ripple effect

Before coming to school, I had held numerous jobs over the years. My favorite, and the one I held seasonally for about five years, was as office assistant for a self-employed mime and juggler turned motivational lecturer.

(I will pause here for a moment here so everyone can get all the mime jokes out of their system. “Did he talk when he was in the office?” “Did you have to let him out of the glass box?” “Were his lectures pantomimed?” etc. etc. Ready to move on now?)

Curtis was a mime and juggler for 25 years before making the transition to lecturing, but is was a natural transition considering how goal-oriented he was, and how motivating he was to be around.

When I was growing up, every year my dad always would make a list of “new years resolutions” on new years day. He'd write his list of resolutions on the back side of a used envelope. They were things like “read more” or “exercise regularly” and other such typical types of goals. He knew as well as I did that this ritual was to make himself feel better for the day, but was pretty much forgotten by the next week if not sooner.

That was what the idea of “setting goals” represented to me. A nice ritual to fool yourself in to believing you'll accomplish more than you actually will.

Until working for Curtis.

When he and his wife Michelle would sit down and set goals, it wasn't just on new years day. They would do this monthly, regularly. This entrepreneurial couple didn't just set goals like “read more” but they would establish what it would take to achieve that goal, such as “read at least one book per month”. They would measure their progress on each goal throughout the year. They would plan each week, even each day, keeping in mind what their long term goals were.

I had never seen anything like this. Self-discipline, planning, follow-through. These were principles that I had been told were important my whole life, they sounded so cliché to me, but never had I seen them in action. Never had I had an example of this behavior, carried out so effectively.

Without Curtis and Michelle's influence, I don't think I'd be in school right now. I don't think I'd have had the follow-through or the courage to apply for college, I don't think I'd have gotten out of debt after getting divorced (of course, I'm back in debt now, thanks to student loans, but that's all part of the plan...), I don't think I'd have had the strength to get through a divorce and face all my fears about what people would think of me and how to accept a new idea of the future. I don't think I would have found this new life that I find so very fulfilling and exciting and satisfying. I wouldn't have the wonderful friendships I've found, or all the amazing experiences and adventures I've had in the past three years.