RandyJohnson.org

Be Insane Until It Becomes Your Normal

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Be Insane Like Randy Johnson

Have you ever booked a random flight that leaves 8 hours from now?

How about eating Chipotle eight times in one week?

What about staying up til 8am because you couldn’t stop working on a new project?

Or running a 5K race in -20 degree weather?

These are just a few past experiences that popped into my head while writing this. I read through those things and nothing stands out as ridiculous or crazy. But that’s just me.

Your normal is too boring for me

Of course I do “normal” things from time to time, but for the most part, I try to keep my life weird and interesting.

Almost to the point where if people aren’t saying things like “what the fuck” or “are you kidding me” or “Jesus you are seriously insane” or “only you would do something like this,” it’s not as exciting to me.

Of course I’m not purposely trying to impress anyone, or do things just to get a rise out of people. I just think the things that sound cool to me coincidentally get mixed reactions from average people. Which usually makes me want to do it even more.

Oh that’s just what he does

At some point, the weird shit I do starts to become my normal. Sometimes that turns into a slight feeling of routine, and it loses a little bit of the excitement factor.

But routines build habits. So if I’m doing bizarre things so often that I’m creating a habit of it (as long as it’s legal and mostly safe), I think this is a good thing.

Like the first time I jumped on a plane to go meet someone in person for the first time, people thought that was insane. Now if I do it, people have already got used to it, so it’s my new normal.

Always be trying new things

So when some of the wow factor wears off of something, it sparks my curiosity. It makes me want to try something else that I haven’t done before.

Even when I wake up in the morning and want to post something on Instagram. If I start looking through my photos and can’t find anything cool to post, I literally say to myself, “wow, you’re becoming normal and boring, it’s time to go do something worth posting.”

I think we all have bucket lists, I might just be growing my list daily. Some people just want to visit all the continents before they die, or watch every top 100 movie, or eat at every Taco Bell location.

I even heard of an elderly woman that just wants to see the ocean in her lifetime. Wow. Her head would explode if she heard the things I’ve done.

Every day I’m learning about new things, reading stories from people that I think are cool, listening to inspiring podcasts, etc. All of these things and more keep me wanting less stuff and more experiences.

Which in turn has me intrigued by so many things, which makes my to-do list a mile long.

Do more epic shit

I remember reading a blog post titled this several years ago. Ever since then, I think I’ve always tried to up the bar. Again, not to impress anyone, but more to challenge myself, explore things that I have zero knowledge about, and find out what I really want to do with my life.

How can I know what I really want until I try as many things as I can? I’ll never meet everyone in the world or try everything, but the more amazing things I involve myself in, I get closer to knowing what I want and don’t want.

People ask me all the time what kind of business they should start. I ask what they’re into. They usually reply with 0-1 things. I always tell them this: do more shit.

Try everything, travel more, be random, meet new people, sell everything you don’t need, quit the job you hate, remove toxic people from your life, learn new technology, study people that are doing the things that you want to do, etc.

Live the life you want

It’s really not hard to do whatever you want. I’ve been doing it for almost five years.

People call me lucky, but that’s not really true. I may seem insane to some people, but I just wake up every day and do whatever I want.

I have bills just like everyone else, but I put in the time to learn new things that can generate income, whether that’s a service or a product.

Everything I’m doing, anyone could be doing. And there are tons of people doing it. You just have to decide what you want, what you don’t want, and take action.

It’s seems so simple, and it really is. It’s not easy, but it is simple.

So the next time you think about doing something that scares you or makes you nervous, you better do it. It’s better to live a life full of “oh well’s” than a life full of “what if’s.”

What Are You Willing to Endure?

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Are you willing to work until 4am often?

Are you willing to lose friendships and ruin relationships?

Are you willing to sleep in your car in Walmart parking lots and rest areas on the side of highways?

Are you willing to sell all of your shit and stop keeping up with the Joneses?

Are you willing to be criticized, ridiculed, and looked at like a weirdo for a long time?

Are you willing to be patient and keep working on something consistently for months or years without seeing any money coming in from your time invested?

Are you willing to learn everything you can about what you’re most passionate about and never getting to the point where you think you know everything?

