Fun

A Dangerous Reminder

Garth Beyer

We’re all crazy.

I can say that because we love destroying things – rather, when we do destroy things, we have fun with it – a lot of fun.

Finally getting rid of your old desktop computer? Smashing it in the driveway sounds like a great idea. Stereo-system broke? Time to tear it to pieces and see how it works. Need room to build something? I’ll get the sledgehammer.

A few months ago my dad and I had to get rid of some wasp nests. Naturally we tried wasp spray, but it was ineffective. Then we bleached the nests. Still alive. So we poured gasoline and set it on fire.

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A couple of months ago my dad and I took apart my original droid. (After five years, it finally broke.) This is the outcome.

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It’s easy to break something, to dissect it, to experiment with what has already been created. It’s much more dangerous to build something from scratch, to experiment with your own creativity.

What puzzles me is how we can have so much fun destroying things, yet not be as insanely excited to create something.

There’s a few different ways to overcome this. All dangerous.

1. Build to destroy it.

2. Build to let someone else have fun destroying it.

3. Build knowing that you will already be building something new, thus, not caring whether it gets destroyed or not.

Bonus: If you want a real challenge. Build something new from the remnants of what you destroy.

 

Stay Positive & Whatever You Do, Just Have Fun With It

Garth E. Beyer

How You Know That You Are Doing What You Need To

Garth Beyer

If this is at all confusing, it’s because you have a difficult time accepting it. The same went for me at first.

***

When there are things that you would rather be doing or that you just want to do, perhaps going to the art museum, hanging around the park more often, or reading more, you know that you have to keep doing what you’re doing.

That craving – when you are actually busy – to do other things (and sometimes even to do nothing) means you’re on the right track and that you need to keep going.

Our minds direct our attention towards things that we would rather be doing because what we are doing is hard work. Our brain wants to distract us, wants to pull our attention toward something more entertaining (and less productive). Often referred to as the lizard brain, this subconscious mental effort for distraction is a cloak of fear. The more we get on the path of productivity, reaching our goals, putting in emotional labor, and putting ourselves and our art out there, the more fear sets in and the lizard brain starts working in every way possible.

The most popular way clearly being the desire to do something more fun than what you are currently doing.

When really, if what you have to be focusing on now didn’t exist, you wouldn’t really be doing what you think you would rather be doing now. You’d be doing nothing.

 

Stay Positive & Outsmart Your Brain. Push Through

Garth E. Beyer

One Of Life’s Favorite Students

Garth Beyer

Ben & Jerry’s ice cream had some wise words to share. The bottom of the ice cream lid said “A dream alone is just a dream. A dream together is reality.” I am one motivated and high-hoped soul with dreams above the clouds. One year ago, I read the quote by Ben & Jerry and realized that I was going to need a partner in some of my business-creating endeavors. I could only think of one person that I would want to build a business with: Katie Christianson.

All throughout middle school, I grew up knowing Katie, but never talked to her until high school. Our ambitions aligned when we were both offered a chance to be in a program that allowed us to attend college full-time and skip our junior and senior years of high school. It was in college when we realized we had a similarly ambitious mindset and became close friends. Who better choose to interview than someone with a “make the most out of life” attitude?

Having just turned 20, Katie was born in Chicago and raised in Belvidere, Illinois. Katie is now back in Chicago getting her Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration at Loyola University. While a formal education has taught her a lot, some of her biggest lessons came from the greatest teacher known to women, Life. With a mere 20 years of being Life’s student, Katie has learned more than those who are twice her age.

Katie Christianson

At the age of five, she realized that you don’t need anyone to tell you what you can and can’t do. Her mom took her, her sister, and her aunt to Florida when her dad was being a grouch about spending money. “Fine,” her mom said, “we will go without you.” Katie now affirms that you don’t let people hold you back, especially not when they hold you back from maximizing the quality of your life.

Kids will believe anything. And once they believe it, there is little anyone can say or do to change that belief. Katie was no exception to this rule. She shared her story about how she thought she was being evicted when she was six years old.

I thought my parents were lying to me when I came home from kindergarten one day and saw a “for sale” sign in the front yard of our house because my dad was always commenting about how broke we were. My mom was the opposite and would spend her last dime on making us happy so that we always felt secure, but I knew she was just being protective. So when I came home and saw a “for sale” sign in the front yard of our home, I thought we were being kicked out. My mom told me it was because the landlord passed away, but I didn’t believe her. This experience made me realize how important money was. It made me be creative and very budget-conscious even as a six year old. I felt guilty if I spent my parent’s money at all knowing that those funds were being pulled away from something else, so I would try selling lemonade or my belongings to make money. I later realized that the story my mom told me was actually true once I understood how estates are handled after the owner dies, but by the time I fully understood the concept, being savvy was already a part of who I was.

