So as you may have noticed, I’ve been MIA on my journal now for a few weeks …and I’m conscience-strickened about not keeping up with this section.   As the weeks pass…our travel schedule has increasingly become more and more organic… and certainly “off our originally scheduled plan” a bit; and to tell you the truth…I love it!

Spending time visiting new parks, people, cities, states.. has me invigorated to go the distance, wherever that may take me.   And I realize that I am “in the thick of it” .. the experience, the process, the self growth, the journey.. thus it has taken me away from my computer.

Life on the road has us meeting amazing people, seeing epic locations.. and letting our new interests and experiences guide our decision process is quite refreshing so I find that the easiest way for me to communicate these days is by simply managing my social media accounts. You see, story telling via Instagram or Facebook have become my go-to for content sharing. Yes, I do enjoy the writing process almost as much as I love photography but between producing my location video stories, interviews for my show and keeping up with life I haven’t been writing these journal / blog posts as much. That said, I wanted to check in and let my viewers know that all is great here at MVMNT365. We are truly enjoying our lives on the road. Lately, the word transformation keeps popping into my life. Whether my kids are gaining emotional maturity from their encounters or we are simply internally transforming our family unit from all the people and places we are affected by I feel that this year especially we are allowing life to transform us in ways that allow us to grow as a family beyond what we expected from this journey.

I continue to learn from the people I am fortunate enough to interview and living my life out via social media is definitely helpful, even in unconventional ways. For those who know me understand that I have always been a very private individual. One who loves people but definitely prefers a small quality group of friends than a sea of unknowns. Interesting enough, things have changed for me. Not only have I accepted my roll as a father, husband and leader but I now interact with a community of folks who through my content am becoming fond of. People from all walks of life and from all over the world are interacting with my life via social media and for now, I am grateful to them and for those who not only follow us but interact with our content.

In my opinion, if humanity is going to thrive, evolve or even make it out of the 21st century… we’d better start questioning our protocols as they pertain to all the confusion, hatred and brain washing (to which we all have somewhat subscribed). Yes, there are many great attributes to the way our societies continue to evolve, but as I mentioned in a previous post, our species is currently branded as disturbers of the planet; Who, with a great capability to love, can also destroy one another, deplete global resources and continue to kill animals to the point of extinction. We all complaisantly are guilty of letting humanity’s worst attributes slide under the carpet… and as you know, we don’t have the luxury of being lazy. Yet, we loose ourselves in the consumption of goods, propaganda, our own egos and the uncertainty of the future. So we fight to evolve, but we bleed daily to do so.

What makes us better… our religions? Our governments? Our ability to unite as a people?

One may conclude that all three do their part, but siding on individualism… I propose we start focusing a bit more on the power of one. We are living in an age where women augment their bodies to fix psychology. We marry for the security of love but question ourselves along the journey. We judge each other’s actions without realizing that we all come from the same place, our mothers. I wonder when we will all unite and realize that we are stronger as one rather than separating each other into groups.

I say, celebrate our differences and be who you want to be. Why not? In the end, what you think about the people you disagree with will only matter to those scholars in the future… that will undoubtedly dissect our behaviors as emotionally primitive.

So the year 2016 seems to be (yet again) more about inequality. Yes, there are plenty of great people and places to see or experience, but somehow the present feels a bit off tilt. And I am committed to continuing to fight… to open the minds and hearts of those who may not be able to see the world through a different lens.

Currently I am sitting in the Castaic Lakes area in Southern California writing to you with an open heart. It’s actually quite interesting to “decide” to ditch the mainstream with my family to learn and experience life in such different, yet prolific ways.

Today’s takeaway: Learn to be more empathetic towards those who stubbornly force their viewpoints on others.

Ahhh…I’m finally able to pause and provide an audio update. When you get a chance check out the file below! So much to say, more later… but here’s a brief: As time passes and our journey evolves with the days, weeks, and months… I am finding it liberating to be able to get to a place where an “idea” becomes a reality.

Who doesn’t like to ride a bicycle? Well, it’s these types of moments that I can reflect on the beauty of it all. I highly recommend you go grab one and take a ride where ever you are …and enjoy it! But while you are out there (outside), take a pause and think about your life. Reflect on your own mortality and realize that you only have one life to love. The goal is to reach a place where happiness is the norm. No more bullshit from people, including yourself. So go surround yourself around the ones you love and those who love you back, unconditionally.

