Never Grow Up

 

When I was a kid my goals included visiting the moon, owning a monkey and traveling the world. As I grew older my list of ambitions only got bigger and I did’t waste any time plotting how best to accomplish each lofty goal. Fortunately for me, my mother told me I could do anything I wanted and I believed her.

I was raised by someone who asked, “Why not?” instead of trying to limit me to what was “realistic” and now that I’m grown I still aim for the seemingly impossible while encouraging my kids to do the same. I put my goals down on paper and I strive for excellence in all that I do with the ever-present thought I am not promised tomorrow.

As we get older it is not necessary to “grow up”. Yes, you should mature and be socially adept but you need not be uptight, boring or unhappy. Kids enjoy life more because they are ignorant to the stresses that society says exist. Kids approach situations with a positive attitude and the belief that everything will work out. They believe magic is real and that mermaids exist…and maybe they do.

I’m not saying we should all walk around making childish decisions however I also don’t think we should default to “No” as a first response either? Why not try, “yes”? If someone shares a unique idea with us we ought not to poke holes in it right away. If an initial request for something is denied then we simply need to find another way. Too often I see unhappy people who have listened to the negativity of others while lacking the confidence in themselves to try anyway. Children are confident, they are imaginative, they are adventurous and we can all benefit from practicing more of those skills in our daily lives.

When something doesn’t go as planned we should embrace it and know that we’re smart enough to make the new situation even better than the original. When we encounter a road block to a goal let us not accept defeat, there is always another way. Write out all the options…even if they seem impossible. The only limits are those we place on ourselves. Say yes instead of no, believe yes instead of no. Ask “why not” instead of “why”. Think about your life, define your goals, and don’t let anyone set realistic boundaries on what you can or cannot do. Never “grow up”.

Life List

Zack’s Life List

Back in 1998, when I was 13 years old, I began writing down the things I wanted to do in my lifetime. It didn’t matter to me if they were “realistic” or not. I didn’t limit myself to the availability of technology or the potentially exorbitant costs involved. I just wanted to write down what I thought I’d like to do or experience in my lifetime.

This type of list is now commonly referred to as a “bucket list” after the 2007 movie starring Jack Nicholas and Morgan Freeman. However, long before that movie came out people have been writing down goals and dreams. I prefer the term life list because I believe it accurately describes what I aim to do with each task therein; live! When I hear bucket list I think of the end…and who looks forward to that? When you run a race do you refer to it as a finish? No. So why name the list after the very thing you don’t want to do? I want to LIVE and so I have a LIFE list.

Even as a young teen I put my life into perspective. I reasoned that people tend to live less than 100 years, in most cases, which meant I was already 13% of the way through my time. If I was going to experience this so-called “life” I had better have a plan. So instead of listening to the history lesson in school one day I began to write down my dreams, a much more prudent use of my time I figured.

I still have the original piece of paper. After 13 years it is rather worn and fragile. I try not to take in out except to cross stuff off or add new goals. I’ve written the goals out below. Please feel free to read through, borrow some ideas, and leave a few comments of your own.

These are in no particular order. Sometimes I write new goals in-between each other or in the margins of the original paper. The only reason these goals are numbered is for easy reference, the actual list does not have numbers. I will try to scan both sides of the original paper in the future for you to see and in case I ever loose it.