Are you willing to stop talking about what you’re gonna do and actually do it?

Are you willing to give up your “job security” and comfort one day and go all in on your idea(s)?

Are you willing to help as many people along the way, people that will never be able to repay you for your time?

If you answer yes to these things, I believe you will make it. Take your idea and run with it like your life depends on it, because it does.

Not Perfect, Just Finished

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“It doesn’t need to be perfect. Just get it out there.”

This is a quote that I have written on a post-it note.

I have this post-it note stuck to my computer monitor. The same monitor I’m staring at almost every single day, like I am right now.

It’s a constant reminder to take action and stop trying to make everything perfect.

I feel like perfection is this magical land that doesn’t exist in the real world, but that doesn’t stop the majority of the world from trying to live there.

When perfection is the end result, it likely causes people to never start something, for fear of it not being the best thing in the world.

But it’s ok to have flaws. You’ll learn from that. And you’ll get better on the next one.

The thing is, you can’t improve upon something that you haven’t started yet.

Just get it out there. Finish version 1. Today. Just finish it already.

Once it’s out there, you’ll get feedback from fans and critics. This is what you need. Until then, you’ll just keep sabotaging yourself in your own head. You are your own worst enemy.

After you’ve realized what you can do better, now it’s time to work on version 2. Keep repeating this process until making changes or updates no longer increases value.

If we tell ourselves that everything needs to be perfect, we will never start.

“Once I figure out all of these things, then I’ll get to work.” Start now, and figure things out along the way.

“I need to read these five books before I start.” Start now, you can spend 30-60 minutes each morning reading, then spend 3-6 hours putting in work.

“I don’t have the skills to do this.” Start now, and build your skills along the way.

You see, we tell ourselves these lies on a daily basis. If we would stop making excuses, we’d have more work and experiences to show for.

And if you release something, and it’s not perfect in your eyes, I bet you’ll be surprised that the flaws you see aren’t even noticeable to most people at all, if any.

But you’ll never know, until you just get it out there.

So go create something. Today. Right now.

Black Friday, Gifts, and Women

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Black Friday was a couple days ago, and like normal, I didn’t participate like most Americans probably did.

So I bought nothing? Well that’s not true. I always buy one or two things, but I do it from home. This year I spent $14 on a small tub of beard balm from Dream Beard. Last year I bought a Mission Belt and a Buy Me Brunch tee, from my mom’s couch.

Now that I’m thinking about it, I did go into Walmart on Friday morning, but it was to rent a Redbox movie (The Adderall Diaries, decent film). And actually I had a promo code so I spent $0, and I returned it on time yesterday so it was still $0 (yes, there have been several times when I forget to return a movie on time, and I pay double, and I hate myself when this happens).

I ended up walking around the store for 10-15 minutes, just to take in the Black Friday atmosphere. I was kind of surprised there wasn’t anything crazy going on, but that was reserved for Thursday I guess. It seemed like a normal day, just more people with TVs in their cart.

Regardless of saving a few bucks on a small purchase, I’m not a fan of Black Friday in general. Sure, I run Black Friday sales on my LowLabel.com site, so maybe I’m a hypocrite. But for now, a nice portion of my income is from selling merch for my various brands. So until I stop selling clothes, I’ll probably always do some sort of sale at the end of November.

Where’s the meaning?

Anyways, back to why this made-up holiday annoys me. I think it’s mainly about the gifts and meaningless purchases. Sure, a lot of people have kids and Christmas is only a month a way, so shouldn’t they be out getting the best deals they can for all the toys for their loved ones?

No. How about training your kids as early as possible that the gifts aren’t important. Am I saying to not buy gifts for anyone ever again? No, because I don’t see that ever catching on with the majority of people. Maybe less gifts or better gifts.

I received gifts my whole life for Xmas and my birthday, and I wonder what kind of kid I would have been had I never received anything while all my friends did. What I’m saying is, buy gifts that are more intentional, gifts that matter, gifts that will be remembered for years and decades. Like experiences instead of whatever the popular junk toy fad is.

