View the original article on Men’s Health here. This article is useful because as kids, we don’t realize the value of our experiences. A camping trip is fun, or an adventure is exciting. Is that enough for our children? How do we teach them lessons but still preserve their own wonderment and discovery? The introspection about those activities comes later when you’re an adult. Adults have the benefit of having already been a kid, knowing that a) you’re not going to be young forever and b) knowing that many adults spend a good portion of their adult lives trying to re-live their youths. I appreciate my experiences as an adult because I focus on living in the moment. That makes me wonder if I lived my younger self’s experiences as fully as possible and if I learned all of the lessons someone was trying to teach me. Here are a few excerpts from Joe Kita’s Men’s Health Merit Badge section that I would like to remember and apply.

1. Space Exploration: Escape a Life Rut. Challenge yourself by pursuing activities that make you uncomfortable and that have uncertain outcomes.
2. Climbing: Set Higher Goals. Motivation Manifesto: In order to climb higher, first decide why you want it, how long you’re willing to fight for it, and what success will look like. Then kill the distractions. If something isn’t moving you closer to your growth, you goal, your joy, your impact, then ditch it and keep moving forward.
3. Welding: Fortify Your Bonds. Use this four-step plan from Charlie Bloom, coauthor of Secrets of Great Marriages. Trust: Keep your word—but if you fail, acknowledge it and apologize without making excuses. Honesty: Speak your feelings but not your judgments, and do it with respect. Expectation: The two of you should define the relationship and live the definition.
4. Gratefulness: Be thankful and vocal about it. Then your partner will know what makes you happy.