Every once in a while I go on a reading rampage. In fact, for a three month stretch during my last year in college, I was consistently reading four to six books per week (non course work related) and regularly checked out 15-20 books at a time from the library. In fact, it was a bit of an unhealthy obsession—and I felt quite consumed by my addiction to knowledge.

I’m able to read pretty quickly because of a speed reading technique my dad taught me years ago that he learned while in the US Air Force Academy.

A couple months ago, I was on one of my reading rampages and went to one of The University of Texas libraries (they have an amazing collection books and honestly, it’s kinda neat to be in there and know that you’re one of the ONLY people in there reading for leisure) and found a bunch of books that facsinated me. I plopped down for a long while and read them all, taking notes of the most memorable passages from each book. Here’s an AMAZING quote from one of them:

Thoughts are cold, but feelings are warm, alive and vital. So don’t “think” I am strong. Feel it! Stir up your nature to its depth until you can really feel you are indeed strong and possessed of the radiant energy of mentative force. - Mind Power: The Secret of Mental Magic by William Walker Atkinson.

This was the quote that inspired me to have the realization that I wrote on previously: Clarity is feeling, not thinking

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN_4EZMYf-E

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LAuzT_x8Ek

So many people live within un-happy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism , all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a person than a secure future. The very basic core of a persons living spirit is their passion for adventure . The joy of life comes from our encounters with the new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty. -- Christopher McCandless, Into the Wild

Food for thought…chew on that.

]]> http://www.bornentrepreneur.com/2010/07/12/damaging-your-adventurous-spirit-with-a-secure-future/feed/ 0 http://www.bornentrepreneur.com/2010/07/12/viva-la-backpacker/ http://www.bornentrepreneur.com/2010/07/12/viva-la-backpacker/#comments Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:15:46 +0000 David H Walker http://www.bornentrepreneur.com/?p=105

I was going through some old papers when I came across a page I literally ripped out of a magazine while I was traveling in Australia from a couple years ago. from the article:  today’s backpacker is no longer a “worthless, party-addicted wanderer, roaming Australia in a Combie Van.”

If there were no limitations or consequences, what would your perfect average day look like?

I learned an interesting visualization technique after watching a video taped speech from the uber internet marketer, Frank Kern. He shared what worked for him to help him realize his ideal future. His words were so impactful to me, that it encouraged me to do exactly as he did.

The key is every day – you could do this stuff every day and not die or get sick of it. Many people visualize their future in order to help it come true. However, in order to fully realize that future, it’s important that you don’t just visualize the physical things like that fancy car you want to drive, but also how driving it makes you feel, what you’re thinking about as you’re driving it, what music you listen to while you’re driving, who’s in the car with you, etc. The more detailed you can get, the more your mind’s eye can begin to piece it all together and realize how possible it is.

I’ve been visualizing my perfect, average day in great detail, from waking up in the morning to going to bed at night. I’ve been writing it all down in detail on a sketch pad about 36″ x 18″. I never expected to write as much as I have so far. In fact, I’ve been working on it for weeks and am only up to 12:30pm. It’s a very surprisingly difficult process, actually.

Photo 1 – Here’s a photo of me working on it while I was in my backyard on my picnic table. This is after having just started, so I haven’t filled up that much space.

Photo 2 – A close up – it reads, “in the future…a day in the life of davidhwalker, if i had to live this day over and over again, what day would make me happy”:

Photo 3 – I moved inside and wrote quite a bit more. I just kept going and going…was an immense amount of fun, actually! :

Note: what you see at the bottom is the word “SLEEP.” Before I had started, I had assumed that I would be able to do the entire visualize from “AWAKE” to sleep on that one page. In fact, at the point that I’ve finished writing in this photo, I’m only up to 10:30am. Didn’t realize how detailed I was going to get, but the more detailed I got, the more real it became, and the more my mind’s eye was beginning to accurately take a grasp of what my future can be.

Photo 3: This is where I am currently–page 2 (I was able to fill up the entire first page before going to page 2). I’m a bit stuck and find myself writing a new sentence every few days. But at this time I’ve having a hard time visualizing what my perfect, average day will be like after 12:30pm. I know what it will begin to look like around 6pm, but for some reason, I’m having a hard time filling that gap.

Here’s a list of some of the questions that guided me along the way. Remember, the key is don’t think about stuff—think about experience. our experiences help shape our identity.

