When you have a dream, nothing really is impossible

"Most visitors to Antarctica go to see the penguins and the glaciers. Ashrita Furman went to hop on a pogo stick.

"Mr. Furman, seeking to break the Guinness World Record for the fastest mile on a pogo stick, jumped up and down a landing strip on the Antarctic tundra in 2003. "The conditions were pretty hard," says the 56-year-old New Yorker, noting that extreme temperatures caused his pogo stick to freeze up midway through the event. He nevertheless completed the feat in 17 minutes, 45 seconds, setting the world record.

"It was just another day in the life of Mr. Furman, who holds the ultimate Guinness world record: The record for Guinness world records...

You can read the rest of this amazing real-life adventurebolt story at the Wall Street Journal article by Jilian Mincer:

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Be honest, do you talk to yourself? Here are some things to talk to yourself about:

When the mind is thinking it is talking to itself. - Plato

Thinking can be incredibly hard work, which is why most people probably don't spend a lot of time doing it. Yet proper thinking can launch you in all sorts of directions, if you are willing to sit down first and decide which things are the most important things for you to do. So what should you be "talking to yourself" about?

Prioritizing

Most things in life can be properly accomplished if we simply take the time to figure out which stuff is really the most important things to be doing. Normally, we live in a reactive state, and simply react to situations and emergencies around us. But by thinking about priorities, you can line everything up proactively. While this will not completely eliminate unexpected events, you will be surprised at the amount of accomplishments that become attainable.

Goal setting

Yuk, sounds awful, doesn't it? But setting goals are extremely important to achieving anything, otherwise, what is there to achieve? You should have several long term goals (2-5 years), several mid-range goals (6 months-2 years), and several more immediate goals (now to 6 months). By reviewing these goals on a regular basis, you will begin crafting your life in the direction you would like to see it go.

Ways to positively impact others

If you haven't already heard, the things that really matter involve others in your life, whether that's family relationships, friends, co-workers, customers. (But of course you already knew that because you just spent time getting your priorities straight). What are some ways you can positively impact others? If you try to think of ways ahead of time, you're more likely to do it. Can you give advice? Share inspiration? Help around the house? Volunteer a night once a month? Mentor/teach others on specific skills you have? These are things that have lasting value, and lasting impact on those who are most important to you.

So how does it feel to talk to yourself? (Your own voice sounds weird, doesn't it?) Well, I think you'll find that if you take the time to listen to the voice of your thinking, you have the potential to become very good friends with yourself, and be much more productive.

How to plan to succeed in three simple (but not necessarily easy) steps:

If we have a desire to be successful in anything, be it friendships, family, personal budgets, home maintenance, study and learning, or any other objective, we have to realize there is a measure of planning necessary to achieve progress.

One of the adventurebolt insights that I have recently been able to see immediate benefits of, is an increase in intentional planning, even each day. Over the past few weeks, I have been going in to the office early to just look at tasks that need to be accomplished, prioritize them, and then set them up on a simple checklist to be crossed off as they are done. Simple? Yes. Easy? Not really.

For example, take a few moments to think of what projects you may be wanting to do around the house that you have had in mind for awhile, but never really got around to doing.

1) First, write down all the projects or activities you need to do, as many as you can think of in five minutes.

2) Then, prioritize them according to which one should be accomplished first, second and so on. DON'T make the mistake of prioritizing them according to which ones you would PREFER to start on, as opposed to which ones SHOULD be accomplished first. This is a big lesson in disciplining yourself to do things you don't want to do, but that need to be done anyway. To be fair to yourself, if there is no urgency between several items on your list, then allow yourself to put them in an order you would prefer, but then STICK TO THE LIST.

3) Then, DO NOT MOVE ON TO THE NEXT ITEM UNTIL YOU CAN CROSS OFF THE CURRENT ONE. This is critical. It's so simple, but it can be the most difficult aspect to do. Force yourself to follow this principle. Do not allow yourself to get distracted by lesser issues or interruptions. If you do get off track or interrupted, don't continue with anything else until you go back and finish your current item.

This whole process takes time. There is a measure of planning that should go into each day. If time is more valuable than money (as I have mentioned elsewhere), why do we carelessly "spend" it without any planning? What I like about this insight is that the benefits of this process can be realized immediately, and with continued practice, the benefits increase with each success.

