Leo Gura

If you're a good programmer, one option for you is freelancing or consulting work. Programmers get paid well, so it's much easier for you to support yourself than other people. Another option is to find a lucrative programming job, do it for a year or two, cut back on all your expenses, save up like $100,000 in cash, and then quit and start your own thing.

For a dose of realism, having worked in various online businesses for almost the last 10 years, I can tell you that earning a full-time salary from a website is VERY VERY challenging. Not impossible, but most people are not willing to do what it takes to make it happen. However much work you think it will take, multiply that estimate by 10 or 100! I don't want to discourage you, but this path should only be considered if you want to be a serious online entrepreneur. And even then, you're likely looking at working 60+ hour weeks for 2-5 years before you see any money. There are other paths which may be more appropriate for you, involving less risk and less time investment. Some jobs can be highly-lucrative without requiring much skills or training. For example, I know a guy who works as a merchant sailor. Zero experience required to start. He travels on a big commercial freight ship around the world, mostly between the US and China. He works for 60-90 days, then he gets 30 days rest. He earns really good money for this basic job: $60,000-$80,000 per year. That's enough to allow him to live whatever lifestyle he wants. Most of his sailor friends blow their money on booze, gambling, and hookers in Asia. But this guy is smart. He saves up his money and during his 30-day rest periods he goes to meditation retreats, does personal development, and enjoys himself. When he's traveling aboard the ship -- there are no distractions, no cell phones, no TV, no friends -- so he has time to meditate and read books. That's just one example. There are many others you could research and discover.

Be more mindful that you're using mindfulness mindlessly I think you've defined mindfulness too narrowly, as something associated with focusing on your breath. When in fact it's much broader than that. You gotta be careful not to become a mindless meditation machine. Try practicing mindfulness without focusing on your breath, and while doing activities such as light chores, house work, cleaning, showering, driving, watching TV, and even talking to people. This will push your mindfulness abilities outside of their currently constricted pigeon-hole. And when in comes to doing practical thinking/planning, allow yourself to get into it and to flow. In pursuing mindfulness we tend to swing our pendulum too much to one side and demonize all thinking as evil. Thinking is not evil. This needs to better integrated in you. Thinking is useful in proper proportions and situations. The only thinking that's really problematic is the I-thinking. That is, thinking about the me, me, me, me! all the time.

The ego's favorite defense is to stall out the clock. So of course there's never enough time to do the important stuff when all the unimportant stuff is prioritized higher. But I can also empathize with the lack of time problem. In a sense, it's a lack of energy problem. I remember working a frustrating 9 to 5 job. It's grueling. By the end of the day, after work, dinner, gym, and some daily chores, all I wanna do is crash and veg out in front of the TV. I want to watch something fun and easy-going, not a bald dude yelling at me for 60 minutes, telling me everything I'm doing is wrong. Lol Pushing past that is really tough. I had to do it though personally to start my first business and create the free time I needed to do personal development work and pursue my passions.

If I had ADHD, I would invest a lot of time and energy researching the root cause and finding a natural cure. It's very likely related to improper diet or toxins/chemicals in your body that need to be detoxed. Or some psychosomatic thing. Or simply lack of discipline. What you're doing now is like trying to race your car while the parking break is on. Go research people who have cured their ADHD naturally and read what steps they took. You'll likely find the solution.

Sit and do self-inquiry or meditation, especially when you feel eager to distract yourself with titillating entertainment or important business.

Most people with regard to ethics and morality have it backwards, they put the cart before the horse. If the boundary between self and other is eliminated (enlightenment) then what naturally springs up from that void is: universal compassion and expressions of unconditional love for all of reality. << This is where all the best and oldest ethical and moral precepts come from. It's analogous to when Pythagoras discovers the Pythagorean theorem through direct investigation and then codifies it into a formula which is then applied mechanically by millions of school children to crunch numbers. A deep understand of the theorem from first-hand investigation is rare. Most people just crunch numbers blindly when it comes to ethics. They don't understand WHY it works or where it's sourced from, they just know the rules to follow. And ironically this turns them into little egotical devils, judging everything under the sun as good/evil. Why does Buddhism teach ethics? Probably because most people won't get very far on the path and some rules are better than nothing. Probably because reducing hedonistic or narcissistic action helps keep moving along the path. Probably because of social and political reasons too. Probably because from the Buddha's position it's the natural way to act. Probably simply due to cultural conventions and even the Buddha's own dogmas. And probably because the Buddha could not foresee the evils and abuses that would come when people turned his rules into religious doctrines. It's important to remember that the ancient sages like Jesus or The Buddha did not have the wisdom of history like we do today. If Jesus or Buddha saw the last 2000 years of human history and all the evils that have been done in the name of religion and morality, they would probably have re-thought how they taught their disciplines and what rules they laid out. My guess is, they just sort of assumed that if you give the people some nice rules to live by, that will be helpful and no wrong will come of it. But they couldn't foresee how societies and religions would rise to power and use these rules as weapons to wage war on the ego's behalf.

I don't know about sensing calm, but my old cat used to certainly sense when people around her were frantic, disturbed, or angry from the tone of the conversations in the family household.

Two questions to ask yourself when this happens: What is the depression hiding? What is it a smokescreen for? What am I ultimately distracting myself from? The Void is scary thing to face. Few people are wise enough to face it head on.

I do talk a lot of about the hero's journey in the life purpose course. But I probably should make a free video that touches on it too. There are many things to be said about the hero's journey.

Okay, I'll keep this in mind.

