Welcome to our ‘One Particular Harbour’.

We’ve set up this site, thanks to our friends at SquareSpace, so friends, family and anyone else who is intrigued can follow our journey.

Learn the origin of One Particular Harbour

What journey? Glad you asked. We are building a business whose sole/soul purpose is to help others find their own ‘One Particular Harbour’.  What we do is called Life Coaching and our business is called LifeMAPP.

There was a snag in our philosophy however. You see, to help people find happiness and reach their potential, we first look at their environment - as one can only be as successful as their environment will support and allow.  I mean, can you picture an aspiring deep sea explorer thriving in Chicago?  Deep sea exploration just isn’t the hottest ticket in the Windy City.

The snag? Well, both Julie and I are energized by warm weather and oceans.  And what we are doing with LifeMAPP is cutting edge in the fields of psychology and sociology, not to mention we are utilizing the latest the internet has to offer with blogging, sharing and expressiveness.  The snag for us was this: the midwest/Ohio valley is great and will always be our roots, but it just isn’t the environment that satisfies the above.

So we did something radical.  We sold our house and everything in it with the exception of what we could carry in our Surburban - which isn’t much when you’re toting 6 people!  It was quite the daunting idea, but let me tell you, the execution of this concept was even more challenging.  You see, our house sold 24 hours after listing!  So we had 3 weeks - read that again - 3 weeks to sell everything (I’m talking from televisions and Tivos to screwdrivers and silverware).  It looked like we were running an auction with all of the people coming and going during that final few weeks.  Absolutely crazy.  It finally took a cartop carrier and 2 trips from 800-GOT-JUNK to pull it off in the end, but oh was it so rewarding.

First, we headed off and down the East coast to Orlando.  We spent our first weekend with grandparents in Cincinnati before heading down to Nashville’s Opryland Hotel.  We huddled up in a secluded cabin in Gatlinburg before heading off to visit friends in Charlotte.  Then it was off to Hilton Head for a week where we made some new friends from Virginia.  A quick skip through Savannah and St. Augustine and we were in Orlando for over 4 months.

We started off with San Diego as our eventual destination, but were keeping our options open as LifeMAPP’s success was paramount.  That’s when Texas reached out and grabbed us on our way through to California.  So, Austin, at least for the near future, appears to be the happy medium that allows us access to all we need to pursue our dreams.

Why didn’t we just head South and West?  As we prepared for this transition, two things dawned on us:

• In the 3 years of building LifeMAPP, we’ve made a lot of sacrifices including time with our 4 children and we have another child due in March.  Let’s have a little fun along the way.
• In our mid-30s, when else will we have this opportunity to enjoy the countryside and heritage of this great country with our children.

Besides, if you’ve ever built a successful business, you know that taking a business to the top requires a lot of focus, determination and energy, but keeping a business on top requires even more.  Let’s enjoy the calm before the storm.

Plus, as Winger (Bill Murray) poetically stated in the movie classic, Stripes: ‘I know now why I’ve always lost women to Army guys like you.  It’s not the uniforms.  It’s the stories you can tell…’ Well, I don’t know of anyone who has ever sold nearly every possession including their home and set off to explore the world - not alone and certainly not with a family. So, there’s a story we can tell that most people can only imagine.  Now granted, we have a business that supports this habit so it’s not like we’re flying without a net, but hey it is certainly not the ‘norm’! :)

So, here’s to LifeMAPP and here’s to Texas!