By Jen Sincero Published by Running Press

6. LOVE YOURSELF
Unless you have a better idea.

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CHAPTER 12:
LEAD WITH YOUR CROTCH
In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s
there are few.
—Shunryu Suzuki; Japanese Zen monk, author, teacher also lovingly
known as the “Crooked Cucumber”
I know the big saying is “youth is wasted on the young,” but I think, in certain
respects  anyway,  we’ve  really  got  it  going  on  in  our  late  teens  and  early
twenties. Aside from all the angst and drama and escorts home from the police,
we’ve  still  got  our  little  kid-like  ability  to  create  “just  because”  still  firmly
intact, but we’ve also got this newly-hatched adult ability to make big things
happen in our lives. Add to this the fact that we’re not yet jaded by a long list
of  failures,  and  are  still  under  the  vague  impression  that  death  is  something
that happens to other people, we, if you’re anything like me, leap into our lives
when we’re young with an idiotic, yet awesome, disregard for “what-if’s.”
Admittedly, I remember doing things in the danger department that still have
me  sleeping  with  my  light  on  when  I  think  about  them  now:  hanging  out  in
sketchy  parts  of  town  with  even  sketchier  people,  stowing  away  on  trains,
taking  enough  LSD  in  one  sitting  to  keep  an  entire  village  staring  at  their
hands for hours, hiking off into the desert with no water, no map, and a canteen

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full  of  gin  and  tonics—my  first  priority  being  fun,  with  thoughts  of  the
consequences trailing somewhere, if at all, far off in the distance.
But I also remember diving into my creative pursuits with the same reckless
obliviousness and, as a result, getting utterly spectacular and thrilling results.
Which is why I find it so odd to hear people say, “If I knew then what I know
now, I’m not sure I would have done it.” Well thank God you didn’t know if
that’s yer lame-o attitude. You’d be sitting next to a pile of empty beer cans,
whining about how you missed out on going for your dreams if you did!
The  problem  is  that  once  we’re  older  and  “wiser,”  many  people  trade  in
living  fully  in  their  purpose  for  more  “grown-up”  versions  of  life  that  range
from the merely passable to the full-on sucking. They’ve bought into this idea
that  being  responsible  =  not  having  fun  anymore,  that  waking  up  feeling
excited about life is for the young, and once we’re older, we need to trade that
in, settle down and be more “realistic.”
Yawn.
I’m not talking about being an irresponsible jerk or doing the same things
we did when we were younger, but I am talking about continuously living our
dreams, no matter what stage of life we’re in, instead of settling for mediocrity
because we don’t believe anything else is available or appropriate.