If you know where you're going, you'll eventually get there. (Duh.) 3 steps to make it real:

As simple as this is sounds, believe me, most people I know haven't figured it out yet. Still they wonder why "things never turn out," or why they always seem to be struggling just to survive in what amounts to a destructive relationship or a dead-end job.

Here's the principle: you will attain what you focus on most intently. If that's the paycheck at the end of the week, then that's what you'll get. If it's the quick, temporary fix of potential relationship breakdown, then that's what you'll get.

However, if you want to really begin to make bigger, longer-lasting changes in your life, then you will have to begin to focus on the bigger, long-lasting things, instead of the immediate things, to make them real.

1. Define what you really want your life to be. This can be tough, but it needs to be done thoughtfully. Just saying something like, "I want to be rich" doesn't cut it. Take some time to do some soul-searching and begin to define some things: What does "rich" mean...a new house...a new car? What things do I enjoy doing? What things am I passionate about?

2. Define what are you willing to give to attain your new lifestyle. What service or benefit can you provide to others to become "rich" if that's your goal, or to live the lifestyle you enjoy? What value are you willing to contribute to individuals to make yourself more valuable? How can I earn a living at doing those things that I enjoy doing? How can I help others? Remember, your true value lies in what you give, not what you get.

3. Define the time frame you think it will take to reach your goal, or make some of the changes you have planned. This is probably the hardest thing to gauge, but if you at least plug some sort of date into your plan, you will have a basic goal to shoot for and track towards. Don't worry; you can always revise it later.

Once you have these three basic things defined, even if it's just a rough draft at this point, you are now on your way to your new lifestyle! You will exhibit more confidence, because you now have an over-arching life plan. This will have immediate effects on your life right now, and may even open new doors for you as you follow your plan.

Maybe you'll see that your current job really is a dead-end job, and you can then begin taking steps to move closer to your goal career. Maybe you'll see that some of your "friends" really are causing destructive tendencies in your life, and it's time to move on. Conversely, you may find that some of your friends will actually stick with you through thick or thin, and these are the trusted people you need around you for support.

Just remember, it's a great plan but it's not written in stone; it's in your mind and your attitude, and you can adjust it at anytime to take advantage of opportunities that arise from your new-found confidence and poise.

And best of all, now that you know where you're going, you will eventually get there.

"All it takes is the going..."

Having recently watched the classic movie "Lawrence of Arabia," I was struck by the fanatical zeal of T.E Lawrence, the character played by Peter O'Toole . While much of his idealism was contagious to those around him, it demonstrated the folly of thinking one is invincible in the pursuit of an ideal.

There is much talk today about simply believing enough in your dream to make it happen, or visualizing the result to bring it to reality. Even in the movie, when Lawrence is confronted with the challenge to cross a foreboding stretch of desert to reach the city of Aqaba for a surprise military attack, he demonstrates a glimmer of this mentality.

As he tries to convince his Arab counterpart Ali (played by Omar Sharif) of how this can be accomplished, he grabs Ali by the arm, walks him out of the tent, and points across the desert. "Aqaba lies in that direction," he says to Ali. "All it takes is the going."

Indeed, from a motivational standpoint, that is a great way to view goals and objectives: all it takes is the going. But sometimes, the going takes everything you have, and that is the reality side of idealism.

Coincidentally, I also recently finished reading the book "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer; the true story of a young idealist, Christopher McCandless, who determines to live off the land in the Alaska wilderness in pursuit of a life-long dream. While he was in pursuit of his dream, and was living it in the lifestyle choices he made, it ultimately cost him his life when it overwhelmed his physical ability to provide for his nutritional needs.

The accomplishment of your goal or objective therefore hinges on two critical things: the ability for you to clearly identify your destination (as Aqaba), and your ability to persevere in that objective until it is accomplished (to cross a desert that could possibly take your life). That is the risk side of any objective, and the true adventure lies in the unknown factor of the outcome during the process.

This is what truly fuels the spirit: the pursuit of that adventurebolt which beckons to the deepest desires, and a life crafted around this purpose.

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