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Portage
July 2003 Newsletter In This Issue...
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| Welcome
Welcome to my Portage Newsletter. If you find value in Portage please pass it along and ask your friends to subscribe. Thank You. I'd love to hear your thoughts, insights and understandings. deb@portagecoach.com I just returned from the first
of what I'm sure will be many Adventure Coach Outings on South Manitou
Island in Lake Michigan. This one was designed to help coaches make nature,
the outdoors and adventure a part of their practice and offerings. I'll
likely be doing this one again. So if you're a coach wanting to make adventure
and nature a part of what you offer your clients, zip me an email.
Thank you, Randy, Robyn, Joelle, Kelly, Karen and Mary Kay!  Besides entertaining me with some outrageous antics and humor, these coaches from Colorado, Minnesota and Ontario helped me expand my definition of adventure. I'm so much clearer about what I want adventure to be for me. Risk: To embark on a true adventure, I must experience some dare and the courage to push beyond adversity and boundaries. This is not to say that my adventures must be life and limb threatening. While I enjoy a little adrenaline now and then, I don't have to chase tornadoes or triumph over nature in some way. The risk can come from stretching myself a little more by dropping an old belief I have held and trying something new. Expansion: Through exploration and discovery my knowledge and experience expands. I learn something new or get clearer about my environment, others, and myself. Wandering: In my adventures there is some unknown, some mystery. I feel adventurous when I wander just enough that I don't know how something will work out, who I may meet, how I might get from point A to point B, or maybe even when the adventure will end. Even better if something is left at the end of my adventure that remains unsolved. Internal: My adventures are as much internal as they are external. Even when adventuring with others, part of what is happening within me is very solitary, very personal and internal. And if I've done the internal part right, it continues long after the physical adventure has ended. Earned: I want an adventure
that gives me the feeling of having “earned” something. Of having paid
my dues in some way. And my reward is that at the end of the adventure,
the simple things in my life now feel exquisite.
"The most exotic destination of all is the one to be found within your own adventurous spirit--after you've put yourself to the test and found hidden reserves of creativity, resourcefulness and perseverance." ~~Jeff Salz "Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not knows no release from little things; knows not the livid loneliness of fear nor mountain heights where bitter joys can hear the sounds of wings." ~~Amelia Earhart "An adventure is only an inconvenience
rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered."
~~G. K. Chesterton
Some Good Reading
Women of Discovery: A Celebration
of Intrepid Women who Explored the World by Milbry Polk and Mary Tiegreen.
An amazing read. I had no idea women had discovered so much so early in
the history of exploration and no idea women were still so restricted so
late in the history of exploration.
A Note About My Recommendations
Peace and much love
Portage is published 12 times a year and distributed monthly by e-mail. Comments, submissions and suggestions are welcome. Please feel free to forward any or all of this newsletter to those you know will appreciate it and encourage them to subscribe for themselves. I am always pleased to receive your suggestions as to what type of material you would like to see here. Although this material is subject to copyright, please feel free to reprint this publication, in whole or in part, in your company publication, in training, presentations, or wherever you feel it would be of benefit. This also holds true for members of the media. All I ask is that you use the following credit line: Reprinted with permission from Deborah Martin of Portage at http://www.portagecoach.com The names of newsletter subscribers will never be shared or sold. Copyright 2003, all rights reserved. |