Here´s the last photo from the 10th Annual Chili Cookout on Saturday night where we raised $2,300 for kids in the dump in the Puerto Vallarta area. Dana was the organizer of our booth. Some of you may recognize the wig – I wore it to the Mardi Gras party in February and won the sexiest costume.

Dana is a real character. He and his wife have been living here for a number of years and are originally from England. They were selling real estate and have now invested in an organic farm. Hence the name of our booth – Orgasmic Organic Chili!

While we served up chili and laughed with the customers, Dana was reeling them in with his outrageous costume while Alison, his wife was educating people on their farm, organics and their tree planting project.

It was an interesting combination – philanthrophy combined with business mixed with a whole lot of fun. I don´t think anybody was having more fun than Dana and all of us girls were pretty jealous of those hot legs!

But it once again made me realize that we often think of philanthrophy as serious business – we´re saving the world. Business is serious because there is money to be made, deals to be signed, joint ventures to be created, and bills to be paid. Then if there´s any time or energy left over, we have some fun.

I believe we can combine it all. Making our contribution, making money AND having fun. Saturday night was proof of it! I create my amazing life to combine all three and it´s working out well. And as I live it every day traveling the world and living my life as the Sunshine Gypsy, it is confirming to me and to my readers that it is possible. It´s possible for me and it´s certainly possible for you.

Commit to the fabulous trio of more freedom, less stress and more fun in your life and start creating your life with the possibility that anything is possible.

It my special puppy friend´s first birthday today in Bucerias Mexico. Her birthday party was postponed because of the hurricane-like weather hitting Puerto Vallarta yesterday and today. Nothing like having a house full of dogs with a storm going on outside. So they decided it was best to postpone and wait for the great weather to return.

Precious was an abandoned puppy that my friends Marisol and Arturo rescued when she was just 3 months old. What a lot of love and affection will do for a lost, little puppy! Talk about creating an amazing life! We can all learn a lesson in that arena from Precious! You´ll want to turn your speakers on for this one. You´ll be dancing with the music.

One of the things I gleaned from my parasailing experience in Mexico recently is that it is sometimes best not to know everything. This is indeed me high above the beach in Puerto Vallarta. My friend Marisol took this picture from the boat that was pulling me.

It was only after I landed that she told me how glad she was that I did my parasailing adventure in Puerto Vallarta and not in Mazatlan as I had planned. Apparently, a few people slammed into buildings as they landed and went home in a coffin.

When I showed my dear friend Monique the pictures, she mentioned that as a registered nurse in intensive care for 16 years, she dealt with many people with spinal cord injuries or other serious injuries from parasailing in Mexico. How wonderful that I did not know any of this before going up!

I would say that there are very few things in life, if anything, that does not involve risk. Some people die in their sleep in bed, others die racing cars or flying airplanes. It´s risky…living!

So as you create your dream business or amazing life, know that there are risks. Of course there are. You will make mistakes. You will fail. You will wish you did something that you didn´t. You´ll wish you didn´t do things you did. It´s all part of the learning and growing process.

Naturally, I asked a few logical questions like: How long have you been doing this and does the boat have gas? But seriously, how would I know that he was telling me the truth? At some point in life, we have to take greater risks, trust others, and take the plunge…or in this case the flight.

I honestly believe that it´s easier to not know it all. That means, do I need or want to know how many businesses fail? Do I want to know how little money many entrepreneurs make? Or can you and I just decide what we want and then create it without all the negativity and facts about what is not working and what is.

In today´s economy especially, staying positive is imperative. Focusing on what you want and creating the amazing life you want is necessary if you are going to achieve it.

So just go for it. Don´t over analyze. Trust yourself. Believe in others and know that you can do, have and be whatever you really want.

Today was ziplining and if yesterday´s parasailing was fabulous, today was incredible! Greg and I travelled a couple of hours this morning into the mountains, about 45 minutes out of Puerto Vallarta and spent over 2 hours zipping down 16 ziplines.

The longest zipline was 1/4 mile and 700 feet up and I did Superman the whole way across. That´s right – I was harnessed in so I flew off the landing head first and no hands on the pulley or brakes! It was pretty exciting looking down at the river and rocks a long ways down.

Greg was amazing, even though heights is not his specialty. He hung in there with everyone else, although he wasn´t open to doing the “look, no hands Mom” thing.

What a blessing to get to spend time in the amazing countryside, laughing and playing, experiencing new things and pushing the comfort zone.

I hung upside down, went backwards and flew face down. It´s amazing that 2 hours previously, all of us thought that going across a short little run was something. Days like today prove to me that what today seems impossible can tomorrow be absolutely doable. It´s one step at a time, one zipline at a time and one challenge at a time.

