Jodi Sagorin author of blog

Have you ever Googled a topic that interests you and found someone online that you’d like to connect with?

Well, here’s what happened to me yesterday morning. I Googled “Gutsy People” since I’m intrigued by risk-takers, and nineteen-year-old Jodi Sagorin, and her blog, “If you never did, you should,”  popped up.

I was fascinated by this young woman and her passion for adventure, and risk-taking. Was she born with it? How did it develop? Did it come from her parents? And then I noticed an article in the Orange County newspaper, my local paper, “Irvine teen chooses India over prestigious University.” Jodi wanted to volunteer in India to empower women in poverty-stricken areas.

I sent Jodi an e-mail asking if I could interview her and if she was still in India. She wrote back, and she’s now in Orange County, only one town north of me, and is also a huge fan of Chris Guillebeau’s, “The Art on Non-Conformity.”

“To show people that it’s possible to live a life of adventure. I traveled a lot with my parents as a child. My dad’s the gutsy one! He’s a skydiver, heli-boarder, surfer, snowboarder, skater, anything and everything.”

I was definitely born gutsy and I have the battle scars to prove it. My parents had their hands full with me, constantly yanking me out of trees, out of huge surf, you name it. The nurses in the broken bones department in the ER knew me by name. Although my gutsiness is inherent, I’m a firm believer that anyone can be gutsy if they make the decision to be. If you’re not born with it, work on it. Challenge yourself. Get out there. Dive in. Jump off. Launch. It’s so worth it.

Ever since I can remember I’ve wanted to live a full life. Full of adventure and full of experiences. I’m always dreaming, goal-writing, scheming, and sparking. I think that’s what it’s all about. I guess my motivation is the fear of conformity and mediocrity.

Toughie! My answers are the same for each one: I want to be running a few businesses I love, traveling the world, jamming and collaborating with awesome people, jumping off things, dreaming, doing, and staying enthusiastic about life in general. I guess you can throw in an awesome guy and possibly some spawn of my own, too.

Get over it. Embrace it. Live a little. We’re all a little scared of getting out of our comfort zone, but once you realize that change is progress, life gets a whole lot more interesting. Make the decision to be remarkable.

I admire a lot of people and have tons of people I consider heroes. The ones that come to the top of my head are: Seth Godin, Chris Guillebeau, Danielle Laporte, Lachlan Cotter, and Jonathan Mead.

Chris Guillebeau

So tomorrow evening, I shall meet both Jodi and Chris Guillebeau at his Unconventional Book Tour in Los Angeles
at Book Soup (8818 Sunset Blvd.), Friday night at 7pm — hope to see you there!