I spoke too soon in my last entry. We were under mandatory evacuations in San Diego. The next day we were on the road trekking north after getting our reverse 911 calls. It is really scary to see a wall of black smoke heading your way. Luckily my girlfriend Jenny, Miss Bo Benny, was totally resourceful so we stayed at one of her friend’s homes up in Laguna the first night and then moved out to Palm Springs to a beautiful home… Like BEAUTIFUL… With a pool and spa…

I learned a few things in the process of the mandatory evacuations:

1. Remember your passport, birth certificate & social security card. You may not plan on international travel, but these items are hard to replace (as in time consuming), so be good to yourself and have that with you.

2. Take a few pics of the precious stuff. My girlfriend brought her photobook of her time with the twins and I was happy to see she had it with her. I realized I left every last picture in the house.

3. You can do a mandatory evacuation in beautiful locations with about as much ease as in really uncomfortable locations with a little resourcefulness and persistence. We were told to go to Qualcomm Stadium and I’m sure you’ve seen the reports on CNN. It reminds me of Hurricane Katrina and the Superdome. But honestly, all I could think of doing was driving to the beach or up North to San Francisco to my brother’s house. Instead, Jenny kept calling on this beautiful home and when he picked up the line he said, “Yeah, I have about 100 messages waiting I haven’t gotten to yet, so sure, it’s yours…” So persistence pays off.

4. Keep your most precious jewelry in one spot where you can easily access it on the way out and maybe even a little list including oxygen masks during fire and flashlights for nighttime, not hidden away, because you’ll forget where you put it and then be wondering what happened to it when looters are reported in your neighborhood.

5. Strong men with golf clubs can and do scare away looters, at least most of the time. Of course, if given the choice to be with your family or leave it, stay with your family, because they need you even if they don’t say it during the crisis…

K. Short post, because the owners of this gorgeous home are coming back tomorrow, so we’re heading out today to another gorgeous hotel that is comparable to the Hotel Del Coronado only in Palm Springs.

The funny thing is these beautiful places continue to anchor one thing in my mind’s eye… Success… Success… Success… Which is an irony in the middle of mandatory evacuations, threat of loss of home and looters and overall a really stressful time in San Diego history.

In an odd way, I am happy and grateful for this experience…

Live Into It… :)CC

P.S. The biggest lesson learned? I can take the entire core of my business with me in a backpack and still be working even when away from home. To learn how I do that and to work together to get you to that level of personal freedom, check out my PERSONAL COACHING.