Last week, I read an eye opening book called Growth Hacker Marketing, which outlines the principles that successful startups (Dropbox, Uber, Facebook, Twitter etc.) used to effectively grow their businesses. It's a short read, but it's loaded with principles I'm looking to apply to an online business I'm co-founding. It was critical for me to extract the pertinent information from the book and apply it directly to our business, which I believe now has a much better chance of success.

I used a simple, effective system to mark and apply everything I felt was important to our business. You can use this system with any book you're trying to learn from, to apply it directly in your life. It rocks.

As you may have noticed on The Living Theory's splash page, the background photo is of two skydivers. The photograph was taken this May. I'm in the upper left, in the bottom right corner is my grandma. Her name is Fran. Everyone at the skydiving facility seemed to think it was amazing that at 84 years old, she wanted to jump out the door of a plane from 10,000ft above the earth.

Everyone that is, except her.

So for my first interview for The Living Theory, I feel she's the ideal subject and her story, a perfect portrayal of what this site is about. Without further ado, my grandma, Fran Rice, 84 years of age and still young.

Before I launched this website, one question plagued me:

Is motivation from dissatisfaction better than complacency?

Let me break it down:

Someone is working a decent job. Their pay is above average. Their friends and family are happy for them. They feel they're on the right track. They don't necessarily enjoy the work, but hey, it's survivable.

Then they read an article on this website. They encounter the concept that some people's motivation for work is not money or social reasons, but genuine interest or love for what they do. They begin to wonder, “Am I really interested in this? Is this the work I want to spend my life doing?”

Today, I'm officially coining the term “adventure fundraising.”

Adventure fundraising is doing something extreme and/or adventurous to draw attention to a cause. It's going the distance, pushing physical limits, or doing something outrageous enough to make your fundraiser and cause stand out. I've had much success going the extra mile, with two fundraisers I've raised over $100,000 for two incredible non-profit organizations. I'd love to see more people do the same for a cause they are passionate about.

If you're interested in backpacking the John Muir Trail (JMT), here's some valuable knowledge and a few tips from my experience.

Reserving A Permit

Lots of people want to backpack the JMT. In fact, the number of permit applications Yosemite National Park receives has doubled in the last four years. If you want a chance at securing a permit from Happy Isles (the official starting point of the JMT) you have to now apply exactly 182 days (26 weeks) in advance of your start date. Twenty people will be awarded this permit each day, while hundreds of people apply. It took us eight days of faxing in an updated permit application to finally get in. It's even more difficult to secure a permit now, but with a little luck it can be done.

Over the summer of 2013, I pedaled 4,450 miles across the United States on a bicycle with my brother. It rocked. You should do it too. Here's a list of everything I brought, so you know what you need.

“Don't try to outsmart me!” I yelled at my dad. “I know you're cheating.”

He wasn't. He's just standing at the foot of the bed, glad his son is alive.

A nurse walks by in the hallway, her reflection momentarily flashes across the window to the courtyard. “Why is the nurse outside?” I ask him. He attempts to explain it's her reflection, but I hear none of it.

Something's wrong. Within seconds, I've lost control. Tremors start in my hands as fear violently grips me. My fingernails force themselves into the palms of my hand and my toes vice grip the bed sheet. Tremors develop into shaking throughout my body that exponentially ramps into forceful convulsions. Every fiber of muscle fires and recoils in a violent ferocity as I'm powerfully ripped back and forth with ever increasing intensity. In a tenth of a second, my universe rushes to a single point and not unlike the moment before the explosion of a star, I'm gone.

Okay, so you're probably not going to win your first half marathon, but this program almost put me among the top 200 runners who started separately, in some elite pack before the other 8,000 of us. Seriously, I'd never even entered an organized race before, I just followed this schedule religiously, then went out and ran. I came in 254th place out of 8,300 runners in the San Diego America's Finest City Half Marathon. Stick to this training program and I'd bet you'll have similar results.

Before we get down to it, a couple things:

When you are presented with an opportunity is your initial reaction to ask yourself "Why" or "Why not?"

This is a big deal because "Why?" is a limiting question and "Why not?" is a liberating question.

Let me explain.

When we ask ourselves "Why?" we need a good reason to do it. If we don't come up with one, our default response is to NOT DO IT. When we ask ourselves "Why not?" we need a good reason not to do it. If we don't come up with one, our default response is to DO IT.

Read that again, and let it really sink in...

It might seem a bit strange, obscure, or impossible, but its not as outrageous as you might think. At my best guess, I'd say a couple hundreds of people ride their bicycles from sea to shining sea, across the entire United States every year. In the summer of 2013, I did. My brother and I pedaled nearly 4,500 miles over 76 days, from Atlantic to Pacific. We also raised close to $100,000 for a cause I'm very passionate about while doing it. Hands down, best experience of my life to date. You should do it too.

Here's 20 reasons why:

Over the past couple years I've read hundreds of articles, columns, books etc. about a variety of topics revolving around life, pursuit, and how to best spend our ultimately limited existence.

Here are three articles that each had their own unique, profound impact upon my life:

20 Year-Old Hunter S. Thompson’s Superb Advice on How to Find Your Purpose and Live a Meaningful Life

A letter legendary author, Hunter S. Thompson, wrote in response to a friend asking, “What should I do with my life?” Among other things, Thompson's insightful response explains that, “We must make the goal conform to the individual, rather than make the individual conform to the goal.”

Yeah, I know what you're thinking: “He wears those weird toes shoes when he runs?”

I do, I wear Vibram FiveFingers when I run. I know they're not the ultimate fashion statement, but the world's ugliest shoes saved my half marathon training. In the summer of 2012 I was training for my first half marathon. I did my research and started a 16 week training schedule that eventually lead to me placing 254th out of over 8,300 runners. I wouldn't have survived without my “toe shoes.”

I grew up running around barefoot in the park across the street from our house. I'd play football, soccer, and any other grass based sports without shoes, preferably. I'd take my shoes off so I could run faster.

Humans are naturally lazy.

A long time ago, laziness was evolutionarily important. Our ancestors didn't have seemingly endless supplies of food at the supermarket. Cars did not exist, there was no electricity, and water didn't exactly come out of a faucet in their kitchen. Our ancestors had to walk everywhere they went. If they were cold, they had to gather wood for a fire or kill an animal to wear its fur. Food had to be hunted or gathered, and the closest source of water was much further than the kitchen sink.

The point is – resources weren't easy to come by. So when our ancestors weren't in need of anything of importance to their survival, they wouldn't want to expend much effort and energy, otherwise they would need more resources. Back then, laziness was an important survival mechanism.

What social psychologist Amy Cuddy presents here is remarkable – the mind doesn't just influence the body, the body also influences the mind. Striking a “power pose” for two minutes causes a scientifically documented increase in confidence (testosterone level) and decrease in stress (cortisol level).

This finding is profound! And it's applicable to our everyday lives. In any stressful situation (job interview, public speaking, evaluation, competition etc.) a two minute “power pose” can make you more confident and less stressed.