Walt Hampton, J.D.

Creating the Work & Life You LOVE

Reality Check

by Walt Hampton | Sep 22, 2011 | Journeys | 0 Comments

It used to be that work was what happened to you when you were busy making other plans.

— Outside Magazine, September 2011

Whenever I return from an adventure, he invariably asks the question that I find so troubling.

“Back to reality, I guess, huh?”

I suspect that my father’s perspective is borne of a traditional post-industrial world view: you go to work, you labor long and hard in the factory, and, for a few precious days or weeks each year, you “get away from it all.” Life and work: forever divorced from one another. Reality. And unreality?

It shouldn’t be that way.

Reality is not a prison sentence. It is not something we subsist in – and drop out of from time to time.

Reality is what is: This precious moment. Reality encompasses the entirety of our being. It is our life in each and every instant: each joy, each hardship, each challenge; the cacophony of our lives; and the splendor. There is nothing “else.”

To live a life divided between “realty” and

Relationship
Fun
Vacation
Pleasure
Fulfillment

is to deny the integrity – the wholeness – of who we are.

Our lives are lived out fully in the here and now. To live contingently – for some future moment, for some potential happiness – is to deny the beauty, the richness, the vastness of what exists within our grasp.

Confucius wrote, “choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

My mentor, the late great adventure photographer Galen Rowell, in reflecting upon his life, said, “Most important of all, I happened upon a special relationship between myself, my career and my subject matter. I entered into a world with no firm boundaries between working, playing and living.”

A tapestry well woven.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t “get away from it all” now and then. I’m a big fan of going “off the grid.” That time allows us to assess what’s working in our lives. And what’s not.

Sometimes we feel depleted, trapped, hopeless. Sometimes we believe that, if we can only get to some other place, things will be better. When we feel this way, something needs to change.

If we are living contingently – for another time – for a different reality – it means that we don’t have our lives the way we want them, the way they need to be… yet.

Reality requires that we tinker, to get it “right.” We need to make small changes; and sometimes big ones. Course corrections to:

Health and fitness
Finances
Jobs
Where we live
Relationships

Our highest aspiration is toward a reality that is filled with freedom and fulfillment; a reality that resonates with peace and joy. A reality that is whole. (We must not “settle” for a reality that is less than whole.)

What if we didn’t feel stretched and torn and fragmented?

What if we found satisfaction and meaning in every one of our days?

What if reality were fun?

What if Mondays were as great as Fridays?

We are the designers, the co-creators of our lives.

We get to choose our reality.

Choose a good one.

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Journeys on the Edge: Living a Life That Matters

Available for pre-order soon at www.walthampton.com

Go To The Well

by Walt | Sep 15, 2011 | Journeys, Success | 1 Comment

When this blog posts, I will be at the well.

For me, it’s a little place in West Cork perched on a hill overlooking the North Atlantic. There is no TV, no Internet, no cell phone. There is the sound of the sea, and the wind in the trees. Nothing else.

It is the place I go – not often enough – to rest and rejuvenate; to re-create.

All of us have these places – maybe far away – maybe close at hand – always too seldom visited – where we can refresh our spirits.

a quiet litttle corner in the local library
the mountain bike trail just outside of town
a little church on Sunday mornings
the coffee shop in the village an hour’s drive from here
the beach side cottage; that little place in the mountains

We avoid these places because

it fells unproductive
there’s too much to do
we don’t have the time right now
we haven’t done enough to give ourselves a break
tomorrow will work better than today

And tomorrow stretches into next month. Into not at all.

When I came to the well this time ’round, I slept for two days – a sure sign I had been away too long. And now I sit and soak in the silence – and read and write and run and rest. And yes, still battle the demons within myself: am I wasting time?

A dear friend of mine confessed to me recently that he hadn’t gone to his well in quite awhile because he hadn’t “earned it” – he hadn’t done enough yet to justify going there.

Here’s the paradox of the well: It is the place – the Source – from which we draw our strength, not a just reward.

There is a truism in mountaineering: hydrate or die.

Go to the well. Go there today.

Hangman’s Noose

by Walt | Sep 8, 2011 | Journeys, Success | 1 Comment

Life is to be lived. No excuses. No reservations. No holding back.
— Steve Goodier

“How ya doin’?” I asked.

“Hangin’ in there,” Rick replied.

We were lifting at the gym. Rick had just arrived.

“A lot goin’ on,” he explained. “Busy, busy, busy. But, not bad, I guess.”

Not good I think.

“Hangin’ in there” is not enough.

Life is not an endurance event. Getting by is not a win. If all you’re doing is “hangin’ in there,” something is amiss.

Here are my other favorite responses to the “how are you” question:

Not bad
OK
Shitty
Pretty good for an ol’ guy
Busy
Same day different shit

And the best of all:

Woke up on the right side of the dirt

Now, people, this is all there is. These days of our lives are all we have. The sands run through the glass pretty fast.

All of us go through difficult times: The loss of a loved one, a debilitating illness, unemployment, divorce, interpersonal conflict. Times when all we can do is hang in there, claw through our days, and hold on tenuously as best we can. And sometimes these events can stretch for months or years at a time.

I know. I have walked through some of those dark valleys.

But, if that’s how life is all the time – an epic, arduous grind, one day collapsing into another – then something needs to be fixed. That’s not the way life should be.

Joy is our birthright.

Blaise Pascal argued that every person, without exception, is a seeker of happiness. Aristotle believed happiness to be the summum bonum, the highest good.

The Dalai Lama writes, “I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we all are seeking something better in life. So, I think, the very motion of our life is towards happiness.”

