Useful Things Ebook

USEFUL THINGS Do more. Be more.

Thomas Faustin Huisking

Useful Things

Š 2013 by Thomas Faustin Huisking. All artwork by Thomas Faustin Huisking. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

Table of Contents Dedication

Foreword

Food

Fitness

Nature

Spirituality

Travel

Art

Practice

Languages

Love

Useful Links

About the Author

Dedication I would like to thank everyone for, against, and indifferent to my aspirations. Without your broad spectrum of enthusiasm my laugh lines wouldn’t be as deep, and I would never have learned to push so hard. However, this book just wouldn’t have been possible without Peter, Henrietta, Elisabeth, Andrea, and Ashley. You have taught me so much, and I am grateful to you all.

With love, Thomas

Foreword This book is 35 years of experience, anecdotal evidence, success, and failure. My name is Thomas Faustin Huisking (pronounced “Fow-steen Hue-sking,� according to my grandmother). I have lived a few places, done a few things, and learned quite a bit in the process which I would like to share in this book. It is meant to be of some assistance to you.

Useful things ought to be just that: useful. I haven’t included any chapters that I feel are superfluous (though you are welcome to disagree), and my plan is to improve and expand the book on a five-year basis. With each new edition that comes out, I will make necessary revisions and additions based on the changing world and my own evolving ideas.

I consider useful things to be those that make life better for all human beings. This, then, is a book offering suggestions on how to improve. And grow. No one idea contained within is going to magically enhance your experience on this planet as a living organism. But I maintain that if you have the will to get better and some decent guidelines to do so, you can begin to move down a path of self-realization and augmentation.

One idea I promote throughout the piece is that engaging in activities in which humans have participated since the beginnings of our species can improve your experience by acknowledging and incorporating the building blocks of your own evolution. It has worked for billions of our kind, and it will work for you.

Getting better isn’t a sprint. At least, consistently getting better isn’t. You are going to hit plateaus in every endeavor: creative, athletic, romantic, etc. But pushing through plateaus is one of the most satisfying things you can do, because it demonstrates that your will is stronger than your obstacle.

Once you have overcome something difficult, you get a taste of your own power--that’s what I want you to strive to be familiar with. Your growing confidence in this regard will allow you to inspire and help others to improve, creating a growing network of gradual advancement.

If you take anything away from this book, it is that you can improve in any aspect of your life, no matter your age, level of proficiency, or physical state. If your actions in life are in line with you becoming the best version of yourself possible, you will be rewarded immensely. Of course, just how you will be rewarded, I can’t say, but this is one of those “truisms” you’ll just have to take my word for.

The human experience on Earth is confusing. It is beautiful and terrifying. But for all its complexities, it’s just the way it’s supposed to be. The proper way to navigate it all is shrouded in mystery, polluted by dogma, and complicated by the most rapidly-evolving age of its existence. It can get better, but it has to start with you.

Here are some useful things for your journey.

T. F. H. May 12, 2013 Venice, California

Food

“I am not a glutton, I am an explorer of food.”

--Erma Bombeck Food can be many things to many different people: a symbol of comfort, a reward, a drug stronger than any other. Fuel.

Good food can be extremely elaborate or laughably simple. I prefer the latter, but if you’ve got a flair for kitchen art, I applaud you. Also, I’m coming over for dinner.

Whatever food currently is to you isn’t nearly as important as what it can be. Did you know that food is the most important

component that you control on a daily basis? It is. It affects your mood, your breath, your sense of clarity, your abs...

When you eat good food on a regular basis, you will feel better. You will perform better, you will sleep better, and you will look better. You will even smell better.

Take a look at the leading causes of death in the West, and the statistics are sobering. If you want to avoid tremendous medical bills down the road, pay attention to what you eat and stop treating your body like something you hate.

When I decided to get in shape to solicit modeling agencies in 2002, I started to experiment and put things into practice.

This has led me to the work of John Berardi, Mauro Di Pasquale, Shelby Starnes, Michael Pollan, Ori Hofmekler, Martin Berkhan, and many others. For the average reader, the philosophies and methods espoused by Pollan (Omnivore’s Dilemma, Food Rules) and Berkhan (Leangains) are highly recommended reading.

Here are the basic guidelines that have helped me, my clients, and millions of others: Eat whole foods. Choose organic, sustainable produce when possible. Insist upon consuming animals and fish that forage on their natural diets.

Repeat. Pretty simple, no? Let’s break them down into more detail.

Eating whole foods is easy. You have extensive flora to work with, and most of it can be eaten without cooking. The raw folks have this one down, and their skin, at least, looks great.

Eat a huge variety of vegetables that pretty much still look like vegetables when you’re done preparing them. This way you will be getting plenty of vitamins and minerals on a daily basis just by enjoying lots of plants. Also, I don’t know if it’s enzymes or what, but eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables makes you feel great.

Why should you eat organic, sustainable produce? This is a contentious issue. There has been a lot of debate about whether organic is actually “better” for you. I can’t say. I know that I personally advise people to stay away from chemicals as much as possible. We didn’t evolve into the species we are today because of the big agriculture techniques that have been developed in the last sixty or so years. An entity seeking the greatest profits isn’t terribly concerned with the impact of their operation. This means more fertilizer, more pesticides, and more genetic modification to make plants hardier and shorten maturation cycles.

Finally, animals that eat a natural diet are better for you.

Hopefully you are aware by now of the growing movement to consume grass-fed or pastured animals and wild-caught fish.

If you need to be brought up to speed, go here. This is markedly different flesh from the stuff produced by the giants in the industry. Again, it comes down to healthy animals with lower levels of chemicals. Ruminants don’t naturally eat corn and salmon didn’t evolve in cramped tanks. This is irrefutable.

Since Useful Things is a book about overall improvement, here is a list of ideas that, when attempted, will help you improve. Each chapter has a similar list format presented as simply as possible, often containing pertinent anecdotes.

This makes the overall read short, effective, and easy to reference later. In this chapter, these ideas offer you a better understanding of what food really is, what it can be, and what your relationship is to it. Try to knock all of them out in a month, and I promise that it will be one of the most memorable of the year.

1. Bake a loaf of “artisanal” bread.

As a rule, I don’t eat bread, unless I’m traveling or a guest.

The exception to this rule is when I bake it myself. Baking

bread has been around for roughly 30,000 years. That’s apparently 25,000 more years than writing. Clearly, people ate bread for a long time before getting busy with other things, and for good reason: Bread is great.

Baking is fairly simple. You throw some ingredients together, heat an enclosed space for a while, and presto, out comes a loaf, baked good, or that ashtray you made in ninth-grade art class. And yet, if you’ve ever had really fresh baked bread, you know that stuff you buy pre-bagged in grocery stores barely resembles the real thing.

I did this recently at Christmas, and it was exceptional. This is no reflection on my own baking savvy, but rather the inherent simplicity in the baking process. If you have a decent recipe and you follow it, it’s pretty difficult to make something that doesn’t amaze you. The satisfaction you will get from this is peculiar, because you will think, “I mean, it’s only bread.” But it will blow your mind. Use the recipe in the appendix and prepare to enjoy something that your species has loved for millennia.

2. Hunt and/or fish for your dinner.

Hunting and fishing can be divisive. I understand that if you are a practicing vegan, the thought alone is repugnant. If that

is the case, skip this idea. However, if you eat meat of any kind this is the way it was done before the spread of mass refrigeration. The status quo at the moment allows you to walk into any grocery store in your pajamas and buy a brightly colored cellophane-and-plastic package of flesh.

Now, that’s weird.

Hunting requires that you actually learn a worthwhile skill if you are to be successful, and the process itself facilitates improvement and mindfulness. You have to drive to the hunting grounds, wear appropriate clothing, stalk your prey, kill it, clean it, and either butcher it yourself or take it to a processing facility. That’s a lot of work. But after a hunt you will know where your meat comes from, and what it should taste like. My impression is that it will trigger something in you that reinforces your existence on the planet as a part of the life cycle, and you will continue as a carnivore or renounce it altogether.

Fishing is the gateway activity for self-sustenance. Those of us lucky enough were exposed to it as children. And if you don’t remember that tug on your line, or seeing a bobber disappear, with a smile, you might be pretty awful. If you didn’t experience that as a child, but eat grocery store fish, you need to go fishing.

I get it: fish stinks when it’s not fresh, they have huge eyes, and you don’t know how to cook it. You don’t want to thread a worm on a hook, and you’re scared of taking the hook out if you do catch one because they flop all around. Stop thinking of fishing like a cartoon. Do your research, get the right gear, and know what you seek.

3. Grow the necessary vegetables to have a dinner party with friends. Invite them to harvest and cook with you.

Varieties of lettuces, carrots, peas, radishes, cucumbers and more can mature in a matter of a few weeks. Fresh produce does taste different from the stuff you get at the grocery store. This is because it is actually fresh and doesn’t have any wax sealant to make it last longer than it should. As weird as it sounds, there is a different vitality to fresh fruits and vegetables. This is because they were alive right before you harvested them.

I had access to huge flower beds when I lived on Lake Travis in Texas. My roommates and I got in over our heads when we decided to plant these beds with all kinds of flowers and vegetables. The soil alone took hours to spread, and the daily watering was a task all-too-often forgotten by a group of young people more interested in single malt scotch. This is

bad news in the Texas summer. However, the veggies we yielded and flower arrangements we had that year were unforgettable. We made our own food, and enjoyed all of it.

So grow a small vegetable garden. Or grow a large one. The satisfaction in nurturing and making things grow is similar to hunting and fishing: deep inside you know that it is one of the realest things you can do as a human being on the planet.

Your friends will marvel at how much fun they have doing such a “primitive” activity as harvesting vegetables. And when they eat them they will want to grow a garden of their own.

4. Keep an herb garden no matter where you live.

Growing herbs is just about as easy as it gets. Some light, some dirt, and some water. I consume a lot of mint, basil, and cilantro because it’s the easiest way to trick myself into thinking I’m eating Thai or Vietnamese food. Rosemary was made for potatoes and chicken, and thyme helps people think you know how to make lamb.

You can grow the herbs just about anywhere: an alley, the roof, your windowsill. Herb gardens are the gateway to full blown gardens. Once you have a few successful plants going, you will probably want to add more. As long as you

can tend them on a regular basis, this can only be a good thing: greater varieties of nutrients and enzymes over which you have complete control!

Herbs grow more or less like weeds, and everyone in the world could be improving their boring meals with them. Get a large pot and start growing, but don’t make the mistake of eating all your basil in one bout of ambitious caprese-making.

Get a bigger container, or buy multiple plants.

5. Shop at a farmer’s market for the majority of your grocery needs.

Oh, you live in a place where you can’t grow a garden or keep herbs in the window sill? I had a friend in Korea once who lived in just such a place. Go to the closest farmer’s market. For the most part, you are going to find prices that are in line with or lower than most grocery stores. That is the immediate win.

The farmer’s market also helps to perpetuate the broader human experience of the open market or trading center. This is an ancient way for people to interact, haggle, and obtain necessary goods and services. Unlike the modern grocery store excursion, a farmer’s market allows you to ask specific questions about how the food you’re considering was raised.

It also makes it necessary to talk to strangers, which we pretty much avoid at all costs in the modern age.

I like to order a lot of grass-fed beef in advance with local ranchers and pick it up at the farmer’s market. This allows me to get a better price by buying in bulk, and finish my produce shopping for the next couple of days while I’m there.

Besides, I don’t care what your name is: going to the farmer’s market is always fun.

If you can’t grow your own, this is the next best thing. As mentioned above, the freshness and concentration of flavors will amaze you. You will wonder why it took you so long to make it a priority. You’ll want to go back the following week.

And when you do, you’ll be helping to support people who make food the way it was intended.

6. Eat fresh fruit every day for energy.

Fresh fruit contains fructose, an easily usable form of energy.

Assuming you are at least moderately active, you can eat an incredibly broad variety of fruits knowing that you are reaping their multiple health benefits. Too much is made of the natural sugars in fruit and how they might negatively impact insulin sensitivity and the body’s tendency to store fat. If fruit can make you fat, you don’t move enough. So unless you are

dieting for a physique show or are morbidly obese, you shouldn’t avoid it.

Instead of consuming one of the ubiquitous “bars” that seem to have infiltrated everything from gyms to gas stations, have a piece of fruit. Eat a whole young coconut. Peel a mango, or just have an apple. Blueberries have excellent antioxidant properties and are quick and easy to eat. Keep a container of them around for when you need a quick pick-me-up.

I have done a lot of experimenting with fruit intake, and I have yet to see the individual that ruined his/her physique progress because they consumed too much. More often than not, they have greater energy, feel better, and are less inclined to eat pastries and corn-syrup-laden sweets. So get after the fruit-just make sure it’s fresh.

7. At restaurants, eat foods/combinations you’ve never tried when possible.

This just sort of occurred to me one day while dining out. Are you a set-in-your-ways person? Do you always order the same thing at your favorite place? Let’s all stop doing that.

I got into the habit somewhere along the way of eating according to my bodybuilding-inspired dogma. If it didn’t

have a substantial amount of protein, I wasn’t going to order it. It didn’t matter how good the beets salad or risotto looked.

This has been a tough habit to break, but if you’re eating in restaurants often enough for this to be an issue, you might need to revisit your own relationship with food. I got lazy and detached, and the joy of eating was blunted. Don’t let this happen to you.

Perhaps you can’t talk about a wide variety of foods with other adults because you choose not to eat them. That’s no way to improve. Consume things that you’ve never tried before so that you can have an opinion one way or the other.

All cultures make use of the same macronutrients. You don’t like certain dishes? Fine. But don’t tell me you don’t like whole ethnic cuisines in general. You clearly haven’t eaten enough dishes to make such an absurd statement. Or, you really are a hopelessly picky bastard.

8. Don’t eat foods that don’t make you feel good.

Almond butter is awesome. It’s a decent healthy fat, it satisfies, and helps round out the nutrient profile of a meal when you want some variety away from olive oil, avocado, walnuts, coconut and grass-fed butters, and fish oil. But it makes me feel sluggish and lethargic. I wish it didn’t,

because it is delicious. I also have this strange inkling that it negatively affects my body composition, though I certainly don’t have any conclusive data to confirm this.

I have heard similar things regarding other “super foods”: blueberries, red bell peppers, pumpkin, etc. As we become more aware of the powerful properties of food, you will see growing advertising campaigns touting the healthy benefits of __________ or ___________. Feel free to experiment with these foods, but let your body dictate whether you should use them regularly. If they don’t make you feel good, don’t eat them. You can get the nutrients by other means, and voluntarily slapping your body down for a while doesn’t make sense. I don’t care how good they tell you it is.

9. Shuck and eat oysters.

Oysters are very strange, polarizing creatures. Some people can’t get over how gross they look and feel. Some people, like Samuel Clemens, ate them in all forms, including ice cream. And you probably aren’t going to be able to purchase them “wild-caught.” But wherever you fall on this spectrum, I recommend shucking and eating oysters at least once. This is because it is unlike any other ritual.

