“Welcome to Ireland, sir,” the portly customs agent said as he scanned my passport. “Where will you be staying during your trip?”

“I don’t know. Probably a hostel.”

“Okay… What cities will you be visiting?”

“I haven’t decided yet, but probably the big ones.”

“Do you have any friends or family in the country? Or anyone that you know?”

“Nope.”

I had arrived in Dublin Airport with a backpack of clothes and books, $10 in my pocket, and no plans of any kind. The closest thing I had to a schedule was my flight back to the States, but that was ten days away and far from my mind. My return ticket was the only reason I was allowed into the country, though – apparently they don’t get many tourists without reservations and itineraries.

I’ve long held the belief that concrete plans are nothing more than obstacles that prevent you from having a good time. Whether I’m backpacking through Ireland or embarking on a weekend road trip, I never make a solid itinerary. Beyond a list of things I want to see or do, I let fate lead me around and it’s never failed to give me interesting and memorable adventures.

If you’re skeptical about the magic of spontaneous living, here are some things to consider:

1) Spontaneity lets you change your mind.

When I bought my tickets to Ireland, everybody told me to kiss the Blarney Stone. It seemed like an inherently Irish thing to do at the time, but once I showed up in Cork I realized that Blarney Castle is the biggest tourist trap in the country. You have to pay to walk onto the castle grounds, pay to kiss the stone, and pay to get your picture taken.

I took the bus to Cork with a Swiss girl I met in Dublin and instead of seeing the Blarney Stone we explored Cork and its surrounding hills. It was free, gorgeous, and better than any tourist destination. People who had to visit the castle were paying money to be disappointed – my lack of planning saved me money and that underwhelming sensation of overhyped travel destinations.

Back at the hostel, I talked to a couple from the United States and two kids from Paris. Each of them had detailed schedules for the next day – “The Lonely Planet says to go here! WikiTravel recommended this restaurant!”

They asked me where I was going tomorrow. I still wasn’t sure if I would stay in Cork or hop on a bus and head northwest. When I told them my standard travel respond (“I haven’t decided yet.”) they just gave me blank stares.

2) Spontaneity lets you find and explore something you love.

When I took the bus form Galway to Giant’s Causeway, I had to change buses in a small city called Londonderry. I wasn’t excited. It looked like a fairly dull city, so I planned to grab a bite to eat and hop back onto a bus.

When I pulled up to the bus station, though, I was blown away by the city. The city centre is surrounded by centuries-old stone walls, perched on the side of the lovely River Foyle and filled with beautiful building and friendly people. I walked around for hours and missed the last bus of the day.

“Crap.”

I checked with all the hostels in the city – they were all full. I finally got a hold of the manager of the local Paddy’s Palace Hostel. I asked her if there was anything she could do.

“Sure! Just swing by and you can crash on a couch.”

For about £10, I was able to sleep in a hostel that was fully-booked. I ended up partying with a bus tour of Australian and New Zealand travellers – we had a BBQ in the backyard and went pubbing at a local bar. I had no intention of even seeing Londonderry, and five hours later I was dancing to live Irish music and talking to an Aussie guy whose was a sheep sheerer as a career back home.

If you’re ever in Ireland, visit Londonderry. It might be as big or famous as Dublin or Belfast, but it is undoubtedly my favourite city on the island. If I had made reservations or followed a strict schedule, I would have missed it completely.

3)      Spontaneity is more exciting.

When I finally got to Giant’s Causeway, I decided to spend my day walking along the cliffs. This led to getting caught in a ferocious rain and almost falling off a cliff.

When I went to Belfast, I wandered around the Protestant neighbourhoods wearing an Ireland jacket (for those of you unfamiliar with the Troubles, that’s like wearing a pro-Israel shirt through Palestine). I didn’t plan it that way – the street looked interesting, so I walked down it. Next you I knew, I was surrounded by British flags and Queen Elizabeth murals and strangers kept glaring at me. When the sun set, the drunks yelled at me so much I had to take off the jacket and hold it under my arm.

Spontaneity ensures that you won’t have a vanilla moment. You won’t be chauffeured from tourist trap to tourist trap, buying useless trinkets and taking boring photos. You’ll be forging your own way, exploring new places, meeting new people, and making it all up as you go.

What’s not exciting about that?

4)      Spontaneity is more peaceful.

Yes, you’re going to have adventure when you live spontaneously. But you’re also going to find moments of absolute tranquillity. Because you travel according to your own feelings, you have the leeway to take a day off and move slowly.

