Yarco

I would recommend caution against using language like "plague." Try to have some empathy and put yourself in their shoes. They are just people too. Misguided, but people. They just ended up down the wrong rabbit hole. Don't think that you're immune from propaganda and misinformation if you had been exposed to the same things they had. It's a travesty what social media and fake news is doing to these people. It's literally creating different realities for Republicans and Democrats where the other side is the enemy. Realize that Trump supporters are essentially victims of brainwashing in all of this. People like to think that if they lived during the time of Hitler that they'd be a conscientious objector and not go along with it. But the truth is that most people did then, and would do the same again today under the right circumstances. Referring to human beings as "a plague" or "vermin" is exactly what the Nazis did. Be careful about vilifying your fellow citizens in this way. These are your relatives, your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers. People who if you weren't talking about politics, you'd likely get along perfectly fine with. The solution here isn't rounding up Trump supporters and sending them to re-education camps. It's love and empathy. I've done work helping to de-radicalize former white supremacists, alt-right people, and neonazis. If you approach them with confrontation, condescension, or violence, you'll only make them dig deeper into their beliefs. These people think they are justified in their beliefs... no one becomes a racist or homophobe to intentionally be a dick. They genuinely think they're doing what's right for their society and the future of their children. You need to offer the ability to discuss their beliefs free of judgement, but gently question and make them realize themselves why their own policies may be harming them. It's hard 1-in-1 work, there isn't one secret phrase that you can whisper and wake these people up. There are many intertwined beliefs that are unique to each person that need to be worked through one at a time. And in many cases you can't help them to question their beliefs until they're ready to do it themselves. Love and understanding is the answer. You will not overpower or reform 20% or more of your country by force, anger, or belittling. All the smarmy John Oliver / Stephen Colbert / Trevor Noah / etc etc clips attacking and making fun of these people only makes things worse.

ngl this topic is kinda a slap in the face to Leo when there's literally an Ultimate Life Purpose Course on this very site that you must know about, which will answer all of these questions Do you legitimately not know about the course, or is your question "how can I get everything out of the course from a book or other source without investing $250 in myself"? How did only 1 out of 7 replies so far mention the life purpose course?

Tell me about your circumstances. Do you think you have it worse off than this guy?

As another non-American watching on the sidelines, I'm not sure if I see a peaceful way out. Whether Trump wins or loses, people are gonna have to reconcile that 70 million people in their country still think he's the best guy for the job. Those people don't just disappear into the shadows for 4 years if he loses. This isn't just a president thing. Half the population has a fundamentally different viewpoint on most issues. Abortion, climate change, guns, police, immigration. You have to figure out a way to live with them. Whether it's even possible to have a dialogue, or if that is gonna split the country in half with civil war or what, idk. I dunno how you resolve half the country wanting a system like Northern Europe and half wanting a system closer to the Middle East. The media vilifies and dismisses Trump supporters like they're a small minority. But the election is showing that they make up nearly half of your country, and have actually grown in numbers since last election. There is a huge disconnect between the people in a few big cities creating the news and television shows and social media platforms, and the rest of the country. Listening to Democrat friends talk, they literally don't understand how this is possible. They can't fathom how Trump is polling so close with all the stuff he's done that they interpret as evil. More people seem to encapsulated in their own news bubble than ever. To the point that Democrats and Republicans are literally seeing reality differently. I don't know how you get people to willingly break that veil of illusion en masse, particularly when talking heads on both sides are propping it up.

Many people whose opinions I value on the subject (PhDs in cryptography, etc) are predicting a $100,000 Bitcoin in 3 - 4 years. Personally I think it's too risky not to hold some. That doesn't mean you have to go crazy with it. The average person who doesn't understand how it works probably shouldn't invest more than 1-5% of their net worth into it. RE: Bitcoin's energy usage -- For most other coins like Ethereum, Cardano, Vechain, Polkadot, Chainlink, etc it's a non-issue. These coins operate on a proof-of-stake model as opposed to proof-of-work like Bitcoin. If it's a big issue to you, just do some research and choose one of those other coins that makes sense and appeals to you. But I think not having any exposure to crypto will prove to be a mistake.

