Boldness every day

One of the ways to combat boredom in your life is to do some bold shit every day. Recently I had the opportunity to partake in the Polar Bear Plunge in Sea Isle City New Jersey. The day of the trip, I woke up sick. I had to wrestle with either going through with the trip and plunging in the freezing ocean while sick or calling my friend to tell him I’m sick and not going.

When given the choice between doing something bold, and not doing something bold, do something bold!

When I was in high school, my motto was boldness and tenacity. This was because back then I used to do crazy shit on the regular. I also was apt at not giving up and barreling through competition. Over the years, things change and life starts to weigh on you. Working in a cubicle every day doing repetitive tasks sucked my soul right out and I found myself bored all the time.

After leaving my job I made it a point to get back to my roots of boldness and tenacity, and start doing some awesome shit every day. I realized that my friend Bob has a house down in Sea Isle City and asked him what he was doing for the Polar Bear Plunge.

The Plunge is an event where crazy assholes run into the ocean in the dead of winter every year seemingly for no reason at all. It’s pretty much an event just to be bold.

Bob told me what was up and we made plans to go down. However when I woke up the day of, I felt really sick with a stuffed up nose and a cough. I had to decide whether I would get showered and ready to go, or call him up and say I can’t go because I was sick. I actually went back in forth a few times until I thought to myself that this is an event that happens but once a year and that I need to seriously do some bold shit.

I jumped in the shower, and realized after that I felt much better. I was aghast at the thought of letting a little sickness get in the way of a once a year super bold event. It made me think of all the other times in my life I let some silly reason get in the way of boldness.

Jumping in the atlantic ocean off the coast of New Jersey in the middle of winter is not as bad as it sounds. It’s about the coldest I have ever been in my life, but the water numbs you pretty quick, so it’s actually a bit refreshing. We ran in the ocean, got up to our waists, then dove in for the whole body submersion. We then thought it prudent to get the hell out and go back to our towels because we were freezing.

I think next year I will challenge myself to actually swim further out and possibly catch a wave back to shore.

Fuck your rationalization, do some bold shit anyway!

This is an important aspect to having fun in life. Sometimes the funniest things are what happens when you just do shit, and not think about it. An example to this again harkens back to my days in high school. When our basketball team would have home games a bunch of my friends and I would stand up in the stands and chant stuff at the other team, and sometimes the opposing fans as well.

A couple fans from the other team came over to where we were and gave my one friend an ice cream bar, the implication of which was that he was fat and loves ice cream. He took a bite out of it with spite in mind and we all got pumped, but that wasn’t good enough for me. Without thinking, I asked him for the bar and proceeded to march across the gym while the game was going on and launch the bar right back at the fan who gave it to them. I then triumphantly walked back over to where we were sitting, a hero.

Some possible examples of bold shit to do:
-Go out to the club by yourself and cut it up on the dance floor.
-Dive across a table in the local whole foods dining area.
-Open a completely random group of people in conversation.
-Do an eating challenge.
-Crash a wedding.

Anyway, you get the idea. Just get out there and start doing some fun stuff. If you can, make sure these bold activities follow your tasks for the day to get a synergistic rush. When it’s time to have fun, don’t get stuck in the trap of just going out drinking, do some bold shit instead.