Living the Life

YOU WANT

While You Still Have Your Life

to Live

Tranque Fuller is the entrepreneur and energy force behind LifeStoryRewrite.com, a free weekly eZine that focuses on helping people jump-start their lives so they can live the life they dream about. I was first introduced to Tranque through a friend and was immediately impressed by the powerful, positive energy he puts out into the universe. I wanted to know how he went from laboring as a packaging salesman in Sacramento to leaving everything behind, moving to Japan, marrying the love of his life and living his passion. I also wanted to hear what advice he has for others currently stuck in a life they dont enjoy. While all of this and more is covered in-depth in his eZine and self-help/how-to book, Tranque generously shared his time and thoughts with me first over Skype, and then via email. IR: What made you start rethinking your life? Tranque: There is no sugar-coating this; I simply experienced what millions of people the world over go through. It has become labeled in our culture as Mid-Life Crisis. IR: Was there a single Aha Moment that made you change course? Tranque: For me this was more of a process that occurred over several years where I became more open to new experiences and more aware and present in my current life. Though we can usually think back at some event or experience as a sort of tipping-point in our lives, I dont think these aha moments would have occurred without this process taking place first. This is expressed best by, When the student is ready the Master (Teacher) appears. If I had to pinpoint one event, I would have to say that my month-long visit to Japan was a real watershed experience in my life. IR: What drew you to Japan? Tranque: This will seem strange, but my attraction to Japan actually came through architecture and design. Id buy books with Zen-influenced architecture or Japanese minimalist houses. I loved looking at pictures of Zen gardens with large stones, raked gravel and staged waterfalls,

etc. and then Id try to recreate them in my yarduh . . . with limited success. (It is sort of one of those, Folks these are trained professionals that make it look easy; do not try this at home! situations.) The truth is although I always had this idea that I wanted to live in Japan someday; I had never really taken action on it. Then, through events way to convoluted to go into here, I met a fascinating woman in her seventies named Marie who became a sort of life-coach for me. Marie felt there was something significant about Japan for me and insisted that I go right away; so I did. She was absolutely right! IR: Tell me about meeting your wife, Yumi, and what has the relationship meant to you? Yumi represents a pure miracle to me. Aside from a week I had scheduled to hang out with an American friend of a friend in Osaka, my whole trip had been scheduled around visiting Japanese temples and gardens. I certainly wasnt on a quest to meet Japanese women. Instead of staying in Western style hotels, I booked my lodging at what are sort of the Japanese equivalents of bed and breakfasts called Ryokans. I spent my nights sleeping on futons on tatami-mat floors. (While all the owners and their help likely spent their nights in beds!) I stayed two days in a Ryokan in these incredibly beautiful mountains two hours outside of Tokyo in a place called Hakone. I was returning my breakfast plate when I happened to peek through a little window into the kitchen and I saw this gorgeous woman in there working. How this woman who had already lived in New Zealand, Ireland and Malta and had traveled throughout Europe and America ended up working in a very small tourist townand how I ended up in that same town to meet her is still a mystery . . . but not really. It was, as I said, a miracle. On the surface it would seem we have nothing in common, but in truth we were made for each other! Among other things we both share a Passion for traveling the world and living abroad . . . and sushi. IR: What is it about Japan that keeps you there now? Tranque: I truly love Japan, and have since the day I stepped off the plane at Narita Airport back in September 2007. I still love visiting shrines and gardens that are well over a thousand years old, but then I totally dig visiting very modern buildings with unique architecture in Tokyoall still inspired by a Zen minimalism. Im having a great time getting to know the Japanese people and making friends. Im committed to becoming fluent in Japanese . . . I still have a long way to go, but Im steadily improving. Honestly, my answer for why I stay is