I'd be down for a Discord group or something where like-minded people can informally chat and share information. I'm less interested in a formal mastermind where we have a video call once a week or something. We sound uncannily similar in a lot of ways haha. About me: Canadian (Southwestern Ontario) Early 30s Bachelor of Business Studies degree (Accounting major) - Basically a BComm for people who already completed a business diploma at college beforehand. Online business - My "full time" business is freelance writing. In addition to writing for clients, I have 3 blogs / articles with websites of my own that are generating a bit of ad revenue and affiliate sales. Looking to create an online course once I build up enough of a following. I've watched probably thousands of hours of Youtube videos about online business, and taken a few good online courses. I'm familiar with all the online business concepts you listed. This year I also started a webcomic. I'm currently learning Unity / C# to create my own video game but still in the very early stages. I ran my own Minecraft server for over a year, but it was becoming too much and unenjoyable so I handed it over to one of my mods. I've made a sizeable investment into crypto this year... currently about 10-15% of my savings are in it. I was into it in the past but then took many years off. Seems like the right time to get back into it. Weak points / things I need to work on - I meditate far less than I should. Haven't been able to get the habit to stick. Been struggling with eating healthy, exercising, and weight loss for the past couple of years. Have some good progress and then slide back. Stress/anxiety. Personal development - Very knowledgeable about diet and exercise despite not actually putting it into practice haha. Done the life purpose course, future authoring program, and other stuff like that. Been watching Leo religiously every week for years. I wanna do Sadhguru's Inner Engineering program and go in a sensory deprivation tank as a reward for myself once I can manage to meditate for 90 or 120 days straight. I don't think I can get the most benefit out of it before I put in the basic meditation work. Ditto for psychedelics. I'd like to try them but mentally probably not ready yet. Not enlightened yet Things I'd want to do if I was a multi-millionaire or billionaire: - A large-scale underwater exploration operation like EVNautilus. Both to identify new deep-sea species and map the bottom of the entire ocean, as well as locate and recover sunken ships (Approximately 95% of the ocean is still unexplored. We know more about space than the ocean.) - Create a self-sufficient community / commune. Living off-grid and growing my own food would be ideal, as long as I can still have a high-speed internet connection and solar electricity - Form an online community to help people achieve financial independence, mentoring program, give people the knowledge and startup funding needed to create their inventions or achieve their dreams. - Go treasure hunting and prospecting, panning for gold. Maybe buy an entire old mine or ghost town. - Make a game studio and hire a few people to bring my video game ideas to life without having to learn all the coding, art, music, etc stuff myself to do it.

@Bojan Don't think of it as a "quick fix." Think of it as one stepping stone. You know how you become a millionaire? You make $100. Then $1000. Then $10,000. Then $50,000. Then $100,000. If you set out trying to make a million from the beginning, you're bound to fail. Stop using words like impossible and stuck and just start. It seems impossible because you won't just start where you are. Stop waiting for the perfect million-dollar opportunity. Just start making $10 a day and you'll be making more progress toward your goal than you have been. You don't need a massive foundation of a million dollars to get started. If you can't be happy today with what you have, you won't be happy when you're rich. If you take the life purpose course, you'll see that money is explicitly listed as a toxic value that you should ignore.

