Life purpose and "How to Escape Wage Slavery"

[UDT]

This post forms thoughts about why committing to a life purpose early does not help with becoming independent.

 

I see the point that providing great value is the ultimate formula for becoming independent. Becoming a value provider means better business and better relationships.

Now, Leo mentions the point that you need a life purpose in order to get somewhere. While this is true, I think it is barely helping on the journey. 

Why? 

Well, there is not one narrow, specialized thing which you can call your purpose and then follow for the rest of your life. While exploring life, you constantly discover new edges, new perspectives, new interesting ideas, concepts and crafts. At least that´s what I noticed.

Thus, how do you do you avoid committing yourself to one narrow field which you put all your resources to, just to discover two years later that it is boring?

I see that Marketing and Sales are skills which are omni-relevant for all independents, but what comes after?

I have put many points in my skill tree into speaking, understanding people, understanding group and individual psychology, understanding how society and business works etc. While this has shifted my perceptions completely and made me a better leader and confident walker on earth,

it has little practical value in the sense that I cannot create a business out of that. Meanwhile, someone putting 3-5 years into specializing (e.g. programming, financial services) now can pursue a career as a good paid wage slave or start a business by himself.

Yes, the "business" of my described skill-set would be becoming a life-coach, but this is a field in which I cannot really imagine myself. At the end you are manipulating your clients into trusting you, while you actually should teach them to trust in themselves. Some people are just sheeps, and will never rise above that, so you will notice that but still need to coach them because you need to make a living. And finally, I think life boils down to maybe 5 core teachings and you can teach them in maybe 3 hours and this is 80% of everything which is wrong with that person. Then they will not properly listen or implement and you just repeat yourself. People seeking for life-coaching are essentially lost because they try to outsource their inner work. 

Summary:

A narrow purpose will push you into a specialized field. If you discover that it was not the "right" life purpose  (and you will most likely change perceptions, because you evolve as a person constantly), then you lost all your time. On the other hand, when you acquire broad skills, which come handy in various situations, you cannot do so much wrong with that, but you also cannot create a valuable business, because you lack specialized skills for it.

Do you see my point, what are your suggestions on what to do?  

 

Edited September 9, 2018 by UDT

[Nahm]

You could be an outstanding life coach. Maybe the right question at the right time is more of an art, than a manipulation. Maybe you are creating the moment. Maybe there are no sheep, really. Just people who have not been yet seen, and have not yet seen themselves, as lions.

[YaMayka]

What Leo presents in his vidoe does not shock me at all, I figured it out more or less when I was 16, so I should have been on a good way to acheive a life purpose. The problem was that even though I figured out the first part, I still don’t know what I want to do in life (and I am almost 40). So I did not focus on it all my efforts and have not achieved it. I worked on my character, so it is not all wasted (time) but still the purpose has not revealed itself to me. I am on a verge of insanity now because I know time is running out and I feel trapped but... nothing. I have no great talent, I have a curious mind but it is not fixed long on one subject, it is interested in everything, so in a way I know nothing well enough. 

So beep  beep I’m a sheep... A black sheep at least

[Finland3286]

