Clear mind is the unfair advantage of the next decade. Most people are building the opposite.
137: The algorithm took your attention. Then your purpose. Then your identity.
Zoom in and obsess. Zoom out and observe. We get to choose. - Rick Rubin
Staying sane in insane times
For those who have been with us for years, you already know that one of the things we are bullish on is mental health. To be more precise… What it takes to stay in good mental shape, how you protect that shape, and how to get you going. You also know that we are not optimistic about the masses or their outlook on the world. To the point that chances are that in the next 20 years, most of the people you will meet will experience certain mental problems. Goal of our post? To teach you how to protect yourself and stay sane… In insane times.
The average: To make our point clearer. Take the average person, for example. Spends the whole day on social media. Offloading all their tastes and deep insights to the algorithm. Completely losing themselves in the big sea of nothingness. On top of that, add that the same algorithm provides you with an unnecessary amount of materialistic content that will leave you in a forever comparing yourself to others loop that leads nowhere. Take a teenager. Put them into the mix with this combination, and you know what to expect over the next 15 - 20 years.
You get someone who:
Doesn’t know who they are.
Doesn’t know what they want out of their life.
Doesn’t know what makes them happy.
Doesn’t know what gives them a deep sense of joy.
This might not seem like a problem at first. But it is a big one. Nor does it mean your answer will always be the same. But it means that you have to have it. Suppose you ask yourself any of these questions right now. Would you be able to answer them without giving any basic nonsense answers? If not, you might have a problem... The good thing? You can absolutely change it in less than a year. Probably in less than 6 months if you put in the real effort.
What is good about YOUR situation
You don't have to fix everything at once. Chances are that you are a young person reading this. Somewhere in your 20s. Having more than enough time to address your situation. The fact that you are reading this already puts you ahead of most people. That you are even aware that there is a problem around. What you want to do is fix the key points (the core structure) and build on top of them.
Who will get the most out of this read:
Especially young people (optimism, awareness, higher levels of neuroplasticity).
Those who are feeling stuck but unable to pinpoint why exactly.
Those who know they are capable of more, but for some reason, are not doing it.
Those who understand the importance of mental health.
Those who don’t want to be part of the masses + play a long-term game where the decline of mental health and insane times will be more than obvious.
Time to break things down further.
Reading experience is completely up to you. You can treat each section as a separate read, or you can read everything in order. Keep in mind that each concept builds on top of another, and the only way that you will get the most out of this read is by going through everything. This is a long read and written differently from our usual material.
How Mental Health Plays A Role In Your Life
Mental health = everything: What do we even mean by that? When you are not 100% set as you should be. Every single area of your life will be impacted. One way or another. From making poor decisions. Lack of energy and ambition all the way up to relationships. Mental health shapes how you experience your life. It affects your physical health too. From chronic pain, anxiety, depression, and a weak immune system. The mind-body connection has been confirmed. Where are we going with this? Mental health dictates how you interpret what is happening around you and the reality it creates. That is why there are multiple cases where two people with different points of view (and mental health) experience reality completely differently. Mental health forms a construction layer for everything else to build on. That is why people who are in great mental shape tend to think more clearly, make better partners, and believe that they are capable of achieving big things. Because… They are.
Signs that you are broken: To paint our picture better and give you something that you can use in your life, around your friends and family. There are different tiers to mental health decline.
Tier 1 - You don’t even notice it
Things you used to enjoy no longer excite you.
Can’t sit alone in the silence, or you have to be stimulated 24/7.
Getting lost without a purpose multiple times throughout the day.
All of your days feel the same, and you can't remember what happened 48 hours ago.
Tier 2 - It is becoming obvious
Brain fog (unable to put your thoughts down)
Sleep schedule is off
Getting upset about the smallest things without being able to explain why
Know that something is off, but you have accepted it as normal
No motivation to stick to one thing for more than 3 days
Short attention span. Can’t watch a movie or read 20 pages of the book without picking up your phone
Tier 3 - Deep Into It
Stopped caring about your health or looks
Self-inflicting aggression and hate towards your actions and lifestyle
Purposely isolating yourself from society
Escaping from reality (junk food, drugs, alcohol, p0rn)
Living the life based around avoidance (people, tasks, anything outside of your routine)