Enlightened people manage to be blissful in war zones, while starving, while undergoing religious persecution and torture. Doing it while sitting in a school in a first world country should be easy mode. You already said it, the one stopping you from being blissful is yourself. Not your surroundings. It seems like you are actively shunning the conditions that would give you a chance to be blissful. It doesn't have to be a corporate job. But even if you're running your own business, you want a secure income. It's not bliss-inducing to be constantly worrying about how you'll afford your next meal. There is no enlightened YOU, that's the point. Want and desire don't come from enlightenment. That's ego. Obviously I can't prove it, but I call BS on this. Every minute has been productive for weeks? Yet you measure freedom in half-day increments? I would love to be a fly on the wall and track what you are doing in 15 minute segments to show you how much time you're really wasting without realizing it. You think having to hold in a shit until you get to a gym is going to be less bliss-breaking than sitting in a classroom? That's literally the opposite of what I've heard from every enlightened person who has talked about sleep. Normally your demand goes way down. And again if you are enlightened there is no you stretching YOUR mind. There is just a mind doing stuff on autopilot. Look, I know nobody is gonna be able to convince you otherwise. But as an objective observer, this is about the most clear example of zen devilry that I've ever seen.

Compound interest -- The younger you start investing, the better it will be for you in the long term. But you can't "go the dividends route" until you have a job or business to generate a surplus of money. There are lots of businesses where you can go from 0 to 1. Basically any service, especially ones that you can provide digitally. Social media management, photography (assuming you already have some basic equipment, might be able to start with just a smartphone you already have), coding or other stuff you already have skills in. Brute manual stuff like shovelling driveways in the winter or cutting grass in the summer (assuming your family already has a shovel or lawnmower you can borrow), create music, create logos / graphics / art, tutoring students, fitness coach / meal planning, babysitting / pet sitting / dog walking / pet grooming, cleaning service, grocery delivery, window cleaning, interior designer, resume writing service, tour guide, translator, collecting scrap metal, or like 100+ more things. There's a way bigger category of businesses where you can go from a $500 or $1000 investment to $30,000+/year. I think everyone should have at least one job just to see what it's like, and how most other people live. It can be retail, fast food, in an office, or whatever you can find. It'll give you a perspective of how companies work, how employees interact with bosses, work ethic, and lots of other skills. You can get a job and simultaneously work on a business in the evenings/weekends if you want. A job will also help you start to build up capital either to fund your business or to start investing, plus at some point you'll need to actually pay for rent/food and things. Even if you work part-time for 10 hours a week, you can save up a few hundred bucks a month if you have no expenses.

Like any career, one course isn't going to give you everything you know. Starting off with a more generalized course aimed at beginners is the way to go. Then start actually using what you learned in the course and applying it. Even if that means starting your own website as a project, or throwing $20 of your own money into Facebook ads just to test it out and see if you can get results. Then keep learning, taking more courses, and specializing in the area of digital marketing that most interests you.

Very few people are able to stay on the wagon all the time. The ones who are successful are those who can recognize when they've fallen off the wagon as soon as possible, and get themselves back on track with minimal time wasted and damage done. You can binge video games for a day and then get back on track. Or you can completely devolve into sloth and let a month pass before you question what you're doing with your life. You can have one cheat meal or cheat day. Or you can get off track for months and next thing you know you're up 20 lbs. It can happen easily. The further you let yourself slip, the more you have to climb back up afterward. So try to do what you can to maintain the progress that you already have. Don't set unrealistic expectations for improving too much at once. For example you can't start flossing every day, eating healthy, meditating every day, exercising every day, quit porn, start taking cold showers, drinking at least a gallon of water per day, going to bed at a reasonable time, and a bunch of other stuff all at once. Pick one thing and do it for 30 or 90 days until you master it and make it a habit. Then move on to the next thing.