1. Go skydiving– Completed June, 2003, for my 18th birthday
2. Go hang gliding
3. Visit all 50 states
4. Save a life–
   a. In 2003, a friend and I noticed a car was oddly parked and went to investigate. It turned out the woman inside was experiencing a medical emergency. Had we not intervened the EMT’s said it was likely that she would have passed away in her car. 
   b. In 2006, my family and I were driving home in a thick fog when we nearly stuck a car that was parked on the highway with it’s lights off. Upon further investigation we found the driver was drunk and sleeping in the driver seat while his wife and children, who did not appear to speak English, were unaware of the danger they were in. We called emergency services and moved everyone to safe location until help arrived.
5. Visit all 7 continents
6. Set a world record
7. Chase a tornado
8. Ride a bike from Corvallis to Forest Grove- I wrote this when a friend bet me that I would never get around to it. I still haven’t…
9. Jump a train
10. Buy a boat
11. Ride in a submarine
12. Photograph sharks from a cage
13. Go scuba diving
14. Surf in Hawaii – Completed July 9, 2016 while on vacation for our 10 year wedding anniversary
15. Go rock climbing– Climbed Smith Rock (in Oregon) with friends from college on September 21-22, 2003
16. Walk the Great Wall of China
17. Design and build my own house
18. Be an extra in a movie
19. Go shark fishing
20. Learn how to play 3D chess – Completed June 6, 2014
21. See the Eiffel Tower
22. See the Empire State Building– I went up around midnight while visiting New York in December, 2010
23. Visit Euro Disney
24. Go to Disney World– Went with family in February, 2003
25. Photograph wild animals in Africa
26. Photograph exotic fish in the wild – Went snorkeling in Maui on July 7, 2016 while on vacation for our 10 year wedding anniversary
27. Go to space
28. See the Titanic
29. Swim in every ocean in the world- As of 2016 I have swam in Pacific and Atlantic
30. Go to a professional skateboard competition– In August of 2005 I attended the Dew Action Sports Tour in Portland, Oregon, where I met Bucky Lasek and Dave Mira.
31. Ride the largest roller coast in the world
32. Go to Mardi Gras
33. Take stunt car driver lessons
34. Bike across America (coast to coast)
35. Help in a sting operation
36. Go base jumping
37. Write and publish a book– May 2003 I wrote and published a book of poems, 100 of which were for my wife
38. Ride in a helicopter
39. Pick up a hitchhiker– March 2003 on a road trip to Mexico we picked up George and took him over 300 miles.
40. Climb a radio tower
41. Get married– June 25, 2006 in Hillsboro, Oregon
42. Live in a tree
43. Become a member of the polar club
44. Visit every Hard Rock Café- November 2010 I visited my first Hard Rock in Times Square, New York. Later that same week I visited the Chicago location with my brother.
45. See the Northern Lights
46. Drive on the autobon
47. Eat prairie oysters
48. See the sphinx
49. Go to a Super Bowl Game
50. Meet Shel Silverstein – He was alive when I wrote the goal but has since passed away. The goal is now to visit his grave.
51. Meet Jack Hannah– Accomplished by accident in February, 2003. Jack happened to be at Sea World the same day I was!
52. Own a monkey
53. Go to the moon
54. Learn to fly a plane– In May, 2006 I met a pilot who offered to teach me to fly in exchange for some personal training sessions. I learned the basics of flying and was able to pilot the plane during some of our flights.
55. See the pyramids
56. Swim in the Red Sea – Febraury 28, 2015: While on a business trip in Israel, the CEO and I took a side-adventure over to Petra, Jordan and stopped at the Red Sea along the way.
57. Swim in the Mediterranean Sea
58. Swim in the Panama Canal
59. Jump off a building onto an airbag
60. Set up a scholarship
61. Do 50 pull ups
62. Do 200 pushups – July 2003: During a testosterone infused dorm room competition I performed 214 push ups in a single set.
63. Entering a fitness competition– April 2005: I competed in 2 bodybuilding shows and placed in both
64. Bench press 300lbs. – After training hard for several months to build my way up to it I eventually got it done in Jnauary, 2012.
65. Custom make a car
66. Be on Fear Factor- This show was cancelled a few years back but I am holding out that it will come back.
67. Raise a son – As of 2016, we have two sons though I’m not sure when to declare them officially “raised”.
68. Raise a daughter
69. Be a millionaire
70. Become a member of the mile high club
71. Graduate college
72. Do 300 push ups, non-stop
73. Race friend(s) across the United States, no driving or flying allowed and you have to film the journey
74. Be in a flash mob
75. Meet Ellen Degeneres
77. Visit Wall Street– Completed November 2010 on a trip to New York
78. Attend an NFL game
79. Eat a Chicago Style Pizza in Chicago – December 2010, purchased a deep dish pizza pie at Giordano’s
