Our ambassador Eoin Finn - a yogi, surfer, and blissologist - shares what surfing has taught him about how to navigate through life and get where you want to go.

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If there is one thing I’m passionate about in life, it’s living the best one possible. Needless to say when I heard lululemon’s Director of Possibility, Susanne Conrad, and imagine1day were hosting an event open to all I was almost giddy with excitement. What kind of possibility would this event create in my life?

Going into the room that day, my goal was clear. I wanted to leave the day a better communicator than when I came in. But the truth behind that goal, was the communication I sought was very one way. How could I say what I wanted to say in a way that influenced others? So when Susanne started talking about stingy versus generous listening I smiled politely and waited for her to get to the good stuff. Then it clicked. This was the good stuff. I’m stingy, and if I want to be a great communicator I need to listen. Really listen. Not listen, assess whether or not I agreed with this person and then say something to make myself look good. Yep, I do it and I’m owning it. Sometimes the best thing a person can do for you is remind you of the obvious things you already knew. I needed to be reminded I can be stingy.

Looking back it’s laughable. What kind of effective communication goes only one way? Of course, I hated admitting to myself that I’m a stingy listener. Nobody likes to think of themselves as stingy (and I’m a generous tipper, even on sub-par service). Sometimes the best thing a person can do for you is to remind you of the obvious things you already knew.  The moment I owned who I was being as a listener, was the same moment I became the person I wanted to be. The kind of person who has the courage to recreate themselves, to own a mistake and to take themselves on and change that behavior. The kind of person who understands communication is a 2 way street, and the listening side is a four lane highway. So off I go to recreate myself.

Sheena recently took part in Livin' It Up led by Susanne Conrad and imagine1day in Vancouver where 100% of the tuition goes to building new schools in Ethiopia. This event is happening in Toronto May 1st and in New York May 2nd. For more information about Imagine1day visit their site here: http://www.imagine1day.org/

We put such an importance on love: falling in love, finding the one, someone to complete us and so on. We seek love, importance and satisfaction from everything we do, but do we truly know the essence of what love is?

I thought I knew what it meant when said "you must have love for yourself before you can truly have love from another", but I only recently realized the concept had been lost on me. Have you also been in a relationship and thought "That's not what they are meant to do!", "why are they being like this?" or "they should know better!"? I think we all have. Sometime love can seem so one-sided and we can't seem to comprehend what our partner is thinking. The answer to our problems it seems, was right there in front of us.

A few weeks ago I started reading Eckhart Tolle's 'The Power of NOW' and it talks a lot about living in the present moment, our sense of identity and how our mind can trap us into a false reality. What really spoke to me was the video I found below on youtube.com about love-relationships.

I really would recommend you watch it. It made me see myself in a different light, as well as my partner, and opened up my eyes to a life that could be lived with a true sense of love. Although I may not be in a constant state of presence, I am more aware and closer to attaining it. I hope it moves you also and opens your eyes to a truth hidden within us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3miuaOWsj8

Above: Ronnh, our Multimedia Developer, about to bite the bullet and start work on his next big project.

I have struggled with perfectionism most of my life. Most people would think perfectionism a gift, but really it is more a curse. It was only until recently that I realized that it was holding me back from goals. An ambition to be a bestselling author, seemingly miles away, as I stare at my blank computer screen, choking on words that I keep second guessing.

My first step to overcoming this was getting real to it and acknowledging the problem. Where was my fear stemming from? What did it matter if something wasn't perfect? Thinking on this, I came to the source, a very common fear most people suffer – a fear of not being good enough. It can permeate all areas of our life with us not even being aware; health, personal, business.

A quote that really spoke to me was one said by Robert H. Schuller- "Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing perfectly". OMG! So it's better for me to write a crappy story than nothing at all? Of course! Becuase I can work on that story, I can develop that first draft into something grand and write that amazing novel I want. Whereas the alternative is nothingness: you can't work on something that isn't there. A light bulb went on for me there and set me free.

It took such a weight off me and allowed me the opportunity to start being true to myself and working towards those ultimate goals. Each day I face it, but I have that knowledge and hope that I will continue to overcome it. Live your life, don't hold back.

Above: Elyse and her run club!

Life can be most enjoyed when you live your life with passion. As former United States Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice said, "The most important thing you can do in life is to find a passion. When you find your passion, you'll realize that you didn't find it - it found you."

I was fortunate enough to find my passion as a quiet fourteen-year old in Northern New Jersey. From the very first moment that I stepped foot on the track, I was hooked on running and quickly became immersed in the culture. In college, I ran competitively as well, but I also found myself involved in many activities outside of running, mainly politics. I had this idea that running was just for fun and that I needed to focus on ways that I could build a career. I didn't see a way for me to find a career within the running industry.

After college, I became a political appointee with the U.S. government, and was still running and training hard, but I was very equally balanced between work, running, and my social life. Shortly after the 2007 Marine Corp Marathon, I had a running injury that sidelined me for about two months. As soon as I learned that I had to take some time off from running, I immediately panicked, but I also realized that the reason why I was so upset, was because the sport of running is my biggest passion in life.

Fast forward almost two years later, and I have built my life around running, and found a way to make a career out of the sport of running. Nearly 99% of what I do for fun and for my career revolves around running. As an educator at lululemon, my focus is running, whether it is organizing our run club, or talking to guests about my favorite run products. Now, I coach elementary school students and adults. I am able to share my passion for the sport as President of the Washington Run Club. And I am also studying for my personal training certificate, so I can further my knowledge on working with athletes.

