First Bonus Life Intervieweeeeeeee
> when did you realize you are living your bonus life?
The concept of a bonus life isn't something I'd considered until recently; even then I've been calling it by other names. "Fail Harder" & "Maximum Enthusiasm" have been mantras for the last two years. I noticed that in stages over the last 5-6 years, I was making major changes without connecting them. I went into a decade-long slump after the death of a loved one, loved the wrong one, and didn't take care of the right ones. One day it clicked and started cutting unhealthy ties to make room for the positive things in life. Since then, I've made steps to change my career, gotten outside of my cushy life, had some great adventures with some awesome people I'm lucky to call friends. I only recently realized that I was doing these things and decided to focus on it.
> what does bonus life mean to you?
It's taking stock of the things that are important, healthy, and that leave me better than they found me and emphasizing those things and nothing else.
Thoreau was pretty good at description: I want "to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms."
> what have you done in your bonus life that you are psyched about?
Earlier this spring I set an 8-year old's broken arm at 3 AM in an emergency room. A month later I was in Haiti helping build a walker for a little girl. She was a patient whose progress I'd followed for over a year; she went from being bedridden to standing up in front of me.
Athletically, I've done the TransRockies Run (a 6-day running stage race in the rockies), Ironman USA, a 50 mi running race the day after a 50 k, won some long adventure races, and run across the Grand Canyon twice for my birthday. I like adventures, even if they're a bit decadent and purely selfish.
> what things do you want to do?
This year I'll run Leadville Trail 100 (a 100-mi race over 10,000' in elevation), learn some Spanish, and quit my research career to pursue medical school. I'd like to learn how to do a handstand too.
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> what is/are your favorite bonus life philosophy/ies?
Fail Harder. There's no substitute for putting yourself way out there, even if you fall. You'll bounce.
