1) Risk your life. Do something so close to the edge your heart is pounding in your ears and you can taste your life flashing by. (You have to mix it up though. Race cars today, skydive tomorrow, wrestle bears next month. Fear fades with time)
2) Get into shape. Like, really really good shape. The world becomes so full of life it's like it's on fire.
3) Get yourself lost, in the city or in the mountains, with nowhere to go and nothing to do for a day or two. Don't come home until said day or two have passed.
Having done all of those things it just isn't enough and always leaves you wanting more. It's similar to having a customer write you a check (not through some job, but directly to you or your business) for the first time. You want it again and again.
1) Skydived. It was awesome!
2) 4-5 years ago I decided I wanted to be really strong. I can deadlift over 500lbs now.
3) This is a great thing to do, especially by yourself.
If you pick the right activities you can actually hit all 3 at once. A solo wintertime hike of a 14er is perfect (dangerous, physically challenging, lost feeling). A lot of people didn't understand why the CEO who recently died on Everest was on Everest at all. It's because he had to get away from his mundane, which to him was being a successful CEO.
I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center. - Kurt Vonnegut
Note that I'm not listing these things as way to escape mundane-ness, but as ways you can incorporate into your life with some regularity to remind yourself tomorrow is a gift.
P.S. There's more to "in shape" than strong. I was thinking more of the running sort of "in shape" (and the fast kind, not the jog-walk kind). Ramping up the strength of your heart and your running muscles has a very different feeling than bulking up your lifting muscles. If I was to describe the difference, I'd say bulking up made me feel good & more confident, while recovering my running endurance makes me feel like leaping into the air, sprinting up stairs, or running circles in the park with dogs for the sheer joy of it. It doesn't surprise me it feels like that, as I am a believer that we are runners the same way birds are fliers.
You're right. Strength is just what got me started. I play a lot of pick up basketball, surf, snowboard, hike, etc... When it comes to just regular running, 5k is about my limit since it bores me so much :)
The life as a gift thing I totally agree. I've wasted a lot of time as a youngster, and only in my 30s have I realized it. My wife is always telling me I'm too hard on myself (and really who isn't?), but there is so much more I want to accomplish. I really do feel like time is running out, and the squeeze only gets worse when trying to plan for a family.
1) Risk your life. Do something so close to the edge your heart is pounding in your ears and you can taste your life flashing by. (You have to mix it up though. Race cars today, skydive tomorrow, wrestle bears next month. Fear fades with time)
2) Get into shape. Like, really really good shape. The world becomes so full of life it's like it's on fire.
3) Get yourself lost, in the city or in the mountains, with nowhere to go and nothing to do for a day or two. Don't come home until said day or two have passed.