Surprise and spontaneity — both are underrated

In college, I used to surprise my parents every few weeks by coming home for the

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Did someone forward this to you?  Click here to subscribe Hi Candidate, In college, I used to surprise my parents every few weeks by coming home for the weekend. I'd drive home from Palo Alto and show up on a Saturday afternoon to spend the weekend there. There's nothing like seeing your Indian mom's face when she opens the door and sees her son there. Seeing my parents I think the power of SURPRISE is underrated. How many times per year are you genuinely surprised? How many times have you truly surprised someone you love? What if that person opened their mail tomorrow and got a small gift with this card attached: "I thought you'd love this!" -Candidate They'd love it! And you don't have to have a lot of money. The gift could be a $5 chocolate. Back in the day, my trips home cost me basically nothing. But the feeling of surprise is something people never forget. I also think the power of SPONTANEITY is underrated. This is one I'm personally working on developing myself. Sometimes I think I'm a little too rigid. I make a plan and I want to stick with it. But when I hear stories about people being spontaneous, I'm wowed — like...you just did that? You just dropped your plans and did something else? HOW? One of my friends took a trip to Australia with his girlfriend. They were staying somewhere and absolutely loving it, but they knew they had to wake up early to move on to the next place. And sitting there in the pool, he turned to her and said, "Want to stay here a few more days?" She looked at him like he was crazy. "We have to get on the bus tomorrow!" (That would be my answer too.) My friend: "What if we don't?" And that's how they made a game-time decision to cast off their plans and stay in a place they were absolutely loving. I LOOKED AT MY FRIEND LIKE HE WAS GOD. DUDE!! How are you that spontaneous??? You just...ignored your own plans??? (He's like, "Yeah. It wasn't a hard decision when we were sitting in an infinity pool looking at the ocean.") It was a huge inspiration to me. Spontaneity matters. I don't mean, "Hey, I'm too tired to cook, why don't we order pizza." I'm talking about genuine spontaneity, where you take an unplanned trip, and on the spur of the moment, create a memory that will last a lifetime. In my early 20s, I remember hearing one of my bosses talk about the need to "get away." I just didn't get it, since I loved what I was doing. But year after year of working (even if you love it) starts to veer into the mundane. I think anyone who has kids or has to cook every night or show up at the same office intuitively knows what I'm talking about. Slowly, I started to understand the need for SURPRISE and SPONTANEITY. I'm not as naturally spontaneous as some people (like my wife), so I started to engineer it into my life. Hey, whatever it takes. Here are a few things I did. My Book-Buying Rule helps me pick up new books on a whim. I've discovered so many great books and authors "by accident" this way. When my wife and I go on vacation, we plan one big thing every day. We leave the rest of the time open just to be spontaneous. As we travel, we hear about things to check out, so now we have the "space" to explore. Or maybe we just want to relax at the hotel. That's something I never would have thought of when I was younger. When you're on vacation, you have to be DOING something...right??? On our trips, we can do what we feel like doing without pre-planning every moment. Sometimes, the best trips involve wandering around eating street food in Jaipur. Other times, learning how to hand-make notepads in Kyoto. Or...doing nothing at all. My favorite example is just being able to say "Yes!" when someone suggests taking a trip. After my book tour finished, I hopped on a plane to Mexico and spent a few days there on the beach, eating tacos and doing nothing. Perfect. And I'm doing it again next week. On Monday 3/9, I'll be in San Francisco for the first stop of my Earnable Tour (details here, but unfortunately we're sold out). The plans: Visit my family Give a talk in SF on business & psychology (see link above) Speak at Stanford Eat at my favorite Peruvian place & hang with friends And that's it! I'm leaving my calendar open to see what unfolds. I built my business to make it easy to say "Yes!" to opportunities like this. I'll be posting updates from my trip on Instagram. You can follow along on Instagram here. P.S. I have a new idea I've been chewing on I'd like to share with you. I'll email you about that tomorrow. Until then... X This email was sent to 247translationwork.dailywork@blogger.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails you may unsubscribe at any time. I Will Teach You To Be Rich 548 Market St #89946 San Francisco, CA 94104-5401