Yes.

But limits are supposed to be evil and dirty; the enemies to our inner free spirit. Right?

Well what I’ve realized is that sometimes limits are actually the key to your success.

The Difference

There are unconsciously ingrained self-limitations. And there are consciously chosen self-limitations.

Unconsciously habituated limitations are the kind that just happen to you. You didn’t really choose them, they just kind of showed up. They might be the result of human domestication, institutionalization, or public schooling. Wherever they come from, you probably didn’t consciously decide that you want those self-defeating limits as part of your automatic behavior. No one wants that. To choose something like that on a conscious level would be pretty silly.

So that type of limiting conditioning really sucks.

And it’s no wonder that we become so loathing to the sight or mention of limits.

But it turns out there is actually such a thing as positive limits. That sounds crazy, doesn’t it?

That’s what I first thought.

I’ve always been a kind of nonconformist. I’ve long had a streak of wanting to test limits, break rules, and everything else that goes along with a rebellious mindset. Getting into self-development only added to that, as most gurus and “experts” in the human development field will tell you “There are no limits, but the ones you place on yourself.”

Well, what they never really tell you is that some of those limits you place on yourself can be positive.

When you think of a “life without limits” you have a tendency to think that you can do anything. Which is true, to a certain extent. But the problem with the no limit perspective is that it avoids criticism because every critique is labeled as a “limitation.” Real legitimate issues are dismissed as impossibility thinking. Real legitimate problems are seen as selling yourself short, and stifling your potential.

But this is just part of it. The real issue comes when you see all limits as evil without any evaluation.

Because some limits are actually beneficial. Sure, you can do anything you want, but you can’t do everything. The no limit mindset doesn’t really like this idea, though; it avoids boundaries and dismisses them as snares that would hold it down.

Here’s the hidden irony:

The no-limit mindset is actually an act of limitation.

Once you’ve put yourself in a pattern of rejecting all limitation, you’ve embraced a fixed state of being. Your no-limit policy has deceptively limited you.

A few of the positive limits I’ve implemented

I’ve come to realize in my own life that some limitations are positive and necessary. They help me achieve greater levels of success than I could have without them.

• I limit myself by only focusing on one theme or direction for improvement each month.
• I limit myself to working on only the most important task every morning.
• I limit myself to a maximum of 90 minute periods of work, then take at least a 10 minute break.
• I limit the number of projects I will work on at a time.
• I limit myself to the number of times I will check email every day.
• I limit myself by not working on Saturday and Sunday.
• I limit the amount of time I spend on writing blog posts.
• I limit the number of coaching clients I will take on at a time.

These are just a few examples of way I embrace conscious limitation in my life.

I’m sure you can think of way that you can implement limits in your life, in a way that serves and empowers you. And the good news is, you don’t have to disband your quest to obliterate self-defeating limits. Just take an intelligent approach to the limits you let into your life.

Coming from someone who’s consistently blacklisted limits from his life, I can fervently tell you that they’re not all that bad. What matters is what you do with them. And more importantly, that you choose them, they don’t choose you.

Photo courtesy of Stewf

One person in particular asked: “How’s liberation feeling this week? Do you need some florescent lighting and lame memos sent to you?”

No thanks.

I wanted to give you a personal update of how things are going for me, and how liberation measures up when the rubber hits the road.

What I love:

• Deciding what I work on. This is hands down the biggest benefit to working for yourself. Nothing can compare to it. Of all the benefits of self-employment, this is what I treasure the most. Obviously I have to focus on doing things that are actually going to make money, but I also have a lot of time working on other stuff, like exploring different self-development programs, going to seminars, and meeting lots of cool people.
• Variety. Every month, week, or day, I can be working on a different project. This is stark contrast to the repetitive and predictable work I was doing working 9-5.
• Working when I want. I don’t get stressed out much anymore; having to wake up at a certain time, get to an office by a certain time, and be present to show that I’m working. Sometimes I work early in the morning, sometimes I work at night.
• Flexibility. If I want to take a trip to see my family in Utah, I could take the time off right now. If I want to see my sister in Santa Barbara, I can take the time off. Or if I just want to spend the afternoon with my wife, I don’t have to justify it to anyone.
• Working from home. I love working at home with my wife, eating lunch with her, and being able to spend time with her during the day. It’s also pretty awesome to be able to take a break and do some bodyweight exercises or practice Jeet Kune Do.
• Working with who I want. After working on what I want, this is definitely the next coolest thing. When I was working in “the cube,” I didn’t get to choose the people I worked with. It’s not that they weren’t nice, it’s just that with working for yourself, you have the latitude to basically handpick the people you work with. I feel privileged to be able to work with all the awesome people that I do. It’s really an honor.

The challenges:

• Dealing with distractions. It’s easy to waste your time getting sucked into the “checking things OCD loop.” You check twitter, then you check email, then stats, then your other email, then your affiliate sales, then your other stats. Then when you have nothing left to check, you start over. I try to avoid this as much as possible, but sometimes I catch myself doing it out of habit. Before checking email, twitter or whatever, I ask myself “What is my purpose for doing this?” That helps a lot.
• Being ruthless about ROI. Before my business was my number one source of income, it didn’t matter as much if the stuff I was doing didn’t have a high return on investment. Now, it’s a different story. I have to be really careful about whether what I’m doing is going to actually make money, or not. If I don’t make money, my finances suffer, and there’s always the lurking fear of having to go back to a job. Even though the chances of that are highly unlikely (I’d probably panhandle first), it’s still enough to motivate me to stay focused.
• Staying focused. Now that I’m able to devote 100% of my time to the things I’m most passionate about, sometimes it’s difficult not to get overwhelmed with all the possibilities. Choosing a specific project to work on for a week or month helps with this.

