What is PLUS 10?

Over the thanksgiving weekend, Captain Awesome and I were sitting at a local watering hole when someone asked:

“What is this ‘PLUS TEN’ you keep talking about?”

Captain Awesome then proceeded to explain Plus 10 in a way that was concise and easy to explain:

1. Think about the WORST time of your life – GIVE THAT A RATING OF -10

2. Think about the BEST time of your life – GIVE THAT A RATING OF +10

3. Think about how you feel RIGHT NOW – GIVE THAT A RATING BETWEEN -10 and +10

4. How would you make RIGHT NOW +10 ?

What would it take (food, people, place, activity) to take you from where you are to +10 ?

APPLY THIS SIMPLE TECHNIQUE TO EVERY DAY / HOUR / MINUTE of your life!

That is PLUS TEN!

Awesome gift

Unexpected +10 Role Models

Last night I went out Salsa dancing. I really enjoy Salsa dancing. I’m not a natural dancer, but I practice a few nights a week and I’ve really improved. I consider Salsa dancing one of my personal +10 activities, because it really makes me happy.

As the music started playing, there was the usual awkward “8th grade moment” where the people separate into three groups.

1. People who are definitely going to dance.
2. People who might dance if asked.
3. Those who are just there to watch.

Since I am out to make my night +10, I am in the first group. I start scanning the room for a woman in “group 1″. I find her. We dance. She was not bad, but was not good either. She was better than most, but couldn’t keep a beat. If you’ve ever partner danced before, you know that this situation can’t be sustained all night. So, after a couple of songs, I politely moved on to look for another partner. All the “group 1″ women were taken so I started looking for some “group 2″ women (women who might dance if asked).

My eye catches a very attractive woman who is smiling while watching the others dance. She’s tapping her toe and you can see her hips swaying virtually imperceptibly to the music. This is defintely a “group 2″ woman. She wants to dance. She’s just not going to make the first move. I walk over and introduce myself and she is DELIGHTED to dance.

So, we start dancing. Within 5 seconds I can already tell that this woman is WAY BETTER AT SALSA than me. We’re having a good time and we start chatting. She’s a doctor. WHA?

Now, don’t misinterpret my statement and infer that I don’t think doctors can dance. That’s not the point. My point is that the doctors I have encountered work very long hours, do not take care of themselves, are always tired, and certainly don’t have time to go dancing on a Wednesday night. Let me review the attributes of this woman…

• SMART – She’s a doctor!
• Beautiful – you had to be there, but believe me, she was.
• Fit – You could bounce a quarter off of this woman’s abs.
• Happy – Happy eyes, happy smile, happy everything.
• Graceful – An unbelievable dancer.
• Gracious – I was so not-in-her league (dancing-wise) but she never showed any sign of discontent. She just enjoyed dancing with me at the level I was at.
• Married – just in case you’re wondering if I asked her out. No, I didn’t

After a few dances we switched partners. She went on to a man who I have seen dance before and I knew was very good. When these two started dancing, it was like an atom bomb went off. I have never seen such an awesome display of skill and grace, not even in a movie. It was fantastic.

 What am I driving at?

Some days, I look in the mirror and I feel like I’m doing pretty well for myself. That’s great, but if you look at yourself like that for too many days in a row, you start to lose your edge. That’s what has been happening to me over the last couple of weeks. Meeting this woman last night was a great reminder that you can always do something to be closer to +10. If a doctor, who likely works 60 hours a week, can make time to eat right, exercise, and learn to dance like Ginger Rogers (oh, and I think she’s probably 5 years younger than me), all while maintaining a genuine smile on her face, then what excuse do I have to not work just a little bit harder at being all that I can be? Pretty much none…

Goddamn, I love striving for +10!

Today is not +10 and it is my own damn fault!

Yesterday, I was sitting in Comet Burger, a great burger and shake joint in my home town. Some of the fixtures behind the counter are straight out of the 1950s, good old-fashioned soda jerk fixtures, if you know what I mean. For whatever reason, I was fixated on one particular tap when the waitress walked over, pulled it, and filled a glass with water. At that moment, I was instantly transported to another level of consciousness.

No, I was not on drugs…

At that exact moment, a dozen swirling thoughts came together simultaneously and converted a logical conclusion that I have understood intellectually for years into a moment of satori (instant enlightenment) where that very same thought was internalized throughout my entire being.  Here’s the thought…

“If I don’t like my life, it is my own damn fault.”

Living in the western world, I have or have had many advantages. I had schools to teach me, doctors to heal me, a stable banking system to hold my money, an economy that delivers all the necessities (and many of the desires) of life to me. Really, is there any excuse not to do exactly what I want, when I want, how I want? Nothing short of an outright injustice (murder, rape, etc.) could happen to me that I couldn’t in some way recover from. If I send a bad steak back, the world will not end. If I get fired, I will not die. If I express an opinion on something, the government does not show up at my door and haul me to prison.

Why then did I (and does most of the western world still do) believe that I can’t do exactly what I want, when I want, how I want? I believe it is because we have confused the ideas of “doing” with “achieving”.

For example, you might say, “I want to go to Disneyland.” That is not doing. That is achievement.

You might say, “I want to drive a sports car.” That is not doing. That is achievement.

