An Adventurous Lifestyle

By: Ben DeGeorge

Currently I am seated in an Internet Cafe in a coastal town in the country of Chile. Two dogs are lazily sunning outside with their heads hanging into the building. I can hear the ocean crashing on rocks a quarter of a mile away and some loud Spanish music. It is a perfect 85 degrees outside.

From rock climbing to high adventure backpacking, or bumping along a dirt road in a van with a hole in the bottom to watching New Year's Eve fireworks explode out of the ocean, I continue to find myself in a lot of adventurous and exotic situations.

I challenge you, as I challenge myself, to not seek adventure through watching exciting TV shows or movies, but to live it yourself. Here are some ways to live a high adventure lifestyle, in order for you to come back recharged, excited and more confident for your professional activities.

1) Go somewhere new every weekend. This is not a guideline, but a rule that I would like you to live by. Get in a car, bus or train and travel somewhere you have never been before and explore for a day. Bring a friend or go alone, whichever you feel more comfortable doing.

2) Go on a trip rather than a vacation. Whenever you travel somewhere new, consider it an educational experience as opposed to a vacation. You will come back to the real world inspired and with new ideas on how to live your life.

3) Become part of a high adventure organization. Every city has several groups you can join that frequently go on trips and adventures that may interest you.

4) Talk to everyone wherever you go. Keep the headphones off when traveling. Making friends who know the area, culture or destinations will save you a lot of time and money.

5) Become comfortable and embrace ambiguous situations. I can´t stress the importance of this enough. This is the key to living a fulfilling adventurous lifestyle. Accept, enjoy and even seek ambiguity. This will also save you a lot of money.

6) Go into every adventure with the goal of learning more about the world and about yourself. Do not discriminate, every event has value.

7) Turn off the TV. Experience life, do not watch it.

8) Set lifelong crazy adventure goal lists. For example, visit every country in the world, hike the Appalachian trail and drive straight from Alaska to Patagonia.

9) And most importantly, remember that you can do whatever you want in life, so live!

Wherever You Are, Be There

By: Joseph Norman

"Each and everyday is what you make so try and always be right there." - Christine Baze

This is a brief missive about capturing each and every moment we live everyday. Are you often distracted? Sometimes, do you feel like even though you're there, you're not really there? Are you riding on the bus of your life, rather then driving it?

You know the look in someone's eyes when they are aloof or disengaged. It's glazed over and distant. You talk to them and you know that they're not completely there. How does that make you feel? On the flip side, when you're in conversation and you feel your mind drifting away, the voice of the person you are talking to becoming the background music to your daydream...

Are you being true to that moment?

Capturing moments like these is a way to find more fulfillment in your life. It's about feeling and experiencing the energy and vitality in your interactions with the world.

What are the feelings you get when you encounter a truly radiant person that is absolutely in the moment? Someone that you can just tell is right there feeling, loving, and appreciating the experience of the now. I've been blessed with the opportunity to interact with a few of them recently and here are my thoughts.

Interacting with a radiant person is a powerful experience because it challenges you to be there too and frightens you because you don't want to be blown out. You want to hold your ground.

This ability to be present is a rare quality, but it's one that can be truly profound in your interactions. Don't underestimate it. Hone it by taking a few steps.

Commit yourself to being there. Simply open yourself up to experiencing the moment fully by giving yourself permission to. Allow yourself to let the insecurities, doubts, worries, and distractions fall away. That self talk will put you in the right frame of mind.

Get out of your head and into your body. It is far too easy to over think the moment. Instead, feel yourself there and in it. Breathe into your body and let yourself experience it.

Go with the flow. Don't oversell the situation or stress out over a desired outcome. Enjoy it for what it is. That could be as simple as deep eye contact and a smile to a passerby.

Please note that the ability to live in the moment is not a hard science. It's a rather ethereal concept that cannot be mastered by a strict formula. My thoughts here are only suggestions inspired by how I try to let myself be present. I hope they help you live your days just a little bit better.