poon hill Posts by Zip On Tampa Bay

My wife and I set out on an adventure of a lifetime recently. This is our story. My hope in sharing our experience is that it may help you get out of your own comfort zone, take ownership over your own happiness and motivate you to seek your own adventure. Adventure is an amazing tool that can help you find the best version of yourself and give you back that feeling of “being alive.” Thanks for checking it out. Santosh (our guide) and I coming down the home stretch on the final day of our trek. The Final Chapter So it has been 2 months since Maureen and I returned home from our Himalayan trek in the Annapurna mountain range. As one would predict, we've fallen back into our old habits of overloading our plates with too many tasks and responsibilities, not taking time for ourselves and becoming overwhelmed easily day in and day out. But I won't concede! I refuse to give up on my dream of building a life that is full of joy and happiness. I will work endlessly at creating a life for my family and our friends that is full of love and peace, contentment and satisfaction. Because of this trip to Nepal, I now know how to do this. It will just be a matter of making subtle changes in lifestyle and changes in the decisions we make. Gradually Maureen and I both are committed to achieving the life we always imagined. Lessons-learned upon our return from Nepal I have found that chasing accomplishment, money and prestige becomes addicting yet unfulfilling. And that working to earn notoriety and respect of others while noble, is so darn time consuming and ultimately fruitless. I learned that being a workaholic while productive as it might be makes me a terrible father and husband regardless of my intentions. I learned that the best life is a life where the calendar isn't always chock full of business meetings and "to-dos." I had a wake up call when my 6-year old son JJ told his entire school his wish for this Christmas is for Santa to bring patience for his dad and happiness for his mom. And this is a reality I created for us because of the decisions I have made over the last 10 years. And so I consider myself the luckiest guy on Earth because I still have more than half a lifetime to fix this. And fix it I will. Inner Peace Over the course of the next 10 years I plan to read more. I want to activate that amazing machine called the imagination. I want to "escape" into a great fiction novel for a couple hours on Sunday afternoons. I want to share in my daughters new found love of Harry Potter (thanks Ms Kalyan!) and show them that reading is a life-long hobby that we can share together as a family. I want to reconnect with my family - my brother and sisters. I want them to know how much I love them and that together we can tackle any problem and face any challenge. I want to take more leisurely walks. And I want to give myself permission to be free from worries and stresses during this time. I want to continue traveling to Nepal and finding new trails to trek and new mountains to climb. The beauty of the people, the crispness of the air, the energy of the mountains creates a feeling of being alive that is priceless. Walking in the mountains is like feeding your soul a CLIF bar - simple nourishment for living an extraordinary life. I invite you to come with me. While I know there are many reasons why you might not, I'm sure you can think of one or two big reasons why you should. You won't regret it - I'll guarantee it. My friend is 6 years old. Same age as JJ. He got me for my last ink pen!!! Our last day in Pokhara. Maureen took me paragliding for my birthday. It was sick (literally and figuratively!). Departing Tribhuvan International Airport on 10/16/17. 24 hours later we'd be back home in Tampa. As soon as we got home, my two biggest fans were waiting for me with a surprise birthday celebration of their own! Thanks to Grandma Kay for allowing Maureen and I to go on this trip of a lifetime together. It was special for so many reasons. And thank YOU to those who read this blog and followed along on Facebook before, during and after our trip. We appreciate you taking an interest in our expedition and look forward to sharing more stories, lessons-learned, insights and inspiration from the land of the giants - Nepal. "Jom Jom!" (Let's Go!)

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Keep Calm and Trek the Himalayas | Final Chapter