1. Where would you live?
2. What would your house look like?
3. What time would you wake up?
4. What would I do in the morning? Think about? First words of the day?
5. what would i have for breakfast
6. what does the mundane stuff look like – what you’re thinking about, etc
7. what would you spend the first half of your day doing
8. what would you have for lunch
9. who eat with
10. what would your friends be like
11. what would you do for personal fulfillment
12. what life purpose would i strive for
13. what would your business be
14. what time would you start work
15. what would actually do at work?
16. what is your relationship like
17. what would you do for family time
18. what would you have for dinner
19. where would you eat
20. who would you eat with
21. what would you talk about
22. what would you do at night
23. who would you do it with
24. what would your thoughts be as you went to sleep
25. etc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=21mpQQ9COD4

Two days in a row now that I’ve woken up super early. The first time it happened (4am) I thought it was a fluke because of a misaligned body clock, but when I woke up naturally this morning at 5am I realized, perhaps my body is so anxious to “get things done” that I’m jettisoning myself out of bed.

Some people claim that my trip to Australia should be a time of disconnecting and total relaxation. In my opinion, though, that is an old-school escapist vacation mentality. I LOVE my job. I am enamored by the work I get to do, and get paid for, so “disconnecting” for me is not a fun thing to do. I don’t need/want to “escape” from anything, even while I’m traveling.

In terms of workflow a few things I’ve learned thus far:

• very important to get through emails and to-do items just as always. I remember yesterday morning as I was leaving for the day to explore Sydney I had this pain in my gut because I was not taking my laptop with. It was kind of funny as Katrina knew it too. However, it wasn’t because I’m addicted to being connected, it’s because I’m addicted to extinguishing open loops. I had a lot of open loops that morning, despite my waking at 4am. Mainly because I was going through an inbox of 150 emails due to about 72hrs of non-processing—and still didn’t finish. And mainly because I was trying to get through them all–mistake! Point learned: Prioritizing emails responses and to do items is a MUST when traveling.
• I’ve accepted now that I’m not going to be able to do as much as I could before when I was working 8-10hr days. Now, I’m trying to squeeze it all into one 3-4hr block in the morning and a 1hr or so block of casual social networking in the evening. This is forcing me to be okay with not quite being SO responsive to everyone. It’s okay to let a few email fall through, as long as I put them in my to-do list to reply to them later. The anxiety of leaving for the day for exploration is not because of the low priority open loops. It’s because of the high-priority ones, those that I didn’t get a chance to get to because I was focusing too much on the lower ones. So I’m learning priority-level discipline–albeit forced, so that I don’t have that pain in my gut when I leave for the day without my laptop.
• Web based tools. Keeping the clutter low on this little computer is a must, mainly because the hard drive is so small – 12gig. But in all actuality, this is a blessing. I like not having a bunch of applications installed on here—it’s almost like a mental cleansing. I’ve been using Google Docs quite a bit and also instead of installing programs I try and find an web based alternative. For example I always like keeping track of my time I spend doing tasks. This is mainly because when I get into my flow, I totally lose track of time and then find myself frustrated with how many hours I focused on something that was low priority. I’ve been using Online Stopwatch instead of my usual Multitrack Stopwatch. In all honesty, it’s just a small file to download, and I could install it, but it just feels good NOT to.
• Not having a means to digitally capture my life as usual is tough. I normally use twitter and facebook mobile throughout the day to catalog my ongoings. This is impossible here, though, as international rates are a pain with my current cell phone plan. I might change it, but maybe it’s a good thing to challenge myself here. Not sure. It is getting me to blog more after all and post  facebook photos.
• Brainstorming increases dramatically when out of the element. All day—TONS of ideas. Wow, can’t even explain. Just being exposed to so many different elements that only being in a foreign environment can provide is quite breathtaking. My brain impressed me. If anything, that’s a reminder to everyone that we still have the faculties to brainstorm like always, but perhaps we’ve forgotten the path to that synergy. Or perhaps the pathway has changed over the years, it’s just a matter of tapping into it in a new way.

That’s all for now. I’m going to work on a miniature version of a weekly review so that I can make sure that I’m not overlooking anything crucial on my to do list. Lookign forward to it as today will be an AMAZING day of exploration if I can be sure to have closed all open loops. No more anxiety, hopefully.

Sometimes it takes hearing something that takes your breath away to make you second guess yourself about how you measure success.

I encourage you to reevaluate what you’re trying to do in life by looking at the end goal of it all. Is your end goal really money? Or is it simply just happiness and you’ve brainwashed yourself to think that as soon as you get enough money you’ll finally have the time to be happy? I know it seems like hackneyed idea, but really dig deep and ask yourself “what the hell am I doing?!”

I remember several years ago I read a business book that interviewed one particular successful business man and he said the secret to his success was his wife and family. What? I read that at 21, and I thought “what a load of crap.” He said his wife’s support and love for him helped him through the toughest times and allowed him to strive for the highest peaks. Honestly, I thought he was kind of pathetic. I had always subscribed to the thought that “I don’t have time for a serious relationship. I may never get married because I wouldn’t be able to dedicate enough time to the relationship to make it work. I certainly won’t ever have kids—it’s the sacrifice I need to make in order to be ’successful’.” I look back on that mentality and realize how ignorant I was. I was totally missing the point of it all—”it” being life.

