As I am pre­par­ing to give a work­shop on tak­ing the Big Leap, I came across this beau­ti­ful and timely quo­ta­tion online.

It’s easy to stay in one place, repeat life day after day.
It is com­fort­able, famil­iar and pre­dict­able.
But, is life meant to be lived in status quo with everything you desire at bay?

Take this spe­cial year to step out­side of your com­fort zone.
Take life by the horns and make that big leap into the unknown.
For as soon as you make the com­mit­ment, you will never be alone.

~ by Jean M. DiGiovanna

I even dis­covered a fas­cin­at­ing fact about a leap year tra­di­tion that in 5^th cen­tury. In Ire­land, St. Brid­get com­plained about St. Patrick about women hav­ing to wait so long for a man to pro­pose to mar­riage, they allowed women to pro­pose on this one day in Feb­ru­ary dur­ing leap year. For the law to take that leap given the strict rules of court­ship at the time, that is a kind of Big Leap I want to talk about here today.

I remem­ber how I was puzzled when I read first time Ein­stein defin­i­tion of insan­ity “Doing the same thing and expect­ing dif­fer­ent res­ult.”

So the ques­tion to you is “when was the last time you too a big leap in your life?” Again am talk­ing about a kind of leap that scared and excited you at the same time. The big leap could mean mov­ing out of your com­fort zone, phys­ic­ally, men­tally, emo­tion­ally and spir­itu­ally. It means learn­ing to say NO to every­one else and YES to what you truly want. Tak­ing the leap toward what ful­fills you is an incred­ible cour­ageous step.

Now is a good time to think of all the things you enjoy but no longer doing, or the things you been want­ing to do but wait­ing for that per­fect time, per­fect loc­a­tion, per­fect fin­an­cial security, …

Take that leap today/ this year toward who you truly want. Leap into the life you desire, the life you deserve, the life that has been wait­ing for you. Don’t wait for another year, now is a good time to start.

For info. on the work­shop~ http://www.facebook.com/events/373997819341175/

1. Attend at least one Sum­mer Olympic Games
2. Attend Aus­tralian Open  — Done
3. Swim with a dol­phin – Done
4. Swim with whale Sharks
5. Sky­dive – Done
6. Scuba dive off Australia’s Great Bar­rier Reef — Done
7. Learn to speak a for­eign language  -
8. Go skinny-dipping at mid­night –Done
9. Tell a stranger the story of your life, spar­ing no details – Done
10. Mas­ter yoga head stand —  On going
11. Travel around the world – Done
12. Send a mes­sage in a bottle
13. Ride a camel into the desert — Done
14. Write a let­ter to someone in Prison
15. Fall deeply in love — help­lessly and unconditionally
16. Write and pub­lish my travel log
17. Ride the Trans-Siberian Express across Asia
18. Go on a canoe trip and camp in a wild – Done
19. Learn to play at least one musical instrument
20. Do trans– Africa (Cape to Cairo)  – Done
21. Spend New Year’s eve in Times Square -
22. Get pas­sion­ate about a cause and spend time help­ing it – doing now AWIB
23. Sleep under the stars – Done
24. Go wild in Rio – Done
25. Do some­thing I love as a job – One going
26. Ride a roller­coaster — Done
27. White­wa­ter Raft– Done
28. Grow a garden
29. Go up in a hot-air bal­loon — Done
30. Visit at least 5 National parks in Africa – Done
31. Attend at least one Salif Keita’s con­cert – Done
32. Montreal Jazz fest­ival – Done
33. Par­ti­cip­ate at  Burring Man –
34. Kiss total stranger in a bar –Done
35. Learn to cook Thai food -
36. Meet a total stranger trav­el­ing and end-up stay­ing in their house – Done
37. Bun­gee Jump — Done
38. Have my own TV Show
39. Walk the great wall of China
40. Attend a Cirque du Soleil Show — Done
41. Learn to live with detach­ment – On going
42. Prac­tice my Medi­ation twice a day – On going
43. Write my autobiography
44. Teach someone some­thing new
45. Float around the Dead Sea — Done
46. Spend a month in Ashram Med­it­at­ing and learn­ing – Done
47. Spend New year’s eve in Sydney – Done
48. Take a group of dis­ad­vant­age kids on round the world tour
49. Travel from Tur­key to Pakistan over land
50. At least Visit 100 coun­tries before I turn 50
51. Organ­ize a big reunion with all my friends from around the world
52. Learn to make art and give it to people -
53. Learn to read Tarot cards
54. Run a God­dess circle with more than 100 women
55. Reach at least one mil­lion people through my work around the world
56. Start a lib­rary in Ethiopia with den­ted books I get from around the world
57. Tell stor­ies to kids as part of my com­munity work
58. Take part on the 45 days silent Medi­ation (Vipassana)
59. Live on island for a month
60. Attend big travel con­fer­ence (where all won­derer souls come together)
61. Visit Iguasu Falls – Argentina/Brazil — Done
62. Vic­toria Falls – Zambia/ Zim­b­abwe — Done
63. Uluru – Aus­tralia – Done
64. Robin Island – South Africa – Done
65. Swim with Pen­guins – Done
66. Petra – Jordan – Done
67. Mac­chu Pichu – Peru – Done
68. Abu Sim­bel – Egypt – Done
69. Wit­ness the North­ern Light – Done
70. Dance under thou­sands stars with Hum­mer people in South­ern Ethiopia — Done
71. Eat at one of the best Res­taur­ants in the world
72. Set foot on all Seven con­tin­ent – One more to go
73. Volun­teer Abroad  - Done
74. See gla­cier up-close and per­sonal – Done
75. Clime act­ive volcano
76. Get a com­plete makeover once
77. Live through four sea­son of the year – spring, sum­mer, autumn, winter – Done
78. Watch cheery blos­som in Japan
79. Visit Jer­u­s­alem old city — Done
80. Go on cruise ( If I ever retire from my work:-))
81. Wild life migra­tion – Masi Mera – Done
82. Spend some times in Amazon Jungle
83. Visit Norway’s Fjords
84. Plant trees
85. Attend Reed Dance in South Africa – Done
86. Spread ran­dom act of kind­ness ( Get involve on smile cards pro­ject)
87. See the sun­rise and sun­set often – On going
88. Make my blog the biggest resource for young people
89. Sell everything I own and travel — Done
90. Travel India by train – Done
91. Bathe in the Ganges (India) – Done
92. Fly first class – Done
93. See Mona lisa in Louvre – Done
94. Go on romantic getaway -
95. Learn to Astral Travel – Done
96. Go on walk­ing Safari – Done
97. Visit the lean­ing tower of Pisa – Done
98. Speak to an inter­na­tional audi­ence of thou­sands of people
99. Golden Gate bridge – Done
100. Meet Nel­son Man­dela – (the closest I got was meet­ing his wife so far) +
101. Live in a tree house (I had to add the last one, it’s been on my mind for a while now)