On my last day in Dublin, I was walking back from Phoenix Park and stumbled upon Collins Barracks, an old military garrison that is now part of the National Museum of Ireland. It had free admission, so I walked in on a whim and started wandering around.

It was a Sunday afternoon, so the museum was empty. I wandered into a small exhibition of ancient Buddhist tapestries and fell in love with the collection. I spent the entire afternoon in that one room, studying the tapestries and reading about their history. It was just me and Damien Rice on my iPod – I didn’t even notice as the hours flew past.

If I had planned my trip out in advance, I would have never seen those tapestries. I would have never spent those peaceful hours in the museum. I would have been hopping on buses, racing to get to museums and shops before they closed. I would have stressed out about getting pictures of everything before my flight left.

Instead, I had the most peaceful afternoon of my life.

I’m notorious for my inability to make plans. I decide things on the fly and it always seems to work out. Some people couldn’t imagine visiting a foreign country without a plan, a guidebook, or even a map, but it’s the only way I know to travel.

Whether you’re visiting a foreign country or just planning what to do this weekend, remember that at a certain point plans need to fly out the window and we need to live in the moment. Do what you want to do when you want to do it – everything else will sort itself out.

“Hell of a game last night.”

The strange man looked at me as he dried his hands. I laughed and nodded and hoped that he didn’t go into more detail.

Fortunately, he muttered something about overtime and walked out of the bathroom, leaving me to wash my hands in peace. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I hadn’t watched a game all season. I hadn’t followed the NFL since the Ravens won the Superbowl in 2001.

It’s not that I dislike sports. On the contrary, I’ve played soccer, football, rugby, and volleyball competitively and I enjoy learning and playing new sports (my recent acquisition is Hurling, which rocks as only an Irish sport can). On any given weekend I’m involved in some sort of pick-up game and I keep a football and rugby ball in my car at all times.

I just object to televised sports. I don’t even watch the Superbowl (I know, saying that is like committing American sacrilege). Here’s why:

1) Regular sports make you fit; televised sports make you fat.

Go join a local pick-up game of football or basketball and tell me how you feel afterwards. Exhausted, sweating, gasping for air? That’s called exercise, and it’s good for you. Substitute it for ESPN and pretty soon you’ll be in better shape than you’ve ever been.

Now tell me how you feel after eating buffalo wings and drinking beer every Sunday afternoon. If you answered “fat,” you’d be absolutely correct. You don’t do anything when you watch a game, so you eat awful food to give your hands something to do. This means that the more sports you watch, the bigger you get.

2) Regular sports are exciting; televised sports are excruciating.

There’s no better feeling than catching a pass, juking the defender, and sprinting down the sideline toward the end zone. The glory of speed mixes with the smell of grass and sweat and the sound of your teammates screaming behind you as you near the goal. You feel victorious, like a Roman gladiator who just vanquished his opponent.

And there’s no more boring feeling than watching endless commercials for beer and cars, waiting for the referee to review a call or sitting through a half-hour halftime show that nobody actually pays attention to anyway. I get pumped up when I play sports, but I just get tired when I watch them. Sleep is more exciting to me than watching sports on tv.

3) Losing at regular sports makes you better; losing at televised sports makes you bitter.

I’m awful at basketball. I don’t think I’ve ever won a game on my own, actually. But every time I get a chance, I hit the local court and go up against guys ten times better than me. I get beaten and they leave victorious, but I stay behind to practice. For an extra hour or two, I’ll run up and down the court, dribbling and shooting, practicing layups and learning how to juke. My constant thrashings are the fuel that makes me work harder than anyone else so that one day I’ll walk onto that court and be better than everyone else.

Contrast that with sports fans whose team just lost. They swear and yell and argue and drink, but they never provide solutions. They never accept responsibility. It’s always the ref’s fault, or the other team (cheaters!), or the head coach, or one unpopular player or play. You never hear them say, “You know what, we deserved that. They were obviously a better team than us.” Instead, they have rivalries and animosity, feuds and fights.

4) Regular sports build camaraderie; televised sports build nothing.

You’ll never be closer to your friends than when you win a game with together. You’ll never have your friendships tested and reaffirmed than when one of you loses the game singlehandedly. But at the end of the day, everyone shakes hands and all those little league values reappear — teamwork and sportsmanship become more than buzzwords on motivational posters. They become something real.

