1. Lose the ego - The next time you think that you deserve something because you're so great, try to instead of a way that you could improve. Check your ego at the door at the next brainstorming session at work, and instead try to participate to find the best solution to the problems at hand.

2. Release the animal within you, get a dog - Or any other animal. They don't care about time, they don't care about the laws of the land, or anything else that we people invent. They only care about what is going on in THE NOW. They can help you to live in the now, and to be a leader. They look up to you and will obey you, but only if you lead them, only if you show them that they have no other choice but to follow you.

3. Turn off the television - Turn it off, along with the radio. Try to drive one morning to work without the commercials blaring in your ear. Instead of plopping down in front of the commercial pumping television set one night, tend to your home, your yard, or your family.

4. Change your routine - Take a different route to work, get up earlier, whatever it is, change something about your daily routine. Do something different every day and make the only thing common about your daily routine the fact that you do something different from day to day.

5. Stand up straight, look up, acknowledge people as you walk past them - The next time that you pass someone in the hall, acknowledge them with a nod, a hello, or a wave. When you drive past someone in your neighborhood, look them in the eyes and wave to them.

6. Take the blame - Carry the burden. When something goes wrong, go with it, and then fix it.

7. Stop complaining - Take responsibility for your own happiness, stop complaining about the world around you, stop complaining about work, your car, or anything else that you want but don't have. Simply be, and enjoy being who you are, where you are, with who you have and what you have. Take a deep breath, look around, and choose to focus your energy on improving your situation yourself, through changing things that you have control over, or taking control over the things that you need to change.

8. Lend a helping hand - It is not as difficult as it sounds, but in this world, it seems like we are physically closer to each other than we have ever been, yet we are emotionally further apart than we have ever been. Talk to each other, help each other.

9. Put down your cell phone and talk to the people around you - It always amazes me to be out to dinner and look over to a table in the restaurant or in the park and see two people together; one is staring off in boredom, and the other is yapping on the phone, or both are yapping on the phone to other people. What is so much better about talking to someone on the phone versus talking to and enjoying your present company? Stop the chatter, and enjoy the company of those around you.

10. Exercise - Get out and exercise. Stand up, walk around the office, stretch every now and then. Especially if you have a desk job, get up at least once an hour and walk around, jog out to your car and back, stretch in your cube, whatever you need to do to get the blood flowing again.

These are just some ideas to help wake up and live better. Get back to the roots of America and stop lusting over useless crap that we don't need and can't afford.

We feel as though safe travel is guaranteed, so much so that we completely take it for granted. I have had several of those conversations with friends and coworkers where someone talks about driving on auto-pilot. Those times when one minute you're in the left lane and then you're in the right lane but you have absolutely no memory of actually changing lanes. Worse yet, you leave the office building and enter your front door; you're perfectly conscious, yet you don't really remember the drive.

I'm not talking about those that choose to travel while in a chemically altered state of mind, either. I'm talking about plain old boring every day life, every day travelers. Let's leave the chemicals out for now, that's a whole different topic.

This is actually ok. I mean, you're alert aren't you? You do check your blind spot before changing lanes, you are driving pretty well, you just don't really remember the whole experience. That's fine, this is a trip that you make every day, and you probably just had a lot going on during the day so your mind wanders and thoughts enter, and you go onto auto-pilot. Alas, there is a danger creeping in and it is much bigger than you on auto-pilot for one day.

This problem is an American problem, it is probably a European problem too, but I live here in The States so I will try to not make assumptions about other countries that I don't know about. This problem has many causes and perhaps driving on auto-pilot is a symptom, or perhaps it is a side effect, I'm not sure, either way it is an indicator of a bigger issue.

Complacency.

This is sort of weird to think about but I want to quickly, and at a really high level roll back to start of the USA and then run up to present. The people that decided to start this country had some problems. They had some real problems to solve. They were stressed. They had to deal with some horrible diseases, constant negotiations to stave off invasions, actual fighting to defeat invasions, and on and on. They also had real travel problems.

Travel was possibly the biggest issue with so much land to cover, hence the invention of the railroad. As time goes on, the railroads are built across the country; coupled with huge advances in medicine and engineering just about all of our problems are solved. We get refrigerators! Could you imagine a life without ice on demand? I'm talking about all of the inventions, down to the screen, made small enough to keep mosquitoes out and let fresh air in, staving off disease for many people.

Roll forward to today. As life gets easier and easier, we grow more and more complacent. Take that complacency and apply it to an entire country of people. That scares me. How complacent do you have to be to trample a man to death so you can spend some money that you don't have? Back up.

Google defines complacency as: A feeling of contented self-satisfaction, especially when unaware of impending trouble.

Unaware. We are so absolutely satisfied that we become unaware of extenuating circumstances. Those situations are allowed to develop and grow into terrible events. Don't let that happen to you, don't let it happen to our country; wake up with me, and take back control.

How?

We recently acquired two female German Shorthair Pointers, hunting dogs. Before the dogs we were waking up around 9am, stumbling into work half awake, and then ambitiously awaiting some show on television at night, so we could sit and watch before flopping into bed. After the dogs, we get up at 7am, we are alert, we take them for a walk. We watch out for danger in order to keep them safe. They constantly wake us up. They have such a high level of alertness, we are forced to try to keep up.

However you do it, please take control of your life. Be an alert and mindful traveler.