A lot of my thoughts when it comes to consumerism stems for my love of minimalism. If you aren’t too familiar with it, I suggest you check out TheMinimalists.com. One of my favorite quotes that they mention from time to time, I actually heard it on a Ted Talk with Adam Baker. He says, “People spend money they don’t have, to buy things they don’t need, to impress people they don’t even like.” That is powerful.

Future girlfriends will hate me

When I think of gifts that I’ve given in the past to ex girlfriends, I think, damn, what a waste. Sure, they were items that they wanted and sure they were happy when they tore into the wrapping paper, but for how long. How long will the pleasure last for most gifts that are physical items? It’s an incredible high that disappears fast, sometimes as soon as they move on to the next gift, where the process starts over again. A vicious cycle you could say.

I just think, wow, the majority of gifts I handed out were not needs, they were glorified wants. Things that the other person told themselves that they had to have, because of lies they told themselves or because someone told them they needed it.

Most gifts serve a purpose for a short time, and then make their way into a closet, or basement, or attic, or garage, or the trash can, or the $100 item ends up on the $5 table at your garage sale. “Like new condition” is a phrase that is often used when selling something. Proving that most used items have never been used.

Hoarders are everywhere

Another quick point to make is how massive the storage business is. Think of how many storage facilities you’ve noticed within a 15 minute radius of your house. I can think of at least 5 right now. A business that was built to handle average people’s excess shit. They bought a house bigger than they needed (myself included), and filled it full of junk, to the point that they ran out of room.

But they can’t stop buying things, because everything they bought becomes outdated so fast that they have to keep up with the Jones’s and buy the next new thing. So as they keep bringing new things into their home, at least they’re getting rid of all their old crap, right? Nope. They pay a monthly fee to store their old junk in the off chance that they might need to use it again, even though we both know they never will.

My point is, if you want to buy something for someone, make it be something that is meaningful and will add value to their life. And you don’t need to wait for a specific holiday, do it today or tomorrow. Of course, if you tell someone that you’re not going to buy them physical items anymore, they might break up with you. Trust me, I’ve had the arguments about how much we are going to spend on each other for Xmas. How ridiculous.

As a single man, with plenty of life experiences to write 10 books, I know more about what I want and what I don’t want in life, more than ever. It’s always changing but the core values are becoming more solidified the older I get.

If I end up dating someone and I can tell it’s getting serious, I will tell this fine woman that she must listen to a handful of podcast episodes and watch a few YouTube videos (if she doesn’t already know my thoughts on consumerism and relationships).

Someone that is anxiously awaiting Black Friday to come, so they can drive to all of the malls hunting out the best deals on clothes and shoes and handbags and everything else, that type of person doesn’t really interest me. With that being said, I’m not perfect either. No one is.

Presence over presents

To sum up my thoughts on Black Friday, it’s just a normal day. At some point, people gave it too much importance and the majority of people don’t know how to go back to the simpler things. Hell, it even cuts into Thanksgiving now.

People are supposed to spend time with family, but everyone is concerned with the new TV or video game or whatever that just came out. But it’s the same for me when I’m glued to my phone and/or computer during this long weekend trying to get as many orders as I can from my websites.

Writing these thoughts down makes me want to #OptOut of Black Friday next year completely. No sales. No free shipping offers. Nothing. Maybe even close the site down for this day as I’ve seen others do. If you know me, you know I’m random. So something funny like this isn’t out of the question. Haha

Until next November, buy people concert tickets, or beach getaways, or run a 10K with a friend. Experiences will stay with you for as long as your memory will allow. Pointless presents will only give you the false hope of happiness and fulfillment.

A Long Weekend in Denver

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Traveling to new places is something I love to do. Over the years I keep trying to increase the amount of travel I do. The past five days were spent in Denver, Colorado with my friend Doug.

Neither of us have been to Colorado before, so we were both stoked to check it out. Both of us have a flexible schedule and we don’t have too many friends that can just pack a bag and travel. So we both just picked a place, booked the travel arrangements, and off we went.

Friday

I’m real good at putting things off til the last minute (also known as procrastination), so I was working on a lot of things late into Thursday night. I didn’t get everything done, but I threw it all on my Dropbox so I could finish it up from my laptop on the road.