There are a lot of bad reasons to be anti-lockdown and against mandatory masking. Conspiracy theories, bad science, "muh freedoms", etc etc. However, I feel like there could be some reasonable logic behind the thinking of some people who are opposed too. Unicef warns lockdown could kill more than Covid-19 as model predicts 1.2 million child deaths There's some good evidence to suggest that more people will commit suicide or die of an overdose as a result of covid lockdowns than from covid itself. The world economy got basically shut down for months, many businesses are still recovering or already went bankrupt. A deeper recession or even depression possibly looming when it all catches up with us. It's certainly hard to put a value on human life, but I feel like at some point we must, when it threatens to bring our economy to its knees to accomodate. 20%+ increase in domestic violence in most places during lockdown Depriving kids of a year or more of their childhood General quality of life decrease and isolation for everyone else in lockdown. Interruption to regular hobbies, activities, etc. I feel like it's a very Stage Green thing to do everything in our power to try and save everyone. People make emotional appeals saying that it's selfish to not wear a mask for other people's sake, you're killing grandmas, etc. Shaming people into it. But I feel like a Stage Yellow person might look at the bigger picture. It's unreasonable to think that we can save everyone. So we should take a utilitarian approach and maximize the happiness and well-being for as many people as possible. The elderly and immunocompromised are going to get an unfair deal either way... but it seems far easier to quarantine the old and sick in their homes and let everyone else go about their lives, instead of trying to quarantine the entire population. The old and sick will already have poor quality of life regardless, but now we're negatively impacting the lives of all young healthy people too in an attempt to save a few more of them. I think this is a pretty logical and rational position to take, and it shouldn't be too controversial. But when I try to explain this to people, they basically call me a sociopath. I'm curious what people here think. I'm open-minded to the fact that I might be wrong about this, and interested to hear any opposing viewpoints.

I did Couch To 5K earlier this year and I got up to Week 7 (running for 25 minutes straight) until I got mildly injured and took a week off, then never really got back into it. Now the city is currently ripping my entire street up including the sidewalks, so I'd have to walk through 100m of rough uneven mud to get to a sidewalk to run, so it's on hold. From my experience: - A proper pair of running shoes is essential. You will get shin splints or sore knees after a week or two if you try to run in skateboard shoes or other generic shoes. Especially if you are overweight this is a must, or you'll hurt yourself. - Don't push yourself too hard. You can only build up muscle and stamina so fast. The NHS Couch To 5K goes at a perfect pace for this in my opinion. It makes sure that you're making constant progress and pushing yourself, but not so far that you get injured. Now is the perfect time of year to start running... while it's a bit cooler but before it's freezing. Running in July and August was rough.

Think of the payment as a donation, rather than something mandatory. This can be a purely mental exercise. Imagine that you're offering the service for free, and people only choose to pay if they're happy with the results. In reality that's usually true, because someone could always refuse to pay if they feel like it wasn't worth it. Or you can restructure your business to make it reality. Offer your services and then write "Suggested Donation:" instead of just a flat-out price. This helps out people with more of a "pay what you can afford" approach. So a student or someone might only give you $10. But you'll also get people who pay MORE than the suggested price. Maybe throw in a little incentive where if they donate a specific amount, they get some bonus. Like a link to an unlisted guided meditation video on Youtube or something. Also probably worth exploring why you don't feel like you're good enough or professional enough to justify getting paid for the service that you offer. Imposter syndrome is a bitch.

The whole "online business" space is full of scammers, so it's important to learn to recognize it right away. It should be a huge red flag if someone's only business is selling courses telling you how to get rich. Ideally they have an example of a REAL BUSINESS they've run with results and proof. Everyone can't get into the "get rich quick" space and most of the time it's not much better than an MLM. There are some really good courses out there that are worth the money. But a lot of them are crap too. Do your research. Even people like Neil Patel are iffy for me. Too much time spent on backlinks and "hacks" instead of just focusing on creating great content and genuinely trying to help people. You have to do something different that actually creates value in the world. If it's easy, tons of people are already doing it. There are too many people buying stuff from Alibaba and selling on Shopify or pumping out low-quality ebooks or affiliate sites for you to have a good chance at making six-figures.