As I write this, I also am icing my foot, as I have a stress fracture in my right metatarsal. Unlike during my injury after my '07 marathon, my life and career are now built around running. So, even though I have to take a short break from running and hit the bike and pool, I still feel very much in the game and involved in the run community, because I know that the athletes I coach need me, that the run club still needs to be organized, and that my friends and training partners will appreciate me just as much cheering from the sidelines. This injury is certainly the least devastating as of yet, because even though I would rather be running with my athletes and friends, I know that everything in my life is about running. I am my passion. And I made the decision to build my life that way.

Making a passion into your whole life is not for everyone. My challenge to all of our lululemon blog readers is to think about what you are truly passionate about and cultivate it. You will be happier and more fulfilled.

Above: Elise Riddall, our People Resources Manager, with her little one.

I was reading a fiction novel the other day, and in it a wise old Irishman said: "It's not that youth is wasted on the young, but that the young waste youth!" That got me thinking. Is this true? I'm sure that no one sets out to deliberately waste their youth, but somehow all of us find ourselves getting old and wondering where our youth went.

So how do you make sure that at the end of the day, you can look back and say you lived life to its fullest potential?

One way is to make today count for something. This is a quote someone recently shared with me: "This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it…let it be something good". – Unknown

Do something today that scares you. Do something today worth remembering tomorrow. It doesn't have to be big.

Another way is to just slow down a bit. We seem to always be rushing onto the next phase of life, and we miss what's going on in the moment. Once it's gone, it's gone, so don't miss it! Learn to be present in the moment. Otherwise, you may find yourself wishing you hadn't wasted your youth. (Youth is relative, by the way.)

Country Western music artist Trace Adkins has a song out right now that says it pretty simply: "You're Gonna Miss this". Check out his video at: http://new.music.yahoo.com/videos/TraceAdkins/Youre-Gonna-Miss-This--58666527

2. Being aware in the moment will keep you safe.

3. Be passionate in life, food, health and love.

4. Treat travelers to your city like long-lost friends because they will quickly become friends and you will then have new places to visit your new long-lost friends.

5. Travel. Lots. Learn many languages so you can meet new people in the places where you travel. This leads to an extraordinary diversity of holiday cards!

6. You are never too old to learn something new.

7. Your children are never living too far away for you to help them with their home renovations. And support their decorating vision - even if they want to paint their walls high-gloss fuschia.

8. Retirement isn't the end of an era, it's an opportunity to reinvent oneself.

9. A solid accordionist can add a certain something to any band – reggae, country, pop, latin, klezmer… even hip hop!

10. Take any and every opportunity to jump into a polka contest – even if you are uninvited, you could win a trophy!

My dad is really awesome. His name is Terry Holum but prefers the name T-Hol, to which we all oblige. I inherited a lot of great traits from him like my addiction to chocolate, excessive competitiveness, and an over all laid back sense of life and humor. I love my dad more than anything as he has supported me without fail in every aspect of my life, with the exception of when I once dyed my hair hot pink. Literally it was neon and I was 16, but we've moved on.

He taught me to play baseball, which turned out to be the first love of my life. Taught me to ride a bike. He had innovative ways of making me a better softball player such as teaching me to catch and judge fly balls by launching potatoes out of a "spud gun" in the backyard much to my mom's delight.

He taught me to fight my own battles, when I felt life was unfair, and let me challenge my teachers and coaches on my own. I thus survived AP calculus even though to this day I know Mrs. Wilson hated me and graded my tests on an extreme curve.

In college when softball for the first time in my life was challenging for me, he never let me show an ounce of wavering, and came to every game my freshmen year just to watch me sit on the bench. He told me to prove to the coaches why I should play everyday at practice and be the best cheerleader on the bench. I am not a cheerleader, and this one was tough to hear, but I played the next year and he was right.

When I faced a bout with cancer and had a softball worth of tissue removed from my inner thigh and had to be on crutches for 6 weeks, he made sure I had the top of the line ergonomic crutches that actually had shocks on them and I was able bounce around like "Tigger".

Since I began my career with lululemon I have realized that my dad's love reaches beyond a classroom or baseball diamond, it has surprisingly made its way to a yoga mat. My dad has worked in construction for the past 30 years, built our home from scratch, plays every sport known to man, will only drink Coors Light, which is referred to as "God's Brew" in our house, and is not exactly the portrait of a yogi. Think of Paul Bunyan practicing tree pose, and you can imagine my dad in his first yoga session. Nonetheless every Saturday morning you will find him and my mom tucked in the corner of our La Jolla store practicing yoga with the other guests in our community.

He now brags to the rest of his "God's Brew" drinking crew after slo-pitch softball games of his pain free joints thanks to yoga, which at most times he is met with a lot of laughter and banter. But he proudly shows them the inside of his Metal Vent Tech shirt that says "And make sure to drink a beer or two along the way", and he is right back in there with the studs at Hooley's Pub.

He has found a way to be a part of my life by exploring an area he would never even consider beforehand. He is a man who is comfortable in his ways, and hates the idea of the unknown and change. For him to practice yoga and to say the words "hey get me one of those mandukas so I can get into crow's pose" gives me goose-bumps and truly reminds me how lucky I am to have him as a father. From the softball diamond to the yoga mat, he has been there so hopefully he will be happy at father's day brunch with his new manduka mat instead of golf clubs this year. I am literally getting married in a week from Father's Day, and cannot think of a luckier girl to walk down the aisle on the arm of my daddy. Who by the way requested a yoga session the morning of the wedding to stay calm and centered…gotta love him.

Happy Father’s Day T-Hol, I love you! Namaste.