About four years ago, I made a decision that probably changed my life.
I was 15, doing horribly in school (a C if I got lucky), shy, had no girlfriend and generally lived a mediocre, uninteresting life. I never took risks and never achieved anything. After all, if you don’t try then you can’t fail right? I could honestly say that the highlights back then were things like finishing a video game before my friends or rocking the latest shiny gadget.
That’s not to say I don’t still enjoy these things (Geek for Life!) I just realized that I wasn’t living up to my full potential. I was letting opportunities pass me by and when I thought about my future, I saw myself in a dead-end job with no real achievements I can be proud of. In short, I was not living, I merely existed.
Of course it took being told that I missed my chance with a girl I had a crush on who by some miracle liked me back. Kind of surprising what things can motivate you. It sort of forced me to re-examine where my life was heading.
I became determined to grab life by the balls, even if it killed me and you can too (well... except for getting killed part.)
Getting Started
Before you continue reading, you have to be sure that this is what you want. The things you are going to have to do will take you out of your comfort zone and allow you to experience most of what life has to offer.
So be warned. This guide can and will increase your awesome levels by over 1000% if you actually take action!
Enough of that… Let’s get down to business.
Discover Your Inner Geek
Wikipedia defines a geek as someone who is heavily interested in a hobby or subject. So basically, it’s all about knowing yourself and following your passions. Think about it, when you’re doing something you love don’t you just feel the rush? Of course you do.
Want to know what your potential you have the potential to develop? Think about something that you do almost regularly that you love and somehow seem to lose track of time while doing.
It can be anything like doing sports, writing, playing guitar or singing. If you love it, do it and practice till you rock!
It is important to choose one or two things at a time though because this trains your brain to focus attention and get things done. You don’t want be a “Jack of all trades but master of none.”
The beauty about becoming an expert in something is that you can even turn it into profit! Believe me; almost any passion can be turned into profit. Even something as seemingly pointless as playing video games!
Think Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel. For those who don’t know him, Jonathan is living proof that money can be made by simply being good at video games. He started as a professional gamer winning over $500,000 from competitions and now he sells his own line of computer equipment. Not bad for a video game geek.
Another example of simple passion turned sudden unexpected profit is Ana White, an Alaskan mom whose love of carpentry saw her starting a blog and building a family supporting business around it. Not bad for a carpentry geek either!
Where there’s a passion there’s almost always like minded people who you can connect with.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Though it’s important to develop your passions, you shouldn’t let them take over your life to the point that you neglect other very important things. Keep it balanced.
Take up something new
Take up something new. If opportunities aren’t coming your way now then there’s obviously something you’re doing wrong, right? After all Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. Are you insane? By this logic you probably are.
When you take up new things you can discover talents you never knew you had. Those can be turned into powerful passions that can lead you to great things.
What I do is take up something that I would never think of taking up. Something that I once told myself I would never be caught dead doing or I was scared to do. You should do this too as long as it’s not illegal. You never know what could happen.
While I was still in high school, I took up drama and participated in the school play. Normally, I would never have thought of doing this but I did and guess what? That’s where I met my first girlfriendJ.
Earlier this year I tool up rock climbing. It’s an awesome experience and I have conquered a few rock formations. I’m thinking of doing sky diving next. Funny thing is, for some reason I’m more afraid of bungee jumping than skydiving. Is that weird?
What happens when you do things like this is that you gradually stop being afraid to take risks and you are more open to amazing opportunities.
Get Lucky
It’s actually easier than it sounds. I recently watched a show by Derren Brown called The Experiments. If you don’t know who Derren Brown is, he’s an English illusionist and mentalist. He wanted to test a theory on what exactly luck was.
What he did was to start a rumor in a small town in England called Todmordern about one of the statues (of a dog) in a local park. The rumor said that the dog statue was lucky and if you patted it, some of the luck would rub off on you as well.
As the rumor spread more and more people went to the park, patted the dog and claimed their luck had dramatically increased. Was the dog really lucky? No, it just created a sort of placebo effect.
What actually happened was because they believed in the lucky power of the dog and because of this they created their own luck. How did they do it? They were more willing to take opportunities that came their way and so it seemed like they were lucky.
This experiment proved that the difference between lucky and unlucky people was their willingness to take opportunities. That’s all.
The problem with most people is when they go looking for luck; they are hoping a very specific thing happens to them so they block out anything else that probably comes their way.
For example, if you go to a party with friends specifically hoping to meet cute girls or guys and then you fail to hit it off with anyone, you will feel upset and unlucky. Instead go there to have fun with your friends instead and everything else usually falls into place.
So the next time you are presented with an opportunity you should be more open to taking it. It could be an opportunity to help someone or take part in something. You never know, it could lead to something awesome.
Expand Your Social Circle
Just get yourself out there and meet new people! You can meet your current friends’ friends and make them your friends… if that makes any sense. This can open you up to a lot of possibilities. New friends introduce you to new things and experiences which help you create your own luck.
I got the rock climbing idea from a friend I met at a party. He explained it in a way that made it seem so interesting that I had to try it!
Go where other people are gathering and socialize. It could be a party, a concert, a mall, a conference, even a convention. Where there are people, you should go.
Make the sort of friends you see will really add some value to your life. If you make friends with someone you think is awesome, you will also become awesome by association.
Not sure how to make friends easily? I’ll give you a little life hack. People LOVE talking about themselves. No really, people will find you more interesting if you seem more interested in them. Ask a lot of questions but don’t get too personal. This can creep someone out especially if you’re meeting them for the first time. So keep it casual. Also smile and nod a lot, it helps to show interest.
Get Fit
Become a healthier you. Develop healthy habits and do some exercise! That’s right, get off your butt and make some sort of stressful repetitive muscle movement. It’s the least you can do. You only have one body, so take care of it.
You don’t have to join a gym, just have some sort of regular routine like going for a morning or evening jog. Here’s a body hack for you. If you can do one push up today and keep increasing by one push up every day for a year, by the end of it you will be able to 365 pushups! Impressive, isn’t it? Try it! Do a pushup right now and follow the program.
Why does it work? You’ll only be exerting yourself a bit more everyday so your muscles will not have time to fatigue. They would already be used to the pushups so pushing a bit more won’t tire them out.
The great thing is this system also helps with other forms of exercise like jogging. Keep doing this and you could be running marathons by the end of the year.
Eat Healthy
Enough double quarter pound McDonald cheeseburgers for breakfast and pizzas for lunch every day. Get into the habit of eating healthy as much as you can. I’m not saying go radical and give up junk food forever, I’m saying cut down. Tell yourself that you should only eat junk once a week or once a month. It’s sort of like a reward for eating healthy.
Start eating more salads and fruits. When you get a craving, pick a fruit you love instead of a candy bar. You can’t tell me there isn’t any fruit you like. Pick your favorite and the transition from lazy sloth to lively human being will be much smoother.
Plus if you don’t already know how, learn how to cook! There’s no need to spend so much money on eating out and ordering in if you have the hands to feed yourself. It’s an awesome skill and you’ll love doing it.
We’ll that’s it… the beginners guide to grabbing life by the balls. Hope you enjoyed it reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you have anything to add or have questions, feel free to comment. I’d love to hear from you guys.
P.S. I hope you will take action. You should LIVE and not merely EXIST.
P.P.S. If you like this please email it to at least 2 people using the buttons below thanks :)
P.P.S. If you like this please email it to at least 2 people using the buttons below thanks :)
