7thLetter

@Widdle Puppy Hmm, I often get Enlightment work and Self-actualization work confused. I kind of see Self-actualization as one whole thing including Enlightenment. But that’s just me. I guess Self-actualization is more so focused on improving your psychology? Although I see the Spiral Dynamics model as part of Self-actualization and some stages such as Orange and Yellow are described to be a little cold, independant, individualistic, distant, or aloof in some social settings. @PsiloPutty Same here, work, gym, and stay at home. Then getting out in nature, biking by the water on the weekends. From an outside perspective people would assume its a boring life but to me its awesome when you practice inner work and study and contemplate some very deep topics

Focus on your own inner work.

Work on building your discipline. This is one thing I've been thinking of lately which seems to separate someone the most from the people around them. A lot of people are held back from doing what is important in life because of their emotions. At times it could seem like people who don't put in the work that is required for building a healthy lifestyle or a project for example, are lazy, but instead maybe its because they haven't built up any discipline in their earlier years. How do you develop your discipline? This is a question I asked myself today honestly. I don't even think you can work on it directly but I think its a combination of many things. Gym, healthy eating, getting rid of temptations, waking up on time, sleeping early, reading, meditation, to name a few. Then with discipline, you can pretty much do emotionally difficult things without resistance.

@kingroboto

Firstly I'm just going to say that, personally I don't know enough about the different medications out there and the entire pharmaceutical industry itself to even have an opinion. But from my perspective, I often question, could it possibly be that the different medications out there are for, and just a part of the short-term result minded society that we live in, with little to no exceptions? Of course there are some medications/medicine that could be helpful, like bandages, cough syrup, Tylenol for headaches, etc. But when we're talking about things like medication for High Blood Pressure, or medication for Depression, Anxiety, ADHD, High Cholesterol, couldn't all of this be cured or prevented if only these people went the long-term route? With things like fitness, eating healthier, and meditation? It's sort of like, "ok you yourself lead yourself to this health problem of yours because of all the bad food that you eat, but you can prevent it if you just adopted a healthy lifestyle." But instead they would go the short-term route because they live in that paradigm, their emotions take over, they want to be comfortable, so they just take medications which has several possible side-effects and things could get worse. I truly believe in the fact that there currently is no magic-pill, short-term medication solution to the things that are worth having in life, like overall better health, intelligence, mastering your psychology, developing awareness, unconditional internal happiness, etc. And that all the short-term solutions would all lead to a minor or major problem in the end. Thoughts?

As I think about my past, I’ve noticed that I tend to sabotage some of the things that go well in my life. Mainly around money, but in other areas as well like relationships and progress in the gym. Could it be that I am earning these things too fast and that causes me to self-sabotage? I have a feeling I have a certain “ceiling” or resistance point that I can’t break through, which causes me to resist and bring me back to my original level. With money for example, back then as a teen I worked a lot and saved up a couple thousand and spent it on bad investments. Went down to 0. And recently cryptocurrencies blew up last summer til’ Dec 2017. I made a couple thousand too fast, got greedy and held it through the decline. Now My portfolio is down 90% at this point. I can give a ton of examples of this behavior in my life, but what are some tips on how to get rid self-sabotaging behavior? I’m pretty sure a longer term mindset would help, cause I still have a bit of short-term thinking in my life that I need to weed out. And I have already been meditating, and its crazy to me how deep this self-sabotaging behavior is no matter how much inner-work I’ve been doing. Although I wouldn’t say its an extreme case that it ruins everything in my life, but I’d say its in the middle.

I hear this quite a bit in Self-actualization theory, but I guess don't completely understand it. My understanding of it is that, its "wrong" to just run away from an external circumstance like abusive parents for example, without doing the inner work to accept any of it. So if you just run away from any of your external circumstances, in the back of your mind it still bothers you in a sense. Or if you ever fall back into that same circumstance, you'll also fall back into the state of mind of not being able to accept it. Since a huge part of self-actualization is about accepting life the way it is, that's why it would be considered "wrong" right? But what about those who live in poverty, or cities with huge crime rates? Wouldn't it be a smart move to work on trying to get out of the city first rather than to prioritize the inner work of accepting reality? At least that's what I think. If you put your shoes into those who live in those types of cities, I would think that inner work is the last thing you would ever think of when you constantly hear gunshots outside, screaming, broken windows, yelling, etc. Not everyone has the luxury of sitting in a quiet room to go and meditate, or sit outside and enjoy nature. Thoughts?

