• You fit in.
• The rest of your life is fairly predictable; not many surprises.
• No one asks questions.
• You’re considered “normal.”
• You wake up with a pretty good idea of what your day will consist of.
• Your life is steady; it feels safe.

I used to accept this way of living because whenever I told someone my dreams, the common response was “that’s not a serious way to live.” But that’s not completely true.

I accepted “being a serious person” because when I told myself my dreams, I would respond “that’s not serious.” I never had complete ownership of my mind. I was too busy trying to be a serious person.

But then there’s this other thing. This hint. This whisper. This quiet voice of desperation that lulls from some sedated yet unrelenting innermost part of your mind. The part that never gives up until the eulogy.

And it made me wonder: What if there was some other way to live? Some other back door or hidden path that led to complete creative control over your life. One that wasn’t serious at all, but was highly ridiculous

The more I followed that unabating quiet pull, I eventually found…

The Art of Being Highly Ridiculous

Ridiculous people have something figured out that other people haven’t quite grasped. They wear a subtle, almost undetectable smirk that makes you think they’re about to make some kind of mischief. They probably are. Mischief is what they like best.

The truth is, ridiculous people aren’t ridiculous at all, they just seem that way to the people that are always trying to be serious. They seem unruly and careless because they’re not following the common template. They are obviously out of line, and that is most alarming to the serious tribe.

Ridiculous people seem highly irregular to the serious folk because they tend to…

• Not follow pre-made templates. They prefer to freestyle life instead.
• Work irregular hours, and often accomplish this by working for themselves.
• Follow their natural rhythms and focus on creating value over obsessing over quotas and time-logging.
• Be ordinary radicals: people that have deliberately chosen to dedicate their lives to a specific purpose that they’re most called to.
• Not care much about weekends, and don’t dread Mondays. Since they do what they love for a living, the boundaries between work and life become blurred; to them it’s a good thing.
• Change quite often. They don’t like stagnation and become especially bored with meaningless routines and predetermined patterns.
• Follow their passions and find an intersection between they hold most dear and what the world deeply needs.
• Live zero hour workweeks.

The reason most ridiculous people end up embracing this path is because they realize the bullshit false dichotomy of legitimacy and seriousness. In other words, they know that just because something is considered a “serious” or “approved” pursuit, it doesn’t mean it’s worth doing. They follow their hearts and leave it to other people decide whether they’re serious or not.

Ridiculous people that I admire

There are quite a few people out there that have consciously chosen to be ridiculous. These are just a few of those people I respect and admire.

• Carl Nelson — Because he walks the talk, and he has mad moon walking skills.
• Adam King — He’s bold enough to follow his passion and ship his art. He gets down to the simple nature of everything he creates; something that requires a lifetime of practice
• Danielle LaPorte — She helps other people find and live their truth; she’s a wordsmith and a poet. Plus she channels Mother Theresa and Anthony Kiedis.
• Ido Portal — The level of dedication he has to his practice and art is one of my biggest inspirations.
• John Unger — It’s hard to find someone as committed to helping other artists find success as him. And how can you not like someone who create things to help you set stuff on fire?
• My wife — Her level of courage and genuineness inspires me daily. She pushes me as a writer and an artist.
• Kate England — She holds true to herself as an artist, and refuses to compromise her work. Also: her desktop icons will make you aroused.
• Jonathan Fields — Because he pushes you to question your assumptions, and will lend a hand whether you’re big or small.
• Charlie Gilkey — He helps creative people get their stuff out into the world. He is a metaphor ninja.
• Nhan Khuong — He inspires others to embrace their true potential. He also runs barefoot. In the snow.
• Gwen Bell — She helps you get your message out to the world, and always shows up from a place of “how can I help?”

These people aren’t the only ones I know on the same path. I’m lucky enough to be a part of an incredible community of people here that have chosen to live deliberately. Even though I have weirdo syndrome, it’s good to know that I’m not alone.

photo courtesy of derrickt

On the other hand, everyone talks about the beauty of open-source conversation within the social web. Everyone contributes, everyone can chime in. Everyone pretends that no one really owns anything. “We’re all in this together” is the mantra of those who own branded spaces online.