Despite whatever challenges there are, I wouldn’t trade working for myself for anything. Within my own self-development, it’s had the single biggest impact on my quality of life. I just don’t think anything can compare to it.

Phase two is coming…

I also want to give you an update on what’s to come for Illuminated Mind. Some exciting things are in the works.

Here’s what I’ve been working on:

1. New design. I’ve been working on a brand-new, kickass design for Illuminated Mind. I think the message and direction of this blog has really outgrown the design. The new design will much better fit the unconventional, on your own terms theme of this blog. Expect this before the end of August.
2. The Unstream. This is an idea I’ve been wanting to move forward on for a while. You’ve probably seen the opt-in box for the newsletter, but I have yet to send out a copy. Well, the first edition will be coming out soon. Expect it to be packed with uncommon awesomeness.
3. The Black Sheep Project. This is something I just started working on with my friend Jared Kessler. The purpose of the Black Sheep Project is “unconventional people helping unconventional people thrive.” We really want to create a community where unconventional people can come together to support each other in whatever it is they’re doing. More on this soon.
4. Getting Paid to Exist. I probably shouldn’t be telling you about this yet (since it’s not ready for the public), but I’ll tell you anyway. I’ll soon be launching a paid membership site that will teach you how to get paid to exist. That’s not a typo. I’m going to go step-by-step, with in depth live webinars to teach you all the methods I’ve used to create freedom, break away from the cubicle, and get paid to be me. I’ll teach you stuff like, how unprofessionalism creates trust, why discrimination is the key to success, and how to causing trouble can make you famous (in a good way). Since this course harnesses the power of unmarketing, I think you’re going to find that it’s not like any other.

There’s also yet another really awesome thing to be launched soon. I can’t say what it is yet, but remember when I mentioned a possible free ebook about how I liberated myself from the 9 to 5? It might have something to do with that.

So I think you’re really going to like “Phase Two.”

Did I mention that you’re awesome? You are the reason I do this stuff.

Thank you for being part of this community.

All interferences to self-actualization can be summed up under one obstruction:

Limitation.

You are being inhibited in some way, but it’s not likely coming from somewhere “out there.” YOU are probably the one that’s holding yourself back. That’s because 99% of limitation is self-imposed.

These limiting beliefs are the enemy of the free mind.

But what’s really important to note is this:

Whatever beliefs you have, whether they define you as a person or define the core of your reality, are not true in and of themselves. They are only true in your mind. Your thinking makes them true.

When I really started to see the impact of this truth, I started becoming more and more aware of all the limitations I’ve placed on myself. Some of them were unintentional, some were created by copying others, and some were habituated by fear.

At first, these limitations were annoying to me. I knew they were holding me back, I could clearly see that. But my knowledge of that limitation didn’t stop it from continuing to limit me. Awareness of limitation is only the first step to uprooting it. It can take a lot of deliberate focus to permanently disarm it. And it can be incredibly frustrating when you desire to act out of a more empowering context, but the previous pattern keeps creeping back in.

That’s when I began devoting myself to the path of the liberation artist.

But really, all my life I’ve had:

Revolutionary tendencies

Much of my life has been spent in the pursuit of breaking down boundaries and eradicating limits. Since a young age, I’ve had a hard time accepting anything prostrated as “one true way.” I’ve always had a strong urge to question anything that is accepted as common sense. (The past two years of my life especially, have been centered around the theme of Liberation.)

When I was younger I would often question my parents, religious leaders and teachers. Basically anyone who would listen to my questions, I would probe. What I eventually came to realize is a lot of people don’t know where their answers come from, and a lot of people have the same answers as everybody else. But when you ask them why they’ve come to the conclusion that they have, they’re at a loss for words. The best you can often get from them is something like “That’s just the way it is,” or “Because this really old book says so,” or ” Because it’s just common sense.”

Well, I never really liked those answers. Other people seemed fine with it, though. It just seemed natural for them to live in a quiet subjugation, abdicating their right to actually understand the beliefs they were expected to live by.

I find it extremely unethical to tell others they need to live a certain way, when you can’t intelligently explain the logic behind your doctrine.

So, yeah, that just didn’t sit right with me. If I’m expected to live my life based on a certain idea, concept, or belief-system, I better damn well understand it.

Because when you have this kind of supercilious administration, what you get is…

Blind leading the blind

When you postulate something as unquestionable and absolute, it becomes an autocracy. And when you claim something as irrefutable, you poison it.

I think this is because when you place yourself within a fixed pattern, you automatically interfere with its usefulness. A fixed pattern is not capable of elasticity. Like a tree that has no bend, it will give way during the first hurricane.

That’s because real, unadulterated truth has no need to be explained or validated by a set of edicts or mandates. Pure truth, by it’s very nature, is true whether you believe in it or not.

What all of this has had let me to is:

The Way of the Liberation Artist

The art of liberation is not something you devote yourself to partially. You either give completely, or not at all. There is either total liberation, or none. Committing your life to the way of liberation is an act of polarization.

When you begin to liberate yourself, you will see at first that you tend to seek liberation in external forms. You search for liberation from a dead end job or boring work. You examine ways to liberate yourself from the physical limitations you’ve placed on yourself, or addictions you may have collected.

You may seek outward liberation from:

• Work that isn’t meaningful.
• Living your life on a schedule or routine (self employment helps with this).
• Being a slave to the clock.
• A partner that doesn’t fully respect you.
• A boss that takes you for granted.
• Addiction to substances: alcohol, tobacco, coffee, food, etc.
• Addiction to unmeaningful pursuits: obsessive organization, excessive email checking, etc.