Discipline is a skill that you're going to need to develop to be successful at your life purpose, regardless of what it is. But it's not something that I'd focus on specifically developing, per se. It's more something that builds up in the background based on good choices that you make. Learning to stick with boring/tedious tasks, not get distracted by social media while trying to get work done, etc is stuff that you'll pick up through trial and error. Notice when you've fallen off track, and try to get back on track as soon as possible. There are some basic productivity tips and tricks to know. But past that, it's similar to willpower or stamina. Build discipline in small bits. If you wanted to run a marathon, you couldn't just go out and do it with no training. You'd start off by trying to run for 1 minute straight, then 2 minutes, then 5. Same thing for most other things. If you're a writer, sit down and force yourself to write 100 words, then 200, then 500. Before long you can build up the discipline to write 3,000 words per day and it doesn't seem like a big deal. If your life purpose is planting trees, then start by planting 1 tree per day consistently. Before long you'll have the discipline built up to plant 100 trees every day. In terms of courage, there are only two areas where you really need it: - To initially get started - To stick with it when things aren't easy and not doubt your choice

For maximum results, you need to put in maximum effort. Take the job and put in your 40 hours per week there. Then when you get home at night, pursue your music career for 3 hours every night instead of watching TV or Youtube videos. Not exactly sure what "pursuing a music career" entails. But it's easy enough to make your own website and create and sell your own music with just a PC and basic software, without needing to find an agent or label. I fear that most people who "pursue a music career" are just dicking around, wasting time playing music in a garage with bandmates who aren't 100% serious about it, saving up thousands of dollars for studio time they don't need, and not taking the steps to actually make it. Look at Ronald Jenkees as an example of how to do it right. If pursuing a music career is getting gigs in bars where you get paid $100 for the night, don't bother. On the weekend, put in 8 hours a day working on coaching and/or video courses (personally I would pick just one) and treat it like it's your fulltime job on the weekend. Again nobody said it would be easy, but you aren't going to get fast results if you aren't working on one of your three priorities for 2/7th (nearly 30%!) of the week. I think you're underestimating how much effort it takes to make a course, and the fact that it's not as much of an exact science as you might think. But you won't know until you try. To make things easier, have you considered combining #2 and #3? What if you make a course about learning an instrument, or some kind of music theory, or something similar? Or helping teach the basics of marketing to musicians who are too much into their "art" as a niche and need a more practical voice on how to make money with their craft. Doing all 3 is probably too much and you'll get burned out. I would personally drop life purpose for a year or two until you've got the money all sorted out.

/thread. It's not just about cooking, it's their knowledge on everything. Most have an unwillingness to change things they've believed or done a certain way for decades. What kind of vegetable oil are we talking about? There is a big difference between canola oil, soybean oil, grapeseed oil, peanut oil, avocado oil, olive oil, etc etc. Some are okay to use uncooked on salads and stuff but become harmful when cooked. Others are fine both ways. I've also heard conflicting info on coconut oil over the past few years. The low-quality coconut oil on the average grocery store shelf might not have the benefits you're hoping for: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/is-there-a-place-for-coconut-oil-in-a-healthy-diet-2019011415764 Take this as an opportunity to introspect as well. She's stuck in her ways about vegetable oil. But are you also stuck on trying to convince her about coconut oil in the same way? Have you done enough research to equivocally say which oils are harmful and which are okay, or are you willing to spend a couple hours looking into it for yourself? Are you willing to try to transition her to a different type of vegetable oil, instead of onto coconut oil, as a compromise? If it was me, there are things I would not want to compromise on with coconut oil that make it less practical, like how it can go solid at room temperature if it gets too cold. But I might switch to another oil of similar taste and price if it's healthier and can be used the same way.

Nobody starts being good at anything. It's all about how much work you put in, and if you can stick with it. I've always wanted to make video games but I've put it off my whole life because coding/programming seemed too hard to learn. But finally about a month ago I thought I would give it a try, what's the worst that could happen? It's not easy. Every day it's frustrating and overwhelming. I spent 6 hours looking through tutorials, asking on forums to get an answer to a coding problem I had. Probably something an expert coder could write a couple lines and solve in 5 minutes. I never ended up getting an answer. But instead of giving up, I moved on to something else and kept looking. I ended up buying a course on Udemy that will teach me what I need to know, plus lots more. I won't allow myself to give up. Even though it feels hard, I'm spending a couple hours on it every day, and gradually starting to feel a lot more familiar with it, and like maybe I could even create my own very basic game. Getting little bits of progress motivate you to keep going. And eventually you do get better at it. Everything sucks when you first start learning it... programming, playing guitar, golf, drawing. These are things people love and make their hobby. But when you're new at it, you hate it and feel like you'll never get good at it. But one day you just have a breakthrough and realize it feels natural, you're good at it, and you enjoy it. I recommend starting off with something easier than engineering to learn. Could be a little hobby or something. Like learning to solve a Rubik's cube. Once you learn that you can learn to do 1 thing you aren't good at, then you realize you can do the same thing with almost any other skill.

