Dan Arnautu

@Lynnel Pick up Practicing the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle and get to work.

@Rilles Look up the coffee Tim Ferris is drinking. It's a coffee made from mushrooms that has less than half the caffeine, double the positive effects and none of the negative effects you mentioned. It was something like "chaga" from what I can remember. Real good substitute. I don't think you really crave caffeine honestly. I think you crave something that tastes like coffee or maybe you associate the drink with a particular activity or time of day, and the activity or time of day is not as pleasant without a drink in your hand. The same with Tom Frank's (youtuber) energy drink addiction. He didn't really crave energy drinks. He just wanted to have a fizzy drink on the table while he was studying --> he switched successfully to vitamin sparkling water or something like that.

@Socrates One reason that pops into my head is that you maybe gave abstract answers to the questions in the course. If your answers weren't nail in the head specific, they will of course give you a lofty, abstract, broad purpose.

All of them have the potential to become more conscious of the fact that luxury won't bring them lasting happiness. If the parents are conscious enough, they will teach them the value of inner purpose, intrinsic motivation and hard work (the way Bill Gates does with his kids). I was born in a lower middle-class family and honestly I see it as an advantage over being born in a rich family. I am very grateful for the thick skin it made me develop and for the fact that I hadn't gotten hooked by money. As for how far those kids are gonna go in life... this really depends on their willingness to go and find a deeper purpose for their life, and their awareness of the fact that "For greed, all of nature is too little." (Seneca) I personally know ones that never made it out and probably never will, ones that didn't made it out yet, but have the potential to, and ones that have made it out and that are constantly pursuing their deeper purpose. That's why this topic is not black and white.

A rule of thumb in pick up is: ”It's much easier to attract a new girl than to build up attraction in a girl that already rejected you.” Don't approach those girls again. The framework you are operating on is a little faulty. You should go into the situation with a mindset of abundance, not scarcity. If you approach girls a second time after they rejected you, they will instantly think: "This guy doesn't get many girls if he approaches me a second time. He is pretty needy. I'm not gonna give him the time of day." Alpha males don't give the GIRLS THAT REJECTED THEM the time of day. Why? Because they know they can always find more awesome girls and those girls just did not see the catch they were anyway. You should always see yourself as a catch. If they did not see the value in you, it's their loss, not yours. The abundant guy doesn't even have the time to think about the girls that rejected him, because he is already qualifying ten other girls. That's the frame you should strive to be in.

@Shin I would highly recommend the 2017 Macbook Air for what you need. My roommate has it and I have the 2013 15” Macbook Pro, which is more powerful, but a bit heftier. What I love about his laptop is that it's insanely thin and light. It really does make a difference. As for the Mac OS, you'll get used to it in less than a few days. I also recommend this laptop for the touchpad gestures. They are much more intuitive than on a windows laptop, because you can just swipe with three or four fingers to get to another app (and there are multiple other useful gestures). You won't ever want to use a mouse again on a laptop after this.

@sgn Yeah, I know it's a big compromise both ways when you love physical books and notebooks, but the digital ones offer so many advantages like searchability, shareability etc. I am the same way.

@sgn It really depends on what you want out of it. If it's one that resolves a critical problem in your life, I would highlight the most important excerpts. On the free space near those paragraphs I would summarize them in one or two words in order to easily find them later if I need them. I would also have a notebook (either physical or digital) where I take very detailed notes -- if I would encounter any exercises, I would pause the audio or stop reading and I would do the exercise immediately on the notebook and then continue reading. I would jot down any insights that I get related to my life (for example if I find out a great idea related to business I would write down how I would implement that idea in my business ASAP) and then I would continue reading. Below you have an example on how I do them using this method: Good luck!

@Epiphany_Inspired Thank you a lot for the answer. Very detailed and full of support. I just moved out to a new apartment, and I consider this to be a fresh start. I'm already starting to get my sleep back on track, followed by the other habits. As for the measurements thing, I should've clarified that I do that only for the amount of time that I am cutting (6-8 weeks per year usually, which is not long by any means) in order to track progress. For the having things on calendar thing, I use Cal Newport's method; I have one notepad with me everywhere and I jot down things like new deadlines, errands that I will need to do etc. The next day, all the things that get accumulated there are put into the calendar. Then I rinse and repeat. This way you never forget assignments and things like that. Found it very helpful when I had to juggle a lot of stuff in it. And I prefer to do it myself, otherwise life is gonna do it for me, and it may not be that pretty.