But ultimately, as we seek our liberation in these things, we find that what we were looking for wasn’t freedom from things at all. What we were looking for was inner freedom.

So if you take the rabbit hole far enough, you end up following the path of internal liberation.

You seek sovereignty from:

• Self importance and the need to be right.
• Being anti-you.
• Playing the judge and the victim.
• Human domestication.
• Social conformity masked as trying to fit in.
• External validation.
• Your story.
• Taking things personally.
• Thinking you need to be liberated.

Ultimately, the pilgrimage to liberation leads you to question a lot of things. This cannot be done half-assed. If you want to experience true illumination, you must seek it as if your head is on fire.

So this naturally leads you to…

Intentionally setting your head on fire*

They say the cost of freedom is high; that you have to protect and guard it with all you’ve got. They say many corporations, religious groups, the government, and institutions have a vested interest in taking up the precious real estate of your mind. They say that if you don’t have a plan, someone else has one for you.

This may be true, but it’s all secondary.

That’s because when you devote yourself to the path of the Liberation Artist, what you realize is that you’re defending your mind against your own internal division. As they say, you are often your own worst enemy. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

You can be your greatest ally. This is called owning your own mind.

Embracing the path of the Liberation Artist is the practical and radical pursuit of living on your own terms. It’s a way of galvanizing and defining what you and I have been pursuing all along: Freedom.

Maybe you’re reading this blog because you’re already living the life of the Liberation Artist. That’s because if you’re anything like me, you’ve found that freedom is addictive.

—-

PS: I realize that I talk a lot on this blog about living on your own terms, authenticity, and not rebelling against yourself. I know some of what I’ve said in this article I’ve repeated many times in other articles, so I hope you’ll forgive the redundancy. My purpose here was to give form and put into words a way of life I’ve been living and have been trying to define for some time. The Liberation Artist is that clarity.

It should also be noted that I didn’t make this word up, I stole it (with permission) from Carl, who writes the incredibly awesome blog, Slacker Reform. I recommend that you go subscribe to his blog now and talk to him, before he gets too famous to consort with little peons like us.

*I do not endorse literally setting your head on fire. That would just be dumb.

I’ve found the secret to being excited about waking up every day; and I’ll tell you what it is right now. It’s starting a Revolution. I didn’t always think in these terms though…

I used to ask: What can I gain? How can I turn this into a business that will support me?

I focused on helping others by sharing my perspective, but that was the extent of it. When I did that, working on this blog would be exciting sometimes, and at other times it would feel like just a chore.

Now, I can’t even contain my energy for the work I’m doing. I feel like there’s electricity in the air. I’ve changed my mindset and made the decision to do something epic. Now I’m focused on creating a social movement of people living on their own terms. Because of this, I’ve moved from ego-centric to collective-centric.

It’s bigger than me now.

Guess what happens when you make something bigger than you? You get plugged in. You become connected to this amazing source of energy that was never previously available to you.

Now I ask: How can I take action that will support this vision? How can I create momentum to further ignite this revolution?

Waking up excited

The biggest benefit to working on a revolution is that it gives you an insane amount of energy. Working on a revolution will make you want to wake up. You might even have a hard time falling asleep at night, because you’re so motivated to take action on your vision. This is how I feel when I’m laying in bed thinking about all of the awesome stuff I’m doing with this blog and with Project Mojave, and my plans to expand this project into something even bigger.

So if creating something worth remembering is likely to make you a thousand times more productive, why isn’t everyone working on something like this? I think more people would devote themselves to something greater, if they just knew how to do it.

I often spend a lot of time talking about perspective and cultivating an authentic state. While that’s all good, I want to switch gears here to practical and logistics of the application of these perspectives.

First, we need to define what it takes to create a Revolution…

• It has to be something you care deeply about and would be willing to devote your life to.
• It should be something that will help other people.
• It should have a long term impact.
• It has to be remarkable; it has to be worth sharing and bigger than you.
• Working toward a revolution often involves the pursuit of being an ordinary radical.
• Your revolution must have a distinctive quality to it that is caused by you working in it. It wouldn’t be the same if someone else did it. But it is definitely a collective movement created by similar values.

Secondly, how do you discover what Revolution you’ll start?

This is probably the most difficult question to answer and where 99% of people get stuck. It’s impossible for me to completely guide you in this pursuit, because you’ll have to do a lot of exploring.

You’ll probably start some projects and have to let them go, because they didn’t work or they weren’t a good fit for you. This can be difficult to do when you’ve invested a large amount of time in them, but ultimately it’s necessary to throw away a lot of good ideas, if you really want to find what bigger purpose you want to devote yourself to. Mediocrity must be sacrificed in the wake of greatness.

Creating a meaningful revolution demands the habit of quitting a lot of things.

I currently have 30 drafts in my blog admin area. At least 28 of those won’t see the light of day.

I’ve gotten really good at throwing away ideas, because I care about producing only things of remarkable value. I feel that if I’m not supporting something compelling, all I’m doing is contributing to the noise. I would rather not water down my content or pollute the already congested content sphere.

So the best advice I can give in this area is to fearlessly walk your path. Generate lots of ideas and be willing to throw most of them away. Practice. The more you practice the more you’ll be able to refine and shape your vision. This might sound odd, but it’s only really through the constant movement in the direction of what you might think your vision is, that you’ll find what your true vision is.

It might start out with something that you’re kind of, sort of passionate about. You like it enough to work hard at it. Then a few months later, you’ve gained enough experience working on it to have explored other possibilities. Now you decide that part of what you originally set out to do still applies, but it looks different than it did at first. Then another few months of work go by and your vision is refined even more.