This story screams “maturity,” but, let’s face it, Katie was six years old – still a kid. That leaves an open question, just when did she grow up? Contrary to any assumption, Katie grew up two years after the house-for-sale controversy. After a work-related accident, Katie’s mom became permanently disabled. At first, this had no real effect on Katie other than her mom was always home and her dad worked more. It wasn’t until the day Katie fell off her bike in the street outside her house that she fully understood the effect of her mother’s permanent disability. “I started crying for her.” It was in that moment, when her mom looked at her from the window, that Katie knew there wasn’t going to be anyone coming outside to help her. “I had to help myself. I had to get up, brush myself off, and get out of the street. That’s the day I grew up.”

Among these lessons, Katie learned countless others. She developed a fear of having regret at her deathbed after living with a family member who found out he had terminal cancer the same day he had to have both legs amputated due to diabetes. Recently, Katie learned life is about finding hope in hopeless situations after losing her best friend on June 4th, 2012. As Katie puts it, “there are so many people who need you to pull through so that they can find the strength to pull through themselves.” Since as far back as Katie can remember, she knew that there was something deep within her, something special. “I know if I don’t make the most of each day, I am hindering this inner power.” She understands that she is in this world for a greater cause, admirably selfless in her way of living.

In addition to the hardships and lessons life has taught her, she has also had to combat the deep stereotypes about women that have been ingrained into society. I have witnessed with my own eyes that Katie has had to work harder to stand out. People automatically look to men to lead situations and they are surprised to see Katie being the one to take charge. Katie also admits that it’s a challenge, being a woman, to control her emotions. However, she says, “Women’s brains are wired to be 7 times more emotional than men, so it makes us better able to empathize. My ability to understand different perspectives has made me a better listener and a better friend.”

Personally, I have to say that all that makes Katie who she is doesn’t turn her into just a better friend, it makes her the best. Her determination is ruthless and her compassion and selflessness is considered, by some, to be reckless. Heck, I’m even a bit frightened of where she’s going in life. The goals Katie has set out to accomplish may come as a shock because she doesn’t just dream big, she dreams of turning the impossible into done it and onto the next one. I have learned so much from Katie and she has brought me to tears with her stories of how she got to where she is today. If there is one thing that I would take away from all Katie has taught me, it is that “it’s about persevering when everyone around you would understand if you didn’t.”

 

Stay Positive & Keep At It Katie

Garth E. Beyer

Katie has just started up her blog. You can visit it here

Been Too Long Since Your Last Adventure?

Garth Beyer

It’s been awhile since I have updated you on my progress with A Manual For Daily Adventure.

7. Dance.

I had completely forgot that this was on the list. I happened to start dancing in my apartment the other night … yes, I was alone, that didn’t make it any less fun!

20. Try a new restaurant

Always.

72. Write on a napkin.

Two girls, one napkin with my number on it. Still waiting for the second girl to txt me, she was prettttttty.

22. Walk home from work a different way.

I did this and had to walk by a guy who walked behind trees in front of a church and began urinating …

25. Set aside fifteen minutes to write. About anything.

“15 minutes start now, Fear travels through your entire body. Pretty girls need that light, very subtle laugh, it is so adorable. Style has changed so much, and I mean gangnam style is almost becoming the norm. Personally I love mid-high fashion. Writing articles for my employer got really old pretty quickly. I didn’t see how it benefited me anymore. Note to self, don’t get a cappuccino, it doesn’t taste very good. There are about five men that come in the [coffee] shop every single day. I often wonder what they talk about and how they know each other. It isn’t like the five men who all play chess or anything like that. It’s an interesting group, almost as if they don’t want to go home. I’m writing so fast I’m making the water shake in the cup, it reminds me of Jurassic Park It so bad that writing doesn’t warm you up. The real reason for my shakes and fast writing is because I am freezing. How do you hit on girls in a coffee shop? Muffins are delicious … none are better than the ones from middle school but they were so unhealthy. The girl isn’t putting her jacket on for quite possibly the same reason as me. We look good 😀 makes me laugh. I think back to that damn spider. I’m sort of happy its cold again because it prevents the bugs and spiders from creeping on my window. Writing nonstop makes me think back to the writing test, and how you had to write fast. I always wondered why I never did as good with my essays as I thought. Boots are gorgeous on women. I wonder what other companies are like Johnny Cupcakes. John had written about how he knew its a good idea if he writes it down. Does a good idea ever arise from writing like I am now? Overcharging is crazy, it makes me want to bake my own food and pastries to bring with. Hey you might as well do the same with coffee. One girl out of 20+ at a coffee shop. [Unreadable writing] is exciting to make fun of other people. Where will I study abroad? I wonder about making an article in the Madison newspaper called the girl in a Cafe and it will be a creative piece talking about one girl in a cafe obviously. I can write about these girls all the time, when will I ever see them again though. Time runs out so what do you do? Well this exceeds my 15 min writing session. The only question left is will I talk to her before I leave? B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!”

