So it’s Memorial Day Weekend. The nation takes a long weekend in remembrance of U.S.A soldiers who died fighting for our freedom and the freedom of others. Now, I’m no party popper, I think those soldiers would smile to see us getting together outside at a picnic, eating good food and having some drinks with the freedom and prosperity they’ve afforded us. I’ll be doing that as well!

But I gotta admit part of it makes me feel uncomfortable. In all the epic movies I own…Gladiator, Braveheart, Lord of the Rings and more…imagine if their blood, sweat and tears had been to protect a king who stayed safe in his castle, focused primarily on his own comfort. Wouldn’t make much of an epic story eh?

“Hero fights and wins to keep the King safe, secure and fat.”

We want a hero who fights to save a King who in turn is saving the lives of his people. Protecting them and their freedoms so they can in turn help others, and so on and so forth…

‘Memorial Day’ isn’t a pretend story. Real men, fighting real fights, have died. And from that, we are free to do…whatever we want. Pad our own little Kingdoms and arses, or use the freedom to serve. And not serve in any way or all in the same way, but serve in a way that we are precisely created for.

*Pictured is a profound, bronze memorial, crafted by my dearest friend Scott Stearman (.com)

If we step back and view our lives, are we taking our freedoms and serving others in our unique way? Or are our days primarily enslaved to work so we can get paid and care primarily for ourselves? And merely providing food on the table, a roof over the head and clothes on the backs for our family…I’m not sure that’s enough. Soldiers fighting and dying are also doing that, but in their vocations…serving others in a way they are uniquely equipped. THAT’S THE DEAL FOLKS…we can do both! It’s freakin’ beautiful. THAT…is a freedom we can claim. Must claim.

Here is a Memorial Day Observance offer for you then:

1. ‘Like’ us at the Free Agent Academy Facebook fanpage: http://facebook.com/freeagentunderground
2. Download this image of ‘Agent Ray’, or you can visit this link and simply hit ‘share’ on the image at Facebook 
3. Post it to your personal Facebook page, and in the comment, ‘tag’ us by typing in @Free Agent Academy (while you’re typing, it should show us in a drop down list that you can select)

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?

Glad you asked.

1. YOU: You get to state your commitment to, and conviction in…taking your freedom, to know your purpose and ‘Walk worthy of your calling’ Eph. 4:1 and in that…serving others. Not just serving yourself.
2. WIN: We’ll enter you into a small drawing to win a ridiculously cool (and expensive) Saddleback Leather bag next Friday, June 1 (Which is appropriate because owner Dave Munson is a friend and fanatical free agent. CEO Chuck Bowen helped cofound Free Agent Academy. And Jimi helped create Free Agent Academy’s brand, including creating the ‘Agent Ray’ picture you’re posting to Facebook!).
3. PRIVATE CALL: You’ll be invited to a private, live video/chat session with myself and Justin Lukasavige of CoachRadio.TV. We’ll be talking with you about how you are (or desire to) live our your purpose and calling in your vocation and life. We’ll be live with you on Friday, June 1 from 3:30-5:30pm MT. And for anyone that wants to drive or fly here to Woodland Park, CO, we’ll take you to dinner afterwards. No joke.
4. BASECAMP: Best-for-Last: BaseCamp is where you start with us in Free Agent Academy (read all about it here). You enroll for your first month, get a snazzy and valuable welcome kit and join us in getting Aware of your Purpose and enabled to apply it to your life. It’s $250 to enroll. We don’t give discounts. But for benefiting us with some exposure through the aforementioned shameless promotion on Facebook, and in honor of the Memorial Day observance, we’re offering 20 people $101 off BaseCamp’s initial enrollment. So you’ll get over $100 worth of items in your New Member Welcome Kit and a month with us in BaseCamp for $149. If that’s all you do…it’s a great deal. We’ll give you the code after you post on Facebook.

