Every superhuman has their creation story. Whether it's escaping the 9-5, practicing 30 days in a row of Bikram yoga, or discovering they have the power to manifest money in their sleep. The stories all lead to the same place: a new way of looking at the world.
For three years, I did what I was told. I woke up every morning, I ate a bacon egg and cheeses, and I surrendered to a system that I'd been told was going to take care of me. For a moment I actually believed that. I built a life around a job that interested me in some ways, and I found ways to make the job interesting in other ways.
Then one day I woke up and realized it was all a dream.
I hate blasting to the past, so I'm not going there. The story is boring at this point anyway, and looks pretty much like any 9-5 escape plan. One day, I decided I had enough, I walked in and said that I quit. Then I booked a ticket to the other side of the country, I threw all of my stuff in a bag, and started a journey that would lead to a point where I could see the system from the other side.
This article is about finding little ways to test your autonomy. Simple strategies that you can put into place that will give you a comfortable way of questioning whether you're in a direction that you want to be going.
I hope you'll find this article slightly more interesting than all of the bored and sorry 27 tips to do stupid crap articles that are out on the Internet right now. I hope this will cut through the noise.
(I also hope if you're one of the people who writes boring articles about tips that don't help anyone that you'll stop and realize that the only way we're going to change this world is if we teach people useful information.)
If you already know this stuff, please don't read it. Go freakin' change the world.
1. How to go zombie hunting.
One of the first steps in becoming superhuman is developing the ability to become cognizant of who is for you or against you. I call this Zombie Hunting. The truth is that we live in a world filled with people who are either asleep, given up, tired, or they want to drag you down with them into the sewage of the remnants of the society they wished still existed.
Once you can pick these people out of a crowd, you'll be able to either make the conscious choice to help them, or you can make the choice to leave them behind.
Understand that you can only help so many people individually. I usually try to limit myself to 3 active 1-on-1 zombie rescue projects a year -- once you've been bit, it's difficult to find a cure. The rest of my zombie-hunting resources get directed to scalable means such as blogging, twitter, and Facebook where my efforts can be broadcast from me to a massive audience.
Here's a few ways to identify zombies:
1. They can't make eye contact with you. Their eyes are glazed over, as if they are not present in their body. In fact, they probably aren't in their body at all. Their mind is either dwelling on the painful past of their life, or thinking about a million futures that don't exist yet (and may never.)
2. They look tired, beaten, worn. Zombies are universally tired, all of the time. When you say. "how are you!" and they answer "tired." chances are you're talking to a zombie. I actually told my roommate I was tired a few nights ago, so I'm on full-scale self-zombie alert. Have a been bitten? It's always a risk. The truth is that I was tired because it was 11pm and I'd taught one yoga class, taken two yoga classes, and written for two hours in a coffee shop. Zombies are tired when they roll out of bed in the morning. Why are they tired? Because they eat poorly, they don't get enough exercise, they sit in front of the TV every night, they drive cars, and they can't see a future worth fighting for.
3. They rush everywhere, like someone is chasing them. Have you ever felt like if you didn't run from your house to your car to your job to your desk that someone was going to kill you? Well, you might be a zombie. When you rush things, they get done poorly. Nothing is so important that you need to run to get it, unless you're running for exercise or a zombie is chasing you.
A simple exercise to train yourself to identify zombies:
Go to the mall. Sit on one of those benches that fat people sit on while they try to get their credit cards back into their wallets after they've just spent too money on stuff they didn't need. Make sure this is a bench where you can watch people walk by.
Sit on the bench and breathe. Feel each inhale a little deeper into your stomach, and each exhale a little bit more complete. Begin to focus your attention on the space in which people are moving in front of you.
Blur your vision slightly, so as not to focus on individual characteristics, but instead take in the whole scene. Initially don't judge anyone as zombie or not zombie. In fact, don't allow your judgement to flow into this exercise at all. Just notice.
As you sit in silence, as you watch the chaos around you, all will become apparent.
You will start to see the faces of those who are still alive, trapped within a system that wants to kill them. You'll see that they need to be rescued, that someone needs to show them where to go next. Someone needs to support them while they make this change to a better them.
That person could be you.
2. I think I'm a zombie, help!
Every once in awhile, I get a question from someone who thinks they might be the living dead, and they want to wake up. They say "I feel like I'm dead, I walk around and everything is a blur. I'm tired all of the time, and I wish my life were better."
Here's the thing, dudes and dudettes.** If you think you're dead, chances are that you're not.** Dead people don't think about themselves as being that way. Zombies aren't as self aware as you are, you wouldn't be reading this if you were one.
So, you're in a great place. I wish everyone could feel the way you do, but most of them just keep watching Cable news and eating TV dinners.
There are three simple methods to start to bring yourself into more awareness. These are so simple that anyone can do them. If these three things are boring you, you're doing way more than most people, so give yourself a round of applause then start taking yoga classes every day until you can focus your subtle energy body on achieving world peace with the rest of us. Maybe you need to read an e-book on regaining consciousness?
1. Learn as much as you can.
You know that scene in The Matrix where Tank uploads the helicopter flight manual into Trinity's mind? Well, believe it or not we live in an age where that's possible. One of the best habits you can ever start is to flip on TED.com and start watching talks. It's passive learning that will blow your mind. Set TED to your home screen and start by watching one 15 minute TED talk per day. At the end of one year you will have the equivalent of seventeen P.H.D.'s in awesomeness.
Here are two of my favorite Ted talks right now, to get you closer to the same page as me.
A headset that reads your brainwaves Red pill, blue pill. It's your choice. Swallow it whole -> sign up for free updates via EMAIL or RSS. Follow me on Twitter or become my friend on Facebook (don't friend me if you're a zombie please.)