The Seventh Pillar of Expertise

There are Seven Pillars of Expertise which you MUST be good at to have a truly fulfilled life.

We discussed the Six Pillars in previous posts along with the importance of your Primary Question. Today I will introduce the Seventh Pillar. It is the hardest to explain but also adds the most juice in your life because it’s the pillar of adventure. I call it the 007. It means anything that takes your breath away. It is stepping outside your comfort zone. It can be as simple as riding a horse or trying a new type of food, or as crazy as skiing a black diamond (did that today!) or flying an airplane. It’s about living……stepping outside the daily routine and actually living. Hell, it may be as simple as sitting on the back porch and enjoying a sunset but only if you do it in a way you have not before and when totally present. I started this idea several years ago when I realized unless we fight to the contrary, life will become a boring routine. This is true no matter what we do for a living. Admittedly I am a bit of an adrenaline junkie and I like doing crazy – fun things. But even those can become mundane and routine if you don’t purposely spice things up. I am an Emergency Physician by training and was the medical director at a trauma Clinic for 10 years. By definition that is an exciting job and filled with uncertainty and adventure. But even that can start to feel like “just another day” in the ER if you let it. Adventure-seeking is about doing something different every week outside the “normal” life you would lead if you didn’t fight for the adventure. It puts the spice in your life. When I do my weekly planning, I have a category specifically for Adventure. I MAKE myself write down 1-2 things to do this week that will either get me out of my comfort zone, change things up, or just add fun and variety. It can been anything from climb on a train, to ride my 4-wheeler, to take my wife to a hotel for the night as a surprise. Something, anything to add spice and adventure to your life. That’s right, they can even be sexual, in fact they better be! See that’s the point, if you create adventure it feeds the other six pillars. You can incorporate some adventure into any of the other six. When I do yearly goal setting and monthly planning, I do the same thing. Of course I have more time to think so my thought process is “what crazy fun adventures would I love to do this year?” I write them down, I think about them and then as much as possible I try and plan them. Some are small, and some are huge, requiring years of planning. For example right now I am planning a road trip from Alaska to Argentina. It’s crazy, it’s fun, I might get killed, let’s go! If you plan some big ones each year, you are much more likely to do them. Alright, you get the idea. Add some adventure to your world. Not just one vacation a year but every single week. Go crazy, be crazy, have some fun and add the seventh pillar to your hard work and go play hard. This will create the juice in your life to help you feel fulfilled.

Living Every Minute

Dr. Tim