Steph1988

@Shin I would take a few issue with this i think but i like that you put it so bluntly and its not that u are completely wrong on everything i think, but i just think this goes to far. I guess you mean to say everything is relative but i can imagine that u prefer loving your partner over being raped and tortured so if you do prefer that i guess it means its not THAT relative. Yes probably if u want to say how far we can stretch that look at North Korea but again same thing as the above. But not only by culture, the conditioning goes waaay back to prehistoric times u seem to dismiss neurobiology, the existence of archetypes, we are wired from millions of years of evolution and that is overlooked way to often, I'm not sure it is, i would say it is absolute and that is because it works, we need a concept of good and evil, we need to define both so we have something to work with and something to aim and strive for, and that this is good is self evident, when u do good it feels good, when u move towards positive goals it feels good u feel better, children u raise will do better u are more healthy its all been proven, same thing with evil, when performing an evil action it will ripple out in the world and lots of evil actions done by individuals will destroy a society, You could simply say that the words better and evil actions and goals etc are also relative but what is the use in that. Its is simply self evident u know u prefer to have a good family,passions,being cared for, free time, love, friends, no worries about money over torture and war and rape. it is simply self evident. Ok i guess there is use in believing your emotions and feelings aren't real either simply because sometimes they are in the way of going to a better outcome but maybe this is just mental toughness for example when i'm on the operation table i want the surgeon to be mentally tough but i would not go any further then that and there it is clear what a better outcome is namely me being brought back to good health. My biggest issue with all this is, Where do you want to go with all this, what is the purpose? I personally take the stance that good/evil/morality are absolute and that there are absolute standards we need to uphold now there is a LOT of room how to decide upon this i think but that should be determined with rational convincing arguments. This will give you some purpose to your life, something to aim for. And it is very simple why i take this stance, it simply works for me it is self evident i try to be open minded tho and i do see tremendous worth in eastern philosophy but i would say u take it to far.

@Hardik jain So is there nothing that you find fun or interesting? explain how that is possible first.

@Shin are you able to manage what the video says? its not easy probably. And i'm still curious tho why won't you say? I like philosophy but what i really like is are real life examples of the philosophy into action.

@Shin Nice vid, out of curiosity what do you want to achieve so bad and what do you sacrifice for it? so what is your dream?

I ask myself first mostly ''are these so called selfless acts really selfless''. But of course do they really need to be 100% selfless? maybe not. The first straight answer that springs to mind tho is because it feels good probably and if most people are honest they will confirm that. I'm extremely skeptical about most people 's selfless acts i suspect it does exist but maybe only a minority of people is capable of doing them i don't even trust myself on that i try to be as humble as possible on it because it gets thrown around way to easily. like half of the celebrity's do "selfless acts'' these days how much virtue signaling and ego is it really? there are more situations that are suspicious for example what about a mother who goes out of her way to cook and clean for the kids even when they are out of the house but so much that it gets annoying and calls way too much, What does she want? is all that care selfless or is she afraid that her children wont visit her anymore?is it a precaution against loneliness? it might be a perfectly valid reason but its not selfless and you can think up thousands of comparable cases. So maybe it is almost impossible to be completely selfless. But maybe it is better to accept that is almost impossible and so the only thing that i find comes close to an ideal is to live as honestly as possible, increase critical thinking skills and awareness and from there try to solve problems in a more non feeling but practical way. If you want to help africa maybe not mindlessly give millions but study the history study the people and try to discover why it is poor and go from there to try to come up with practical solutions now that is harder then seeing a commercial with fly covered faces and starving villages and then crying reach for your wallet but maybe more selfless.

@Leo Gura Ok fair enough words can only get us so far and i can't possibly know what you have experienced with my limited time with self development. I find the rabbit hole kind of risky and scary i'm not sure i'm willing to take it that far i have to be honest, having a passion,friends,family,healthy sex life,no money worries decent work and contributing to society seem to me the highest ideal to strife for. And when u are sitting in that cave in total bliss i hope you don't suddenly wake up in panic realizing that was not the thing u were looking for but unable to turn back to society and realizing its too late i have thought about that and that idea scares the hell out of me .