It’s only this kind of walking the path that brings clarity. Don’t wait for clarity or your “one true purpose” before you start. Please, please, don’t do that. It will never happen. Epiphanies are found in the dirty, messy circuitous routes of practice.

Other than practice, there is an awesome, invaluable tool to help you figure out what your revolution will consist of. And that’s asking questions.

I think asking ourselves questions is one of the most powerful, overlooked things you can do. If you can develop the habit of initiating these kinds of conversations with yourself on a daily basis, you will achieve greater things you could have otherwise envisioned.

Here are some potent questions to get you started:

• What do you teach others simply by being you?
• What would  you spend your time on, even if you didn’t get paid to do it?
• What do you find yourself researching and can’t stop yourself from learning more about?
• Is there anything you would consider yourself an expert in? If not, is there anything you’d like to be an expert in?
• What gifts do you have that you’d like to make available to the world?
• What do you want to change?
• What lessons do you often find yourself repeating in life?
• How does your purpose impact your local community? How does it impact your family? Your friends? The world?
• What does your tribe (the people you most connect with) look like? What do you identify with on a collective level?
• What legacy do you want to leave behind when you’re gone?

All of these questions aren’t meant to come up with the one-true-answer; they’re simply an impetus for getting your mind moving. Try combining asking these questions with mind-mapping. Have conversations with people, get their feedback. Connect with like-minded people and use them as a sounding board to explore your ideas. Just remember to stay true to yourself.

The most important thing is not holding back. Allow yourself to be ridiculous and completely authentic.

Now it’s time to start creating.

Moving from thought to action.

Once you’ve figured out what your project will look like, it’s time to start taking action. It’s time to stop thinking about it and start cultivating.

Just like discovering what to work on, a lot of people get stuck on how to start. It seems daunting when you’re staring up at a mammoth of a project from ground zero. There are so many things to do, so many approaches you could take, so many options.

But there is a reach, I promise you. And there is even that elusive grasp. But it only comes from starting. It only comes from not caring about what step you’ll take next, but just caring about the fact that you are taking a step.

The necessary ingredients to every revolution:

1. A revolution can be big or small. Whether you’re trying to change the education system or change the way people look at folding underwear, what matters is that you are passionate about it.
2. Rally your tribe. No revolution is a revolution without a group of people that share similar values. If you get really clear about your cause, you will easily be able to spot these people and make connections with them. Before long, you will likely not even need to seek them out. They will come to you.
3. Tap into your outrage. Most revolutions involve some kind of outrage or anger. This is a good thing. Your anger can be a gift if you use it wisely and don’t let it consume you. Use your outrage and your passion to fuel your action for change.
4. The cause rules. Movement and direction of your revolution should be dictated by the demands of the cause. Guru worship or leader exaltation results in the cause becoming obscured. Avoid these things so the movement is centered on the mission, and not a single individual.
5. Break down actionable steps. What change needs to be made and how will those changes best be accomplished? If the status quo needs to be interrupted, how will you deal with the resistance? Are you willing to stay true to your cause despite the protesters you will be faced with?
6. Keep the end in mind. It’s easy to get side-tracked with things that might seem to benefit your mission, but are really just distractions. In order to be effective, you must learn to cultivate an unshakable focus on your ultimate aim. Triage ruthlessly. Anything that does directly or indirectly benefit your cause, is a weed suffocating and diluting your objective, and it must be pulled.

Once in a while you’ll question whether or not you’re up to the task.

But something else is even scarier: what you left behind.

The ordinary, conventional, safe, secure, default life that you could have chosen instead. That’s what’s really scary. Remember that and you’ll be okay.

Everyone’s project will be vastly different, all I can offer are the necessary ingredients I’ve found. So instead of offering more practical advice, I’ll tell you about…

My Revolution

Since I wrote this article about work being sacred, I’ve given a lot of thought to creating something bigger than me. (Chris Guillebeau’s post Creating a Legacy Project and Charlie Gilkey’s Do Epic Shit, also spurred me to think more deeply about this.)

I’ve always aimed to be remarkable with my writing and this blog. Actually, there’s never been a time in my life where I’ve really pursued something in the hopes of being just okay.

So reaching to be uncommon and exceptional wasn’t a challenge for me, but the idea of creating some bigger than me was. Being unconventional and providing value is one thing. Creating an entire social movement, now that’s nothing to shake a stick at.

That is my reason for waking up. That is something I live for. That is something that gets me excited about being alive.

Thinking in terms of leading, or at least stimulating a collective revolution, really made me rethink what I’m doing with this blog. It made me think about something bigger than just me and my ambitions.

Thinking about this forced me to crystallize how all of the stuff I do fits into a universal picture. I still have the same plan, I still have the same style, that’s not changing. What is changing is a deepening of community and purpose.

So this is my revolution:

To create a revolution based on authentic action. A social movement of people liberating themselves through living on their own terms.”

That’s it. That’s my reason for waking up.

How this revolution will take form is something I’ve been giving a lot of thought to.

The plan

As you can probably guess, the medium for my revolution is mainly, this blog. But it’s also the ebook, the liberation manifesto, my work with Project Mojave, and the other products that I’ll later release (that are currently in development). I plan to develop a collection of products (some free and some for sale) aimed toward creating personal freedom that will outlast me when I’m gone. Some of my ideas may seem dissimilar, but they are all related to stimulating a social movement of living on your own terms.

Some of this collection of resources will come in different forms. Obviously there will be blog posts, but there will also be ebooks, physical books (later down the line, when I become famous, of course), and possibly some audio and video courses.

The best part about this is I now have a crystallization of one underlying intention behind everything I do. The way my action manifests might be different, but the purpose is unified.