It took me thirty-four years to be able to shuck and eat oysters, but when I finally did, I ate them three weeks in a row. There is something very visceral about this--you feel a bit like an otter cracking those things open and slurping them down. If you throw together the quick and easy mignonette recipe in the appendix and sprinkle them with fresh lemon, you will probably get into the habit, too.

Get some friends together, grab a few dozen oysters, and make a party. Get some good beer that will complement all the complex flavors of the ocean and the acidic accoutrements. Or enjoy them with your favorite white wine or champagne and begin to “be happy and to make plans,” like Hemingway.

10. Make a real meal once a week.

This isn’t that big of a task. ONE DAY a week, which means six days of NOT, you should make at least one real meal from real foods. Do the necessary planning, do whatever it takes.

At one point in time, there was an important meal, say, Sunday dinner, when families would come together to celebrate life and each other. Bring that back. Put some real effort into preparing delicious things.

I’m always blown away by my own and others’ reactions to home-made foods: we think they’re amazing. This is a commentary on the times, for sure. Can you imagine bringing a fully-prepared, grocery store meal for four to a friend’s home before the rise of Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s?

Preposterous. At least seventeen grandmothers roll over in their graves every time this happens.

But it is easier to just pick up a meal on the way home. I get it: “There’s no time.”

Stop pretending that’s the case. Make time. You have just as much (or little) as everyone else. If you make it a priority, you will start to build some very strong memories. You will also find that time spent around a table eating and laughing and sharing will remind you how simple and beautiful life is.

11. Research and experiment with supplements. Or don’t.

I haven’t recommended any supplements in this chapter. I don’t really take any at the moment other than BCAAs (branched chain amino acids) when I’m training. I have taken many, many supplements in the course of my life. Everything from chromium picolinate to fish oils to D-Aspartic Acid and much more. Some of the supplements had a noticeable, though minor, effect, while others were equivalent to flushing

dollars down the toilet. I pretty much rely completely on food these days.

You should find what works for you. Beware of the placebo effect, because everything you take will illicit the response you are looking for if you want it bad enough. New supplements come along every day at this point, and some work better than others. I used to recommend multi-vitamins and fish oils at the very least, but I will leave that entirely up to you. There is now plenty of accessible information and peer-reviewed studies that you can peruse in order to make an informed decision. Try what seems legitimate, reject what is clearly a sales pitch, and learn to be able to tell the difference.

Fitness

“The first wealth is health.�

--Ralph Waldo Emerson I have no special genetic predilections for gaining muscle size, symmetry, or strength. I am capable of getting as fat as anyone else given the time and determination. My hips are wide, my shoulders narrow, and my calves, chest and back would rather not grow. The only thing that makes me different is that I choose to pursue a certain physique and performance. I choose to make my body better, and so should you.

Being fit is having a leg up on the competition. In today’s world, if you are skinny you will be treated differently than if you are fat. If you have been on the planet for a while, you will recognize this as true. It’s not nice, but it’s true. And if you are fit (as opposed to just not-fat), you move with a different presence. The energy around you is unique. You appear stronger, more capable. Poised.

If this is something you maintain and cultivate as you age, it is even more impressive. This is because the twenty-first century has made us weak and whiny. Most physically demanding work can be avoided, unless you aspire to the higher levels of organized sports or really need the money.

I have lived at both ends of the physique spectrum, and I can tell you first-hand--if you didn’t know it already--that the level of initial respect you receive upon meeting people will be based on your physical presence. We are judgey, judgey judgers. That’s what people do. So if you go: give a presentation, interview for a job (or casting), lead a group, meet your child’s principal, or engage in ANY human contact for the first time, whatsoever... rest assured that you will be given the once-over. This is why we have created cute terms like “first impression.” It’s very real, and it’s very important.

According to this first impression criteria, people that display a high ratio of muscle compared to fat receive the most “respect.” We inherently know that bodies like this require years of hard work, discipline, and consistency. He or she is an obvious force of a human being, because the effort is visually screaming at you. When someone is physically more dramatic than most, it is impossible to ignore.

Where you currently fall on the spectrum is less important than where you eventually want to be. All of us always have the capacity to get better. Because our bodies don’t generally transform in perfectly symmetrical ways, it is always necessary to focus on different “weak points” throughout the journey until one area becomes more glaring than any other.

This is a lifelong endeavor, so you might as well get started making your exterior as magnificent as possible.

There are many ways to go about this. Many, many ways.

Your routine isn’t as important as continuing to make progress while remaining injury-free. This is easier said than done, and fairly unavoidable for the long-term competitive athlete. But the average person can achieve a high-level physique or level of fitness that can be improved over time while breaking personal records and managing recovery. The physical benefits and results of improving in this way will feel

better than most things, but you must realize that nothing works forever.

1. Make time to train at least twice a week.

This is the easiest plan to stick to. Two days a week is about half of what I would generally recommend to clients, but some people just can’t make the time because of other commitments (work, school, family, etc). If this is you, it is even more important to make the time to make your body and mind stronger, because the peripheral stresses of your life will kill your libido, sense of well-being, and motivation to improve.

Trainers generally try to put parameters on how you arrange these two days during the week, but if you have to train back-to-back days, that’s what you do. Make sure that you train all the muscles and movement patterns of your body over these two days, and you can continue to make progress.

2. Dial in your eating plan so that it is sustainable.

I follow a style of eating first made popular by Martin Berkhan in his Leangains.com system. It took a long time to get there.

I have tried just about everything under the sun in regards to

“diet,” and just about everything works when applied properly. But at this point in my life, I’m all about making things as simple as possible, and the majority of eating plans out there require a good deal of thought, preparation, and eventually, obsession.

The physiological benefits of intelligent intermittent fasting are well documented, but the greatest boon is not having to watch the clock to determine meal times. I’m busy; so are you. I hated having to prep all that food, then cook, clean, and package it in order to get in my small meals every three hours.

This has worked extremely well for me: I have sustained energy throughout the day, I am able to work through the morning into the afternoon without worrying about eating, my training continues to evolve and improve, and I can maintain an extremely lean, potent physique. But that’s just me.

You need to do whatever you can sustain. If you bounce back and forth and are constantly in search of the “magic” diet plan, you will continue to be disappointed. The national obsession with food in the United States is incredibly bizarre, given the copious amounts of garbage consumed on a yearly basis. Thankfully, this seems to be slowly changing as people

become more aware of the consequences of their convenience foods.

Whatever you call the way you eat, make sure that it is effective enough to keep pushing you towards improvement.

3. Stick with a training style long enough to reap the benefits.

Look: it all “works” to some degree. If you swing kettlebells or do TRX bands or train at Westside Barbell for any length of time, you are going to improve. The mistake many make is to do something just long enough until it starts working, and then abandon it for whatever is different. I think a good general guideline--whether it’s sprinting, bodybuilding, or triathlon training--is to give a program at least six weeks. This seems to be the sweet spot with regards to the efficacy of and sustained motivation to continue programs. Depending on your training age (i.e., you’ve been training for 6 months or 15 years), you will be much better at gauging this, and you will notice that the stronger you are, the faster you reach those plateaus.

And by all means, make sure that you have stopped progressing across the board before you change your entire program up. Particularly for bodybuilders, you will not

continue to progress symmetrically. In other words, you may be training a certain style and start to plateau on pressing movements, but all pulling movements show no signs of slowing gains. Continue to trust the progression until you have plateaued in order to get the most out of each program.

4. Do not stick with a training style if the benefits are not in line with your goals.

Are you training for a bodybuilding competition and doing Crossfit? Preparing for The Tough Mudder and doing a 6-day body part split? How about just trying to get a bit stronger but doing a conjugate system based on 1RM percentages?

Please make sure that you are training for your goals. Prior to preparing for my first powerlifting competition I had spent a great deal of time getting stronger with a simple rest-pause plan (DC Training created by Dante Trudell). I hadn’t necessarily trained in a “powerlifting template,” but I was still doing a program based on progressive overload and getting stronger.

When your physique reaches a certain point, you may have to get creative in order to keep progressing, but it’s imperative to keep the ideal in mind when choosing how to get there. This will be further explained in point twelve.

5. Know why you train the way you train.

Don’t just go into a gym and “do stuff.” If your time is as valuable to you as you claim it is, you need to know exactly what you hope to accomplish in the gym and why. For example, if you are training your legs with a limited amount of time, have no existing injuries, and want to get strong and burn the most calories, you ought to be squatting properly instead of doing leg extensions.

If you hire a personal trainer, you need to ask why they are having you do a certain movement or program, or if there even is a program. I’m sure you’ve seen (and possibly been trained by) someone who has you start and end your session with 5-10 minutes of cardio. This is extremely lazy on their part, and you end up paying for an hour of training while getting roughly 45 minutes. Beware of this. Be suspicious if your trainer doesn’t write things down. This will make it difficult to keep track of milestones and personal records.

6. Generally speaking, consume the majority of your carbohydrates around training.

This has been pretty standard in the strength and conditioning community for quite a few years now. The idea is that glycogen reserves are drained during your training sessions, and they are easily replaced in the post workout window. By consuming carbs during this time, you are theoretically improving your chances of using those carbs to recover and rebuild, and avoiding storing them as fat.

Your overall carbohydrate intake probably shouldn’t be that high to begin with, unless you are trying to grow or are a high-level endurance athlete. However, I’ve seen myself and others get away with a few more servings than usual if they are consumed after hard training.

7. Learn to feel your body working.

Your body is beautiful. I know that and I can’t even see you.

We all have the same bones, organs, and muscles. It’s yours, it’s so money, and you don’t even know it! Every part of your body moves because of what is going on under your skin, and you should be very familiar with that.

While it’s less important for athletes to “feel” muscles working, it cannot be emphasized enough for those interested in modifying their physiques for aesthetic purposes. The complexity of muscles in the back cannot be

differentiated when hitting a pose if they have not all been isolated with some consistency in training. Those who haven’t developed a strong mind-muscle connection will see drastic improvement in their physiques once they do so.

Here is the bottom line: You have the ability to modify what you were born with as you see fit--what an incredible gift!

Learn to feel your muscles working, learn the extent of your appendages, become an expert on your body. It will thank you for it.

8. Do not lose the capacity to sprint, swim, or climb.

These are things that feel great, if you haven’t done them in a while. They can all be performed and experienced without a facility, and by yourself. These activities also represent the most basic of human movements: bare bones survival stuff.

We aren’t all lucky enough to live in places where we have the opportunity to climb and swim, but do not get to the point where you cannot, if necessary. In other words, don’t go so far to one end of the physique spectrum that you lose the capacity to perform the basics.

I recently added sprints back into my training and have had elevated energy and recovery levels. We all fall into patterns

based on our fleeting interests and short term goals. Even if you are only focused on getting bigger or smaller at the moment, don’t forget that your body evolved to go fast, get out of water if it falls in, and climb to forage or escape.

9. Learn the methods used by people who already have your version of an ideal physique.

Whatever physique you’re after, you should pay attention to how the person achieved it. The look of a powerlifter is generally very different from that of a bodybuilder, just as a sprinter’s physique is vastly different from a marathon runner’s. Keep in mind, however, that training preferences and styles change according to trends.

With the proliferation of programs like P-90x, Crossfit, boot camps, barre, etc, there is a tendency to believe that athletes and celebrities endorsing them were out of shape until they took up the program(s). It is important to remember that progressive overload builds muscles, and a football player espousing a system or piece of equipment spent years developing a physique prior to peddling whatever caught your eye. In the end, remember that no matter what you aspire to, there is no quick route to get there.

10. Set short and long-term physique goals. This adds up over years.

Perhaps you want to drop ten pounds in the next two months, or add ten pounds to your bench press. These are short-term goals: easily attainable with a decent plan and consistency. Totaling elite in powerlifting or winning your weight class at a physique show are long-term goals (unless you have better than average genetics). They aren’t necessarily “harder,” per se, but will require a greater amount of hours of training, dieting, visualization, etc, in order to achieve. Make sure that you have plenty of goals in each category to stay motivated and rewarded for your efforts.

For example, if I’m shooting a shirtless scene at the end of the month, I know that I’ll be dialing back my carb intake in order to be at an acceptable level of leanness for the camera.

I’ll have a couple of weeks to accomplish this. However, eventually I want thick upper pectoral muscles and brutallooking calves. This is going to take a long time, and it’s unrealistic to think that I’m going to make progress on these goals while shrinking overall.

Ultimately, the short term goals will enhance the long-term goals because of their cumulative effects. In the above

example, I will be getting very lean by the end of the month. I will then use the body’s natural ability to grow (known as the “rebound effect”) to aid me in my long-term goals. Differing goals like this, performed over, say, a decade, add up to very impressive long-term results.

11. Treat your body like a priority, and watch your overall quality of life improve.

“Look good, feel good.” It’s true. If you change your body into something that you’re proud of, you will be happier on a regular basis. You will have a greater sense of well-being.

Your libido will improve. You will be less susceptible to stress and faster to recover from disappointment and ailments.

Perhaps the greatest boon will be the ability to focus on other things besides your body and image all the time. This is saying something in Western cultures. Remember, we are taught to hate our bodies by the same advertising machine that encourages us to eat garbage.

12. Learn the proper way to train, and be impeccable in your movements.

This is particularly important as you age, but setting the foundation early is crucial. If you push yourself hard enough,

you may not be able to avoid injury with the best form.

However, you’ll certainly decrease the risk of injury because of looseness, sloppiness, or otherwise poor habits.

If you hope to have a strong, beautiful body for the duration of your life, you owe it to yourself to put the same effort and diligence into training that you would anything you hope to do well. I often see big weights being moved in the gym, but it is when I see perfect execution that I am impressed. This is partly because I spent so much time coaching the lifts, but also because I appreciate the demonstration of skill.

Cultivate that appreciation in yourself. Work at improving your technique constantly. That is yet another path to consistent growth.

13. Train for a powerlifting or strongman competition.

Strength is underrated in the 21st century. One’s technology prowess is probably more “valued” at this stage in the evolution of humanity, because being very strong just isn’t as important to survival now. Witness the overwhelming popularity of skinny jeans for men.

Competitive powerlifting involves the squat, deadlift, and bench press. You get three attempts at each lift, and the best

lift in each category is counted towards a weight total. Lifters are arranged according to weight class. Powerlifting “meets” can be lengthy affairs depending on the number of lifters present, but you will be blown away by feats of strength, determination, and spirit.

Strongman (and woman) competitions are generally composed of events that require “real world” strength, i.e., farmer’s carry, log press, Atlas stones, etc. In other words, movements and tasks that are found in actual human activity and work. Just as in powerlifting, these events need to be trained in order to build the ancillary muscle and skills necessary to do well.

Training for these competitions can be extremely simple or quite complex, but here is my promise to you: after just one year of training for either discipline (or both, you beast!), you will be MUCH stronger both physically and mentally.

I competed in powerlifting in 2009. I bombed out of the meet in the bench press by making very silly mistakes. With some spinal surgery my plan is to total elite in the 198 raw class at some point in my life. This will require many more years under the bar, and that kind of education is priceless.