Up until a year ago, I considered myself a force to be reckoned with. Meditated everyday Worked out 3x per week Tracked everything I ate every. single. day to the gram (and saw insane progress) Weighed myself and measured my waist every morning Woke up at 6 a.m. everyday and was asleep by 11 p.m. Was on point with my guitar practice and school work Never wasted even an hour on distractions and low level entertainment Did not allow anyone to interfere with the activities that I deemed important (like all of the above) Was gong to the library and packing healthy food for school Was going for walks a few times per week to burn more calories and listen to self-help audiobooks Always had 100% commitment Carried a to do list (Cal Newport style) and managed all of my tasks and schedule in Google Calendar. Stuck to it perfectly and never had to wonder what I needed to do in the moment. I went to every. single. f**king. class and was always in first row taking very detailed notes and being on top of things Since about two months ago, ALL of the above habits got demolished. Like absolutely shattered. I am a complete mess right now. A lot of deadlines due. Sleep schedule is all over the place, no workouts and only eating shitty food because I can't find the time to cook properly anymore. Haven't practiced guitar seriously in months. I am like 3-4 months behind on schoolwork. I waste a lot of time everyday and forget 100's of things and don't jot them down in a notepad. Started wasting my time again on petty activities with no end result. I hang around people with a poor mentality again. I don't have any kind of schedule. I skip a lot of classes. I avoid any homework and do the bare minimum to finish this degree (in June) I hate. And so on... Keep in mind that I was able to do all of the dotted things consistently for 2 years almost. So it was a long enough timeframe for change to stick. I don't know what the hell happened. Actually, I do have some reasons in mind, but it would make the post way too long. MY QUEESTION IS: If I was able to have such a good lifestyle for longer than a year, would it be ok to try to ALL of those again AT ONCE? Not like take one habit per month and rebuild all the habits one by one. That will take way too long. I need myself in that kind of state again ASAP to be able to face the challenges that are ahead of me in the following months. Do you guys think I can or should do it? Or is that too fast? Any kind of advice or help is much appreciated. Thanks in advance! Would also love to hear is anybody else encountered this sort of major backslide.

@Socrates Yeah, that's the thing I did not like about the video. By the way that it's presented it almost assumes that you can't have both a great physical body and an exceptional body of work. It almost goes to the point where he would tell you that you should not meditate, have a hobby or work out because it detracts from your one thing. I would personally argue that these kind of practices can enhance your "one thing". Meditation for building focus while you do your "one thing". Exercise is known to give people much more energy and less ache throughout the body, which can also help people a lot with their "one thing". I think the video is misrepresenting what the book actually wanted to convey.

@Key Elements Saw the video. Really spoke to me. Thanks a lot.

Exactly what I'm gonna do.

@Preetom Well, I do agree with what you are saying. The thing is, I haven't sticked to that routine in a workaholic kind of way. I experienced much more joy, emotional stability and satisfaction by doing things like that because those were the things I genuinely wanted to do. I loved waking up at 6 a.m., before everyone because I was free to sit and reflect in peace. I love going to the gym and exercising because I am mastering my own body and I see visible progress. I love scheduling and organizing stuff (it's a dominant part of my personality). I did not do them because I had to in order to become successful or something like that, but rather because it's something that fits me personally. P.S.: I read Devid Deida's book and I absolutely loved it. Still working on implementing the mindset though.

@Nahm Yeah, I do write sometimes. I like to write acoustic, mellow songs, that make me feel calm. But as a guitarist, my specialty lies in metal, prog, rock-fusion and shred. I listen to a lot of extreme music too. On a side note, it's a very freeing experience when you don't identify with any label (like metalhead, rapper etc.). I listen to anything from death metal, progressive metal, hip hop, folk, ambient piano and to a lot of the mainstream pop songs. I find it a shame when people put a boundary between what they like and what they don't like just because the two seem contradictory? Like "You can't listen to pop. You're a metalhead." No, I'm not. That's your projection. Actually, it's real fun when I play death metal live at gigs and then I have some Ed Sheeran or Demi Lovato in my headphones. I always have a giggle at their reaction, haha. It fucks with their mind a little bit.

@Nahm Thanks a lot for the detailed answer. Will take what you said into consideration.

@Leo Gura Sure will. I watched some of his videos already.

@Leo Gura Thank you. I'm gonna do the exercise for self-acceptance that you have a video on again. I know that I should not wrap my self-esteem in my routine, be it successful or not. I was more like disappointed that I had all of that positive momentum going one and it kinda crumbled in 1-2 months. I am gonna pick a maximum of two things to work on right now I will focus on the keystone habits, like exercise. I noticed that I am more likely to eat healthy, track what I eat and go to sleep earlier if I exercise 3x a week. And if I go to sleep earlier, I can meditate without distractions in the morning, when it's also most enjoyable to do it in my case.