Mastery by George Leonard and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. Way of the Superior Man by David Deida is another good one as well. All pretty much related to achieving success in your relationships with people and increasing your productivity in life.

Leo came a long way

@White hmm, I just felt like I didn't fully understand it yet. Also just wanted to hear some thoughts on the topic

@White I didn't say it was wrong, that's why I had it in quotation marks. I recently had a debate on these forums which is why I posted this topic. If you look through my profile you might find exactly what I'm talking about. So in a sense I was conditioned to think it was wrong because that recent debate got me thinking that way. That person's beliefs rubbed off onto me. Also didn't say it means that you would put up with it. I'm kind of saying that in some cases it would be smart to work on your external situation rather than prioritize your inner world.

I feel like I've been lying to myself for a while now about being an entrepreneurial-minded person. I mean I definitely would say I do have the mindset, but nothing ever gets done. I've acquired this mindset 4 years ago when at 18 years old when I joined an MLM company, and I've been dabbling around with so many different money-making methods since. I'm 22 now, and as I think about it, I really haven't acquired any success out of any of the things that I've been trying. Nothing ever really seemed to stick. My life has been distraction after distraction. Its like, oh let me try MLM, nope. eCommerce? Nope. Affiliate marketing? Nope. Flipping cellphones? Nope got scammed. Let's do 1 year of pickup, oh that's very productive. Let's try Youtube. Nope not consistent enough. Oh let's waste some time playing video games. I mean, I guess its all apart of the process of finding what you actually like doing then sticking to that. I definitely would say I did find something I actually like doing which is analyzing charts, trading Forex, and buying cryptocurrencies. So I'll give it some more time. But I mean at this point I feel like I'm back to trying to find another route. I literally just started a new blog, and trying blogging. Trying to market it at the moment, while at the same time trying to gain consistency with trading. ALSO, another thing I want to put out there is that fact that I also spend a lot of time working on my inner world. Meditating, reading books, sitting in and appreciating nature, eating healthy, gym, etc. At first when I got into personal development, I thought it would help me with my financial situation and my dating life. I wanted to get rid of limiting beliefs, control emotions, etc. But then it lead to finding truth and meaning, which I do find very interesting, but how am I supposed to pursue all that when I'm stuck in a job? All I want is to leave my job, make my own money, so I can move out and get my own place. But I feel like the Actualized community is like "oh u want success? ur definitely stage orange." and also "No, everything is fine the way it is." So I get stuck in that perspective a lot of the time and end up just doing more and more inner work but it doesn't get me anywhere in the external world. Cool more inner happiness and acceptance great I see that and understand that, but I'm still stuck in a psychologically unhealthy low-income home and stuck in an extremely social job when I'm an introvert. I'm not saying I'm depressed or anything I actually love my life right now because of all the inner work, but I feel like it could get better if I got these things handled. Advice?

@Leo Gura This is my suggestion, an in depth video on the trap of people emulating the ideal self-actualized human being, rather than being honest with where they are at in their current level of development. Or something along those lines. Even mistaking memorization of theory as actual growth, would be a part of this trap or this topic I am going to talk about here. And not just with self-actualization and theory, but pretty much anything that has to do with theory and improving your character. So for example we can apply this theory to someone's growth journey as a Pickup Artist. Or someone's journey on the way to becoming successful, etc. I think the closest videos to this suggestion are Leo's "Dropping The Roles You Play" video, and I guess I would say Leo's "Learning = Behavior Change" video. Also important to understand the "Theory vs Practice video as well." This has been one of the insights that I've been thinking about for a couple months now because I think its so fundamental to my growth in my self-actualization journey, and for anyone else who is on the journey of self-actualization as well. Because this seems to be the easiest trap to fall into! Often times we mistake our knowledge, or memorization of theory as true inner growth. When in reality, memorizing theory is only good for your high school final exam and doesn't create tangible results for you in the real world. For someone to truly embody the theory, they have to deeply understand it and apply it in their lives. Then once you have understood the concept and applied it, then your behavior and thinking process would change subconsciously in alignment with that theory. There's a good quote that goes, "Knowing is not enough, we must apply." So watching YouTube videos and reading books does not help you grow. You can use that memorization of that theory to talk to your friends about and debate with them so you can sound smart, but that is not growth. An example of this would be, a beta male listening to pickup advice then acting all tough like an alpha male to try and attract women. From the outside perspective, you can tell that he's faking it and it just comes off as insecurity. Insecurity because he's not acting authentically with himself and the girl, he's acting in accordance to what the theory told him. But if he truly did embody the theory, things would be a whole lot different. To truly embody the theory does not take an hour or a day. It could take weeks, months, or even years of letting the theory guide you in your constant trial and error process. Seeing it happen in your life, contemplating it, and seeing it happen in other people's lives. Then once he's got all that down, the growth should come naturally, and his behavior would change in accordance to the theory without him even thinking about it. I've even fell into this trap a lot in the past which is why all of this is so important to me. And a quick example is that I was on the pickup journey at one point in my life and I implemented the wrong theory into my interactions with females and it just turned into a whole mess. I did the same thing for about a year which is why I didn't get a whole lot of results. I implemented the theory of "Be an asshole and girls will like you. Don't be the nice guy." So that's what I did. I took it too literally. I was a manipulative dick to most of the girls I approached and they wouldn't set up a date with me or anything. In the end, that destroyed my character and my inner world. I turned into a narcissist and I had a TON of inner demons to deal with. Glad I've got that all handled now. I also think that its important for newbies to know that with any coaches or instructors out there that they may listen to, are usually speaking from the perspective of someone who has grown to a "higher" level. So if a coach talks about "detachment from outcome", the newbie may listen to that theory and feel the need to implement it right away. And usually when its their first time hearing that, then they think that if they detach from outcome then they will end up just sitting on the couch and not going for what they want. When if you're someone who understands that theory, its not really something that you can implement today, but instead its more of a theory that you naturally to grow into. Its a behavior change. Its a way of living. "Knowing is not enough, we must apply."

I'll try to be as clear and honest about my situation, any advice is appreciated. Being a part of the self-actualization community and actually implementing all the techniques and theory into my life definitely definitely helps a lot with being at peace with everything, and keeping a clear mind. But as humans, we can fall off and get distracted sometimes so I take full responsibility for getting distracted and not being as consistent as I'd like to. With any distractions, it slows your development, and sometimes life will present problems that your current development won't be able to handle as properly. In my current life situation, I'm 22 and I'm working one part-time job, but just recently got hired for a second job. Both pay just a bit over minimum-wage in Canada. I'm not in School and I don't really plan to go to School any time soon because I tend to believe that I can make it through playing around with different businesses. Currently studying how to trade Forex and Cryptocurrencies using technical analysis and end up living off of that. But for the moment I'm working these two jobs in order to fund my account. At home, I come from a lower-class background. I live with my mom, dad, brother and sister. My mom recently retired from her minimum-wage job, and is receiving almost nothing from the government every month. So, she relies on her kids to pay for everything. My dad works a job, but still doesn't earn as much. Every month I have to pay $300-$400 for rent. Brother and sister help pay for groceries and rent as well. Now the situation I'm bothered by is the fact that my mom has to take medication for her high-blood pressure and diabetes. She has to pay $68 for 2 weeks worth of medication and she's relying on me and my brother to pay that for her. I believe that the medication is a short-term solution and I'm trying to tell her that. The longer-term solution is to exercise and to eat healthier right? But instead she still eats like crap and relies on the medication to help her. I don't want her to just rely on the medication, and I want her to develop a more healthier lifestyle.. But how do you get someone who has lived a dysfunctional lifestyle their whole life for 55+ years to go and do that? Anything I tell her is like talking to a brick wall, she doesn't listen. What I plan to do is just make some healthy smoothies and give her some, and maybe even encourage her to come jogging with me. That's the most I can do I guess. The money she's asking for is $300+ for medication but I personally think I should instead attempt to help her develop this lifestyle cause I think that's the smart thing to do honestly. The money can instead go to my investments so I can use it to make more money in order to help out. I'm going to help out but also a selfish part of me wants to move out and just run away from it all. Although that would tear everything apart. Really hoping my plan with crypto/forex trading will turn things around. Advice?

