Ecstasy of Life + Way of Nature + Revelation of Mind

[summit]

Got woken up from a dream by the sounds of someone trying to break into my apartment loudly…

My body popped out of bed like it’d bounced off a trampoline and grabbed the first thing my hand touched on the dresser: a metal mechanical pencil…and I stood there ready to ruin someone’s morning for several slow seconds while the rest of my senses came online and stretched out as far as possible.

A few moments later I realized I was right, but also wrong: it wasn’t a human trying to break in and failing.

It was some other animal trying to break in…through a wall, not the door.

It was loud af.

So that’s how my day started.

---

An interesting thing happened: I switched over from feeling a “little annoyed” to feeling compassion for whatever was in the wall because I started to get the impression/feeling that it was trapped and desperate for a way out.

Then I noticed it was in a wall that doesn’t connect to others.

Anyway, it’s the first time I’ve ever felt compassion for any animal attempting to infiltrate my domain, lol.

The Way of Nature is really something else.

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Also, I became aware today of how much caffeine increases the number of times I mindlessly default into distraction. It seemed like an absurd amount today, and this entry is one of those times, but yea, I’m more aware.

[summit]

“Get the bad ideas out…”

It’s something that I do in martial arts training willingly, repeatedly, and without any hang-ups around what others will think – sometimes I do shit that’s ridiculous for the fun of it and we all have a good laugh.

But the point is: I’m completely aligned with the fact that making mistakes is part of The Way.

I find out what does and doesn’t work best (for me) in order to build a robust model of movements I can deploy without thinking…because I’ve already been there and simulated it in a relatively safe-ish and controlled environment OUTSIDE of my head.

It’s a never-ending process of reconciling what you think you “know” will work, and what actually works through testing, experience, AND learning from others’ testing and experience.

Inevitably, there are a crap load of bad ideas that come up, and by “bad” I mean: ineffective and/or inefficient in producing the intended result. So you let those go, adapt to the data/experience reality served up, and test again. Ad infinitum. Because this is The Way.

And “bad ideas” exist in every realm of human endeavor, lol.

There’s no escaping the inevitable flops, so why try. Embrace the flop (while mitigating the risks as best you can).

Intend to succeed, put your idea to the test, and adapt to the results.

The stakes of NOT putting your idea to the test is only the quality and/or length of your Life, so lighten up. There’s no guarantee you’ll even make it to tomorrow, bake in some fun for yourself. Find some joy during the process. Gamify it. Be grateful for the opportunity to create something new in your life and maybe the world.

How cool would it be if that “crazy” idea you had turns into a cool experience? Or a great one? Or a flop that gives you a laugh and a good story to tell? Maybe it’s one that you didn’t even “know” could open doors to the abundance you seek?

Well you won’t ever know, if you don’t “get the bad ideas out” so the good ones can flow.

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This was all a letter to myself, for future me in case he forgets.

[summit]

The last few times I went out for a run I implemented some changes to my gait, tempo, and velocity to build up a “lower gear” because I don’t really have one – I usually want my runs to be over as fast as possible. But, I plan on using it to outlast my competition on the mountain side in 3 months, so I have to start building it now because they already have the advantage of being lighter and fitter. Overall endurance is my best bet, but I’m cutting too.

Anyhow, while I was on these runs, I started to lock into a flow where I focused on no wasted mechanical energy and minimal noise to the steady beat of a metronome. It’s not the easiest.

You ever see cyclists peddling fast but only moving a few inches at a time uphill? Now imagine that same leg pumping action but without the bike…that’s basically how I looked, lol.

When I got back from today’s run, I looked up the gait analysis for Cheetahs “randomly” and noticed how little head movement they have, if any, while in a full sprint. None of their movements are wasted. Their existence hinges on their ability to run, so it’s dialed in. And it’s a thing of beauty.

I think my subconscious was reinforcing the impulses to make these mechanical changes to my gait that are slowing me way down right now, but will ultimately get me to a faster top end of my low gear.

Today was a Way of Nature and Revelation of Mind listening day.

[summit]

When you outright reject information without thinking, ask yourself where your “knowledge” came from…

I find myself asking more people, “Where’d you learn that?” Or a variation of that question.

