Watershed Moments

Recently I toured a gin distillery in our town of Columbus, Ohio--called Watershed Distillery.  It all started because a group of friends were sitting around one evening enjoying a glass (or maybe more) of gin and asked themselves--I wonder if we could distill gin that tastes better than this and so they did.  They apprenticed with other gin distillers around the country, they bought their own still from Germany and went through hundreds if not thousands of dry runs to come up with the perfect gin.

I am continually fascinated by stories like this one.  Because they took it the next step--they said I wonder if we could make quality gin and then they went about researching how to make good gin.   They didn't sit around and say "no we can't do that", "what a crazy idea", "it will cost too much money".  They didn't let their Fear Monger take over.

These guys referred to it as their Watershed Moment--thus the name of the distillery.  Watershed Moment meaning the moment when everything changed.  When they went to kick off the opening of their distillery they traveled around with the chalkboard sign pictured above and asked people to write about their Watershed Moment.  They then posted on their Facebook wall various people pictured with their particular Watershed Moments that occurred--check it out here.  Brilliant!  Not just as an marketing tool--they said the buzz about their gin grew by leaps and bounds by doing this particular tour--but because of the conversation it starts.  The thoughts it generates about passion, dreams, life, excitement, busting out of routine and the power in every day moments.  These Watershed Moments can happen in the blink of an eye, after a long thought out debate, or in one spur of the moment conversation.

I admit I love gin and I particularly love Watershed gin (just as a side note I am not being paid, or reimbursed for this blog post) but what I absolutely love about the Watershed Distillery as a business is the conversation it generated after the tour.  A conversation about passion, dreams, possibilities, lost ideas, new ideas, lost opportunities and renewed hope.  It was an excited, bantering, passionate conversation.  It was a conversation about living and working happier about moments that have changed us and moments that we missed and why.

These are the conversations that cause great change.  These are the conversations that get to the root of life, the true meaning.  Without the Watershed Moments in our life where would we be.  The moments that changed everything---whether they be an idea we generate and follow through with, a decision we make deliberately, a spur of the moment plan or a totally unexpected out of the blue shocker.  Watershed Moments are pivotal times in our lives.

How would you fill in the blank? The time I: _______ Changed my Life.