@Leo Gura This is interesting to me because i'm following all his programs and plan to do his authoring program and it feels like 2 competing styles of self development. It is a pity he waved off the tradition of mindfulness like its some useless trend i would love to see him go full on into the subject and why he thinks that actually. But you dismiss him quite quickly as well, how well do you know his work? and did you watch his some of his lectures? These are big statements.............and i actually like that because you get to the heart of the matter quickly, i guess that would almost justify a video on its own. But so your career and other people who teach your particular style of PD hinge on getting not lost in mind what makes your way superior to his? curious to see your take on this in a more elaborate way someday because there are opposing views on life here by 2 people claiming to know what is the best way.

@Orange Ye i guess i mean that there is a generally a consensus in society on what certain words and idea's mean and there are few perspectives and that gives so much confusion. for example if u say education most people immediately think school/university/diploma and i think that is too limited. But what is an education? can be traveling, can be contemplating, can be reading books on your own while noone knows, society can say about someone who's grown up on a farm, learnt everything there,building stuff, keep animals, keep the business growing that he has no education because he has no diploma but he might be more educated and autonomous then most people. So if you think it through it is obvious but lots of people tend not to think these things through and it is used against them but for example by the media. Hope it clarifies things excuse my English

@Shan I was in exactly the same situation (without the children tho) actually what a coincidence. I did it like, this i bought the house but i went from full time work to 32 hours and that is enough time left i think to build something up on the side. I did it for the long term because i'm gonna lose sooo much money by renting over a longer period (rents are extremely high where i live) most important thing is to still have financial room to have flexibility so you don't have to work in a job you don't like for 50 hours a week or more, in that case i would not do it u just find something for at the most 38 hours that is bearable. U might take into account that u might never find a single life purpose maybe your life purpose is to work a job but at the same time be a really good parent and being skilled in a sport, able to play music or build pc's or whatever u like to do and that might actually not such a bad life. And if you are one of those people who do single out a true life purpose you will give it your all regardless of the job u will absolutely work those 80-90 hours a week i think. Thing is tho i don't have children and that is the point i where my advice is kind of limited.

@nexusoflife what can make me depressed sometimes is the way in which most people are more concerned with the latest fashion trend, or i phone or what their sport teams are doing, i mean its no problem to talk about that but its almost always that, its fucking boring. the overall shallowness of (Most) of society is the most depressing to me. Lets talk about idea's more even dead wrong idea's i don't care lets get a little more creative ffs not many people are able to do that in my experience. And the social games people love to play, people just love their pathetic roles, i mean everyone has their weak moments but at least some awareness and relativism is required to make me trust someone. people in victim roles are by far the worst and to be avoided at all costs and all times, then come the overzealous working bee's who are always on edge and actively looking for people to blame when something is not 1000% perfect, and of course the ''i'm just a simple man and can't be bothered to think that about difficult stuff'' person. can go on and on but u get the point. ye my conclusion is there will be no system ever that will work to make the world better, the war must be fought by each individual in his/her own mind and everyone has to strive for at least a little bit of self improvement, We owe it as much to our friend/family/children as we owe it to ourselves. to few people even try it and that is depressing to me not because of the suffering but mostly because i think its boring.

@TeamBills incidents can make you a completely different person indeed i think i do understand that. For example one of the most hurtful things in the world what traumatizes people is betrayal by a good friend or partner. once you got down you have to get back up and that might going through a hell, maybe the antidote would be to try to as completely as possible understand your own psyche and the world as you can. Understanding things helped me put things back into order Actually my conscientiousness would score incredibly low a few years ago so i try to understand why am i that careless and lazy? I think i kind off discovered why i was that way and took action however it certainly took a few years with up and downs and its not perfect yet but i can in all honesty say i'm disciplined and motivated now. So from my own experience i can say a lot can be done absolutely. if you have the patience and interest watch all of these just a suggestion it helps me tremendously. Maybe its not your thing i could fully understand that but whatever no harm in suggesting i guess.