We didn´t start off on the hardest crossing, the longest nor the highest. We built our confidence step by step, zipline by zipline. Do that in creating your amazing life and see where you can be in six months, one year, five years from now. You may amaze yourself!

There is something magical about flying above the city of Puerto Vallarta. I had a fabulous time yesterday parasailing.

As you can see, I was well strapped into a harness that is attached to a parachute. I was then connected by a very long rope to a boat below in the water. I took off from the beach, flew over the water and beach area and landed in the sand. It is quite the experience.

I have wanted to parasail since being in Mazatlan last year. It was too cold last year in Mexico, but yesterday was perfect. The wind was exactly what it needed to be, there were friends to celebrate with me, and I knew that my time for doing it in Puerto Vallarta was almost over.

Having spent most of my life afraid of heights, this was a big step yesterday. However, I found myself grinning from ear to ear as I soared with the birds high above the water. Breakfast out with friends, a day at the beach, living the life of my dreams. While most people struggle with their jobs, fighting traffic and wanting it to be Friday, I get to live a most amazing life I have created.

You can do it too. You really can. Get clear on what the amazing life looks like for you. My monthly newsletter tomorrow will talk about that. If you´re not subscribed to Jan´s Personal Insights, go to www.janjanzen.com

Today as we spend our last few days in Mexico, we´re off to go ziplining! High and fast. That´s my motto this week!

Pretty good for only $10!

Saturday morning found Greg and I in Puerto Vallarta with a long list of things we needed to buy and what we wanted to do. As Greg headed into the ATM machine as we got off the local bus, he realized that he had brought his credit card, not his debit card and he didn´t know the pin for his credit card. As we counted all the money we had on us, less bus fare to get home, it was a whopping $12!

Our plans for doing anything we had planned were very quickly dashed and for a moment we both felt the emotion of disappointment wash over us. Greg offered to go all the way back to Bucerias to get the right card and let me camp out on the beach with the $12 but we chose differently. We decided to take a disaster and make it fun. We made it into an adventure – a game. After carefully putting aside the money to get home on the bus, we looked at our 120 pesos like gold. What fun! People do this kind of budgeting all the time out of necessity and don´t find it much fun. However, Saturday we made it fun.

After doing some comparison shopping on an artist´s work that I want to bring back to Canada when I leave, we headed to The Cheeky Monkey. Famous in Puerto Vallarta for it´s cheap Margaritas and magnificent view, we parked ourselves at the best table in the house and ordered two Margaritas and a plate of Veggie Nachos. The plate arrived laden with black olives, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese and nachos. We feasted like a king and queen, while sipping our Margaritas overlooking the ocean. Having brought dice and my Yahtzee score sheets, we played a few games of Yahtzee as we enjoyed our time.

The bill was $10 including tip. We still had $2 left to spend! We headed along the boardwalk and enjoyed the magnificent weather, people watching and scenery. It really is absolutely splendid. Then I popped into a corner store, picked up a cold beer for just under a $1 and we caught the bus home with $1 to spare. We were thrilled with our day and genuinely had a blast.

On Sunday we headed back into town and had a fabulous day at the beach before heading to do our shopping. My whole weekend of fun, food and drinks cost me $25. Don´t tell me you need to be rich to have fun. It´s all in the attitude and the desire to have fun. You may be using no money as an excuse to not have fun in your life but it may be just that – an excuse.

You do not need to be a millionaire to have fun. You can have fun for free or very close to it. What´s stopping you from having more fun in your life? It´s certainly not money.

It was my partner Greg´s 60th birthday on Friday. We started the celebration with a birthday party and finished up late last evening. It was an amazing weekend!

One of the things that I missed growing up as a Jehovah´s Witness was celebrating birthdays. I had my first birthday celebration at 40 and have made my birthday a special time each year since then. I notice that many people are complacent about their birthdays and try not to make too much of a fuss over “just another day”. Greg had never celebrated his birthday for an entire weekend!

Celebrating is an emotional experience. It´s an important part of creating the life you want. If you´re never going to move into the beautifully powerful emotions of fun, love, laughter, joy and merriment, life…even in a beautiful place with lots of money…will be pretty darn dull! How good are you at having fun? I keep talking about this subject because I´ve discovered that many North Americans fail miserably in this department.

On Saturday, our friends that were taking us to the port in Puerto Vallarta to catch our boat for the evening´s adventure, stopped at a furniture center with several high end furniture stores. Amazingly, even though it was about 4:30 in the afternoon, everything was closed and wasn´t opening until Monday! Mexicans know how to take time off and spend precious time with their families and loved ones. I think of the crazy mall hours in North America and shudder at how hard we work to have so little fun and free time. Ask yourself how much time you are taking for what is really important in your life.