For a long time, I’ve been thinking about this interesting phenomenon. Everyone wants their ideas to spread, but some people don’t like it when their followers become leaders within “their” conversation. Because they want to own the space. They want the deed to the conversation.

Here’s a newsflash:

No one can own a conversation.

You can stimulate. You can lead. You can provide the vision and the platform. You might even have started the conversation.

But that still doesn’t mean you own it.

So don’t get hurt if your followers become leaders. Don’t take it personally if someone steals your limelight or improves your idea. Don’t feel threatened if someone else profits from your ideas.

Because honestly…

We’re all thieves.

Dirty. Corrupt. Rotten Crooks.

We all borrow, we all steal. We all pretend at some point that we came up with it first. But no one did. No one really ever starts anything. We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. We’re all influenced by leaders, peers, followers, and friends. What we do is just a mashing of a million different ideas, filtered through our own unique perceptions, views, and conceptions.

So, if you think you own an idea… get over yourself.

You don’t own the conversation. You don’t own the idea. You don’t even own the words you used to formulate it.

You can’t copyright a vision. You can’t patent a movement. You can’t possess what can’t be seen.

That’s because…

An idea is bigger than you.

Something to stand for is more important than the person standing for it. A vision is more important than the person providing it. A movement is bigger than the people moving it.

The people are important. Leaders are important. But they are never more important than the principle or the idea itself.

I should probably note here that I don’t mean it’s okay to blatantly rip someone off. But it is okay to be inspired by others, to share ideas, to mix, and meld.

And if you were obviously inspired by someone else, and what you’re doing looks pretty similar to what they’re doing… give them some credit. Your work might not have happened if it weren’t for theirs.

But let’s not pretend that any of us really own anything. Because we don’t. Our lives are temporary. We don’t own our ideas, we don’t even own our bodies.

Long after us, someone else will be living for the same reasons you are. They will be working toward similar things you are. A conversation, an idea, a principle is not constrained by space and time.

So remember, it’s not about who started it. It’s about what we’re doing with it.

Why not do something beautiful, and leave it for others to decide who owns what?

You probably think you know a lot of things about yourself. And it’s those things that you’re certain of that are holding you back.

You might be certain that…

• You can only make X amount of money per month.
• You’re not worth someone’s time.
• You’re not cool/smart/attractive enough to be successful with him/her.
• You don’t have enough time.
• You’re a depressed person.
• You’re not on “the same level” as your peers.
• You’d never get a book deal.
• You’ll never be able to forgive the person that hurt you.
• You’d never be able to work for yourself.
• You don’t have “what it takes” to get what you want.

That certainty is holding you back. So sometimes, you need to doubt yourself in order to succeed. Sometimes you need to be confused, or uncertain about yourself, to reach your fullest potential.

Because I can almost certainly guarantee you, that what you think you’re capable of, is much less than what you’re really capable of.

So what I’d like to invite you to do, is to doubt everything about yourself.

• Doubt that you’re not worth it.
• Doubt that you don’t have what it takes.
• Doubt that what you think about yourself is true.
• Doubt that you can’t achieve whatever it is you want.
• Doubt that you can’t move past the stuck place you are.

When you doubt yourself, you open a window. When you’re uncertain you create a possibility in your mind that previously, did not exist.

It’s in that moment of confusion, that something beautiful happens. You open yourself up to alternatives that seemed unreal before.

The truth is, those possibilities were always there. Those alternate, more desirable paths were always there, but you blocked them out in your mind, because you were certain they didn’t exist.

So doubt everything you think you know about yourself. It’s not true, you just made it up.

You can make up something else if you want. Because the truth about you is magnificent.

Like 99% of the world, you probably think you need to become someone.

Well, you don’t. The only thing you need to become is who you are. Because if you’re like most people, you’re probably not who you really are all the time. You might be yourself when the situation is comfortable. You might be yourself when the risk of defending your ego is minimal.

But you’re probably not who you really are all the time.

