The Explore Everything Life

For this week’s blog post, I’m going to do something a little bit different: I have a guest blog writer! This guest is none other than my partner in all of this crazy awesomeness, my husband Chris. XOXO - Jen

Hello! Ever since Jen started this blog, I have loved reading everything she’s had to say. We spend most of our time together, and so I usually know the things she’s posting about because we lived them out side by side, or we chatted about the thoughts and ideas that she shares. However, the blog allows me to see a side of Jen that I don’t normally get to see, and that is her own unique approach to life, and how she works out the way she feels, reacts, and responds to it. I love to witness that thought process and to see her work through things, sharing the moments that hit home for her and bring her excitement, joy, doubt, happiness, and everything else. It’s adds to and enriches our life together.

So I thought I should jump in every once in a while and offer a few of my thoughts and perspectives as well, to be a part of the awesome conversation that Jen has started (and to also give her a week off every once in awhile).

A reader-board I pass on my way home from work has this message on it right now: “In a world where you can be anything, be kind.” I thought that was profound, not because of the idea of people choosing to be kind (that would be great of course), but because of the idea that we can choose to be anything. Seriously, we are adults now, and the freedom we always begged for as kids has finally come. We can walk out our front door and go do anything, or be anyone we want to be. Now that we have that freedom, we’re taking full advantage of it, right?

And it made me wonder why we, full grown adults, would not choose to live the life we want? Why wouldn't we try to discover what type of life we'd like to live? After all, we're only given one go around, so not living in a way that serves us seems like a huge problem!

There could be a lot of reasons for this. We may live the life we’ve seen our parents live, or our friends. We may be subconsciously living the life we’ve seen other people on television and in movies live. Or we may be choosing the life that seems or feels the easiest, because anything else is either too scary, too uncomfortable, or too impossible.

Well, I’ve decided to become an advocate and full on member of the "Explore Everything Life"! It could be also called the chase your interests life, because it’s about having something spark your curiosity, and not immediately saying no.

I feel like there are many examples of this kind of life, there’s “Yes Man” with Jim Carey, “Date Night” with Tina Fey, or any movie where someone ends up in a crazy circumstance because they decided to try something new. Heck, throw the Hangover in there. These movies are obvious fictionalizations, but they’re not far from the truth. If only in the sense that on any given night, you don’t have to do the same old thing you did the night before. The minutes you have are minutes you can use to pursue anything. Even if you aren’t sure where to start, just pick one thing, try it for a while, and then see how you feel. You may love it, or it may open your world to something else you didn’t realize was out there all along.

It’s important to realize that interests are something that we pursue, and not necessarily something that define us. You can be adventurous, curious, outdoorsy, friendly, outgoing, introspective, open minded, quirky, friendly, etc. And choosing to try something new will be an opportunity to understand something further about ourselves, something we would never discover with inaction.

I’ve been discovering this a lot in my creative pursuits. When we decided to embrace the DIY approach, we maybe didn’t know everything that would entail. Another requirement, expectation, or opportunity pops up and we have to jump in and do our best with the tools we have. So we’ve been able to develop a bunch of new skills simply by throwing ourselves into the fray. Some of these skills are things that I’ve been curious about pursuing, or maybe tried once before and didn’t get very far.

Having Camp Crush has helped me develop my curiosity for graphic design, filmography and editing, photography, sound engineering, marketing, website building, etc. The further we dive in, the more we learn! It’s a matter of eliminating that mental block, that little voice in your head that says you can’t do something for whatever reason.

Another big example of ignoring my mental block has been my vegetarian diet. I’ve been vegetarian for over 4 years now, and I absolutely love it, and have no plans of ever going back. It’s fairly easy to be a vegetarian in Portland when you’re surrounded by so many people on the same path, but even still, it’s a completely counter culture idea. The mental block in this instance is years and years of ingrained cultural tradition. Everyone has an opinion about food, because we all eat it. But I often hear people say, “I could never be a vegetarian.” Hell, I said it. But exploring an interest became a lifestyle for me, one that I love. I'm glad I didn't listen to that little voice in my head that said it would be impossible.

When I hear "I could never," the same question always comes to my mind: “Why not?” Anytime we say that, we're destined to create a self fulfilling prophecy, and we're also building a pretty concrete box around ourselves and the endless possibilities this life affords. Nowadays, If I ever find myself accidentally saying that phrase, I stop and ask myself, "really, never?" Am I really willing to define a stopping point for my potential? And that stopping point is around something so trivial as food/travel/events/music/friendships? Is our current comfort so important that we’re willing to let it define who we are? What experiences are we denying ourselves of because we simply think “I could never”.

I’m going to continue working on this! I know this requires much reprogramming. We often act in ways to stay as safe as possible, and taking risks and trying new things is not necessarily “safe”. But I want to continue to eliminate any preconceived notions I have, any snap judgments I may be making, and stop seeing things the same way I always have. Hopefully this will help open up my life to all of the endless possibilities and opportunities I could possibly be missing otherwise. It’s a long journey, but it’s full of amazing things! Let’s go!

-Chris Spicer

Partner in crime at Camp Crush // Spicer Brothers Produce // Bailey & Coop