A community who lack belief!

When I was 17 I met Steve Bonaconsa. He had ideas. He had dreams. But more importantly he did something about them. I remember the first time he arrived in Durban to join our church as a youth pastor. One of the first questions he asked was “Does anyone mountain bike?” I immediately shot up my hand exclaiming “I do!” This was, in essence a lie. The funny thing was I had a mountain bike, but it was worth R500 or so and I had just recently gone for a ride in the cane with a mate - so now I was a mountain biker!

6 months later Steve took my comment seriously. He sat me down and asked me wether I would like to go for a ride. Around the World. He outlined a tour that would take us across 4 continents, 16 odd countries and about 16500km’s. His mission was to raise R1mil for a cause, which turned out to be children living with HIV/AIDS right here in KZN, South Africa. I don’t think I had ridden my bike since the first time I met him but I was in!

Inside of me I knew it was a no brainer. Why would any 17 year old turn down the opportunity to peddle across borders, meet people and change lives? Furthermore I knew it was possible. I simply believed that despite some of the route taking us through challenging environments, such as the Aussie Nhullabhor and parts of Africa.

Then it came time to present the idea to others. Those few months shaped my understanding of the world. People lack belief. They lack faith. They lack courage.

Every time I spoke about the tour I was met with challenges. “You’re to young!” they would say, or “never in a million years!” & “you won’t make it past day 1!” One person even challenged me on being a year behind everyone at Varsity!

The crux: My belief in a dream and my commitment to follow through mean that I was now in the minority.

1 year later, 18 December 1999, I returned home after successfully cycling the world alongside Steve, raising R1.7 million for our cause. Simply because we believed. We weren’t even cyclists!!

1. What do you believe about what you are capable of?
2. What do feel when you reflect on your dreams for the future? (hopefully a nervous excitement!)
3. Why is stopping you from doing something about these dreams?

Sadly, we live in a community who lack belief. Which means they lack faith. Which means dreams die. Which means the world stays the same.

Why not step into the minority... I dare you.
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Travis Gale has spent the last 5 years running his own development business in South Africa’s corporate world and is currently involved in various long term partnerships with clients across a number of industries. Furthermore he has travelled to conferences internationally hunting down latest trends and insights. Having cycled around the world and survived a tsunami, his passion for crossing borders often lends itself to an interesting blend of stories and insight. He sees himself as a ‘change catalyst’ and displays strength in facilitating insight into the right spaces. Find out more at www.appletreelive.com

Picture Life as an Appletree

One of my favorite questions is ‘Are you living for one and a half days of the week?’
So are you?!

At the tender age of 18 I wrote a metaphor for life called ‘life as an appletree!’ It has pretty much turned into a way of life for me (www.appletreelive.com), and I guess has challenged me to make sure that the answer to that question is never ‘yes...unfortunately I am’

The trunk is life. We move up the trunk through school, careers, family, assets and retirement, until we reach the top. We know there’s more than just the ‘ordinary’, and yet we cling to our comfort zone… our thick, safe, trunks.

Then there are apples. Apples represent the realities that we wish to create for ourselves; opportunities we know are for us. However, given that they lie at the ends of thin branches, we choose not to step out into a world of risk and fear to pick them. We stay on the trunk.

No-one wants to get to the end of their lives to find themselves sitting on top of their apple tree, looking down at piles of rotten apples lying on the ground, never picked.

Over the past 10 years I have realised that society seems obsessed with the trunk yet wants to step on to the branch. We are so focussed on ‘whats next’ - when are you getting married? when are you having kids? when are you having another? So it go’s on! The result is we are so focussed on the trunk that we miss apples. OR maybe we want to miss them... because they scare us. As much as humanity wants to be ‘happier’ they seemingly find it very difficult to break out of habitual patterns they find themselves in from too much time on the trunk.

Picking apples is scary business. stepping out into new realities, trying new things, doing something that scares us, broadening our minds. Those that live for more than and a half days of the week seem to have something in common - they have taken risks, they are pushing through fear and they are challenging their comfort zones. It seems to be a rush!

