Today, I am killing What-Ifs.

I started the week picking them of at a distance. Ping. Pyew. Pzam. Way off on the horizon I could see their little heads exploding. It took almost no effort. Zing. Zow. Their tiny silhouettes crumpled, silent, too far away to see clearly.

Today, they’re closer. They crawl up my shoe and I have to shake them off, kick them away so that I can get a good shot. They’re harder to hit now. Somehow, they move faster. Like zombies, you don’t want them to get too close. Each kill seems to require more effort, because they’re so close.

What if I can’t do it?

What if I’m not as good as I thought?

I take down three of them in a row, bam, bam, bam, and reload. I’m not carrying a gun. My best defense against What-Ifs is far more effective than any firearm, but it means better concentration and quick thinking. My weapon is action.

The fourth What-If is hanging onto my left ankle, rearing back and opening its ugly little mouth wide, getting ready to chow down. Its face is a hole in the universe. I can see its sharp, shiny little teeth. I aim. I fire.

Pow.

The mob drops away front of me, cut down like chaff. I erect new armor and protective barriers, those who have gone before me, reminding me that action is the course I must take. Johnny Truant. Charlie Gilkey. Tim Brownson. Eckhart Tolle. Seth Godin, and my Triiibe. Pages of compassionate accounts, ass-kicking enthusiasm, exploration of meaning, affectionate anecdotes, powerful inspirational passages like battle cries. I wash words across my face like war paint. Another What-If explodes in the distance, splattering darkness and despair like wet black dust.

I will destroy them all.

Idea generation is infinite. You can come up with another one at any time.

Don’t hang on to an idea so hard that you fail to actually implement it. It may never be perfect, and that’s okay. The important part is that you try big, learn from the experience, and keep moving forward.

This is not the last great idea you’re going to get. Step out of your comfort zone and do something with it before you forget why it was so exciting.

Okay?

Marty and I have been watching Back to the Future. (He bought all three of them the other day.)

When I was growing up, I wanted that almanac—with all the sports scores for the next fifty years. The Perfect Solution. Fast, reliable, easy money. Solve all my problems. Exactly what I needed. And I wouldn’t even have to work for it!

But what do you get, exactly, when you get the Perfect Solution? You don’t get new skills. You don’t get new knowledge about yourself. In fact, if that Perfect Solution gets screwed up, you’re right back where you started and not particularly better off. (I’ll bet you’re pissed, though.)

If I had ever gotten that almanac (by some strange theatrical twist of fate), I could have made a lot of money really fast. But I wouldn’t have learned anything new. And if I suddenly found myself back at square one, I wouldn’t have any way to change it. Except maybe to wait for another Perfect Solution.

That’s why “winning the lottery” isn’t going to help. Getting a quick fix isn’t like changing what you can do. Changing what you can do means you can change your fate at any time. Not just once.

You don’t need an almanac from the future, or a lottery win. You can find another way. And then, no matter what happens, you’ll know that you can change your fortune. You can make $20, and then $50, and then $500, and then $10,000. You can connect with one person, and then a thousand. You can do anything. But you don’t gain those skills by having someone or something save your ass. You gain those skills by saving your own ass.

The real “Perfect Solution” is to learn, grow and act.

So stop waiting and get DOing!

You know… I never really listened to these lyrics. And now that I’ve have, I’ve been playing this one song over and over:

As of last night, there is no doubt in my mind that eating more raw produce puts me in a more emotion-based state of mind. I feel moved more often. I feel connected. I verge on tears more often, in a way that identifies what is important to me, what must happen next, what it’s time for me to do. All issues with internal and external motivation aside, the explosion of emotional growth I’m experiencing has served as a compass for the decisions I make and the energies I expend. I’m getting more sensitive to it all the time. It’s one of the things that makes me truly wonder about being completely, 100% raw, even considering the dramatic change that would mean for my lifestyle. (Well, I suppose I’ve undergone some pretty dramatic changes already. Big deal, right?)

For those of you who are curious, I’m not completely sure when the step from 90% raw to 100% raw will happen (or if it will happen?), but I have a feeling there will be a time for it and I’ll know when that time is. I’m looking for the right route, the one that feels the best and results in the healthiest, strongest, most stable Megan. It’s not going to be exactly like anyone else’s, but that’s what makes it interesting. ;}

I feel like I’m understanding, in touch with, more than ever. Or maybe it all just spoke too quietly for me to hear, or maybe I just wasn’t listening. And although I’ve been following these ideas for awhile now, the understanding just continues to get… louder.