Questions? Comments? Post below and I’ll get right with you. Eager to join you in honoring your freedom!

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Free Agent Underground Show – “Normal life, abnormal values and now a free agent”

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True story, happened about 20 minutes ago.

The Big Fear Happened.

I’m working at my friend Scott Stearman’s cabin down in Green Mountain Falls, CO. I spend my days writing and creating and barely moving, with my pulse sitting below 50 beats per minute and my butt getting sore. I try to help things by going for runs. So today I hit the steep trails on the side of town for a quick 25 minute jaunt. Coming around a bend and leaping over a rock, a dog runs past me down the hill. No surprise, there are often people on the trail. I glance up the ridge to see the expected owner, and there sits mama bear. A quick glance back down and I see the ‘dog’ is the cub. I pause for a split second, glance up where mama hasn’t moved yet, and bolt downhill. It’s really steep and boulder strewn. A moment more and on my right is a big tree and a huge scuffle and baby bear is clawing up it. Crap! It had doubled back on me. Now I’m waiting for the thunder of mama to sound. Nothing, and I catch a trail down into the neighborhood and haul butt.

I share this because a couple weeks ago on the same trail, I veered too far left and if not for a tree to grab, I’d have fallen down the steep hillside. No impending death, but it would have been hurt. But as I kept down the trail, I thought…would I have fallen if not for the tree, or did I feel free to push the limit cause the tree was there?

Same with this bear encounter. Our recent new friend Joseph Chirlee from Kenya (he is our new U.S.A. 25k champion!) would not go run the trails by our house two weeks ago cause of his intense fear of bear. He’s from Africa…lions and snakes, go figure. So what happened with me just a bit ago?

• Myth? Is the whole thing about getting between a mama bear and her cub a myth? They don’t really care? Doubtful…
• Superman? Am I just that imposing of a speciman of a man that no bear would dare risk an encounter with me? I wish, but doubtful with my 6′, 155lb stature…
• Downhill? Is it true that bear can’t run downhill cause their front legs are short, so my tactic and running prowess saved me? That IS literally a myth…
• God? Do I have a protective hedge around me cause God has a plan and it didn’t include getting mauled by a bear today? Could be, but…
• Humans? Maybe bear have just learned that humans are the ones to fear? Just like the elk that I often chase who could mow me down like a twig fi they wanted, but scamper away like scared mice?

I do know that nobody in this county can recall the last time a bear actually hurt a human. Zero. Nada. There are only 23 reports of bear/human interaction in the entire state of Colorado since 1998. That’s just over 1.5 per year in a state with tons of people out on trails every day of the year.

Yet there are scores of folks who come here and even live here with fear of ‘bear attack’ out on the trail, and stay away from hiking much, or alone. Meanwhile, who knows how many miles I’ve run alone on the Rocky Mountain trails. Plenty of guys I know dig going out in remote areas and solo camping. They might have their food stolen at night by a bear, but that’s about the worst of it.

What’s the point? In pursuing our purpose and drastically altering the trajectory of our lives, FEARS keep people down. And here is the deal:

What you fear…probably WILL happen!

• You will have some financial struggle along the way, maybe intense!
• You will have some relational struggles, with your spouse or friends and family.
• You will suffer the disdain, ridicule or disapproval from various people.
• You will lose sleep to worries and anxieties.
• You will work harder than you expected, or even fathomed.
• You will miss the mark in your endeavor and have to adjust. Some call it failure, the rest of us call it a normal part of progress…
• You will go out on the trail alone and come between a mama bear and a cub.

The deal is, what you fear, isn’t so horrible. 

That’s just it. No pithy quote. You’ll just deal with it, get through it. You’ll survive. The tragedy is when we don’t go forward because we fear the worst instead of just expecting it and saying “The worst is a price I’m willing to pay for the sake of what I believe to be the best.”