And generally the buck stops at them learning / hearing it from an authority, whether online or in a book or from a class.

I mean, that’s what my indoctrination education taught me to do as well.

But most don’t look at the authority themselves as regular humans with their own flaws, intentions, and underlying reasons for doing/saying what they do – that’s how a deception is massively accepted.

As a simple example, someone highly recommended an older book on success and making money to me, so I looked up the author and dug in a bit. Turns out, the author had a couple of businesses he ended up having to close down and turned to writing books instead. Those books about business are what brought him his wealth, not his actual businesses. Is that who you’d want to learn how to have success in business from?

(The person who recommended the book stopped talking business with me after I mentioned the reality of the author to him, lol. )

You see the same pattern now with course creators getting rich teaching others how to get rich without having actually gotten rich prior to charging money to teach their method – not all do this, there are always legit people of high integrity out there, and I’m not saying all authority/experts are full of it, you just have to discern who’s who.

Nobody likes it when their underlying assumptions are challenged, so Life gave me a taste of my own medicine and put some information in front of me that caused a strong knee-jerk reaction of “WTF is this BS”, which told me that I should pause and consider it.

Now I still think one of the two concepts is crazier than the other, but both have opened me up to the possibilities and made me realize how plugged into the Matrix I still am. The standard indoctrination system seems to have created areas in my Mind that were beyond questioning…it was a little jarring to consider. Still is.

I considered myself to be mostly open-minded about a lot, but the combo of Revelation of Mind and Way of Nature is helping me get glimpses into how much more there is to open my Mind up to…and the key to this process lies in developing discernment.

[summit]

“Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.” …is a crock of shit

It’s a lazy (and maybe purposeful?) distortion of the original statement attributed to Aristotle:

"Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach. – Aristotle, probably

some thoughts on that

The former creates a false dichotomy of talent versus no talent, while the latter presents a continuum of learning and progression.

The common saying today is destructive. The original saying is instructive.

Consider the opposite of the original statement: “Those that don’t know, don’t do. Those that don’t understand, don’t teach.”

That’s interesting, huh? (Like, some smart people took that to heart and created purposeful distortions of information that prevent other people from knowing certain things, so they can’t do certain things? Hmmmm.)

Anyway, both versions of the OG statement imply that the ability to do something isn’t absolute. It isn’t about “can-ing” or “can’t-ing”.

The OG points to what’s required in order to do something in the first place, and that’s: to know something.

But, what is it to know?

To know is *to perceive directly; grasp in the mind with clarity or certainty."

That’s easy enough. So, if you can grasp something clearly in your mind, then you can do something with it…right, right, right. Obviously.

But, what’s the pre-requisite to grasping, or perceiving, something?

Can you do something you don’t know anything about?

Let’s do it!

…

…eh

…

Yea, no.

Seems like you literally can’t do, or take action on, something you don’t know anything about. If you haven’t grasped it in your mind, there’s nothing TO do.

Ok, so what’s the pre-requisite to grasping, or perceiving, something?

Having Awareness of it.

Without Awareness, there are no doings to do because there are no knowings to know. (I wish I could put a Dr. Suess-style rhyme in this flow.)

This entire Game is about Awareness.

It’s Become Aware > Know > Do.

And the bridge, it seems, from knowing to doing is in how clearly your mind grasps it.

Sounds so simple. And maybe it is.

But, what if we’re not “clear” on something? How do we gain MOAR clarity?

This is the cool part, the part that almost seems too easy to be true…

…after we become Aware of something and we grasp it in our mind, the BEST and seemingly only way to increase your clarity, your direct perception of it, is: by doing.

LOL

(well, shit…there go all my excuses to “learn more” before I do more)

The doing facilitates direct perception (knowing) which expands Awareness, which then leads to greater clarity, and thus, MOAR BETTER doings.

Forever.

The End.

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I took some action yesterday based off of a new perspective I became aware of via a business mentor, and a new deal entered my flow within hours.

He was able to transmit some of his knowledge and perception to us in a way that my mind understood clearly, and doing something with it immediately seemed easy. So I did.

There were thoughts of doubt as I started to open the conversation to make the deal, but all of them went quiet as I started to interact with reality as opposed to trying to “solve it all in my head” first.