14. Train for a physique show (bodybuilding, figure, fitness, or physique).

Contests based on the aesthetic are fairly peculiar. There is no true barometer for conditioning, symmetry, or overall shape. Judges can be swayed by interpersonal relationships, the preferred physique “look� of the time, or even cash.

But the rewards are unique. Getting into stage-ready condition for a physique show is something that very few people ever experience. The level of leanness required to place is extreme, and is impossible to achieve without hard, sustained work. This is precisely why you should do it. The discipline required to get through a 12 or 16-week diet will change you permanently.

You will begin to feel as if you can get through anything if you can make it through that ordeal. Your mind will try to convince you over and over again to make things easier on yourself. It is overcoming your own compulsion to selfsabotage that will make you stronger and capable of more than you ever thought possible.

Also, you may be compelled to dominate a tray of cinnamon buns just two weeks from competition, ultimately place fifth,

and wonder if those rapturous treats may have been responsible for your placing... Or maybe that’s just me.

15. Compete in a race.

Nothing gets the adrenaline going like racing. And if you’re an adult, you probably don’t get a chance to do it that often. Or ever. Moving quickly towards a goal, hell-bent on getting there first will push you to ask more of your body and mind than you ever really do. No training conditions can quite match the powerful “prisa” you will experience on race day.

Unless you do this on a regular basis, it’s not about winning.

It’s about going harder than you normally do and putting up your best possible time.

With the proliferation of obstacle course races like The Warrior Dash, Tough Mudder, etc, there are ample opportunities to go fast against others. You will be amazed how hard it is to stop when so many people around you are forcing themselves forward against the wishes of their bodies. After, you will celebrate the feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment that go along with completing physical tasks, and knowing that you gave it your best.

Nature

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.�

--Albert Einstein We live differently from our ancestors. This is neither a good nor bad thing; it is inevitable as technology and our species evolve. What may have deleterious effects is the growing disconnect between people and the natural world, given that at least fifty percent of the world’s population now lives in urban areas (2012, U.S. Global Health Policy).

Today we live in the ubiquitous presence of light and sound and electromagnetic waves. There are no long-term studies on what this does to us. There is no metric for modern living.

But we do know that hormone imbalances in men and women continue to rise. Cancer rates have exploded. And respect for the living organism we inhabit has all but vanished.

Most of us don’t know where our food and water come from.

Our bodies are soft because we don’t need to toil in order to cover ground. It means nothing to “throw something away” because city sanitation makes it disappear. The long, slow fade of entire ecosystems bears little thought if you DVR’d Planet Earth in HD. Has there ever been a more accurate aphorism about the blessing and curse of being human than “Out of sight, out of mind”?

But there are things we feel deep in our blood and bones for which there are no tidy explanations. Genetic memory is supposed to be pretty passé according to modern psychology, but staring at the flames of a fire or watching waves crash is undeniably intoxicating. Remember? And, as

you may have noticed, some people seem to have a greater connection to the natural world than others.

Where do you fall in the spectrum? I love the City as much as anyone else, but if your only exposure to Nature is Central Park, you owe it to yourself to find some wilderness. The fulfillment you get from this will be restorative, moodenhancing, and wholly unique.

I don’t really know why this is. I can only speculate that because the “modern world” has only existed for a couple of hundred years at most, our species just hasn’t adapted to the disconnect yet. We haven’t been integrated with machines for long enough to make those pangs for the Wild disappear.

I don’t know if we ever will, but I will be glad to be gone if that happens.

The world is alive. Everything that hasn’t been choked out by asphalt or poisoned by toxic chemicals contains life. Whether or not you realize it, it all affects you. The connection between ourselves and our planet is not well understood, otherwise we wouldn’t be breaking our necks to sever it.

Whatever you choose to believe, remember that this Now is an absolute gift. It’s a wonderful and violent and amazingly complex system that you are lucky enough to inhabit. When

you get wrapped up in the vastness of your own unique experience, remember that you can be brought back to the cellular level just by interacting with the natural world. Let it nurture you. Recharge. Do it on a regular basis and watch your place in the universe improve dramatically.

1. Sleep outside.

I know a few people who don’t like camping. It’s usually the result of being dragged to a place they weren’t familiar with, unprepared and unequipped to deal with the environment.

Don’t let that be you. Plan like an adult, go some place incredible, get a good tent, and bring delicious food. These are things that cost less than a night at a good restaurant, but you will sleep more deeply than any time in recent memory.

I found a place with some friends where the bluebonnets were knee high, in full bloom, and exploding with color. We laid down in them, crushing the blossoms and releasing a powerful perfume. We were happy for many hours. When we woke up in that place the next morning, we were so in love with life. I’m not telling you where this is, but it’s worth finding.

Alternatively, there is a growing movement called “Earthing.”

The premise is that coming into contact with the ground and

its frequency diffuses the buildup of positive electrons.

People championing this idea claim to enjoy faster recovery, deeper sleep, and less chronic pain and inflammation, among other things. You can buy an “earthing mat” or sheet, or you can go barefoot outside every day for a while. Do what is easiest, and heal yourself via the most basic and least understood of human needs.

2. Organize or participate in a “clean up.”

This is very easy to do, and it will make you feel good.

Whether it’s wetlands or the beach or just a stretch of highway, picking up the remnants of careless humans is an act that will benefit everyone and everything. Grab your friends and choose a place to have a picnic, but give the area a thorough cleaning before you sit down to relax and eat. At times we all feel a bit helpless as we navigate the indiscriminate Machine of modern life. But you, personally, can make a positive difference by doing this very simple thing.

Additionally, carry a bag with you every time you get outside.

This way, you can pick up whatever trash you find and put it in a more appropriate place. I tend to do this on my way to the beach every day, as living in Venice has made me aware

of a broad assortment of things stuck in the sand. Clean that shit up, from cigarette butts to spent condoms. You will enjoy the place more if you made it better.

3. Get far away and build a fire.

Ah, the fire: Nature’s TV. While some of you may not love camping, show me the person that doesn’t love a good fire.

We can’t help it, it represents too many things that brought us to our current state. It’s real in a way that Youtube videos aren’t, and the way flames consume things is tremendously riveting to the most attention-deficient among us.

If you haven’t made one for yourself, do that. Go to a place where it is safe and legal, and make a fire just for you. You build it, tend it, and enjoy it. You will be repeating an act that has provided warmth, nourishment, and protection to thousands of years of your genetic forebears.

Additionally, you should cook something over that open flame. There’s something so right about eating things you have roasted over flames outside. You will be reminded that you really only need food, water, and shelter to live. By simplifying these necessities you feel as if you are living vibrantly, rather than merely existing.

Make a fire and briefly see exactly as Homer, Confucius, Pythagorus, and others have. Savor the warmth, delight in the flames, let it cook your sustenance. Watch it smolder as it devours the last bit of fuel. Then, by all means, put it out.

4. Submerge your entire body in a flowing water source.

Most bodies of water on our planet are polluted to some degree. This makes us sad. But bodies of water that flow are less polluted and can be enjoyed. This makes us happy.

There are lots of minerals in waters that earn the “healing” moniker that you probably know more about than I do.

Whatever is in there, it works, and people have known about this since they started getting wet.

I get into the Pacific Ocean on a regular basis these days, and I’m convinced it has improved my hair, skin, and general well being. However, when I lived in Central Texas I made regular trips to the many rivers and slow-moving bodies of water and would spend the day wading them. Without fail, I would feel great, smile a lot, and sleep like a rock after those excursions.

Even if you don’t have an ocean or massive river at your disposal, chances are that you can drive to a natural spring or water source with some decent planning. Bring some

friends or family along, and watch how their moods improve with the proximity to H2O. After you get out and get home, you will wonder why you don’t do this more often.

5. Climb rocks and/or trees.

People that “climb” are pretty awesome. They are usually very tan, lean, strong, have lots of energy, and spend a lot of time outside. These are generally healthy qualities. I wish I could love it the way they do, but I don’t; at least, not at the moment. It seems like something I will gradually warm to as I age out of the weight room. I do, however, love to be among rocks and trees.

I like to occasionally climb on and around them to feel them, to be close to them--to see what they are all about. It is satisfying in a unique way. I know you did that kind of thing when you were a kid. And when you revisit it as an adult you will be overwhelmed with a pure joy that you used to be very familiar with. This is because you will discover that you are just as curious about the natural world as you once were.

And if you aren’t, now is a good time to rediscover what that feels like.

You don’t need ropes and harnesses to do this. Get out, explore, and do what feels right. Just remember to enjoy

according to your abilities. You don’t want us to have to call the fire department.

6. Grow and touch benign plants whenever possible.

Seriously, if they aren’t poisonous, stop and smell the flowers. They are awesome. You will see tiny stamens and pistils covered in pollen and parts of living creatures so small and intricate that they make your smart phone unimportant.

All plants that don’t pose a threat to you (immediate or otherwise) can be examined and appreciated. Just don’t step on the coral!

If a growing thing is very large, it is probably older than you.

Respect the power and energy of an entity like that. Marvel at it and consider the summers and winters it has lived through.

This is pretty cool to consider when you get into historically significant places.

I grew plants indoors for a couple of years under HID (High Intensity Discharge) lamps, and walking into those rooms was always such a joy. Living things are made of energy, and if you are able to keep them in your house you will experience that energy in a very intimate way. It is a sort of magic to have a great deal of natural life so close to you.

The plants that I grew didn’t seem to mind being touched, talked to, and loved. If that is too hippy-dippy for you, grow half a dozen plants in the same space and see if you aren’t occasionally arrested by the immediate life you nurture.

Touch them, and try to learn something.

7. Stay away from phone/internet for one week.

Are you regularly checking your phone to see if you’ve received any new texts, Tweets, Facebook Likes, phone calls, emails, or any other monumentally important information from your non-immediate environment? Me, too.

It’s awful.

It has definitely been years since I was completely “disconnected,” but it is one of my goals in 2013. It just isn’t “normal” (whatever that means) to be near a constant electronic information and communication source. We all know it in our bones but it has become a necessity in the modern world.

For one week out of the year, we should all try to get away from these things. Document the results. For my part, I know without a doubt that my anxiety would decrease.

Physiologically, I have no idea what would happen. Maybe

nothing. But purely for a mental vacation, it is certainly worth remembering what life was like before we were slaves to electricity.

My impression is that without the trappings of consuming data, our senses would turn back on and we would remember, albeit briefly, that we live on the most amazing planet in our solar system.

8. Take up an outdoor sport/hobby.

Surfing has been a game-changer for me. I’ve always known I was a surfer, but I didn’t get to start practicing it until I was thirty-four because I had never lived by the ocean until then.

What I immediately noticed was the whole other world I was only vaguely aware of. I’d spent most of my adult life in Austin, TX, up until that point, so you can imagine how exhilarating it was to be suddenly sharing the playing field of my chosen sport with seals, dolphins, whales, and sharks (among all the other creatures).

I started surfing regularly in 2012, and the first good wave I caught at Point Dume in Malibu will be with me forever. It was the first time I was on a wall of water that was shoulder high, moving at what seemed like a tremendous pace, and I was

able to drag my hand along the face of it as it broke. As an experience that tied me to Earth, it was wholly unique.

I know people who describe similar feelings about their chosen outdoor activities, whether it’s hiking, riding BMX, or playing Ultimate Frisbee. The point is, get outside on a regular basis. You will remember that you didn’t evolve to work in a cubicle, sit in the dark staring at a screen, or spend ten hours a day hunched over a desk. You will also create many more opportunities for unique experiences of your own.

9. Find a teacher and have an experience with psilocybin, mescaline, or DMT. Much anecdotal evidence exists propounding the benefits of these molecules. Unfortunately, their illegality leaves a paucity of data from which to draw well-informed conclusions. In other words, you may have to skip this idea altogether until your government allows its people to imbibe what grows naturally.

While I’m not proposing breaking any laws, I do think that there is much self-knowledge to be gained from working with these substances. There is no logical basis for banning them, other than to keep people away from some fairly heavy realizations. If you think they’re outlawed because someone’s

looking out for your well-being, you haven’t seen cigarette and alcohol sales lately.

Most people that have any experience with psychedelics are aware that what we perceive as “reality” is but a small part of existence. Some very attuned individuals realize this entirely on their own. Whether it’s another dimension we are generally incapable of detecting or a completely different aspect of consciousness is irrelevant. There seems to be far more to life than what you and I see in our waking, sober hours.

Now, these plants are powerful, and ought to be respected.

They have been part of native cultures all over the world for thousands of years, and throughout this time they have been used primarily as medicine or spiritual aids. Please treat them as such and seek out the most positive, learned guides when pursuing an experience. One thing is certain: you cannot come back unchanged, and this is the best part.

10. Take part in a well-funded conservation effort.

There are plenty of organizations out there with a decent amount of influence that are trying to improve the planet in a variety of ways. It doesn’t take much to support and participate. Whether you are helping to replenish native sapling populations or scraping invasive hydrilla species out

of public bodies of water, you can get involved and do something good for the planet. If you simply can’t make the time to do this, consider donating dollars where they will definitely be spent to improve the natural world, not just the people slowly consuming it.

Hopefully you love this planet, because there aren’t a lot of other options at the moment. Perhaps you want to improve the salmon fisheries, the Redwoods, keep the polar bears alive or whatever. Great. Please contribute in some way so that these causes can be successfully realized. We all have the responsibility of stewardship. Lead by example, and do your part to improve the world.

11. Have sex outside.

I debated about this one, but not for long. If you’ve done it, you know the exhilaration of having an orgasm in the open air. This probably has something to do with the visceral feelings associated with the act performed throughout many, many generations of your ancestors. You will feel raw, virile, vital, alive. Animal. This is a very good thing. It is a reminder, particularly if you’ve been feeling pretty evolved lately because you can talk on Bluetooth in your car while sending a text and checking traffic on Google maps.

If you haven’t done it, you’re in for a treat.

I recommend Costa Rica, particularly the Pacific side, but just about any clandestine spot will do. Please refrain from banging it out where you might offend others or go to jail, and don’t look at the sun during orgasm. You may, however, want to do it regularly, and you will remember it forever.

Spirituality

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience.

We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

--Pierre Teilhard de Chardin What exactly is “spirituality”? In this book, I use the term to refer to one’s relationship to the life source of the universe.

What you choose to call this life source is not important. The potency and scope of it are omnipresent: this doesn’t warrant a single, perfect name. What is important is that you are aware of and connected to it. Cultivating your own spirituality

involves strengthening and enhancing this relationship. It must be nurtured. It must be prioritized.

It’s inevitable that different cultures will have different names and ideas about this thing that many of us can inherently feel.

This is okay. Contrary to what you may have been told, it’s not because one group was lucky enough to be privy to the Ultimate Truth. Rather, it is because there are billions of people with perspectives you don’t share. This is also okay.

We run into trouble when people feel as if everyone must share their perspective(s).

To say that these powerful mindsets have caused some misunderstandings is a colossal understatement. Indeed, differences of spiritual opinion have been responsible for a great deal of the world’s atrocities. But whatever you choose to believe--and thankfully most of us live in a place where we get to choose--you must remember that it is always a choice.