The other really neat thing about this weekend, besides celebrating a very special man in my life, was our Saturday night adventure in Las Caletas. A catamaran took us out to sea for an hour and docked at a magical, isolated getaway, lit only by thousands of candles and torches. As we ate a magnificent dinner on the beach by candlelight, we were both moved by the beauty and tranquility of the retreat. We then watched an incredible show in a natural amphitheatre that featured an amazing repetoire of music and dance. Finally, we were taken back to Puerto Vallarta by catamaran, with Greg sipping a shot of tequila to finish off the evening while listening to fabulously fun music.

We both realized how much we value peace and tranquility. The evening gave us another dimension to what we want to create even more of in our lives. The experience left us both more confident in realizing our dreams. Not bad for a fabulously fun night of good food, drink and fun!

Part of life is experiencing new and different adventures so you get clarity on what you want. Some of my clients say to me, “I don´t know what I want!” However, they also are very limited in their desire to experience new and different things. They are far more concerned about what it costs or worried about safety than just going for the gusto and living life fully. By experiencing new adventures, you learn what you like and what you don´t like. This gives you clarity as to what you want to create more of in your own life.

If we hadn´t experienced the magic of Las Caletas on Saturday night, I wouldn´t have felt at a soul level the mysticism and romance, the peace and the tranquility of the silence. It was a life transforming experience for both of us. And no, Greg didn´t have another woman with him on Saturday night. I was having fun…fun as a blonde!

I am on a coach between Seattle and Vancouver and amazingly enough, I have internet access while speeding down the highway. Technology never ceases to amaze me.

I left Puerto Vallarta yesterday in temperatures that were close to 90 degrees F. That´s about 26 degrees celcius. I arrived in Seattle last night and it was 42 degrees F. That´s stinking cold celcius! At least it isn´t raining. Although it has been almost five months since I have seen rain, I don´t miss it.

Right now I am feeling a tremendous amount of gratitude in my heart for the ability to travel like I do, to have the amazing support of friends who are so kind and generous and to be able to do the work I so love.

My dear friends Arturo, Marisol and Precious took me to the airport yesterday along with Greg and saw me off with lots of hugs and kisses. Today, my dear friend Monique will pick me up in a few minutes and take me to storage so I can get some warm clothes and my products for our Sacred Gifts workshop this weekend. I could never live the life I do without the incredible support I have.

My webmaster guru Krista is busy working on my new website while my wordpress -experts are working on improving the blog. Today as I released my two new CDs, Getting Off the Merry-Go-Round: Money and Getting Off the Merry-Go-Round: Why Weight, my friends Adrian and Brenda are making sure they are shipped out promptly. The CDs themselves are a compilation of so many people´s efforts.

Pulling together a team to work with you is a critical part of your success in life and in business. I could never do it alone. Neither can you. Look at the team that surrounds you and see where there are some holes that need to be fixed.

My question always is: Does what I am doing energize and bring me joy? If the answer to that question is no, then I find somebody to do that job and I focus on doing what makes me happy. This a big clue in creating the life you want.

Mardi Gras sounds so much more romantic and fun than Fat Tuesday but that is another name for this predominately Catholic holiday. Whatever it is called, Mardi Gras is synonymous with fun and festivities. I just attended my first Mardi Gras party at a fabulous mansion in Puerto Vallarta!

“Out of my comfort zone” is an understatement, but I did what it took and won the sexiest costume at the party. Yes, this is me with a long blonde wig and a very short skirt. One of the things I know in creating my life is that I want to play big. I could have played it “safe”, done something fun but ordinary, or been inconspicuous. I could have blended into the crowd of about 50 people. But that´s not how I want to live my life.

Creating a life is a constant journey of making decisions. Decisions about whether or not to even show up, then exactly how you´re going to show up and how long you´re going to stay. Finally you need to decide how much you´re going to participate in the journey.

Have you noticed that some people don´t show up? They make promises and commitments but then always have excuses as to why it didn´t work out or they´ll have a story fit for afternoon soap operas. Others will show up but boy oh boy will they let you know how HARD it was to make the sacrifices they had to make and they play the victim like an old pro. Some just get going on the journey to success and then off they go like a scared rabbit, terrified of actually following through. And lastly, some people are always the spectators, never the participants. They hang out where it is safe and…boring! What about you?

I learned a lot about myself putting on a blonde wig and that sparkly little gold number that was actually a tube top pulled down over my hips! Who would have thought? It was an experience that went well beyond a playful mask and a wild boa. It was about deciding to show up big, expand the comfort zone and to feel the fear and do it anyways. Enjoy the video of the party. Very cool technology. If you want more information on how to make your own videos go to www.animoto.com/vnsoafxe