It’s not going to be here forever, so embrace every aspect of life that you have already attained–your family, your friends, your significant other, the success in your business thus far. In fact, you might be surprised to find out how successful you already are and that you’re not doing so bad after all. Once that gives you a mental confidence boost, you also might start to realize that the money part might just get a little bit easier and not seem so daunting.

Don’t neglect the loves in your life. Because that’s what got you here. And that’s what’s going to get you to the next step too.

lot’s of good developments in my business endeavors. Was just jamming out to the Killers “All these things that I’ve done” after I received what could be a MONUMENTAL email in my inbox for a very large retail store to carry a selection of some of our t-shirts. Not only that, but I’ve received a couple very flattering emails lately that make me feel like all my networking is really paying off. People are starting to notice that I’m out there working my butt off doing lot’s of stuff, and they’re starting to come to me for advice, and business development type situations…very cool. And then there’s the fact that I just got some great publicity in the “green issue” of Austin Monthly (i just picked it up today actually at Whole Foods)….what an honor to be featured in their mag. It feels so great to see the brand name of my company and a photo of our products in a high quality printed magazine…we’ve gotten lot’s of publicity in online publications, but it’s a totally different feeling to see it in print. This is the first time we’ve been in print since our Daily Texan article a few years ago. Pretty rock’n. What else good as happened??? Going on a business trip this weekend to my first tradeshow. Will be going to the men and women’s apparel market in Dallas with my partner. Especially exciting coming at a time like this. I’m on a high. What else? We’ve almost got our sales rep in Los Angeles up and going. We’ve shipped her business cards, and I just sent her sample tees in the mail today. Super excited to see how that turns out. But I wont’ get my hopes up too much. We have hired 4 sales reps so far and every one of them has flaked. But this particular rep is the most ed experienced we’ve dealt with and we’re paying her a monthly retainer. Excited about the possibilities! What else is good??? Ahhh, so much…what a great feeling.

And then there’s Conjunctured…my other venture. Oh my…it’s moving. We’ve completed almost entirely a business plan…submitted it to a business plan competition, and have been actively having conversations with some pretty badass potential clients. And we’re about to get some wicked office space if all goes as planned…

and then there’s my health…kick’n ass with exercise per my new experiment!

and my relationship with my amazing girlfriend is stronger than ever…it will be 3 years next month— having an amazingly supportive person standing by you all the time, good times and bad…is an amazing feeling.

sorry to get all high on my own self-promotion, but things have been tough lately, so it’s really great to see things really coming together.

Keep all the good stuff coming…

btw, just picked up a new book at the library today…I think I found it at the perfect time.

Does that correlation exist?  At this point, I’m not totally sure.  The inspiration for this post comes from that the fact that over the past several weeks I’ve been doing multiple sets of pushups daily on a regular basis, and because I’m not exactly the most muscular guy in the room, I’ve started to notice quite obvious physical improvement. I can tell it’s working because for one, I’m able to steadily increase the number of pushups I can do, so I know I’m getting stronger. And two, I’m seeing definition in my arms and chest that I haven’t seen since my sophomore year in college when I was going to the gym on a regular basis. And keep in mind, this is all just pushups (mainly because I actually enjoy doing pushups…I always have for some reason).  Probably about just 20/day for 2 weeks. Nothing intense.
So, this where it gets interesting…

Over the past week for just a random reason (to see if I could do it, or maybe it was because I set up Joe’s Goals) I started increasing the difficulty and variety of the exercises. Started doing crunches, squats, and even ran a mile for the hell of it one day (of which I haven’t done for years…I hate running because I think it’s boring).  Here’s the thing, though.  I noticed my business productivity and personal motivation go up a little bit. I’m very aware of my internal self, so when a small amount changes, I notice it big time.  And boy did I notice. The past few days have been incredibly productive, and the best thing is that because my motivation has increased I’m doing the tasks that I’ve been avoiding for a while now, without even thinking twice. I must admit I didn’t expect this at all.

Maybe this seems like old news to you. And in fact, I think I’ve read it before somewhere.  But when you experience it first hand, it’s a bit different.

The key is determining what it is about exercising that has increased my motivation. It could be a number of things:

1. increase in testosterone (i’ve already started to research natural ways to increase testosterone to further increase motivation if this is the culprit)
2. increase in muscle tone has increases my self-confidence and thus my motivation to live life to it’s fullest
3. the presence of the workout routine increases my work routine follow-through
4. something else I’m not thinking of…

I’m going to continue the experiment for a while longer. I wonder if there’s a plateau, or if motivation just continues to go up?  As a personal productivity obsessive and avid lifehacker, this is quite exciting to me! There’s an obvious correlation between personal motivation and business success. Now, the key is finding some way to hack into that extra supply of personal motivation.