g) Individual – Courage to Live Custom Life /Fulfilling/Legacy/Lost

There’s no need for us to be goddamn robots. We have access to every book, seminar, and specialty in the globe. To not live doing something we enjoy is simply a lack of effort.

Often times the scariest part is overcoming the fear. The fear of ‘what ifs’, the fear of the unknown, the fear of what others will think of us, the fear of distancing ourselves, the fear of leaving what feels comfortable.

Every person has their own unique set of talents, skills, and characteristics. It bothers me so much that we all get stuck in pockets of society or jobs where these talents go underutilized. I explore ways for us to make the most of our time on this Earth and enjoy the time here. It’s not all that long afterall.



All Customized Life Resources

My Creations

  • Seth
  • Miles
  • Ceilidh
  • Me
  • Tristan b4 Iceland
  • Rex at USAFA

Concepts

1) Default Path
From the moment we’re born we’re walked down a path. We are involved in classes, clubs and courses without a whole lot of variety. We’re all funneled in to a concrete building and taught all the same things staring up at the same buttoned up teacher.

We’re taught to obey, follow directions, and you will excel. Deviations are seen as time wasters and ‘following your passion’ only leads to less time to ‘finish your homework’. We’re given the gold stars and then each one of us is funneled in to the workplace without a lick of an idea at what we’re supposed to be doing.

2) Explore

We need more time to explore and figure out what we actually ‘want to do with our lives’ before we subtly slide ourselves into a job that we despise. It’s a hell of a lot harder to dig ourselves out of a hole than it is to just step over the hole in the first place.

In my experience the most beneficial way to find a fulfilling life:
– Try as much shit as possible
– Continue to experiment and explore until you find something you can’t stop thinking about
– Pursue that path


3) Dive Deep

Once we find the things that we can’t stop thinking about… the things that we utterly cannot live without, then comes the courage. We come into this life alone and we’re going to leave alone.

There’s nobody that magically brings us happiness and there’s no foreign point in the future where we suddenly stumble upon happiness. Happiness is something that we make for ourselves. It’s up to us to find the stuff that brings us joy and meaning and find a way to do those things each and every day.


4) Courage to Be Different

This sounds easier than it is. On paper it’s not hard, but it requires serious independence and a bit of distance between family and friends. Family and friends often have a certain perspective of you and your capabilities. They don’t mean to do it, but anything outside this realm of competence feels weird for them.

It seems like far too often we forego the option to enjoy our lives to fit in with the expectations of the people around us. Luckily, we can learn from those that came before. The #1 regret of older people reported by Bronnie Ware:

I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.



5) Courage to Fail

Oftentimes friends don’t want to see you move to another city. They don’t want you spending time with other hobbies and people because that means time away from them. They don’t want to see you fail.

By the nature of experimentation, failure will happen. It’s inevitable. If we

Each of us has paths or ideas or creative ventures that sort of noodle around in the back of our minds. We’ve always wanted to travel there or always wanted to start that side hustle. Unfortunately, we’re not given an outlet or the resources or a way to progress down that path. It’s so uncertain and unclear that we forego it in


6) Death

At the end of our life what will we care more about? Will we care about the things we did or the things we were too scared to start?

Quotes/Shorts ~1 Min

– death – how do we want our lives to look
– how do we want to be remembered?
– do, have, be
– What values do we want our kids to exemplify
– Our role models
– hormozi – never regretted things didn’t do
– Alay fears













fear perspective

fear nothing
Base Jumping Utah
you don't need more friends

Thank you, Surfs Up





Looking for good shit

It’s crazy what happens when we shift our focus from all the things we don’t have, to all the things we do have. The world starts to light up with appreciation for the things we didn’t even know we had.

I heard this suggestion from a Deeper Pockets real estate podcast and it stuck


sitting in the uncertainty.


Simple as that. Every loss is because you weren’t yet skilled enough. If you lose it’s because you don’t have the skills yet. Get the skills and you win. The


decide to do something.

“Don’t aim to be the best, be the only”

@indexdee

You’re gonna be fine. No sense to ruin right now. #billburr #timferriss #wordsofwisdom

♬ original sound – Eric Dee

You’re Gonna Be Fine
Bill Bur, Tim Ferriss

Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan, Planetary Society co-founder

In 1990 presents images of Earth from the Voyager missions


5 Mins Article/Vids


Raymond K Hessel from Fight Club

15 Mins Article/Vids


Podcasts (2 hours)


Books (8 hours)

1) Excellent Sheep by William Deresiewicz

Excellent Sheep by William Deresiewicz

2) Defining Decade by Meg Jay

3) Innovation Code by Jeff DeGraff

4) StrengthFinders 2.0 by Dr. Travis Bradberry and Dr. Jean Greaves (cofounders of TalentSmart)

Emotional Intelligence


CAVEAT

I am hestitant to recommend personality tests. Social sciences aren’t proven fact. What they do nicely, however, is demonstrate there are different worldviews. Humans are all motivated by different things and we think differently.

Some are more abstract while others think more concretely. Some think more cooperatively while others are more utilitarian and possess the “fuck you gene” as some call it.

Once we know we think differently we can begin to approach personality tests with a grain of salt.

  • 5 Voices
  • OCEAN
  • Human Design
  • StrengthFinders
  • Innovation Code
  • Keirsey’s 4 Types
  • MBTI 16 Personalities

Each of these have given me slightly more insight into how I might think.
The danger is relying on them and using them to indicate how we will act.
This isn’t true though:

“Every person is an exception to the rule”
– Carl Sagan (I think)


It’s not fair to ourselves nor others to simply put them in one of these boxes. Each of our personalities and interests are 100% unique like a fingerprint. We can use these tests as guiding principles to see how some people operate, but to become reliant or dependent on them is foolish.

Each of us is our own individual and the only voice we can listen to is the tiny one inside our heads. Intuition is ridiculously powerful. We’ve got to listen to it.

  • Gary Vee intuition
  • Steve Jobs believed intuition is more important than intellect
  • The gut is the 2nd brain
  • Huberman and Robert Greene – Little voice in your head. Childhood
  • Idols to understand our values
  • Kids to understand our values.




  1. Exce

Songs

Really Scared, Lil Dicky

Manifest, Russ

Make Belief, Lil Dicky

Always Knew, Russ



Follow Your Arrow, Kacey Musgraves

“You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t so you might as well just do whatever you want”

The first 4 minutes of this EP fire me up, When I Grow Up, Joyner Lucas



Mental Workouts

  1. Role Models – Making a list can give insight into our values. What patterns are there?

    Figuring out why we look up to those who we do can let us know what it is the things we really care about. Some of mine.
    – Steve Jobs (Apple) – An unwillingness to accept disbelief as an answer
    – Alex Volkanovski (UFC Champ) – Class and courage
    – Patrice O’Neal & Bill Hicks (comedians) – Raw authenticity

  2. How would you want your kids to act?

    We aren’t perfect. We fuck up. And no, at the moment I don’t have kids (i hope) but the thought experiment gives me insights into my values. Asking myself how I would want to raise my kids.

  3. Customization

My Reflections

Weekly Wanderings

134+ readers swindled (so far)

Each week I send 4 Ideas that make my life happier and more enjoyable