quotes to live by

A co-worker has these posted in his cube. (The guy is an avid distance runner, having run in the Boston Marathon among several others, so it's not surprising he'd have such quotes displayed prominently.) Since I first read them I've been meaning to write them down and post them here, but I'm not in his area very often. Well, what better to do late at night than wander around and copy stuff down?

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a well-preserved body. Rather, you should skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, proclaiming loudly, "Wow, what a ride!". -- An unknown runner

It's not the one that collects the most money or toys in life that wins. It's the one that collects the most adventures while at the same time minimizing his collection of "could of, should of, would of's". -- Paraphrased from a quote by Bill Allen

Both are good rules of thumb to live by when it comes to lifestyle and taking risks and such, but I especially like the second one. I'd say that sums up my mentality and approach to things these days as well as anything I've ever read, including even the Bible. As a friend once put it, I'm basically in "regret avoidance" mode. Having not done much cool stuff earlier in life, I seem to have swung to the opposite end of the spectrum, wanting to do every cool thing I can and willing to blow off saving money and take some rather big chances to that end. I'm convinced beyond any doubt that regrets hurt far more than anything else in life and so I'm willing to do anything and everything necessary to avoid them.

Overall, I guess that's a big reason I grew tired of being out here after a short time and why that frustration has been with me since. Spending one's younger years working a so-so job in a remote area that doesn't even pay enough to open enough adventure doors much less compensate for the astronomical local cost of living isn't quite what I had in mind way back when. I'm here to do and see as much stuff as I can.* To paraphrase a recent country album title, I'm in it for the adventure. Even unique bad experiences (like, say, kidney stone surgery) are rough but at least have experience value that will surely be useful later in life. But monotony is the worst of all worlds. So, given my severe lack of patience and distaste for monotony and boredom, is it any surprise that it didn't take long for me to start hating my current life situation?

At this point I feel like anything -- good, bad, crazy, dangerous, whatever -- would be better than just being stuck in the same old routine with the doom of sinking into the average middle-class American lifestyle hanging over my head all the time. Such a life only leads to misery as far as I can tell. Must...do...something...different...

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* A co-worker recently said while we were hanging out on a training trip that I'm a "Christian existentialist." I disagreed with him at the time because Christianity and existentialism are based on opposing worldviews and thus aren't compatible, but I see what he's getting at. He's probably right to some degree.