Tourist Attitude

TOURIST: Mario Chamorro

Whistling has always been a sound of pure joy for my dad. In fact, when I was a kid, he used to tell me that if I was able to whistle every day while I walked to work, my life would be much happier. Few weeks ago in Atlanta I had the opportunity to meet an awesome new tourist named: Ien Chi. He not only helped me with my happiness initiatives without even knowing me, but also surprised me and my team with his fantastic attitude towards life. In order to follow his passion, Ien dropped school for one year and challenged himself to enter an international whistling competition and make a short documentary film about it. (See below)

Ien is clearly a full-time tourist that reminded me not only to keep dreaming, but acting upon our dreams as well.

Tourist Tip: try unconventional paths to follow your passion, but most importantly, take actions like Ien did!

TOURIST: Mario Chamorro

Wise words by a full-time tourist that triggered a movement on the 50s who celebrated non-conformity and spontaneous creativity called: the Beat Generation.

Jack Kerouac

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!” -Jack Kerouac

Tourist Tip: read or watch “On the Road.”

TOURIST: Mario Chamorro

Have you bounce on a pogo stick? when I was a kid I tried to do it for a couple of months until I started ruining the floor of my parent’s patio in Pasto. Although my dad wasn’t very happy, I had great memories about the great sensation that I felt when I was bouncing around with a pogo stick.

A few months ago I had the opportunity to became friends with Nick McClintock and Nick Ryan who started a very cool company called Xpogo that is making the world jump around this concept. They had the opportunity to convert their passion into a way of life by developing platforms to empower others with the same love for extreme pogo.

Check out their latest video in NYC. It’s pretty rad!

TOURIST TIP: get on a pogo stick, bounce for 15 minutes and write down how you felt.

Few weeks ago, I decided to run a little experiment by asking friends and strangers to give me 10 challenges to be accomplished in the 10 days leading up to birthday number 32. The response was surprising, as was the support during the entire dare. In 10 days, I finished 9 challenges, and finally today I was able to finish the last one by preparing a delicious meal for a friend.

During the 10 days of the experiment I learned to play chess, to cook, to recite my very first poem in English, to forgive, to give a talk in public in Mexico City, among others. I was also able to play a song in ukulele on the Subway in NYC, to help a friend in need, to see the pyramids in Teotihuacan, to go pear picking in the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, and to have lunch with a fantastic person in need living on the street. All those things in only 10 days!

My good friend Gregorio Uribe always tells me that we have to do things that scare us. By doing these challenges I realize once again that there is a humongous world of experiences and people in front of us waiting to be explored. Being out of the comfort zone was definitely a great experience that I want to continue doing it for a while. In fact, if you think in any cool challenge please email it to me at Mario@happypost.org

Finally, if you decide to take on this dare yourself, here’s a little guidance that will help you along your own journey.

1/. Establish a deadline to collect and execute your own challenges.
2/. Be accountable to a group of friends (could be your Facebook contacts)
3/. Document challenges with pictures, drawings or whatever is easy and fun for you.
4/. Encourage people to participate by giving you challenges or following you.
5/. Be fearless by using your Tourist Attitude!

I really encourage you to try this challenge. There is nothing to lose and a lot of things to see out there.

Happy daring!

-Mario

TOURIST: Mario Chamorro

This challenge was proposed by Juan Pablo Ramirez whom I met at Universidad del Rosario during a talk that I gave about Happiness and Social Entrepreneurship. (video)

#10deedsbefore32 - Robert

I had the fortune of meeting Robert who kindly accepted my invitation and we had lunch on the street. Robert was born in New Jersey in 1947 and has been in NYC for over 40 years. His favorite decade was the 60′s and he loves chocolates. In fact, if you are walking around 25th st and 6 ave, say hi to Robert and share a coffee with him. He’s definitely a fantastic person!

Tourist Tip: do Juan Pablo’s challenge. I’m sure you would learn a lot from people that you see every day on your way to work and never had the opportunity to stop and ask them about how are they.

TOURIST: Mario Chamorro

This time the challenge was proposed by: Catalina Jimenez, Gregorio Uribe, and Lulu Angulo.

#10Deedsbefore32 - Singing on the Subway

I have to confess that at the beginning I was a bit skeptic about going through this challenge, but at the end I decided to use my One Minute of Courage, and immediately jumped into the Subway. It was definitely a great experience, and I really hope to do it again with a little bit more preparation. I took the Subway 3 different times, and in only one I had good reception from the “audience.” Perseverance and no ego are key factors to do this!

Although my voice wasn’t the best, the challenge was successfully accomplished and can be watched on bellow’s video.