PS* Some of the picture’s can be found on the travel page

Allo Beau­ti­ful souls!

Someone recently asked me

Why my web­site doesn’t have any more new content?

Why I am not blog­ging as I prom­ised to do?

And

my true hon­est answer came out from my heart

and  said,  I am not inspired.

Later on that even­ing I said to myself, is it true?

Is it true I am not inspired at all?

What is it I need to be inspired?

Am I wait­ing for the inspir­a­tion to come from outside?

So I sat to med­it­ate with the ques­tion and answer,

(the only and best thing I ever know to do)

And that my friends,

Brought out lots of why’s.

Why I decided to come back to Ethiopia?

Why do I have a website?

Why do I want to share my life?

The truth is, it’s all about me.

Yes I want to make the world a bet­ter place, Trans­form lives, Be light to human­ity all those goodness…

But deep down I know, doing what I love to do has always lead me to be a con­scious, lov­ing, stronger, trust­ing, happy, non-judgmental, funny, spon­tan­eous, groun­ded creature that I am, and I love that!!  How could I not want more of that:-)

So I went back to my bucket list, to do my invent­or­ies and revi­sion.
Because  for me it’s those things that keep me inspired, give me the fuel that I need to get through my day, keep me focused (sane :-)) when everything around me tells me oth­er­wise. So there you have it. Hope you all have that inspir­a­tion within.

Will post my Bucket List on the next post. If you do get inspired, share yours too.

If you don’t know about Bucket List or you want to cre­ate your own –

http://www.lifed.com/bucket-list-225-things-to-do-before-you-die

http://www.wakeuplist.com/

http://www.43things.com/

“The only people who fear death are those with regrets.” ~ Author Unknown

Hello Gor­geous People,

I want to share with you about my recent trips to Gam­bella (West part of Ethiopia almost close to South Sudan). For those of you who are won­der­ing if this was one of my small travel fix, happy to tell you NO!! It was WORK:-) this time though truth be told, I was dying to go that part of Ethiopia for a very long time.

My first visit went like this. I am so excited to go to Gam­bella fol­lowed by OMG… this is so depress­ing, lots of poverty, HIV/AIDS, refugee camps, ten­sion in the com­munity. I felt con­fused and miser­able for days, feel­ing guilty and help­less­ness as I have never known it before. Extreme heartache and emo­tion­ally shattered!

So next time around, I asked myself what am I cap­able of doing? If I keep doing what I am doing or feel­ing, I real­ized I wasn’t serving any­one else or myself. I needed a drastic men­tal shift!