@Key Elements In Canada we're only allowed to trade with online brokers that are regulated by the IIROC. I mean that's the case if you want to trade Forex, but I'm pretty sure its the same idea if you want to trade stocks as well. I tried to sign up for the US version of TD Amertrade for stock investing and it didn't work. So I might as well sign up with a Canadian based online broker that is regulated by the IIROC, and which is also partnered with my local bank so that adds more trust. Plus its so much easier to fund my account if you can do it all through online banking. Plus we still can trade the US stocks so I don't see the need to switch to a US-based broker

@Key Elements Oh yeah that's what I meant. Just have a feeling if I didn't have much of an interest his first book then I wouldn't like any of his other books. But I mean I'm not completely closed off to checking them out, that's why I said its a possibility I would check it out. At the moment I've just got way too many good books I need to catch up on. Plus too many Leo videos to catch up on and re-watch. Waay too much information out there

@Key Elements Most likely going to use something called Q-Trade for my stock investing. I don't believe I can use anything based in the states since I'm in Canada. I will possibly check out that book. Personally in my own opinion, I didn't really like Robert's Rich Dad Poor Dad book. BUT, that's me making a quick judgement on the book maybe 2 years back, and I also only read a few pages and never picked it up since. Honestly I have way too many books though that I've bought and I don't read enough to get through all of them. With so many distractions it takes me a couple months to get through a single book. I have about 10+ books just sitting in my room that I bought last year that I still need to read lol.

@Key Elements What is e-trade? Is that the online broker? And what do you mean a startup can exit when it becomes a corporation?

@Key Elements Definitely something to think about. And definitely something to work on rather than focusing on just one. Although it would be best to focus on one and master it at first then look to explore other ways of making income. And I think a better way to look at it is that there's three types of income: Active, Portfolio, and Passive. I guess life purpose would be a part of an active source of income since you are working for it. But at the same time I think it can be passive as well if you set up some kind of monthly payment for some content. Really depends. And yes currently working on my portfolio at the moment with Forex trading. I do scalping which is trading the lower-time frames so its a lot more active than other types of trading since you have to sit at the computer and take profits on small price movements. Got a bit of a cryptocurrency portfolio that I'm going to hold onto. And looking to get into stocks as well, but possibly not at the moment as there is a possible crash happening soon. Maybe its happening at the moment but not too sure. Then hopefully get into a bit of real estate once I have the capital.

True. I admit it, I would be avoiding the pain and struggle for the most part. But here’s something I thought of that you might want to think about. There are levels to happiness. And there are levels to happiness in a certain career or activity as well. It is not that you’re one or the other, unhappy or happy. Enlightened, or not enlightened. Conscious or unconscious. There are levels to it. I think of it as a video game. You can be level 3 happiness doing this, or you can be level 10 happiness doing that. I came up with this idea from my own experience because recently I got hired at Chipotle and quit in 3 days. I honesty haven’t heard of this theory from anywhere else. And see this is an example of growth and understanding something at a deeper level with action-taking. Chipotle was a 2nd part-time job on top of my other restaurant job which is more of a casual dining restaurant. I set my standards so low, so I ended up applying at Chipotle because I wanted to earn some more money. And you’re right in your argument that it wouldn’t be sustainable if you don’t enjoy it. Because I definitely didn’t enjoy it, so I quit in 3 days. But that’s because it was a level 1 happiness activity, with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. My casual dining restaurant job is somewhat of a level 5 happiness activity, and that’s why I’m still there after 6 months. But it’s not level 10 and that’s why I’m trying to look for other things. So now let’s talk about Forex trading. I would probably rank it as a level 6-7 happiness activity for me. So, sure it won’t be sustainable, but there are levels to that as well. It’s not either sustainable or unsustainable with these activities, its more like its a level 8 or 9 level of sustainability doing this, or a level 1 level of sustainability doing that. So if trading Forex was a level 6-7 level or sustainability then that means it wouldn’t last 3 days like my Chipotle job, it would last several years until I’m not feeling it anymore. Also I haven’t told you, obviously I want to pursue my life purpose after I’m done with pursuing success. Pursuing success is part of my journey. If its not part of your journey then who cares. I don’t. I’m on my own path. You’re basically following the crowd if you’re letting the theory decide your path. You think you’re a part of the 5% in this world just because you’re a part of the self-actualization community? Nope, you’re probably a part of 95% of the people in this community. Here’s also why I’m all about practice. I’m a kinesthetic learner. I learn by doing. If you don’t know what type of learner you are, figure it out because I truly believe that it is important. If you’re an auditory learner and learn by listening to Leo’s videos then great, but still that’s not an excuse not to take any action. With a kinesthetic learner like me, listening to theory is not enough. I have to go and do it to truly understand it. With your argument about theory and eating mercury, or jumping off a building. Where have you heard that theory? I’ve never heard that theory until you brought it up. But here’s why I think we would be reluctant about doing so. Because growing up we’ve created a default position for ourselves that we would die if we did any of those things. It’s not simply just a theory from a book that says “oh you will die if you jumped off a building.” And that hearing that theory will make us not do it. No, I see it more of a set of concrete beliefs that we hold as true. And these are beliefs that we’ve subconsciously picked up as we were growing up in our environment. And it doesn’t have to be a written theory that we’ve picked up, it can be visual, or through your own experience. If you’ve experienced pain before then that’s definitely going to shape your beliefs. I think you will like this one, and I’m sure you’ll probably learn lots. Night.