basically the same one that I had for why I wanted to come here in the first place: Im not sure exactly why . . . or as I often jokeI was a Samurai in a previous life and I was just coming home. IR: Whats a typical day like for you now? Tranque: I spend a large part of the day sitting at my computer working on developing content for what now has become my main focus online, LifeStoryRewrite.com eZine. For example Im currently creating a video series that I hope will add an incredible amount of value to my subscribers lives and give them a solid jump-start on their life-story rewrites. I still spend time maintaining other business interests I have just to keep the lights on, but LSRW is definitely my Passion. To avoid turning into a large, round pasty-faced blob I also daily go out for a couple of hours and hike the trails in the hills behind my house or go walk down at the beach. Meditation and reading is an essential part of my day and these days it has become even more important to me as Im trying to constantly improve myself so that when I write, I actually have something to say that will bless the lives of others. If you really want to learn something and internalize it; teach it. If you really want to improve yourself, write a self-help book. Since you dont want to be a hypocrite you suddenly discover yourself living up to what youve been preaching. Then of course I always have to spend time goofing off with Yumi. Freeing up my life so that I could spend my days with her is the main reason I started to do business online in the first place. IR: What is the main message you hope to get across in LifeStoryRewrite? Tranque: The future is literally a figment of our imaginations. There is no future; we must stop the nasty habit of putting stuff off until someday. If were not living a life we absolutely love right now, were literally wasting all that is truly real, the Present. Our lives are meant to be lived joyfully with passion and if were not experiencing that and instead were feeling trapped or stuck in a life were not happy with, then we must understand the only person that holds the key to our prison lives within our own skin. All the excuses we have for not living the life we wantsuch as a very common one, I have to support my family.are likely all the reasons why we must be making clear, significant changes in our lives now.

IR: With so many people suffering in the world right now, it can sometimes feel shallow to focus on our own individual dreams and passions. What are your thoughts on this? Tranque: So many people are living in the shadow of the pessimistic view that everything is falling apart. I dont believe that. Of course Im not blind to the fact that many peoples financial lives are coming unglued, its like child-birth; it may be incredibly painful but that doesnt mean it doesnt need to happenand its going to happen no matter what. Basically what is occurring in our world is the Macrocosm of what individuals go through: Were just experiencing an International life-story rewrite. Sure the situation isnt pleasant, but the real pain comes from sitting around asking why, why me and wishing for the good ol days instead of embracing change and looking forward with faith and paying attention to how we can grow from the situation and improve our own personal futures. The fact is, for those with their eyes open to see it; this situation is creating massive opportunities for everyone who is looking for them. It isnt world governments or monster corporations that are going to provide the solution; it is the individual entrepreneur with a hunger to improve their own personal situation for themselves and their families that is the key to our economic salvation individually and collectively. IR: What message do you have for others who find themselves in a rut feel bogged down and even trapped by the current life they have but with no idea how to change it? Tranque: When I began on my journey to transform my life I had absolutely no idea how to do it; or for that matter what I really wanted. I only knew what I had wasnt it! This isnt uncommon so dont worry if thats the boat youre in at the moment. Albert Einstein said that we cant create solutions to problems with the same mind that created them. The life were living is the inevitable result of the way weve been thinking and the way we perceive the world. If we want to transform our experience, we have to transform the mind that created what were experiencing.

In our culture it is extremely common for us to determine that the reason were not living a life that we love is because we lack money. Just think about it: If this were true than there wouldnt be extremely wealthy people trying to escape their lives with drugs and alcohol and some blowing their own brains out with guns! We also love instant solutions in our culture so Ill share with you one: As much as you possibly can, live completely and absolutely in the Present. Problems and emotional pain and suffering only exist in the mental constructs we call Past and Future. There are two books that literally transformed my lifebut I was a ready student so they both appeared for me. They felt like they had been written just for me. However Ive recommend them to some friends that enjoyed them but they didnt have the same impact as they did for me. These books are The Power of Now, by Eckhart Toll Loving What Is, by Byron Katie

If youre feeling stuck and in need of a life-story rewrite, just remain very open to what appears in your life; it may be the teacher youre so desperately looking for. But you really have to keep an open mind because often these teachers dont show up packaged as wed imagine they should be.

To learn more about Tranque and his model for living life fully and in the present, visit: http://lifestoryrewrite.com/about-life-story-rewrite-dot-com/who-is-tranque-fuller/. Anyone who subscribes to his free Life-Story Rewrite eZine can also download his free report: Where Presence, Purpose, Passion and Prosperity Meet, You'll Find Your Perfect Life.

About the Interviewer Ingrid Ricks is a Seattle-based writer and speaker who focuses on overcoming adversity and embracing life. She is the author of Hippie Boy: A Girl's Story, her memoir about a feisty teenage girl who escapes her abusive Mormon stepfather and suffocating religious home-life by joining her dad on the road as a tool-selling vagabond until his arrest forces her to take charge of her life. Hippie Boy: A Girls Story is available as eBook or paperback on Amazon or BN.com. For more information, visit www.hippieboybook.com