Special thanks to Camila Gutiérrez for helping with the video.

TOURIST TIP: learn a song, take public transportation and kindly sing or play one of your favorite songs.

TOURIST: Mario Chamorro

Lara Crawshaw and Stephanie Felix came up with the fist challenge for the #10deedsbefore32 initiative. Their idea was to visit a beautiful place in the city that I haven’t being before. After a little brainstorm with Lara, we decided to visit the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.

For those who live in NYC and haven’t visited the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, I really encourage you to go! It’s very easy to get there by public transportation, and the main entrance is just $5 if you have a student ID.

Also, after seeing so many names of plants, roses and benches, we decided to name an awesome “unknown” cactus: Maya Tulia from Mauritius (which was Lara’s second challenge of the day.) Finally, we had a blast with this dragonfly who posed for us for a long time, saw a fantastic fish jumping at the lake, and took a delicious nap at the grass. Definitely a good day.

Challenge accomplished!

TOURIST TIP: find the nearest botanical garden and simply go there!

TOURIST: Mario Chamorro

I recently posted the following comment on my Facebook page: “In 10 days I will be turning 32 years old. Therefore, I’m looking for 10 little challenges to do in 10 days (#10deedsbefore32) Starting today with my first one by Lara about visiting a magical place in the city that I’ve not being before. Any ideas/ challenges or suggestions? Gracias!”

A few minutes later and thanks to the great support of some creative friends this is the list of challenges that I got:

#10deedsbefore32

Now, my compromise before I turn 32, is to do my best to accomplish at least 10 of the suggested ideas over the upcoming 10 days. I will be reporting on a daily basis and will be sharing the results with the Tourist Attitude community.

You can also follow the story on Twitter @marioachamorro and #10deedsbefore32

Tourist Tip: ask your friends to give you 10 challenges to execute in 10 days and share the results with your network. Get out of your comfort zone!

TOURIST: Mario Chamorro

Hola Amigos,

During my last visit to Bogota, and thanks to some friends, I had the opportunity to talk with some local authorities to explore opportunities for spreading happiness in conflict areas in Colombia. This has been one of my dreams since I started Happy Post. On my way back to NYC, I found a grant application that was a perfect opportunity to start shaping this idea and to turn it into reality. Few days later, a group of friends and I decided to apply for this grant by creating a video and by putting together a proposal. As a result, a fantastic video production foundation named What Took you So Long that created videos for TED in Qatar loved our initiative, and decided to join my team to visit Colombia, and to work with us on a volunteer basis because they also believe in collaboration. Also, an art foundation that is leaded by a good friend and former Guggenheim curator for over 8 years decided to join us as well. These 2 collaborators, plus the good will from local authorities in Colombia are fantastic opportunities to create a remarkable initiative.

We are truly committed to developing this idea, but we need YOUR help. We have only one day to get over 200 votes to be able to get this grant. I know that it sounds difficult, but it’s worth trying.

How can you help?

1/. Go to this link – http://stories.maker.good.is/projects/HappyPost
2/. Click on “Vote for this Idea”
3/. Fill your contact details
5/. Send

TOURIST TIP: Now more than ever, I truly believe in the importance of turning ideas into actions regardless of how difficult or crazy they can sound.

Also, please share this link and ask your friends to vote for our idea if you believe in this initiative.

Gracias in advance and BIG abrazo!!!

-Mario A

TOURISTS: Carlos Perez, Sunnie Tolle, Mario Chamorro

Hola Familia! I am honored to introduce you with a new initiative that was recently launched. Our mission remains the same: to Spread Happiness. Please stay tuned, and help spread the word!

“A Million Ways to a Happier World” is a digital project to gather and spread 1 Million ideas to make the world a happier place. The main objective is to ask 1’000’000 people from around the world a simple question: What would you do to make this world a happier place? The answers will be compiled in a free e-book which will serve as a powerful record of human happiness and as a tool for companies, governments and leaders to promote happiness among their own communities.

To realize this project, the founders launched a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter to build a web platform, produce the e-book and print 600 physical books which will be distributed for free to public schools. The campaign runs till June 26th, 2012.

A Million Ways to a Happier World is the brainchild of Mario Chamorro, Sunnie Tölle and Agency Heart. Mario is the founder of several initiatives to spread happiness. Sunnie is a student at Yale University where she founded The HappyHap Project, a student organization that undertakes creative initiatives to promote a more optimistic campus. Agency Heart is a recently formed digital advertising agency in New York that believes in the interdependence of business and social good.

TOURIST TIP: to help fund the project, please visit their Kickstarter page HERE.

Follow A Million Ways to a Happier World on Facebook and Twitter.