When you sit on the couch and stare at a television screen for three hours, you don’t develop any connection with the people around you. Sure, you might have fun bashing the refs or praising your favorite players, but there won’t be any growth. There won’t be any positive change in your relationship. And to have the opportunity for progress and to not take it is the gravest sin a person can commit.

5) Regular sports create memories; televised sports create monotony.

Who won the Superbowl last year? And the year before that? Who won the last World Cup? To be honest, I don’t know the answer to any of those questions. Whenever I watch a game, I forget what happened as soon as it’s over. Every team looks the same to me. Every stadium is identical. Nothing changes and I don’t care enough to remember any of the particulars.

But I remember every touchdown I’ve ever scored. I remember every rugby try and every soccer goal. I remember the glory of victory and the agony of defeat. I remember every detail, every piece of minutia. I remember everything because I was there. Because I was the one scoring and winning and losing.

In the end, life comes down to action. If you choose to watch sports on tv, you aren’t actually doing anything. You become a passive entity. But when you play yourself, when you join the competition with your own sweat and blood and breathe, you enter a world of life, with all its glory and struggle. You become an active member of the world. You live like you couldn’t live any other way.

Do you have any cocky friends? You know, that guy who thinks that they’re more intelligent, talented, and special than anyone else. The supremely cocky kid who thinks that he is destined for greatness?

I’m that guy.

I’m arrogant. I’m confident. I’m convinced that I’m better than everyone else around me. In my vision of world history, I’m a going to be a protagonist, not a bit player. I am the center of the world and the apex of human evolution.

I piss people off alot. Friends and foes alike have compared the size of my ego to that of a planet. I do and think what I want and it invariably offends or upsets someone.

And I’m okay with that. The truth is that the human species would not have evolved without people like me. Modest people don’t change history. Nobody runs for president without thinking that they’re more qualified than everybody else in the country. Nothing would get invented — only the arrogant will stand up and create something that doesn’t exist outside our wildest fantasies.

If you want to do epic things, you have to be epic yourself. Humble people don’t think that they can change the world. They can’t imagine inspiring millions or setting the world on fire with an idea.

But the cocky do it every day. Why? Because we know that we can and anything short of our dreams is failure. We’re driven not by a desire to be happy but by an inherent need to be the best. Because we know that we can rich the pinnacle of greatness, nothing else will satiate us.

If you are one of the elite, give yourself a pat on the back for being awesome. Don’t worry if people tell you to tone it down or to get off your pedestal. Keep your pedestal and make it taller — the voices of your naysayers will fade as you ascend into the glory of your potential.

If you believe that arrogance is bad and that cocky people all need to shut up and get over themselves, take a second look at the world. Your government, your history, and your culture are entirely created and sustained by the sweat of people who believe that they alone can make a difference. Look through a history book and study the key players in history: Julius Caesar, Emperor Chin, Napoleon Bonaparte, Genghis Khan, the American founding fathers, Winston Churchill… and on and on and on. All of them were arrogant enough to reshape the structure of the world.

Are you religious at all? Name someone who started a religion who wasn’t supremely confident in himself. Jesus, Muhammad, Moses, Siddartha, Joseph Smith — they might have been humbled before their god, but they still saw themsleves as the only beacon of light and truth in an ignorant and evil world. Even god is cocky — read any religious text and tell me that its god is humble.

For some reason we revere excellence but detest confidence. During the 2008 elections the pundits made a fuss over whether or not the candidates were elitists. Personally, I would hope that my leaders are better than anyone else. I don’t want an average person running the country. Or running anything, for that matter.

But there is a definitive rule for ego: if you aren’t the best, be quiet. When I play basketball, I don’t talk trash. When I’m singing in the car, I don’t compare myself to Josh Groban. I’m supremely confident in activities in which I excel and I’m humble where I recognize my mediocrity. This treatise isn’t condoning empty braggadocio and unfounded arrogance. At all times we have to be honest with ourselves and recognize our own strengths and weaknesses.

So yes, when I tell you I’m going to visit every country by the time I’m 25, I’m not bragging. I’m stating a fact. When I say that I’m going to turn Your Best Weekend into the premiere lifestyle design website and that my upcoming book will reach the NYT Bestseller List, I’m not pining over a distant wish. I’m making a statement based on my own confidence in my talent and dedication.

If my attitude offends you, get used to it. The meek might have inherited the earth, but the confident are here to conquer it.

