Awhile ago, when I was slacklining in Santa Cruz, the topic of psychedelics came up. A few people I know took acid and went to a nice nature spot to enjoy themselves. One of them, a friend of a friend (whom I haven’t met), ended up sitting down in the bottom of a shallow river, laughing and throwing fistfuls of mud in the air, shouting “I am a human being!!!”

How great that must’ve been! I wondered, what could have made his experience so vivid? What results in such an exultant, incredible state? Basically, I think he just found the tiny little “yes,” deep inside of him, and ran with it. The drug cascaded chemicals into his brain, creating a positive feedback loop that culminated in total reverence and enjoyment of his own existence.

The real question is why not do whatever the fuck you feel like? There are a million “no”s floating around our thoughts, reasons to hold ourselves back. Don’t do this, don’t do that. Don’t swim in the river, there are germs in there; you could catch cold, you could drown, and most of all, you will certainly get dirty.

So what! All those deterrents don’t hold a candle to your original motivation: because you felt like it. “Yes” isn’t a thought, it’s a feeling–joy emanating from your stomach, channeled through the top of your head like lightning, melting down your spine. It’s a luminescence that fills you from the heart to the fingertips with confidence and love.

Do me a favor. Clear all the words from your head, find your breath, and locate the spark inside, that tiny little “yes.” Focus on it, make it grow. Find the thing that makes you happiest at this moment, that you are surest needs to be done, and DO IT right now.

There are really only three rules I try to live by:

1. Say yes to the right things.

2. Say no to the wrong things.

3. Do it as soon as possible.

Try it on for size:
Say yes to the right things, say no to the wrong things, and do it as soon as possible.