You might say, “I want to make love to a beautiful women.” That is not doing. That is achievement.

What is doing then?

Doing is living your life in such a way that when you work you think about work and when you play you think about play.

Doing is keeping your current car clean and beautiful. Doing is enjoying the act of driving.

Doing is being in love with yourself and with your own life.

To try to achieve before trying to do, you sentence yourself to neverending misery. Your achievements are rarely met and, when they are met, rarely live up to expectations. To do first, without the thought of achievement, is to achieve bliss in each moment and increases the likelihood and frequency of achievement as a co-product of your actions.

Think of this the next time you pour water from an open tap.

Metaphors for life

The Missing Piece and The Missing Piece Meets The Big O are two fantastic books by Shel Silverstein.

They paint a great picture of relationships, whether at work or personal.

Read The Missing Piece first, then you can understand why the scenario in the second book makes more sense for both parties.

 

What does it mean to Live Awesome?

A couple days ago, someone who knows all about “Plus 10″ and Living Awesome asked me if I could explain what it means to Live Awesome. It turns out that he was trying to explain Living Awesome to some buds, and they seemed to think it was all about hard partying. While party-time is certainly part of Living Awesome, it is much deeper and broader than that.

Living Awesome can be broken down into three main areas of your live:

1. Your Relationships
2. Your Activities
3. Your Environments 

Relationships
An large part of how you feel depends on who you choose to spend your time with. Personally, at work I make sure I interact with as many people that are smarter than me as possible. It challenges me. When I meet people socially, the same thing applies. If you like to argue and discuss things (like me), then don’t spend time with people who are upset with arguing. It will just bring you down. It is perfectly fine to have standards, high standards, for who you date or just hang out with.

Don’t be afraid to pick your friends. Be specific about the stuff you like to do, and who you like to hang with.

Activities
Make a list of ten things that you love doing. Then, do them over the course of a week.
Be creative and don’t consider what others like doing, just do your thing. If people join you, great, but the point of this exercise is to bring as much joy into your own life as possible. Every Friday, I sit down with a blank pad and write down a list: How Can I Make This Weekend Plus Ten? Try to do all those things over the course of the weekend. As you get in the habit of doing Awesome things, you will start to develop a sense of what is Awesome, and what is not Awesome. If something starts being not Awesome, switch gears and do something else. If you are with friends, and the common “What do you want to do…Dunno…What do you want to do…Dunno….” comes up, try “Let’s go _____” or “Why don’t we ______”

Never settle! Make sure everything you do is Awesome, and if it is not, change it.  Remember, Living Awesome can be as simple as falling asleep in a hammock, it’s does not have to be a big blow-out.

Environments
Your work space and living spaces should be as Awesome as possible. What are some things that could make your work space Plus Ten? A new monitor, a cool desk, good lighting, a cool stereo, bright colored paint on the walls. These are all things that you have a direct impact on and will improve your work environment. What about your house? Your bedroom? Bedding from a fancy hotel, a huge comfy bed, paint? What about the bathroom. This is something I love. I love to take my time in the morning. My bathroom has a dock for my iPhone to listen to jams, a sweet shower head, the powered razor, and all the awesome-smelling products from Lush that I can afford. It also has great lighting and candles for those relaxing times.

As I write this, I am sitting at a pub that has free wireless. I have a pint next to me, and there is a fantastic thunderstorm going outside. Change your scenery and notice how it affects your life.

So, spend some time thinking about WHO you hang with, WHAT you do, and WHERE you do it.
These three areas of your life can yield some Awesome results if you spend time thinking about all those little things you can do every day to increase your Awesomeness.

no god
no government
just man

one love

D 

 

Living Awesome is…

Saving Snappy Turtles from meeting untimely death on busy roads….

Sometime It’s Not That Awesome

Last night, driving home from Chicago, we stopped at Burger King to use the bathrooms and possibly get a snack. Sometimes you think something is awesome, and it is not.

Listen to me right now. DO NOT GET A STEAKHOUSE BURGER!

You will hate yourself! I did, and I do.

This thing is a monster! I’m so glad I didn’t finish it.

 

 

Being Awesome Is …

One of the challenges of blogging about Living Awesome is that it is very difficult to find the time to write about life when you are busy living it.

Enter Visual Thinking.

By drawing quick sketches of Awesomeness on index cards (the Visual Thinker’s best bud), we can create an effective collection of concepts for Living Awesome!

Who is Awesome and Why?

We all have heros. Part of Being Awesome is understanding what makes your heros awesome, and why.

On MySpace, there is a built in list of “People I Would Like To Meet”.

So what? Why? One great way to create awesomeness in your life is to look at these heros and emulate those principles and methods in your life.

Here are some examples: 

Cesar Milan – for teaching people how to be a Pack Leader, for understanding the most effective methods for dog training (and people training )

Steve Jobs – for never settling for mediocre, for excellent engineering, and for revolutionary break trough’s of the iPod, iPhone, and MacBooks

Tim Ferriss - for escaping the ordinary, for challenging authority, for teaching that a Deferred Lifestyle is bullshit, for inspiring people to follow your bliss (That’s Joseph Campbell)

Dave Gray – for teaching that Visual Thinking is an Awesome way to communicate