Life Without Boundaries

03 May Life Without Boundaries

I’d like to introduce you to Andy Des Jardins. Comparable to any of us, he has gone through life checking off the necessary expectations that have been ingrained in our societal DNA. Andy spent his corporate years in a fulfilling and supportive environment with DuPont. He worked there for over 35 years, gaining experience in various disciplines within the organization. He was granted a stable opportunity to succeed in the corporate world during his career. DuPont’s strong core values resonated greatly with Mr. Des Jardins; and not only that, but they greatly valued dedicated employees such as Andy. What more could you ask for? Well, life is a journey, so there are always more opportunities on the horizon.

The Beginning of a Transformational Journey

Andy and I met in our first year of college at Clarkson University. We hit it off and soon became roommates. During this stage of our lives, we were both high performing individual in all that we set out to do. We were very competitive and got energy from doing the extreme.  I was a very active alpine ski racer and Andy was pushing the limits in various outdoors sports.  As he put it, “we never let any grass grow on the playground.” To top it off, immediately after graduation, Andy road his bicycle across the United States solo just to celebrate!

Nonetheless, college came and went, but Andy and I managed to stay in touch aside from our busy lives that moved us from place to place. As we looked back recently, Andy said that it was in his college years where he began to develop a powerful drive within him.  By pushing the limits, he opened his own eyes to greater possibilities and he was able to see what he was capable of accomplishing. From then on, the spark within him grew fierce. He went on to serve many important roles throughout his corporate career at DuPont and continued to look for ways to push his career and personal hobbies to the limit.

“Keeping the Spark Alive”

After many rewarding years serving the corporate world, Andy began to wonder what else should he strive for in his life. Shortly before a major transitional period in his life, I gifted him with my books “Building a Personal Culture to Win” and the “Personal Operations Handbook.” Andy spent some time with these new resources and he began to redirect his energies from his chosen field as an executive at DuPont, to really finding fulfillment in his life. It was a thought provoking period, and one that made him consider his life’s plan. Andy soon came to the conclusion that his life was way too short to spend another week, month or year in Ohio where he then resided. It was time for him to chase his true noble calling.

Andy made the decision to transition to the next stage of his life on October 1^st of 2015 after a long, successful and fulfilling corporate career. This began a transformational stage in his life. Andy is now on a course to find his true noble calling. While he is still searching, he made a conscious decision to relocate to Utah, where the pure spectrum of stunning natural surroundings and active people is boundless. He now pushes the limits of his active outdoors high-performance lifestyle while also volunteering with the National Ability Center, an influential organization that is committed to helping people of all abilities develop lifetime skills through affordable & adaptive sports and recreation. Although he says he is still refining his true noble calling, I think he is one or two steps along his way to fulfilling it.

An Ever Evolving Journey

Through this transformational period, he has gained a lot of new perspective. Andy’s two most influential CATSHOT concepts are the Performance Triad and the Effects-based life planning.

• The Performance Triad
  • Passion
  • Free Will
  • Focus

• Effects-Based Life Planning
  • Where have you been?
  • Where are you going?
  • What effect do you want to have on the universe?

These are just two examples of some of the powerful ideas that have propelled Andy closer to his noble calling. There is only so much that one can gain from reading the book, and that’s where the “Personal Operations Handbook” comes in. Andy has found that once he began to actively participate in this transitional process, that’s when he saw his life begin to transform.

A transformational journey is no easy task to accomplish. Andy has experienced his fair share of difficulty staying on discipline, but he’s determined to realign his focus and dedicate more time and commitment to the C13 process. Not only that, he’s seen an immense value in handing it down to his son as he himself explores his life path.

Practice Makes Perfect

You don’t have to have an illustrious military or high profile corporate career to benefit from weaving this into your daily life. You can apply it to absolutely any aspect of your life’s journey. Joining this personal movement is an expedition and a voyage. Just as innovation has to be a fabric of a successful organizations lifespan, it is something you must knit into your own personal culture. This is a way of life and a disciplined daily practice for Andy Des Jardins, and it has changed the course of his life forever.

“You may not know where you’re going, but you know that so long as you spread your wings, the winds will carry you.” – C. JoyBell C.

Now, it’s time for you to take flight!