Tell Us How You Got Into Personal Development

[Leo Gura]

Share your story, how you discovered personal dev, and what struggles you've overcome.

Here's an example from me:

Name: Leo Gura
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Location: Las Vegas, USA
Occupation: Personal Development Speaker & Entrepreneur
Marital Status: Dating
Kids: No
Hobbies: enlightenment, meditation, personal development, reading, learning, nature, healthy eating

I got into personal development in 2007 when I started my first online marketing business in Boston and then Dallas, Texas. From there I started reading more and more self-help books until somehow I stumbled upon the pickup community -- a community of guys who learn how to get better at attracting women. I sucked with women and dating a lot back then so I hit it really hard and spent the next two years immersing myself in mastering the art of dating. In doing so I delved even deeper into developing myself. During that time I discovered life coaching and became certified as a coach. Then I launched Actualized.org, which was intended to be a personal development blog. Then I started making more and more videos until the thing ballooned into what it is today.

Personal challenges I've overcome:

• Was fat my whole life until age 21
• Absolutely sucked at attracting women
• Used to be very shy, introverted, and socially awkward
• Started my own business and became financially independent
• Cleaned up my diet A LOT, now eating mostly vegetarian
• Learned weightlifting
• Changed careers and finally found my life purpose
• Started my dream business: Actualized.org

What I'm working on now:

• Working on enlightenment
• Working on improving my health & diet
• Working on being more authentic in relating to others
• Working on growing and deepening Actualized.org

[Rayko]

Name: William Shepherd
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Location: Anchorage, Alaska
Timezone: UTC/GMT -9 hours (AKST)
Occupation: Data Entry Contractor 
Marital Status: Married
Kids: One, he just turned 20!
Hobbies: Positivity, self-improvement, meditation, travel, computers

I started dealing with crippling panic attacks in 2008 after a life time of avoiding my problems, and my true potential,  as much as possible.  I finally got the message in 2011 that I needed to make drastic changes in my life. I started by quiting smoking and reducing my caffeine intake. Those successes gave me hope and helped stabilize me to the point I felt confidant enough to ask my now wife out on a date back in 2012. My wife was, at the time, in training to be a Unity Minister.  I started associating with a much more positive group of people, largely thanks to her, and I reaped the benefits of these loving and supportive friendships. In 2014 I began studying positivity, taking online courses from the preeminent positivity psychologist Barbara Fredrickson from the Unity of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. In the fall of 2015 my wife became the Senior minister at Unity of Anchorage and we moved by rental truck from Kansas City, MO to Anchorage , AK.  I must confess I had Leo's videos in my bookmarks for a long time before I finally watched them, but I watched them at a time that was perfect for me to hear what was being said. I look forward to engaging in discussions with all of you, growing, and helping where I can.

Personal challenges I've overcome:  

Quit Smoking

Drastically reduced Caffeine intake

Lost 65 lbs last year

Eating Healthier

Started an everyday meditation practice 

Become much more Positive, confidant and outgoing

 

What I'm working on now:

Learning about Enlightenment

More meditation

Finding my purpose

Overcoming Procrastination

 

 

Edited February 5, 2016 by Rayko

[Kelley White]

 

Name: Kelley White
Age: 53
Gender: Female                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Location: Newport, WA USA
Occupation: Author, Public Speaker, Content Curator, Owner/Creator Gigi’s Magic Garden, Creator:  Wonderland Prison Art Project, Creator; Wonderland Interactive DBT site, Certified Reiki Master, Ordained Dudist, Disabled Veteran.
Marital Status: Separated
Kids: Survived raising 4
Hobbies: Writing, Research, Organic Gardening, Fiber Arts, Art, Reading, Music, Film, Philosophy, Physics. Metaphysics, Self-Actualization, Transhumanism, Technology and Artificial Intelligence, Psychology, Jungian Archetype, Meditation, Trance, Yoga, Astro-mechanics, Astrobiology, Science Fiction, All things Alice in Wonderland.

 

I have been into personal development all of my life as well as public service.   I have a background in Law, Law Enforcement, Corporate Security,    Private Investigations, Real Estate and high end retail sales. In 2003 my oldest son was charged with murder in a high profile murder case; he is currently serving forty to life.  

