Hello Baltimore!

Earlier this year, Baltimore Sports and Life (BSL) turned 10. Next Monday (the 5th), I turn 40.

A quarter of my life has been devoted to this. And those efforts, are going to have vast implications for the remainder of my years.

I’ve reached that point in life, where years are a blur. One day it’s Christmas, and seemingly you go to bed, and now it’s the 4th of July.

The bliss of youth is that you believe you have all the time in the world.
The curse of aging is the realization that time is fleeting.

Turning 40 is a trip.
It’s not something I’ve fretted about, but it is a big round number that stares at you a bit.

When I was 12, my father turned 40. My step-mother and I had a surprise party for him.
I remember thinking he was old.

There is a certain karma there!

Pictures tell me I’ve aged.
There are the pounds gained, grey added to my beard, and a growing bald spot on the back of my head.

When I was in my 20s, it wasn’t unheard of to be out at a bar somewhere Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  Followed by low-key drinking days Sunday and Monday watching football.

Just the thought of that boggles my mind.
My weeks now all look like the off-day Tuesday’s of my youth.
On the rare occasions I do wet-the-whistle, there is a need for a recovery period in-between.

That all said, I don’t feel particularly old.
The majority of the time, I don’t feel much different physically than I did when I was 20.

The primary differences are mental.

(You can discuss this on the BSL Board here.)

Parts of who I was at 20 still exists, but I’m not the same person at 40 I was then; I would expect (hope) this is universal.

All of us are collective products of the environments we were raised in, our experiences, and the individual choices we make.

I’ve doubled my life experiences over the past two decades, it would be a shame if I was the same person I was at 20.

At 20 I could be outwardly confident but inwardly insecure. I could be very uncomfortable in my own skin, which had me constantly looking forward and wondering who I would become.

At 40, I know who I am.
I know what my limitations and capabilities are, and I’m comfortable with both.

I know what matters to me.
I know who and what inspires me.
I know who I want to surround myself with.
And who I don’t.

Maybe in a subsequent article I’ll take you through the formation of this site, how it came to be, and my varied experiences over this past decade.

It’s a story I’d like to share with those of you who have helped build us.

Another time.

For now I’d like to talk about the future.

At 20, I was largely motivated by ‘me.’
At 40, I’m largely motivated by ‘we.’

There is nothing inherently wrong about being self-centered.  In-fact, you can make sound arguments for being that way. It’s hard to be good to others if you can’t first be good to yourself. So, yeah… you always need to make sure you are doing right by yourself.

But if you get to a certain point in your life, and you can’t think beyond yourself – that’s pretty limiting.

I run both the Networking group Baltimore Metro Business Development (BMBD) and the Business Development group Pacesetters.

The BMBD + Pacesetters site can be found here.
BMBD & Pacesetters are both parts of BSL. 

Pacesetters is currently comprised of 50+ companies and organizations.

With BMBD, we’ve held regular events since September 2015.

You can find a history of those events here.