Head over to www.whitneyljames.com for the real experience. Over there, I can do things like center the image below and have it actually work. For those of you who want to follow along here, I'll still be posting.
When I was 13, I mucked stalls in exchange for horseback rides and what I’m pretty sure was less than half of minimum wage. When I was 16, I got down on my hands and knees and cleaned the floor of the back room in Starbucks, because it was in the job description. When I was 18, I spent hours on backbreaking hours trimming hedges in the yard by hand, in exchange for my parents being so kind to house me. When I was 22, I went back to work on a ranch and mucked more horse shit. And I loved it.
Are you willing to get dirty? Are you willing to do what it takes to be responsible, accountable, and independent? Ashton Kutcher posted a now-viral video in which he shared his real name, talked about being sexy, and said some earth shattering things that floated over at least half the heads in his audience.
“Opportunity looks a lot like work.”
When you are willing to work, you develop values. Morals. A backbone. You develop a sense of real life and exactly what it takes to accomplish anything. It takes a willingness to act, a sense of humility, and it will leave you with irreplaceable dignity and respect for both yourself and for every working individual you run into from now till the end of time. I like to think I’m employed today because of the lessons I learned with a poop pick in my hand. And if I ever had to, I’d be more than happy to pick it up again.
Kids think they know everything. Even as a complete daddy’s girl, I was no exception. Growing up in Washington state with my dad at the helm of my childhood weekends, I was an adventurer: A hiker, a biker, a camper and a world-class marshmallow roaster. We fished and we canoed. There were pancakes and sleeping bags. The tent smelled funny but I knew it was because it was a part of history— some special item that Dad carried through time with him.
It takes a special type of person to realize life is worth living, and it’s worth living well. Exactly what “well” means is open to interpretation, but at least a few insightful individuals (e.g. Thoreau and myself) would call it “awake”. It all comes down to those moments of clarity and bursting insight, when you blink your eyes and realize, oh hey – being alive is pretty great. It’s a beautiful mix of mental vision and awareness of physical self, and aside from using some exotic mix of drugs, is really hard to find. Here are some tried and true approaches that, while fleeting, will at least give you a toned butt.
If you have five minutes:
-Do a somersault. You’re guaranteed to snap out of the mental quicksand you’ve been sinking into, for at least 20 seconds. Extra points if you do one in the office.
-Stare at yourself in the mirror. And have actual thoughts. One-on-one time with yourself is something overlooked in today’s tech-saturated culture. Do it until it stops freaking you out.
-Blow loudly into a harmonica in a quiet room. Speaking from experience, this is one of the best ways to wake up mentally and wake the entire apartment complex.
-Stand on your head. People need to get upside-down more often. Fresh perspective aside, the rush of blood to your head is going to give you a sweet boost.
-Sign up for something that makes you want to throw up. Lululemon says to do something every day that scares you, and they’re definitely on to something.
If you have 120 minutes:
-Do the thing you signed up for that makes you want to throw up. Jump off a cliff, out of an airplane, run a 10K, speak in front of a crowd. Don’t throw up.
-Do some kind of endurance sport that produces a lot of endorphins. Don’t known what endorphins are? Push harder. You’ll find out.
-Drink alone and have deep thoughts while listening to loud, soulful music. A recently trending infographic said beer produces creativity. Wait till they figure out what wine does!
-Research a new topic*. Want to learn how to use a map and compass? Want to figure out how to change the oil in your car? Find something that will make you feel both ambitious and accomplished.
-Read something you’re passionate about*. Let the philosophy flowww, bra.
-Make a list of something, bucket or otherwise. Name how many National Parks you’ve visited. Remember five cool memories from childhood. Brainstorm what you need to do to achieve your goals. Put simply, get to know yourself.
-Plan an extravagant trip. You know you’ve been dreaming of something you’ll probably never be able to afford, and that’s OK. Map it out from start to finish with all your pit-stops and photo-ops. Dream on, dreamer.
*You aren’t self-aware when under the hood of your car or deep into Emerson. Awake-ness comes after.
