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Here are several ways to ensure that you live a boring meaningless sad depressing crappy life ;)

   1. Let fear control your life
      There are all kinds of fears including fear of failure, fear of success, fear of rejection, fear of change, fear of uncertainty, etc. If you let fear control your life you will just become a comfort zone zombie. How do you work on your fears? You simply make a conscious decision to gradually get out of your comfort zone.
   2. Live for others validation
      Validation is just another word for acceptance. Peer pressure is easy to spot among teenagers. It’s adult version is seeking others validation or acceptance and caring what everyone thinks. Stop caring what everyone thinks.
   3. Become a fan
      Every famous rock star has lots and lots of fans. Fans are usually very reactive, they are acting in reaction to the rock star’s actions. The rock star takes the action of getting on stage, and the fans react by cheering. The rock star makes news in the tabloids or magazines and the fans react by admiring him or trash-talking him.
      In the same way, often times we live our lives like fans. When we are out we are looking around at others to entertain us. Instead of creating an exciting life of our own we become fans of the people in reality tv shows. Since we don’t have anything exciting going on in our lives we gossip about others.
      Here is a quick tip to build an exciting rock star lifestyle:
      Travel more, here are some cheap flight and hotel fares to great destinations.
   4. Think too much
      Being smart and intelligent is a blessing yet it can be a curse at times. One bad thing about being a smart intelligent human being is the ability to rationalize any action whether it’s good or bad. For example I’m sure you can come up with 10 reasons why you can’t follow the last tip I gave about booking a quick fun trip. I’m sure you can even give me 10 more reasons why you need to put it off. However the sad truth is that most people rationalize, and live very crappy boring lives, is that what you want? Very few people live a life without regrets. Sometimes you need to just stop thinking and start doing.
   5. Stick to your little tribe
      Having close friends and a stable social circle is necessary and rewarding. However it can be limiting. In addition to staying in touch with your current friends, you should be always trying to meet new diverse people. Meeting a new people will help you learn more about yourself and develop. Every time you meet a new person it’s like seeing your reflection in the mirror. If there are things about them that you like and admire, you realize that maybe those are some strengths that you have and just need to develop more. If there are things about them you dislike, you learn more about your personal values and you might even discover some of your insecurities. Seeing your reflection in the mirror is just another way of stating that we project our strengths (as likes) and insecurities (as dislikes) onto others.
   6. Have a closed mind
      We often hold on to our past perceptions and judgments. This tricks us into thinking that we are all knowing and even makes us feel a false sense of security. Sadly this will lead to a very predictable boring life. Each day will be the same routine, with the same thoughts and mostly even the same actions. Try this for a change, think of yourself as a clean slate. Approach life with the open mindedness of a child.
   7. Think inside the box
      It’s interesting, I still remember a very influential English literature teacher in college who always encouraged thinking outside of the box. While he was a very passionate teacher, he failed to tell us one important thing. He didn’t tell us how to cultivate thinking outside of the box or thinking in more creative ways. According to him some people had this ability and others didn’t. An easy way to start thinking outside the box and to increase your creativity is by learning different kinds of performance arts including acting, improv or standup comedy, singing, or how to play a musical instrument. Learning performance arts will increase your creativity in every other area of your life, especially if you are a very smart logical person.
   8. Be negative
      It’s easy to be negative. It helps us create more excuses to why we can’t achieve more success in our lives. Different studies have shown that most of our negative thoughts or worries never come true anyways. This is why you should cut off negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones. Positivity will make you happier and more successful in the long run. Most of the very successful people that I’ve met tend to be overly optimistic and very positive. Even in the worst of situations they will still find a positive way to look at things.
   9. Hate yourself
      Do you love yourself? Think carefully about this. I always thought my lifestyle was okay, maybe a bit above average but nothing too spectacular. Recently I discovered that I didn’t love myself. To love yourself you must take some time to discover what you really want out of life, and go for it. One of my personal preferences is staying sober and avoiding alcohol. There was a period where I was invited to different social events and was pressured into drinking, and after a few of those events I started developing a light depression, I even started feeling like I don’t deserve anything good in life. Once I started saying no to alcohol, or acted in line with my persona preference, I noticed I gradually started liking myself more. Ofter times loving yourself will mean putting your personal values and preferences before others. To love yourself more you need to take more actions that are in alignment with your personal values.