All of the stuff  I’m creating revolves around a similar theme: unconventional methods for improving your life and living more authentically. I want to help promote this revolution in an unconventional way. My aim is to create a wealth of resources for people that are easily bored with the same approach and crave something different. I want to appeal not just to the typical self-help typecast, but to punk rock kids, iconoclasts, recovering lawyers and cubicle-dwellers, people living off the grid, and people that aren’t satisfied with the status quo. I want to connect with those that question supposedly unquestionable belief-systems, and those that want live on their own terms.

My message is personal and collective liberation, my style or medium is an unconventional, renegade kind of approach. The message is my core passion and purpose, the medium is the style that I most resonate with.

My project isn’t about prostrating myself as a guru and saying “follow this one true way.” I simply aim to say “Hey, this seems like an interesting idea, and it’s worked well for me. Plus it’s a pretty interesting and uncommon way to live.” Not a lot of people are killing their goals, giving up caring and embracing ADD.

My project is to create an abundant wealth of information and resources for people interested in non-traditional modes of living. That’s it. That’s my legacy. And I think it absolutely kicks ass. It keeps me up at night, and makes me excited to wake up the next morning.

Others may think that this project is totally lame or downright silly. And that’s okay. It’s my legacy, not theirs.

I’ve found a meaningful pilgrimage to devote my life to, in the service of this cause and the service of others. Knowing that, I’m no longer perpetually searching. My actions are guided by a coherent mission.

Keeping perspective

Creating a revolution to me is something worth living for. But it’s also important to remember that the little things in life are what really makes a difference. You can be fighting AIDS in Somalia, but if you’re an asshole to your sister, it kind of negates the rest of it.

Remember that even if you’re thinking big, it’s the small things you do every day that make a difference.

Massive change and working toward social change is awesome, but it’s also how you live your life on a daily basis that matters most. It’s how you interact with people you meet on the sidewalk waiting for a bus, or in line at a cafe. It’s how you treat your loved ones and family that makes a difference. It’s the small things that create the possibility for huge change.

In short, it’s not just having your eyes on the future and how things will be when your aim is realized.

Because it’s right here, right now. That change is possible. It’s this moment that we must live in.

That’s where transformation culminates.

It’s in this moment that the revolution takes place.

—–

PS: Part of this revolution I’m working on is through Project Mojave. We’re teaching people how to create ‘freedom businesses’ that allow people to liberate themselves and create massive freedom-supporting lifestyles. Freeing yourself from your dead-end job isn’t everything, but it’s part of the process of this revolution of self-liberation.

If you’re interested in working for yourself, escaping boring work and living on your own terms, I highly recommend that you check out and join the freedom business revolution.

In 24 hours, enrollment will be closed. I hope you take action before then.

The price is being raised for $19.95 to $24.95 (and I’m still hearing people say this is a ridiculously low price, compared to most other $39 ebooks).

I just wanted to give you a fair warning.

You have 24 hours.

Most of the time, trying to be productive is pointless. In fact, it’s a big, fat waste of time. It’s kind of lame when time management (productivity techniques & hacks) ends up killing your time, huh? Here’s why this happens…

For a long time I’ve thought about why people are so crazy about productivity. I’ve wondered why I am so concerned with accomplishing and completing. I mean, when you get to the point of looking for more time-efficient ways to fold underwear, you might have a problem.

So why does productivity matter, anyway? What’s so important about achieving?

The answer… not much.

The feeling of needing to accomplish something stems from dissatisfaction with the present. With this mindset, the whole idea of achieving is to become something. On the surface, it may seem like you’re doing something positive, but there’s a subtle undercurrent of rejection of what is. Rejection of yourself.

Here are just a few of the things wrong with our definition of productivity:

• Getting things done is associated with doing things you must do, out of a sense of drudgery.
• Productivity is often related to filling quotas. It’s about how much you can do, not necessarily what you’re doing, or whether it really matters.
• The whole notion of being more productive is doing more things in an equal amount of time.  Being too preoccupied with this makes it easy to lose sense of what’s important. It’s easy to have a productivity meltdown.
• It’s completely time-based. It’s about measuring, quantifying and analyzing data. Productivity does a very poor job of taking into account things that can’t be boxed into time bubbles, such as relationships, quality time alone, relaxation, doing nothing (intentionally), and many creative-based pursuits.
• Goals and being productive is strongly related to goals that are quantifiable. If you want to become a better write, you might make a goal to write 1500 words a day. This might help you become a better writer. But with goals like this, it’s so easy to get caught up in reaching the number and let obsession with completing your goal kill your initial passion.
• Checking things off a To-Do list is rarely meaningful. Would you qualify volunteering your time to a worthy cause, giving food to a homeless person, or doing a good deed as “getting things done”?
• Aiming to be productive usually doesn’t involve an inside out approach.
• It’s associated with tolerating life, instead of living passionately. Getting by, rather than really living.

I know what you’re thinking… Does this mean productivity is bad? Does that mean following your dreams and seeking to accomplish is wrong. Of course not. It’s just that some things are really hard to schedule. And when you try to, it’s completely ruined.

• Can you really schedule a time limit of quality time with your spouse?
• Can you schedule following an unexpected route to solving a creative problem?
• Can you set a timer for how much time you allow yourself to explore possibilities?
• Can you program daydreaming and spacing out in your day planner? And if you do program it, doesn’t that completely kill it?

Aiming to be productive is the wrong way of going about it. If you follow your heart and align yourself with what you hold most dear, productivity becomes irrelevant. You’ll achieve, but you’re not wrapped up in it. Your identity isn’t caught up in whether or not you cross everything off your To-Do list.

Your happiness is based on how much you enjoy what you’re doing, rather than completing X number of tasks.