“Jake, don’t fall!” my then-girlfriend shouted across the roof. “You’re my ride home.”

I laughed and looked down at my toes hanging off the side of the roof, eighty feet above the concrete sidewalk below. The autumn moon lit up the UMBC campus and Baltimore City reflected softly off the Chesapeake Bay in the distance. I watched as drunk college kids stumbled back to their dorms. My biggest goal since I’d transferred to UMBC was to get onto this roof and I had now accomplished that mission, with the help of a friendly janitor and an unlocked maintenance room.

It was more spectacular than I’d imagined. To this day, the view is one of my favorite of Baltimore and the openness of the roof made it a delightful and mildly hazardous operation. The fact that we would be expelled if we were caught added to the excitement.

But we weren’t caugh that that night (and our subsequent visits) remains one of the highlights of my university career.

I’ve always had a fascination with the unknown, so my proclivity toward restricted areas seems to come naturally. In college I did most of my studying in the faculty-only lounge and used my spare time to fully explore the campus, to include the roofs and tunnels and even the Physics Building’s half-million dollar telescope. I go hiking in state parks at night and if I ever see a door that looks linteresting, I walk through it regardless of “No Entrance” signs.

In this article, I’m going to talk about reasons why you should want to explore those places that you don’t have access to, how you go about getting in without being caught, and certain guidelines that you should follow.

Reasons to go into restricted areas:

1.They’re more interesting than open areas.

Restricted areas are off limits to the public for a reason. They have hazardous environments, house expensive expensive equipment, or are the best places to meet famous and important people. They are almost always more interesting than the touristy, boring things that are open to everybody. On the roof at UMBC, there was a very real possibility of falling to my death or severe injury. There were no handrails or nets to prevent my skull from slamming into the concrete. But the dangerous height made the view incredible — the risk was necessary for there to be that reward.

The UMBC telescope is worth half a million dollars — more money than I will make in several years. If anything had gone wrong when I was allowed to play around with it, I would have been seriously screwed. But the telescope and its computer survived and I was able to see some remarkable shots of the planets and distant galaxies.

And finally, the cool people all hang out in restricted areas. If you get backstage at a concert, you’re going to meet the performers. If you get past the receptionist at a congressional office, you’re going to meet a senator or congressman. Using the techniques outlined in this article, I’ve managed to meet U.S. Senators, foreign diplomats, NFL coaches and players, comedians, and even royalty.

2. It’s a challenge.

There’s nothing more fun than successfully infiltrating a restricted area and exploring a fascinating and off-limits location. My friends make bets to see if I can talk or walk my way into certain places. Sometimes it’s as simple as convincing the Coldstone manager to let me behind the counter to serve ice cream to everyone and sometimes I have to persuade cops to let me into a closed-off park or event.

3. Even if you fail, you have a cool story to tell.

I’ve been caught a few times and been asked to leave once or twice. I once had to do a short service project for UMBC after some friends and I climbed through an unlocked trap door in one of the academic buildings (see the letter below). But nothing bad has ever happened and I have a huge amount of stories that involve me going somewhere I’m not technically supposed to go. These experiences add drama and excitement to one’s life and make for perfect storytelling material.

4. You’ll set yourself apart from the crowd of cowards.

Imagine sitting at a concert with all your friends and listening to them wonder what it’s like backstage. Instead of joining in on the pointless imagining, you walk straight toward the entrance and get backstage as they’re frozen in place, too terrified to follow you. Then imagine going home and hearing all of them talk about nothing else for the next week. Imagine them sending text messages and Facebook comments and tweets all starting with, “OMG, guess what Jake did this time!”

Curiosity is the nectar of adventure, and hidden and secret places possess infinite possibilities of delight and excitement. And luckily enough, it isn’t hard to get inside most places. Here are the most reliable methods — you’ll notice that I never mention rappelling, Vulcan neck grips, or parachuting in under the cover of darkness. These are all fun to do, but we aren’t talking about spy missions here. The following techniques are painfully simple and have a ridiculously high success rate:

1. Walk in.

By far the most effective technique, this one is sneakily difficult to pull off perfectly. The secret is confidence. Walk casually and don’t look around to see if you’ve been spotted. Smile and greet anyone who walks past as if they’re a distant colleqague (a good “Hi, how’s it going?” always works). If you look nervous you’ll probably be stopped and questioned. If you act like you’re supposed to be there, people will believe your body language and leave you alone.