1. Brain power. Remember when you had to memorize phone numbers, and things like spelling? If you forgot the directions to your destination, you were up a creek. If you forgot the code to the garage door, you were momentarily homeless. If you forgot something like the founding date of your country, you were embarrassed (and rightly so). Now that we can fact check everything at the touch of a touchscreen, memory takes a back seat. It goes without saying this is hardly a perk.
2. Time to think. Time alone. Time to evaluate, deconstruct, examine. Socrates was on to something when he said the unexamined life is not worth living. Turn everything off, get alone, and put down the ice cream. If you’re bored in five minutes, you’ve got some work to do. Being alone with your thoughts won’t only make you happier in the long run – it’s also a sign of maturity.
3. Self reliance. This is the one getting headlines. From unqualified individuals in the backcountry overusing emergency beacons to the general population not knowing which way is North, it’s getting out of control. You’ve got a head on your shoulders and it’s not meant to rely on the safety net of the Internet and satellite connections (or tax payer dollars*).
4. A sense of wonder. Imagination. Curiosity. How hot is the campfire? How many stars in the night sky? How did these mountains come to be? Why does my bug bite feel so good to scratch? All of these things could be answered in less than 30 seconds, but that’s not the point. Sometimes not knowing is.
Go ahead, run through a sprinkler. Do a somersault (completely unrelated). Get lost in the words of a book. Enjoy the view and resist the urge to Instagram it. Take a second to enjoy yourself, here in the real world.
*I warned you about the poorly disguised political undertones.
Mountain biking. You’re flying down a hill, hanging your ass out over your seat, kind of wondering if your bike is going to skid out or otherwise disappear from under you. But really, there’s no time to wonder. There’s only time to open your eyes as big as you possibly can and try to take in the trail before it takes you.
This might not be everyone’s experience with the descent on a ride. But it was definitely my experience last weekend during my first mountain bike race at the GoPro Mountain Games in Vail, Colorado. Eighteen women in matching, brand-happy jerseys and shiny clip-ins awaited me at the start line. I naturally showed up in tennis shoes and designer sunglasses on the only hardtail in sight. All shits to the wind, I decided I might as well go down looking like the rookie I was.
Ten minutes later I was in second place charging up Vail Ski Mountain. I live in Boulder, but at almost 9,000 feet, it burned so good. I was beginning to think my obnoxious yellow helmet was lucky, until we hit the downhill. I knew the climb would be my race but I didn’t expect the terror of the single-track. Cue an unexplainable weakness in my arms and saucer-vision. Let’s just say I both nailed things I never would’ve dreamed of and jumped off my bike to run, on my own two legs, down a series of switchbacks. Right in front of the pro photographer. At one point, several 12-year-old boys in spandex flew past, leaving the trail an inescapable cloud of dust I had no choice but to eat.
At the last turn I amiably chatted it up with a totally unsupportive older racer who gave me nothing more than a grunt. Must’ve been from sea level. With nowhere to go but down, I passed him and at the corner got off my bike, picked it up, turned it 180˚ and rode in for a fourth place finish. I had never been so confused or so thirsty for a beer.
The wise words of Cory Morrow have never been so ironic. I’ve been having a six-month battle with perspective, and I really wish it weren’t lasting quite as long. Normally I flip the cap off my pen and pound out a one pager that, whether or not it should, gets published the next day unchanged. Not this one. This one really sucks. Maybe because I’m trying to solve an impossible problem – how to gain perspective. Ahead of time, not after you’ve gone through that whole “trial and error” thing.
Remember when coffee tasted gross? You thought it was this magical drink that gave adults some kind of super power you didn’t really need (i.e. waking up), but were naturally curious about. Then one day you got your hands on a cup of the stuff and just about spit out your first sip. Ah, perspective.
So what do we do? How do we know coffee tastes kind of like dirt before we taste it, or that your new guy isn’t any better than dirt until we’ve learned the hard way? It’s got to be some combination of instinct and caution, which is kind of like good judgment.
The best example of how to gain some perspective before it’s due is obviously Back to the Future. And when you think about it, the Doc had it all figured out. You shouldn’t mess with things before they unwind the way they’re supposed to. I guess in the end you’ll never know until you hit 1.21 gigawatts, and I guess maybe that’s the point.
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