Welcome to the Cult of Awesome

What defines awesome?  One blogger I found described it as being defined by three things: you, your friends/the people around you, and your world.  Once you had truly designed and challenged yourself in each of the areas, he said you could join the cult of awesome.  If any of you do read about his ideas on being awesome, I think you know how directly I relate to the 24 year old version of himself, although my hummus is frozen pizza.  Talk about feeling like a stranger is giving a personal shout out to you. His concepts are a bit abstract and blunt but there are other step by step guides to becoming awesome for the inspiring impaired.
My analysis of the articles about being awesome out there is that the important part is about getting up and doing something.  Sure sitting on your couch playing Call of Duty 24 hours a day may be enjoyable, but unless you just want to be awesome to 12 year olds living with their parents, you should probably push yourself slightly beyond a battery charged remote.  You have to expand your world and be willing to put yourself in new situations to find the ones that you excel in.  As a result of trying new things and taking chances, someone who is awesome has to not worry about what other people think.  This may seem counter-intuitive because being awesome is judged by other people’s perceptions of you.  If I think that I am awesome, it is conceited, rude, and a little pompous.  But if everyone else thinks I am awesome while I am oblivious to the fact, then I just became one of the coolest people in the room.  By not caring what other people think, a person is able to engage in the very activities that make them awesome because they were willing to not conform, do something different, and expand the scope of the people they affect.
Maybe you are awesome already and maybe you need a lot more work to become awesome, the first step is finding a few concrete ideas to get you started on your yellow brick road to the Emerald City of Awesome.
To celebrate being awesome, I decided that there was only one thing that I could do.  Yes, I finally planted my bonsai tree.  Over the next months and years, I will be cultivating, growing, and hopefully not killing my very own bonsai tree.  Call me the white, very little karate knowing Mr. Miyagi.
One thing that can make a person awesome is having stories of their adventures around the world.  Today is also National Passport Day.  Being from the Midwest, many of the people I grew up with did not have passports.  Our idea of going some place exotic was taking a 5 hour car ride to Wisconsin.  But there is a lot of world out there and I do believe the awesome people are not afraid to explore it.  Because TravelZoo also believes travel is awesome, it posted a discount to the Travel and Adventure Expo next week in DC.  I feel like I owe it to myself to check it out.  I still have not gotten my passport (because I am lazy and it is a Saturday) but I have taken one step closer to obtaining it.  I have filled out the DS-11:  Application for a US Passport.
For anyone else interested in getting their own passport, the steps are simple:
1. Fill Out Form DS-11: Application For A U.S. Passport
2. Submit Completed Form DS-11 In Person
3. Submit Evidence of U.S. Citizenship
4. Present Identification
5. Submit a Photocopy of the Identification Document(s) Presented (Step 4)
6. Pay the Applicable Fee
7. Provide One Passport Photo
8.  Stop Waiting
Have a great World Awesomeness Day and enjoy this videos on your way out!