10 years ago, I was an Intern leading the project team for a 350 person sales meeting in downtown Toronto.
During the same week that we were there, Toronto was abuzz with TIFF – the Toronto International Film Festival.
During the pitch a few months before, the advertising company came in and pitched ACTION! as the meeting theme.
That was it!
And yet the marketing folks did not like that they did just one – and so back to the drawing board. A pointless exercise really – – they had it right all along -The ACTION Sales Meeting was born.
In Dec 2015, as I was suffering under the weight of my life awry and sitting in my seat during the Landmark’s Advanced Course, the leader said that most of her colleagues around the world – work for 3 weeks a month and then get a week off. Me she said, I work a week and spend 3 weeks in bed recovering, explaining that she had lupus.
I don’t suffer she said, just take ACTION.
This week I took ACTION placing my Cabin on Airbnb. I had been thinking about it for 2 years wanting to but doubting whether anyone would want to come and not wanting to deal with the rejection and did nothing.
Werner Erhard, the founder of the work that Landmark Education bases its work on says “we need to get clear for ourselves, that the only access to impacting life is through ACTION.
“the world does not care what you intend, how committed you are, how you feel or what you think, and certainly has no interest in what you want and don’t want. Take a look at life as it is lived and see for yourself that the world only moves for you when you act”
And I am seeing that for myself these last two days.
All my thoughts, ponderings, wondering about what to do with my cabin – how could I have it be that I could keep it – afford to maintain it, while working through my current financial space had no impact whatsoever.
I needed to take ACTION.
Yet only hours after the listing got posted, I had my first potential customer, then two. Then I shared it on Facebook and I witnessed other people sharing it also and people asking questions clarifying my rules of the place – Pets – Sure”
When my Rotary Club posts on Facebook, we sometime beg people to share our posts. Liking it does not do it anymore – sharing it is where it is at. So far my initial post has been shared 9 times and liked 37 times And I have had two serious inquiries and one booking. (That’s the world moving for me)
Today, one day later, I welcomed my first 3 guests to my Airbnb. (After 6 hours of ACTION called cleaning) …my house could use that as well.
And my brain is on fire – thinking of how I can market it as the fall & winter approaches.
Along with my 6 hours of cleaning, I made sure to pick up a bottle of Red (the colour of choice) and a new Guest Book, at Hallmark in Mount Pearl. I set up a new category on my expense app that I track all my expenses for Airbnb and Cabin Rental for bookings outside of that model.
I can see that my first guest will bring me $168.78 and so far I have had an outlay of $95.65.
And I want to give a shout out to The Airbnb app – it has been seamless and simple. I have used it twice as a traveller for that Dec 2015 trip to Toronto and an amazing find of a listing in Los Cabos Mexico in Dec 2016. And yet this is my first time as a host. (I wonder if I can augment my house income by doing it also for the house I rent – my mom’s room likely won’t be getting used any time soon)
And I can kick myself all I want about why I never listed it last week or the month or year before that. None of that matters. All that matters is that I did it.
Recovery is like that too – an ACTION program. Suffering is optional.
My mom has been sick for 9 weeks following her fall and broken hip and since that time, both of my dogs have died. It landed heavy on me and I could not seem to get out of my own way in terms of putting pen to paper to write this blog or to write a poem, or take ACTION in the way that I must in terms of my business.
And yet while I have been silent, I have been in ACTION in my recovery. In doing the work, making the calls, reading, going to meetings, and talking to my sponsor. My sobriety is growing for which I am so grateful.
Today I wrote a poem for the first time in a while, called “Taste the Sky” after using those words to tell a songwriter why my cabin was such a great place to create.
For today, I have come to the end – as it is way past my bedtime.
So I have to ask – what are you waiting to take ACTION on?