AWOL360

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately on ways to improve the overall quality of my life, what I really want, what will make me most happy, and how to get to that point? Making drastic changes for a long term goal is one of the toughest things a person can do. Starting to make the change is easy, but staying consistent day in and day out is what separates those who achieve new goals and those who are stuck in the status quo. I am turning 31 in a month and I have noticed a ton of changes in the last year and I have to imagine I will be noticing a lot more in the year to come.

What’s changed? A lot of friends have been getting married and having kids. It’s crazy just how many friends went down this path this past year. For the most part everyone was single and having fun and then BAM, married with kids. While for the most part I will support their decisions to get married and start a family; I know that the married/family life is not what I want or what will make me most happy right now in my life. It is not due to lack of opportunity as I have had several viable options this last year if I wanted to pair up with a quality women for the long haul. Since I value my freedom more than anything else right now I had to put an end to those relationships. So what does all my friends getting married mean for me? Well it is extremely difficult to maintain the level of friendship that I had with friends prior to their serious relationships. Weekend nights out with buddy’s turned into a beer at happy hour turned into a phone call every few weeks. While this does suck, I am not angry or bitter, it’s just the way it is. So as a result my arsenal of friends to hit the town with has seriously been depleted and my social life has suffered as a result. I have found other people to go out with but it’s just not quite as fun. So instead of “grasping” onto the past I have decided to give up the bar/party scene for a while to concentrate on goals that will actually do me some good.

So what do I want? For starters I want to look and feel awesome. I am not 21 anymore and my body cannot bounce back from abuse like it used to. I am going to make my health and fitness my number one priority. I am getting older and I need to get my shit together so that I can travel the world long into my golden years. Every day I want to get out of bed and feel incredible; that means getting enough sleep every night, eating the right kinds of food, staying properly hydrated, doing the right kind of exercise and exercising my mind so that it stays sharp and ready for a challenge. To get to this point it means that I am going to have to make some serious changes and give up a lot of habits that have been with me throughout my twenties. Alcohol consumption needs to be reduced to virtually nothing. This is going to be really difficult because I love to go out drinking and have a good time. The downside is that Alcohol kicks my ass the next day. Hangovers generally take a full day to recover from and if I really tied one on I can feel the lingering effects for several days afterwards. If I painted the town red Friday and Saturday night, I won’t feel normal again until the following Tuesday or so. This needs to stop. It’s a waste of money and nothing good ever really comes out of drinking in excess. At this point, I am simply doing it for the sake of doing it. It’s not like I am abroad meeting new and exciting women every night I go out, but rather frequenting the same bars and seeing the same people every weekend. I need to stop this and focus my time on energy on worthy pursuits like my business.

I have recently started an e-commerce company with a business partner that, with hard work I really feel is going to be a big success and will be my ticket out of the corporate 9-5 and into the world of location independent living. It’s great to have something to focus on after work but I won’t be able to give it the attention and passion that it will require unless I feel 100% at my best. I understand that most businesses fail but I am determined to make this work. I found long ago that the best feeling in the world is achieving a life goal that I have worked towards for a long time. The feeling of achievement is addicting and sticks with me for a long time giving me an awesome vibe that conveys that I kick ass and take what I want out of life. A nice side result is that women usually find this kind of vibe and attitude irresistible which leads me to the next change I want to make.

For the last two years or so I have been following the “manosphere” with almost an obsessive level of attention. The manosphere if you haven’t heard of it is a network of bloggers and writers like Citizen Renegade and RooshV that have been studying, practicing, and teaching “game” as well as many other topics geared towards men. I discovered game like countless others a few years back and became immediately addicted to the subject. I tried a lot of different stuff and for the most part enjoyed a pretty high level of success that has got me to where I am today. The problem is that it becomes the center of your universe and before you know it is all you talk or think about. But to what end? At what point does going out and meeting and dating new women become a chore. I like to think that I proved to myself that I could meet and date a wide variety of women of very high quality but it’s not that important to me anymore. I have evolved to wanting more out of my life and living in such a way that meeting women becomes an afterthought. I would much rather direct my energy and focus onto pursuits that will benefit me in the years to come.

So what does this mean for me? I have decided that 31 is going to be a year in which I will use towards building a better future. I am going to cut out much of the drinking and going out and focus on worthwhile pursuits that will help me once I transition into my life of long term continuous travel like my AWOL MBA and knocking out my Bucket List. It will be tough for sure but I think in the end the benefits will greatly outnumber any of the temporary sacrifices I will make. Wish me luck!