Where we got off track

Think about it for a second: Has checking a bunch of things off a list ever given you a feeling of intense, lasting joy? Or does it make you feel good for a little while until you feel guilty for all of those other things you have yet accomplish? Where we really get off track is by trying to use productivity as a tool for too big of a job.

Imagine building a house, simply aiming to get it built really fast. That would be pretty stupid. You’d neglect the reason for building it, the design of the home, location, and the purpose the structure serves. Aiming to be productive is fine, but you probably won’t have to worry much about that if you really love the blueprint and really love building homes in the first place. If you’ve got that part sorted out, you’ll naturally be highly motivated and productivity becomes irrelevant.

De-conditioning

So what does this all mean? It means productivity is secondary. It’s the end result of doing what you love and living authentically. Trying to be productive becomes pointless when you live authentically. Things just flow naturally. Sure, you may have to eliminate distractions, develop focus, organize, etc. Those things at first glance seem like tools of productivity. But they’re really not. They’re just the static you need to remove to live authentically.

All these obstacles aren’t getting in the way of being productive. I saw life that way for a long time and kept getting mediocre results. It’s a broken model. What these obstacles are really getting in the way of is you doing what you feel matters; what you feel will make this planet a little better than when you got here.

When you really get down to it, the noise and distractions aren’t really obstacles at all. They’re actually there to help you see what’s true for you and what’s not. They are a means to contrast, something to show you what doesn’t matter, so that you might know what is truly important. Obstacles are there to help your spirit grow.

Being productive can be nice. It’s great to have something to aim for and a goal you want to achieve. But the achievement is always secondary. What matters most is that you are following the call of your heart.

In this way, you find that being productive doesn’t really matter at all. You don’t even think about it, because that’s just what happens when you you live authentically. You’re not preoccupied with how much you achieve, because you’ve stopped caring about that. You stop caring about always being intent on arriving. You don’t just bite two ends of a banana. You savor the whole thing.

You’re actually there when things are happening, instead of thinking about what you’ll achieve next.

Then something awesome happens: Actually being where you are, completely transforms your entire experience of everything. You realize that your dissatisfaction wasn’t caused by things being the way you wanted externally. It wasn’t the pounds you hadn’t yet dropped, the career you hadn’t yet landed. It was your resistance to what exists, right now.

If you’re fighting the universe, who do you think is going to win?

No more wasted time

So, what you do instead is follow your natural rhythms. You live in alignment with what you love doing. You’re there, completely.

Maybe being more productive isn’t the answer. Maybe what matters most is transforming not our resume but our consciousness. Deriving our joy not from arriving, but from moving in the direction of our heart. Finding satisfaction in each step, and beauty in the messy business of living. Bliss in the movement toward our dreams.

It’s kind of funny actually, like a cosmic joke. The very thing that’s supposed to save you time — being more productive and doing things faster — ends up being the biggest waste of time.

But it’s more than that…

In reality, the only reason we squeeze and strain ourselves to be productive, is because we’re afraid of being honest with ourselves. Living authentically is scary as hell. More often than not our hurry to get busy is a cover up for our inability to get real and stop living a lie.

It’s time to stop putting off liberating yourself.

Perpetual waiting is a serious illness. And I think it’s time to detox.

(Note: This is something that’s been on my mind for quite some time. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.)

For more ways to save time by killing it, get yourself a free subscription to Illuminated Mind.

Here’s a little video I put together for this celebration. It’s a bit dark (by a bit, I mean a lot), so bear with me. I’m still trying to get used to changing the settings on this camera.

Oh and just to sweeten the deal, I’m extending the discount for Reclaim Your Dreams until next Saturday, February 21st. You’ve got another week.

That’s all I got. Let me know what you think of the vlog!

Find something wrong with this picture? Me too.

But since we often define our success by the collective voice, we accept that’s the price we must pay. Perhaps somewhere in the back of our skulls that little piece of conscience we have left quietly tells us it’s wrong. But for some odd reason, we rarely listen.

If that’s success, I don’t want it.

I’d like to tell you something you probably won’t hear very often, but will completely make all the difference in your life. 

If you never define what success means to you, you’ll never find contentment. If you’re not completely clear about what brings you joy, you’ll never find success. You’ll be chasing something that, in the end, really doesn’t matter. Success is meaningless if you can’t measure when, where and how you’ll feel fulfilled.

But defining what success means to you isn’t enough. Even if you’re really clear and honest about what makes you happy, it’s still easy to become swayed. That’s because it’s one thing to define, but it’s an entirely different thing to accept.

And accepting that your path is the only one that matters — that you no longer care about the mainstream view of success — takes guts. Not to mention scary as hell.

It takes courage to swim upstream and fight the current of conformity. It’s uncomfortable going against the grain and embracing your inner renegade.

If defining is only half the equation, accepting your path requires…

Dropping Out.

I’ll be the first to admit that dropping out isn’t easy. The law of averages and majority rules creates a lot of resistance. Simply put, it’s not easy being the minority. (Institutionalization and domestication doesn’t help much either.)

Not to mention, breaking habits instilled since birth is insanely difficult hard. Completely rerouting limiting circuitry takes time, sweat and a mental breakdown persistence.

All of these tiny self-defeating beliefs are like thorns in your authentic life. One or two might give you an annoying itch. More than that and your movement is compromised.

The fact is, most of the heart squelching distress in your life is caused by resisting what is. Trying to force yourself to do things you don’t really want to do. We think these commitments are obligations and necessities, but they’re really not. The intelligence of the herd is often not very intelligent (imagine that) and “collective wisdom” is often a big, fat collective assumption.

