The important thing was, we did it. We showed up. Showing up is really the thing. It is, in my opinion, the most important thing you can do. Show up for activities you enjoy, show up for experiences you think may be fun, show up for your friends when they need you, or show up to just hang out – show up for your life. In their book Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth, Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener say that people who show up to a monthly group meeting of some sort experience increased happiness. It doesn’t matter what kind of meeting – it just matters that you show up for it, that you make a connection. Turns out book clubs are healthy for you even when you don’t read the book and just show up for the wine (whew!). Getting out into the world does not always mean you are going to have a rocking good time and that you will create a fabulous memory and a legendary story – but not participating in the world pretty much excludes this possibility. It is kind of like the kissing frog thing, you need to have a lot of experiences before you kiss the one that is amazing and life-changing. You have to show up.

Just show up sounds a little Nike-ishly simplified – Just Do It. And it is. But it’s true nonetheless. When you show up you can make connections, invite the fantastical into your life, open doors you don’t even realize you are opening; when you just do it, you will have it done. In his autobiography Born Standing Up, Steve Martin says he started playing the banjo because at one point in his life, he would become a guy who has been playing the banjo for 20 years, and that seemed like a cool accomplishment. I love that. If you just do it, then you will have done it and later on that memory will elicit feelings of pride and happiness which will increase self-esteem, which leads to even more happiness. Genius!

This is a great thing to remember when you are wondering why you even bother – why you bother to exercise, figure out all your iPhone apps, cook food you love, make date-night special, or write your blog at four o’clock in the morning – you bother because doing it means you are creating your life the way you want it to be. You are doing it all because then it will be done, and you will be the guy who’s been playing the banjo for 20 years. You are showing up for it and you are not just bumbling through your day letting things “happen to you,” wondering why life is not the way you envisioned it to be. It is delightfully simple: show up and do it. Sweet.

So, Miller and I went to the Amazing Race audition because that’s what we do: We show up. Unfortunately, so did 2,000 of our closest friends, and the producers were only equipped to audition about 200 people (we were #325). But we stayed after thousands had left and looked for opportunities to be our most charming and persistent selves, hoping some bizarre turn of events would spin the fates in our favor. It turns out that fate-spinning thing actually happens a lot for us. But it didn’t happen this time – partly because we decided to stay classy and not chloroform the contestants standing in line in front of us, or offer sexual favors in exchange a two-minute video interview [Editors note: um… sexual favors?]. We did, however, talk to the woman in charge of sending in all the information and asked her to include our Christmas card with a hand-written note to the producer of the show, enthusiastically requesting a follow-up interview in LA.

It is a super-cute card and probably gives a better impression than most of the deer-in-headlights interviews taped that day. Nothing may come of it, but we put it out there and we feel pretty good about that.

Actually, we feel pretty good about the whole thing. Sometimes showing up means investing heavily in a desired outcome. But when things don’t go as you would have hoped, you have a choice. You can say: “This sucks!” or, you can say “I hung out with one of my favorite people, stayed in a hotel with a little jacuzzi tub, met lots of other fun people putting themselves out there, saw Portland, OR. for the first time, and perhaps opened doors I am not even aware I have opened.”

This is far from over. Miller and I intend to relentlessly pursue every option to get on Amazing Race. We want it. We will make it happen. Miller is already engineering our backpacks – talking about cutting the handles off our toothbrushes to make them more lightweight. The other night he dissected a hairbrush to create a one-square-inch of brush that he gripped with his fingers while he brushed out my hair. “How does this feel? Could this work for you?” Today he’s talking about learning the basics of a new language every month. Yeah, we will get on – I don’t really see a choice. Besides, we consider this stop in Portland only the first leg of a much longer race – we were just competing against 2,000 teams instead of 10.

Luckily, this is a non-elimination round.