For the first time I think, I got a taste of what the Ecstasy of Life could mean for me.

[summit]

When I was a kid, I read a LOT and was always looking words up in a dictionary and thesaurus because I was insatiably curious and wanted to understand everything, plus I read a ton of books I probably shouldn’t have and didn’t understand as a wee lad, like Stephen King novels and raunchy joke books, lol.

That rampant curiosity waned over time for a lot of reasons.

Well, I realized today that I’ve been looking up the meanings of words (and common idioms) that I “already know” because I want more clarity. And I usually don’t stop there. I usually find myself looking up the definition of words used to define the original word I looked up, then I look up the word’s etymology too…because I want more context and understanding, especially with the things I think I know.

It finally clicked today that that insatiable curiosity I felt as a child about the world and the power of communication is making a comeback.

Is that Revelation of Mind’s doing? Or is it the Way of Nature? I’m not sure, but I’m enjoying the feeling.

[Akephalos]

What are the changes-shifts you had from Way of Nature, that sub sounds beautiful perhaps if i ever find myself living in fairly isolated beautiful natural landscapes im running this sub for sure.

[summit]

Recon has been smacking me around for the past few days, so I’ll just rattle off some of the more obvious changes in my day-to-day…

• cut off caffeine intake cold-turkey finally after failing to ween myself off of it earlier this month – the first day sans coffee suuuuuuucked
• replacing plastic containers / non-stick pans with glass, steel, and cast iron
• eating a lot more fruit, meat, raw dairy and raw honey
• started eating raw liver and eggs
• started exploring scents and using different incense to create shifts in my environment – that’s something completely new to me
• more attentive towards my two plants, and am looking to buy more to both liven up the place and that are better at cleaning the air – am running my air purifier more often too
• feeling a sense of peace and awe when I go outside and see all the signs of Nature, whether it’s a flower in someone’s front yard, a tree towering over the sidewalk, or the moon shining down on a clear night, there’s a greater sense of…being a part of the whole

I can only imagine what it’d be like to live closer to the wild and run this sub, but despite living in a big city, CWON seems to have had a good, uplifting effect on my overall mood and energy.

[summit]

Last listening day today of the Way of Nature and Revelation of Mind for this cycle. It’s my 2nd cycle with CWoN, and 3rd with RoM in a stack.

The past week or so there’s been a restless feeling brewing underneath the surface (and I know it’s due to Ecstasy of Life’s nudges that I’ve been dragging my feet with, but that’s a different post)…this morning was the worst of that uncomfortable feeling. Peak restlessness.

How I dealt with it today is what’s interesting to me…I didn’t try to meditate it away, tire my body into submission with a hard workout, “get productive” right away to “hurry up and make things happen”, or listen to subs to feel better even though it was a listening day.

I just went to the kitchen and made some non-caffeinated chai, eggs and avocado. Shifted into a state of gratitude for the nourishment I’d receive. Then spontaneously, I grabbed my jacket and stepped out onto the balcony to catch the sun rising…this was around 6:30am. I thought I’d only be out there for a minute or two with the cold to “wake up” a bit, but I ended up staying out there for a good 20 minutes or so.

It was a thing of beauty. Everything about it from the cold, crisp morning air to the changing colors of the thick cloud cover as the sun’s rays broke through the blockade of buildings downtown to span across the rest of the city, everything seemed more alive. Even the nearby condos seemed to liven up as the sun touched them.

I was completely calmed by being out there…so I stayed.

While I stood there gazing at everything and nothing, I recalled things I’ve read about exposure to morning sunlight having many positive effects on circadian rhythm and increased release of certain feel-good neurochemicals. And I wondered, “Why tf don’t I do this regularly?”

And the answer came quick: it’s easy to forget about the “simple” things that are always available through connecting with Nature – and have a crazy powerful impact on health, mindset and energy levels – because we’re basically “always plugged in” and receiving information about how one should operate…from morning routines to ultimate productivity hacks and success porn, there’s no shortage of messages selling you on some kind of methodology for living and achieving…and with urgency. That’s a big part of it. Hurry up and WORK HARD (because you might die before you get) to achieve your dreams.