So if doing what works (what’s supposed to work, anyway) isn’t working, it’s time to hang up your hat.

It’s time to drop out from:

• Caring more about how productive you are over how much you enjoy your day (ridiculous, but I struggle with this too).
• Living by an anxiety machine a clock and a schedule.
• Caring what other people think and basing your worth on outer acceptance.
• Living from the outside in. Chasing money, status and ego-driven desires.
• Seemingly required panels, boards, credentials, and expectations that come from society, your career, or yourself.

This list could go on and I’ve already clearly outlined much of what’s worth giving up here. What’s clear is that caring about stuff like this suffocates your dreams and drowns out the voice of your heart. Too much rigidity gets in the way of the beautiful and chaotic path of your heart.

Instead, maybe it’s time to:

• Learn to listen to the call of your heart more than the call of clever marketers.
• Get really clear about what success means to you and stop caring about what other people think.
• Find joy and purpose not just in the achievement of your desires, but in the movement towards what makes you come alive.
• Be incredibly disorganized and flaky. If obsession with perfection is taking up more time than the working on your dreams, it’s time to re-prioritize.
• Move through life deliberately.

The point of removing all of what’s not working isn’t to create a vacuum. Engagement in noise-removal is about creating the space for your dreams to grow and take root in the world. Dropping out simply means pulling all the unauthentic weeds in your life.

So what you’ve got to do is…

Create a “To-Stop” List.

We spend ridiculous amounts of time contemplating what we should add to our lives. We search for the quintessential pair of jeans, the most lucrative business ventures and the perfect partner. But rarely do we take stock of what’s not working. We forget that just as it’s important to add, it’s equally important to subtract.

Since this is such an unusual exercise, here are a few questions to spark your mind:

• What’s not working for you right now?
• If there were no consequences (imagined or real) what would you stop doing?
• What excuses do you regularly make that keep you from pursuing your dreams?
• Do you require permission to be happy? Do you think doing things slowly or doing things you love is not practical? Is it working for you?

Once your list is looking complete, pick one limitation to work on. Don’t try to tackle everything at once, it doesn’t work. Believe me, I’ve tried. As much as I despise these self-limiting agreements, it takes time to break them. But realize that that’s all they are – agreements. You can choose to stop agreeing with them at any time.

You’ve just got to pull them out one at a time. If you try to grab too many, you’ll break them and won’t take out the root. Before long the weeds spring back up and all your efforts will be in vain.

It may take time before they’re completely broken and the weeds stop coming back, but that’s okay. The water that is too clean has no fish.

What all of this really comes down to is living deliberately. Going with yourself and the call of your heart. It takes removing the noise to hear that call.

After all, what would you do with a hot piece of coal in your hand? You’d drop it of course.

And that’s exactly what we must do with limitations.

We’ve got to drop out.

It may cause a psychotic episode be difficult, but I will tell you this: The price is worth the promise.

When your dreams are reclaimed, you won’t have any regrets.

Life is a waking dream. -Aristotle

Following your dreams is scary. I get it.

What’s more scary is spending much of our lives searching for the illusion of security. What dreams would you have left behind if you didn’t live tomorrow? Would you regret not following your heart?

Beyond the grind.

The daily grind leads us to believe we should live by the rule of Panem et Cicenses, the Roman concept of bread and circuses; meager games and food to keep the populace entertained whilst powerful men do cruel things behind closed doors.

The monotony makes us think that we should keep our feet on the ground, heads down, mouths shut and our noses to the grindstone. We call this making a living. It’s more like a dying.

I think otherwise; I live by my dreams and can teach you how to do the same.

Escape from cubicle hell.

Not too long ago I wasn’t living my dreams at all. Far from it. I was in the wrong crowd, partying heavily and abusing my body. I worked at a job I hated as a file clerk (I called it file-hell-liaison) and woke up unhappy on a daily basis.

Then I had a wake up call. I partied too much one night and ended up in the hospital. It’s funny how an IV in your arm helps you get your priorities straight.

So I woke up and cleaned up my act. I landed a job in a highly creative environment that reinforces my passions. I married the woman I love and started writing about personal development and how to achieve your dreams. I got really clear about what I wanted and started to come alive.

What I realized is the most effective ways to improve your life are often counter intuitive. They go against conventional wisdom and what’s supposed to work. Now I want to teach you everything I’ve learned that’s brought me to a path of overflowing awesomeness.

Give yourself permission to dream again.

In Reclaim Your Dreams you’ll learn how to resurrect your dreams from the grave of practicality and start making them a reality. Think of your dearest dream. You know, the one that keeps nudging you as you sit in your cubicle (under that beautiful fluorescent lighting). Imagine how it will feel to accomplish your dreams and the impact you will have on this planet.

Can you see yourself getting there? Perhaps not alone, but I can guide you. The first 25 people to buy Reclaim Your Dreams will get a free personal phone, email or chat based coaching session from me on how you can achieve your dreams.

Here are just a few of the things that Reclaim Your Dreams will teach you:

1. Define Your Dreams – Dreams are fickle creatures and can sometimes be hard to tie down, but with a little effort you can do it. Identifying is the first step on the way to achieving and this book will give you the tools to do just that.
2. Overcome Uncertainty – You probably wonder at some level whether dreams are practical or just ridiculous. You may not necessarily doubt the dream itself, but the uncertainty that comes with working towards it. You fear your limitations. You fear your weaknesses. Reclaim Your Dreams will show you that conventional wisdom is really just a big, fat collective assumption. Dreams are possible and Reclaim Your Dreams will show you step by step just how to make them take root in the world.
3. Wake Up Happy – While there are the elusive few like yourself who dare to dream, there are others who would seek to bring you down. You’ll learn how to overcome the naysayers and how to start being excited about your life again.

