In 1781, at age 14, John Quincy Adams (the son of John Adams, second president of the United States, and himself the sixth president) was sent to Russia as a private secretary and French interpreter for the U.S. minister to the Russian court.

In 1782, at age 15, he returned to Paris, as a secretary to the commission negotiating with the British for the end of the American Revolutionary War.

Skilled in several languages, with a keen sense of diplomacy, John Quincy was quite the prodigy. He would become the secretary of state under James Monroe before being elected as president of the United States. After one term as president, he served nine consecutive terms in the House of Representatives.

It reminds me of a joke about George Washington. A stern father chastised his son by explaining that when George was a young boy at his son's age, he was a proficient surveyor. The son shot back, "But when he was your age, he was the president of the United States!"

It is easy to look back and see the missed opportunities of our lives and compare ourselves with others. The challenge when you are still young is to maximize the opportunities that come your way before they pass.

The world is an adventure

A good way to think about life is to see it as a type of frontier. In early American history, the opportunities were everywhere if you had the desire, vision and means to pursue them. Cities grew from intersections along river crossings and mountain paths. Necessity was the mother of invention and urgent needs provoked clever solutions. Today you might think there is nothing new to do with your life, and you could settle for a rut or routine.

Everyone has the same 24-hour day, and most people in the Western world today have the means and opportunities to do just about anything one can imagine. Perhaps the problem is that we don't imagine much. Instead we become distracted by the array of diversions that entertain us. I heard a frustrated father comment that it's hard for parents to compete for their children's attention, working against stunning music videos and pulse-pounding video games that are so real they get lost in the fantasy.

Life seems dull and unexciting when you compare your world with what can be produced in a studio and served up with surround sound and high-definition pictures. At the end of such entertainment, what have you done? Where have you ventured and what have you accomplished? Why would you settle for someone else's adventures instead of making your own?

Life is what you make it!

Rather than getting lost in fictional or canned adventures, set goals for yourself. Life with normal stresses and challenges may seem boring unless you have an action list. This could include dreams, aspirations, places to visit and things to do. Hobbies can become careers, and talents can be developed just about anywhere.

Decide to be a doer. Get involved in athletics, music and challenges that develop your mind.

In our neighborhood there's a young man who is fascinated by motors. He used a rebuilt lawn mower engine to power a rough but workable motorized homemade wagon. This loud and ugly, but functional, machine chugs down the street with no particular style, but is the proud invention of a tinkerer. Who knows? One day he might be the engineer to build the next generation of smart cars!

In my youth, the Boy Scout merit badge program tantalized me to snoop around at the edge of discovery in the hopes of acquiring another round patch. In the process of earning badges, many a scout has stumbled onto a life skill that has led to a career path. I remember the weather station that I talked my dad into letting me place on the roof of our two-story house, complete with a primitive wind meter and directional vane.

Later I became interested in amateur radio. I can remember many hours of listening through old World War II–vintage earphones, trying to decipher the dots and dashes of a ham radio operator using the international Morse code. I collected call signs from around the world.

Lurker or doer?

Are you building a life, or are you just another mesmerized lurker—a passive spectator of the electronic imagery that sucks the time out of your day? Are you being entertained, while finding your life devoid of discovery?

Disconnect yourself from the traps of television, video games and the Internet and do something. You'll find joy in a sense of accomplishment if you determine to be a doer rather than a watcher.

Develop your body and mind

To become an active participant in the adventure of life, there are several key areas on which to focus. One is your health.

It is no secret that most young people today don't get the exercise they need to stay fit. Obesity is a national scourge.

Are you in shape? Do you know your BMI (body mass index)? Determine to get into shape by building your cardiovascular endurance. It doesn't take that long to run a mile or two, ride a bike or play some sport that keeps you moving. Have you ever taken the 12-minute test to measure your fitness? (You measure how far you can run/walk in 12 minutes. We use this test to determine fitness for our challenger camps.)

Another arena that could be critical to your development is reading. According to Morris Berman, "Roughly 60 percent of the adult population has never read a book of any kind, and only 6 percent reads as much as one book a year, where book is defined to include Harlequin romances and self-help manuals. Something like 120 million adults are illiterate or read at no better than a fifth-grade level" (The Twilight of American Culture, 2000, p. 36).

This is tragic! Reading helps develop the cognitive functions of the brain, which helps develop one's imagination, improves one's ability to think and helps one better express himself or herself.

Many successful leaders are avid readers. There is much good material available to read, so be careful you don't fall into the trap of becoming a vidiot—a person who chooses to get his information and entertainment only from a video screen.

Be a doer! When you look back at the end of your life, what accomplishments and adventures will you have in your memory bank? Many people don't fill up their lives nearly enough, usually because life just happens to them. Make up your mind to prepare yourself for life. Get a good education, including knowledge of the Bible, and resolve to take care of your health.

Why not sit down and write a wish list of places you want to visit and things you want to do? I did this many years ago and still have the list. My list has been edited, with many additions over the years. Surprisingly, hundreds of items have been checked off my list.

What about you? Will you have regrets when you settle down? I challenge you to live your life fully, but in so doing, don't forget to keep your orientation and actions vertical. VT