what inspires me
what it meant to us
“Why do you we put off living until tomorrow when its looking us in the eye today? After all, time is our most finite resource.”
One day Army veteran and author, Leo Jenkins, made the decision to leave his comfortable life behind and discover his place in the world. He sold his business and all possessions that couldn’t fit into a backpack, then purchased a one way ticket to Costa Rica that began a journey of self-discovery that revealed to him the true value of life. The idea of quitting your safe life and taking a leap into the unknown is a romantic idea that’s been told many times in different forms, But Leo tells his story with a sense of realism, honesty, and vulnerability that leaves you feeling inspired and hungry for a taste of the freedom he discovers through his journey. While not everyone can or wants to leave their life behind, the message of having the courage to reinvent and rediscover yourself through brave and bold changes is something we can all learn from and hope to have courage to look within ourselves when we find that we are no longer satisfied in life.
This is one of the best books ever written. Viktor Frankl was imprisoned in four different Nazi concentration camps starting in 1942 and was finally liberated from Auschwitz in 1945. One of the things that amazed me so much about this book is the fact that Viktor Frankl wrote it in 1946, only one year after enduring unimaginable hardships. He knew through all of his suffering that if he survived, he was going to share his experience with the world and what he learned from it in the hopes that he could help others heal. Viktor emphasizes that if any human understands their purpose in life, then they can endure suffering with dignity and without falling into despair. He ends the book by saying, “Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of, and since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.”
“If . . . one cannot change a situation that causes his suffering, he can still choose his attitude.”
“Reading is an honor and a gift from a warrior or historian who — a decade or a thousand decades ago — set aside time to write. He distilled a lifetime of campaigning in order to have a ‘conversation’ with you.”
James Mattis is one of the most well known and respected Generals of the last 50 years. In his memoir he tells his life story in a vulnerable and honest way that gives the reader a glimpse into what it was like to be at the command level for pivotal moments in military history. General Mattis became a legend in the Marine Corps during the Global War on Terrorism. He was in command for many of the most famous and well known battles in Afghanistan and Iraq and gives insight into not only the massive military operations, but also the geopolitics surrounding them. He explains leadership and management in ways that can apply to any situation or profession and shows that there is much more to him than only the mind of a military commander. General Mattis is a life-long learner and explains that if you are not constantly reading and learning from the experiences of others, then you will get left behind in life while stuck in your own ways.
Chris Guillebeau decided that he wanted to visit every country in the world before the age of 35, and in the process he met many other people pursuing their dreams all over the world. He learned that the purpose of life is what we make of it, and that we don’t have to play by the rules that we’ve all agreed upon for no other reason than our fear of going against the expected norms of society. As he meets fellow travelers, he learns that they all decided to embark on their own quests in life that feed their passions and individuality. You begin to realize that we are all on our own quests in life, and sometimes we don’t understand what they are until we explore far beyond our comfort zones. The book leaves you with the idea that we all need to continually evaluate our purpose in life and have the courage to find our own meanings in this world.
“If you’re going to worry about something, worry about the cost of not pursuing your dream.”
Discovering the man behind the myth
In November 1943 Marine 1st Lt. Alexander Bonnyman, Jr. was mortally wounded while leading a successful assault on a Japanese fortification on the Pacific atoll of Tarawa, a tiny speck of an island in the Pacific ocean smaller than central park in New York City. The 76 hour long battle would go on to claim the lives of more than 1,100 Americans and over 5,000 Japanese. It was a pivotal battle to establish an airfield that would open the door for America to start its slow and bloody island hopping campaign toward Mainland Japan. Lt. Bonnyman Jr. was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the battle, but his remains were hastily buried on Tarawa and never returned home. In 2010 Lt. Bonnyman’s grandson, Clay Bonnyman, decided that he wanted to find the remains of his grandfather and bring them home to be buried in America. After five years of exhaustive searching the remains were finally discovered and returned to America. During the search Clay began to learn who his grandfather truly was beyond the myth he had become over time. He discovered the collateral damage that the war had done to his family and the human cost of WW2 that became romanticized over time. Clay’s journey to find his grandfather led him on his own journey of self discovery and showed the generational impact every war has on families. Lt. Bonnyman Jr. was killed on Tarawa, but the family he left behind became casualties of the war in their own ways that impacted generations far beyond the end of WW2.
“If I don't have the moral courage to challenge authority...we don't have journalism.”
James Foley was kidnapped by the ISIS terrorist group while working as a freelance conflict journalist in Syria on November 22, 2012 and was never heard from again. On August 19th, 2014 he was beheaded on camera by an ISIS member after being forced to read a scripted message that condemned America and its involvement in the middle east. Jim was a courageous and fascinating man who devoted his entire life to telling the stories of oppressed people so that the world could understand the horrors of war. You can feel his infectious passion for life while watching this documentary, and you clearly see that Jim gave so much of himself to the world while asking for nothing in return. Despite the tragic and horrific ending to his life, Jim spent every day of his life doing exactly what he wanted to do on his own terms.
History only lives on if we continue to share it
This is one of the books that inspired me to write my own. While the stories shared in it are amazing, the writing style the author used really caught my attention. He had an ability to take grand stories and tell them in a simple manner that was incredibly engaging but concise. It felt like each story got right to the point and there was not a single wasted sentence that didn’t serve a purpose. The book also focuses on the human experience of WW2 and doesn’t bog down the reader with military terminology that could potentially turn some people away. To read the honest and humble manner in which these WW2 veterans tell their stories is something everyone should take the time to do.
“Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown”
Anthony Bourdain was an interesting guy to say the least. He became known for his open minded outlook on life and his desire to see the entire world and make as many human connections as possible in the process. Behind all that public persona was a very fragile human who fought internal battles that the world knew nothing of, until he took his own life on June 8th 2018 at the age of 61. To me, it seemed that Anthony Bourdain was on a quest to see every corner of the world and all of its beauty, and when he felt he was getting close to seeing it all he began to ponder what was left to experience in his life. It was as though he lived in the highest of highs and the lows that came from being alone with his own thoughts were just too much for him to handle. His desire to see and experience all of life and humanity is inspiring, and despite his life ending tragically short, there are valuable lessons to be learned from his perspective.
“Less impressed,more involved”
Matthew McConaughey’s memoir, Green Lights, was released in 2020 and has since become a staple of the self-help and personal growth genre. When I first heard about the book, my initial thoughts were, “What could this movie star have to say that’s worth me reading a nearly 300 page book?”. I decided to read the book anyway and I couldn’t have been more wrong. There’s a lot of interesting parts about his childhood and adult life, as he dealt with increasing fame and navigated Hollywood, but what I took most from this story was his ability to disconnect from his life when he felt he was too close to his problems to see the bigger picture. He did that through travel and intentionally putting himself in uncomfortable situations that forced him to grow. He reached a point in his life where he was no longer just “grateful for the opportunity”, and realized his self-worth. He then made every effort to constantly reinvent himself and be “less impressed, more involved”, in every aspect of his life.
“Even here, even as we suffer, life is still worth living....”
After finishing the movie Society of The Snow on Netflix, I immediately went on Google to find out if any of the survivors had written a book. Nando Parrado was one of the survivors of the flight carrying a Uruguayan rugby team that crashed in the Andes mountains on October 13th 1972 , and one of only two survivors that decided to brave the mountains and leave the crash site to go for help. Once I started this book I could not put it down. The way Nando described the hunger, cold, and sense of despair that the survivors felt made me feel like I was on that mountain with them. Nando talks about how he was never a leader in any aspect of his life, but when faced with extraordinary circumstances, he found qualities within himself that he never knew existed. Nando’s outlook on life after surviving this ordeal is something that we can all learn from when he says, “We all have our own personal Andes”, and to “Savor your existence. Live every moment. Do not waste a breath.”
READ THIS BOOK!!
This is my favorite book I have ever read (so far) and it is the story of Rick Rescorla. Rick started his career in the British Army in the 1950’s and went on to move to the United States where he became a citizen after attending West Point Academy to become an officer in the U.S. Army. Rick was sent to Vietnam and took part in the battle of the Ia Drang Valley (the movie We Were Soldiers with Mel Gibson) where he saw some of the most brutal combat of the Vietnam War. After the war Rick eventually became the head of security for Dean Witter/Morgan Stanley located in the World Trade Center building. On September 11, 2001 Rick evacuated all but six employees including himself, before the tower collapsed and killed Rick. This is a story that spans four decades and gives a glimpse into the mentality of a warrior who dedicated his entire life to serving others. This is one of those books that stayed with me long after reading it and made me think during stressful times in my life, “How would a man like Rick Rescorla handle this situation?”.
“I walked on the moon, what is it you think you can’t do?”
This documentary explores the life and career of Gene Cernan. Gene had a long career in aviation that started as a Navy pilot in the 1950’s and led to him being selected as one of 14 astronauts to start the Gemini space program in 1963. Gene then went on to be part of the famous Apollo space program which ultimately led him to be the commander of Apollo 17 in 1972, the final Apollo mission and the last time humans have walked on the surface of the moon. What fascinated me so much about this story was the fact that all of these men in the Apollo program were pilots from various branches of service who were selected with absolutely no idea what they were getting into. Today, astronauts are thought of as some of the most intelligent people in the world with long lists of PHD’s and certifications. These men were bourbon drinking, cigarette smoking, cowboys who figured everything out as they went while being the first humans in history to test NASA’s new technology through unbelievably dangerous missions. Many of these men were pilots in WW2 and the Korean War and some were even shot down in combat. They were truly pioneers and courageous beyond belief. Gene Cernan’s perspectives and outlook on life after seeing the world as a tiny blue and green ball floating through the infinite blackness of space stuck with me for a very long time after viewing this.
“Ideas are more powerful than armies”
We live in a time where American’s often exercise their freedom of speech by putting very little on the line while expecting everything in return. Alexei Navalny put everything on the line while expecting nothing in return. All he wanted was the truth of the oppressive Russian government to be exposed to the world. Navalny’s quest to expose the truth behind the iron curtain of Russia led to the highest levels of the government poisoning him in a failed assassination attempt in August 2020. Navalny survived the poison and fled to America, where he could exercise the true freedom of speech that American’s often take for granted. Through his own journalistic efforts, he unraveled the entire plot to assassinate him. Navalny could have stayed in America under the protection of the U.S. government, but he believed so strongly in his cause that he felt the only way to make a stand against the Russian government was to return home to show the world that he was not afraid of Putin. In February 2021 he flew back to Russia where he was immediately imprisoned on fabricated charges and sent to an Arctic prison. On February 16th 2024 Alexei Navalny died in that prison under highly questionable circumstances. Alexei Navalny believed so strongly in his cause, that he felt that giving his life for it was the only way he could deliver his message to the world.