Very recently I turned down a high-end corporate job — that would have paid me twice my current salary — because I understood it was a dream-suffocating environment. I feel so strongly about my work that I am giving you a complete and utter guarantee:

If Reclaim Your Dreams does not set you down the path of success within 90 days or less, I will give you your money back. I don’t need to hear the reasons, because I know you hold the potential to unlock your dreams. We just need to release it.

You could be totally excited about your life within a few moments.

This ebook lists for $24.95 and it could sell thousands and thousands of copies at that price, but just to further show my commitment to your success for the next 30 days, every single reader will get 20% off the list price. You can purchase Reclaim Your Dreams for only $19.95. Although I’d like to leave it at this price forever, I know human nature too well. It would be noted and forgotten, and another dream would be left unachieved. I don’t want that. That’s why this is a limited time offer, so I encourage you to buy now.

The truth is, you can’t afford not to dream. You can’t afford to let another year slip away without following your heart. You have to start now.

So will you give me permission to show you how to come alive?

Us dreamers could use some company

- Jonathan

PS: This book is less than the price of dinner for two at a pretty cheap restaurant. That’s a pretty sweet deal for something that will completely change your life. Imagine waking up excited about your life every day, wouldn’t that be nice?

You have until February 13th to buy at the discounted price of $19.95. After that, the price goes back up.

If you’re still not convinced, here’s a free gift: a sample chapter of Reclaim Your Dreams so you can try it before you buy it. Click here to download sample chapter.

Ready to reclaim your dreams yet?

[Note: This is the 2nd article in the series How to Make Your Dreams a Reality.]

I’ve wasted a lot of time in my life doing what works. I can’t count how many times I’ve used this excuse to stall pursuing my dreams.

• I went to college because that’s just “what works.”
• I go to a job and sit in a cubicle for 8 hours a day because “it works.”
• I don’t work on the weekends because I feel I need to reward myself for a week’s worth of drudgery. I have to say… “it just works.”
• I do the expected things. I try to make art because I’m supposed to be creative. I read because I’m supposed to learn. I dress a certain way because I’m supposed to be cool.

It’s not working.

I’ve previously written a lot about the importance of following your own path and not living life based on a template. The truth is, it’s damn hard not to. The few of us renegades that have evolved past living based on conventions and social norms are trying to keep our heads above water. But the mainstream, the sea of “what works,” seems to keep pulling us back under.

The mainstream isn’t working for me (in fact, I can’t remember a time it did). Common sense isn’t working for me anymore either. I don’t need to do things that are common. I don’t need to do things that make sense to other people. I don’t need to go with the grain. I don’t need to take the path of the most resistance. I don’t need to follow the leader. I need to follow myself.

Doing what works is killing our dreams because we have this expectation to follow a pre-planned life.  All throughout our schooling we’re taught the same things. We’re given a template for life that just doesn’t match up with what we really want.

It doesn’t match because it’s a template.

We may never find the job of our dreams. We may never find anyone who can answer our deepest questions about life. We may never have anyone show us how to live the lives we imagine.

We won’t find it because it’s not us. The only one who can answer those questions is really ourselves.

So if we want to make our dreams a reality, we have to stop doing what works. We have to abandon the mainstream and embrace the unstream. This means that we have to:

• Take risks and possibly make a fool out of ourself once or twice (or 200 times).
• Make things up as we go along and generally have no idea what how we’ll get to where we want to go. We just know that we can’t settle for anything else.
• Listen to our hearts. See with our hearts. Feel with our minds.

All of this is hard because it’s so easy to do what works. It’s so easy to follow the path that’s already been paved.

It’s not as easy to do what’s never been done. It’s not as easy to follow your dream of becoming a blogging entrepreneur on collectible 16th century mushroom lamps when no one else has ever done it. It’s not as easy to create a job for yourself, when you could just as easily fill out an application for one that already exists.

So if you want to make your dreams a reality. You’re going to have accept the fact that you’re going to have to be your own boss. Instead of following the rules, you make up your own rules.

Following the unstream

This past February I started this blog. I didn’t know what I was doing. I had experience as a web designer, but I barely knew what a blog was. I found a lot of hype online about making money from blogs and I got excited. I thought that maybe this would be my ticket out from the 9-5 grind. Then I got a reality check. I found that most blogs never make any money. Even more discouraging was the discovery that most blogs that make money, are about how to make money online! People are willing to pay money to learn how to make money. But people aren’t as willing to pay for information on a blog. That’s why it’s a blog. It’s supposed to be free, right?

I realize that in order to make a living blogging, it takes a long term investment. It also takes a willingness to accept a lot of strange looks when you tell people you’re trying to start a business blogging. People will doubt you. They’ll think you’re crazy. They’ll tell you that you don’t know what you’re doing.

And you know what? You probably don’t know what you’re doing. I didn’t. I still don’t. Life is a messy business and trying to have everything figured out in advance is likely to bring more stress than it relieves.

Knowing what your doing has to no longer be a determining factor in the pursuit of your dreams. I don’t know what I’m doing. All I know is that I’m not doing “what works” anymore. I’m doing what works for me. I’m following my own heart, my own path to happiness, wherever that may lead me.

I’m trying my hardest to overcome the voice of practicality. It’s difficult sometimes going to a 9 to 5 and running this blog at the same time. But I would rather be doing that, not knowing when my dreams will be realized than accept just doing what works.

If you’re off the beaten path, you may be lonely. But that’s a good thing. Because when you know you’re treading uncharted waters, you’re following the compass of your heart.

For more ways to not kill your dreams subscribe to Illuminated Mind.