If it’s a big place and you aren’t sure where you want to go, don’t look lost or hesitant. Keep walking like you have a firm destination. Walking in is the most foolproof method and it has some hilarious side effects. If you pull it off with enough confidence, security guards and peons will call you sir (or ma’am) and will let you go literally anywhere.

To prove the usefulness of this technique to a friend, I once walked into a stranger’s house and started to watch a football game on TV. I had a lovely conversation with the woman who lived there and learned about her kids, where her son went to college, and who she was rooting for in the game (it was the Ravens). After fifteen minutes I said goodbye and she let me out of the house — she probably thought it was a weird experience, but she was seemed to enjoy the conversation and was excited to talk about her family. While I don’t recommend doing this, it demonstrates that a little bit of confidence lets you get away with almost anything.

2. Charm your way in.

This one works best with a member of the opposite sex, expecially if you are relatively young (i.e., less than 30) and not hideous. Essentially, you need to get a staff member with access to the restricted area to like you enough to let you in. This obviously takes more skill than just walking straight in, but the rewards are potentially higher when you have an authorized person on your side. The simple process is this:

1. Smile and talk to them about the building or event you’re trying to get into. The best opening is to ask them an innocuous question that doesn’t make them think you’re trying to sneak in.
2. After a few minutes, ask them a personal question. A good type of question is to ask them something like, “So how did you come to work/volunteer for ______________________?” People love to talk about themselves, so let them ramble for as long as they want.
3. Ask them to clarify, compliment them gently (not in a creepy way, though), and then…
4. Ask them if there is any way to get into wherever you’re trying to go. Depending on the personality of the person, you can make up a number of excuses that will win them over. Some will do it just for the fun of it if they like you enough.

3. Lie.

I don’t use this one because of the potential for it to blow up in your face, but it gets the job done if it’s done effectively. Say that you’re part of the band’s crew. Say that you’re a reporter who has an interview scheduled with the congressman. Make something up that’s believable and deliver it with a straight face. Be likeable but vanilla enough that the security guard forgets about you as soon as you walk past him.

4. Go covert.

The least successful and most high-risk technique of all. If the first three methods don’t work for you, I don’t recommend using this one. This involves wearing dark clothes, running from tree to tree, and climbing over fences. If you get caught, you can’t feign ignorance (which I’ll discuss shortly) and security guards immediately distrust and dislike you. It will be extremely difficult for you to talk your way out of the situation and you can get fined and/or banned from that establishment.

But if you want to give it a shot, go for it.

What to do when you’re caught.

For the first two techniques, you have an easy fallback if you get caught. “Oh, I’m sorry, officer. Were we not allowed back here? Oh my gosh, I must have missed those seventeen NO TRESPASSING signs.” It sounds stupid and they’ll know you’re lying, but it works. Sometimes they’ll even let you stay as long as you promise not to do anything stupid. This works most effectively when you have an innocent backstory. Carry a camera and say you’re just trying to get some pictures for a student project. Say you’re coming from church or Bible study or youth group (if you’re young) and nobody will ever consider you a threat.

If a security guard or police officer ever tells you to do something that doesn’t violate any sort of constitutional or human right, do it without protesting. Sure, you could probably concoct a decent reason to be there, but they have the badges and guns and you don’t want to be on the bad side of the law. Pack up your backs and give it a shot some other day.

And on a personal note, don’t break anything or leave any graffiti or litter. It’s stupid, immature, childish, and makes things harder for the rest of us. Treat everything and everyone with respect and you’ll have a good time and a good story. Be responsible and safe about it and go have some fun!

My experience with alcohol started when I was eight and I snuck a sip from my dad’s pint at the local pub. When I was a sophomore, I started drinking heavily – parties and blackouts and embarrasing pictures were commonplace. But after about a year if drinking, it wasn’t exciting anymore. My friends would call me up to go get liquored up and I’d invent excuses to not go or I’d volunteer to be the designated driver. I felt like something was wrog with me for being the only college student who didn’t like to drink. I still loved partying and dancing and hanging out with friends, but I no longer enjoyed doing it under the fog of intoxication.

To this day, I only drink on rare occasions. I like a select few drinks, but I drink them socially to enjoy the taste, not to get drunk. Last night, for example, I had Bailey’s hot chocolate with some friends as we discussed philosophy and psychology – on the other side of the room, a couple friends were doing shots of vodka and talking about how they couldn’t feel their faces.