It’s weird how when we’re little kids, our parents tell us “You can be anything you want when you grow up.” As if we should be anything other than ourselves, right?

Well they have good intentions, anyway. Maybe they should have said “You can do anything you want when you grow up.” I think that would have been a little more appropriate.

But then something happens when you get a little older. Into junior high and high school, your parents and teachers start telling you “You need to make something out of yourself.”

Now, wait a minute. What happened to “I can be anything I want”? Now I have to make something out of myself? I guess it’s easy to tell innocent kids that their potential is limitless. But when you get older, it’s time to “get real,” right? It’s time to “grow up” we’re told, and “become an adult.”

I really think that this is where it all starts. Our dissatisfaction complex takes root at an early age, and somewhere around our teen years it blooms.

Then we start looking for something outside of ourselves. We search for an identity in our possessions. Once we get that car, that apartment, and all that stuff, then we’ll be a “real person.” Or so we think.

Because it doesn’t stop there…

Now we need the image.

We need the clothes, the friends, and the trappings that make us feel legitimate. I used to feel this way when I was doing graphic design. I thought that in order to be a real artist, I needed cool books, a certain attitude and style, and other artsy friends. I needed to go to artsy places and do artistic things. I needed to make it clear to others that I am, in fact, a definite “serious” artist.

But as soon as I have all those things, I’m still not satisfied. There’s always something else I need to do, some thing or status I need to achieve to really, finally, be the person I want to become.

Newsflash: If you think this way, you will NEVER become who you want to be. You will NEVER be satisfied, because you don’t NEED to BECOME ANYTHING.

(end big dramatic type.)

So here’s a different way to be

Become who you are. Walk through the fire.

Instead of trying to become something, and then find fulfillment, find fulfillment through being who you are. That is the only way you will ever find contentment.

Now, you can still add or subtract whatever you want in your life:

• You can add people to your life that are more in alignment with you are, but subtract doing it to validate yourself.
• You can add ideas and principles that align with the core of who you are and what you believe in.
• You can subtract doing all the things that don’t make you come alive.
• You can subtract the job that doesn’t make you excited to wake up, and add a career that does.
• You can subtract materialism and replace chasing things with cultivating freedom.
• You can add authentic experiences instead of hiding behind facades.

You can even seek new ways to improve your life, but your identity doesn’t depend on it. You won’t feel bad or worse if you become a super fast typist or an Olympic gymnast. Even though you might take great pleasure in seeking new heights of self-cultivation (like I do), not achieving your goals doesn’t ruin your day.

You need to realize that even if you reach a new level, there will always be another level to aspire to. There will always be something next. And you should care less. Because even though it might be fun for you to play the game, you need to realize that it’s just a game.

Even though you might seek something “better” or more desirable, you are not attached to it. Because you realize that contentment is more valuable than gold. Your peace cannot be traded for the attainment of any credentials. Fitting in can’t replace being authentic.

You know this is the secret to sustainable contentment. And because you know it, you never have to compare yourself to others, or seek anything to be okay with who you are.

You become who you are first.

You leave becoming anything else to those who think the game is real.

So are you willing to sell your cleverness, and purchase bewilderment? Are you willing to set fire to the facade? Are you willing to be naked? Are you ready to walk unafraid?

The fire is there, waiting for you. Walk through it.

Burn the cloak. Burn the mask.

Come out unclothed, just as you came into this world… and reclaim your freedom.

Cubicle-dissenters and freedom-seekers, I present you with this manifesto on the liberation revolution.

This movement happening all around us is, quite literally, the story of mental bondage to freedom. People everywhere are finding liberation through ditching the work-template and living on their own terms.

If this movement interests you, we would like you to be a part of it.

You kick so much ass, it would be a shame to see that squandered by asphyxiation, due to fluorescent lighting and pointless committee meetings.

What you’ll find in this manifesto is 5,000 free words on the characteristics of this uprising. You’ll hear the reasons of others and why they’re committed to the freedom of working for themselves and reclaiming their time and their minds.

DOWNLOAD THE FREE MANIFESTO HERE.

