What to do with my life while I am still young (large topic)

[Ampresus]

I have been thinking about this a lot. Teens, I feel you. This stuff is not easy. The kind of advice I usually hear both on this forum and in Leo's videos (about teens) consists mostly out of the following:

Don't get into deeper topics like awakening, Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem, how to love everything and stuff like this.
Don't focus on enlightenment right now.
Focus on your future.
Quit porn by all means necessary.
Gaming can be fun, but certainly later in life will be irrelevant and you should be able to drop it.
Read.... BOOKS!
Clean up your diet.
Do meditation, yoga, shadow work (not sure about this one), self-inquiry and shamanic breathing.
Socialize a lot! You will need it later!
We don't recommend psychedelic use under the age of 18, maybe because we care about your safety or maybe because we know that when our government sees that we DO recommended it we risk jail. Maybe both, you will never know. By the way, LSD is super dope!  (I tried to look up Terence Mckenna's thoughts about this, but couldn't findy any.)

All fun and stuff, but of course at some point I am gonna ask some questions.
1. I already know what I want to do later in life and where. I have a vision, a plan. I know I will be able to achieve it, given the circumstances in the wealthy country that is The Netherlands. What do I do now? Or should I just wait until I am 18 years old? (If necessary, I can explain what I want out of my life.)
2. Someone recommended me Inner Child work for quitting porn, you guys got any advice on this?
3. Gaming is boring me right now. I can see certain patterns in games that keep reoccuring, gaming developers trying to trick me by short-term pleasing me. I have no clue what to do besides sitting behind my computer in my free time. What can I do? I have been considering to just do nothing and sit in my room for hours during my free time, cause I literally have nothing else to do.
4. Which.... BOOKS? I bought Leo's booklist (I fell in love with PayPal in the meantime) and now I feel overwhelmed. Leo made an entire introduction video, saying stuff like ''taking notes'' and ''really contemplating the essence of the page that you just read''. Now suprise suprise, I am lazy. I am used to just reading a book and trying to enjoy it. Dead simple. Now you say that I should be writing notes after each ''critical lesson''? You are attacking my values and believes! How dare you! No but seriously... elaborate. What types of notes? What should I really look out for in a book? Should I do research about the book after I read it?
5. Are wholegrain foods OK? Wholegrain bread = fine? I am not sure, but I am enjoying a nice piece of dark bread. Together with butter and honey and man... I am in heaven! Oh, about butter: dairy is OK? I forgot about all the things that you guys rant about in the Fitness sub-forum, I get overwhelmed when I visit that rabbit hole.
6. Maybe now I come to think about it, I should read Leo's recommended book about Kriya yoga. Seems like you guys love yoga and love advicing me it. Oh, and do Wim Hof breathing method and shamanic breathing compare? Are they the same? I have tried shamanic breathing and it always makes me lust for fruits after each session. Kinda weird. All of the sudden berries aren't safe no more!
7.  Yes but how! Everyone is on their phones all day! They sometimes don't bother looking at me! What the frick! I try so hard to find a topic of conversation, yet it just is impossible sometimes!  When you talk to someone and a cute girl you like interrupts your conversation by asking you a question, what do you do? Happens to me everyday, so advice would suffice.
8. In The Netherlands, growing magic mushrooms is legal. Should I wait till 21? 18? What is it gonna be? I sometimes really long to be taken to another world, forgetting about the mundanity that is my current life.

I love you if you have made it this far. I know loads of people will skip this, so really thank you! Now... can you answer any questions?
 

[Cepzeu]

I will give you my personal opinion of what I wish I had done/done more of in my late teens (I'm 23 btw). 

 

- learn to accept yourself as you are and learn to trust yourself. Avoid allowing the comparison to other people sway your life purpose. 

- learn about how to do basic adult skills:

> personal finance

> reading and signing lease agreements for when you go flatting/live on your own

> cooking for yourself, buying groceries etc.

> dealing with banks, power companies, water companies, internet companies etc.

> dealing with lawyers, doctors, accountants, government agencies etc.

> dealing with a boss and making money

 

- basically, learning how to go from dependence on your parents to total and complete independence

 

There are a lot of admin things our parents do behind the scenes that we take totally for granted (bless them) and I see a lot of young people can't handle very basic adult things. If you spend a good few years moving to independence, it will serve you well for the rest of your life. 

 

Try some good old fashioned self-help before you touch psychedelics (Check out the Actualized.org textbook for this)

 

Also, don't drink too much and don't get into bad habits like smoking weed every day. Alcohol and weed I have personally seen destroy young people's future. Also don't ever smoke nicotine (e-cigs or regular cigarettes), not even socially. A nicotine addiction is for life. It never leaves you and will seriously hinder your progress, just don't touch it.

Again, this is just my opinion. It sounded very paternalistic and like basic stuff, but it's getting the basics right that will set you up for life.

[Girzo]

4. The books with 5 points that you are interested the most in. I am in love with Radical Honesty, if you completely don't know where to start you can order this book. 

I have noticed that in Leo's dictionary "taking notes" means underlining the passage you like.  But do it however you like.

BookDepository.com has the best prices on English books. You can also try ordering from Amazon.de or Amazon.co.uk, but most of the time BookDepository will have a better price (the shipping cost is already included in the price, Amazon takes about $5 extra for shipping).