Your number has been called. Don’t let yourself down, don’t let yourself go. Your last chance has arrived. You’ve got to be the best, you’ve got to change the world and use this chance to be heard. Your time is now.

That’s pretty straightforward, folks.

Listen to the band.

Why, exactly, do you need an excuse?

Why do you need a program? Or a scholarship, or a recommendation, or a mandate, or an initiative, or somebody else’s carefully crafted plan?

Why not execute your own carefully crafted plan?*

Why do you have to wait for opportunity to knock? You can make your own opportunity, right now.

You know what it looks and feels like. You know what you want the results to be. You know that you’re craving a challenge, but you don’t need someone else to challenge you. Challenge yourself. Cut the path on your own. If you’re waiting for someone to boot your success system, you might be waiting a long time. WHY. WAIT. (!?)

Is this what they teach us? Is this the conditioning we’ve been living with? Is this what we tell our kids? Is this why so many of us are sitting on our butts playing blame games with our lives? Who told you to wait? Why do you think they were right? Stop listening to them. They don’t know what they’re talking about. It was time to get started years ago. You can catch up by getting off your ass now and doing something.

Do I have to beg, or are you going to quit jerking around and make something happen?

* “But Megan, I don’t have a plan.” Oh geeze, of all the goofy excuses. GO MAKE ONE!

This afternoon I read Chris Guillebeau’s A Brief Guide to World Domination: How to Live a Remarkable Life in a Conventional World. I strongly suggest downloading the PDF from the link he provides, and reading it. Right now. (Or, you know. Soon.)

Here’s my notes redux…

• You don’t have to do what other people say you have to do.
• There’s no point in saving your crazy for close friends. Tell everybody. (The polarization effect is incredibly liberating… and revealing.)
• I know a disturbing number of unremarkably average people. I guess you do too. I am alarmed and dissatisfied with this realization. Let’s print this book out and give them a copy. Deal?
• Working backwards, and my life’s “set point”. I have always speculated on working backwards, but it sometimes takes time to pin down the thing you really want (and sometimes that thing will change). It occurred to me while reading (thanks, Chris!) that working backwards can very much be like changing your life’s “set point”—having the life you want and being unwilling to give it back, so therefore making all the right things happen that allow you to keep it. Think about where you are right now. Where I am now, I would find living without a computer completely unacceptable. And I have 3+ computers in my life that prove I’m capable of making sure I get to live that way, regardless of financial circumstances and whathaveyou. Tons of people who are perfectly happy live without computers. What if I found living without a yacht completely unacceptable? Interesting train of thought.
• Ignore anyone who tells you that you can’t have both. I don’t care what “both” refers to. They’re wrong.
  
• “The world is in short supply of truth-tellers.” Chris says, and I agree: The world is desperate for the simple truth. This man is not putting you on. We are lied to so much. The truth is bent and slanted and side-stepped in so many different ways, every moment of our lives. Our entire culture is built on a system that rewards conformity rather than truth. If you’re willing to tell the truth—for real—you’re ahead of the game. That is so, so important. Wake up, y’all.
• He was talking about gatekeepers, and all I could think of was college. In college I was constantly coming up against some rule or customary practice that was different than what I wanted to do. This is how you proceed in higher education. This is how you become well-known as a singer. This is how you advance your career. This is how you go on to sing in an opera house. This is how you build your website, this is how you dress, this is how you talk. It’s bullshit, guys. I have tremendous respect for the people who have made their careers following those rules, but it’s still bullshit. There is more than one right way to do anything in the world. I promise. Do NOT let them tell you otherwise.
• It’s everywhere. Kill it with fire. So many people think the rules have to be followed, even when they’re convinced they’re not actually following them. It’s embedded into our upbringing, into everything we encounter. This kind of thinking is so brainwashingly prevalent that it’s a shock to the system when someone pulls out of it. All you have to do is be brave. All you have to do is push. And because most people don’t… you’re suddenly in the front, making waves.

Just… do something. Stop talking about it and try. When you stop just talking and start doing things, you’ll be amazed at what begins to happen. Your whole life changes.

Go read this book. It’s short. It’s easy. It will take almost no effort (and Chris writes awesomely). Spend half an hour and improve your entire life.