It follows, then, that any system of religious or spiritual thought is as valid as the next.

It doesn’t matter how many people subscribe to that system: it doesn’t make it more “right.”

That you have faith in a system is to be respected, but please do not claim to be a rational, analytical person and then have

the audacity to purport to know the Truth. These are the seeds of an imperialistic mindset. You either believe something or you don’t, but you cannot tell people that you Know. This kind of overt paternalism is precisely what people are wary of in a global civilization with a surfeit of information at their fingertips.

I contend that we can improve in every aspect of our lives until our bodies and/or minds fail us. Why should your spiritual enlightenment be any different? You should strive to improve spiritually, just as you do in any other area of personal development. Additionally, I think that what we believe and why is something that needs to continue to evolve for the rest of our lives. Otherwise, it can become stagnant, intolerant, and quite possibly, dangerous.

I’ve included spirituality in Useful Things because I believe that spending time being mindful, aware, and connected have benefitted me immensely. I think they will benefit you, too.

1. Practice meditation daily.

The hardest thing to do is to start meditating. Once you get going a few times and actually notice the benefits, it will be

easy to stick to. It might even become an obsession. As far as things to obsess over, this is fairly benign.

I was advised to start with 5 minutes a day. EVERYONE has five minutes a day to devote to themselves. Sit still for five minutes a day, close your eyes, and pay attention to your breathing. Pay attention to your thoughts. Observe the different voices at work in your mind, and heed the fact that they may not always be steering you in the right direction.

I generally meditate for thirty minutes at a time now, generally once per day. Sometimes it’s longer, rarely less, but I’m sure it’s a highly individual thing. My greatest breakthroughs come in the 15-20 minute range (so far), so I like to be deep in my meditation for at least that long.

You might notice old memories popping up that you haven’t recalled in years; you might be inspired to create something you would normally never do. The point is, if you give yourself this gift, you will discover much more to you than you know or remember. You will also notice that life outside of the meditative state is enhanced as your practice evolves.

2. Pay attention to the natural world at least once per day.

It’s part of being human to start taking for granted all of those things that we once gushed over. The newness wears off and your mind moves on to other things. But the outline of the world is always changing, so give it a look, every day. This will bring you back to your place within it, and you will start to see things you’ve never seen before, or be reminded of what you used to marvel at.

This is what being mindful is all about. Take five minutes and be at peace in your environment. Give clarity a chance to settle around you. Allow yourself to grow aware of the connections.

I saw some dew on a perfectly shaped spider web last year that blew my mind. I was so thrilled at finding it that I spent the rest to the day telling people about it. Our planet is host to such amazing creatures and chemical reactions and by the time we are adults we are highly skilled at ignoring it all. This is particularly the case if we happen to live in urban areas.

Start to give Outside the attention it deserves, and watch a part of you awaken.

3. Pray for positive things for yourself and others.

It doesn’t matter how you pray. You don’t need to frame it in any plodding incantation in order to make it more powerful.

Prayer is emotive intention. Your goal is to concentrate your intent in such a way that you are sending it out into the universe. Do it in a positive way, and often, in order to stay on your path.

It also doesn’t matter to whom or what you pray. Again, you are disseminating your consciousness into the world. I’ve come to believe that tenacity, in all of it’s various forms, is rewarded with results. Your constant intentions conveyed into the fabric of reality will bend the universe to your will. You just have to accept that it probably won’t be in the way that you imagined.

I had my passport and all of my personal effects stolen en route to Argentina one year, while traveling with my girlfriend.

The following 36 hours were extremely stressful, difficult, and the obstacles seemed insurmountable. We got to Buenos Aires one day later than anticipated, complete with a new passport for me. It was less traditional “praying” and more asserting my will to make it all work out. And it did.

Never discount the power of your intentions.

4. Study all of the world’s religions and recognize the similarities and differences.

I tend to be amazed at people that find one belief system fallacious yet completely accept another. People that believe in deities and live their lives according to old texts are on equal footing--it doesn’t matter if it’s Greek gods or Islam.

Beliefs come from things you were told or read, particularly if they’re silhouetted against the backdrop of a system (Judaism, Islam, Christianity, etc). No one should tell you they have it all figured out. But if they do, you are smart enough to realize only a charlatan would try to convince you of that.

That being said, I think there is something useful in just about every organized religious belief system out there. Whether they are suggestions (even if they come across as rules) for what to eat, how to treat people, or what to aspire to, you can learn something positive. Keep this in mind when sorting through hopelessly archaic and oppressive material.

It bears repeating that your spiritual and religious predilections should evolve with your experience and time on the Earth. For example, you will encounter things in meditation that you simply cannot by attending mass.

Alternatively, you will experience powerful energies at Baptist church services in the South that are unparalleled anywhere else. Give them all credence, and choose your own path.

5. Be aware of Fear and its effect on the planet and its people.

Frank Herbert said it best: “Fear is the Mind-Killer.” It prevents us from doing what we love, saying what we think, becoming who we are. Fear comes in too many forms to list here, but suffice it to say that if you have any regrets about anything, Fear and your inability to overcome it were probably partly responsible.

Sometimes it helps to try to stand back from the situation and merely observe your fear. Try to figure out why you are afraid. Is it something you can change, or work at? Is it something that you can eventually overcome, or will you let it hinder your progress forever? If you want your spiritual development to be speeded up in any way, learn to manage your fear in the same way that you manage your expectations.

I battle fear on a regular basis. Whether it’s knowing juvenile Great Whites hang out where I surf, having to audition for roles against more experienced actors, or just questioning my self-worth, I am constantly struggling against that which could overwhelm me. I then acquiesce to my fears, and do my very best to face and conquer them. It doesn’t alway

work, but I have found this to be the most effective way to deal with this type of challenge.

6. Acknowledge amazing moments and circumstances.

It happens regularly. You don’t have to call them miracles or signs of something greater at work. But you should certainly enjoy the complexities of the way the world weaves moments together in inexplicably impressive ways.

When you’ve been around for a while you start to notice that things “line up,” so to speak. The power of these moments is capable of bringing about major life changes. I first got really excited about this when I decided to pursue acting full time in the fall of 2010.

Around this time I read The Alchemist, by Paolo Coelho, and found myself nodding my head at the consistent similarities in the text. (This is required reading if you feel the power of the universe in any appreciable way.) It was a very inspiring time creatively, and this book seemed to encourage my artistic aspirations and endeavors. It paved the way for my eventual move to Los Angeles two years later, where I continue to work as an actor and artist.

There is so much noise in the world. You are being bombarded daily by sensory and emotional pollution that doesn’t serve you. The universe communicates by demonstrating the interconnectedness of everything. It doesn’t always speak louder than the rest of life, so make sure that you are listening.

7. Strive to be impeccable in your daily interactions in the world.

Stop lying to yourself and others. Do things well. Let your sincerity shine brighter than anything that you try to convey.

Be the best version of you that you can be. The rest will take care of itself.

I spent many years in half-hearted pursuit of a dream to play music professionally while working as a personal trainer. I was following what Steven Pressfield calls “shadow careers” in his book, Turning Pro. I wanted the thrill of performance, but I wasn’t ready to commit entirely to one discipline yet. As a result, I spent my days advising people on how to live clean, get strong, and stay healthy; I spent my nights rehearsing with various bands and drinking and smoking myself into oblivion.

The reality was that I was leading dual lives with mixed results. So I can truly say that one of the greatest days of my life was when, at 32 years old, I decided I wanted to pursue making films. Shortly thereafter, things began to fall into place.

When you focus on doing things really well, when you stop half-assing your daily tasks and start doing everything from washing the dishes to writing your thesis to the best of your abilities, everything else around you will improve. Get good at everything. Then, strive to get better.

8. Treat yourself to a cleansing juice fast for a few days.

I was turned on to this by the great documentary, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. I was in very good shape already, but I lost eleven pounds in five days, and I felt fantastic. There is something completely awesome about the way you experience the world around you after loading your body full of the enzymes and nutrients of fresh vegetables and fruits for a few days. It’s nice to give your body a break from all of the things you put into it, which may include (short list): prescription drugs, caffeine, alcohol, cannabis, excessive sugars, tobacco, amphetamines, wheat, supplements, and dairy, among others.

You will notice that you begin to look different. Your skin will take on a “glow,” and people will comment on this and ask you what you are doing. You will feel light, and energetic, and you will want everyone to understand, so you might talk their ear off about juicing. That’s what I did. Also, the first day without caffeine was absolutely brutal for me: far worse than anything I ever felt when I quit smoking cigarettes. This was indicative of how much coffee I was consuming and how physically dependent I was on it. So I changed.

I recommend at least three days at a time, because that was where I, and many others started to really feel the effects.

Going longer may or may not be for you. However, I have yet to hear of the individual who does mostly vegetable juice for at least five days that isn’t completely overwhelmed and thrilled with the experience. Do it a few times a year, just to dry out and experience those physiological changes.

9. Avoid hurting people.

This seems so easy to avoid, but is truly difficult. It goes way beyond physically hurting people (although you should definitely avoid that, unless it’s your job). Emotional injury is worse. When you offer a critique, think about how fragile you are. Try to remember that discouraging art, creativity, and

effort, is extremely damaging. We’ll believe anything, us humans. It is both a blessing and a curse.

There are certain types of people that love to be right. I’m one of them. We act like we’re blessing the earth with our judicious opinions, often publicly crushing the confidence of those we seek to educate. We should stop this silly shit. It doesn’t win us anything (except on Jeopardy), it’s often polarizing, and generally says more about us than the point we’re trying to make.

There’s enough bad news going on in the world these days, so be nice. You’re probably way more fun to be around when you are. I’ll do the same, and hopefully we’ll be able to leave the world better than we found it.

10. Record spiritual breakthroughs and circumstances surrounding them.

When you have incredible meditations or feelings of connectedness, you should document what’s going on in your life to revisit those breakthroughs when you slip out of that progress. It is in our nature to be dynamic with our emotions, attitudes, and general sense of well-being. This is something that needs to be accepted. However, when you happen upon a rough spot, it’s nice to know that you can

recreate the conditions that existed when it all seemed so effortless.

Write down how much you sleep, what you eat, what you’re working on, how you exercise, and any other factors that you feel are capable of influencing your spiritual evolution. It’s great to have a map to find your way back when you inevitably get lost.

11. Float in a sensory deprivation chamber.

This is a wonderfully useful thing. You will be in utter darkness in an Epsom salts bath with a greater salinity than the oceans. This will allow you to float easier and give muchneeded relief to your muscles, fascia, and bones. Soon you will be enveloped in stillness, and have the capacity to focus on whatever you need to.

This is often called the “lazy person’s meditation” because you are able to reap many of the same benefits as someone who makes a practice of meditating. If you aren’t able to get your daily practice in, you could probably schedule a float in lieu of a massage once a week. The benefits will be palpable and extensive.

I had my first float at Float Lab in Venice, Ca. I remember wondering if I would experience any anxiety, whether the duration of time in the small chamber would create any claustrophobic preoccupation. I was pleasantly surprised to splash around like Gollum at the roots of the Misty Mountains, unconcerned with the material world. I don’t think there’s a decent substitute for that in a completely sober and mentally alert arena. Give it a shot and find out what’s in your head.

Travel

“The further one goes, the less one knows.”

--Lao Tzu The world is much bigger than where we live and work. Not everyone knows this. But you do, because you are an intelligent, 20th or 21st century human who likes to stay informed by visiting many (or a few) websites every day. You read books, and you probably listen to a variety of music.

Still, despite your best efforts, you probably don’t know about most of the world. I certainly don’t. But the little that

I’ve been fortunate enough to see has been invaluable, and has allowed me to grow rich(er) in the human experience.

There is no way to measure this wealth, and it can only be accumulated through travel.

Traveling extensively will make you better at being a person of the Earth. Throughout your peregrinations, you will borrow recipes, rituals, words, processes, music, techniques, dances, spirits, and many more things that make cultures unique. In short, you will encounter novelty at every turn. And you might prefer these new ways of the world to those with which you are familiar.

But in order to improve in this respect, you need to regularly leave the place that you spend the majority of your time. This is easier than we make it out to be; it just takes a little planning. If you have been around a while and haven’t traveled, love yourself enough to make it happen. You will begin to learn a new kind of tolerance and overall empathy for your fellow humans. You will also nurture a part of yourself that is begging to be satisfied, and that is your natural curiosity.

You will be from one town, area, or state in name only. You will have absorbed and started to convey the complexities,

nuances, preferences, and humor of many people.

Additionally, I propose that you can learn more from travel than most university programs. You can also do it while spending less (or even earning money!) than you will at any university, which averages about $22K per year in 2013. I’ll admit that if one is learning hard sciences, he or she is probably better off in a university setting. However, four years of working and traveling every six months to a new location on the planet beats any Communications degree you can show me.

Travel develops a unique portfolio of experience that will come in handy when you least expect it. We want to know things, and while it’s great to just Google it, the information doesn’t stay with you because you don’t need it to. Get out and ride motorbikes on Phu Cuoc Island, pick grapes in Bordeaux, or go fly fishing in the Andes, and you will earn a one-of-a-kind education and respectable worldliness.

1. Get your passport situation sorted out.

It’s 9:08am. Do you know where your passport is? Make sure it’s current (and will be when you need it), and make sure you know exactly where it is. If you are prone to losing things, I suggest you make this a big priority for about five minutes,

and then never worry about it again. Getting your passport up to speed is often just the catalyst you’ll need to make use of it.

For better or worse, a passport is the most powerful document you can carry. It’s your ticket to ride, so to speak.

In some remote parts of SE Asia, you will have to use it as collateral to rent a room. And once you start to get around, it serves as a great reminder of where you’ve been. Somehow you will be able to access your mind’s diary just by looking at the stamp of Myanmar in that strange little booklet. Flipping through the passport of a well-traveled person sets the imagination aflame in ways that looking at photographs cannot.

It’s a pain in the ass to lose your passport, or get it stolen.

The Man really doesn’t want you to have to get a new one.

But should this unfortunately befall you, you can get ahold of a replacement. Be charming and polite--the people that work in the passport office make the DMV folks seem saccharine by comparison--and you can be on your way in no time.

2. Set short and long-term travel goals.

You can take a weekend trip for about the price of a meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant. You really can go someplace

new, within a short flight or driving distance, on a regular basis. This simply needs to be a priority. Otherwise, you will find a million (or more) other ways to spend that money. Don’t worry about insisting upon a certain level of travel “class”-this will merely hinder your progress. Make it easy on yourself: the goal should be to keep moving.

You should also have a dream travel goal at least every other year. I learned this from The Art of Non-Conformity’s Chris Guillebeau. He has traveled to 193 countries. (That’s all of them.) It’s safe to say he knows how to get around, and he thinks a dream travel goal is important.

On the short-term, you should be flexible with where you can get to, but your long-term travel goals should take you exactly where you want to go. This won’t always be easy, and obstacles are bound to come up on a regular basis. But life is too short to wish for experiences. Do what is necessary, and have them for yourself.

