Strive to Be Abnormal
If you’ve ever taken statistics, you know that normal is never the best. If you were to plot out the average person’s feeling about life, normal would be right in the middle between depression and happiness. Statistically, this means that if you strive to be normal you will never experience happiness to its full potential.
The point I’m trying to make here is that there are a lot of people who strive to fit within a certain mold or set of expectations, either to please the people around them or for various other reasons. For the past few years I’ve made a point of trying things that normal people would consider weird or even socially unacceptable, and most of these things have improved my life for the better. Here are just a just few things that I’ve done recently that break the mold of a normal person:
- Started “barefoot” (minimalist) running and purchased odd shoes
- Moved into a tiny (240 square foot) apartment
- Learnt a different keyboard layout
- Tried the 28 hour sleep schedule
- Started walking to social events (even if it takes an hour or two)
- Stopped using soap in the shower
- Went bungee jumping and skydiving
Not all of these have changed my life for the better, but the overall shift has been positive. I’m happier that I’ve ever been and don’t plan on becoming normal any time soon. So, if you ever see something in the wild and think to yourself “I should try that one day”, just go for it, because even if it doesn’t work out you will still learn a lot from your experience.