Difference Between An Average Life Vs. A Spectacular Life

Do you work a nine to five disinteresting job? Do you watch four hours of television everyday after work? Are your weekends filled with powerboats, beer and grilled ribs? Do you lust for the thrill of the NFL season? Will you be remembered for contributing something significant to the world?

If you’re like 90 percent of humanity, you live an average life.

You might wonder, however, why some people climb Mount Everest or scuba dive beneath the oceans around the world or ride a bicycle across a continent? Why do some women run in the Ironman Triathlon at 78 years of age? What causes some men and women to play tennis into their eighties?

Why do some people quest for something in the mountains, at sea or across the land? What causes them to scale a cliff or scuba dive below the waves or snowboard 30 inches of deep powder?

In the arts, why do couples learn spectacular dances? Or, why learn to create a stunning piece of landscape art?

The key to a “Spectacular Life” stems from a powerful equation: two degrees of effort over time equals a spectacular life.

Anyone at anytime in his or her life can choose to live that formula. You read about them in Parade Magazine or AARP for older citizens. Whether a couple, the Vogel’s of Boise, Idaho, save their money, grabs their two kids—and bicycle from the Arctic Ocean in Alaska all the way to Ushuaia at the bottom of South America—or, Harriet Anderson, 78, runs an Ironman Triathlon--it’s a choice of two degrees of effort over time.

You might call it “high vibrational frequency living” at your highest and best. What does that mean? For example: when you’re excited to go fishing, skiing, camping or mountain climbing—you enjoy a “high” in your sense of life. You grow excited at whatever your endeavor, i.e., painting, acting, drawing, creating, dancing, working a job you like, pursuing your dreams and anything that turns you on to life’s highest and best.

Five years ago, I gave my “How to Live a Spectacular Life: Designing Your Life on Your Terms” presentation to Golden High School students near my home in Golden, Colorado. This past spring, I repeated the program-slide show that takes audiences all over the world. Several students walked up to me after the program.

They said, “One of the kids that saw your program five years ago did exactly as you said. He worked two jobs 80 hours a week for nearly three years, wrote down his dream, saved his money, read his dream statement every day and saved $50,000.00. He bought a BMW motorcycle in Anchorage, Alaska. Then, he rode it to the Arctic Ocean on the Dalton Highway. He scooped up a small vial of ocean water. From there, he pointed his bike toward the bottom of South America. Last fall, he emailed us that he had dipped his second vial of water into the Southern Ocean at the bottom of South America. He did it!”

“Where is he now?” I asked.

“He’s somewhere over in Europe riding his bike,” they said. “We keep up with him on social media.”

Another young woman I met at the top of Logan’s Pass, Glacier National Park in Montana in 2015. She featured a small Teddy Bear on her bicycle handlebars. An Australian, she spent three years bicycling around the world, solo!

Another friend of mine, Karen Vance, started out as a watercolor artist in Winter Park, Colorado. She made a pittance for a living. Nonetheless, she stuck with her passion to become a top artist. Thirty years later, she earned the “Governor’s Award” for top artist. Her paintings sell for $14,000.00 each in 2016.

Rick Leach and his high school friend completed rowing their boat from Monterey, Califo
ia to Honolulu, Hawaii, 55 days, over 3,000 miles, July 31, 2016.

How do I know this formula works? Okay, I admit that I milked cows as a 15 year old. I baled hay, cultivated corn and kicked a lot of silage into the silo. I started out poor.

After seeing an interview on my travel exploits, my 10th grade history teacher called me up about my bicycling a around the world, “I never thought you would amount to much of anything. Now I see you’re living an interesting life. I’m proud of you.”

“Thank you Mrs. Rainwater,” I said, with a gulp, on the phone.

It matters little where you began your life. You may have enjoyed good or otherwise parents or no parents. You may be poor, frustrated and depressed. No one will ever feel sorry for you so avoid feeling sorry for yourself. Get to your life!

By incorporating this simple formula: 2 degrees of effort over time equals a happy, successful and spectacular life.

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