Pictured above: One of the many bands taking the stage and trying to “make it” in Nashville, Tennessee

After parking my rental car in a garage behind a Shake Shack burger joint, I met up with my friend Angela whom I had initially met at a personal development retreat. As we strolled down the main drag in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, I was awakened by an aura of neon lights and live music filling the air. People from all over the U.S. and beyond move there for their shot at getting noticed and making it big in Country. It was electrifying and brimming with energy!

We didn’t have a specific venue in mind to visit — we simply meandered along Broadway and Division streets and followed our bliss. Some places we stepped in and back out rather quickly when the music didn’t vibe with us. With other places, we settled in when our spirits were swayed by the music. At one point, we took a break and chilled for awhile in a jazz lounge…probably the only one on the strip! I was blown away by band upon band strumming and twanging deep into the night. To be honest, I’m not a big country music fan. I had never been to Nashville before, but I knew in an instant that I wanted to come back and spend more time there someday.

Sometime earlier on the other coast in Canada, I took an incredible day trip from Vancouver to Victoria. It took a few hours to get there via several modes of transportation including the Skytrain, bus, ferry and another bus! I soaked up the picturesque islands we passed by along the way. I didn’t know what I wanted to see once we arrived in the city. However, after dropping by the visitor center and consulting a map with descriptions of various activities I developed a general plan for the day.

I took a couple self-guided tours of historic Victoria and found the architecture fascinating. This included Canada’s oldest Chinatown and narrowest street (Fan Tan Alley), The Empress hotel, and Parliament (didn’t get to go inside but very impressive). Before hopping back on the bus back to the port, I had a wonderful walk through Beacon Park in the rain where I was delighted to meet free range peacocks!

Reflecting on both experiences, what I realized was that I counter-intuitively became energized by a mix of uncertainty and spontaneity. This intrigues me because I’m generally not very spontaneous in my daily life and uncertainty is usually a source of anxiety for me. Paying attention real-time to what energized me while being curious, present and open-minded to what unfolded led me to greater enjoyment of my experiences.

I think one of the first objections to living a free-flowing and more intuitive energy-driven life is that we have daily “responsibilities” that interfere with doing “whatever moves us.”

We often spend time resisting the realities of our lives. What I’ve found inherent in my discovery is it’s not a matter of abdicating our core responsibilities, rather I believe it’s about allowing more enjoyment to flow into our daily experiences.

While I’m still trying to figure out how to integrate this way of being into my daily life, I can share a few examples that illustrate how I’m beginning to do this. If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you may recall that I love nature, being active outdoors, and connecting with others.

When I came back from my six months of travels, I had reached a plateau in my coaching business. I was completely unmotivated to market my business or related business development activities and considered hanging it up. Intuitively, I knew this was likely a short term phase and that eventually I would pick it up again, but I just wasn’t ready.

I moved to Oceanside, California and live in a modest apartment less than a block from the beach. It’s been a game-changer for me as I literally have nature just steps away from my front door. I enjoy being able to hop across the street and down a flight of steps to run along the beach in the mornings and take walks at sunset.

Meanwhile, I discovered that focusing more attention on serving the nonprofit community also re-energized me! To this end, I began volunteering for a some nonprofit organizations. I also began attending more in-person networking events again. A few months later, I began leading free networking walks around San Diego as a way to build stronger connections between nonprofit leaders and philanthropists/foundation leaders while being active outdoors. Currently, I’m on the verge of re-branding my business to better reflect my new focus for serving nonprofits.

How about you? How might tuning into your personal Energy shift your daily living experiences?

In the year since finishing my six-month Vagabond Adventure throughout the U.S. and Canada, I’ve had time to reflect on this incredible experience from which I gleaned 10 life lessons. Previously, I wrote about my experiences with Generosity , Connection, Flexibility, Security, Showing Up, Moving On, Your Environment and their impacts on me.