The reason for this:

People have long been ditching the employee model of life, but rarely has there been a collective banding together of individuals to support each other in this movement. This manifesto is an attempt to create a coherent, articulate representation of the reason we are unsatisfied with the work-template and why we are seeking a new paradigm.

What’s under the hood:

• Why we’re tired of choking back vomit because we’re going another day doing a job we hate, with people we don’t connect with, working for someone we don’t respect.
• How we’re transforming our relationship with work, through breaking down social conventions and overly politicized nonsense.
• Why we think entrepreneurship is one of the highest forms of self-actualization and self-improvement.
• How we’re in this together.
• How to cultivate the “Free-man” (or free-woman) mindset and seven things you can do right now.
• The importance of getting to Game Over.

Are you totally down with this revolution? Is this something you’ve been waiting for?

Here’s how you can help:

1. Spread the word. Send this manifesto to your friends, family, or co-worker that’s about to commit suicide (she needs to read this). Tweet about it, send it to your friends, print it out and post it on the telephone polls on your block.
2. Declare your freedom. There is no better way can you help strengthen this revolution than by declaring your own sovereignty. By reclaiming your own freedom, you give others the courage to do the same.

What the hell is this all about man?

This manifesto is something I’ve been working on for the past two weeks as part of Project Mojave, my new lovechild.

I’m a member of the faculty there where my title is Director of Ass Kicking.

No I’m not joking (I couldn’t make this stuff up). It’s basically what I was born to do.

Over the course of the next few days, you’ll get a chance to see what this crazy revolution is all about and how you can become a member. There’s a really awesome video up right now called “The Freedom Business Blueprint,” which basically defines the qualities of a massive freedom-supporting business. I highly recommend you go check it out.

Lots more awesome, free stuff is coming, so I hope you sign up for the list so you can get updates.

Anyway, that’s about it. More details will be coming soon.

Please let me know what you think of the manifesto. I can’t wait to hear your feedback.

Beware of any enterprise that requires a new set of clothes.” -- Henry David Thoreau

Rat Race. Trend. Fad. Blind leading the blind. Mainstream.

A lot of names, one thing: conformity. And I do my best to question what’s popular as much as possible.

But the question is this: If you’re going to question everything, shouldn’t you also question your questioning? Shouldn’t you challenge the desire itself to question?

I agree with this sentiment. I often feel that questioning everything simply leads to blindness of a different flavor. Rejecting everything simply because it is popular is just as stupid as following everything trend that pops up because you’re afraid of not fitting in.

Needless to say, I’ve spent a lot of time bashing the mainstream (see here, here and here). I constantly exhort people to question their unconscious domestication. I encourage people to question society, their parents, their boss, and themselves. And to question, of course, authority.

Since a young age — since, I don’t know, around the age of 6 — I’ve always questioned things. In high school, I was one of those grunge/punk kids that rebelled against “the system” (until I dropped out due to boredom, that is). I eventually went to college and dropped out of that, too. Not because I was lazy, but because I never intended on getting a degree. I chose to go to classes that I was interested in, instead of following core requirements and a major program. I’m not trying to downplay the value of diplomas, or degrees, but the path of self education has always felt the most right for me. (See: becoming a raw foodist, Jeet Kune Do, blogging, drumming, writing, web design, and reading at least one book a week.) I commend those that follow the traditional path of education deliberately (instead of doing it because they’re told it’s a good idea). It just wasn’t for me, personally.

So anyway — back to the story: During my short-lived high school days, I wanted to disengage from the machine. So I became “anti-everything.” I rejected popular notions, traditions, belief-systems, religions, and anything classical, formal, or institutionalized.

Non-conformity = street cred.

Now this was something I was really proud of back in the day. It was everything street cred and a serious symbol of how “real” you were. It was a seal of renegade pride to not wear anything with a label or brand name. If you were a true non-conformist, you didn’t listen to music that was on the radio. You read books and listened to music that were considered “underground,” and often admired artists simply because they were unknown. We called this being real.