Indeed, happiness is the key to our success. The paradigm of old held that if you worked long and hard, had a great job, amassed a lot of money and things, then you would be happy. The research is now clear that the old paradigm had it completely backwards. “Happiness fuels success, not the other way around,” writes Shawn Achor in his book The Happiness Advantage. “When we are positive, our brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, resilient, and productive at work.”

So “hangin’ in there” just won’t cut it.

If you’re feeling that you’re just getting by,

Identify the biggest drag on your spirit; see if you can change or eliminate what’s bringing you down.
Apply the 80/20 rule; focus on the 20% of activities that bring 80% of your happiness; get rid of the 20% of activities that bring 80% of the headaches.
Check your boundaries; see if you’re getting the time and space you need to nurture your soul.
Catch up on some sleep; fatigue will wear you down.
Say no more often; make a “stop doing” list and follow it religiously.
Take some time away; if you can’t take a week or a day, take an hour at Starbucks by yourself.
Go “off the grid” for a few hours; turn off the electronics; eliminate the inputs; silence renews the spirit.
Consider the help of a counseling professional; none of us can go it alone.

None of us can be happy all the time. But we give no greater gift to the world than to live our lives with joy.

Coming soon!

The Secret Behind The Secret

by Walt | Sep 1, 2011 | Journeys, Ultra Training | 5 Comments

Whatever you can do or dream, begin it.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The Missing Secret

I have a secret. It’s the secret behind The Secret. It’s the secret to all success. Irene whispered it to me on a rainy hillside. Do you want to hear it?

You know The Secret: that Law of Attraction stuff. What you think about expands. What you focus on materializes. What you visualize, you attract into your life.

I’m a big fan of the Law of Attraction. I use it all the time. But I think the purveyors of The Secret leave out a major component of the formula and do a huge disservice to those well-intentioned folks who can’t understand why their lives don’t change, even with all the good that they imagine will unfold.

Those folks say the Law of Attraction doesn’t work. They visualize and visualize and nothing comes to pass.

It’s because they don’t know the secret behind The Secret.

I do. I know the real secret. And I will tell it to you.

Visualization Is Not Enough

Visualization is important. But something more is required.

It’s called action. Action is the secret behind The Secret.

We cannot hit a target we cannot see. So envisioning what we want to have, where we want to go, who we want to be, are essential components of success. We need a clear picture of our goals if we are going to have any prospect whatsoever of attaining them.

But visualizing is not enough.

Once we know what we want, we need to move. We need to take action. Tony Robbins would say, “massive action.”

I was reminded of this a few days ago as we completed our first ultra-marathon in tropical storm Irene. For months, we’d been visualizing the day we would cross the finish line. But as important – perhaps more important – we’d been getting out the door. Running. Following a specific plan of action. Incremental steps. Day in and day out.

Irene – they called her Irene – pummeled the hillside on the day of our race with wind and torrential rain. She taunted us. We laughed and ran across the meadow.

We had trained in wind. We had trained in rain.

It didn’t matter.

The finish line was firmly planted in our minds. But we were there, together with Irene, because we had done the work.

Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.”

Surely there are times for planning. But it is so easy for all of us to get lost in the planning and never start out.

Start out. Even if you can’t see the whole way. Take the first step. And then the next. You’ll be amazed at the progress you will make.

Emerson said, “Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.” It most certainly does. But it doesn’t happen by itself.

Life Is An Action Sport

Life is an action sport. Participation is required.

The title of our ultra-marathon training guide is: Relentless Forward Progress.

It’s about life.

It’s the real secret.

Yup, The Gods, They’re Crazy

by Walt | Aug 25, 2011 | Journeys, Ultra Training | 0 Comments

Smoke on the water, fire in the sky.
— Deep Purple

The explosion shattered the stillness and nearly knocked me off my feet.

Here’s what I had been worrying about as I ran along the road in the pre-dawn light:

the exhaust system on my son’s car
my hip flexors
the cat
whether I had returned all my calls
my office building
whether the restaurant would be crowded

Then the fire ball shot from the sky; the sound like the blast of a nuclear bomb. A mere 30 feet closer and the outcome… not good.

I had to stop. It was as if all the air had been sucked out of me. I couldn’t breath.

Who would have expected an electrical transformer to blow up at that moment? Right there, right then.

But isn’t that what “they” always say?

“Who would have expected it? What a shock! Wrong place, wrong time. They were such a nice couple.”

My mind drifted back to the beautiful traverse beneath the summit of Illinza Norte. A brilliant crystal clear day; a gentle acclimatization in the Ecuadorian Andes. And then the sudden rockfall, the size of a semi-trailer, a mere 50 yards from where we stood.

Didn’t see that coming.

And then my mind carried me further to the back seat of a crushed Honda Civic on a warm sparking Sunday afternoon in February, the acrid smells of battery acid, anti-freeze and air bag powder permeating the air. I held the limp body of my friend Chris as his life ebbed away. Who would have expected the oncoming car to cross into his lane?

Who would have expected it?

That’s the problem, isn’t it? It’s the things we least expect that get us.

We like to live with the illusion of control. With the fantasy that as long as we obsess about things, worry about people and problems, believe we can manipulate situations and outcomes, we think we will be ok, that those we care about will be safe, that everything will work out just fine.

We do this with our kids, our partners, our businesses, our entire lives.

And it’s not true.

It’s the stuff we can’t imagine that comes to bite us; the stuff we don’t expect, the stuff we can’t even begin to conceive of. (Because to conceive of it would make life untenable?)

The challenge for us: Stop the hand wringing. Stop the kvetching. Know this truth: Worry is a waste.

Let it go. Be here now.

Yes, the gods, they may well be crazy. But they seem to know an incontrovertible fact: We humans seem to need an explosion now and then to jolt us out of our pettiness, our small mindedness, our narcissistic self-absorption; to wake us up and remind us: