Optimized Human

This year has been very different.
Every time I get to reflect on the year that has passed (either it's the New Year or my birthday), I constantly get to the same conclusion - this year has been the best year yet.

This year has been different.

It was still the best year yet... However, one thing really shifted.

As weird as it sounds, for the first time in my life I was able to truly get to the point of unconditional love for myself.

Weird concept, isn't it? I never truly stopped to think about it. I was so conditioned to just bash myself, push myself, challenge myself... But never really appreciated and loved myself.

I realized how many of us really struggle to truly accept ourselves.

It's not about self-aggrandizing or pretense... It's a deep feeling of peace and knowing that no matter how much I f**k up and whatever I do... I can still accept and love myself, because, well... I'm just a human.

And finally, the funny thing is - that feeling allowed me to love others more deeply, to become more understanding and compassionate. Now THAT is true optimization.

Stay optimized. Love yourself ❤️

Business has become a d!ck measuring contest and a game to play, rather than a way to solve real problems...

When I look at the business world, the majority of the companies are focused on engineering their product to be addicting, marketing it well and maximizing the enterprise value. And that's about it.

In other terms, most businesses are influencers on Instagram, not leaders that would stand up for you in the real world.

Yet, we as consumers get to choose which businesses we want to support.

I've been lucky to be surrounded by some great minds who focus on impact and constantly challenge my way of doing things.

Here are a few principles that emerged over time:
! A million dollars is not a lot of money. It only feels a lot because you made it your ceiling by thinking too small. If you think about impacting one million people instead of making a million dollars, money becomes a tool and not the focus.

! If you focus on helping others rather than helping yourself, the lifetime of the business increases exponentially.

! If you're sacrificing your life to start a business, might as well focus on making it massive and impactful.

! EVERYTHING is a skill and EVERYONE has the capacity to learn with time.

! Nobody cares what you sell. Everyone cares if you can solve their problem.

! Communicating or demonstrating value is the backbone of the business.

! If you're making decisions from the place where you want to be, rather than where you are at, your chances of success increase exponentially. I know how difficult it is to do that when the reality doesn't match the desired state. That's also a skill that is learned with time.

! Nobody cares about how much money you have. Be a better human.

What if we lived our lives like every human was a gift of learning?

I used to say, "I don't like people". Not the nicest thing to say now, is it? Especially coming from someone who helps people and works with them...

I used to say that because of my introverted tendencies and preference for being on my own.

We were having dinner a short while back and my friend went, "Someone once said that the best gift that God has created was other human beings."

That really landed for me...

At the end of the day, what the hell else do we have?

Who do we learn from? Other humans, of course.

It made me think that maybe I haven't spent years in the hospitals overcoming my health challenges so I can only figure it out for myself. Maybe that's what brought me on the path of helping others.

Maybe I didn't spend years in the military to learn leadership so I could just keep it to myself and not use it to surround myself with humans who are looking to grow and learn.

I'm learning that other humans are incredible mirrors that are here to show us the pieces of ourselves that we're not willing to see on our own 😊

Imagine if your development was limited to $1,000.

How much could you accomplish with it, really? How many people could you truly help?

In one of the offers that we have online, we ask a question, "What are you willing to invest in your personal and professional development to achieve your boldest goals?"

It saddens me to see that coaches and practitioners who are actively looking to help others, oftentimes say "Under $1,000".

Now, I'm not writing this to shame anyone. I'm simply encouraging to take a look at that mindset and how limiting it is.

Imagine if you were offered a fully-furnished house for $20,000 in the amazing neighborhood in your favorite city and you didn't have money, you'd FIND a way to get a hold of some cash, right?

Yet, a house is not nearly as valuable as the skills that you possess and confidence that you gain from having those skills.

There is NOTHING more valuable than our development. It simply cannot be taken away from you. Whilst any material possessions can... Yet we treat them the opposite way.

Money is simply a tool that can be leveraged to do good, not something to be weird around and avoid just because you have some mindset blocks around it.

Stay abundant.

My folks just celebrated 30 years together 🙌🏼

When I asked them what their secret was, my dad went, "Last 30 years didn't feel too long with her". My mom just chuckled...

They might not be perfect, but they're definitely not in it just to endure each other.