80. Perform a stand up comedy routine – November 2010, performed a 3 minute set at Helium Comedy Club in Portland, Oregon
81. Fly a blimp
82. Get married in Vegas by Elvis
83. Name a road
84. Learn harmonica blues
85. Learn to play piano
86. Learn to play saxophone
87. Try wing-suit flying
88. See Conan O’Brian show taping
89. Visit Ground Zero in New York – Completed in November, 2010, during a trip to New York
90. See Statue of Liberty – Completed in November, 2010, during a trip to New York
91. Visit the Mall of America – Completed December 2010 during a business trip to Minneapolis, Minnesota
92. Become debt free
94. Meet Oprah Winfrey
95. Ride in a human-drawn carriage – Caught a ride with Pedi-Cab in Portland, Oregon, in December 2009
96. Shoot a track gun
97. Eat an “Eat it all and it’s free” steak dinner
98. Run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain
99. Ring the opening/closing bell at the NY stock exchange
100. Race in Baja, Mexico
101. Become a knight
102. Get mugged – Not really a goal but if it ever happens at least there will be a bright side!
103. Get jury duty – October, 2007 I was called in but never served on a jury
104. Spend the first dollar in a new store
105. Ride in a Nascar racecar
106. Have a meal named after me
107. Meet a professional bodybuilder – April, 2006 I drove 300 miles to Seattle, Washington to see the Emerald Cup Bodybuilding Competition where I met Ronnie Coleman and Jay Cutler
108. Be banished from a small town
109. Meet a sumo wrestler
110. Ride an ostrich
111. See Mt. Rushmore
112. Own a business – In 2005 and again in 2010 I ran my own business
113. Visit Lochness, Ireland
114. Take a picture with a British Guard
115. Walk through Central Park – Completed during a trip to New York in November 2010
116. Have a romantic dinner in Italy on a boat while the rower signs in Italian
118. Visit Petra, Jordan – Febraury, 2015: While on a business trip in Israel, the CEO and I took a side-adventure over to Petra, Jordan
119. See Stonehenge
120. Go across the Golden Gate Bridge – August 2006, during a business trip to San Francisco I rode a bike over the Golden Gate Bridge with a co-worker.
121. Visit Alcatraz
122. See an opera in Sydney’s famous Opera House
123. See Australia’s “Red Rock” change color at sunset
124. Walk the Vietnam Memorial Wall – Completed May 26, 2015 while in the nation’s capital for Memorial Day
125. See Ol’ Faithful
126. See Aztec ruins
127. Drive a monster truck
128. Wear an astronaut suit
129. Change my middle name to “Danger” – REMOVED: After my wife vetoed the middlename “Danger” for our son, other family members started calling him “Danger” anyway and he is now known to more people by that name than his real name.
130. Shake Jay Leno’s hand
131. Feed a bear
132. Visit Death Valley
133. Carry an Olympic Torch
134. Ride a bobsled – June 2004, During a family vacation to Utah we rode a dry-run bobsled down a track at the Olympic Village in Utah.
135. Go to the Winter and Summer Olympics
136. Photograph lightening
137. Drive a semi-truck
138. See giant crater left be meteor that killed the dinosaurs
139. Get my shoes shined – August 2010, During a business trip to Boise, ID in the Boise Airport
140. Ride in a hot air balloon
141. Restore an old car
142. Walk on the moon
143. See the leaning tower of Pisa
144. Get married in Hawaii – Completed July, 2016: While on vacation for our 10-year wedding anniversary we renewed our vows on the beautiful shores of Maui! 
145. Take a vacation in a cabin just to write
146. Ride in a crow’s nest on a ship
147. Cresson a boat
148. Get a ticket for jay-walking
149. Go to the House of Shock
150. Spend Christmas in Paris, France
151. Spend New Year’s in New York to watch the ball drop
152. Slide down a NYFD fire pole
153. Visit the four deserts of North America (Mojave, Great Basin, Sonoran, Chihuahuan)
154. Eat shark fin soup
155. Ride on a double-decker bus – June 2007, (7-7-07) On a visit to Las Vegas for a wedding on the luckiest day of this century we rode a double-decker bus to downtown.
156. Try on a bomb suit – While at the FBI Citizen’s Academy in Portland, Oregon I was allowed to try on the entire bombsuit during our explosives training day!
157. See the Grand Canyon
158. Be in 4 states at once
159. Walk across a bed of hot coals
160. Lay on a bed of nails
161. Set myself on fire (safely)
162. Go on top of table mountain in Africa
163. Ride a camel – During a business trip to Israel in Febraury, 2015 I rode a camel named “Rocky” just ourside the old city of Jerusalem
164. Ride an elephant
165. Paul vault
166. Fight a bull
167. Be arrested – While volunteering with the Washington County Sheriff’s office in 2014 I was “arrested” during a training drill where I got to play the bad guy
168. See the Sears Tower – December 2010, during a visit to Chicago to see kmy brothers we went to the “Willis” Tower”
169. Visit the House of Blues – December 2010,  stopped in during a trip to Chicago to see my brother