I was doing some contemplation about Leo's video as well. I think that for me i'm naturally inquisitive about things and I like to question why things are how they are. So if I am to use this as an example I could use certain insights I have had and spread my ideas and questions around to people. So if I am to do this to make a living there would be a certain amount of money I would have to make to live. But for me even if this would mean still living on the bottom of the pyramid I would be fine with that because then i'm not really worried about the money as long as i'm saving income by living below my income. For me I don't really care about what car I have or how big of a home I have because I don't see that as really important. I don't see this as too important because I look at people who are wage slaves and then once they get that sweet paycheck they blow it all on stuff they really don't need. This stuff they buy is really exploiting them through advertisements and societal norms. Take for example someone buying a new car. It's shiny and nice looking and probably drives real nice as well. Everyone looks at your new ride and says "WOW that's really nice! You should take me for a ride sometime!". How much did you spend on this car? Maybe $12,000 making $30,000 a year. Using this example and taking that you work 40 hours a week that would mean that new shiny car of yours took about 768 hours to acquire considering you didn't finance this vehicle as well. What did you really get from this car as well? Maybe some praise from friends and co-workers that makes you feel a little warm feeling inside. But as time goes on this high you get from buying this car will fade away and if you're not mindful you will repeat this process and you're wasting your life for some praise and a little high you get from shiny nice things which exploit the monkey mind of the average individual in society. It comes down to what you are drawn to and what calls you so to speak. Once you figure this out you must be creative in marketing whatever it is that appeals to you to spread whatever it is you want to spread. From your post you seem to be one who contemplates, so maybe find a way to market this contemplation and your questions to make others question what they are doing as well. My profile picture depicts a man named Diogenes. Diogenes was fully immersed in his work and ideas and renounced materialism. He lived in a barrel and questioned the norms of the time. Diogenes had very few possessions, one of them being a bowl. He once saw a homeless child scoop up water with their bare hands. Diogenes threw out his bowl because he realized he didn't need it. One time Diogenes was laying in the sun relaxing. Alexander the Great, the most powerful man of the time came to see Diogenes and asked him if there's one thing you want just ask. Diogenes replied by telling Alexander to get out of his light. The point is Diogenes literally lived out his ideas and concepts because they are far more beneficial than climbing this pyramid like Alexander had done. 

 

 

[StephenK]

I find it interesting to create a video on the topic of 'wage slavery' without getting into the issue of living beyond your means. You can be earning 100K plus a year and still be a wage slave if you've fallen hook line and sinker for consumerism.  Similarly, if one is willing to live frugally, a 'wage slave' salary can be more than enough. But addressing this aspect of the issue is not really on Leo's agenda it seems.

[d0ornokey]

@StephenK huh? he addresses that. he says to be careful because you can be a slave at a fast food chain all the way to a high paying position in a reputable company

[StephenK]

@d0ornokey Ah, my mistake then. Must have missed that.

[General 2]

question to Leo...

you say you have to put hours of hard work for 10-15 years...i worked hard for an year for what i was thought was my passion, and ended up hating it! moreover, gained a somatic disorder like being dizzy and apathetic all the time and hating just the idea of getting to work on something...

how do i make a break through when my body reacts like that?? 

i want to do something valuable with my life but afraid to drive myself to the point when i'm not able to move on

[Leo Gura]

@General 2 That's tricky. I'm not sure what the causes of that were for you. It could of have been egoic resistance to living up to your full potential, or it could have just been that it wasn't your true passion.

There are various solutions. Personal development and spiritual inner work is usually the answer for dissolving egoic resistances.

I still have resistance to following my life purpose after 5 years. It's not easy to be at the cutting edge of your potential. Sometimes you just gotta act despite the fear and excuses.

Obviously you shouldn't physically overwork yourself. Try not to work more than 40-60 hours per week, otherwise it becomes unsustainable.

[General 2]

@Leo Gura thank you for your reply Leo!

would appreciate if you could cover the topic of a "hard work hygiene" in a future video

i believe this is an important component which cannot be overlooked, both from physical and psychological sides

hard work applied irrationally may cause the opposite, corrupting effect

[Leo Gura]

@General 2 I struggle with that myself.

[UDT]

On 9/9/2018 at 5:34 PM, see_on_see said:

Bottom line, think strategically in the best way you can considering all possible outcomes, but then you gotta pull the trigger and make a choice. In the end, if you follow your heart, you can't really go wrong, the universe is guiding you and knows what it's doing, so even if you change later, it will most likely turn out to be an important piece of the puzzle.

@see_on_see Great post, I vibe with your input a lot. At the end there is no guarantee that your LP (or call it life-commitment) will not change. At the end you have to start somewhere, even If you are not 100% certain or in flames of passion about it. As you said, research but at some point pull the trigger. 

[UDT]

On 9/9/2018 at 7:59 PM, Finland3286 said:

It comes down to what you are drawn to and what calls you so to speak. Once you figure this out you must be creative in marketing whatever it is that appeals to you to spread whatever it is you want to spread. From your post you seem to be one who contemplates, so maybe find a way to market this contemplation and your questions to make others question what they are doing as well.