Long love DOES exist. Feeling inspired ❤️

That's where the gold is. Interesting how it works, isn't it?

It's easy to learn WHAT to do... Much harder to follow through and actually do it.

Study the subconscious mind and ask yourself, "Where am I finding comfort in NOT changing?".

Good thing to revisit since we're in the season of blindly going after resolutions without truly understanding why they matter to us.

We, humans, are designed to want MORE.

The catch is that we can choose between having more in the moment and indulging now, or having more in the future and enjoying delayed gratification.

Every time we choose, the choice slowly starts to shape our external reality (outcome).

When it comes to choosing, we can either blindly follow someone else's carved path which feels good because on the surface level it looks like we're doing something (the HOW)... and eventually drop off because we haven't internalized WHY that path is important to us.

Or, we can go straight to the root determine the underlying principles, values and standards, along with the subconscious blocks that are preventing us from sticking to them... And reshape our reality by addressing the deepest layer.

Hope that this year most of us choose the latter and truly grow.

Have an optimized 2022.

It's one thing to put in the hours and say that "you're doing the work" and it's entirely different thing to put your heart into the hours.

You'd think that just going through motions and checking the boxes would be enough... Well, it's not.

Let's be real - most of us aren't experiencing excruciating never-ending pain on a daily basis.

Yet, we've trained our system to dodge pain and/or replace it with pleasure as quickly as possible.

What does that lead to?

Misery. Fragility. More pain.

The more we look to avoid pain, the more energy we allocate to the thing that wouldn't be as intense as we build it to be in our heads.

Embrace pain. Connect with it. Experience it fully.

That's a surefire way to stop perpetuating your own suffering.

Hiding weaknesses not only from others but from ourselves is becoming more acceptable.

Yes, it's okay to be weak. But no, it's not okay to justify your weaknesses just so you feel better about yourself.

If participation is awarded, how are we supposed to be challenged and evolve?

There's a clear line between compassion and delusion. Unfortunately, we allowed it to become blurry.

And it's our responsibility to strip the delusion, step up and get s**t done, while still maintaining the self-love and respect.

In the past few years I have been researching quite a bit about trauma.

I've sat with it, visited healers to untangle my trauma, signed up for courses, read dozens of books on addressing and overcoming trauma, helped my clients...

The thing is - we all have it. And it's all real, no matter how "big" or "small" it might be. To put it simply, trauma is the response when the emotional wave of the event exceeds the capacity of the system.

Most people who are traumatized use dissociation, suppression, band-aid solutions (such as affirmations), self-gaslighting and avoidance.

Avoidance is usually a great way to use trauma as a fuel to achieve success which eventually inevitably leads to mental health issues, panic attacks and illnesses.

Suppressed, unexpressed emotions reside in the body and consume your energy.

I've learned that unintegrated trauma also causes cognitive dissonance, "But I'm okay - I am accomplished, I have my life sorted out".

Trauma is painful, so it makes sense that we avoid facing it. Our brain protects us from it. Yet, the imprint doesn't leave until addressed directly and is released from our body.

There are many ways to integrate trauma, but most of them are just bandaid solutions.

I'm grateful to have been exposed to plant medicines, shamanic healing modalities, bodywork etc. But nothing comes close to Vipassana.

It's the most direct way to dig into your patterns and rewrite them.

Want a taster? Start here OneDayMeditationChallenge.com

Ready to dive fully in? Vipassanaonline.com

Know anyone who's suffering from trauma? Tag them, share the love 🙏🏼❤️

I've worked with some incredibly bright entrepreneurs, executives and business owners who made A LOT of cash.

They're confident, driven... And quite frankly, the majority of them are insecure and miserable.

They have a way of thinking, "If I'm smart enough to be good at business, I'm smart enough to find fulfillment".

The problem is - that's pure ego. Cash accumulation and fulfillment have very different approaches.

They're looking to solve the problem with the same thinking that's created it.

When we're successful in one domain, we default to doing more of what worked for us before.

The interesting thing is that mastery in one domain is not always transferable.

I found that there are 3 areas that need to be addressed in depth in order to "solve" the fulfillment equation:
Emotional intelligence, biological function and spiritual development.