I’m not one to judge, but I think I had the more stimulating and enjoyable time. So in honor of my friends who are suffering from hangovers right now, here is the YBW list of reasons why alcohol is a waste of time:

1) It never really changes.

You can try different drinks, go out with different people, and even drink in other countries, but at the end of the night you’re still going to be stumbling around making a fool of yourself. As funny as that might be to do once or twice, it gets old quickly. If the core of man’s soul lies in new experiences, then drinking every weekend isn’t really living in the suck-the-marrow-out-of-life sense of the word.

2) You make yourself look like an idiot.

The closet in my bedroom has a dent in it from when a drunken friend of mine headbutted it at three in the morning. I’ve witnessed a hammered friend pee all over my sleeping friend and the boy with whom she was sharing her bed. I’ve cleaned up vomit, helped break up fights, and driven people home when they were too far gone to even walk straight. Sure, the night may seem fun for you, but everyone around you probably thinks you’re acting like an idiot.

3) It’s easy to break the law drunk.

I don’t have ant particular respect for the law – I choose to follow my own sense of morality, so my adherence to the law is only due to how much it parallels my own moral code. But being caught breaking the law is never good, and it happens far too easily when you drink. Regardless of whether you’re even old enough to drink (I’m looking at you, high school and college students), its easy to delude yourself into thinking that you’re sober enough to drive. Or vandalize something. Or steal something. Or have sex with that girl who is too far gone to make a smart decision. Everything sounds more fun and less risky when you’ve had a few drinks.

4) It costs money.

Unless you’re a girl, drinking is an expensive habit. Unless you’re drinking crappy beer (again, I’m looking at you, college students), drinking every weekend adds up to a fair amount of money. I’ve been out with friends and watched them rack up $200 tabs each. Even if drinking was an enjoyable, enlightening experience, I doubt that it would be worth that kind of money.

5) It doesn’t even taste good.

I know I’m going to get emails from diehard drinkers who swear that Jagermeister tastes like the sweat of angels and vodka is like a candied panacea, but let’s be truly honest with each other: 99% of alcohol tastes like crap. There’s a reason people wince after doing shots. And don’t come back and say that I’m just a Pansy who can’t handle my liquor – I used to down Jack Daniels and scotch with the best of them. But stepping back from our predispositions and biases, we have to admit that most alcohol tastes horrific. As fun as it might be to get buzzed (even though life is so much more incredible when you have complete control of your senses), I don’t want to subject myself to something awful just for the buzz that follows.

There are a couple other reasons why I don’t enjoy drinking, but they’re pretty self explanatory:

At the end of the day, you have to make your own decision. I don’t care either way – most of my friends drink and I still hang out with them when they’re drunk. You just won’t see me staggering around the bar. And when I climb up on my friend’s roof and try to clear the 15-foot gap to his pool, it won’t be because I’m intoxicated. It will just be because I’m awesome like that.

But that story deserves it’s own post.

“Can I have this?” I joked with the manager. “Can I at least eat with it?”

Thirty seconds later we were eating pizza with a gold “Top Performer” trophy at the head of out table. I carried it everywhere with me: to refill my soda, to grab more pizza, to use the bathroom. Little kids kept coming up to see it and I gave them encouraging speeches about how they too could get trophies if they stayed in school.

When I went to the manager to request a particular type of pizza for the buffet, she immediately started making it on the condition that I help her out with a cheer. Obviously I said yes.

She went to the front of the store and yelled for everyone’s attention. I stood next to her and looked around at all the families and strangers staring at us. Some were visibly annoyed at the interruption, but most of them were curious.

We started to clap and shout out the Cici’s Pizza cheer. I was focuse so much on observing the people around us that I messed up the cheer and we had to restart, but that only made it more hilarious. When we finished, we got applause from the laughing audience and my friends were almost crying from laughing so hard. The manager then hand-delivered me my pizza an told me to come back to cheer again soon.

The 30-Day Make a Stranger’s Day Experiment

Eating my victory pizza, I noticed that everyone involved seemed visibly happier and relaxed afterward. Families that had been daring quietly were now engaged in loud, jovial discussions. The manager had an extra bounce in her step.

And then it hit me: I need to be doing this every day.

For the next thirty days, I’m going to do something to entertain or encourage a stranger at least once a day. Whether it’s by complimenting their outfit or leading them in a pizza store jingle, I want to leave them smiling and happier than they were before I got to them.

