Do you think you’re a cool, inspirational person, bursting with so many crazy ideas that you think your head might explode and ruin the fancy carpet?
If not, then you’re living the wrong life. You’re living uncle Joe’s life.

Joe’s a moron. Joe is the guy living in neutral. He’s not really awake. He has this glazed look in his eyes and never likes a new idea unless he can crap on it first. He’s also the guy who didn’t read my last article on being adventurous.

He’s not really much fun, unless you remove even more of his braincells with 80% stroh rum, 80 grams of coke, or maybe just a gold brick to the head.
Joe goes to work every day to sell his 8 hours a day only because he has to pay the bills.
He’d really just prefer to decompose at home on the couch watching Jerry Springer with a beer.
He’s in a rut. It’s his own little pointless world, and he likes it. Everyone knows him there.

So what am I blathering on about?
I’m telling you to remove the glazing on your peepers. Think of the stuff that you REALLY think is cool, learn about it, try it out and then learn from the experience. Like an excited kid with a new idea - like an ant farm full of mutant termites.

Remote control helicopters? Camping? Writing? Ninjas? Dreams? Sleep? Aquaponics? … anything really…Have fun with your ideas. Not because you *must*. Not because of *fear*. Not because of the tasty carrot at the end. But just because it’ll be really cool and you’ll find out a lot of stuff in the process. Especially the scary things - they’re more memorable. Notice I keep saying *learning*. I know your school teacher terrorized you and you still wet the bed about it, but learning can actually be fun, if it has a *purpose*. At the time, you weren’t interested in learning calculus, because it had all the usefulness of a mouldy dog bone. Learn because the subject is important to you, not because someone slapped you with the encyclopedia.

But there’s some more pitfalls that slap Joe into place when he has a bright spark idea:

1 - Prepare yourself

Now kids, I’m not telling you to be a maniac and drive off a mountain because it’ll ‘be educational’ (it will be, but not for long)
Learn that gravity kills, and make a bungee rope for the bike first. (and learn about bungee ropes while you’re about it)
Some of these things can really hurt if you’re a moron about it. Duh.

If you’re the stubborn sort that won’t listen to good advice, then you’d better update your will. If someone else has struggled with it, then their advice could be worth more than Pamela Anderson’s tits. Both of them. Why put yourself through pain that you could avoid ? Not all pain is good. Boiling fudge taught me that. This info can usually be found in communities - maybe an internet forum. Use google. Google is your friend (until you smuggle dope, anyway) You might make some buddies there who can help you a lot. So learn about your interests first. Be your own expert on it. It will also inspire you more.

2 - Failure is your friend

Even with some preparation, you’ll probably balls up your first attempts. This is a good thing. As long as you LEARN from it.

Did you think that Thomas Edison got the lightbulb right the first time?
He had over a thousand patents … what a loser!

But failure is good, without failure we’d never really learn anything. They teach you what works and what doesn’t. And often the bugger-ups make for good stories with your buddies. Let me slap you with an example: I know people who tried to have a lucid dream for years, and got nothing. But when I ask them what they learned, all they can say is ‘It didn’t work’ or ‘Duh’ or ‘Smell my finger’ Boy did they miss the point. Learn from your mistakes, dammit. What did you feel? What might have worked? What exactly caused it to go wrong?

2 - Be a trailblazer

Good principles will serve you better than anal rules and carrot-up-arse procedures.
Besides, they blow. There’s nothing fun or upbuilding about sticking to a procedure like an brainwashed cult slave.
Your dreams won’t necessarily have a pretty path to follow so don’t expect a recipe for everything.

Use what you know, and come up with your own methods. Have fun trying them. (kama sutra anyone?)

3 - See the bigger picture

A lot of the good stuff in life takes patience and persistence though.
When having to shovel the shit, you need to look forward to riding the horse that made it.

Seeing the bigger dream helps one deal with the less interesting patches in between.

4 - Dream the impossible

It’s hard to dream about owning a nature reserve when you’re being chased by lions.
You need to take some time every day to remind yourself of your dreams, and imagine how cool they’ll be.
It keeps you focussed and excited about it.

Find some cool pics of your interest, put them up in spots you can see them. And drool over them now and again.

5 - Deal with the fear

If you’re doubtful and scared - surprise! Most of us are. And it’s not worth letting it ruining your life. Accept the doubts and fears and do it anyway. Read here on learning to be adventurous: (article #2)Personally, the only fear I have is getting to the end of this life, and regretting my lack of worthwhile experiences. Like an old, pampered rottweiler with false teeth, a leg humping habit and a spent life with nothing to show for it.

Summary:

Become a person who can learn for themselves, and experiment with excitement and without fear.
We’re animals that love to grow and change. Embrace it. Become a learner.

• Don’t let everyone around you to tell you what to do - figure it out for yourself.
• Let yourself dream the impossible. It’s inspiring
• See the bigger picture, and focus on that when you have to do something not so fun
• Accept failure as just another thing to show you how to improve.
• Accept your fear, and do it anyway

Real steps to do this?

• - Write down all the interests or hobbies you’ve had before or have now. Anything, even sex counts, if that’s your life’s interest.
• Find a community of people that like the same stuff that you do. Speak to people that can help you, or can get help from you. Often the student teaches the teacher too.
• Read something every day on a subject that interests you. Consider what was written. Is it wrong? Right? Why? Question it, and consider it in context of your own life and others.
• Learning isn’t fun if you can’t use it - Actually use your knowledge to *do* something
• Talk to strangers, get their opinions on stuff. Ask yourself why you disagree or agree with them.
• When you read or talk about the stuff you’re interested in, question your own statements and thoughts. Question preconceived notions. Is what you’re saying true?