3. Travel with or without others.

Not everyone likes to travel with an assemblage of people. If you are one of those folks that likes to hit a lot of sites quickly, and keep moving, you will be disappointed traveling with a group. On the other hand, it’s far more fun to share the

wonders of the world with other people, so keep that in mind when planning your travel.

I know that I have a hard time even walking through a museum with someone else, because I will inevitably linger longer than most. Imagine having to see Versailles with an impatient and bossy person, or the Reclining Buddha in Bangkok with a tour group of fifty or more. If you are unfortunate enough to choose a poor traveling companion, you probably won’t know it until it’s too late, and I can empathize--I have been there.

Alternately, one of the amazing things about travel is the ability to meet other travelers with whom you can share new adventures. It is inevitable that you will run into other people that also crave a new taste of the world; people that you will enjoy spending time with by virtue of their passion for similar experiences. You will have that common thread to propel you forward, and you will make fast, new friends this way. It is one of the finest aspects of the traveling experience.

Many things can go wrong in the midst of travel. You want someone who’s going to be on your team; otherwise, you’re better off facing the challenges alone. Do the right thing and

be absolutely sure of your traveling companions before you embark on lengthy, difficult, or important trips.

4. Make travel arrangements pursuant to your comfort levels.

Do not stay in five-star hotels if you want to understand the places you’re going. That is asking for the banality of standardized accommodation. By the same token, don’t expect to start the day off right when you are showering with cockroaches or freezing your important parts off. Your lodgings and transportation should enhance your travels, not detract from them. In many cases, you won’t be able to stay in ideal conditions based on a number of factors, but if you handle this aspect well ahead of time you can at least end each day in relative comfort.

I stayed in a very simple tree house in Costa Rica some years ago. It was on the Pacific side of the country and you could hear the howler monkeys at night. In the mornings, the staff served fresh fruit smoothies, eggs, and gallo pinto, and I wouldn’t have wanted to stay anywhere else. It was very basic, ten dollars a night, and perfect for me.

There is nothing worse than having a rough day and getting back to an icy room with faulty heaters, or a bungalow with

no AC and insect problems. This can be a recurring issue in remote places, so beware: no matter how romantic the places you’ve lined up seem, try to take a look at the rooms and see if everything works before you pay. Treat it like you would when renting any apartment or space and you will save yourself a lot of grief.

5. Travel by car, train, boat, plane, bicycle, horseback, and on foot.

Every way you move from point to point adds a unique aspect to your travel. You must understand that the way you travel will influence who you meet, what you eat, and where (and how) you want to travel next. Vary this as much as possible in order to understand how your ancestors moved about compared to what’s available today.

I took a high speed train in China from WuXi to Shanghai, and going 300 km/h on Maglev technology is pretty cool. But so is riding horses through the Huachuca mountains in SE Arizona or taking a boat through Ha Long Bay. Flying is certainly the fastest way to get around, but there is so much more to see than runways when traveling.

Take a road trip. Do it by yourself or grab a friend or two. It turns out driving can be fantastic, despite all of the negative

consequences for our planet. You can cover a lot of ground quickly, get to remote areas, and even sleep in the vehicle in a pinch.

Ride a bicycle to reduce your carbon footprint, but get out and see the lay of the land. If you have limited funds and want to get away for the weekend, get your hands on a bicycle and put some miles between you and your residence.

I guarantee you’ll see something new, and have an adventure or two along the way.

6. Learn these words in the language of the country to which you’re traveling.

There are just a few words that you really need to know in order to get around, have fun, and stay safe. These words are: hello, please, thank you, bathroom, food, bar (a venue that serves alcohol), and hotel. If you have a handle on these words you will be able to find what you need, have a great time and maybe make friends, and sleep at night without worrying about being robbed or worse.

People appreciate when you take the time to respect their hometown/land by learning a few words in their language.

Most of the time, just dropping a word or phrase here and there is enough to coax a smile and improved service. Have

you been frustrated by people that don’t make the effort to learn English but live in English-speaking countries? That’s the way locals feel about foreigners expecting to be understood and accommodated in English.

You could probably learn these very few words on the way from the airport to your destination, and you might be able to engage the driver or others around you to practice. Every little bit helps.

I spent nine months in Seoul, Korea, teaching for the Princeton Review, and while I learned the alphabet relatively quickly, my teaching schedule made it difficult to spend a lot of time with the language. However, just knowing the words listed above made my stay there incredible, and I found the surliest ajusshis and ajummas accommodating after dropping some Korean words and phrases on them. Take the time to learn some of the language and watch your status as a foreigner improve.

7. Remind yourself that setbacks and triumphs are both part of the journey.

Oh, travel hiccups are some of the most frustrating. Ear-toear grins can be obliterated by flat tires, unexpected and potentially life-threatening illness, and lost passports. Try to

keep in mind that no matter how bad it seems, it will make for a good story once you get through it. Try to temper your anger with the same aplomb that you celebrate making the flight, toasting new friends, and summiting the peak.

I got amoebic dysentery in Vietnam. I don’t know if it was those strange “pâté” bahn mi sandwiches that I ate in Hanoi, but something did it. It was very scary to see blood in the toilet by the time I got to Nha Trang and feel like I was miles from proper care. But for $150, a nice doctor came to my hotel room with a little bag and a stethoscope. He felt my inflamed intestines threatening to push through my abdomen, and demanded a stool sample. He also replaced a lot of CC’s of fluid. I ate a bit of baguette and fell asleep.

When he returned and had confirmed the diagnosis, he filled me full of antibiotics. It was like having a suit of armor underneath my skin. I was back to drinking Redbull vodkas and eating street food in no time. And while my guts weren’t right for the next 18 months, I love telling the story now.

Can you imagine if your travel just involved seeing one landmark after another? Inevitably, something will go wrong that will slightly alter your path. This will create a whole new set of obstacles that must be overcome. When you reach

your destination, don’t be surprised if the twists and turns that brought you there were actually more memorable.

8. When in doubt, smile and share some food and drink.

The ritual of a meal or buying someone a drink can go much further than you’re probably aware of, particularly in places where folks don’t generally take it for granted the way we do.

The instant intimacy that having a drink or a few bites creates is undeniable--it’s a great way to stop being strangers.

Many’s the time I have smoothed over a situation that could have gone awry by offering to buy a beer or giving away a few cigarettes.

Of course, if you are being shaken down by crooked cops in Costa Rica, nothing short of dollars is going to alleviate the situation. They will probably ask you for some outrageous amount and then settle upon whatever you are able to give them. You will resent them for it. But you were probably doing something you weren’t supposed to anyway, weren’t you?

9. Try everything.

Food, drinks, day trips, sports, whatever. This is in line with starting to say “yes” more as a general rule, which is crucial if you are at all interested in changing as a person. It is so easy

to say no to things you are unfamiliar with. What happens if you say no to something you don’t know about? Nothing.

Absolutely nothing changes. But you have no idea what might be in store for you if you start to say yes.

Vietnam was a very important country for me. After 9 months in Korea, I was amazed at all of the new opportunities that were suddenly available: eat a turtle and drink its blood?

Check. Take kite surfing lessons in Mui Ne? Check. Get suckered into a tailored cheap suit in Hoi An? Check. Smoke some local cannabis after nine months without? Check. And I locked myself and my girlfriend out of our hotel room as a result.

I go out of my way these days to try new things because I’ve learned enough at this point to know that it all makes you grow. It’s more important to me now to feel as if I’m improving or growing in some way every day, and it’s just a lot easier to do if you’re always trying new things.

10. If you study abroad, live with a family.

It will be uncomfortable at first, particularly if you don’t speak the language very well. But then it will be okay. And then you will learn things that would have been impossible in your shared apartment with people from Jersey and Utah (not that

those folks don’t know things you don’t). I have seen many students studying abroad make the mistake of living with other people from their own country. It’s certainly easier this way, and you always have some one who “understands” to a certain degree.

But there is no substitute for living with people from the land you’re visiting. That you will learn faster goes without saying, but you will also develop very powerful relationships, if for no other reason than the proximity. You will absorb vernacular and local idioms that make language learning fun, and you will be able to do as the Romans do after just a short while.

I was terrified of my host family in Spain. They were loud and boisterous and there were a couple of generations living in the same home. My Spanish at that point was decent but I wasn’t confident, and I struggled to communicate in the most basic way. Of course, by the end of my stay I was talking about the virtues of polyamory and the shortcomings of the current political regime over cafe con leches and cigarettes.

That family’s home on Calle Felipe II in Sevilla was responsible for much of my enhanced Andalusian experience.

Live with a host family and fast-forward your growth and progress.

11. Pack economically.

Are you trying to wear something new in every Facebook picture you post from your trip through the Caribbean? You don’t need all those clothes. I have seen it over and over again: the people who can remain dynamic and flexible through traveling obstacles are those that pack like paupers.

You will be able to make that bus, train, or flight, do a onceover of a room faster, and smile all the way down the trail if you have the lightest load.

This is difficult to get your head around if you’re really into fashion. Wear the same thing every day? Ludicrous! It’s okay to want to look good, but no one visiting the Hagia Sofia is going to high-five you for your Jimmy Choos. At Angkor Wat, they actually don’t give out prizes to the best skinny jeans and loafer combo. Take two shirts, pants, socks, underwear, and inclement weather gear. Bring a suit if you’re prone to needing one. Otherwise, focus on everything else.

12. Go to a massive human event.

These are large congregations of human beings based on shared interest: the World Cup, the Olympics, SXSW, Songkran, Carnaval, La Tomatina, Burning Man, or Diwali, to name just a few. Go and be among many people. Be amazed at how incredible and potentially terrible they are. It’s awesome to be a part of a giant crowd surging with positive energy and excitement.

I went to a concert at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul, Korea in 2007. I was there to see Tool, and was getting ready to leave after their set when a friend convinced me to stay and watch the next band for a few songs. I wasn’t much of a Metallica fan at that point, but I consented anyway. Three hours later, I was a fan again. Watching tens of thousands of Koreans sing their songs flawlessly for hours on end was incredibly inspiring, and I was right in the middle of it. I went home and wrote music all the next week, high on the energy created that night.

On the other side of the world, I attended SXSW in Austin, TX for ten days of packed films, interactive events, and concerts.

The buzz in the air is highly unique, because the city swells during those two weeks by tens of thousands of attendees excited about what they might see and fueled by breakfast

tacos and booze. The art and passion I witnessed that week were some of the most impressive of the year.

Both of these events were made unique by the sheer number of bodies present and sharing in the excitement. It is absolutely exhilarating when it’s fun. When it’s not, navigating the throng can be excruciating. If you ever have any doubt that we are all connected, attend an event like one of these and become a believer.

Alternatively, you could just go anywhere in China, because it is about as crowded.

Art

“Art is the proper task of life.”

--Friedrich Nietzsche Anything can be viewed as Art within the context of its environment. A surfer may view a wave the way a painter sees a canvas the way a chess master sees the board. The possibilities for self-expression are endless. No matter what you’ve been told, art is not reserved solely for people who agonize over it for hours or decades. Everyone has the capacity to create things that will delight them. In this sense,

Art is simply choosing a medium to express that which is inside of you.

The problem is, most of us are discouraged relatively early from doing creative things if we don’t show immediate prodigy-like signs of ability. We are told to be more practical and focus on something that will bring in lots of income, because Art “doesn’t pay the bills.” This essentially corks a very beneficial outlet.

If you have shut down your creative side for many years at this point, you should work at opening it. A nice side effect of discovering your inner artist is an increased observational prowess. You will start to see the physical world in more detail. You will see light and its absence more acutely than you ever have: the lines they form are everywhere.

Once you head down this path you will appreciate masterpieces all over again. Seeing incredible sculpture or painting doesn’t have to move you to tears, but that it has the potential power to do so is to be deeply respected. When you start making your own art, a trip to the museum is like going to the grocery store having rediscovered hunger.

Whatever you choose as your Art(s), give it the respect that you would any other important endeavor. You will start to

notice tangible progress, which is one of the most uniquely intimate and satisfying feelings. You will change in important ways, probably unnoticeable to you, but those closest to you will be aware of it. You will gain a profound respect for all passionate forms of expression--whether you agree or not-because you will recognize something of yourself in all creative endeavors. And if you work long and hard enough at it, you might be inclined to share what you’ve done with the world.

Before you begin, please be aware that you must manage your expectations with respect to the end result. It’s very easy to decide to write a poem or take up a sport or make jewelry and be utterly disappointed with the outcome--this is a daily struggle for most of us. You would do well to remember that it is all training: You are training your being to express itself as closely as possible to your vision, and this can happen quickly or take a lifetime, depending on what you see in your mind. Focus on enjoying the process itself, and your completed works will eventually give back what you put into them.

1. Make/build something.

This can be a very simple or highly complex way to spend your time. There is something empowering and immediate about making or building something. It’s also quite satisfying to use your hands and tools to make a whole structure, apparatus, or machine from individual parts. Tangible changes are something we thrive on.

I have been tinkering and tweaking my own designs for a long time. When I got heavily involved in indoor gardening, this was a top priority. Troubleshooting an environment in order to make it as efficient as possible was the ultimate goal with that space, and it required building lots of individual pieces. My next project is supposed to be moveable vegetable gardens for my partly shady front yard, but I might get sidetracked and build a surf rack.

Whatever you choose to build, do yourself a favor and document all parts of the process. It is immensely satisfying to look at before and after pictures. You will also be able to pass on the plans and process to the rest of the world should you choose to make it available online. I was going to include a caveat that you couldn’t fulfill this with Ikea products, but what the hell? The satisfaction is palpable either way. Get to work.

2. Paint a very large canvas.

The simple act of spreading color in broad strokes is probably something that you aren’t very familiar with unless you are already a painter. This can’t be done on a tiny canvas--the whole feel and act are completely different. The space necessary for this activity is substantial, so you may not be able to immediately pursue this.

However, when you finally have what you need to paint a big canvas, you will spend a lot of time thinking about and looking at it. Savor this. This is your opportunity to shape pure expression, unaided by computer programs and limited to the deftness of your own hand. It is also a process that has been acted out for thousands of years, from cave walls to Caravaggio and beyond. Your fun will be a continuation of universal artistic repetition.

3. Practice a martial art.

One isn’t “better” than another in this case. The point is to learn to use your body in a different way, to get in touch with how you move, and practice movement patterns. Someday it may be of use to you in an altercation, but this shouldn’t be the sole objective. You will also learn to respect and avoid confrontation in the physical sense. There is something

humbling and positive about being struck, tapped, taken down, or otherwise bested. You need these tiny defeats to grow and learn.

I studied Kung Fu (Wing Tsun, Shuai Chiao, and Tai Chi) for 18 months after I graduated from college. I was going to class five days a week for a couple of hours a night, and loved the progress I made. I developed a different way of looking at violence, myself, and the world in this time, but I gave it up when I went on tour with a band. Then, in 2007 I spent 5 weeks at Tiger Muay Thai in Phuket, Thailand, getting humbled by professional fighters and Thai kids. Get involved in a class or do yourself a favor and go to a camp if you want the immediate and concentrated experience.