Needless to say this event, coupled with lifelong trauma set me on the path to serious self-discovery and internal reflection which led me to science and healing through creativity.  

I began writing poetry and essays on Facebook three years ago.  That transformed into writing for numerous on-line publications. 

I am currently working on two books, one a poetry collection, the other science fiction.   As a veteran I took an intensive Dialectic Behavioral Therapy Course; I recently created an interactive DBT concept which is located in the Beta testing phase of Weare8.   

I have begun to create Wonderland Prison Art Project which is meant to encourage self-reflection and self-actualization in prisons through the promotion of art and creative writing from inmates around the world.  This Project was gifted to the future by Francesca Ferrando; Post humanist author and Philosophy Professor at NYU.   

I have also created and founded Gigi’s Magic Garden, an organic gardening and handcrafted soap making business.   I do reiki work for free for those in need; I am currently working towards attaining training to become a life coach.  I am a member of LifeBoat, Humanity Plus, MoveOn,Org. Global Citizen, Take Part Daily, and Weare8.

Issues I’ve overcome

Child Sexual Abuse

Domestic Abuse

Severe Trauma

High Profile Murder case involving my son

Sexual Assault

Military and Law Enforcement Trauma

Opiate Addiction (Clean 7 going into 8 years)

Issues I am working on

             Overcoming Emotional Flashbacks which default to shame/self-loathing

             Finding my own authentic voice

Overcoming agoraphobia

Sense of core constancy of self.

Overcoming Panic and anxiety

Improving Self-care; diet, exercise.

Working on taking my business endeavors to the next level, confidence.

Edited February 5, 2016 by Kelley White
spacing issue

[Guest]

hello,

I'm Mike. I'm 31 years old and i live in Swapscott MA, which is about 20 mins from Boston. 

I'm Self/un-employed for about 5 month now

I have have 3 kids, 1, 6 year old "dude" and 4 year old twins.

Me and my fiance have been engaged for 5 years after the birth of our first son.

My hobbies are strange to list because they've changed a lot in the last 6 months but here we go.

• Ruthless introspection/self questioning
• "Informal" meditation
• Pursuing enlightenment 
• Reading
• Playing with my kids/dog
• Working with my hands for various ...stuff
• Long walks on the beach, lol seriously

 

I got into self help in last year and dove in head first. I've always had that nagging feeling that things aren't what they seem sense a young age, but took to science to look for that answer, it didn't get me far. Last year was the blow up year though, with a massive fall-out with my fiance. To our relationship was in trouble is an understatement. To keep it short she had gone away on a trip that had been planned for a while and i was left with the family to take of and I had two options. Leave, or fix things. Giving the nature of my personality, I decided to fix things. I stumbled on Leos video of "letting go". Down the rabbit hole I went and the rest is boring history. (My fiance and I have worked everything out and are living a beautiful life raising our kids  

Very happy to be here and looking forward to this

cheers

[MIARIVEL]

Name: Mia Rivel

Age: 29

Gender: Female

Location: Sydney, Australia

Occupation: Personal Development Life Coach & Mentor

 

Hobbies:  Personal Development, Learning from other Coaches & Leaders, Psychology, Mentoring, Health & Fitness, Photography

There was a period in my life where I suffered from severe depression and felt so alone in my life. My sister gave me a personal development book which I fell in love with and I started to read more books on personal development and I discovered personal development videos on you tube. I came across Leo’s channel (believe it or not) and the first video I saw of his was the concept on mastering emotions, and his perspective on emotions opened my eyes up into understanding myself more. So I started to watch more of his videos and for a long time I woke up listening to Leo’s videos while getting ready for work every morning which changed the outlook of my days. I started to love life again. Because of Leo and other Coaches and personal development books, my life has shifted incredibly for the better and now I’m just so honored to be apart of this community. 

Personal challenges I've overcome:  

• Overcoming severe depression
• Finding my purpose in life
• Starting and building a business in which I never thought was possible
• Letting go of past hurts and grievances which I struggled with for a long time.

