Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, University of Manchester. 2010's Nobel Prize Winners for Physics

Imagine if our America today was built on this…

“Do whatever you want to do, as long as it’s not boring.”

… instead of the dreary, sometimes dreadful mundaneness of most American schools and most American workplaces (where 80% of us are not passionate in what we do for a living).

This photograph is of Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, both of the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom – and both winners of 2010′s Nobel Prize in Physics for their groundbreaking discovery of Graphene.

And thanks to BIF-7 and Daniel Pink, I was introduced to Andre’s and Konstantin’s eye-opening (but not surprising) story of just how they made their award-winning discovery.

Even though both are full-time researchers in their university, Andre and Konstantin won their Nobel Prize off the clock – in their free time.

Herein lies the problem – and solution – to not only America’s economic stagnation, but likewise to our individual lives’ stagnation: We spend SO much time following “protocol” of the day-to-day that we nearly completely neglect that place & time where our minds, curiosity, imagination and genius can roam free and discover big, brand new worlds.

Imagine what our world, our country, our lives would look like if “the socio-economic norm” didn’t require us to swat at gnats for 40 hours a week, but instead liberated us to hunt life’s big elephants (figuratively speaking, of course).

Imagine the breakthroughs you could discover if YOUR life’s and YOUR workplace’s only policy was, “do whatever you want to do, as long as it’s not boring.”

My friend Randall Stevens recently started a tumblr blog for entrepreneurship and technology called I’ll Make a Claim. I’m absolutely stealing Randall’s title today.

I will make this claim: I have discovered – unwittingly stumbled upon, more accurately – THE solution that will reinvigorate America’s economy.

And it is so simple, at first you might not believe me.

Sweaty exercise.

Think about it. Here’s why sweaty exercise is the solution for the United States at this junction in history:

1. You don’t need a single person’s approval. You have complete sovereignty.
   
2. Sweaty exercise changes your brain – for the (much) better. Your emotions, your outlook, your entire thinking.
3. You become happier and you grow in self-confidence almost immediately. At least 90% of Americans need more of both of these.
4. Entrepreneurship, innovation and venturing into the unknown depend upon self-confidence and pursuing your happiness. “The American Spirit.”
5. Social media. You can very easily find a whole new world of really good friends who are conquering the same mountains you are.
6. Every ounce of research shows that connected people prosper much more than disconnected people.
7. We can’t boil the whole ocean at once – we can only progress one foot in front of another (literally). Sweaty exercise leads your mind forward one step at a time, and as you keep sweating and keep exercising, pretty soon you’ve taken (physically and mentally) many, many, many steps forward in your thinking and in your life.
8. It is inexpensive, almost free. No real financial barrier. (My gym costs me $0.50 / day.)

Not to even mention how much cheaper it is to be healthy and happy now – as opposed to sick and in debt to the doctor’s office later.

- Guide to Houseplants

Every one of us knows this feeling. Of being “pot-bound” in life.

I hate it.

When we – our minds, ideas, energies or potential – are being squeezed by those around us. At work, at home (quite common), socially… anywhere.

It’s like a flourishing plant that is outgrowing its pot. You start to feel that stress, the frustrating pressure of your roots (your energy) being restricted by surrounding walls.

And what do Green Thumbs do when a plant begins to outgrow its pot? They repot it into a larger environment – so it can naturally keep growing and not whither.

The same holds true for our lives. I propose that along our journeys we must repot ourselves at least a few times – if not more. So we can experience all our lives have to really offer.

But sometimes in our lives we struggle emotionally with repotting ourselves – uprooting ourselves. It can appear daunting or troublesome. Disruptive. But how else will you ever realize your maximum life when your surrounding are binding and restricting you?

Often, people feel “guilty for leaving the old pot behind”… or even worse, “obligated to the past.”

And rarely, if ever, do we know for sure what the future holds. (By contrast, we can easily predict our current walls will always be there, causing frustration.)

I propose that the only way to fulfill your ultimate desires in life is to keep growing and to keep expanding. To keep pushing past “boundaries.”

It is perfectly natural, in fact.

But the difference between a pot with clay walls and your life’s walls is your walls are typically other people and their opinions. It doesn’t require courage to repot a green plant, but it requires a great deal to say “no thanks” to a limiting human mind when you’ve already built a relationship with it.

And it always comes down to this choice – who is going to decide your future? You? Or your walls?

I vote for you to decide your future. In the words of my all-time favorite author, Paulo Coelho, “If you are brave to say ‘goodbye,’ life will reward you with a new ‘hello.’”

How do you know which direction to go in? When life brings those big, gamechanging questions (and they always come) to your front doorstep? (Often to the point where you can’t rest, you’re thinking about it so much.)

I think, beyond any question at all, we have been raised in an environment where we make decisions way too “logically” and not nearly impulsively enough.

And “logic” is too often a function of what everyone else has typically done (for better or for worse).

But consider our heartbeats – the center of our physical lives.

Our heartbeats are viewed by EKG machines that show our health – our heart rates – through signals. If your heart rate is flat, like this first image, you are dead.

An alive heart gives us signals.

Hmmmm… so Life does indeed gives us signals.

And what’s another way we check our heart rates? We check our pulse.

So if our pulse is so important, why have we always vehemently diminished – even despised – our impulses?

It is my life’s observation that our relationships stagnate (flatline), our economy has stagnated (flatlined), and so few Americans are passionate in their careers (a huge chunk of your life)…

…because our “logic” has been to actually squash Life’s signals – our very own impulses. We have thought it better to ignore life’s signals.

Hence, we’ve been misreading life’s signs. (Notice how signals and signs are similar words.)

And we misread our life’s signals usually because so many around us label our impulses “bad.”

I believe the exact opposite.  I believe our impulses are our lives.

Because I believe life is inherently good – and because life indeed gives us signals – I believe our lives can only be truly and fully lived when we listen for our impulses (like a Doctor listens to your heart through a stethoscope) and follow them all the way into new, expanded, better, freer, happier territories.

Whether it’s a career move, a relationship choice – or any decision at all – life does indeed show us signs.

And just like you listen for, or feel for, your heartbeat – your pulse – you only have to listen for and feel for your life’s signals.

Think of those times you are outside in your yard, working or relaxing. You hear the hum of the air conditioning unit - and you think nothing of it.

Most everyone in my generation, in my socio-economic demographic, was shaped to A) get a degree B) get a white collar job C) get married and have kids. Almost all of us did.

Those words were never questioned – we thought nothing of it.

But now think of that moment when the air conditioner cuts off. You know that awkward silence that lasts for 2-4 seconds? Where you almost miss the A/C’s hummmmmmm?

The next time you’re out there, notice your brain.  Even after the A/C cuts off, your mind still hears that hummmmmm……

The echo lives in your head.

The same is true in life.  The words (sounds) that people have spoken about you, to you and of you – even though they were spoken long ago – live in your head. Echoes.

The words (sounds) you have spoken and imagined of yourself also echo in your head.

Words (sounds) like:

“You are ___________.”  (For good or for bad.)

“You can ____________, but you cannot ___________.” (Multiple applications for this one.)

“Who do you think you are?!?!”

“That is impossible.”

“Go after the unbeaten path? That’s very frightening, very risky (but secretly, and we’ll never tell you this, we all wish we had the courage to do it, to take the plunge).”

Metaphor: make sure whatever sounds (words) you hear in your head, they are real and not just echoes from the past.