The holiday note I got from one of my seminar attendees, Doug McCullough, described his trips skiing, camping, kayaking, canoeing, driving his high-end convertible, and other outdoor activities. There was a picture of him swimming with dolphins.

He also linked to a TEDx talk he gave, which reminded me about one of my major inspirations, Mark Zupan, star of the Oscar-nominated Murderball and author of the book Gimp, and whom I describe on some depth in my two-day seminar and on my Resources and Inspirations page.

I try to inspire people in my seminars. Many tell me I do. I love when they inspire me back.

http://youtu.be/1keCb7oEMBg

I also mentioned Zupan in this post, “Handling life’s biggest challenges,” by another friend who inspired me, which also mentioned this quote:

Something that has always puzzled me all my life is why, when I am in special need of help, the good deed is usually done by somebody on whom I have no claim.

– William Feather

His video put his outdoor activities in context. I can’t help get the feeling he squeezes more meaning, value, joy, and reward out of these activities than most people. In his video he talks about overcoming challenges, but you’d think the challenges would decrease the joy he gets from those activities—they take more preparation and work. He can’t do many of the things most of us can. Think about it: if you’re going to kayak, wouldn’t you rather have full control of your arms? If you’re going to ski, wouldn’t you rather have full control of your legs?

Yet many people get less meaning, value, joy, and reward from those activities despite having more material ability to get it. Something about this pattern seemed to resonate with the quote in bold above and I couldn’t help playing with it. Please don’t quote me on it, since it’s only half-baked now, but I think there’s something to it:

Something that has always puzzled me all my life is why, when I see someone enjoying life the most, the joy is usually had by somebody who could claim to suffer the most.

When was the last time you enjoyed life more than anyone around you?

• ← I don’t remember feeling this much passion for a project since co-founding my first company in the late 90s
• The overeager salesperson and why just understanding someone can undermine you leading them →