How many times do we hear the eulogy message?? Someone wishes they had done more, lived more?

So heres the deal. Today I challenge you to step out onto that thing branch, to pick apples and to begin a journey that will change your reality. I challenge you to find an apple, no matter how small RIGHT NOW. I challenge you to look at what comfort zones you have found yourself in and look at ways to break out of them.

Nothing significant is done in isolation

I picked up my bicycle a little while back headed for a ride down to the Durban beachfront. It was early and the weather was obliging with a gentle tail wind and a fresh bite in the air. As I turned onto the beach road I heard another cyclist coming up behind me. My mountain bike, with its off-road tires, often saw road cyclists zipping past with speed. The whiz of the tires and clicking of the chain grew louder. I waited for the cyclist to pass, but instead the cyclist closed in on me and sat on my tail slipstreaming off my effort. As the sun rose I could see 2 shadows riding closely together.

At first I was annoyed! Who was this person simply using me without saying a word? I tried to race away but the cyclist sat on my tail. I tried to ignore it, but I could feel this presence behind me. I was out here to train alone and this was simply getting in my way.

Then something happened. I came to a junction where I knew of a shortcut. I could pull off and lose this person. I didn’t. I kept to the road. When I felt myself starting to slow, I sped up and made sure I maintained a comfortable speed for both of us. My frame of reference had shifted. The fact that there were now two of us was in fact an opportunity. The rider was stretching me to endure longer periods without slacking, maintain good speeds and ultimately get more out of my ride. This was an opportunity. Two riders on the road were always better than one.

In many ways I would say that we are wired for partnerships. There is something beautiful about how we can come together and share our strengths and skills to be more significant. In fact, I have heard it said that your 5 year plan is actually based on the books you read and the people you hang out with!

In my own life I have realised that my moments of ‘independence’ have been stimulated by a few things:

• ego - hung on my point of view
• self esteem - unsure about what others think of me
• doubt - in what I have to offer

Having realised that nothing significant is done in isolation, I continue to ask myself, ‘Who is around me and how am I sharing my life with them?’ if the answer to that questions leaves you realising that you are secluded in the way that you live, I would implore you to seek out effective partnerships on all levels.

The cyclist did eventually pull up on my right. There, on a red cruiser, was a man whose shoulders had bent over with age. His grey hair stuck out from beneath his foam helmet and his thin legs beat down on the peddles with fervor.
“I get a pull whenever I can” he exclaimed, his voice worn out from all his years of talking.
“No Problem” I said “I’m Travis by the way…” with more compassion having seen his age.
“Mike Smith’s the name” he replied.
“How old are you” I asked, slightly rude but I wanted to know!
“76” he said, “I do my 40k every morning!” he proclaimed!

Guess you never know who you will meet and what significance they may have, should you open yourself up to those around you.

What is?

Not so long ago I was sitting on my colleagues balcony looking out over the ocean. The weather presented a medium to heavy rain, pretty strong winds and all round grey hue which was the opposite of what I wanted to see and experience on this particular day. Being down the coast, surfboard in the back of the car it would be great for a light SW wind, slightly overcast with patches of sun and a crystal clean swell bringing in perfect peaks! Instead I had to succumb to looking out over the washing machine churching salty sea water in all directions.

At some point during our time on the balcony I turned to my colleague (Liz) and exclaimed “The weather is terrible.” She sat quietly looking out over the sea and then turned to me with some insight which I now call a ‘pearler!’
“What if,” she said, “the weather, rather than being terrible, simply is?”
The weather is? The weather is... the weather is! It made sense straight away.

Liz in a moment was teaching me a valuable life lesson. By saying that the weather was terrible I am instantly creating a label which I associate with being negative. That will determine how I feel and how I act given the state of the weather. In essence then, the environment around me has a direct bearing on how I feel. By saying the weather is I am accepting that this is simply what it is today. This gives me the chance to choose how I will work with the weather. This shift in perspective means the environment can dish out what it wants as I have the choice to enjoy every moment by simply letting go of my own ‘wants’ allowing myself to be present in the NOW and decide from there. It made perfect sense.