Many people that practice martial arts for extended periods of time notice a spiritual component that grows alongside their training progress. Your mind will become more powerful as you learn to strain beyond what you are used to in order to evade, defend, or dominate. Because of your increased power, you will grow into a being capable of more, while feeling less of a need to show it. Fighters are some of the most humble, enlightened, and centered folks you can meet.

Give their training a good six months and watch yourself grow a bit more.

4. Write ten haiku poems.

You might be able to crank these out relatively quickly. Mine took some time. There are traditional “rules� to writing this poetry, but I generally follow the syllable format (5-7-5) and leave the rest up to my imagination. If you can get through ten you will probably find at least one that you are particularly struck by or proud of. If that is something you want to pursue and perfect, you will quickly realize that it could be a life-long endeavor. Writing haiku is a lot like surfing in this regard.

You will find this an interesting way to see how you express ideas in a very short form. The limits that you perceive in conveying your thoughts will begin to reshape as you learn to work around the syllable parameters. Have fun with it, try to get levity and drama across in your poems. This is a challenging way to engage in an art that forces you to consolidate your language into its most powerful form.

5. Draw something that happened last week in comic strip/panel form.

This is more difficult than it may sound. Recall something that made you laugh, for example. Do you need lots of detail to convey it? Or can sophisticated humor be communicated in a

simple form and still work? This exercise will teach you about comedy and your own ability to transmit ideas in another medium. Learn to overcome what seem to be frustrating obstacles by changing a panel, action, or placement of a punchline.

Or you can draw something dramatic. This is even harder.

I’ve made it a point to storyboard many of my own scripts and it is difficult for heavy ideas to come across in this form.

It pushes me to get better at conveying what I want through the use of perspective and the power of a line.

When you pursue this task you will run into challenges that your current skills may not be able to accommodate yet.

Push through this, stick with it, and you will become a better communicator for your efforts.

6. Journal every day for a week.

You might be a bit amazed at what happens here. Your mind will go in a variety of directions, but you will get better at corralling your thoughts and the ability to write with concision. Again, if you don’t do this on a regular basis you may find it a challenge to recall and record the events of the day. After a week, when you take the time to review how you

spent your time, you may be compelled to make some changes in your life. This is the goal.

I kept a journal from the beginning to the end of my modeling career in NYC and Paris. Every day I wrote down everything that I could recall after waking, including poignant dreams from the night before, beautiful women I had seen, and the feelings of revulsion that had resulted from my day-to-day obligations. This was an invaluable resource when I began work on a book about the modeling industry, and a great goto guide for what it felt like to be twenty-five.

If you want to journal ideas or record where your body was physically and what you consumed, go for it. Everything is fair game when you are journaling. Leave nothing off of the page and try to be limitless in your quest to get it all out of you. By the same token, please refrain from writing things down if you don’t ever want anyone to read them. You may have to learn this the hard way.

7. Go to all of the museums within driving distance.

If you live in a large city with abundant arts, there is really no excuse. Why wouldn’t you make of point of it to see all of the art that you can? Once you’ve been around a while, you will get to the point where you stop waiting for inspiration.

Museums generally change their collections on a regular basis, so if you haven’t been in six months or so, there is probably something new to see. While I love to look at and study contemporary art, there is something very visceral about looking at a Rembrandt that is hard to articulate. You are looking at the most intimate, uniquely personal remnants of expression of a great human being no longer with us. It’s as close to looking back in time as you can get in a modern facility.

I don’t know what the psychological benefits are of looking at great works of art. I have to believe they are many, in addition to the positive physiological response I have to standing in the presence of masterpieces. But the inevitable mental numbness creeps in after a few hours of looking very hard at great things. This is why it’s impossible to do the Louvre, or even the MOMA, in a day. At this point, I suggest you pop into the nearest cafe for a bottle of daytime wine, and talk or write about what moved you.

8. Learn to play an instrument.

It’s not for everyone but having an instrument in your hands or at your fingertips will at the very least give you a new respect for people that play them for a living. Again, you must

needs manage your expectations here--you aren’t going to be able to rip out a Jimi Hendrix solo or play Rachmaninoff at will in a couple of months or years.

Playing an instrument is a new kind of power, if you’re unfamiliar with it. One can only assume that creating sounds with objects must have been one of the more powerful revelations in the evolution of our species. When you hit notes in succession that form the most basic of melodies, when those vibrations and waves move through your whole body and titillate your very being, you will get a taste of what I mean.

Music seems to be built into some people, and you might be one of them. The challenge, of course, is to get to a level of proficiency on said instrument so that you can actually convey the music that is inside of you. This will take time, but you will be engaging in a sacred practice that has been a part of all cultures since the beginning. Perhaps you will be compelled to teach yourself a variety of instruments so that you can start to make recordings of a “full band.” In that case, send me a copy of your music and it might end up on the website.

9. Take a dance or movement class.

Dancing is a primitive practice. It has been a part of our species for many thousands of years. Your body is capable of moving in many different ways that you probably don’t allow most of the time. This is certainly the case for myself and most of the folks I know.

Consider that movements patterns in the gym are generally along specific planes and ranges of motion. While some yoga practices have the added benefit of increasingly difficult postures that require a great deal of strength, flexibility, and balance, they aren’t dynamic in the way that dance is.

Pumping Iron opens with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Franco Columbu emulating the movements of a diminutive ballet teacher in a Santa Monica studio. The idea was that by learning to move with the grace of a dancer, the bodybuilders could incorporate something similar into their own posing routines for competition. Whether or not the athletes used actual postures from ballet was irrelevant: their art was informed by the power of another based entirely on movement.

More recently, Marquese Scott shocked the world with a viral Youtube video where he moved in ways that people had never seen before. I remember watching it and being filled

with so much positive emotion. There is an indescribable greatness in skilled or inspired human movement. While it’s hard to articulate, you know it when you see it. You will have no idea how your body can move until you actively test it, nor what the potential benefits of doing so might be.

Get up and dance.

10. Compose a song.

Don’t you do this all the time anyway? Write it down for a change. You might just delight yourself or someone else in a way that they had never expected from you. You can use a simple verse-chorus-verse format (not unlike a haiku), or arrange something along the lines of the most complex freeform jazz (not recommended for first-time composers).

My mother used to sing songs all the time, made-up numbers that described what she was doing or what she wanted me to do that drove me crazy. I realize now that she was just a musical person who didn’t really play an instrument. The music is inside of all of us. People have been putting words to melodies forever. Give it a shot and remember how musical you are, too.

11. Join a scene study class.

This is the single greatest step I took to improve my own acting, but I’m convinced that everyone can benefit from it.

You learn a lot about yourself when you play someone else.

You will have to confront many fears and insecurities, and the process will make you grow immeasurably. I have seen awesome changes in people in just a few short months of putting up scenes from film, TV, and the theater.

Other opportunities abound. You will meet a new group of very interesting people looking to improve at something that has no objective metric for doing so. The relationships you forge through performing like this will surprise you with their strength. In many cases, the level of intimacy you achieve with your scene study partners may equal or go beyond that which you maintain with family and lovers. This is exciting, and to be respected.

Make sure that you are able to experience a broad range of scenes, from comedy to drama, before you decide whether you would like to continue. Most people tend to excel at one or the other.

Join a class and be prepared to learn who you are.

Practice

“I try to practice with my life.”

--Herbie Hancock There really is no getting around it. In order to excel at anything you need to work at it. This will entail thousands of hours of repetition and problem solving, and at some point it will get tedious. Painful. But whether it’s short stories or competitive eating, you must practice what you hope to be good at.

Developing a good practice is a fairly simple process. It involves being consistent, improving your focus while you practice, and falling in love with those moments. However, insisting on improvement is a bit harder to follow through on.

You already know this. Otherwise, you would still be doing well all of the hobbies, crafts, and ideas that you have started and subsequently quit over the years.

You also need to be aware that progress is not linear. You cannot expect to make exponential improvements over the long term. If this were the case, everyone who spent a decent amount of time at a given task would be extraordinary at it. You will hit a growth spurt; you will plateau. You might even regress a few steps. Remember that it’s okay to be frustrated. Look upon the walls you encounter in your development with relish. How you overcome them will directly determine how you grow and evolve.

Someday, they might make you great.

One can’t talk about practice without mentioning Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 Hour Rule popularized in his excellent book, Outliers. The premise is this: in order to truly master anything, you need to practice it for 10,000 hours. That may happen over the course of four years for you (like it did for

the Beatles), or twenty. It should be present in your mind, however, if you hope to truly excel in any fields or activities.

This presupposes that some of you just won’t be able to go to the gym during the optimal times based on circadian rhythms, or practice Russian when you are most alert. Do the best that you can to get your practice in line with a consistent routine. If you cannot find a place in your day for your practice, you will eventually stop doing it. Or you will do it sporadically, which may frustrate you because you don’t progress as quickly as you might like. Either way, you need to prioritize it like you would anything else that’s important.

Finally, here is a promise to you, one that I feel is strengthened anecdotally by my 35 years on this planet: If you have the tenacity to drive forward, the iron resolve and determination to will things to go your way, and, most importantly, can muster the strength to maintain this every day for many, many years, you can absolutely master anything you choose.

1. Get your sleeping patterns in order.

Sleep is underrated. In the simplest terms, think about it as the foundation of how you will perform the following day.

Once you give it the gravity it deserves, you might be slightly

less inclined to stay up an additional six hours drinking champagne and smoking cigarettes (make an exception in Paris though).

It’s fun to joke about how little you need because you are such a workaholic or party animal, but if you don’t get enough sleep you will not function optimally. This is particularly important if you happen to use your brain in a way that is pertinent to your job or creative process. Or if you squat heavy. There is no hard and fast rule here: you need to get enough sleep to recover from the previous day’s activities, and prepare you for the next.

In other words, do not expect to pull a deadlift personal record, sleep four hours, and hope to ace your neuroscience exam.

Perhaps you are one of those amazing people who is able to train hard, have a super productive day, and still only need five hours of sleep. Congratulations. I know a few of you and I’m jealous. I seem to perform optimally with between six and seven hours; I might need a nap, too, if I’ve surfed a lot or had a particularly intense lifting session. Find what is optimal for you and stick with it. What I’ve found is that getting a regular pattern for sleep seems to lock your body into a state

of consistent productivity that is hard to achieve with irregular rest.

2. Do your chosen activity or activities at around the same time each day.

This is going to be difficult to do unless you get a handle on sleep first. Assuming that is managed, you would do well to correspond the times that you need your brain or body the most with the activities that demand the most of you. It is very popular to do some form of cardiovascular exercise upon rising in order to increase alertness, burn some calories, and set the tone for the day with endorphins and blood pumping. If this serves you well for what lies ahead, do it. If it does not, don’t do it no matter what anyone says. If everything worked for everyone all the time, there would be one way of doing things.

3. Plan for tomorrow.

I don’t mean this poetically. Seriously, plan out what you want to accomplish tomorrow. Some people like lists, some people use voice recorders. It doesn’t matter. If you have a series of tasks for each day and you are able to complete some of them, you are looking at a lot of accomplishments at the end

of each month, and a tremendous amount by the end of each year.

Do you need to eat eight meals tomorrow according to your diet plan? Are you going on a road trip that will require a full tank of gas and your tank’s empty? Will your clients be amenable to adjusting the meeting time so that you can accomplish your practice? Do the work ahead of time. You will often be surprised how easy it is to get through your day the way that you want so long as you have laid out a map for it ahead of time.

Do not let anything interfere with your practice. If your time to study physics is in the evenings before dinner, respect yourself and your dedication enough to avoid all distractions (human, animal, electronic, etc) during this time. If everyone you know is aware that for that half hour or hour of the day you aren’t to be disturbed, you will have no further excuses not to improve.

4. Prioritize your practice based on short and long-term goals.

I have multiple goals that change on a regular basis, and I assume you do, too. Because of this, it is important to make sure you are giving the attention to the practice that needs it

most. If you are headed to Peru in six weeks to visit Machu Picchu, it would behoove you to prioritize your altitude/hiking training and Spanish practice. You would gradually increase the intensity and duration of your hikes and start learning vocabulary that would make your questions more penetrating and complete. (And you still might not buy the explanations they give you!) Demand of yourself that your practice is bringing you closer to your goal(s).

This has been the cause of much anxiety for me over the years because the fear is that one practice will begin to fall behind the others. You have to accept that at some point you go into a maintenance phase with a certain skill, hobby, or interest. It is very difficult to steadily improve at many things at once outside of a university or training environment. Life tends to take over. As my Uncle Tim is fond of quoting: “Man plans, God laughs.”

Don’t despair of this, just focus on whatever you need to improve in that block of time. Remember, some improvement every day will add up over the years.

5. Understand that progress is not linear.

If you had only to get in the gym in order to add five pound to the bar every session, you could squat thousands of pounds

in just a few short years. It doesn’t work this way, to the chagrin of many. Unfortunately, getting better isn’t something that we can perfectly gauge or predict. Everyone tends to evolve at a unique pace based on a variety of factors.

That being said, an extraordinary amount of progress and improvement can be made in a short time with focused and consistent practice. These are the times to celebrate, because when you feel as if you are making tangible progress, you are experiencing growth--a unique and fantastic feeling.

In the acting realm, coach Alice Carter often says that progress fits this model: breakdown, breakthrough. The same can be said for athletes coming back from what were thought to be career-ending injuries only to break personal and world records. This is not unlike a snake regularly molting in order to grow and reveal a new, beautiful exterior.

I am not implying that your practice should involve pushing yourself until you break. Indeed, too many athletes and artists learn this the hard way. What I’m trying to encourage is the mantra that each day is the opportunity to improve. Whether you actually do improve that day is less important than the intention to seize the opportunity.

6. Use practice to perfect technique.

Do not just go through the motions. By now you have heard “Practice doesn’t make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect.” You must practice “well.” It isn’t enough to just sit down and play an instrument, move an object from point A to B, or accomplish a means to an end. One of the many goals of practice is actual improvement, and in terms of technique, this can only be accomplished by practicing to the best of your abilities.

It will not harm your unique style of drumming to practice rudiments or learn to read music more efficiently. Likewise, putting occasional parameters on your writing will not ruin your ability to write powerful prose. (Consider Ray Bradbury, whose goal was to write 1,000 words a day as part of his practice) Insist on doing things well every time. Periodically create “game time” situations for yourself that force you to perform under pressure. Be mindful of the power behind each note, repetition, sentence, stroke, and idea. You will be amazed at the changes this brings to your life.

7. Keep detailed records of your practice.

Do you recall experiencing a period of tremendous growth in your chosen craft, hobby, or sport? What were the conditions like? What kind of sleep were you getting? What kind of food? Was the stress high in your life? How many hours were you devoting to the task?

These questions will be difficult to answer without some sort of record of this time period. I know a few professional bodybuilders that scoff at my insistence to document my training. Alternately, all of my powerlifting friends are scrupulous in their record-keeping. Unless you intend to use performance enhancing drugs for a long time, it is important to have some sort of metric of what you are doing.

When your progress slows, you will be able to look back at those conditions that were favorable to improvement. This is not a foolproof way to make infinite progress, but it will help provide eye-opening details that you would most definitely have forgotten otherwise.

