Escape Adulthood

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No Rain, No Flowers

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No rain, no flowers. Maybe it’s trite. But it’s also true. It may sound like optimism, and it is, but it’s also scientific fact. No pressure, no diamond. No fire, no s’mores. Why do life’s hard parts surprise us? We can look around see examples all around us that the good stuff never comes easy. The best night’s sleep comes after the hardest day’s work. We all want our lives to be awesome but then we yell at they sky when our comfortable little existence is disturbed. I, for one, am grateful that God ignores my whiny, short-sided complaints in order to grant the desires of my heart. Some of the best, most rewarding things that ever happened to me were born from struggle and pain and circumstances I never would have chosen for myself. When you’re in the middle of one of life’s downpours, it can be hard to believe a bouquet of something great is right around the corner. Maybe that’s trite, too. But that doesn’t mean it’s not true. It's definitely something we …

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Are You Leading the League?

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With the Major League Baseball season heading into the All-Star break, a quick glance at the statistical leaders reveals that I am not leading the National League (or the American League, for that matter) in home runs. Truthfully, I’m not even close. Of course, there is one important detail that probably matters somewhat: I don’t actually play professional baseball. I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s pretty ridiculous to beat myself up for not leading the league in home runs if I’m not a professional baseball player. And yet we regularly feel bad about ourselves for being lousy at games we’re not even playing. Weird. Just because we don’t think of them as "games" in the same way we think of baseball as a game, doesn't mean we haven't devised ways to keep score at the activities in which we participate. Rather than tracking home runs, we measure things like money, body weight, square footage, degrees, status, accolades, connections, sales, prestige, and fame. For instance, …

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An A-Z Guide for Summer Memory Making

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Well, it happened. The longest day of the year has come and gone. It’s always a bit depressing for me, because I know that now the days will only get shorter and shorter. (And it feels like summer only just arrived!) I can’t help but wonder if I’m taking full advantage of the warmer weather. After all, a good summer is one that’s jammed with good memories. If you can relate, here are a couple thoughts… First, it doesn’t have to be overly organized. We asked a bunch of people on Facebook for their favorite thing to do outside as a kid, and not one person mentioned anything about an organized sport. Which was interesting to me, as organized sports are often are the biggest culprit in creating summer clutter and busyness. Secondly, money isn’t a major factor either. Although one might consider a trip to Disney World a slam dunk memory machine, it just isn’t so. Dave Ramsey asked his community about their best summertime memories, and Disney World wasn’t mentioned once. In …

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Jason Hewlett, June 2018 Adultitis Fighter of the Month

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An Adultitis Fighter is someone who rallies against rules that don't exist and engages in ruthless, senseless acts of silliness that undermine Adultitis and its unadventurous version of adulthood. Once a month, we shine a light upon the most remarkable among us, holding them up as a dazzling example of what we should strive for in this epic battle against a formidable enemy. Jason Hewlett is a world-class entertainer and a hall of fame speaker who has brought joy and laughter to audiences all over the world. Jason is not only an Adultitis Fighter, he’s an Adultitis Antidote. If you are struggling with a bad case, all you have to do is watch one of his videos and Adultitis will go running for the hills. He is a talented singer, a gifted storyteller, and has the uncanny ability to make his face do things that shouldn’t be possible. Perhaps his greatest superpower is not taking himself too seriously, which is an important quality for any Adultitis Fighter. The breadth of Jason’s …

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You Learned This in School, But it Won’t Help You Now

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Recently, I was conducting a day-long workshop in Vancouver for a group of business owners. I was encouraging them to get intentional about what they wanted out of life. I’m surprised at how often this step gets neglected. It’s important, because until we are clear on what we’re aiming for, we’ll end up aimlessly drifting along with the current, mindlessly following rules that don’t exist, while wasting time and energy making choices that don’t serve us well. One attendee asked, “But what if we don’t know what we want?” I don’t remember what I said in the moment, but I have thought about that question ever since. I’m not sure that “not knowing what we want” is a thing. I think we’re just too afraid of picking “wrong.” Most of us come from a school system in which we are taught that there are right answers and wrong ones. Everything we do is verified and validated by someone else. Of course, math and spelling and historical dates are binary: Right or wrong. But in school, …

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The Best Policy is the One You Make Up After You Read This

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If you’ve been following along for a while here, you know that I am a big proponent of breaking rules (particularly the ones that don’t exist.) What might surprise you is that I am equally cool with creating them, too, as long as you’re clear on the reason. I want to share with you one of the most liberating concepts I’ve come across, and believe it or not, it involves making and abiding by strict rules. It’s the idea of creating personal policies. You're well aware of how big companies devise all kinds of policies to protect their interests. You’ve heard it dozens of times: “I’m sorry ma’am, that’s not our policy,” or “Sorry sir, our policy clearly states...” As frustrating and ridiculous as some of these policies can be, you know that there’s not much you can do about them. They’re usually written by lawyers and backed up by loads of bureaucracy. If you’ve ever arrived at your departure gate at the airport fifteen seconds after they’ve closed the door, you know their …

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