I encourage all of you to join me. Think about it: if only 100 of us did this for thiry days, we would create over 3,000 moments of joy and laughter. What could be a more satisfying mission than to make people happy?

If you decide to join up, here are the basic rules:

1) It has to be a stranger. You should already be making your friends laugh whenever you see them. This experiment is to brighten the day of someone you don’t know and who you will probably never see again.

2) Don’t tell them about the experiment. You want to make them feel special, not like they’re just helping you meet your quota.

3) Have fun with this. Strike up conversations with strangers, pay for the person behind you at Starbucks, or help someone with a broken down car on the side of the road. Smile, laugh, and remember to enjoy every second of your glorious life.

If you decide to try it, share your stories with me at yourbestweekend@gmail.com. Good luck!

“Can I get a picture with you? I’m a big fan of what you’re doing.”

In the past hour I’d been approached by dozens of strangers and photographed by even more. The D.C. news reporters were interviewing onlookers and tourists kept asking to get their picture next to us.

No, I’m not a celebrity (yet!). I just wasn’t wearing any pants. Around the metro station and throughout the meandering tunnels of the D.C. underground, 500 of my peers were similarly demonstrating their appreciation for exposed legs. I was sporting some spiffy Superman boxers and having a blast watching the mass confusion around me.

Welcome to the 2010 No Pants Metro Ride. This year 16 countries and 44 cities participated in the event, which started in 2002 with seven guys in the New York City subway system. It’s blossomed into an event with tens of thousands of people around the globe and it’s done solely to cause spontaneous delight and happiness in people’s otherwise dreary lives. Alot of people think the No Pants Metro Ride is silly and pointless, and they’d be right. But it does something truly magical — it takes a boring activity from our everyday lives and transforms it into something fun.

I’ve been doing this since I was a small child. When I got bored on long car rides, I invented games to play with my sisters or I challenged myself to find certain signs or state license plates. Now that I’m older, my road trip games are decidely more interesting. When I carpool with someobody, I let them leave five minutes before me and then play highway-hide-and-seek to find them before we get to our destination. If I’m driving solo, I see how long I can drive without my hands touching the wheel. My record is 15 miles (though I stopped out of sheer boredom, not because I actually needed to).

Nothing is boring once you turn it into a game or add an interesting twist. Nothing is so dull that it can’t be made fun. Shopping for groceries? Try brand new foods and brand new stores. Sitting through a tedious class? Write all your notes in rhyme. Stuck in an endless meeting? Stare at the chin of the person across from you and make them think they have something on their face.

The YBW philosophy of life doesn’t say to ignore the less-exciting necessities of life. We still have to work and bathe, eat and sleep. But we have the ability to make these activities fun! Give everything in your schedule a splash of colour and never again accept boredom in your life.

We automatically assume that work is the dichotomous opposite of play, but this just isn’t true. We can get alot accomplished and have a blast doing it. We just need to shake things up and look at our schedule with a new perspective. You can’t always take your pants off, of course, but you can always make your day more interesting.

Here’s a teaser of the forthcoming articles:

1. How to Die of Hypothermia and Frostbite in the Great Smoky Mountians
2. How to Take a Girl to New York City on Your First Date
3. How to Sleep in Your Car for Multiple Nights
4. How to Become a Photographer
5. How to Gamble and Make Money from Strangers
6. How to Stay Awake for 76 Hours

I’ll be posting pretty regularly, so keep your eye out for these articles! It’s good to be back!

Recognize that nobody is going to die if you bail.

You might be one of those people who treats any social obligation like a life-and-death situation. We all know people like this – they can’t be late, they have to make sure everything runs smoothly, and they panic when things go wrong.

I’ve seen enough friends freak out about minor things to know that this isn’t healthy. You have to recognize that nothing terrible is going to happen if you don’t show up to something. Unless you’re a surgeon or a firefighter, you can safely bail on any weekend obligation without someone dying or a house burning down.

Sure, someone might be upset because you weren’t able to help set up for the party or bring the chips and soda to the get-together. But who cares? If you don’t want to go to something, don’t go.

Be completely honest. Or lie like a pro.

There are two ways to tell someone that you can’t make it to the event. You can be perfectly honesty – “I changed my mind. I don’t actually want to see that movie. Let’s hang out another day!” Or you can lie – “I’m really sorry, bro. I just remembered that my dad’s side of the family has a reunion at Rock Creek Park today. Let’s hang out another day!”