 

What I'm working on now:

• Myself as a person, Coach, Mentor & Counsellor
• Giving back more to my community reaching more people to help
• Finding clarity
• Building my business
• Perfecting the art of execution
• My health & fitness

[Elton]

Name: Elton Mascarenhas

Age: 24

Gender: Male

Location: Mumbai, India

Occupation: Engineer

Marital Status: Single

Kids: No

Hobbies :Listening to music,driving

I got into personal development in 2007, I came across a book called the Magic of thinking big, read The Powers of the sub-conscious mind and how to get from where you are to where you want to be in the time-span of 2007-15... not that slowly :-D didn't take those exercises seriously at all saw the secret too in that period.As I was dealing with emotional pain (didn't know much about females then even though i thought i knew) i came across actualized.org videos trying to self actualize ever since ... Leo is trying to kill his ego at this point and i'm want to build a really strong one...

Personal challenges I've overcome:

• Graduated last year 
• Have achieved open mindedness to some degree and built some confidence. 

What I'm working on now:

• Establishment of the meditation Practice
• Working out 
• Finding my Life Purpose
• Being on track

Edited February 10, 2016 by Elton

[Thomas Taschler]

Name: Thomas Taschler
Age: 25
Gender: Male
Location: San Candido, Italy
Occupation: Post office clerk
Marital Status: Single
Kids: No
Hobbies: Technology, traveling, riding motorcycle, karting

I actively started personal development two years or so ago when I realized how much I sucked in dating. I started searching online "what women really want". Everywhere there was told that self confidence is key. At that time I was not able to define this term (maybe I am not yet).

Then I stumbled upon "Vin di Carlo's Pandora's Box". Which categorizes women and is something like a "how to get women to devote to you". After/while studying and applying stuff told there (it works to a certain degree) for fun, there was a girl i really liked (and still do). I started applying those techniques to our rapport. It worked, but I felt very guilty for being manipulative. So I decided to back off and concentrate on my career.

The self confidence I gained from that helped me to get the position in the company I have now. But then, after some months in this position I was wondering if this would be my career end point. So I started again to watch videos about what successful people do or don't and some YouTube suggestions later I found Leo's videos and actualized.org.

And here I am

Personal challenges I've overcome:
• Absolutely sucked at attracting women
• Used to be very shy and introverted
• Started my own business 5 years ago and failed.

What I'm working on now:
• Starting a new business right now
• Working on being more authentic in relating to others

[Natura Sonoris]

Hello everyone,

My name is Alex, I am 23 years old and I live in Belgrade, Serbia. My occupation is Audio Engineering/Sound Design/Music Production.I am not married nor i have kids.

I started doing personal development around 2 years ago when stumbled upon one of Leo's videos. I noticed the interesting approach he had while discussing the topic so i checked out the website. From that point on, my life completely changed. I had a clear look from above how stuck i was and I knew that if I did not check out Actualized.org, my quality of life would decline in really bad direction.

Personal changes i overcame :

- Worked and still working on my victim mentality i adopted due to many factors i could not control. I was born in wealthy family and i got really spoiled by my mother and lived inside a bubble that needed to burst.That resulted in really bad social life . Now I behave more like responsible and mature person and I really pay attention when I do same bull***t from time to time. And of course, i am taking 100% responsibility when i can ( when i am acting from awareness)  

- Worked so much on my self esteem that kinda ruined my previous relationship and now i kinda feel like i can deal with certain issues that i face.

- There are many more stuff but i like to keep things short

Now i am focused on my music project and doing Enlightenment work. And my next goal is to work more on my dating life. There are many things i plan for next 10 years but one at the time.

 

 

Edited February 5, 2016 by Natura Sonoris

[AlmostActualized]

Name: Max Sanchez
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Location: Orange County, USA
Occupation: Business Owner
Marital Status: Single
Hobbies: cooking, healthy eating, personal development, nature, running, mountain biking, traveling

I got into personal development late last year after I caught my ex girlfriend cheating on me. I was so lost and confused and didn’t know what had happened in the relationship that made her do this. She then wanted another chance but I was determined to move on and work on myself instead of spending another 3 years worried about someone else. So I started to do some research online and now my quest has landed me here. I got to say that I feel a lot healthier mentally and physically.

