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Who has inspired you lately? Let’s share.

I want to open this up for discussion. I like finding inspiration from different types of people and things? I like to dig deep and find something or someone totally obscure whom makes you think differently or change something about yourself. The following 3 inspirational people were introduced to me by friends or family and each one has recently played a part in inspiring me in either my designs, health or just the overall outlook on life itself. Maybe one of these people can inspire you to create something, change something, or challenge yourself, but I’d also like to hear who inspires you. Lets share.

1. Michael Hedges – You just have to see him play to understand. He thought differently about how to play a guitar. Unfortunately Michael passed away in 1997 but I still put his albums on repeat when I’m working on layouts at work. It puts me in a complete creative state of mind.

2. Tim Ferris – One of my favorite authors and life hacker. The first time I learned about Tim Ferris and his books, I couldn’t get enough of it. His second book, The 4 Hour Body, changed the way I looked at food, nutrition and how to take care of your body. It was my first stepping stone in trying to become a healthier person. His most recent book however, The 4 Hour Chef, has been completely life changing. I keep it by my bedside and thumb through it almost every night before I sleep. He uses cooking as a method to explaining accelerated learning, which he calls “meta learning”, or mastering new skills in the minimum amount of time possible. Here is a really cool trailer he released before the book was available online only at Amazon.com

Tim Ferriss / “4 Hour Chef” from Adam Patch on Vimeo.

And a list of his books for sale on Amazon:
1. The 4 Hour Work Week
2. The 4 Hour Body
3. The 4 Hour Chef

3. Joe Rogan – Yup, this was the curve ball I was going to throw. How is a stand-up comic/color commentator for the UFC/News Radio Guy inspirational to me?
Well it starts with his podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience, which on average he releases 2-3 times a week, usually for 3 hours and its one of the most informational, mind blowing, holy shit lets hold on and see where this train is going podcast I’ve ever listened to. Conversations span from an in-depth look into the world of stand-up comedy with some of his colleauges like Brian Callen, to Hunting Mule Deer with Steven Rinella, or the future of Bitcoin with Andreas Antonopoulos, Politics and world issues with VICE TV co-finder Shane Smith, and Jiu Jitsu with Eddie Bravo, and this is just to name a few. But Rogan makes you think and re-think and re-think and question everything he talks about until you come to your own conclusion, wether you agree with him or not. And his overall outlook on life are words to live by. I can sum it up with this relatively long but super inspiring post that he posted on a Reddit board once. Read it and let me know what you think, but if you’re like me, you’ll find yourself asking “This is from the Fear Factor Guy?” when you’re done.

I think the best thing we can do to change the world is to inspire young people. The more people realize that the key to happiness in life is to surround yourself with good friends, to be a good friend, to challenge yourself in honest ways, to not take short cuts but rather to rise to the challenge and grow from the struggle. To not be jealous of each other’s success but rather be inspired by it. The more we realize that the key to happiness doesn’t lay in numbers in a bank account but in the way we make others feel and the way they make us feel. The values of true community.

Although these values are massively important and resonate with every honest person when they’re discussing “meaning” and “happiness” in life, they’re not taught in school. We learn the building blocks of mathematics, the fundamentals of language, the facts of history – but we never learn how to manage our minds. We never learn how to live by a code and to surround yourself with like-minded people and to inspire and encourage each other.

Occasionally we’re fed clumsy, abstract shit like “think positive!” but no one ever gives us a clear path of what the fuck that means. No one ever tells you that all the success in the world will leave you a miserable wreck of a person if you stab your brothers and sisters in the back in your attempt to reach victory. No one ever tells you that all the money in the world ain’t worth shit if no one gives a fuck about you and you have no friends.

The quicker we all realize that we’ve been taught how to live life by people that were operating on the momentum of an ignorant past the quicker we can move to a global ethic of community that doesn’t value invented borders or the monopolization of natural resources, but rather the goal of a happier more loving humanity.

People can still make money and still find success while doing it all ethically. We live in a time where we’re seeing corporations acting as remorseless, profit seeking monsters with each human part required to keep it moving feeling free of guilt because of the diffusion of responsibility that comes with being a single piece in a huge machine. Too many people have the attitude that this is the only way to do big business. That’s a pile of weak bullshit, and this generation may be one of the first generations that has the information available to make that distinction and stop that flawed model from being acceptable.

The more people require the highest level of friendship and love of themselves the more other people will be inspired by them. If that sounds like some hippy, utopian bullshit… it’s because it is. It also might be the only way people are ever really going to change. One person inspiring another, each commiting to upholding a higher standard until it becomes the norm.

Humanity has changed drastically over the past few thousand years. It used to be when people you didn’t know showed up in town they were there to rape and murder. Now, they’re tourists and they’re welcomed with open arms as a valuable part of the global economy. One day I believe that if we don’t blow ourselves up, or poison ourselves with polution, or get wiped out by a super-bug or an asteroid impact we’ll slowly come to the understanding that we really are just one species, and that the only way to truly be happy is if everyone around you is happy as well.