Well, it was a chain reaction from what I noticed. 1. I am getting fed up with my degree and can't wait to finish which makes me not want to do schoolwork. 2. My money situation started to get shaky. Won't be able to go to the gym in the following months. I'm restricted to home routines and yoga right now and it's harder to track progress when you can't add weight to a bar every workout. Bought a pull-up bar though. 3. The above also affects my nutrition. Can't buy the same amount of food and it's much harder to hit my protein intake. 4. Because of the money situation I also can't attend guitar lessons with my teacher for a while. My last lesson was in october. And that removed the accountability to practice. Also, the saturday guitar lesson was the only thing that made me happy and able enough to cope with the work I was putting towards my philosophy degree. 5. The exams period right now effed up my sleep schedule, which in turn effed up my morning routine (meditating, yoga + scheduling my day, weeks and all the other things I need to do) 6. From not scheduling my day I waste a lot of time and I meet up with friends when I should probably do some things that I haven't jotted down (of course), because those things I usually jot down in my morning routine. It all kinda starts to make sense when I write it down. But still, I wonder if I can get all the habits back up simultaneously.

@Raphael I'm in my third year as a philosophy undergraduate student. I finish my bachelors this year. I'm really sorry to say this, but if you want answers to your questions, run from these studies like hell. Actualized.org will give all you need and will surely also point you to awesome resources. You don't NEED philosophy studies. Philosophers aren't much more open minded than your average Joe. They are still caught up in all sorts of political and ego games and are also very prone to get into paradigm locks. You're gonna get many more answers to your questions by just contemplating and journaling them for yourself than by studying other philosophers (not that they don't have anything valuable to show you). I can give you all that I studied till now if you want for free if you want. Please for the love of god don't waste your prime years on this. Start a business, take risks, experiment, make mistakes. Fail 100 times and wake up young as fuck at 27. This is not the time to play it safe. But don't take my word for it. If you really want to, sign up for philosophy studies. But I guarantee you that you won't be able to voice the radical open minded opinions that we make for ourselves here on this forum and through Leo's videos. If you will try to do that, you'll quickly be considered insane and get a lot of F's in your classes unless you play the skeptic to get through the useless papers you're gonna write and that nobody's gonna read. Arm chair philosophers and scientists are in bed with the devil. Almost all of them aren't in it for truth and can't handle it either.

@saint_charming7 Make a concrete body of work and then let that do the speaking for you.

Hi guys! First of all Please don't say: "Just relax!". My problem is that I feel tension around the cheeks and mouth. I don't know if I should be keeping my mouth slightly open or closed, the tongue on the roof of the mouth (as some yogis advise) or just hanging freely etc. I can release tension from all around my body when I do body scans, but it's much harder around my cheeks and mouth and can't figure out a comfortable position. How do you do it? Does anybody know some guidelines or can direct me to a useful resource? Thanks!

@saint_charming7 They are not mutually exclusive. You can still go one night per week out... and that's plenty of time for a social recharge. Quality time over quantity. A good night out will feel like a breath of fresh air.

@thehero You are playing a losing game. 0.1% of people will be open minded enough to pick up the knowledge that we are picking up and are interested in. Having the expectation of most people understanding you is unrealistic. Yes, your are gonna be mostly alone in this. The only way most people around you will start to get interested in what you are saying is when they will see you change radically. They will be like: ”What the fuck happened to him? He is a completely other person.” How are you so calm all the time? And you say ”Meditation”. Then they may open up. How did you get a ripped body like this? Well, I told you about counting macros, not doing cardio, hitting the weights etc. but you weren't willing to listen. Now you are. How did you escape the rat race and the 9 to 5? Well, I did this, this and this, but you were also not willing to listen. How did you become so open minded? etc. The list can go on and on. Be the change you want to see in the world and the people around you may follow. If they don't, then good riddance. One of the biggest challenges in life will be finding like minded people. You need to take ownership of that and make new, conscious, high quality friends.

@Jhonny There is a misconception about introverts that then becomes a limiting belief. Introverts are very much capable of being very social and even in the center of attention and actually enjoy it, but the thing is, they just need alone time to recharge, time which you would probably have given most jobs. You can be a very good salesman or public speaker even if you are an introvert. Actually, some of the best public speakers are introverts. Martin Luther King Jr. was an introvert and he was always in the center of attention, giving speeches and interacting a lot with other people.