@Erlend K Still a noob still need to work on my skill. Literally just started actually trading like a month ago. Probably would have to practice trade for several months until I can see some actual profits. But I've done a few live trades and most was like 10-15 bucks in less than 15min. But also lost quite a few trades and lost that much in that same amount of time.

@Mondsee Ooh had to hop on the computer for this reply cause this is some juicy mental masturbation right here. Like I said trading is independent work and almost everything out there requires you to deal with people cause most of the time I don't like to socialize cause it takes up my energy. So if I don't have to deal with any of that, of course I love trading. And here's a better question for you to ask me, do I love working at several social restaurant jobs for $13/hr rather than making a living off a non-social trading career? My answer is fuck no. I still stand true to my argument that I do it for the freedom. I've taken Leo's life purpose course 2-3 years ago and I've found that self-actualization is my top passion in life. To be honest to you and to myself, its not that easy to make money off it. I've tried doing Youtube videos like what Leo does but I wasn't feeling it. Leo is really good at what he does. And I can't self-actualize when I work in a lower-consciousness environment, especially with it taking up 6-8 hours a day of my time. Back to talking about FOREX trading not crypto btw. I only treat crypto as a buy and hold. There is something called Demo trading in Forex where you get to practice trading without risking your own money. I admit it, sometimes I want to jump into live trading for the money, but I need to remember that I need to start off practicing with demo trades for the time being in order to improve my skill. And yes the demo trading is still fun for me, I've had an interest in trading for 2 years now. It definitely is one of my deepest passions at the moment, I'd say that it is 3rd on my list with Self-actualization being the 1st and Fitness as the 2nd. Trading requires you to understand human psychology, and it requires you to be able to manage yourself and your emotions. You can't be in a bad mood while trading or else you will gamble your money. So all of that that kind of pushes traders to self-actualize in a sense, and improve their well-being in order to become a successful trader. And just to add this, its so common for a community or people living in a certain paradigm to talk people out of a different paradigm or bring them into their reality. Look how many of you are trying to talk me out of trading every time I talk about it. Ridiculous. I don't care if you don't see it but you ARE doing it. It happens with average people too. trying to talk successful people out of pursuing success. Or even average people talking self-actualizers out of self-actualization. Honestly, you're talking to a 22 year old who grew up in a poor family, of course I'm over here trying to pursue success. Here's a good example, you can't tell a psychologically dysfunctional newbie who hasn't heard of self-actualization before to go drop your entire life to go and become a monk and to go meditate at the top of the mountain because its good and there's good benefits to it. They need the experiences first of, is self-actualization a good choice, does meditation have great benefits, is partying all day an endless trap? Are drugs an endless trap? Trust me I've been through all that in my teens and now I understand at a deeper level, ohhh ok partying won't help me get fulfilled. Ohh marijuana blaze it up 420 won't help me become fulfilled. Also if you tried to convince a newbie pickup artist that getting laid won't get you fulfilled, they won't believe you. They have to experience it first, and then they will realize that later on in life. If you take a look at all the RSD instructors, most of them pursue Spirituality these days because they've done pickup for several years and realized that it is not fulfilling. RSD is a pickup community btw. Even Leo had a successful business making a six-figure income before he started Actualized.org. I think it was an SEO business. And I'm sure that was fundamental for him to realize, oh ok it's not about the money. Life and self-actualization is all about experiences, not mental masturbation. Not asking because I think it will help me but yes I'm curious. Because you're over here acting like you got it all figured out. And exactly I knew that question would throw you off. You're not living off your life purpose. I was in the same situation as well when I was 