Next thing I knew, it was 3am Friday morning and I had to drive about two hours to Indianapolis. We met at a friend’s house nearby and he dropped us off at the airport. Nothing better than showing up in a bagged car!

severed-ties-accuair-audi

The TSA people went through my bag as my microphones apparently look like guns. After that mixup, we jumped on our Southwest direct flight to Denver. This was also the first time I’ve flown Southwest and I will always try to use them if the price is right.

southwest-flight-indy-denver

A couple hours of sleep later, we landed, picked up our rental car, and checked into our hotel. Before the dropping our bags off at the Holiday Inn, we made a quick pit stop at a local dispensary. I had never seen anything like it.

denver-hotel-view

So many places selling marijuana in the state, but I was surprised that people weren’t just walking around smoking it everywhere we went. In fact, I think the only person blatantly getting high was a homeless man in an alley next to a shelter.

I think the majority of people who have never been to Colorado picture it as a bunch of drug addicts just stumbling around everywhere. Denver just seemed like a regular, normal, everyday city.

Once we were settled in, we hit up a local Mexican restaurant. If you don’t know much about us, we are taco addicts. They messed our order up slightly, but we didn’t care. Good food is good food.

3-agaves-mexican-denver

Right after that, we cruised out to Golden and rented a couple of mountain bikes.

golden-colorado-bike-rental

For the next five hours, we rode up North Table Mountain.

north-table-mountain-pano

colorado-mountain-biker-club

I haven’t rode a bike in a long time, and I wasn’t prepared for this grueling activity. But when we made it to the top, the view was totally worth it. Insane scenery.

mountain-bike-workout

north-table-mountain-golden-colorado

We made our way down, dropped the bikes back off, and it was time for food again. Yup, you guessed it, tacos. We had Torchy’s Tacos in Houston a couple months ago and we found one in Denver, so we had to stop by. Some of the best tacos out there for sure.

torchys-damn-good-tacos-denver

The bikes and the tacos wore us out, not to mention the lack of sleep the night before, and the jet lag, so we called it a night shortly after.

Saturday

A good night’s sleep out of town means only one thing… pancakes. I remember hearing a friend talk about a place called Snooze, and when I Yelp’d breakfast spots, I noticed Denver had two locations. This was the easiest food decision I’ve ever been a part of.

Before that, I hopped on my laptop in the room and made a website job go live that I built right before I took this trip. One thing I love about most of the businesses I’ve built is that I can do my work from just about anywhere.

We drove downtown and put our name on the list. Our rental car was parked in a lot nearby, so we walked around the city taking photos while we waited for the restaurant.

denver-colorado-office-space-movie-art

The rental looked badass with the wall of artwork behind it!

downtown-denver-co-street-art

Back to the food, the pancakes were amazing. Thanks Talor!

snooze-am-eatery-denver-pancakes

Next up on the agenda, we decided to meet up with our friend Nick at his shop out in the Fort Collins area. It’s always cool to talk with like-minded people online, but getting to visit their shop, or garage, or studio, or wherever the magic happens takes it to another level.

denver-colorado-storm-clouds

I guess we are growing boys because all we were doing was eating. Nick recommended a burger place in the area called Stuft, so that’s where we headed. A couple of massive burgers later and we were definitely stuffed.

stuft-burger-ranplan

stuft-burger-bar-colorado

Later on, we stopped at a bar and met a couple other minitruck friends. It seems that no matter where us minituckers travel, we can always find others that share our passion for low trucks. They mentioned that they were gonna hang out at a car show on Sunday, so we said we’d be down to join them.

