There’s nothing worse than spending time with that one acquaintance who is always complaining about everything. You know — the person who seems to only look for the negative aspects of their life. I’d wager that they are probably named Craig. I’d double down if they were named Kenneth.

Let’s be honest, spending time with Kenneth is about as much fun as spending an entire Saturday at the DMV. Listening to his nasally voice complain about how hard his life is, often makes you want to join a monastery. Not because you’re spiritually inclined, but because it would ensure that you’d never have to see him again.

Now compare spending time with Kenneth to spending time around someone who is truly passionate about their life. Maybe it’s their job, their hobbies, or their sports team, but whenever they speak about their passion, you can visibly see them come alive.

It’s as if the switch on the breaker box has just been flipped and all of the Griswold’s family Christmas lights instantly turn on in an explosion of illumination.

Speaking with people about topics they are truly passionate about is magical. There’s an invisible, highly contagious energy that passes between everyone involved. And whenever I find myself in a conversation about someone’s passion, I always end up walking away with a large smile on my face.

Zombieland, population: most people

Doing things I’m passionate about is the best recipe I’ve found for my personal wellbeing. It makes me feel fully alive and it takes me off of auto-pilot so that I fully experience the world around me. Indulging in my passions is for me, a one-way ticket to bliss.

Sadly, I see many people who are not taking the time to find and/or cultivate what lights them up. Instead, they get consumed by all of their shiny toys and end up distractedly dragging themselves through life like zombies.

With eyes glued to their smartphone, I see empty human shells mindlessly stumbling from one appointment to the next. Trudging through a swamp of social media, negative news, and constant stimulation, I’m convinced that if a crater opened up in the middle of the nearest Starbucks, we would lose thousands.

The news headlines would read Mass genocide at the local watering hole as distracted individuals blindly stepped into the void.

I write this because six months ago, I was on my way to becoming a zombie. My days had begun to blend together and I had lost the ability to see the big picture of why I was doing what I was doing. I was anxious, confused, and frustrated.

The shifting point in my life was when I started asking questions about what I loved to do and what I truly cared about. I realized that I loved having new and unique experiences, especially with other people.

I began to deliberately change my life to be focused more on activities that would take me off auto-pilot. It was this change and the introspection that came with discovering my passion, that helped me narrowly avoid a permanent residence in Zombieland.

Arrows in a quiver

A wise man once told me that each life experience is like an arrow. Every unique situation we encounter provides us with a specific lesson or skill that will remain with us for the rest of our lives. These lessons and skills are arrows that we can store in our quiver for future use.

He explained that life will place us all in thousands of different situations and that the more arrows we each have in our quivers, the more effective and understanding we can be in all situations.

As soon as I heard this beautiful analogy, I made it one of my goals in life to have as many unique experiences as I possibly can. I now strive to acquire arrow after arrow so that I can relate, understand, and connect with people from all walks of life.

 

Things are about to get weird

Okay — enough of me getting deep and yabbering on about life. Now comes the real reason I wrote this article.

I want you to tell me what you are passionate about and I want to do it with you.

Seriously.

Have you always wanted to learn a new skill but you haven’t found the time for it yet? Have you been putting off starting a new diet? Going to the gym? Learning how to play the piano?

I am so passionate about other people finding what lights their soul on fire that I will commit to trying almost anything with you for one whole week.

This may sound ridiculous, but let me remind you about the two things I love most:

1. Having new experiences
2. Helping other people find their passions

Plus, research shows that having an accountability partner increases the probability of sticking to a new habit or routine by 85%! That’s an enormous increase and another reason why I want to be your accountability partner.

And while I have absolutely no idea what I am about to get myself into, I am excited to see what arrows we will both be adding to our quivers.

Let’s set some ground rules

As I mentioned above, I will commit to almost anything for a week.

Let me formally state that I will probably decline any weeklong event that involves joining a cult and/or getting a face tattoo.

Other than that, I am pretty keen to try whatever. Keep in mind that we will be doing the weeklong challenge you suggest together, so make sure it is something you are willing to do.

To get the juices flowing here are some random ideas:

• Meditate for 30 minutes every day for a week
• Wake up at 5 am every day for a week
• Go a whole week without caffeine
• Spend 15 minutes every day learning how to hand-stand
• Only eat grapes for a week straight (wtf brain, why did you include this?)
• Do yoga every day for a week

You get the point. I seriously hope that this lady doesn’t read this article.

Send me your dreams

Every dream starts with a small step in the right direction. My dream is to help people reach their highest potential and this article is one of my first steps in that direction.

Whatever it is that you want to begin doing, a weeklong commitment is a great place to start. All you have to do is commit for 7-days and declare that you are willing to do the work. So let’s do this.

It is my hope that I receive multiple submissions for weeklong challenges so that I can choose the one that will be the most interesting to write about. Please submit your ideas by leaving a comment on this article or by emailing me at gregbenedikt@gmail.com.

If for some reason I get zero submissions, I will question the validity of my writing and if I have any real friends. I will then proceed to punish myself by eating nothing but grapes for the next week. Stay tuned.