8. Learn to increase focus and intensity during this short time.

What do you need to make your body and mind as powerful as it can be during your practice session? A banana? A cup of coffee? The right music? If everything else is in line (sleep,

diet, environment, etc), it shouldn’t be much. However, if you are unable to be at your best during your practice, it will be much harder to create the perfect muscle memory in your movements. You will find it harder to do what has come easily before.

You might have a million tasks that are creating an oppressive anxiety in your life, and that is to be expected.

But you will need to learn to push everything out of your mind while you practice, so that the one thing you apparently control will go well. Small victories, especially in times of great duress, add up in a very big way.

When you reach a level of proficiency, you will be able to summon the things inside of you so that your session is incredibly beneficial no matter what the conditions. The bottom line is this: Do whatever it takes in order to be at your best for that short time.

9. Make a perfect practice environment the second priority.

The first priority is to practice. Then, make sure that the environment where you choose to practice is conducive to your best possible practice session. Some people work well in coffee shops--I’m not one of them. Your practice

environment will heavily dictate how your practice goes, and the right place will make you better.

Don’t be afraid to mix things up from time to time to see if that elicits a positive response in your craft. Many’s the time that I’ve traveled to a different gym, changed my meditation location, or surfed a different break and had an excellent session. There are new lessons in every change that you make, so continue to experiment with this as long as it serves you.

10. Take a break from the rigors of your practice whenever you need to.

Everyone gets burned out. Everyone. That is okay, and to be expected. If you are anything like me, you will focus on something until your senses start to revolt, and then you will need a decent break from it. Dave Tate, the founder of EliteFTS, calls this “Blast and Dust.” When you are full bore into a task, there is nothing else. All of your energy is dedicated to that. Then, when it’s time for a break, you must brake completely. Stop. Recharge the batteries and begin the practice refreshed.

Of course, the more you take breaks, the less time you will spend practicing. This is something that you will learn to

regulate after many years at your chosen practice. Find a balance between the two that keeps you moving undeniably forward.

11. Create practice strategies that don’t rely on others being present.

I trained with my friend, Paul Hedrick, in Austin, TX, for about two years. During this time, I got stronger than I have ever been. We pushed each other to set new personal records and become better at the art of strength training and bodybuilding. When our lives took different paths, it was hard for me to recapture that intensity by myself. I immediately recognized this weakness and had to create ways to force myself to improve that weren’t contingent upon Paul’s presence.

Whatever your practice, do not create a system that relies on other people. With some activities, this is impossible, as high-level athletics often require many others present.

Outside of that, make sure that you can practice according to your terms. This will help you avoid a lot of resentment and passive-aggressiveness down the road.

12. Change your practice as necessary in order to stay in love with it.

Change your space, your speed, your process, your strategy.

This might seem counter to all the other points I have proposed. But eventually, you might need to change your practice in order to stay in love with it. I am amazed at individuals who can play one genre of music forever, who write one kind of book, who choose one path to follow always. These are rare people. If your practice is worth continuing, but you have lost interest, find a way to regain it.

Otherwise, as with anything, abandon it when it no longer serves you.

Languages

“Language is the dress of thought.�

--Samuel Johnson There are at least 6800 languages spoken in the world today.

That is a lot of ways to express yourself. If you use a couple of words or idioms with great frequency, you could probably stand to learn a new language or two. Speaking multiple languages gives you a greater ability to connect with more people, but it also opens your mind to new humor, ideas, and perspectives. This will make you a more empathetic human aware of the incredible diversity in your world.

Certain barriers go up when coming into contact with strangers, and the easiest way to alleviate them is through verbal communication and comprehension. I’ve been riding this notion lately that we are all desperately trying to convey messages that are rarely understood. Somewhere along the way--either through our own inability to articulate ideas, or others’ inabilities to comprehend them--the majority of our messages are lost. It’s problematic that emotions tend to hinder our ability to think critically and analytically, but some of the issues are the result of the limitations of language itself. I contend that a broader knowledge of words and ideas used across the world will lend itself to clearer communication between the peoples inhabiting it.

Your nightly dreams will change when you learn new words, phrases, and vernacular for expressing yourself. They will become richer, bridging worlds of consciousness and understanding that you may not be aware of in your waking life. This is both exciting and peculiar, and if you’ve never dreamed in another language it is one of those unique experiences which cannot be done justice via my limited description.

Access to a new language means laughing at things that you couldn’t possibly find funny without the context of an entirely

different culture and history behind them. It means understanding the incredible depth of an idea conveyed with just a word or two. The myriad ways languages can delight are only begun to be felt through palindromes, homonyms, diphthongs, onomatopoeia, and other bizarre-sounding words--and that’s just in English. The power of words and their impact on our lives cannot be underestimated. And the amazing part is that they all mean something.

You probably have a lot to say. You are a complex being with complex thoughts that can’t always be conveyed with any justice by a single language. This is fine. You just need to learn a new language or two. Then let us hear what you are thinking.

1. Choose a language that interests you.

In terms of practicality, it sure makes sense to learn Spanish or Chinese. But you don’t necessarily need to be practical in this instance. The whole goal of this thing is to learn other ways of expression. If you would like to speak Hebrew or Arabic effectively, this can only be a boon to your overall development. Certain languages and their utility in the world today aren’t debatable. But if you have more than a fleeting

interest in a language, odds are you will have a better chance of learning it.

I suspect that people are drawn to things by their unique genetic code much more than they realize. You might find that you can’t explain your proclivity for pronouncing Czech words, or that you have a facility with Bantu languages. Don’t ignore this. Explore these unique and amazing ways of expression that might not fit into what you deem practical.

Although I’ve always had a great affinity for the Romance Languages, I’m particularly struck by tonal languages as well.

Thai and Vietnamese are extremely intriguing, for whatever reason (also, I eat their cuisine like a hog). I constantly go back and forth between the practicality of mastering Spanish and satisfying the curiosity of learning the basics in tonal tongues. I will update future versions of Useful Things with my progress in this regard. Your job is to start learning the language that moves you.

2. Take a class.

This is a fairly decent place to start. Assuming you haven’t been bowled over by the potency of online language learning guides (Rosetta Stone, etc), you might find taking a class exciting. The first layer of retention and recall of basic

vocabulary feels absolutely amazing--you get a taste of what it was like when you were a child, constantly padding the edges of your mind with new mnemonics and associations.

The classroom setting will give you the opportunity to focus with a group on improvement; this activity itself seems to have positive effects that we don’t fully understand. Consider taking an informal college course. I did just that a few years ago prior to a trip to France. I certainly wasn’t fluent by the time I got to Paris, but I felt much more prepared than before I’d taken the class. It was effective, a small investment of time, and very enjoyable. If you haven’t taken a class for a while, prepare to be amazed at how much fun it can be.

3. Visit the country/countries where the language is spoken.

This is the basis of every study abroad program. The feeling is that if you travel to an environment where you are saturated with the language and culture at every turn, you will learn far faster than you ever could through any other means (self study, online, etc). I found this to be the case while I studied in Sevilla, Spain, and while living in Paris briefly.

You will find this more difficult in places where quite a bit of English is spoken; say, certain parts of Western Europe or

Scandinavia. However, regardless of your destination, if you make an effort to live as “natively” as possible, you will find it much easier than you thought to pick up a great deal in a hurry.

How long will it take for you to start to speak well? This is highly individual. I started to really get confident at the one month mark in Spain, but I’m guessing with dedicated study (and less tapas/vino) I could have done it even faster. You may have a penchant for learning __________. But just to be safe, make sure that you will be spending at least two weeks in the country of your chosen language--preferably four or more.

4. Read books in your chosen language.

This can be tedious. I remember the first time I slogged through Don Quixote in Spanish. The language in that book is the equivalent to Shakespearean English in terms of vernacular. In that particular case I had to go through a couple of layers of pronouns and archaic vocabulary, but the benefits were enormous. When I returned to reading contemporary books or newspapers in Spanish, the words seemed to leap into my brain in the same way that Hemingway will after reading Two Gentleman of Verona.

That being said, I don’t suggest that you pick up War And Peace in Russian if you are a beginner in that language. Start with easily digestible pieces and work your way into fiction and nonfiction that you find interesting and accessible. Of course, you could start with very basic books, but I don’t think this is enough of a challenge for an adult learner.

It’s okay to have to look up a word in every other sentence.

You will be forced to think much harder about the material and the ways of conveying the ideas. Grammar rules and honorifics will dance through your mind as you slowly progress through the translation. Then, at the point when you least expect it, that silly expression for running out of money on page 57 will make its way into your conversation with a native speaker. You will smile, because you put the work in knowing it would eventually pay off.

5. Watch movies in your chosen language without subtitles.

Most actors that are working professionally today are at a level that you could probably watch a film without sound and get the gist of what’s happening. I don’t think that watching a movie without subtitles is going to ruin a film for you, unless perhaps you are new to Thai and watching that country’s

version of a Sorkin or Tarantino piece (or any writer for whom much of the exposition is enhanced because of the intricacies of the language).

What you will find, however, is that certain words and phrases are used over and over again in daily colloquial speech. As a result, you will begin to pick up these expressions and modifiers and use them more freely. The subtitles are too distracting to absorb in conjunction with the dialogue in all but the slowest movies. Be disciplined about this and watch your proficiency and natural usage of the language skyrocket.

6. Write in your chosen language.

You will be asked to do this regularly in any class. However, you could do a little cross training here and figure out how to write a song or haiku in your chosen language. This will require that you conjugate verbs you might not normally use except to express yourself poetically. It seems like it’s really hot to use the word “eschew” in 2013, and I would have to assume that “to avoid habitually” is a niche idea in any language.

If you are intent upon learning another language as quickly as possible, take it upon yourself to journal every day in that

language. It will force you to use dictionaries and textbooks in order to convey exactly what you would like. The more hours you spend doing this, the more you will begin to retain and reuse.

Technically speaking, the Korean alphabet, Hangul, can be learned rather quickly. It isn’t difficult to form the twenty-four characters. I wanted to be proficient in writing, knowing that at some point during my time in Seoul I might have the necessary time to dedicate to language study. Sadly, this never happened, but I got decent at writing the language by sounding out words phonetically and writing them in Korean characters. It was a great way to engage my students at the time and helped me learn to write quickly and efficiently.

7. Practice your language on a daily basis.

I find this to be the most difficult rule to follow if living outside of a country where your chosen language is spoken. It is hard to prioritize given the ridiculous amount of tasks we give ourselves to complete each day. In the United States, for example, you simply do not have the luxury of practicing Armenian while running errands outside of the greater New York City and Los Angeles areas. However, if you are

determined to improve at any language, you will make time for this.

There are plenty of online resources for you to drill exercises in your chosen language. And if you are determined enough, you will seek out restaurants, markets, and other places where the language of your choice is spoken. This can absolutely be done--download audio books, get language CDs from the library, eat at your favorite ethnic joint regularly, buy produce from the corner store, and strike up an awkward conversation with a stranger. You will be rewarded.

8. Find groups where you can converse in the language.

Group conversation classes are among the easiest to find in moderately-sized cities. You may not find the Tagalog group you were looking for, but then again, given the accessibility of others through the internet, you may after all. Do not be deterred by an initial search through Google or Craigslist. The global environment doesn’t have to be the only avenue; asking a few well-connected or diverse acquaintances will often yield far more than you could ever have hoped to find via your computer. Find a group and get together with them on a regular basis.

These groups commonly meet at bars. I’m not saying it’s imperative to have alcohol to practice a language, but it certainly helps if you tend to be shy or lack confidence in the language. Try to meet at a place that specializes in the cuisine or spirits of the cultures that speak the language, and you will be learning a bit more about the people and their ways. I know that I remember certain vocabulary much more efficiently if I can create a mnemonic involving food and drink. Again, my own capacity to learn quickly is often tied to what I can imbibe and ingest, so do what works best for you.

9. Listen to music in your chosen language.

I don’t know if there is a Middle Eastern connection somewhere deep in my blood, but I really dig listening to songs in Arabic. Half tones and the facility of artists to manipulate their voices is fascinating and inspiring from a musical perspective, but something about hearing it hits me deeply and more powerfully than I can explain.

The nuances of the language and its musical framework stay fresh and new to me for long periods of time. Additionally, my obsessive-compulsive tendencies permit me to listen to the same thing over and over again, finding something new with each listen.

Whatever language(s) you are truly drawn to will probably have this effect on you as well. Music will be the vehicle that allows the beauty of the words to shine in ways that they cannot in any other medium. For instance, Neapolitan words will resonate when Beniamino Gigli sings them--check out Finiculi, Finicula, or just about anything else he has ever sung.

10. Take language program vacations.

You could just go lay on a beach all day. Or, you could spend a decent portion of each day learning new material, and leave a “vacation” with a whole new confidence and level of understanding of a language. To a certain extent, vacations are meant to be times of relaxation and diversion from the normal grind of work, school, kids, etc. However, I don’t think there’s anything too taxing about learning and study. At least, not to the point of ruining your vacation.

A good amount of my time in Seville, Spain, felt like a vacation because it was important to visit places associated with the development of the country, government, people, and language. I spent a lot of time “seeing the sights” as part of the curriculum. At this point in my life, it only makes sense to spend at least a couple of hours of each day that I have

free in a foreign land to study their language. I will communicate better while I’m there, make a friend or two among the natives, and have a sense a fulfillment beyond my stomach.

11. Repeat 1-10 with a new language.

When you’ve achieved a level of proficiency in your newly acquired language that pleases you, start over with another one. This may take many years to accomplish. I know that I am interested in learning as many languages as possible, and it will be a matter of making the time to devote to learning them that will determine whether I get beyond the Romance Languages and some limited Korean.

Going beyond the bi-lingual status is something that few people in the West hope to achieve. The argument always revolves around the fact that as English becomes the global language, time and energy should be spent elsewhere. This isn’t a bad argument. But there are too many merits of speaking multiple languages not to spend some time expanding your capacity to learn a few more.

Keep in mind that you can continue to learn and improve for the rest of your life, and that a small amount of study on a regular basis will produce an incredible amount of linguistic

knowledge after just a few short years. There doesn’t seem to be any reason why we all shouldn’t be fluent in multiple languages, which was the mark of an educated person just a few decades ago. Make this a priority and grow mentally at an astonishing rate.

Love

“Where there is love, there is life.”

--Mahatma Gandhi I’m certainly not an expert at love, but neither am I a stranger.

I have been in love a few times. It’s probably the single most amazing experience you can have, and what the rest of the universe would consider “legendary” about the human experience. I have been through many and varied relationships, practicing monogamy, polyamory, and

situations in between. And I have felt--even in the midst of a powerful partnership--utterly alone.

Haven’t you?

Maintaining a healthy relationship seems to be one of the more challenging aspects of 21st century life. As we continue on our course of becoming a truly global civilization, we come into contact with each other at an increasing rate.

Simply by virtue of this proximity to more potential partners, we find ourselves with more decisions to make. Add in the increased work parameters in Western society and the whole industries they spawn (online dating, casual encounters, etc) and the impetus to create the traditional nuclear family diminishes substantially.