Doug has been on a Starbucks kick lately, so we stopped in one of the million locations on the way back to the hotel. I’m not a coffee fan at all, but I think this is where I picked up my S’mores Bar addiction. Spoiler alert: I ordered another one on Monday. This day was full of driving all over the place, so back to the hotel we went.

starbucks-smores-bar

Sunday

It took us awhile to get motivated this morning, actually I think it was just me being lazy as hell. Once we got ready and left our room, we grabbed some pizza and hit up the lowrider show downtown. It’s not exactly our type of show but it was still a good time.

tony-pizza-denver

denver-cinco-de-mayo-lowriders

A few hours after walking around, it started raining a bit. Which reminds me, it was about 80 degrees on Friday, but the rest of the time it was in the 50s-60s and overcast or rainy. So we were ready for some more indoor fun.

parking-garage-view-mini-truck-scene

Sunday night indoor fun equals tacos and go karts. The hostess at Snooze mentioned Pinche was one of her favorite taco joints, so we took her up on that recommendation.

When we got there, we realized they changed the name from Pinche to Tacos Tequila Whiskey.

denver-tacos-tequila-whiskey

denver-pinche-taco-menu
Great tacos again, and I had one of their happy hour grapefruit margaritas which was equally excellent.

denver-pinche-grapefruit-margarita

denver-pinche-tacos

I also have to mention a musician that he played on his Spotify throughout this trip. The guy’s name is Richard Cheese. Hell of a name, and an even better sound. He takes popular songs and does a cover of them in an old school jazz style. And his band is called Lounge Against The Machine. You need to check it out. One word: hilarious.

When it came to the go karts, we never even thought about doing that. We made our way to K1 Speed and got signed up and ready to go. This was another first for me. I’d been in go karts back in the day, but these ones were faster. Nothing crazy, but faster than the ones I’d been around before. Now I’m really stoked to jump in a gas go kart on an outside track where they go 70mph this summer. Definitely some good times.

k1-speed-denver-go-karts

Our last stop for Sunday was Dave & Buster’s. Some good food (any sandwich with mac-n-cheese on it always wins), some drinks, and some games. More good times. And just in case you were wondering, yes, you still need to spend hundreds of dollars to get enough tickets to win a prize worth about $10. Haha

dave-busters-denver-mac-n-cheese

Monday

First thing I did when I woke up Monday was crack open the laptop again. I was trying to post a new podcast episode before I left my house last Thursday. I ran out of time (I procrastinated) so I planned on finishing it when I had some downtime on this trip. For the first couple hours, I finished editing the whole podcast episode, then we took our computers to a local Starbucks and got some more work done.

digital-nomads-starbucks-work

I posted the podcast to iTunes and sent out an email to my email list, as well as posted on social media. Click here to listen to it now! My work was done and it was back to vacation time.

Joshua Fields Millburn Podcast - The Minimalists
We went back downtown, parked the car, and went exploring again. One thing we wanted to do in Colorado was go on a brewery tour. He rarely drinks and I don’t drink that often these days, but I saw a Great Divide sign and I’ve had some of their beer in the past, so we decided to walk over and check it out. Now I’m not a big craft beer person, definitely not a dark beer or IPA person, but I’m always down to try new things.

great-divide-tap-room-denver

great-divide-beer-menu

After a few beer samplings, we went on the tour (safety glasses first) and got a history of the company and checked out some of the process involved in the creating of beer, from the ingredients to the bottle. Pretty cool. I tried the Colette Farmhouse Ale and the Orabelle Belgian-Style Tripel and both were really good!

great-divide-colette-farmhouse-ale

great-divide-brewery-tour-ranplan

As with any drinking adventure, food needs to be involved at some point. I’ll give you one guess as to what we ate. Yup, tacos. After not eating much this day, and having a few random alcoholic beverages, I was feeling terrible, and I passed out in the car. We had an early flight the next morning, so we packed everything up once we got back to the hotel. Zzzzzzzz…

Tuesday

Our alarms were set for 6am and we surprisingly woke right up. We checked out, dropped the rental car off, and waited forever in the security check at the airport. I grabbed some Chinese food to eat on the plane (which I’m sure the strangers on both sides of me enjoyed smelling the whole flight), and off we went.

randy-burkmire-airport

Back in Indy, the weather was great. Warmer than Denver for sure. Our friend’s wife picked us up and took us back to their house to get our cars. Just like all good times, they fly by. I’m already excited for the next trip. I have no idea where that’s gonna be, but I think I’m ready for the beach again. One day I will live within walking distance to a beach, mark my word!