Life Expectantcy vs. Life Experience

100 years ago the average life expectancy for a man was between 40-60 years old with women typically living longer than men. Thanks to advances in medicine, men and woman now live about 20-30 years longer. That’s 50% more life experiences…right?

I never met my great-grandparents however they left a record of their experiences and I it appears they lived a full life. My great-grandparents used to write letters to each other before they were married. In one letter, which is still in the family, my great-grandmother described a grand adventure; taking the horse and buggy to the city market with the family!

I later learned that the distance to the city was less than 20 miles however that was big deal for great-grams. She wrote about how fresh the air was, how nice other people were and how she enjoyed the assortment of goods available to her. She was super stoked just to get some groceries!

Now image if you will that every event in life can be ranked on a scale from 1-10 and at the end of your life you receive a life experience score. A total “life-score” that quantifies the trials, tribulations, happiness, sadness, love and adventure you experience in your lifetime. Image that at the end of life’s journey you could compare your life-score with other people who have passed on. How would your score compare? I would guess that my great-grandmother’s trip to market over 100 years ago would rank near a 10 on her life-experience scale but that a 20-mile trip to the grocery store for most people today would be a burden, more like a 3.

Think about how the trip would have gone 100 years ago. People probably talked the whole way to the market and back. When they reached the market they probably spoke to the vendors in a courteous manner and shared some stories. Before they left perhaps they got a treat, like rock candy or ice cream, and sat down to enjoy it as a family.

Now compare that to today. We drive to the store, quickly pull into the parking spot nearest the door, head inside, grab a cart, and hurry to get past the slower shoppers. Don’t talk to anyone except the guy at the meat counter so he knows how many cuts to make or maybe just grab some pre-packaged meat because it’s faster. Get to the cashier, exchange a common hollow greeting, pay, get out and go home. How am I doing? Pretty close?

That same trip could have been turned into a life experience instead of a hassle. What if we chose a local farmer’s market instead of the grocery store? What if you walk instead of drive? Perhaps we could call a friend and sync our grocery shopping so we can chat while going through the isles. The options are plentiful if we just make an effort to get more out of life. Let’s not speed through life and miss the everyday blessings.

What’s the benefit of living longer if we’re getting less utility out of life? I imagine that the life-score of people 100 years ago would be higher than most people’s life-score score today. I would rather live 40 years and die with an average life-score near 9.5 than live 100 years and finish with a 6.2. I don’t know how long I have but I know that if I try to experience 10’s in everything I do then it won’t matter where the finish line is. I’ll have experienced life and not simply passed through it. My goal in life is not to finish rather I make it my mission to enjoy the ride.

Life. It’s not a Game.

Game of Life

We all wonder, at times, what we are supposed to be doing during our 100 years or less on this planet.

If anyone over 100 is reading this I admire your embrace of technology and please take no offense to my assumption that you should be dead by now.

Some people  try to amass as much money as possible, other choose to enjoy the many influences this world has to offer. In my pondering of what I should do I have decided to look at life, humans and purpose on the most basic level.

I have heard some people look back on their life and have common regrets:

– Not spending enough time with family/kids

– Not keeping in touch with friends/family

– Not living healthier – Working too much

– Not telling someone how they feel

These all seem to have a common theme; human interaction. The regrets that are not immediately linked to human interaction affect the length of time one could spend engaged in human interaction. If you take a purely self-centered approach to living you could deduce that you should spend your life doing only those things that bring you pleasure. This could be in the form of intercourse, drugs, adventure, harm to others, drinking or many other stimulants. If you had a weak or non-existent conscience this could lead to a very experienced life and likely a short one. But, as we all know, this is not what many people want for their lives.

Life comes down to a series of experiences. You make friends, you experience a range of emotions, you see or hear or feel or taste or smell or listen to many different things, your memory stores the best and worst of these and blurs up the rest. The undesirable times that many people can relate to include boredom, pain and work.

It seems to me that the point of all this is to maximize the positive interactions and lessen the undesired outcomes.  Now that I have stated the most obvious truth possible and just before you decide to stop reading, answer this question. If you died today, what would you regret?

Revisit the list above, perhaps it is included there or perhaps you have other regrets. What are you doing now to maximize your positive experiences and minimize regrets? Why is this article so simple but still applies to all of us? I almost stopped writing this article half way through but realized I need this as much as anyone else. REMINDER: You will die some day, you are not promised tomorrow, start doing whatever it is that you need to do today.

For more fitness lifestyle advice and weekly fitness podcasts visit www.elementaryfitness.com

What will be your legacy?

What will be your legacy?

When I was 17 someone asked me what my legacy was going to be. No one had ever asked me this before and honestly I never contemplated what people would think about me after I was dead.

The question was posed by a franchise company who allowed me to operate a painting business using their name and resources. They gave examples of business icons such as Ray Crock and Bill Gates while uncovering that there was nothing drastically different from those icons and myself.