If you want to meet a real non-conformist (hell, the title of his blog is The Art of Non-Conformity. Helloooo.) I suggest you check out Chris’s blog. He also has a really badass free ebook called A Brief Guide to World Domination. You won’t be disappointed. Plus you can’t be even if you wanted to. It’s free.

Before I talk about the pitfalls of this approach, I’ll say a bit about the reasoning for questioning authority and all things popular.

See, if you’re really down, if you’re really with it, then you know that the whole reason for non-conformism is to not live unconsciously. It’s to get in touch with who you really are and express your own individuality. This is wonderful. This is beautiful.

While it doesn’t happen all the time, I occasionally get criticized for admonishing other people to follow their own path and rejecting the mainstream. Following your own path, for the sake of being different, isn’t very smart when you’re trying to reinvent the wheel.

That’s because modeling the success of other people is often one of the quickest ways to become successful. I have nothing against this. I don’t think it’s wrong, but it only makes sense if that’s really a deliberate choice.

We’re all a bunch of posers.

If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it’s another nonconformist who doesn’t conform to the prevailing standard of nonconformity.” —Bill Vaughan

We all live our lives within a giant melting pot of borrowed ideas. Our beliefs and views about ourselves and the world are nothing more than a collage of things we’ve heard from other people, or ideas we’ve picked up and patched over our existing mesh of ideas along the way. We can pick up new ideas, new beliefs at any time and shed the old skin of what we no longer identify with.

So yes, in a way, nothing is original. Nothing is unique. We all have the same DNA, just arranged differently.

We’re all saying the same thing, in different tones. We only perceive it as different because we’re reorganizing the notes on the ledger. A musician may play the notes at different lengths, in different time signatures and varying progressions and keys. But they’re all the same notes.

Studying martial arts and Jeet Kune Do has led me to see that conformity to systems of fighting doesn’t make much sense. Placing your attacks and defenses into set patterns leaves you fixed and immovable when real life happens. Fighting, like real life, is alive. It’s dynamic. Bruce Lee was known for rebelling against all styles because he said “We all have two feet and two legs. How can there be any other style of fighting, unless you have three feet or three legs?”

In the same way, we’re all living life with the same stuff. We all work, sleep, and eat the same way. Though we might have different expressions of these things, we all put on our pants the same way.

So yes, blindly rejecting the mainstream is pretty stupid. Non-conformity for the sake of non-conforming is still conformity.

Rejecting all patterns and styles blindly is still a pattern.

Do I think that rejecting everything because it’s popular is conformity masked as some rebel badge of “with-it-ness” or a sign of how “real” you are? Yes, I do. I think it’s just as unconscious as blindly following trends. But I also think that questioning is a deeply sacred part of life. Yes, it can become lame when questioning everything becomes an institution in and of itself. But I think it’s a better alternative to some other traditions (see: not questioning a book written over 2,000 years ago).

So yes, I’m a conformist. And I encourage you to be one, too. After all, non-conformity can be quite ugly taken to the extreme. You wouldn’t want to chop off all your limbs or stop wearing pants for the sake of being different, right? I didn’t think so.

What this all comes down to is…

Living deliberately.

If you want to wear chucks and cardigans as a badge of your indie-ness, go right ahead. If you like rules, routines, and detailed plans, do that. Follow trends or boycott them. Avoid all cliques or be a scenester. Embrace the system or rage against it, but do so consciously and deliberately. And remember, life is dynamic and you’re alive, and therefore subject to change. If you rejected something because you thought it was trendy and you found out later that you really did like it, be honest with yourself and accept that.

Free spirit or group-think, express yourself authentically. Accept that who you are now and what you believe now may not be the same in 5 years or 5 minutes.

Embrace your aliveness. Embrace that you might not recognize who you were yesterday and that’s okay. As you grow and change, so will your dreams and desires. The good news is that your integrity never changes. It’s always nudging you to accept what you really feel. It doesn’t differentiate between what’s popular and what’s not. It just knows what is. Call it intuition, your conscience, whatever you like; it’s probably a good idea to listen to it. When I do, things just seem to work a whole lot better than when I resist and try to “rebel” against things because of their homogeneity.