And if you need a verbal hug, here it is. Now go get on your bike!

Seriously…there is hope for us all.

What do you get when you put together arguably some of the smartest people on the planet, epic food, incredible music, visionary speakers and inspiration art?… an amazing weekend of human connection!

Set in the Moapa River Indian Reservation near Las Vegas, Nevada … it’s the Further Future Festival.  Now in its 2nd year, it’s a new kind of music and lifestyle festival.  Brought together by a group of Burning Man veterans, the 3 day event pulled in around 5000 people and didn’t disappoint.

Upon driving up to the desert popup festival in a box… Chris and I settled in our Freedom Train for a most intellectual weekend, filled with education and fun! Hoping to takeaway a few pearls.. we honestly hit the jackpot.

From the moment we arrived, the air was filled with great vibes.  Showcasing a mix of highly curated..off the chart house, trance, reggae, hip hop and techno music alongside brainy scientists,  great friends, artists both new and established, musicians and performers, futurists and technologists; esteemed entrepreneurs, visionaries and thought leaders, all of whom are awash with new ideas and insights.

Some highlights include Dixon spinning a six-hour sunrise set on the Robot Heart bus Sunday morning, Bob Pittman (Clear Channel CEO) speaking before the Echo & Rig pop-up dinner on Friday, VR and AI demonstrations throughout the entire weekend and the Vision Speakers Series with such luminaries as Eric Schmidt (executive chairman of Alphabet Inc (formerly named Google), Stan Chudnovsky (Facebook‘s VP of growth), and Jane West sharing their wisdom.

In my opinion really, hope.  Hope is what is shared at the Further Festival and can be absorbed through your own personal encounters.  Listening to so many amazing minds in an open environment amongst friends old and new… really gives you hope that .. by joining together to inform and inspire each other, we can indeed shape the future.  And it is really prevalent in the now that we all need to wake up and take notice of the future we are building.  I really feel that these like minded individuals, all of us, are raising the consciousness and vibrations… a much needed vortex of vision and enlightenment.

So my take on this gathering is that these people are indeed shaping our future.

I mean, the companies and projects these individuals work on are directly correlated to how we operate our lives. From A.I. technology to the future of food, medicine wheels to the evolution of wellness there was no escaping the massive amount of brain power under the sun.

Another obvious; every single person I had the privilege to speak with was definitely firing on levels beyond society as a whole. I mean, every conversation I got into was inspiring. I definitely walked away with a feeling of justification for humanity and all that we are. Yes, it’s a fucked up world, but at Further Future you get the idea that through technology, innovation, love, community and empathy for humanity, we were going to be okay.

In closing, I want to share with you a quote from one of the events founders while being interviewed recently on the festival:

“It’s important what we do here,” Scott said. “That’s what we keep saying. We’re shaping the future. These are the people who not only can do it, but these are the only people who can.”

Latest update:  All is great out here in travel land.  Our Airstream, a.k.a. “The Freedom Train” is bringing us closer together as a family, alongside also allowing me the time to further explore my creativity and other interests.  That said, don’t be fooled.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, the price of freedom comes with continual management of our lifestyle, schedules and the daily tweaks we encounter.  Still though we are happy and alive.

On the creative side…we have plans to attend the Further Future Festival later this month.  As such, we are flying my mom, a.k.a. “Babu,” in for 4 days of grandma fun…to watch the boys in Vegas.  This will be a vaca for the kids and my mother.. all while mom and dad get our groove on with friends nearby in the desert ~ a much welcomed retreat for all of us indeed.

That said and in keeping you in the loop on our next destination ~ our plan is to head south over to Pinnacles National Park.  The boys will earn another Junior Ranger badge and mom and dad will continue to streamline mvmnt365.

What’s the goal of all of this… Where do we see ourselves long term?   It’s far to early for us to say, but we do romanticize about being able to expand our family’s travels beyond North America.  The short answer is… that in the next couple of years, we would like to travel to as many countries as possible and continue to share our experiences collectively all while tapping into a global community of like-minded souls.

Why does this plan make sense to me?  Probably because I have lived and worked in a variety of countries and met an array of interesting characters, all while growing into myself.  This has given me an overall wisdom that I carry with me today.  I have gained from traveling and meeting new people.  The wisdom found in exploration has been a true constant in my life ~ learning all about other cultures, their mannerisms and how they function within their own algorithms continues to be one of my favorite aspects of this life’s journey.  Sounds cliche yes?