18-20. I saved up $20K quit my job and all I did was waste my time doing pickup for a year and spent it on bad investments. I was also closely following the self-actualization material and meditating daily. You think I don't have a passion with self-actualization? That's all I cared about. And still what I care about. And I mentioned I tried to make a living off of it through Youtube but I wasn't feeling it. I love working on myself but I don't know how I feel about sharing the material with other people. Let me tell you, It doesn't help to JUST follow your passion. Of course you need to take action and do what is necessary to make money off of it. But if you're happy just constantly learning the material and not make a living out of it then go ahead. We're all free to do whatever the fuck we want. Now this one is going will require me to put a lot of thought into. I guess that's a fair argument, but there are flaws with your type of logic as well. There are traps everywhere in personal development. Even if you think you avoided all the traps there's a trap right beside your foot, did you see it? In some cases your argument would be true, but in some it wouldn't be. Even if you don't have to experience falling off the 30 story building, you understand it at some level by tripping and falling when you were a kid for example and that made you feel uncomfortable. You probably understand it even more than the most perfect person in the world who hasn't tripped and fell as a kid. I have a feeling you're saying that because in the back of your mind you're denying it to me and to yourself that you don't apply the theory enough in your life. That is just my assumption. Action is just as important, or even more important than just listening to all the theory. You need a balance of the two. Watch Leo's video on Theory vs Practice. The theory is just there to guide you as you take action, not there to control your life. If you're going to let it control your life, you're being a neurotic Christian. "Uh oh, watching porn is a sin! RESIST RESIST! NO I MUST NOT LET GOD DOWN. AHH THE DEVIL TOOK OVER MY LIFE I COULDN'T HELP IT SO I HAD TO WATCH IT!" And if you're just going to listen to the theory, then all that is, is mental masturbation just like all this arguing on these forums. If you want to grow, then that's what the practice is for. Let me tell you about my Dad. Lots of potential, smart guy, but he has deluded himself into thinking that he's conscious just because he knows a lot of Spirituality theory. He denies the fact that you need to take action as well just like what you're doing. But even though he thinks he's conscious, he still engaging in lower-consciousness activities like gambling. And I truly believe if someone was conscious they wouldn't marry anyone of a lower-consciousness. People usually marry or hang out with other people who are the same as them. Anyways, more examples of just listening to theory. Does reading a book on riding a bike help you master riding a bike? Does reading a book on the gym help you grow your muscles? Does watching Leo's videos on depression help you get rid of depression? Does taking Tai Lopez's course on how to make money in real estate help you get rich? You're not growing if you just listen to the theory. Come on now.

@Erlend K Currently reading “Trading for a Living” by Alexander Elder, and in the book it says bots don’t work. They only make money for the people who sell the bots. A Forex broker even tried to sell me a bot and told me all it does is automatically place “Take Profits” “Stop-losses” “Sell orders” “Buy orders” at any price you set it at. That’s fucking useless if you ask me. The bot doesn’t know human psychology and how to analyze the charts. I’ve also looked up videos of what a bot does. And trust me I’ve heard your argument millions of times already with bots replacing humans, and I always say, dude I’ve proven to myself I can make money in the market so the bot argument means nothing to me. It might be a different story with stocks but I don’t trade stocks I trade Forex which isn’t as easy to manipulate. And I don’t trade crypto anymore I’m treating it more of a buy and hold. Honestly think about it, if the market can go up, and you clicked buy at the bottom then you can make money. You’re basically making money off the people who shorted (sell) at the bottom. Also its not a 1 vs 1 with you VS the bank its more of a free-for-all with a combination of the banks, newbie traders, your mom, your dad, your dog, johnny across the street, professional traders, wilson from elementary school, etc. all trading in the market together.