Even so, the notion of love must extend far beyond what you feel for your partner in order to be useful to you and the rest of the world. It’s important, particularly as our planet becomes more crowded, to be a loving person. Consider how you felt and the energy you must have exuded when you actually experienced feelings of hate. It was ugly, wasn’t it?

Contrast that with the way you behaved to everyone and everything around you when you were in love. You were

probably smelling flowers and patting children on the head.

I’ll bet it was beautiful.

What I realize as I get older is that everyone desperately craves love. Whether this is in the form of admiration, affection, or validation, people want to feel it. In fact, a newborn baby must be touched regularly, or it will perish. You probably realize that this contact must be motivated by love, and not in the hopes of perfecting a right cross. It seems to be the zenith of our capacity to feel emotional pleasure, and it’s hard to get enough.

You and I both know the world needs more love. The context of what it is and what it means are worth examining in terms of improving your capacity to give it, but don’t worry too much about the specifics. Knowing what is happening at the physiological level is not going to enhance the way you experience those feelings. You’ll just know that they feel extraordinary, and you’ll do anything you can to maintain them. Therefore, please mitigate your own unique level of crazy in this regard.

We all suffer from problems related to a paucity of love, so let’s try to be part of the solution.

1. Tell someone you love that you love them.

It’s so easy, which is precisely why we take it for granted.

This simple word has such a strong legacy in English. We abuse it like crazy, and it still has a tremendous impact when used well. Isn’t that amazing? You could use it, say, on a second date describing the way you feel about Ethiopian food, but if you tried it out during intimacy later that same evening it would certainly be received differently.

Unless you’re in a cult, you probably don’t know where or when your last breath will take place. You’ve heard the stories of people leaving each other after a fight, and one of them dying. They invariably lament how they left that interaction.

We all know people that have passed to whom we should have said it more often. It’s sad.

If you say these words with any kind of sincerity it is almost always arresting. And that you have the ability to change someone’s day for the better just by reminding them of what they probably know is a gift. For a while, I was preemptively telling people I loved them in phone calls.

“Hello?”

“I love you.”

“Thomas?”

“Hi. How’s it goin’?”

Like that. Part of it was about switching the expected sequence of dialogue, but it also changed the conversation in unexpectedly delightful ways. Think carefully about to whom you say this, because it is powerful. But if you feel it strongly, say “I love you,” and say it often.

2. Don’t be a dick.

This is some of the simplest advice I have to offer. Believe me, after trying it both ways, I would let you know if I thought that being a dick was a useful thing. It isn’t. And not being a dick is pretty easy to do on the subway, at the movies, in line for whatever, etc. Any time you’re tempted, remember that the world is so much bigger than your unique situation and won’t be improved by dickish behavior. I’ve been a dick many, many times, and it never made anything better. It is not a reputation or legacy that you want to have to rectify.

Consider that many of us have to use automobiles on a regular basis. If you happen to be in a situation where you can use public transportation or some other means to get through your day, you are fortunate. I imagine we’ll all have the luxury as Big Oil loses its stranglehold on the planet, but this change will be gradual at best.

In the meantime, laying on your horn isn’t changing the traffic situation. If you find yourself honking to “teach people a lesson” as opposed to keeping them aware, you should rearrange yourself. Similarly, letting someone merge into your lane isn’t going to kill your day. You should assume that the majority of people aren’t trying to keep you from getting to the dentist on time, they just need to get over. Finally, realize that just about everyone thinks they’re a pretty good driver.

Most of us, however, aren’t. Except me.

3. Smile more often.

In big cities we get used to not smiling at one another. There are just too many people, and we’ve got very important stuff to do. And then someone smiles at you and you are struck dumb for a moment. Was that intimate, synchronized move of facial muscles for me? And then, usually when it’s too late, you remember to move your lips into something resembling a smile back at them and you’re all out of sorts for the next ten seconds or so... “Why was that person smiling at me?” We need to change this.

When I was in China I noticed that people rarely smiled at one another. In Texas, smiles are unavoidable, and it turns out that’s a good thing. There’s quite a bit of research out

there championing the universal effects of smiling, but don’t take their word for it. Smile at people you meet throughout the day and pay attention to how you’re received. Assuming you don’t give off vibes that are nefarious or condescending in nature, you should get more information, better service, and exercise greater influence in your interactions.

This is probably due to a great number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that people don’t treat each other very well in general. We all tend to get wrapped up in our own lives which can illicit a general indifference regarding the rest of the world. Modify this and you will feel the energy people give back to you. You will be treated with more respect. And you just might make someone’s day.

4. Be aware that everyone is fighting a tremendous battle.

Ian Maclaren reminded us to be kind to people because of this. It is always prudent to remember that people go through horrible things every single day, and aren’t always in the mood to smile at you or talk about it. Forgive them for this and cultivate your own positive feelings and relationships. It’s just so easy to take things personally. If you want to avoid unnecessary conflict, remember this simple suggestion and give people the benefit of the doubt.

Unless they are chemically unbalanced, most people don’t make a point of it to try to hurt you. The rare times I have felt mistreated by friends and family, I invariably find out that they are dealing with something heavier than what I’ve got going on. Be aware of this, because it is very important and should apply to all of your interactions with people. You know who you are. You know you’re amazing. Don’t get all bent out of shape when someone does something that rubs you the wrong way. They’ve got their own struggles to overcome.

5. Write one hand-written letter a month.

It doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. You sit down, write the thoughts on paper that the 21st century urges you to type on your personal computing device, and then put your thoughts in the mail. It’s a fairly archaic and therefore dying form of communication, but it’s also awesome because of this. I don’t get handwritten letters very often, but when I do, there is something magic going on. Plus, you get to write in cursive, which is just dope. Marshall McLuhan’s famous line, “The medium is the message,” is completely apt here. And in the 21st century, this medium is a message of love.

The hand-written letter says a lot about the person writing it, and no matter how hard you try to persuade me, I’ll never be

convinced that the exact same alphabet doesn’t mean more when it’s arranged by the hand of a human being. It’s just one of those strange biases I tend to have about the impact of communication. In a de-humanizing world, there is something very endearing about the sincerity of a letter. Write one and watch what happens*. *Note: it may take longer than you are used to waiting for a response.

6. When people do well, let them know.

I’ve never quite understood the notion of withholding praise.

If you have ever had to teach anything to anyone, you know that positive affirmation is so important to a successful process. People like to feel as if they are making progress, and the easiest way to convey this is to verbally acknowledge that.

As a physique coach, I’ve found that grooving motor patterns is much faster with consistent feedback. By focusing on what is done well, your pupil is more inclined to make the necessary adjustments when they do err, instead of reacting with resistance. That being said, why wouldn’t you tell people that you really care about that you are proud of them and encourage their endeavors?

In one of the iterations of bands I played in while living in Austin, we used to ask people from the audience to come on stage to jam with us. There was one enthusiastic young man that kept showing up. He was incredible, and we told him to get out and start his own project. Aaron Behrens went on to form a very successful band called Ghostland Observatory.

At the end of the day, you are either a builder or a destroyer.

Which one are you? Which one do you aspire to be? I assume that if you are reading Useful Things you hope to be a builder. If that is the case, tell people “Good job!� when they deserve it.

7. Listen.

This is easier said than done...

Rimshot! Try the veal.

We all feel pretty damn important and want to share the way we see the world or have experienced it. This is completely natural. However, you will notice that you fit into the planet in a different way if you focus on listening instead of speaking for a while. Your opinion is important, and probably deserves to be heard, but stop talking for a minute and listen to everything around you.

A hard lesson men need to learn is that sometimes they are only necessary as a pair of ears... or, whatever your ear situation might be. We have a tendency to try to fix things any way that we can, often to the detriment of the situation at hand. I remember constantly trying to problem-solve and troubleshoot for a woman who really just needed a sounding board. I’ve found that most of the time the women in our lives just want us to listen to them.

Whatever your sex, this is a useful suggestion for being a well-balanced person. If you spend more time telling than hearing, fix that disparity. Listening wins you more friends, wisdom, and tolerance.

8. Satisfy the other person first, and they will (probably) satisfy you.

Cameron Thor, the highly-esteemed acting coach, mentioned this in class once upon a time. He was referring to sexual intimacy between partners, but this clearly works across a broad range of humanity: business deals, burgeoning relationships, hosting a party, and compromise in general, to name a few. By taking care of those around you first, you lead by example. This type of behavior is a silent recommendation.

However, the danger here is to do things expecting some sort of outcome. Assuming that you are going to get something for your extension of love is a surefire way to be disappointed. You don’t give gifts expecting something in return. The “(probably)” above references the likelihood that you will be repaid in kind. Let it be a happy surprise when it happens, and don’t modify your good intentions because they aren’t being reciprocated.

9. Be mindful and grateful for the heightened sensory experience.

The feeling of being in love is not permanent. At least, I don’t know anyone who has ever been in love forever. Sorry to break that to you. It is, however, an exceptional, thrill-ride of a state of being. Sadly, it will eventually cool off and perhaps leave you altogether. Of course, I’m aware of people that are still together 50 years later. I don’t mean that you can’t continue to love people. I’m saying that the chemical chaos that tornadoes around two people while they are madly in love is a temporary state of being. It can certainly be prolonged in creative ways, but it eventually changes.

Be mindful of this, and enjoy it while you can.

Many people have the good fortune to fall in love many times during a lifetime, although this is generally at the expense of other relationships. I’m not telling you who to love, only to love being in love. There is nothing greater, more powerful and stupefying, than the surging emotions associated with emotional and physical infatuation with another human being.

It is glorious in a healthy state, and extremely dangerous in one that is dysfunctional. Pay attention and act accordingly.

10. Give freely.

Come from a place of abundance rather than scarcity. Help people out. Share what has worked for you. Give advice when it is asked for. If you can spare some change, give it.

When someone needs you to be there, go. Give. This will enhance your life in ways that you won’t immediately see.

Everyone should have access to ideas about how to be healthy, enhance their experience on Earth, and improve the world in simple ways. My sincerest hope is that Useful Things will inspire positive change in those who take time to read it.

Ultimately, it may not make the entire human population healthier and wiser, but with any luck it will light fires in the minds of a few.

When you make the transition from a Taker to a Giver, you will impact the world in a bigger way. Giving more than you take is a fairly easy metric to try to meet. How many people have the opportunity to do this and don’t? Millions? Don’t be one of them. Give of yourself and make the world a better place.

11. Make your relationship memorable.

I met a beautiful girl when she and I were both years into our own respective relationships. We fell in love and fled to Costa Rica for 11 days of absolute bliss. It was something that had to happen, and I would do it the same way every time.

However, when we came back, we had to face the enormously difficult task of saying goodbye to our significant others. This was very unpleasant. And it got violent.

But after that, we stayed together and went all over the U.S.A. and the world, including Brussels, Paris, Seoul, Bangkok, Hanoi, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Cancún and more.

We explored, worked, experimented, fought, celebrated, wept, feasted, battled illness, solved puzzles, and made art together. Without those things we would have parted ways very early on.

I think of relationships like fire: they burn so bright and hot at the beginning, but they eventually cool and need to be

tended more closely. Feed the fire. I’m not saying you should leave your current partner and take off to Central America, but at least stoke the flames!

12. Gratitude Every day is a gift. If you don’t feel that way at the moment, I’m hoping you have the presence of mind to remember that a shift in perspective is all that’s necessary to jog your brain.

Everything about this life is so strange and beautiful and worthy of your acknowledgement. If you’ve forgotten or just need a refresher, walk barefoot outside and feel the ground under your feet. Smell the air and listen to the wind. Look up.

If that still doesn’t do it, or you are somehow opposed to the glory of the natural world, feel free to think about the chain of events that led you to where you are now. Think about the people that pushed you in the right direction and encouraged you to grow. Consider all the help that you’ve had to get where you are now, for better or for worse. Then, say “Thank you.”

13. Get off the internet in public.

We live in an age of distractions. All of the technological conveniences are creating a race of people desperate to

devour information. I am one of the biggest culprits I know.

The sheer volume of data that is screaming to be consumed extends far beyond traditional media outlets into just about every moment of being online. I don’t foresee our people being online less in the future, but please be aware that we are all self-isolating while globally connecting. This is interesting because we have no idea what the long-term effects of this will be.

I do know that I see a lot of couples in bars and restaurants and one or both of them (groups, too!) are all immersed in their phones. As the gadgets change and our online experience progresses, updated versions of this book will use different words to describe the technology, but the point is this: when you are spending time with people, be with them. Stop trying to be right. Just be, and enjoy it.

14. Love where you live.

You probably share the place where you stay with people, plants, and animals; all of it shapes your perception of reality there. There’s so much life in a square inch of flora that you probably aren’t even aware of. It’s your world: why would you not make time for it? Equally, if you are going to live in a

place, be part of the community. Meet your neighbors, get involved.

I’ve sought out interesting communities to call home since leaving the university. Over the course of ten years I called different parts of Austin, TX, home. In between I lived in NYC (and Dirty Jersey), Paris, and Seoul. I found many things in each neighborhood that I fell in love with during my time there. Now that I live in Venice, CA, I don’t have any plans to move for a while. This community is special due to a number of factors, but the proximity to the ocean is my favorite.

If you don’t love where you live, leave. We were probably always meant to feel love over fear and hate, but it has to be a conscious decision. Your immediate environment is going to strongly affect your ability to make that decision. Get up, get out, and get something. Find a place to live that will allow you to be the best that you can be. Then, fall in love with it.

Useful Links CHAPTER 1 Eat grass-fed beef: http://www.nrdc.org/living/eatingwell/ top-10-reasons-eat-grass-fed-meat.asp Baguette recipe: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/classic-baguettesand-stuffed-baguettes-recipe Hunt: http://honest-food.net/2010/06/03/want-to-learn-to-huntget-started-now/ Fish: http://www.howtofishguide.com/ Grow your own: http://kgi.org/ Find a farmer’s market: http://search.ams.usda.gov/ farmersmarkets/ Mignonette recipe: http://www.foodrepublic.com/2011/06/30/ oysters-classic-mignonette-recipe CHAPTER 2

Powerlifting guide: http://www.t-nation.com/ free_online_article/most_recent/ powerlifting_the_definitive_guide Find a bodybuilding competition: http:// contest.bodybuilding.com/search Find a strongman(woman) competition: http:// www.nastrongman.com/?page_id=2368 Find a race: http://www.findarace.org/ CHAPTER 3 Organize a clean up: http://www.kab.org/site/PageServer? pagename=gac_organizeyourown List of conservation groups: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ List_of_environmental_organizations CHAPTER 4 Meditation guide: http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/howto-meditate CHAPTER 5

King of travel: http://chrisguillebeau.com/3x5/ CHAPTER 6 Museum finder: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ museumday/venues/

About the Author

Thomas Faustin Huisking was born in Texas. He has worked as an actor, musician, model, writer, teacher, physique coach, bartender, video game tester, business owner, bagel baker, and worn a bear costume, among many other things. He lives in Venice, California. This is his first useful book.