There are pros and cons to each option. Honesty feels better. You don’t have to worry about cover stories or being caught doing something else. You say what you feel and let your colleagues and friends judge you on a playing field of complete openness. Sure, your friend might be a little upset, but they’ll appreciate that you came clean and told them the truth.

Lying, on the other hand, offers you a chance to get away with no hard feelings and leaves everybody satisfied. The secret is to invent a good lie – it has to be specific and completely believable. Don’t be vague. Ambiguous obligations with an unnamed friend are easy to see through. Go into detail. Talk about who you’re allegedly meeting, where you’re going, and why you can’t put it off to another day. The recipient of your lie should accept it, empathize with you, and not suspect anything.

But lies can backfire. If you aren’t completely confident with your lying ability, be warned that your friends will probably find out and the results can be ugly. But both techniques work – both will get you out of an obligation and on to better things.

Actually have something else to do.

If you bail on someone and spend your new free time watching TV, you’re a terrible friend. If you bail on someone and go hang gliding, you’re in the clear.

Bailing on social obligations isn’t the goal. The point of this is to give yourself the time to pursue activities that you actually care about. Bailing on your friends and then wasting your time is pointless.

So find something to do. This entire website is dedicated to doing remarkable things with your weekend, but the succinct principle is this: Life is too short to not be extraordinary right now.

So go be awesome.

Invite your friends along.

Chances are, if you want to bail on something, your friends don’t want to be there either. So instead of telling them that you can’t make it, invite them to go be awesome with you.

This is the best option if you want to do something cool, hang out with your friends, but still bail on whatever boring activity you didn’t want to do. So change that phone conversation from before to:

“Dude! This afternoon is going to be lame. Let’s hit up the park and go rock climbing instead! Bring Steve and Katie with you. I’ve already got the equipment!”

If your friends are even remotely cool (and if they aren’t the ones hosting whatever party you’re bailing from), they’ll drop their plans and go with you. If they don’t, you should find more awesome friends.

Be selfish.

You’re only going to enjoy your weekend if you do what you want to do. If you sacrifice all your time to satisfy other people, you’re going to be miserable. You might feel bad about skipping things at first, but you’ll soon realize how liberating it is to only do things that you actually care about.

You won’t be deceiving your friends anymore, pretending to enjoy doing things that bore you. You’ll start looking forward to the weekends as your time to live your life however you want to. You’ll go to sleep on Sunday satisfied with yourself and your actions.

So go do what you love and forget about the rest.

This article will teach you three methods that will immediately extend your weekend and give you more time to focus on more important things.

1. Negotiate with your boss.

Who decided that we have to work five days a week? Sadly, most of us are stuck in jobs that force us to work 40 hours a week. But why do we divide those 40 hours into five days? Why work eight hours a day when you could work for 10 hours for four days and have a three-day weekend?

A lot of offices are starting to allow this option for their workforce. Not only does it extend your weekend by 50%, it saves you time and money by reducing your weekly commute. Talk to your boss and tell them that you want to adjust your hours to improve your work-life balance.

2. Wake up earlier.

Unless I stay out until the wee hours of the morning, I wake up by 5 a.m. every day. I’m a little bit extreme, but it’s a lot better than some people I know who sleep in past noon every weekend. No wonder you can’t accomplish anything! You’re sleeping your weekend away!

Start waking up earlier each day and you’ll add hours to your weekend. If you typically sleep in until 8 o’clock, wake up at 7. Next weekend, wake up at 6. If you drop your wakeup time by two hours per day, you have an additional 16 hours per month with which to live. That’s the equivalent of two workdays, just from waking up a little bit earlier!

3. Take care of minor chores during the week.

Of all the things people do during the weekend, chores are the worst. Nothing could be more mundane.

We spend our weekends doing chores because we’re lazy. We put everything off to the weekend because we know we’ll have hours and hours of free time with which to take care of our trivialities.

The easiest way of banishing chores from your weekend is to space them out throughout the week. If you do a load of laundry every couple evenings, you won’t have to stay home on Saturday afternoon to take care of your dirty clothes. If you spend five minutes a day straightening up your house, it won’t be a mess when the weekend rolls around.

Break down what chores you have to do every week, and take care of them systematically throughout the week. By the time your weekend arrives, you won’t have anything left to do around the house.

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Any one of these three techniques will dramatically improve your weekends and help you spend your time focusing on things that you actually want to do. If you have any tips that worked to improve your weekend that you’d like to share, send me an email at yourbestweekend@gmail.com!