You might also be wondering: if I really don’t think that mainstream ideas are evil, why do I continually write posts in a way that comes at things from an unconventional angle? Why do I write articles with titles like “Productivity is a Waste of Time” and “If It’s a Good Idea… Don’t Do It”? Is it because I think that unconventional ideas are better? No, I don’t.

I just happen to get bored reading the same things all the time. I like to explore uncommon, lesser seen angles to view things from. Everything conventional is already being said, anyway; why would I want to repeat the same echo?

The whole unconventional, counter-intuitive thing is my style. It’s the way I like to do things, but it’s just my flavor. It’s nothing different, really.

It’s just my way of rearranging the notes.

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?

I don’t think that giving up should be your primary method for dealing with problems. But there are certainly a lot of cases where it just seems to be the most intelligent answer.

The more I stop trying to force things to happen, the more they just seem to sort themselves out. The more I let things happen, the less time I spend trying to make them happen.

Giving up is really about honoring your feelings. It’s about giving up trying to force yourself into a

mold of societal shoulds and embracing your true self.

So here’s an invitation to…

• Give up trying to be cool.
• Give up your golden handcuffs.
• Give up wanting to be a famous musician, artist, architect, thinker, writer, whatever-it-is. Maybe it’s smarter to make your purpose to have an impact, instead.
• Give up wanting to be different for the sake of being unique.
• Give up trying to be perfect.
• Give up keeping relationships with people you don’t really like.
• Give up trying to be the center of attention.
• Give up trying to be important. (Focusing on community is usually more fulfilling.)
• Give up achieving a lot of ego-driven goals.
• Give up trying to be super-focused. Sometimes the most compelling ideas come from the most messy, unexpected sources.
• Give up trying to be indie.
• Give up trying to popular.
• Give up caring about owning a lot of cool things, which keep you distracted from acknowledging that you don’t like what you’re doing with your life.
• Give up trying to have a perfectly organized workspace and a zero inbox.

With that said, there are a lot of ways we think we’re doing good, but we’re really not.

Counter-intuitive to what you think, it might make more sense to…

• Give up trying to be super happy all the time. Instead, settle for being peaceful.
• Give up needing a reason to share your love. Being alive is reason enough.
• Give up trying to be everything to everyone.
• Give up trying to fit the mold of your race, astrological sign, job title, religious group, political party or other erroneous associations.
• Give up caring about being the smartest, best and fastest. At least don’t let your ego get caught up in it.
• Give up caring about “being a man” or “being a woman.” Or doing what is expected of your gender.
• Give up sacrificing your life for an expensive degree that makes you feel important.
• Give up trying to be ultra productive, especially if productivity is making you miserable.
• Give up caring about having a respectable job, a respectable resume, and a respectable life. Replace following a template, with freestyling life.
• Give up trying to constantly improve yourself. Sometimes too much self improvement can cause you to lose sight of the present.
• Give up caring about doing what works.
• Give up thinking you don’t have the time or skills to make your dreams a reality.
• Give up caring about knowing everything in advance before you take action. Put yourself on auto-response instead.
• Give up trying to always find interesting experiences and interesting things to do. Alternatively, be interesting and be interested.
• Give up trying to live up to the expectation of your parents, your friends, your boss, and peers.
• Give up trying to live up to the expectation of… yourself.
• Give up trying to have a flawless body, perfect face, or an impeccable wardrobe. Care more about beautifying your mind and being a person who takes beautiful actions.

Trying to make things happen all the time creates a lot of unnecessary anxiety. It’s stressful trying to deny what is.

When I give up, I accept life as it is. No strings attached. No wishing things were different. If an action needs to be taken, I take it. But I’ve given up letting my happiness be dependent on a thing.

Most of these problems only exist within our minds. They’re not real physical problems; they’re simply psychic, imagined obstacles.

It’s interesting how we seem to have so many problems, so many dilemmas. But most of the time the answer to solving them is doing nothing. Giving up.

So, what do you think? Has giving up ever helped you win?

For more ways to reduce ridiculous thinking, get a free subscription to Illuminated Mind before they all run out.