I remembered straight away this particular day on cycle tour. We had 191km to do. 30km in we hit this sign. For the next 146.6km we continued to cycle dead straight, not one bend! We could see the trucks coming 10 minutes before they passed us. One can’t actually explain what it feels like to be out in the middle of that ride, feeling absolutely broken and dejected and tired with nothing but a bike, hot water and thousands of Aussie flies. But that IS the situation and the only thing you can do, right there in that moment, is work with what you have. I drank the water and peddled the bike. 13 hours later I was downing a huge coke and a chomping on a massive burger. Satisfying!

Being in the NOW is about working with is around you right there and then. It may allow you to enjoy what you’re experiencing that much more. Or it may encourage you to continue and push through circumstances which are difficult.

Either way, all we have is the NOW - so why not be present and give it all you’ve got?

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Travis Gale has spent the last 5 years running his own development business in South Africa’s corporate world and is currently involved in various long term partnerships with clients across a number of industries. Furthermore he has travelled to conferences internationally hunting down latest trends and insights. Having cycled around the world and survived a tsunami, his passion for crossing borders often lends itself to an interesting blend of stories and insight. He sees himself as a ‘change catalyst’ and displays strength in facilitating insight into the right spaces. Find out more at www.appletreelive.com

The Ferris Ride

Raindrops keep falling on my head - Burt Bacharach

I spent some time with well know musician and Durbanite, Roly Struckmeyer, a couple days back. We met at a corner cafe under the new ‘green’ windmills that restaurants seem to be buying to save the environment. Only problem is the bats seem to be flying into them and chopping themselves in half. I have heard Roly play several times, but lately have been doing some work with him which has opened up the opportunity to get to know this incredible songwriter.

The conversation was one I could have over and over again. Amidst a fascinating life story I was interested by his comment that he wanted to be known as a ‘songwriter’ before ‘performer’, hence his hero being Burt Bacharach! Certainly great songs like ‘Let it Be’ have made more tin than some small African countries but for him this not only about the money. “I work off a formula when I write songs” he remarked “I pen down lines that I find myself thinking or saying. At some point the lines will marry and merge creating a song. Some of the songs you hear had their chorus written years before the actual verse!”

In essence, what I loved was that this was an amazing combination of thinking and doing, a beautiful relationship between what inward and what is outward. The contrast is musical in itself. Roly does what he does because he is aware continuously, listening to what happens around him. The result is songs which are an absolute expression of who he really is. His messages are powerful.

Our lives so often can be out of rhythm. To often we are to busy DOING to take the time to THINK. Your outputs slowly drain of an real representation of who you really are and what you were created to do. We can all take a lesson from one of Roly’s songs - Ferris Ride - which states;

‘Take this moment to unwind, cause time is what we try to find. Everybody loves the Ferris Ride, but we should still be dreaming of the rain’

“The Ferris Ride” Roly says, immediately making a repetitive circle motion with his hands “is that rut humans get into, round and round doing the same thing. What we most need to do is take a moment to think & to ask questions. Nowadays we dream of money, wealth etc (which keeps us on the ride!) and we’ve lost the basic love and togetherness that we used to have for each other as human beings.”

Roly says it all and through a piece of music and a humble guitar challenges us all to remember what is of value and to step off that Ferris Ride. Think and Do. Inward, Outward.

(Join Roly Struckmeyer and Gareth Gale as they join Appletree for the Ferris Ride experience in Durban, 28th january - see www.appletreelive.com for more details. Roly’s website is www.rolystruckmeyer.co.za)

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LifeLifeNow is written by Travis Gale who has spent the last 5 years running his own development business in South Africa’s corporate world and is currently involved in various long term partnerships with clients across a number of industries. Furthermore he has travelled to conferences internationally hunting down latest trends and insights. Having cycled around the world and survived a tsunami, his passion for crossing borders often lends itself to an interesting blend of stories and insight. He sees himself as a ‘change catalyst’ and displays strength in facilitating insight into the right spaces. Find out more at www.appletreelive.com

A Vision to Fight For!