The bigger battle that I’ve struggled with for years now oscillates between acceptance of where I am and the path I’m on to dread of not being where I want to be…which triggers feelings of being “behind” and “failing”, so stress and it’s coping mechanisms creep in.

But that cycle seems so crystal clear to me now that even the intense restlessness I felt this morning couldn’t sway me into an old pattern of cope and “hurry up”…and it hasn’t been able to make a comeback the entire day today. Even trying to trigger the restlessness on purpose didn’t work.

Way of Nature and Revelation of Mind for the win.

Feels good man…(and now, I can do some work in peace.)

[summit]

Tumbling down the rabbit hole the past few days learning about light, mitochondria, and the effects the modern lifestyle has on them, and thus, the production/inhibition of certain important neurotransmitters. It’s fascinating stuff and has my curiosity dialed up to 11.

And now, I’m a Sun worshiper.

Currently debating swapping the Way of Nature out after this washout period with Spartan for a couple cycles leading up to my race on the mountain side, but it’s a tough decision…either way CWoN will definitely make another appearance in my stack, if not a custom. I dig it.

[summit]

Wherever you find something of Value to others, you find money. Wherever you find money, you find something of Value to others.

Does anything else factor into that equation?

I don’t think so.

[summit]

Today I made it a point to focus almost all of my Attention on Value, money, and the approach I’m taking to building real wealth (hence that thought bubble I produced )

(I also made it a point to take regular Sun worship breaks and expose the neighborhood to my blindingly reflective skin – felt great)

After I set my Attention on what I wanted to drill down on, Ecstasy of Life kicked in. I began to see opportunities for deals pop up in my research more easily, which triggered some doubt that was easily reframed…but I haven’t reached out with an offer to any of them yet, so my internal orientation (and skill, probably) needs more development.

Then, on a short walk I came across a box of books, and one jumped out at me called The Millionaire Mind (there was a Monopoly game in the box too, lol).

Coincidence? I don’t believe in those.

I’m skeptical of business books written by academics, which this author is, but I couldn’t ignore the synchronicity – plus, after looking him up and thumbing through the chapters, it seems that his material was derived from interviews with millionaires and cold hard data (which sounds kind-of-a-little-bit-exactly like how Ecstasy of Gold was created).

So, that was cool.

And, I have some weekend reading to do.

“He thinks millionaires are even more indulgent than he is, but he’s completely wrong. Moderation in consumption, and a healthy, disciplined lifestyle are the hallmarks of the affluent in America.”

(Referring to a successful media personality in the top 7% of earners, and in a spiral of debt)

[summit]

It’s my last day of washing out before a new cycle begins tomorrow, and reflecting back on the past two months, I really enjoyed the ride with the combo of Ecstasy of Life, Way of Nature and Revelation of Mind.

It wasn’t completely smooth sailing, but overall I experienced profound internal shifts in the way I view myself (and my internal workings), and a pretty serious paradigm shift in how I view Nature…so yea, not a bad run with this stack.

In fact, a big reason I’m changing up this stack at all is to lean into one of those internal shifts and take my wealth acquisition skill set to the next level – connecting with nature and introspecting on my inner world are things I have a natural inclination towards, which is why RoM and CWoN felt really good to run for the most part, I’m definitely bringing them back into rotation soon.

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Last night I invested in my wealth acquisition skill set by throwing down a significant amount of money to be in a private group of successful people already running 7 and 8 figure businesses. This is a first for me, at this level.

That move lit a fire under my ass to get productive, but not in a stressed-out, hurry-up-and-make-your-money-back kind of way. I feel more certain and excited about this. It’s like I have a sense that my success is inevitable – iirc Ecstasy of Life has that exact kind of scripting – which is why I finally pulled the trigger on joining this group.

Anyway, for the next cycle I’m thinking my stack will be: Ecstasy of Life + Ecstasy of Freedom + True Sell.

That’ll be my 3rd cycle with Ecstasy of Life, so it’ll dig deeper. And the other two will support it by removing limitations, unleashing my creativity, and dialing up my persuasive charm to 11 while helping me hone my marketing. That sounds good for a short run to me.

(still thinking about using either Inner Circle or RICH, but probably not.)