NO wants you to stay small.

Are you BIG or are you small?

I know the answer, but you must decide for yourself.

Are you ready to say YES?

Dan’s Coffee Run

What does your YES look like?

It is easy to get caught up in thinking that we need to have millions before we can “pay it forward.” We know better, but we still fool ourselves into thinking there are other things more pressing in our life.

Stop. Pause. What can you do today to have an impact on someone’s day? It doesn’t take much.

Dan’s story proves what is awesome about people – and how there are endless opportunities to live your YES.

Are you living your YES? What does it look like? What does it feel like?

If you are not expressing your YES – what is getting in the way?

If you have a moment, you can live your YES by helping Dan keeping living his. Thanks to my bro for bringing this story to my attention. Here is a link to his Facebook page: Dan’s Coffee Run!

Have a wonderful YES day everyone!

Travis

Laughing YES

People are Awesome…and Good!

Haven’t you always heard the complaint, “Why doesn’t the news ever cover stories about good events?” Then someone chimes in, “Because if it bleeds, it leads!”

And then we all nod our heads, and assume it’s the “other” people who care about this stuff, not us.

Well, maybe the “other” people are just as interested in the good stories as you, but no one has taken the lead to bring it to the mainstream media. (It’s a lot easier to complain, than do something.)

I know there are okay examples out there, but this one is not okay…it’s good.

GOOD Magazine.

I have been drawn to the magazine numerous times, and believe it or not, 30 Days of YES was originally going to be called “30 Days of Good.” Thank goodness I changed though, because I think they already cornered the market

There is an article about a man who has committed to doing a different random act of kindness, every day, FOR A YEAR! Wow! If you want to see how he is doing so far – take a look:

http://www.good.is/post/people-are-awesome-man-embarks-on-year-of-random-kindnesses/

When we open our eyes and look for the good in the world – it is there. Conversely, when you go through your day looking for all of the ways that the world is out to get you – you will see that too.

Activity: Okay, for the next 30 seconds, I want you to count all of the blue things in the room you are sitting. See how many things you can count in 30 seconds. GO!!!

Okay…are you done?

Now, tell me, how many red things are in the room? Nope, you can’t look to count. Don’t you know already? They have been there all along, just like the blue things. Why didn’t you notice them?

Obviously, the assignment was to count the blue, not the red. But, does that change the fact that they were there all along? Isn’t that what we do each day with how we live our lives?

It’s all there…the red…the blue…all of it. What are you CHOOSING to focus on?

GOOD magazine has committed to telling a different story than the news we are used to seeing on a daily basis. It’s still the same world, but just a different focus.

What about you? Do you focus on the YES in your life…or on all the NO’s?

How does that feel?