Turn Your Own Wheels

My life has not been bad up to this year. I was not born in a third world country. I have never seen war. I have never been homeless. On a less dramatic level, I grew up in a happy household. I have always been healthy. I got a good education. I got some ridiculous and hilarious partying in. (I know- you’ve heard all before.) My life from 1984 to 2011 was pretty damn good.

But then 2012 happened. Wow.

I have had such a fantastic year. More so, because it feels like it’s just getting started. This is just the beginning and it’s about to get really good. You have all been reading about my adventures. They have included moving to paradise, exploring paradise, getting an amazing job with a brilliant company, hanging out with my best friend (who is kind of a wonderful person), swimming, learning, practicing yoga, becoming a better speaker, reading mind-altering books, learning, learning, learning, saying thank you, being creative, volunteering, meeting great people, painting pictures, eating well, eating deliciously poorly, and you know, everything else I keep gushing about. Besides that, before I even left Denver, I was happy with my life and my friends and my work. Things have obviously been really good this year.

All those good things are not really the core of the goodness though. Those things are just factors or symptoms of the positive energy I’ve been infected with. I acknowledge that I living in a wonderful place makes life a little better- the same way that while money doesn’t buy happiness, it makes pursuing it a little less stressful (in most situations). So, yes, I’m having a good time because of external factors, but none of these things would matter one damn bit without the mental peace I’ve been developing. I’m not really sure what catalyzed that development. I’ll take some credit in terms of thinking, analyzing life and maturing. I’ll give Shad some credit in terms of the same thing. I give the world and all of its beauty and downright evil for giving me some perspective on the situation at hand. Essentially, I’m saying that I cannot pinpoint the root or the starting point of Project Have a Great Life.

I can, however, confidently say that it has been a slow and iterative process and I’m still early on the path to personal awesomeness. (I almost used the word enlightenment or actualization but those words make me gag a little- not to mention I’m not quite sure what either of them mean. Awesomeness will serve just fine.) Now, being pretty young, this fact may seem obvious to anyone older than me, but I felt that it needed to be stated because we shouldn’t assume that anything is inherently understood. Long story, short: I’m starting to get awesome but I’ll ripen with age.

Really long story, short (or TL;DR for those of you from the internet), 2012 in a nutshell is my attitude and my attitude is this:

1. I lucked out with initial conditions in my life experiment. Those catalyzed continuously optimal conditions.
2. The only important things are the health and happiness of people you love (including yourself).
3. Kindness is critical.
4. Logic is critical.
5. When things don’t go according to my plan, I always learn something new, obtain some other benefit, or it’s so minor I don’t think twice about it.

That’s all I can really think of at the moment. This isn’t necessarily a thought out philosophy, but I think it gets my point across. I have a couple more days to go on my gratitude project. I see trends in the things I focused on, but I plan to run the numbers and share my analysis early next year. Thanks for participating with my positive silliness this year. I’ll try to incorporate more personal drama and angst in 2013.