Open-Mindedness High scorers tend to be original, creative, curious, complex; Low scorers tend to be conventional, down to earth, narrow interests, uncreative. You are relatively open to new experiences. (Your percentile: 76) Conscientiousness High scorers tend to be reliable, well-organized, self-disciplined, careful; Low scorers tend to be disorganized, undependable, negligent. You are very well-organized, and can be relied upon. (Your percentile: 80) Extraversion High scorers tend to be sociable, friendly, fun loving, talkative; Low scorers tend to be introverted, reserved, inhibited, quiet. You are neither particularly social or reserved. (Your percentile: 53) Agreeableness High scorers tend to be good natured, sympathetic, forgiving, courteous; Low scorers tend to be critical, rude, harsh, callous. You find it easy to criticize others. (Your percentile: 4) Negative Emotionality High scorers tend to be nervous, high-strung, insecure, worrying; Low scorers tend to be calm, relaxed, secure, hardy. You are a generally anxious person and tend to worry about things. (Your percentile: 93) hmm my results also kinda scare me i never saw myself as a mean person i'm quite relaxed and live and let live although i can have strong revenge feelings and be judgmental when i see someone try to mess with me.

Jordan Peterson. Its a total different approach to PD from what Leo offers and for me he is the most interesting by far compared to anything else on you tube, currently watching all his 3 courses in order. Alan Watts. I guess that's a no brainer, he started me out with PD about 4 years ago, on the eastern philosophy part of things to me he is the best because he is clear and precise, I think what i love most about him are elaborate rants about the rigid society this is just brilliant he is never boring to listen to. " Making plans for the future is only useful for people who are capable of living in the present" So easy to understand yet so hard to implement.

Delete your world of Warcraft account and get a move on ASAP!

@Dan Arnautu Ye planning on taking lessons again next year. i'm on one of the hardest plateau's now which is the alternate picking problem its quite a tough problem. the first years i made immense progress playing Van Halen songs/guns n roses that kind of stuff thought nothing could stop me in my tracks. But there is an inevitable plateau idd so maybe you could help me out a little bit, I'm learning this song now : so i don't know if this is the style you play but how would you tackle 4:20 to 4:26? Damn that's hard. Thx in advance i hope i'm not interrupting your journal too much.

@Dan Arnautu Nice playing! how much hours a day of practice do you do? and what do you focus on most of the time? i'm curious i do about 2-3 hours a day about half of it i practice songs over the record and the other half focus on technique.

@Joseph Maynor How long do you follow this routine? Do you have setbacks sometimes which make you abandon your routine for 2 weeks or something like that? i sometimes do that keeping up the consistency seems to be the most important thing i wonder how you do it successfully. Is writing the book your work? or do you have a job additionally?

@Salaam I took the Meyers Briggs and i had INTJ with intuition about 85% thinking as well something high like that so kind of opposite to you almost. The sensing part is a huge challenge to improve and i'm working on it because when u practice an instrument, working out or socializing u want to be 100% there and in the moment otherwise u work at like half your potential i noticed this especially while working out i feel when i'm in instinct mode so to speak i am a 100% stronger but it is hard to get into that and even scary because it feels kinda alien but intensely satisfying do u know what i mean? maybe i'm just talking about the idea of the flowstate its hard to explain words really fall short here actually. With my thinking i can get into such deep abstractions and to me sometimes it is like the outside world is a whisper it is exhausting although i guess it has its advantages maybe but it needs to be more balanced. i'm working on it by while running for example, trying to focus on just the next step and look no further, its still incredible hard tho. final question for you, To achieve something real hard to really master something i need to develop this sensing part of me would that be the key and possible life changing maybe is that correct you think? i improved a lot last few years but this might be the next step.

Probably 75% of the time lost in imagination and thinking about the future its quite a problem sometimes. Only when playing guitar i get in touch with my senses i think and sometimes when working out all tho it doesn't always happen. I have a rich inner world but it draws me in too much sometimes and i get completely lost in thought forgetting the outside world. Interesting question, how about you?

