Before we delve into this week’s gratitude post, I thought I’d share that I’ve noticed lately that whenever I upload photos, especially if there are more than a couple, it somehow messes up the HTML coding, cutting off certain parts of the article.   I never had that problem before so it must have something to do with the recent WordPress upgrade to Version 2.6.2.

The last two posts got screwed up because of this HTML thing.  Thankfully it was spotted by Nita, an alert subscriber, who told me she couldn’t see parts of the article and the comment box - they had “mysteriously disappeared” said Nita.

Now that I’m back from London and Dallas, I’m finally getting back into the groove here at Adversity University.    Hopefully you enjoyed reading about my Dallas speaking engagement with Frito-Lay and the trip to London last week.

Ladies and gentlemen, as you know, I began my raw food journey in September 2008 with awesome (I should say RAWsome) results.  I created a new category here called “Raw Food Journey” for those of you interested in this way of eating.   Not long ago, a domain name was reserved for “Stephen Gone Raw” (a.k.a. Stephen Gone Crazy).    I’m in the process of looking for a theme to adopt and then implement a new blog just for this topic - raw foods.    So stay tuned!

This is a plate served at the famous Gratitude Cafe in SF

GOOOOOOOOD morning folks - at least it’s morning here - 4:52 am!

I got up at 4 am which has become the norm for me this week starting with 3 am the day after I returned from London followed by 4 am and 5 am the two mornings after that.

What’s going on?

I’ve read in several raw food books that the cleaner you become inside, the less sleep you need.   Could this be what’s happening?   Or am I still getting over jet lag?

More on that later.

The title says it all.

What’s the point of life if you aren’t willing to play and take chances like making last minute, seemingly irrational decisions and fly off somewhere because your intuition told you to do so?

I just got back from spending an incredible week in London and I’m about to tell you all about it.   London was a place I had never before been to and is a place I know I will be visiting more and more frequently in the future.  Heck, I might even move there!   No, I’m not kidding.

"Reflect Each Day On All You Have To Be Grateful For And You Will Receive More To Be Grateful For." -Chuck Danes

Wow, what a week!    The weekly gratitude posts are turning out to be more popular than I thought - who ever knew?

First of all, the week was filled with mostly travel to and from Dallas for my Frito-Lay speaking engagement, which I will touch upon with some photos.

Today (Saturday), I am packing to fly to London tomorrow for a week.    It was a sudden, last minute decision where all the pieces of the puzzle magically fell into place.  Unbelievable how it happened - more on that in a bit.

My goodness where did the time go?  It was just a week ago when we aired Part I of my interview with Barbara Swafford but it felt like it happened yesterday!  If you didn’t catch that fabulous interview, I suggest you go back to Stephen Hopson Interview with Barbara Swafford of Blogging without a Blog, Part I of II because it set the Adversity University campus on fire with over 50 comments - the most ever!  This promises to be even MORE explosive because, according to Barbara, my questions truly pulled some things from the depth of her soul.  You’ll see in a moment.

View outside my office window Thursday morning

As I sit here Thursday morning, I am feeling a burst of incredible sense of gratitude that it only made sense for me to write it NOW rather than waiting until later.

I HAVE SO MUCH TO SHARE WITH YOU.  Let me start off by saying that for some reason, I’m feeling indescribably clear-headed with full energy coursing throughout my body.  While I peck away at the keyboard, I am looking outside and witnessing the emergence of a gorgeous, sunny Fall Day.  Nothing compares to looking at crystal blue skies with the sun spilling every-which-way!  I’m so grateful that we can be blessed with something equally accessible to everyone - THE SUN!   It just amazes me how the sun can be out in full force like that, giving everything life-sustaining energy.

Ok, it looks like we’re back to interviewing people again after a few absent weeks.    Sorry about that folks!

Now the blogger I’m about to introduce you to was brought to my attention by Sharmaine Hobbs of When Women Awaken -  you all remember her when she was interviewed here, right?   Well, because she recommended this particular blogger, I decided to check her out and found myself intrigued with someone who runs a blog called “Blogging without a Blog.”

I asked myself, “Now, how is it possible to blog without having a blog?”   I’ve never heard a such a thing so I spent some time on her site and realized this was someone I wanted to interview.

District Humorous Speech Contest First Place Trophy

If you’ve been following my journey on the Toastmasters Humorous Speech Contest in the last month or so, you know I’ve been steadily advancing through different levels all the way up to the District finals, held yesterday at the Sheraton Hotel in Independence, Ohio.

Simply by the title of this post, I already gave away the surprise of telling you that I won.  Many of you have been sending me emails on how this journey has inspired you to look into the possibility of joining Toastmasters.  I even heard from a young man from Singapore saying the same thing!

Well, hello there my good friends!

How is everything going with you?  Are you holding up okay despite the yo-yo behavior of the stock market and the results of the third presidential debate?

I have to tell you that I didn’t watch the 3rd debate on TV but followed everything on Twitter.   I was lucky enough to have a pretty good idea of what was happening throughout the debate because of funny, snarky Twitter commentators like Michael Martine from Remarkablogger.  He was quite the character, giving his no holds-barred opinions throughout the debate, which made me laugh and smile.

Okay, let’s talk about gratitude.

At the end of my post, “Update on the Raw Food 30-Day Experiment” last week, I put it out there to the community and asked if this experience was something you wanted me to continue sharing.  (Photo:  Veri Kleiner Winkel)

Everyone I heard back from was in favor of it.   Some people said if I were to start a new blog specifically devoted to the raw food lifestyle, they’d become active subscribers.

Other people like Rhonda James said, “I think whether people want to admit it or not, they are constantly thinking about weight and health.  Slowly but surely everything you report about will start to “sink in” and you will be helping to change a lot of lives.”

As I sit here and write this gratitude post, I’m admiring the flood of sunshine splashing all over the place outside.  The sky is crystal blue and the air is tranquil.  I am normally at the gym working off a sweat at this time but I have held myself hostage to a forthcoming UPS shipment.

Because of that, I decided to spend my time focusing on things I’m grateful for because that’ll help me forget the “eagerness” I’m feeling for this particular shipment.  You know how that is, right?   In other words, I’m practicing “Letting Go and Letting God” by taking my focus and putting it elsewhere like writing this post.

I am incredulous how quickly 30 days have whizzed by because I really wanted to give you a week-by-week progress report on this new lifestyle like I did with the “Tim Ferris Diet.”

Somehow I got sidetracked with speaking engagements, a week-long visit with my family in VA and other things.    I’m beginning to find myself in a comfortable groove once again at Adversity University but in a few short weeks, I’ll be off again to Texas for a keynote at Frito-Lay.  That’s okay, it’ll only be for a few days (last week of October).

Last week’s Part I interview with Jennifer Abbott was a hoot - it elicited tremendous amount of response from the Adversity University community!   It generated a record amount of interest in finding out more who she is.

So it is with absolute delight that we welcome her back for Part II of the Stephen Hopson Interviews.

JENNIFER, come out from the back and join us in the studios!

Today, Tuesday, October 7, 2008 is the day I am the featured inspirational luminary on InspireMeToday.com, a website that provides the Best of the Best Inspiration Daily from different luminaries.

Go ahead and enjoy reading my biography, quote of the day and “Today’s Brilliance,” my personal text of the best things I’ve learned in life.  I think you’ll enjoy it!

The 30 minute interview with me and Gail Lynn Goodwin is a membership feature and will be available for free mid-October.  Just use the following affliate code to access: E5WVNBC7ID