“I will live in the moment. I will hope for nothing: provide for myself everything. I will roll with the punches when adversity strikes and things don’t go my way. I will laugh at every available opportunity. Rescue, should it arrive, will be just a welcome interruption in my survival journey – nothing more.” – Terry Vaughan.

This was something I wrote nearly two years ago in the first draft of a book I had started back then called, “It Pays to Be a Winner.”

This book was going to fall somewhere between a wilderness survival guide and a better self-leadership book. Unfortunately, my computer contracted a very nasty virus and ate the whole thing – including the hard drive backed up version…splendid.

All 115 pages were gone. I don’t think I have ever experienced that level of depression in my life. The wind went out of my sails completely, and although I gainfully tried to begin rewriting over the following couple of years, I never got back into the swing of things with anywhere near the same enthusiasm.

I gave up.

Then a few days ago, I came across the above written survivor’s creed in my desk draw filed under “interesting tid-bits” for that book.

I am now nearing the completion of my book on Situational Awareness for Women, and as I was looking for some alternative filed information for this project, I stumbled over what I had written back then and it got me thinking.

We have launched this new website (you’re on it now if you are reading this) and, although I’m the one that does the speaking presentations, I’m amazed at how many talented people it takes to make everything come together.

For a number of years I attempted in vain to do everything myself – I’m happy to report that this period has come to an end!

It seems as though my survival creed should now have some additions:

“I will actively seek out all the help I can get so that my rescue doesn’t take to so darn long…” – might be a good place to start.

I’m still working on a few other additions to the creed, but I can already plainly see that the people who have opted to come along and join the cause are a hearty bunch, and I’m so happy to have them around.

Laughing, I’ve found, has been considerably easier since they threw their remarkable expertise behind my fragmented dreams of reaching as large an audience of women as possible with guidelines for staying safe.

My thanks should begin with my good friend Tim O’Connor, and the entire team at Spitfire Media group. When I suddenly begin hovering at ten thousand feet because something seems to be going awry, he and the team always seem to be able to rein me in again, by making whatever scares me simply go away.

Then there is his wife, Stephanie O’Connor, owner and C.E.O. of Dang Chicks – the best dang T-shirt company in the world! It was she and my wife that decided I should take the entire Situational Awareness message to the masses and then collaborated on the Dang Strong t-shirt design that is an exclusive design for TVE, now available for purchase (click link to check it out).

Someone that had their work cut out for them was the photographer hired to try and make me look good…hahaha.

Lovella, owner of CandidHams.net, and her husband Neil, took on the challenge of hitting the streets with me and my wife, Carol, wearing the Dang Strong shirts for pictures.

Both Lovella and Neil have an incredible eye for capturing the most natural looking moments in just about any location, and Lovella’s skills with Photoshop turned out to be priceless! Apparently I took considerably more work in that department than my wife did, but I’m not taking it personally! Some of us are rougher looking than others, that’s all.

And last, but by no means least, there’s my wonderful wife, Carol. Her endless patience never ceases to amaze me; she’s really the brains behind the operation (I’m just the talent) and she manages to juggle running the household, keeping three kids and me all in order, and usually at the same time! I thank you with all of my heart.

Thanks to everyone that has made tvempowers.com a reality and who will now help bring my Situational Awareness Rallies for Women out into the mainstream.

Make the choice to…

~Live in the Yellow

~Be Strong

~Be Safe

~Be YOU!

Cheers, T.