5. You can eat whatever and won't die. Wholegrain is ok. The general rule is eating more veggies and less red meat. Less sugar and salt, too. The best thing you can do is eat something and notice how you feel afterward.

6. Wim Hof's method is similar in some places but simplified and less meditative. He has been a yoga teacher so no wonder his technique resembles yoga. You can learn Kriya Yoga for free from kriyayogainfo.net, although paid books are easier to understand. You will be immensely thankful to yourself for starting a yoga practice at a young age.

8. Mushrooms in the Netherlands are only semi-legal, so there is still some risk. I have taken psychedelics for the first time at 19 years old, it turned out well. I think 18/17 can also be a safe age to start depending on how developed you are and if you don't overdo it. 2-3 times a year seems ok and not higher than 125mcg LSD or 4g dried mushroom. I highly doubt anyone younger is mature enough to handle it responsibly by themselves.

BTW, have you not seen this page? https://www.actualized.org/start I think this cheatsheet exhausts the topic.  

[RawJudah]

@Cepzeu you’re wrong about people being addicted to cigarettes all their life. People quit all the time and never go back. 

[Shadowraix]

1 hour ago, RawJudah said:

@Cepzeu you’re wrong about people being addicted to cigarettes all their life. People quit all the time and never go back. 

It really depends on you and knowing yourself, you're right though.

I hit e-cigs and vape hookahs socially but never had the desire to do it a lot. It was always with drinking or special occasions. Nicotine and even cocaine doesn't really phase me.

Not as many people are fortunate to have that high of immunity to addiction though.

[Ampresus]

@Cepzeu Thank your for answering man

@Girzo Thanks for some answers, I appreciate it.

On 5-9-2019 at 10:03 PM, Girzo said:

BTW, have you not seen this page? https://www.actualized.org/start I think this cheatsheet exhausts the topic.  

I have read that page 2 times.




Btw I am not planning to do smoking or getting high all day, I can see that I would be hurting my own future. Thanks for the thought tho.

[Rigel]

Learn as much as possible

[Cepzeu]

On 06/09/2019 at 5:21 PM, RawJudah said:

@Cepzeu you’re wrong about people being addicted to cigarettes all their life. People quit all the time and never go back. 

Be careful. I never said people don't quit. What I said is that a nicotine addiction is for life. Even people who quit and never go back still get cravings for nicotine. In my experience with talking with past smokers, they say that even though they stopped smoking 10 years ago they still wake up craving a cigarette. I'm not saying that it's impossible to stop cravings, I'm just saying that it is not the norm.

[bejapuskas]

@Ampresus  I've seen you create a thread similar to this multiple times in the past, do you actually meditate? I think it's very hard to quit porn without meditating, but after you start and quit porn, everything else will be easier. Just watch out for self-deception and manipulation, stay vigilant, listen to your body and sensations. 

[Hello from Russia]

I'd set a high priority into deliberately developing mastering and expertise in some domain that you like, so later you can avoid wage slavery and instead focus on your growing and enjoying life. 

[Ampresus]

@bejapuskas I have been consistently meditating for the last month after my break. Everyday in the morning 10 minutes. I realized I was pushing it too much by starting at 20 and working my way up to 50 in 6 months. I am taking it slow now.

@Hello from Russia Thank you for responding. You have any recommendations on what things to try to master that could be really relevant later in the future? I heard programming is booming.

[Hello from Russia]

1 hour ago, Ampresus said:

@bejapuskas I have been consistently meditating for the last month after my break. Everyday in the morning 10 minutes. I realized I was pushing it too much by starting at 20 and working my way up to 50 in 6 months. I am taking it slow now.

@Hello from Russia Thank you for responding. You have any recommendations on what things to try to master that could be really relevant later in the future? I heard programming is booming.

Whatever you like. You can make money off of pretty much anything if you're very good at that thing and learn some biz and marketing skills. You can make money off of bodybuilding coaching, diet coaching, graphic design, playing music, electronics, voice overing, copywriting (this is huge), online marketing, social media management, video editing, making illustrations, making AI algorithms, selling (being good at deals), project management.
There is tons of stuff, don't limit yourself to just programming because it's a trendy path right now. Following masses leads to mediocrity by definition

Edited September 8, 2019 by Hello from Russia

[Hello from Russia]

Hell, you can even become a Meditation and Yoga teacher and charge $ for it. I imagine it is very easy to setup in the current 21st society, especially if you live in the west. You can just rent a space in the gym and do marketing inside of the gym and on social media

[montecristo]

@Cepzeu I have to second the dont smoke weed every day thing. You might be fine, but it has potential to totally destroy a certain subset of the populations lives

[Jordan94]

Really good advices from @Hello from Russia  , I think that should be your number one priority (as it will also give you freedom in the future and develop a lot of things on the way)

And as he said don't try to pick something that you think will be a juicy domain or something like that, literally you could make a living out of anything, so chose from what you like (and are good/want to become good) and what you're interested in mostly

[bejapuskas]

@Hello from Russia  Being a yoga or meditation teacher might lead to a lot of devilry and hypocrisy, since @Ampresus  is not experienced enough. Don't take it personally or anything, but I just don't think you have enough knowledge for these things yet.

[Ampresus]

@bejapuskas Don't worry, I don't either. I am no enlightened being, no Osho or Leo. I wish sometimes I was Terence Mckenna, but those are dreams

His advice is really helpful though.