Wagner recommends continuing to study things that you care about and developing an area of expertise, inside or outside a formal classroom setting. Seek out teachers who are passionate about their subject. Make a sustained effort over time to master your own interests.

Redefine failure and embrace iteration. By now, you have failed -- and probably more than once. And if you haven't, you are probably playing it too safe.

Accept failure, Wagner writes, because though it "hurts like hell -- especially failing in public ... you will learn some of your most valuable lessons from failure -- far more than from your successes."

We need to redefine "failure" as a society. "It has become a pejorative in our vocabulary," Wagner says. No one wants to fail, and yet you can't pursue passion and purpose without a great deal of trial and error and multiple failures.

Wagner prefers the term "iteration," a design concept which involves the continuous prototyping, testing, analyzing and refining of an idea or product.

Have fun. Creativity, imagination and innovation usually find us during moments of play. Take time off and find ways to recharge your creative and physical energy, Wagner suggests. Take walks, get regular exercise, spend time in nature, listen to music, study paintings and photographs, volunteer.

Practice listening to many different kinds of people and ideas. More people are choosing their source of news by only listening to those who reinforce their biases and points of view. This does you a disservice.

Experience another culture, Wagner suggests. Read a thoughtful opinion piece that is diametrically opposed to your own, read history and good novels, explore other religions as a way of understanding the world.

Wagner believes that travel is important as a way of expanding our view and upsetting our inclination toward equilibrium. But the type of travel matters. Are you engaging in just another form of consumption or undertaking a potentially life-changing learning experience? Do you immerse yourself in authentic experiences or wall off in a cocoon of the familiar?

Travel with the purpose of really understanding a culture, a way of life and being that is radically different from your own.