Here is some­thing I shared with friends in my email from there. Includ­ing pic­tures too. Enjoy!!

“Few of you who have chat­ted with me after my first trip in at the end of May know little bit about the chal­lenges I faced on my first trip. This time am happy to report I’m amaz­ingly doing well. Of course noth­ing has changed, still there is so much poverty more than I could ever be able to explain, still the HIV/AIDs is higher in this region and I see more kids on the street but I also came to my senses, turn to my own inner wis­dom for guid­ance.  Instead of choos­ing to see the worst and tor­ture myself with guilt I have opened up to the won­der­ful cul­ture, beau­ti­ful green land and ami­able people that sur­roun­ded me.

Aside my work I vis­ited a local orphan­age, mar­ket and I even had a test of local food (Okra and Maize Genfo). I am always grate­ful for won­der­ful souls that show up in my life when I need them and my blessed life full of adven­ture and possibilities.”

He that is good for mak­ing excuses is sel­dom good for any­thing else.
— Ben­jamin Franklin

When we are stuck in life and noth­ing seem to move for­ward, we des­per­ately look for answer every­where. Hop­ing our prayer is answered in some form.
That form can be a sign, a phrase from a book, people we meet on the street, mes­sage though our dream, I do believe divine inter­ven­tion comes in every form and size.

Few months ago, I received an email that shocked my sys­tem. It wasn’t a bad news but it was a kind of wakeup call I needed. Why? because I was kind of get­ting com­fort­able where I was in life.

I was in that com­fort zone of not want­ing to see other pos­sib­il­it­ies. The email came from Nahu – one of the won­der­ful women I came to admire, respect and lucky to work with in tak­ing AWiB to the next level.

It read

“As a great Amer­ican Com­ment­ator, Erma Bom­beck, once said “when I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of tal­ent left and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me’.

I want all of us to reflect on that say­ing and to really intern­al­ize the mean­ing of it all. We are con­cerned more about oth­ers than ourselves. Have I used my God given tal­ent? Should be our con­cern instead.  I have heard most of you shriek­ing when I said each of us needs to sell 48 tick­ets to move all 500 of them and yes since we don’t have a mean­ing­ful spon­sor, we need to do it by ourselves. But if we say we couldn’t because of zil­lions reas­ons that life is throw­ing at us, believe me we are not going to move even one. What we utter is what we act upon and get, and that is the uni­ver­sal truth.”

See I was one of those people who shrank giv­ing mil­lion reas­ons why I won’t be able to sell those tick­ets. But this email turned things around, not only that I sold more than 50 tick­ets but it also made me think where else in my life I am shrink­ing? Not doing enough or simply giv­ing excuses not to do more?

Thank you Nahu, for great wakeup call! We all need someone in our life who can hold us account­able on daily basis.

Now I invite you all to check, where in your life today are you shrink­ing? What is the story or excuse you tell to yourself?

To be so strong that noth­ing can dis­turb my peace of mind.
To talk health, hap­pi­ness, and prosper­ity to every per­son I meet.
To make all my friends feel that there is some­thing worth­while in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make my optim­ism come true.
To think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthu­si­astic about the suc­cess of oth­ers as I am about my own.
To for­get the mis­takes of the past and press on to the greater achieve­ments of the future.
To wear a cheer­ful expres­sion at all times and give a smile to every liv­ing creature I meet.
To give so much time to improv­ing myself that I have no time to cri­ti­cize oth­ers.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to per­mit the pres­ence of trouble.
To think well of myself and to pro­claim this fact to the world, not in loud words, but in great deeds.
To live in the faith that the whole world is on my side, so long as I am true to the best that is in me.

By Chris­tian D. Lar­son {I Prom­ise Myself}

Every great dream begins with a dreamer. 
Always remem­ber, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the pas­sion to reach for the stars to change the world.Har­riet Tubman

Essence of Per­sonal power @ Addis Hilton

I’m big on dream and most people who know me well can attest I lit­er­ally live for my dream. It’s my dream that wakes me up every day and keeps me on my toe, It’s my dream that put me thru Uni­ver­sity and every insti­tutes I atten­ded. It’s my dream that put me on the bus, plane, train to travel the world and it’s my dream that brought me back to Ethiopia.

As a child grow­ing up here all I did was dream, I had no idea how that was going to come to real­ity someday. It didn’t cross my mind why it shouldn’t either. I wanted to two things, in short travel the world and make a dif­fer­ence in people’s life. Didn’t know how? didn’t ask why either?

Just believed whatever that voice within and fol­lowed my heart. Even though I some­times lose track of my dream, when fear gets the best of me, life always makes sure puts me back on track.

Now am wit­ness­ing one of my biggest dreams com­ing true, shar­ing my stor­ies, exper­i­ences and trans­form­ing people’s lives.