Yes, I wrote all of that in pen. Writing is still my passion but I was too limited within the writing job I had. A second reason to not get a cappuccino is that it packs more of a kick than any other caffeinated drink I’ve had. I free wrote early that morning about a spider that I let survive on the edge of my ceiling above my bed, and then it disappeared when I woke up. I did in fact talk to her, she was one of the girls I gave the napkin with my number on it to.

27. Ask a friend for a book recommendation.

Girl with dragon tattoo.

40. Support a local business owner.

Farmers market and I no longer go to Starbucks, I go to local coffee shop!

41. Take your workout outside.

Run + pullups at the park.

42. Don’t send an email. Walk over to your colleague’s desk.

Easy enough. Exercise is hard to come by in a cubicle.

45. Look up. See the sky.

It was better than art. It was real abstract.

50. Consider the book you’d write.

A book on writing. I am going to use Seth Godin’s Ship It journal to do it!

53. Initiate conversation at the coffee shop.

Would you be surprised that I talk with the Baristas and pretty girls?

56. Sing loudly in the shower/your car/your backyard.

Happened to combine singing loudly with dancing.

57. Doodle.

It was terribly bad doodling, but doodles nevertheless.

59. Allow yourself 5 minutes of nothing.

60. Set out to scare yourself.

-sigh- I’m going to haunted houses …

71. For one day, don’t make any plans.

I’ve done this too many times, unintentionally. Why is it so hard to be booked up?

75. Clean. Throw out junk. Organize

On the phone the other night, a friend of mine said how cool it would be to go through absolutely everything you have and get rid of everything that you don’t vitally need. I laughed and said that is what I have already done.

Jumping at opportunities to check adventures off the list has created one great ongoing experience. It’s a hot conversation starter and motivator for others to do the same. 43 more adventures to have until I complete the list!

 

Stay Positive & Cheers To Adventures

Garth E. Beyer

Life Is Short

Garth Beyer

If time flies when you’re having fun and having fun is all you do, life is short.

If you’re a person that is having tragedies in your life and think life is short. You have another thing coming: one longgg life of living with those tragedies.

Which statement do you hear more people respond with “life is short”? I feel that I hear a lot more people say life is short in response to tragedies: A close friend dies from driving drunk, a grandparent falls and gets amnesia, you get heartbroken by the one you loved for years. Those are logical reasons to note that life is short.

Then you have those who use “life is short” as an excuse. An excuse to not do well in school, an excuse to be reckless, to risk their lives without realizing they are risking putting their tragedy on someone else’s mind, as explained in the paragraph above. Though they may not say it aloud, an underlying factor of why people do “stupid” things is that life is short.

And it is. It should be. Life NEEDS to be short. Scroll back up and read the first contention of this post.

There’s a variable that very few realize about time flying when you’re having fun. Think about this for a moment, remember a time that you said “time flies when you have fun” in response to an experience you had. In that experience, was time going fast? Or were you lost in it? It’s more than likely time didn’t even exist during that experience, in your mind, it was going to last forever. It’s not until the experience is over do you state that time flew.

Did it really though? Or is it just a perception. Yes this is getting deep, but bear with me, there’s a point.

You can have two people that live to be 78 years old. One lived every single day having as much positive fun as possible but ended the day with saying how short life is. The other lived every single day, averagely, blindly, safely, and at her deathbed, she had realized how short life is.

Did either have a short life? Yes and no. They both lived to by 78 years old which is a fair amount of years to live, not short at all. But only one person really lived those years. Only one person made the absolute most out of every day, that made time fly, and at the end of each day wished they had more time to continue doing the fun things they did, that thought life is short, when realistically it wasn’t shorter than anyone else’s.

Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. You can live each day and think that 24 hours is really short or you can go through life and once on your deathbed, wish you would have lived every set of 24 hours more.

 

Stay Positive & A Short Life Lived Is Better Than A Short Life Lost

Garth E. Beyer

A Life Reminder

Garth Beyer

People want you to succeed.

Those who it may seem that they don’t, are just the ones who are better at preparing you for the success.

Anyone can show you the “right way” of achieving what you want, but you will not feel the power of having succeeded if you did not jump through the flaming hula-hoop that is spinning in air above a tank full of sharks.

 

Stay Positive & You Have My Support

Garth E. Beyer