@Robert One thing to keep in mind about that. If you want to do great, original work in any industry, you won't do it by merely feeding off works of that industry or similar industries alone. Great artists tap into totally new sources that no one in their industry would ever consider. In other words, they are truly creative, not merely derivative. So for example, if you work in the comic industry, and you tap a source like ballet or gardening or fishing, your work will be more original than if you only read other comics all the time and watch movies. Everyone trying to break into the comic industry reads comics and watches movies. That's all they know. That's the path of least resistance. So they will mostly all be cookie-cutter and few of them will ever make anything original. Someone who reshapes the future of comics will draw his inspiration from a totally new source. He's the one who'll be thinking outside the box. If you work in comics and your top sources are: Batman Superman Aliens Terminator Starwars Lord of The Rings Isaac Asimov Elderscrolls etc. Then what original work will come of that? Everyone in that industry is the same! These are my insights from working in the video game industry, where people are so cookie-cutter and derivative it's sad. Orcs, goblins, dragons, elves, robots... shoot a goul in the face... It's all they know.

A high-quality scientist shouldn't engage in scientism. He should know the limits of science. He should acknowledge that the map is not the territory, that science is a set of temporary human-made models which seem to account for certain aspects of reality in practical ways. Unfortunately most scientists are sloppy on this point, not to mention the hordes of people who aren't scientists but think they are "scientific and rational." There is no need to raze all of science. Only to clearly see it's boundaries. Science and consciousness work are in a sense concerned with separate domains and different kinds of questions. So comparing the two is a bit apples and oranges. We need both good solid science AND lots of personal work on our egos.

3rd world cannot relate to high consciousness posts. Many of them don't even have internet. What they need is basics like food, water, infrastructure, better banking systems, better government, less dogma, etc. If you wanna help the 3rd world, study the Spiral Dynamic model and pay special attention to stages Red and Blue. This has been a well-researched question by the founders of Spiral Dynamics for the last 40 years. They helped end Apartheid in South Africa using their model, and that is just one example out of dozens.

3rd world in a sense has a clear path ahead. 3rd world will have to go through the same kind of evolution that 1st world went through to become 1st world. For the 3rd world, moving out of stage Red and Blue into Orange is necessary. This means the basics like: Getting rid of government corruption Enacting better laws Cleaning up politics Getting rid of dictators, monarchs, and oligarchs Universal education Civil rights and protections Better business environment More entrepreneurship Better infrastructure Curing deadly diseases Easily accessible food and basic goods More access to internet Preventing drugs and gangs Stronger middle class Better, higher-tech jobs Eliminating poverty Ending feuds between clans and factions Limiting the influence of religion on government Less dogma and traditionalism More emphasis of personal achievement

I've dabbled a bit with this. I've tried Aniracetam, don't think it's too healthy. Causes weird headaches and side-effects for me. It's not even a legal supplement any more. Didn't find the effects worth it. I've tried Provigil (modofinil). Now that's some amazing shit! Turns you into Einstein + Michelangelo + Stephen Hawking combined! and lasts all day. But it's a prescription drug and very powerful. Gives me heart palpitations. Doubt it's healthy long-term. Although my creative abilities shoot through the roof. Haven't taken it in a few years. I prefer to avoid actual drugs. Supplements like vitamin D and fish oil are no problem.

No, it is not realistic. The hardest part of any business is the set-up. It's like building a factory to only manufacture 100 things. If you are gonna to build a factory, you want it to manufacture 100,000,000 things. Because all the investment goes into work is in the setting up of the factory. Starting a business that earns you $10,000 can be just as hard as starting a business that earns you $1,000,000. Setting your sights super-low is not going to make your business that much easier. It will be a lot of hassle for little reward. If you're starting a new business, you should expect to work 50-70 hours per week on it for the next 3 years. And even then, your success is far from guaranteed. If all you want is $10,000, the best way to get that is through employment, not through starting your own biz. You can easily save up $10,000 from a waiter job (assuming you live in the USA) or something like freelancing (which would actually be harder because it involves you finding clients).

So basically you're suffering from the problem of not having a clear purpose. Saying you can do anything is the same as saying you will do nothing. The mind cannot move towards "anything", it needs a concrete vision that will generate motivation to wake up every morning and get to work. By being indecisive you remain like a ship without a sail. So moral of the story is: make a decision and say "No!" to all options but ONE! At least for the time being. This is an emotionally challenging thing to do, which is why most people don't accomplish anything. They make the choice of not making a choice.

@abrakamowse There is a magic formula, but it's different for every marketplace and sub-niche and business. Finding that formula is like finding a diamond in the haystack. A long search, but worth it in the end!

For me: Nature Sex Contemplation Long road trips by myself Relaxing in a bathtub/hot-tub Deep conversations with people Art Museums Travel Slowing down the pace of my workday Meditation

@abrakamowse Buying someone else's mailing list is basically spam. It's highly inefficient. Whatever emails you buy will probably have been spammed to hell and nearly worthless. But feel free to try it out. Marketing is all about finding loopholes and seizing unique opportunities, and that is done through lots of trial and error. Most initial marketing efforts will fail, so you gotta keep trying different things until you find one thing that actually works.

Doesn't sound like you have a very compelling bigger picture. Think bigger! Think beyond yourself. A weak vision is not worth working towards, so your body will not generate any motivation. Why should it?

@YM My forum comments are not coaching. They are bits of quick, crude advice.

@GoldenAge Philosopher Finding a good job has little to do with luck. As an employer, I can tell you, the quality of applications that I look at is generally so poor that 1 in 100 people is worth hiring. It's not hard to stand out from that pack if you are committed to excellence and passionate about what you do. Most people are so mediocre and sloppy, sigh...

Sounds like you have leaky gut syndrome, or candida, or parasites. Get that fixed before it does more damage and robs you of all your energy.