Ever since then I have approached business and the decisions I make with the mindset that what I do today will be come my legacy tomorrow. From the time I spend with my family to the way I treat other people, all of it must pass through the legacy filter.

Some of the best advice I have been given is to remember that when you die your inbox will not be empty. You will always have one more thing that you can do but having your priorities in order will help you decide if you should.

I’ve heard responsible, organized professionals refer to this as “time management” but I would like to point out that time does not respond well to management. I’m pretty sure time has gone on at the same pace since it began and that there is no one that can tell it what to do. Instead the correct, however trivial, term is more appropriately “priority management”. All the successful people of the word got there by using 24 hour days and 7 day weeks. A conversely cold observation is that the less successful people of the world used the same amount of time.

There is no right or wrong answer to the question there is only those with a purpose and those without. What will be your legacy?

Living on Purpose- Don’t Settle

Movie- The Bucket List

When I was 13 I starting writing a list of all the things I wanted to do in my lifetime. In 2007 a movie starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman came out with this same idea and lists of this nature are now referred to as “Bucket Lists”.

The two terminally ill patients in this movie create lists which include some of the same goals I have on my list. I, however, never limited myself to “realistic” goals. Some of my loftier goals include traveling to space and walking on the moon. With Virgin Galactic’s constant progress these goals may soon be very attainable. (http://www.virgingalactic.com/)

Why is it that so many people can dream so big as children and then settle for so little when they grow older? It’s not a matter of resources, especially in the United States! Immigrants come here (you know…the land of opportunity) to make their fortunes and live free. Why are so many “privileged” people so unhappy in a country that offers so much? Because we settle. We settle for less than our best, for less than our full potential, for the standard and we let every other person in that same predicament drag us back down if we start to get too ambitious.

A personal hero of mine, Dave Ramsey, gives this excellent example of how people settle.

– A group of monkeys were locked in a room with a pole in the center. Some luscious, ripe bananas were placed on the top of the pole. When a monkey would begin to climb the pole, the experimenters would knock him off with a blast of water from a fire hose. Each time a monkey would climb, off he would go, until all the monkeys had been knocked off repeatedly, thus learning that the climb was hopeless. The experimenters then observed that the other primates would pull down any monkey trying to climb. They replaced a single monkey with one who didn’t know the system. As soon as the new guy tried to climb, the others would pull him down and punish him for trying. One by one, each monkey was replaced and the scene repeated until there were no monkeys left in the room that had experienced the fire hose. Still, none of the new guys were allowed to climb. The other monkeys pulled them down. Not one monkey in the room knew why, but none were allowed to get the bananas. Story from The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey Pg. 19-20

In another post I will discuss my 30 day challenges that will be called, “Be a Better…”. These are basically an excuse to cross off some goals on my list while inspiring readers to go out and do something now. Stop waiting for the perfect moment. Go out and make some progress right now towards whatever makes you happy! No more waiting for the stars to align, your life is in your hands. So start living…on purpose

Can a Deal Be Too Sweet?

Too Sweet is Bad for Business

Everybody likes a bargain, right? The answer is yes but a low sticker price is not a clear indication of the best deal. I once lost a customer because of my failure to demand a quality price for my quality service.

I used to operate a small landscaping business in the Pacific Northwest and I serviced several hundred properties per year. I landed a majority of my bids (usually 8 out of 10) in large attribution to my rates. However, I had a few customers complain about the length of time I spent on their jobs in relation to the amount I charged them. Some felt I was not charging enough. After much contemplation I separated every customer’s reflections into three categories.

1) Buyers Remorse: This common phrase is usually applied after someone purchases an item on a whim or does not receive the utility they anticipated from a purchased product or service. This emotion can keep the customer from purchasing again and is damaging to your business.

2) Buyers Appreciation: The ideal outcome is that your customer walks away completely satisfied with your product or service and tells a lot of people about their experience. These customers are like compound interest because they produce even more customers.

3) Buyers Guilt: The feeling you get when you know a deal is weighted heavily in your favor and nearly unfair to the other party. Some people are numb to this feeling but most people understand that a healthy transaction is one where both parties mutually benefit. If a deal is truly “too good” and not just a cheap product then the customer may feel they are taking advantage of your good or service.

Most of us are in business to make money and it makes sense to collect a profit for our hard work. Don’t let your customer walk away feeling like a thief, a true patron wants to see you succeed and does not like the thought helping you lose money. Do yourself, and your customers, a favor and charge what your worth or your customer may go to a competitor that does.