How To Be An Explorer Of The World

Re: A Manual For Daily Adventure Pt.2

Garth Beyer

The 2nd round was just as fun and adventurous (in an even more unique way) as the first. If you’re just catching up, I’m working on Michelle Welsch’s A Manual For Daily Adventure. She has provided 80 ways to get started shaking things up in your life. I have done four already and including the one’s I am reporting today, I have 62 more adventurous activities to partake in!

36. Concentrate on nothing except pouring yourself a cup of tea

67. Hide a note for your partner to find (I no longer have a partner so I have written a note for my future partner to find when we kick it off)

24. Stare out the window (How can I not with the view I have over Lake Mendota?)

19. Write a pageful of questions. Don’t worry about answers.

33. Compliment a stranger. (A girl who I recognized from seeing at school pulled her tank-top up really high at the mall. As she walked by I had overheard her and her friend questioning whether it looks good or not -obviously sarcastically, likely making fun of someone- and I replied, “that looks good”. They were zoned out and probably didn’t hear me, if they did they probably gave me a really dirty look as I kept walking. #awkward)

46. List 4 things you are thankful for in this moment. (I typically list five things every night before sleep, but as I read this “to-do adventure”, I pulled my Gratitude Notes out and wrote down: sleepless nights worth staying awake for, sunlight, good tasting water -didn’t get my brita pitcher yet-, deep conversations that lead to action)

47. Pick up your favorite book and head to the park. (I wrote this post in response to taking this action.)

52. Set a new fitness goal. (I decided to have a goal of 50 pull-ups, I can already do 25 which means I’m already half way there!)

11. Stroll through a book store and notice which section pulls you in. (At first I started walking to the New Age Thinking section, but then my feet took me directly to the Writing Reference section. From there I was pulled to old classic novels and from there to Seth Godin’s books. I hoped to end up walking to something new, but what pulled me in is currently relevant to my life.)

17. Start a scrapbook with images you tear out of magazines, newspapers, funny office memos. (I prefer using my huge tack-board as a replacement for a scrapbook. I’ve filled it up much more since I took this picture)

18. Schedule a coffee date with someone you admire. (Scheduled a coffee date with Katie Christensen, entrepreneur and great friend to discuss business ideas and upcoming events.

68. Put your other shoe on first.
I actually didn’t know which shoe I put on first, so I did both… Overachiever?

34. Brush your teeth with opposite hand. (Weird, but not difficult)

69. Be a slob. Don’t make the bed. Leave it on the floor. (This slobbish enough?)

Stay Positive & Always A Bit Awkward

Garth E. Beyer

Once You Leave

Garth Beyer

Once you leave your cubicle, your apartment, your comfort zone, your box, you expose yourself. You risk at all levels. Most people stay in their zone because of that risk, because of their fear. Nothing can throw you out of wack if you stay put in your structure. The interesting revelation is this:

Once you leave your cubicle, your apartment, your comfort zone, your box, you expose yourself. But what you expose yourself to is never what you think and worry about. Once you leave your zone, everything that you dreamed of, craved, and desired in your zone, comes to you.

Want to find love? How can you do that when you stay in your room all day? Forget it. Anyway, love will find you….once you leave your room.

Want to see something truly beautiful? Even more beautiful than what you can Google on the internet or see out your window? You have to leave your space.

Want to laugh unexpectedly? Once you leave your box, something will happen that makes you crack up.

Just getting out of the place you confine yourself to, that you are comfortable with, is all it takes to get what you want. You don’t have to go after it, you don’t have to jump 50 hurdles to get it, all you need to do is get out!

Go to the park. Find a place to see the sunset. Walk to the grocery store. Don’t worry about how you dress, what you carry, or if you wear any shoes. Just leave.

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This post was inspired by the experience I just had. I’ve been in my apartment all day (got off work early) and wasn’t planning on leaving it. I was comfortable, I was safe with my books, my notepads, sticky notes, pens and laptop. I was content, even happy with the breeze and the sound of the water (how could I not be?). Then I decided to do something off Michelle Welsch’s Manual For Daily Adventure. I got up, grabbed a favorite book (Keri Smith’s How To Be An Explorer Of The World) and went to the park. The following things are what I got to experience because I left my apartment.

  • See a runner giving it her all.
  • Laugh and shake my head after watching two black basketball players almost get in a fight and one repeating to the other “you’re not gangsta!”
  • Three girls checking me out.
  • Laugh at a women on the phone only talking about getting drunk, hammered, plastered. Quote: “We will get drunk Sunday, that’s what labor day is for”
  • Pinpointed where an odd noise I kept hearing was coming from to a woman practicing opera.
  • Felt soft grass.
  • Got to observe more things, people, animals, sounds, sights, etc., than I would have in my apartment.
  • On my way back, had a good conversation with the three girls. If they didn’t smoke, I would have asked one for her number. Oh well.
  • Got to feel the ground. (Went barefoot)

That list sure beats the hell out of a list of what I would have experienced if I stayed in my apartment. The same goes for your cubicle at work, your comfort zone at school, your chair in the meeting room, your spot on the bus, your way you walk to work, your seat in class, and any “square” that you feel comfortable in.

 

Stay Positive & Experience Life

Garth E. Beyer