How did you spend your extra day? Did you take a leap? Do something you wouldn’t normally do?

Like go commando? Listen to rap music? Share dog pictures with the mayor? Complete the New York Times crossword? Suck in your gut while peeing? Withdraw your retirement? Move to Spain?

Leap Day is my second favorite holiday, right behind the day of an extra hour of sleep... it’s the day, once every four years, when Leap Day William rises from the Mariana Trench and trades children’s tears for candy!

Maybe you experienced a Leap Day miracle!

Leap Day capped off a truly fantastic week, including great times with some truly beautiful young women.

Earlier in the week, this Latina beauty I’m acquainted with commented she was saving her money to buy a car. Or another tattoo. I had to ask if she was craving the pain, and she said she wasn’t—that it hurt so bad—but she kinda wanted to be covered with tattoos.

Then she asked what I thought about that. I told her it depends on how pretty the girl is... that if she’s ugly, sure, cover that shit up! But if she’s pretty, it seems like a waste.

She blushed and called me mean. So mean!

Then later, she bought me a cheeseburger and a cream slush.

Good, she didn’t miss that I actually called her pretty. I’m curious to see where this goes.

And now, there is a leap I’ve made. To finally stop writing about living. To actually redesign my life... and live.

I’m terrified. Yet, for years I’ve said, “Risk is your friend.”

It’s time to embrace that sentiment, close my eyes, and jump right in.

What i'm listening to:

Brand New Bitch
Anjulie
Brand New Bitch

I just want to meet the guy (you know it was a guy) who invented yoga pants, and give him a hug.

I’ve made a new friend at work and I can’t help but admire the way he sees the world. He practically dances through life, and his energy is infectious.

It’s inspiring.

Yet I don’t know how to do this. Why do I find the unknown so alarming? Why can’t I just roll with what comes? How do I overcome this failing and simply adapt and endure?

Like water rolling off a duck’s back?

This. This must be the next step in my evolution.

Easier said than done? Perhaps. I have an opportunity to explore this with like-minded people—and to escape those who are familiar with me and my idiosyncrasies, and prefer comfort to growth.

I am tired of being consistently disappointed by my cyclical nature. These themes constantly come up as needing to be addressed, yet I never really get past them.

This is an opportunity I cannot let slip by. I will not (and have no desire to) live forever... why continue to let regret and missed opportunities define my life?

Of course, he’s not wrong regarding yoga pants.

Last fall, my mechanic mentioned that US automakers will no longer sell cars with a manual transmission in just a few more years. While I haven’t been able to confirm a set date when I’ll no longer find my next stick shift, it does have me thinking about society’s aversion to driving a stick.

Myself? I have never owned a car with an automatic transmission. I enjoy driving a stick. I enjoy the control. I enjoy the reactions from the girls when they discover my car is a stick. I enjoy teaching them to drive a stick.

(Clarissa, do you still want to learn?)

Wednesday afternoon, for the first time in my life, I understood this huge campaign to eliminate this option from our lives. I was navigating around Denver, mid-afternoon, in a snowstorm—which brought traffic to a standstill. After three hours and forty miles of driving, it became crystal clear.

Both of my legs were burning. I was exhausted. Manual transmissions have no place in the city.

Of course, these people have no interest in driving a stick shift. Emphasis should be on the word DRIVING.

Stick shifts are not for people in cities and our policy makers (who, arguably, are nothing like the rest of us anyway)—these people’s idea of “driving” is simply sitting in a car going nowhere while the traffic around them also goes nowhere. These people have no idea what “driving” actually is... it’s simply a way to spend time in their car while they commute very slowly from one place to the next.

Stick shifts are best enjoyed on the open road, where they are truly more efficient—and an absolute treat to drive. Manuals are simpler, with fewer moving parts (read: lower maintenance bills), and those of us who know how to drive enjoy better fuel economy... contrary to what our policy makers (who tie them to wasting fuel) believe.

Of course, the death of the stick is inevitable... as the masses continue to flock to crowded cities, losing intelligence points along the way. And don’t get me started on our policy makers...

For now, I shall simply continue to enjoy my stick shift while I can. In fact, I already have my eyes on my next car.

Drive on.

A Hopi Indian word meaning life out of balance.

A truer word has never been spoken.

A battle has been raging on inside me for... well, for a long, long time. I’m continuously on this quest for something more. For enlightenment. For excellence. Perhaps even for perfection, even though it often becomes the enemy of excellence.

So I read. I travel. I crave knowledge. Yet something is missing.

Experience.

I have a hunger for experience. This is a critical part of the balance I seek.

I now know that this developmental detour will help me find my way. That designing the life I dream of is within reach... in fact, it is closer than I ever imagined. Which is great, because, after all, I am not getting any younger. Yet time—and life—marches on.

In a world, where most have allowed their dreams to die, or have been paid off to forget them, mine are reawakened. A spark has ignited. Our dreams don’t have to die... yet they do require clarity to achieve them.

This weekend, I noticed a post that stated most billionaires did not make their money young, that it happened later in life.

To that end, there is no better time to flesh out the biggest dreams & visions I have for myself; to gain that clarity; and to take a leap of faith and design the life that I want. Plus, I have a band of brothers who will stand with me. Who will fillet me when I am off course and being a jackass. Yet, who will encourage me with love and success.

Dreams. Are. Within. Reach.

Don’t be discouraged... it’s always darkest before the dawn.

What i'm listening to:

Koyaanisqatsi
Will to Power
Journey Home