Try working through it logically first. Has there ever been a time where you've applied for a job for more than 5 years and not get hired? Think of the worst possible scenario... I don't think there is even a worst-case scenario where I wouldn't be able to start making money after 5 years of trying. If you already have $200/month passive income, then really you probably have more than 5 years of savings. If you need $1000/month to live and you're already at $200/month, that will stretch the amount of time until you run out of money. You need to spend $12,000 per year to live, but even if your income drops to $0 you won't be spending $12,000 per year. Because $2,400 of it is already covered by your passive income. If logically you know that your fear is irrational but you still can't get rid of it, then you probably want to talk to a therapist about it.

Are you in an apartment, or how could he even possibly hear? If I lightly play an electric guitar not plugged into an amp, I don't think someone could hear me playing it in the next room in my own house... Hearing synthesizer that you have plugged into headphones? No way... something about this story is super weird. For a neighbor to complain about that, he'd need to have superhuman hearing. Either that or you have a curtain instead of a wall. He would also be complaining about every cough, keyboard typing, chairs moving on the floor, etc... Also most places have reasonable enjoyment laws. Check what the bylaws are around noise in your icty. Usually it's perfectly acceptable for you to make noise during the day or at reasonable hours... that means playing musical instruments... dogs barking... whatever... as long as it's not crazy loud or in the middle of the night. In that case I'd tell your neighbor to suck it, he can complain to the city or police but they won't do anything if you aren't breaking the law. Can you practice in a room on the opposite side of your home, as far away from the neighbor as possible? If he's complaining about guitar/synthesizer with headphones plugged in, then he's going to complain if you try to make Youtube videos or anything else too. If you are in an apartment, you might even want to complain to your landlord that he's harassing you. If you just want to avoid conflict, then find a place that you can rent. Ask a friend if you can play at their place for a few hours per week, or if they've got a garage or basement or something you can use, maybe even offer to pay them a little for their trouble.

Your life purpose isn't necessarily something that's going to come easy or constantly make you feel good. When you first hear about life purpose, it can sound like the career version of a soulmate -- like everything about it will be perfect and intimately suited for you and easy sailing. I like to think of it more like the hindu/buddhist idea of dharma. Which most accurately translates as duty or responsibility. You owe it to the universe to live your life purpose even when it doesn't feel good, and in fact it's kind of a sin to not do it. Life purpose is the ability to choose, tolerate, and even welcome both the good and the bad. To accept and choose adversity for the greater long-term rewards. Go toward your internal values (things you care about), not desires that come from the external (things you want.) If it's your life purpose, then even self-sacrifice will make you feel fulfilled. It sounds partly like you're just young, inexperienced and confused. Something related to engineering might be your life purpose. But you won't know unless you get out there and try stuff. That doesn't necessarily mean going to university for engineering. You can just start tinkering with stuff in your room. Make a list of maybe 5 - 10 things that you suspect might lead to your life purpose, and then devote a month to each of them for the next year and see how they make you feel. Most life purposes can start off as a hobby. If you wanna be an electrical engineer, buy a soldering kit, capacitors or whatever you need. If you wanna learn to program, pick a language and download the necessary software. If you wanna tie fishing flies, buy the supplies. Then go on a deep dive following along with Youtube tutorials for a couple hours every day and mastering your craft. When you exhaust Youtube, start paying for some inexpensive intermediate courses on Udemy or Skillshare or similar sites. Ideally you hit a point where it gets boring and tedious and keep pushing through, and see if it still feels worth it, like something you want to devote the next 20 years to.