Yesterday, whilst driving to Mafikeng (thanks to Airlink being grounded!) I noticed the beauty of the surrounding areas. It is summer which always means bigger and better sunsets set against a lush green countryside thanks to all the rains. There are always storm clouds brewing which play games with the sun allowing her to pierce the landscape with tunnels of light and shadow. Then I got excited! So excited that I actually began to move to Joe Cockers ‘Unchain my heart’ which was being played on Jacaranda FM, the only radio station I could access out there. My excitement had less to do with the countryside and more to do with the fact that I was experiencing it in such a way! I had noticed it! I thought about how much driving I had done of late and how much my inner thoughts had clouded the ability to actually see what was around me. I realised that my thoughts were always of ahead of me, wondering, plotting, puzzling. So what was different now?

A few days ago, I had an honest look at my life. Knowing 2010 is going to be a big year I knew that I needed to live in such a way that created space for my God-given calling to be lived to the fullest. This meant clearing away the clutter and taking a good honest look at that which I deemed to be ‘worthwhile good ideas’ yet were actually distractions. I changed the order of my priorities. I sat and reflected on what I knew to be the vision I want to fight for. As the vision grew larger in my heart and mind again, me and my desires seemed to diminish. Although this was hard at first, soon a sense of freedom set in. Already it feels simpler, lighter and easier. I feel like I am living in such a way which gives me the best chance to make this vision happen.

Today’s world will dish out many a distraction. We simply walk amongst a myriad of options. Some options will be a mile away from where you need to be and you will know it. Others will be just a shade off, a shadow of the ‘real thing’ but have the same consequences. I encourage you to spend some time reminding yourself of the vision you are meant to fight for, so as not to be ensnared with unnecessary distractions.

We need you living how you were called to live, doing what you were meant to do!

Everybody dies but not everybody lives

Everybody dies but not everybody lives
(sticker on unknown SA traveller’s Hilux in Botswana)

Arriving at the Botswana border I saw what is basically every young adventures dream - a converted 4x4 equipped and ready to take on any terrain that was thrown at it. Every piece of equipment needed was attached, from rooftop tents to water containers, two spare tires, jerry cans and even some funky stickers alongside a toy dinosaur (which had the border officials a bit baffled - probably thought he was smuggling lizards!) Then the owner emerged. He was probably in his late 50’s sporting a white beard, a broad smile and joined by his wife. I could see as I spoke to him that his eyes had seen many places, let alone this 5000km journey they were only a day away from completing. He told me about the night his camp was visited by Lions. Then the 150km dangerous drive to Drotsky’s caves in the desert. Not to mention the Caprivi and Namibia escapades.

Turns out his car cost a total of R40 000 and the modifications another R50 000 - thats R90000 for a dream machine that will guarantee adventure and memories! I thought about it. He knew what he wanted. Every weekend for the past few years this man would spend time modifying his vehicle, piece by piece. He would painfully weld, glue, measure and cut his way to living his dreams. Every little addition meant more ability, more comfort, more adventures. His heart was set on what he loved and his actions followed suit. He didn’t speak about about being ‘out there’ - that’s actually where he was. His INTENTIONALITY meant that he lived his dreams. I would love to be one of his grandchildren for a weekend visit!

The point is short term pain leads to long term pleasure. And thats the point - we either live with the pain of discipline (intentionality) or the pain of regret. Imagine a man sitting on a rocking chair empty of adventure because he never started with that first drill into an old Toyota Hilux. Luckily for him, it’s not the case.

What about you?
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Travis Gale has spent the last 5 years running his own development business in South Africa’s corporate world and is currently involved in various long term partnerships with clients across a number of industries. Furthermore he has travelled to conferences internationally hunting down latest trends and insights. Having cycled around the world and survived a tsunami, his passion for crossing borders often lends itself to an interesting blend of stories and insight. He sees himself as a ‘change catalyst’ and displays strength in facilitating insight into the right spaces. Find out more at www.appletreelive.com