When I sit around with my fellow free agents we share war stories. Not with pride, but with gratefulness. It makes where we are sweeter. And honestly, it does feel a bit valiant. If it was easy, well…it wouldn’t be that valuable! And I see these same people continue taking on bears in their life, more and more. Cause they now expect the bear and are OK with it.

What’s far worse is staying indoors with the door locked.

So picture what you fear. Make peace with it and go forth.

*Photo – bear in our backyard May 2011

If you’d rather hear the show where I expanded on this topic:

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Most people (I bet you) have taken some type of personality profile. DISC, Strengthsfinder, Myers Briggs and more. They are amazing tools, and they do a pretty good job of nailing some primary tendencies, weaknesses and strengths. I usually read them and am impressed at the insight. But the truth is often this…it’s not worth squat to your life.

Chances are you weren’t blown away. It didn’t result in some grand epiphany that rocked your world and you came to a screeching halt to further understand this new revelation and ponder how your life should radically change from here forth!

Why?

There’s more than one reason for all of us, and some of them are very personal. But to paint with a broad brush, we don’t change easily…

But we WANT more and better and truer. We spent our time reading and watching about and from people who have done something powerful. Found their strengths, and realigned their lives around working primarily from them.

“Knowledge is easy. Application is brutal.”

If you don’t know your strengths:

• Join Free Agent Academy and we’ll give you the DISC and Strengthsfinder tests as part of Ascent class,
• Visit www.Strengthleader.com and purchase online Strengths report,
• Go to Amazon and find somewhere around a million different variations and reports at any number of prices (please don’t, I’m just trying to make a point)

Your chances and propensity to apply what you learn to yourself, by yourself, are slim. The info is only valid within the full context of who you are, and you can’t achieve that contextual clarity alone. It’s just not possible.

The point? A key to your personal progress is understanding your strengths, and realigning your life around them so you’re working in them the majority of the time. You can do this in traditional employment, and most freely, self-employment.

Hear www.StrengthLeader.com guru Deb Ingino and I passionately dissect all this in today’s show:

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Free Agent Underground Show – “Just knowing your strengths is worthless”

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Online Youth Leadership Summit Event hosted by Deb Ingino

Thursday May 10th 8pm Eastern/7pm Central

During this webcast we will share strategies to help our teens ages 14-17 on these important topics:

• Self Image (Presented by Kary Oberbrunner, author of Your Secret Name)
• Stand Up and Be Counted (Anti bulllying message presented by Lisa Schaefer, a teacher, counselor and a hoot!)
• Personal Character (taught by 18 year old Holly Eisenhut the  youngest certified Coach on the John Maxwell Team, who even at her young age is an awesome role model)
• Failing Forward To Success (Presented by Trudy Menke, a dynamite speaker who ‘gets it’)
• Full info and registration: Online Youth Leadership Summit Event

From family business, to MLM and get-rich-quick ideas, to a ‘real job’, to…knowing there should be more and getting inspired. This is the story-in-progress of Brett Traudt. 39 years old, married, living in California and doing the work of discovering and pursuing purpose in his life.

Today finds him having launched three business ideas:

S’more Outdoor

• Camping service. Most people like to camp, few do it cause it’s such a hassle! Brett takes care of all the dirty work so you can just be inspired!

Soap Dock

• Does your soap leave it’s scum where you set it, and get stuck? Brett’s solved that.

Mountain Man Soap

• “Shave with your axe. Bathe with our soap.” Killer brand, and I (Kevin) am an avid customer!

Brett’s still employed at the j-o-b. And a success story. If success is not all about ‘arriving’, but about ‘being’. About the revelation, the desire, the commitment and doing the long, hard work.

What makes Brett different from others who want and believe in more? I’d say vision. It’s carried him forward all this time, and it’s getting clearer every day. And the clearer it gets, the easier it is to recognize the opportunities when they present themselves.

You’ll be blessed immensely by this true story.

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Free Agent Underground Show – “Camping, soap and life on purpose”

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