Quarter-Life Report

It's been 2009 for about a month now. This time of year always finds me pondering life, maybe because my birthday is on the 10th of February. Every year someone inevitably asks "Feel any different?", and the past few years I have honestly said "not really". Why? I've done some amazing things that have had a huge impact on who I am. Not everyone can say they've boated through the jutting white rock coves of Cassis, snuggled with full-grown tigers in Thailand, or been barricaded into a Nature Reserve in the jungles of India for money. But at some point I began to define myself by all this stuff I was doing rather than what I was thinking or feeling.

And that's not very sustainable.

This past year has marked the first in many that I have spent a lot of time just sitting still with myself, and if I had to sum up the experience I would say this: IT SUCKED. But it may have been one of the most beneficial things I've ever done, this doing nothing. Here is what I learned:

Minds are not like bodies: If you feed them junk they won't grow fat.
... But they will get sluggish. Stop watching so much TV!!! I know - It's got a great storyline. It's the biggest show of the year. It's emotionally fulfilling. I can't tell you how many times I quashed a budding idea or great opportunity saying "I don't have the time," only to flip on the tube and watch the Bring It On series marathon on ABC Family. Because it is always on. EVERY. WEEKEND. The truth is not that you don't have time to do what you want to do. It's that you don't have your priorities set. So turn it off and set them.

One extracurricular a week can make a huge difference.
No, this isn't high school and you're not going to join the Model U.N. You're going to join something even better, out of the thousands of regular meetups and groups available to you for free. Try Meetup.com. I have learned to play Spades, built a healthy and fun community of social media groupies, and played board games at a bar, to name a few. And never have I come away thinking it wasn't well worth it.

Tap into others.
How many times a week do you sit silently next to someone you've never met (roughly six to ten for me)? What if you engaged in conversation with half of them? Know what they could tell you? Nope, but you will when you initiate a topic. I guarantee that more often than you think, you'll have a better day because of it. "Oh, but what if they think I'm weird? what if they are totally weird? What if they steal my kidney?!?" Screw kidneys. If these are your main concerns, you need more adventure anyways ... so go ahead and risk it.
*Shameless plug: If you give this a shot and take away something valuable (or possibly just hilarious), write it up and I'll post it over at StrangerSage.

Hang out with geeks.
There is nothing worse than a mental slump, and there are few things better to pull you out of one than full-blown, tape to the nose bridge, passionate geeks. They are everywhere (Hi! Right here!) and yes, they do want to talk to you about why they have invested five notebooks of thought into an elevator to space and how someday they are going to help make it happen.* Also, they usually like beer.

If the seeds sprouts, water it!
This is the most valuable thing I have begun to really act upon in the past year. VCs and investors will tell you there there is never a shortage of good ideas, but that problems arise from a lack of people willing or capable of digging in and making them real.
I recently tried to combat that personally and it has been no easy task -- but it IS rewarding. Sure, now I am constantly plotting and scheming, losing hours of sleep brainstorming and putting thoughts into motion. It's exhausting and energizing all at once ... and I can honestly say I am never bored anymore. No matter what or who is around me. Never.

... And that's just the beginning, folks.

I am writing this because A) I want to be held accountable for what I've posted here in the coming months, and B) the steps will help you taste the rainbow and not just stare at it. Skittles knows their stuff.

I am one short week from completing about a quarter of my own life. Later this year when I put out my very first quarterly self report, I want it to show consistent gains in all the right sectors: happiness, productivity, number of Thin Mints consumed ... But before then I look forward to the first time someone asks me if 25 feels different, because I can finally smile and say "Oh, yes. Absolutely."




*Boyfriend reference.