Just like business, these areas also have a no-bulls**t approach, it's just different than solving a business problem 😉

I've got a spot for a bright and driven individual who wants to dig deeper into those domains opening in mid December. Shoot me a DM if it resonates.

Unintegrated power is dangerous.

A few days back, I talked about the leverage of willpower.

Yet, for most of us, willpower is rooted in insecurities, chip on a shoulder and scarcity.

That usually leads to burnout, never-ending comparison and, ultimately, the hedonic treadmill.

Chasing the high, looking to measure up and look to prove someone that we're worthy of achievement...

Does it work for success? Absolutely.

Does it work for self-esteem and excellence? Not at all.

Find the root of your insecurities, dig them out, integrate them and free up all the energy that was held hostage focusing on the s**t that doesn't matter and direct it to doing some good in the world.

Stay optimized 🙏🏼

There's a saying that "willpower is a finite resource". You've probably heard it before and it rings true, doesn't it?

I found myself referencing that saying quite a few times...

But then challenged it and asked me "Why is it finite?"

Well, the reason why it's finite is because WE are the ones who make it so. We're the ones who create the artificial ceiling.

And just like anything else, willpower can be trained.

Willpower is such an incredible force, when trained and integrated. There are few skills that have that high of an ROI.

Want to increase your willpower capacity?

Exercise works great. Facing discomfort works even better.

But nothing comes close to facing yourself in silence. It's free. And it'll change your life.
Vipassanaonline.com
OneDayMeditationChallenge.com

I'm sure that all of us, at some point of our lives have had a glimpse of something beyond our routine reality. At that moment, some of us choose to see it and explore it further. Most, choose not to remember what we saw and go back to what's familiar.

and I had a conversation about it and I ended up landing on these categories of human development:
6. TRULY content and happy individuals
5. Discontent individuals who have awareness of their discontent and are doing something about it.
4. Discontent individuals who have awareness, but choose not to do anything about it and are open about their choice
3. Discontent individuals who have awareness, but choose not to do anything about it and lie to themselves and others about their intentions to change
2. Individuals who have an inkling ofawareness, but not sure where to start the journey
1. Unaware individuals, who are denying their misery and hide it by going through the motions of life, drowning any remaining clarity in mindless habitual activities that take them further away from reality (the majority)

I might be missing a few categories there but it pretty much encompasses the population - probably a less sophisticated version of the levels of consciousness (worth looking into).

It's helpful to understand these stages of development because no matter where we are right now, we've all been there at a 1.

Ultimately, it's a choice, whether it's conscious or not.

I hear that a clear purpose drives humans towards fulfillment and happiness 😉

Stay optimized.

"When a man can't use his mouth, he starts using his brain."

One of the best lessons that I've learned was to shut up and listen to the people who have achieved what I wanted to achieve.

Incredible, how much you learn when you really stop talking and become a student.

Have you ever considered that you expressing your opinion has prevented you from learning something useful?
🤐

Only results matter.
The world that we live in today cares about ONE THING - results.

And results are difficult to achieve when you're not working with the full picture.

Our conditioned society is literally giving you 5% (more on that in just a second) .

I compare it to trying to set your personal record in swimming while you have your hands tied behind your back, you're blindfolded and dragged down by a 20lb rock.

You'd probably want to remove all of those impediments before having a good chance to set your PR (well, unless you compete in Hands-tied-behind-the-back-blindfolded-weighed-down Olympics)

What do I mean by our society is giving you the 5%?

Well, unfortunately most of our interactions, therapy, coaching, etc. ONLY focus on the conscious mind.

Why do you think Tony Robbins is so popular? Love him or hate him, he knows how to elicit emotion.

Humans are emotional beings and emotion leaves way more impact than anything purely mind-based.

Yet, our society has conditioned us to withdraw, to suppress and to hide the emotions.

The accumulation of that suppression is the energetic equivalent of trying to stop the bullet train at its top speed - things are going to end up with a crash.

There's a surefire way to slow down the bullet train and bring it to a halt instead of waiting for that inevitable crash - that is breathwork.

Through eliciting the "transient hypofrontality" it allows you to turn off the monkey mind and go right to the source of emotions - the subconscious mind...

And that's where all the things that truly need to be addressed lie.

Want to unpack them? Check out the transformational breathwork journey in my bio.