Skip to content →

Tag: growth mindset

Focus On Staying Afloat: How I WILL overcome my mind

Published July 21, 2021 by V

One thing I can always count on is my storm.

My life could be going great, I’ll be making progress, but then some vague compulsion takes over me and I have the strongest urge to start over…and start over by destroying everything I’ve built.

This feeling isn’t just escapism, it’s critical of everything around me and inside me.

It’s aggressive and this same program has been running through my mind since my existence but somehow I’m still not used to it.

I’ve always wondered what caused it, and I’m still not so sure. Could it be an unbalanced brain, flawed perception, issues with identity, or suffering from having outrageous desires and being pissed off learning they don’t fulfill you?

I used to think the storm came to my benefit, almost as a reminder to get back on track– maybe I wasn’t moving towards my destiny.

I don’t believe that anymore…

Now I’m sure, it rains just because it rains. The reason? It’s a part of who you are. That doesn’t mean you’re a miserable person, it just means you have to channel the energy rather than run from it– and that’s the key to overcoming this.

Normally, the feelings brought on by it are panicky, and they result in jumping ship.

You’ll have to do the opposite, despite how hard it will feel. LEAN IN.

Become a kickass sailor.

I’ve tried leaving it, I’ve tried going to environments where there wouldn’t be a sea (metaphorically speaking). But rain would eventually flood you back to the same place.

My goal now is entirely different– it’s to channel this energy. Rather than identify with it, I’ll recognize what it is, which is the climate of my mind.

It’s not who I am, it’s just my temperature.

And knowing that, I can build a better foundation- one that would benefit from the weather itself.

I’m staying here. I’m building.

Jumping ship never stopped the storm, it just temporarily made me less sea sick– until I found another boat.

Knowing that, I’ll become a better sailor.

#FoolForward

Comments closed

Re-learning to Live

Published July 11, 2021 by V

Hey Fool.

I finally get that our dreams, hopes, and achievements don’t actually change our lives– not in the way we think they would.

We might hope for a grand reset through moving to a different state, changing careers, building a new friend group and these things might initiate a little momentum.

But it doesn’t last because change doesn’t come from addition, it comes from revision.

I was always focused on my calling, finding my purpose– I was so tunnel vision on these things I didn’t understand that I was the wrong person to create them.

Overly focused on why I was born, I missed every opportunity to fully enjoy all that the human experience had to offer.

And as I did succeed and inch towards all the things I wanted, I was the same discontented individual.

Then I finally came to understand it, I never re-learned how to live. In my youth I found survival mode.

I was ultra-skeptical, discerning, critical, closed-off, I was mentally distant from the world– because it served me to be. A lot of us enter these phases, but it’s a mistake to let them alter your character and perspective- which I did.

I became someone who was numb to pain… and as a result– numb to joy.

I chased highs to feel something, rather than drugs my choice was risk. Danger made me feel closer to my youth.

But it was always temporary and as soon as the adrenaline wore off, I was me again.

It was made obvious no amount of external anything can change you, regardless of what it was. How lazy and pathetic of me to tie my fulfillment to temporary aspirations.

This isn’t some complain-y post where I drone on about the mysteries of unhappiness and how some of us are just built serious. Nay.

This entire post is about the great re-set. A super underrated ability every single human being possess, gifted to us by mother nature.

YOU CAN REINVENT YOURSELF AT ANY MOMENT.

I’ve always wanted purpose but what I failed to understand back then, purpose is not found it’s created.

I wanted my life to be full of awesome experiences, well those come from a shift in approach to the world, and that comes from an entirely new perspective.

So what caused all this misery?

A cynical attitude, perspective, and focus on negativity.

—So THAT is exactly where you need to start.

Rarely did I stop and appreciate what I had, and I had a lot. The whole, “it’s not enough” is just a garbage attitude that is easily changeable.

This is our superpower.

You don’t need to change who you are, you need to change how you are.

AND that’s entirely within your control.

To begin, you’ll want to shift your focus. Each day, start from a winning mindset. Focus on all you have, be thankful for where you are, and move forward positively– embracing what’s currently before you.

This isn’t easy. Your brain will want to revert and to stay the course you have to have some vision that excites you, about what your life could be. Write it down, feel it, look at it multiple times a day.

With this combination of gratitude and moving towards a new way of life, you will re-find what it means to live fully.

#StayFoolish

Comments closed

Identity > Habits: Want lasting change? Then change.

Published July 7, 2021 by V

Sometimes it really is so much simpler than we can even imagine. You sit there, pissed off at the shittiness of life, try new habits and practices only to fail.

You imagine it must be you, and you’re right but for the wrong reason.

I didn’t invent this, and neither did the author who wrote the best selling book on it, but if you can understand and embrace this– your life will change immediately.

Identity is everything.

It’s ONLY this. This is the reason you move backwards or forwards, form good or bad habits, succeed or fail… identity is the gps for the human mind, and for your entire life.

You might think its corny, but that story you tell yourself plays out every single day. In fact, our stories become our lives.

If I say to myself, “I’m a writer” and I keep identifying with being a writer, I begin to act as a writer. What happens? I end up writing daily, practicing my craft, conducting myself as a writer.

Had I said, I need to write or I want to write– maybe I do, maybe I don’t.

If I say to myself, “I’m a fighter, I train and care for my body the way a fighter would, and never miss a muay thai class because fighters don’t.

I’ve always formed new habits easily, but until recently only realized why.

I make them apart of my identity immediately. You keep saying you need to get healthy, and like that you never will. You don’t need to “get healthy”, that’s temporary. You need to become a healthy person.

So make it your identity. “I am that type of person who takes care of their health.”

If you think this is hokey- mystical crap, I can assure you it’s science.

Something happens to us when we make things personal. We become our habits, when they become our identity.

Your brain likes to hold onto the shitty version of you because you’ve trained it to. Saying, “that isn’t for me, or that just isn’t me” is TOXIC.

If you want to level up, grow, and gain a better life– it needs to become you, you need to become more.

How?

Simple. What do you want out of life? I want to be an entrepreneur who runs a successful advertising business, podcast, and newsletter.

Okay, great. So who is this person and what do they believe and practice daily- to achieve this life?

They are a student of human nature, welcome all challenges and adversity because they love it, and always put themselves in discomfort.

I’m the type of person who’s always putting myself out there, attacking my fears, and learning.

Try it, the only thing you’ll lose is misery.

#FoolAround

Comments closed

Your Barbie World: Why We Want Things We Don’t Need…

Published June 6, 2021 by V

What’s up Fool.

Despite the surge in financially unstable bank accounts, America remains steadily purchasing.

It’s what we’re good at.

Work from home? Shop from home.

I’m not going to go all Tyler Durden on you and tell you the things you own, end up owning you. You already know that, hence most people (maybe you) working their asses off to pay off debt.

Life here is a layaway.

Most of us can’t afford our things, but we keep buying and why?

Commercial Conditioning.

The things we buy end up being a part of who we are. “I’m a homeowner.”

It’s subtle, but it’s there.

And whats being a homeowner mean? You buy rugs and go to the home depot on a Sunday, for fun….

The irony. We chase things we don’t need and wouldn’t otherwise want if some commercial didn’t convince us of “success” and “security” coming from bills.

Then with a straight face you claim you’re rational.

We need to reclaim our independence, and you need to start by limiting your exposure to advertising.

I’m guilty of it too.

If I buy a new macbook, it makes sense to buy dual monitors to go with it, and might as well get a larger wireless keyboard.

The dreaded bundle.

It gets us all.

I’m just saying, move away from the constant purchase culture and watch your independence return.

#FoolMeOnce

Comments closed