Philosophizing....

I have a friend from San Francisco that moved to Liverpool, England almost exactly when I moved to Brazil.  He is currently the Senior Partnership Manager with Liverpool Football Club (what a great gig!).  Anyway, he asked me a very interesting question today that got me thinking.  The question he posed to me was as follows:  what, if anything, would you have done differently while living in SF?  One of the greatest things about this time off is that I am able to evaluate my life by reflecting on the past and envisioning what I want in the future.  I especially like to do this while surfing because the solitude and peacefulness of surfing is the perfect environment.  As I have stated in a previous post, we get too caught up in the U.S. (I apologize for the generalization) and never spend this very necessary time just thinking about what we want.  Thus far, this "personal evaluation time" has been very rewarding.

In order to answer the question, I would first say that I believe strongly in living life with no regrets.  As the same time, and without trying to contradict myself, I believe it's important to reflect on the past in an effort to avoid making the same mistakes I have made and to improve my overall life.  Therefore, after spending a LOT of time thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that I wouldn't change a thing.  I was very happy during my time in SF.  I had a difficult but rewarding job, amazing friends, a great apartment, and the opportunity to enjoy everything the city has to offer.  I would say that I probably spread myself too thin at times.  There are many people I miss a great deal (I mean all over, not just SF) and I would like to to think that I would maximize my time with those people as much as possible.   I never, ever took that for granted because I have always known that my friends/girlfriends are special.  However, living in a country where you know only a handful of people and don't speak the language makes you appreciate them even more.  I think there is a possibility that people assume you must have been unhappy to move.  I don't think that's the case at all.  I think life is made up of chapters, and this was just the next chapter of my life (and definitely the best one yet!).  

On an unrelated note, I have been talking to a friend about business ideas and various other things.  He has been very successful in dozens and dozens of various endeavors, and he shared something very simple with me.  If you have an idea, just do it!  You can come up with a thousand different reasons why something wouldn't work or why it would be too hard but if you never try, you will never find out.  I think moving to Brazil was a big step in the "just do it" category so we will see what happens next.  More to come on this area soon.  

Lastly, this same friend is the genius who came up with the idea to shoot a "Girls of Floripa" calendar.  He recruits the models (sometimes with my help) and shoots them by himself.  When I'm lucky, I join the photo shoots (see post titled "Greatest Job in the World").  Anyway, he just put up a quick website to get some of the shots on the internet.  Check it out when you have time (floripacalendar.com).  Obviously, these girls are ridiculously gorgeous, and you would think that they are all totally unattainable......and you would be wrong.