Get Weirder

My resolution for 2013 is to get way weirder. Not like eat-my-hat-as-per-the-prophecy weird, but maybe make-a-statue-in-my-backyard-out-of-mailboxes weird.

My family in the last few years has already gotten a little weird by adopting all our kids, me working almost exclusively from home, and expecting twins. Just these simple actions have gotten us to the point of feeling like we are different enough to not accept anyone else’s advice without actually sitting down to think it over as our situation doesn’t really easily line up with anything else.

This being weird is a strength as this “normal bubble” is quite dangerous. Most people follow the crowd with small decisions and it becomes a habit so they don’t realize the power it has over them in big decisions like when to buy a house or how to spend their money.

Or infinitely more importantly: how to spend their time. Most people end up spending their lives based on the crowd formula of work vs. family vs. hobbies and it infects their thinking. There are other ways to work than 9 to 5 over 45 and other hobbies to have other than watching TV and playing golf for the love of all things.

The default choice for most people involves other people profiting from it. The default career choice benefits the company at your expense, the default eating habit benefits restaurants at your expense, the default choice of hobbies benefits some organization, and the default financial choices benefit anyone that profits from you being in debt. The smart money influences the crowd to hurt themselves.

So I plan to be weirder with how I spend my time and money and to teach my kids to move far enough away to the crowd’s collective voice and to more easily hear their own. As per the prophecy.