The more we see and experience the more we know, therefore the wiser we become.  Experience + Knowledge = Wisdom… Simple.

The wisdom we gain through life must then be parlayed.  Parlay wisdom?  Think about it.  What we go through as we age and who we continue to change into can be utilized to position yourself into whatever reality we choose.  In my case, I developed a sickening work ethic that allowed me to position myself to be able to live the way I do.

Throughout the past 2o years, I have come to realize that we all are a part of a system.  A program that (good or bad) works only if you can meet its expectations.  Much like the movie, The Matrix, I needed desperately to find my Zion before I continued to let the circles I’d created continue to consume me.  It’s not that we weren’t happy, actually our life was very a-o-tay…it’s just that we wanted to refine the way we based our decisions …see life from a fresh perspective… and improve our knowledge of this life.  So the idea of traveling full-time was the perfect answer…and has always appealed to me… so why wait…let’s do it now.

Having said that, I am fortunate to have found professional success and am not bound by a particular way of living my life. Nor are you ~ as it’s really about unplugging yourself, getting back to center and refocusing on what you really want to accomplish in life.   Again, its simple.

We are here to evolve and experience life with the freedom to live how we choose.  There is so much joy in life, and learning how to see the forest for the trees is key to living a balanced life.

I admit…I am one of the souls that got lost in technology.  One who used this medium to navigate through a professional career.  I feverishly gobbled up any information that pertained to how the search engines and their ever-evolving algorithms worked; and how they influenced the growth of the Internet.  I had a simple strategy ~ obtain information about how these search engines operated while also developing a career around the practical uses of this information.  Strangely, the more I dove into it… the more I wanted to pic up a camera, shoot a video, and design a kickass ad campaign.  I wanted to communicate my art via the Internet space.  If I could parlay my skills in global design, be proficient in search engine marketing and truly understand the Google algorithm, then I was sure to find success. In my life collectively, I’ve spent thousands of hours keeping up with technology and its trends; often pondering why my mind was so interested in this space.  It was truly a perfect marriage; the science of the internet with the creativity of an artist.  I was lucky to be interested in anything digital from the start.  You see, I love digital anything. My passion for all things “technology” started back in the early 90s with the creation of Photoshop.  As an aspiring photographer and film developer, I found Photoshop fascinating.  The possibilities that their filters introduced to photography was breath taking.  Not only could I save development and processing fees, but the time spent learning this tool was too much fun for anyone to be having in their early 20s, especially living in South Beach Miami. I knew then that photography and the creative field itself was going to be a definite career path for me.  I would learn to navigate a successful Internet based company using the talents I brought with me into this world. That said, let’s fast forward about 25 years and here I am communicating my life into your conscious via the Internet space.  Believe me, the irony does not escape me.  In a future post I will dig deeper into a book I started writing last year.  The importance of this book to me is pivotal; in that it has given me the ability to let you know how I got to this place. Yes, I still work on my agency but no longer do I need to work from the inside.  Frankly I chose, for the past 2-to-3 years, to engineer a strategy that would bring my family closer together with each other and with nature.  A plan to learn more, do more and experience more; more than we thought we would within the circles of life we had created… and let consume us.  So positioning, working hard, having a vision, living righteously and being mindful of all the bullshit, including my own, enabled me the freedom I so adore today.

It’s nights like these that I sincerely appreciate my life more and more.  The collective experiences I get to share with Christine and the kids out here with nature are truly inspirational. For the past 25 years or so, I have been working my ass off to position myself to be able to have the freedom to live, grow and learn; beyond the circles of life I had created.  For me, it’s all about evolution, experience, travel and family.  We are very fortunate to live the lifestyle we do… but remain mindful of ourselves; and how our family unit continues to grow with each other is most important to all of us.  No matter how hard I try to have control, I must never forget how I got here… and how being here is a gift and not a price.  This evening, I was reminded of how lucky I am to have unconditional love in my life and how much I cherish each.

 

It was one of those mornings where, after breakfast, we collectively decided that unless we had a mountain bike session around the camp area… Massimo’s brain cells would not kick into full effect. No time to question the 7-year-old’s methods, especially when we have to tackle four hours of academia. Enjoy the ride!