I have always had a lot of admiration for people who cram a lot of different life experiences into one lifetime, one way or another.

Some people have their hands somewhat forced, by circumstances of various kinds that I could dwell on here, but won’t. I’ll only say that a lot of the time people feel a lot more constrained than they really are.

So here are a few people I can think of that I admire for their ability to do a lot of different, substantial and interesting things.

• Japanese painter Masami Yamada
• My uncle, Jeff Johnson, who recently walked unsupported through the middle of Australia and wrote a book about it; but also founded Australia’s first Internet Service Provider and has lived a bunch of other “lives” in between
• Timothy Ferriss, author of 4-hour work week

While I’m not (yet) too aquainted with just why Masami Yamada has managed to cram in so much interesting stuff, I know that Jeff and Tim both ultimately have done so by a relatively simple proposition: remove a whole bunch of “socially expected” work and routine from your life, concentrate on what you actually want and how to get there, and the rest almost takes care of itself.

I am still relatively young, at 34. Although I’ve sometimes had a feeling I wouldn’t see 40 (or the next day), I would like to hope that I’ve still got a fairly long way to go yet in this lifetime. After that, who knows, but I am certainly not taking any chances, and will be filling up this life as best as I can.