What I discovered so far is, that most people are very protective when you start question their life and choices. Its like a light-switch, the Ego recognizes its status quo is being questioned and thus goes into justification mode or changes topic. The bottom line of this, most people dont like their actions being questioned or them given new perspectives on their life.

[CreamCat]

On 9/10/2018 at 5:19 PM, General 2 said:

a "hard work hygiene"

For me, going to bed early and waking up early takes care of most of that. I just need to make sure that I set an alarm and go to bed early and fall asleep as soon as possible. If you do that, it takes far less willpower to bootstrap your day. Go to bed around a specific time, and wake up to an alarm. You should sleep for 6 hours or 7 hours and 30 minutes. It takes 20 minutes to fall asleep. So, you will lie on bed for 6 hours and 20 minutes or 7 hours and 50 minutes.

To fall asleep as soon as possible, you should do the following things for 3 hours before you go to bed.

• Keep the environment dark.
• Reduce monitor's blue light with softwares like RedShift.
• Don't do anything that stimulates you such as watching movie or engaging in angry arguments. Don't drink caffeinated drink after 1:00PM. It can take 8 hours for caffeine to wear off.

If you don't want to exhaust your willpower during day, you need to keep a few things in mind

• Don't create a wiggle room for distractions. 1% wiggle room will kill your work for the day. 1% wiggle room creates a room for a distraction that leads to another and then another and then another. You will be distracted for 6~8 hours without being aware that you're distracted. Work even if you could die.
  • Don't distract yourself after eating meals. It will kill your day.
  • Don't distract yourself when you have nothing to do. Just sit with boredom. Not being able to sit with boredom will kill your day. Train your focus muscle, or strategize your life whenever you have nothing to do.
  • Whenever you are distracted, strategize about the thing that distracts you. The strategy about the thing will kill the distraction. If there is nothing to strategize, just remember to not give a wiggle room for distraction.
• Be ready to negotiate workload with yourself. Don't overwork yourself. If you think your mind and body are going to react violently, you should negotiate with yourself to reduce workload for the day.
• Do not take break from distractions. Take breaks from concentration. You should schedule time for distractions at least 5 minutes in advance. When you feel an urge to browse the internet, schedule an internet session at least 5 minutes later. That should give you 5 minutes to train your focus muscle. Set a time limit to your distraction.
• Schedule your entire waking hours so that it is easier to fend off distractions. Your ego will fill free time blocks with distractions. Schedule hours of time for reacting to unexpected stuff. I call it reaction time block. You should schedule something else to do during reaction time block if there is no unexpected stuff today.
• Chunk your work in pomodoro(25 minute) sessions interrupted by 5~10 minute breaks. It is great for keeping your concentration at high levels and preventing your body from suffering due to lack of exercise. I do light exercise during breaks.
• Set aside time for meditation, positive affirmation, and visualization. Leo has videos about those topics.
• Create a morning ritual to motivate yourself after you wake up. Here's my morning ritual.
  • Make bed, brush my teeth, take a shower, eat breakfast, and brush my teeth again
  • Prepare a cup of water and check weather
  • Positive affirmation for 5 minutes
  • Meditate for 20 minutes
  • Visualize for 10 minutes
  • Plan what to do today
  • Take a 5 minute break before starting work.

Recently, I forgot about not creating wiggle room. So, I will remember to not create a wiggle room tomorrow. I will try to execute it so repetitively that I will embody it and it will be done subconsicously. I embodied waking up early months ago. Nowadays, I really don't want to sleep in. So, I know I can embody not creating wiggle room, given enough repetition. I guess it will take a month to embody it and two years to make it fully subconscious.

You have to have a clear life purpose to motivate yourself to execute hard work hygiene for years and decades. Leo's life purpose course helps with that.

Edited September 11, 2018 by CreamCat

[Nahm]

On 9/9/2018 at 9:52 AM, UDT said:

People seeking for life-coaching are essentially lost because they try to outsource their inner work. 

Coach inner work.

[Hello from Russia]

@CreamCat Great post . Incorporating waking up at 4 am at the moment and it feels great. I also schedule 2 hours of consciousness work right in the morning which feels great aswell.