I find the earlier I wake up, the more work I get done. It's that simple. If I wake up at 5 or 6 am, I can get a full workday in before noon. If I wake up at 9 or 10 am, I'm still equally tired and unmotivated by the time noon rolls around. It's literally like you just lose the extra time and productivity to sleep. Plus even if you have a family, nobody is awake to interrupt you at 5 am. If you're a night person maybe you're the opposite. In that case you wanna sleep in till early afternoon and do most of your work from after dinner until 2 or 3 am. But most people that I talk to get the majority of their productive work done in the morning. So for me -- anything that I try to do before work -- even healthy stuff like meditation or going for a run, ultimately detracts that amount of time from how much work I get done that day. There's no transition. Just wake up, turn the computer on, and do the most important task of the day for you. If you're a writer, that's writing. If you're a programmer, it's writing code. Don't check email or anything else until it's done. In terms of how much to work... avoid "make busy" activities that make you feel like you're being a productive entrepreneur, but really you're wasting time on things that don't generate much in the way of results. Checking and updating social media is a huge drain in this area. Even stuff like trying to get your website just right. Don't buy into the Gary V hustle/grind mantra. Work smart, not hard. Some months when I'm really cramming and have more work coming at me than I can handle, I might work 6 - 8 hours a day. That's for months where I'm bringing in $10k. Once you've got a routine down, you can make $30k per year pretty easily by working 2-3 hours per day or less. One thing I realized after quitting my office job to start my own business from home, is how wasteful and unproductive with time people are at their jobs. How often are you switching back and forth... checking the weather or sports scores, or someone calls and interrupts you, or talking with coworkers. If you can really enter a flow state with no interruptions, most 8 hour work days can be condensed into 2 or 3 hours. You absolutely need to take weekends or you're not going to last a year before burning out.

Start on somewhere like Upwork if you need to. The money won't be the best, but it gets you a start and experience. You absolutely need a website. Not as a way of getting clients. Your contact form will be 99% spam. But a website is proof of legitimacy and clients might not give you a chance without it. I would never hire some dude with a gmail address that doesn't even have a basic website with some examples of his work. If you can't invest $100/yr in a website and a few hours to set it up, I know you're not serious about your business. A LinkedIn profile by itself won't get you jobs. I get about 10 people looking at my profile each week but only 2 or 3 have ever reached out. When I replied, they flaked and never responded to me again. However, messaging people might work as long as it doesn't come across as spammy. Make sure to personalize it to them a lot, not just one generic message you send everyone or you won't get anywhere. Cold emailing is the most uncomfortable but also likely to get results. Try to brainstorm as many businesses as you can that you'd like to work with, then reach out and offer your services. Obviously try to stick to smaller companies and startups, not Microsoft or Pepsi.

Courage seems like a good value if you're using it for good (non-toxic) reasons. Courage could lead you to step in and help some woman that's getting abused by her husband in public. But it could also make you rob a bank. So there's a light and a dark side there I'd say. Even if you're apprehensive about being courageous in the moment, it can still be good. Some fear just means that you're still being realistic and logical, and less likely to take stupid risks from being overconfident. Think about a time where you did display courage, and how good you felt afterward. For me that'd be something like completing a high ropes course even though I was scared, and the sense of accomplishment and confidence that you have once it's done. However, consider if you actually want to maximize courage, or if what you really want is to minimize fear. It's actually possible to maximize courage while still being full of fear and stress. Think of a skinny nerdy guy who starts going to the gym and doing steroids to get big, listens to Jocko Willink every day, and starts putting on a fake aggressive front. He might build up courage and confidence over time. But he never really addresses that fear that drove him to do it, and he's still ultimately a scared little boy inside underneath it all. This can start to manifest in negative ways.