@Visitor that's true very much i think i made that mistake going do self development in a neurotic way wanting to see results within the next 3 weeks and get burned out by seeing to few results then giving up so, thx for that comment it was a bit of an eye opener. You can get much done within a year but tracking progress over lets say 4 years can make you see how long stuff actually takes to master or learn if of course you are consistent with your practice.

@Prabhaker Ok this makes perfect sense, in other words its plan B to put it bluntly. I have to say your answer reminds me that there are indeed people who suffer that much and that depresses me a bit sometimes. I can imagine that some people don't trust hope itself anymore after enough misery and give it up and maybe then it is a good plan. But people can give up hope to quickly and simply procrastinate, try this strategy prematurely and that might be dangerous. As for meditation i don't do it because i feel somehow i don't need to but of course i don't know what i miss so i can't really judge it i might be wrong there.

@bernieboy20 I'm not triggered at all i'm curious why do you post this post on the forum? @Prabhaker I like your post it clarified for me that this is more a kind of lifestyle and meditation is not something you do for half an hour just as a simple life hack but i have a question. but how does that stack up with a another mode of self improvement something more like this, You have things and goals you are interested in and you try to achieve them getting closer gives good emotions,on the other hand you have your social life that makes you happy,you take care of your health,and you regulate your emotions by taking a more stoic attitude and embracing a bit of minimalism so actually the non spiritual stuff seems to me the highest good atm. but is that not enough, why meditate? why take such extreme measures? could it be a coping mechanism? could it be a flight from the responsibility of trying to do it the non spiritual way? I don't know how you feel maybe the nonspiritual self improvers miss out massively that could be but what you propose is actually a huge risk because you achieve the benefits after investing massive amounts of time in it which means not attending to other interests and missing out on those. you just have to hope its worth it. So why force spirituality with sitting for hours on end doing nothing and you have to continually do that the rest of your life how can it compete with just a walk through nature for example maybe its all you need to come to rest ( of course there is work to be done and i do see the worth in eastern philosophy i really like Alan Watts for example ) We overdo spirituality here its just a bit too much maybe that is what @bernieboy20 means and you could make a case for it and i think some people here including me were initially attracted to Leo's more practical stuff.

I thought a bit about Leo's concentration video and i thought there is maybe a better way to do it. Namely learn to play a musical instrument or rather try to achieve mastery in it, u cannot achieve mastery if u cannot focus on the level Leo is talking about i experienced that myself i absolutely know that this is one of the few things i'm 100% certain about. So instead of staring at an object or listening to a metronome i learned to play this piece on guitar i already had a reasonable background playing guitar but it took me 6 months of daily practice to get close and i realize now u sit there sometimes for hours at a time playing it at slow speed endlessly but there comes a certain point where u get so focused and immersed i didn't experience that since i was a child i guess that is the focus that is talked about. Leads me also to think maybe this is a basic human skill that got out of fashion in our neurotic world. anyway why stare at objects when u can learn it through an interesting activity that improves your life in many other ways as well? And i take music just as an example because that is what i had experience with but just the general idea that doing activities that require intense focus to increase focus seems to me more natural and preferable. So just a thought what u guys think?

He is an interesting figure quite controversial actually i read this from wikepedia and he was saying smart things but then u read something like this Rajneesh was seen to live "in ostentation and offensive opulence", while his followers, most of whom had severed ties with outside friends and family and donated all or most of their money and possessions to the commune, might be at a mere "subsistence level" U hear that from Scientology and other cults like that off Jim Jones. then there are claims of a terror attack done by his followers and lots of criminal activity there is this article https://artofericwayne.com/2013/07/17/osho-and-his-90-roll-royces/ of course i can't judge it all finding this out within an hour or 2 but even if his teachings are enlightening i tend to look more at facts, stuff that has happened. At first glance he seems highly suspicious.

@Juan Cruz Giusto What the hell..................................why? why does a guru have a 100 uber expensive cars? how suspicious is that? that Osho guy is turning into a curiosity for me especially with the amount of popularity he has on these forums i definitely HAVE! to figure out why he is so popular here.