Personal challenges I've overcome:

• Did not give the woman I was about to marry a second chance
• Felt out of shape all last year until these last 2 months, lost about 25 pounds in 2 months.
• Started my own business and became financially independent
• Cleaned up my diet A LOT, now eating in more instead of fast food
• Run a lot, every day at least 4 miles
• Don’t have to take orders from no boss

What I'm working on now:

• Working on enlightenment
• Working on a second dream business
• Working on improving my health & diet
• Working on being more funny
• Working on growing and deepening my Psychology

[Lady Peacock]

 

 

Name: Louise Cunningham

Gender: Female

Location: British citizen, currently living in Bangkok Thailand

Occupation: Life Coach, specializing in spiritual development and daily problem solving + HR consultant

Hobbies:  Meditation, fitness gym, reading self help books, writing/ journaling, prayer, conduct practical studies on thoughts, emotions, human behavior, beliefs systems, ‘religions’ and philosophy.

 

It’s difficult for me to track my exact journey of self development  because I think I was just born to be this way , however one time of my life does stand out as a catalyst that pushed me much deeper and that was when I went on a strict diet plan (Candida diet). I had strict times that I could eat and only eat certain foods. While on this diet I had no choice but to master my emotions, otherwise I would have failed. During this time I was very depressed as I had my own business which I was struggling to cope with. I began practicing meditation and wham bam thank you mam….it was a great success. After some life changing experiences during my mediation, I decided I wanted more  and went to live in a Buddhist monastery for a few months in the UK before deciding to ordain as a Buddhist nun. Then I  lived and worked in the biggest Buddhist temple in the world in Thailand for a year and practiced mediation with the most profoundly enlightened monks, probably on the planet. My next plan was to go to Shri Lanka to ordain but then  I  realized that enlightenment is freedom, not conformism. After I made the important distinction between Buddhism and meditation, I felt that I can do meditation anywhere, so I became a  Life Coach and am also working as a HR/ Cultural Awareness Consultant in Bangkok. I  also went on to become a Certified Pranic Healer as part of my investigations in to the mysterious world of human beings :-) After brushing over many different 'religions', I delved deeply in to the Bible and Christianity which had also helped me to put life in to a bigger picture.

Personal Challenges I’ve overcome:

·         Bulimia

·         Depression, anxiety, stress, social anxiety.

·         Mental /emotional abuse

·         Party life style

·         Self criticism/ condemnation

·         Unforgiveness towards others

·         Victim mentality

·         Letting other peoples opinions be the benchmark for my worth

·         Acting  on impulse

·         Not accepting things the way they are

 

What I’m working on now

·         A Deeper level of presence at all times

·         Improving health and diet

·         Building Life Coaching Business

·         Writing books

·         Reducing sex trafficking in Thailand

·         Raising awareness about spiritual abuse

·          Building relationships with like minded people

·         Making sure I laugh at least once a day

·         Congratulating myself at least once a day

·         Using numbers (maths) more regularly

 

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2016 by Lady peacock

[Simon Zackrisson]

Name: Simon Zackrisson
Age: 22
Gender: Male
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
Occupation: Student
Marital Status: Single
Kids: No
Hobbies: Writing Music, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Singing, Healthy Eating (Addicted to mixing healthy vegetables in blender), Krav Maga, Computer Gaming :P, Smoking Weed, Psychedelic Drugs, Chess, Philosophy, Psychology.. Yeah wtf.. One could keep going. 

Been attempting to become a better version of myself for about two years now, with the initial inspiration emanating from stumbling over a Podcast called The Joe Rogan Experience. (This person Joe Rogan will Always have a special place in my heart.) After that, things started to become exponentially better, and as momentum in the right direction was being built, I stumbled over another vortex of positive energy. Guess three times of what place I'm thinking about now.  

What else. 
I like to try to see humour in a lot of things, including dark humour. I think this has been partly cultivated by the negativity I've experienced throughout my life. I can't really say that I've had tragic reasons in a conventional sense for the episodes of heavy depression, but I can say that I've had quite some dark periods in my life.

Personal challenges I've overcome:

• Basically quit cigarette smoking (Months without smoking, never said I quit though, since I will smoke if see fit. It's so disgusting though, it's almost like I wouldn't have a problem never touching it again.)
• Formed healthy exercise routines, will include yoga in soon future. (Need to become more flexible. Perhaps more spirituality will come for free as well. ) 
• Established priority for better sleeping routines. (This has been, and still is, one of my worst arch enemies.)
• Drastically reduced my distraction using video-games.  
• Started following a diet called LCHF, where you change your body's fuel from carbohydrates to natural fat. I have love for meat and fish.
• With more.

What I am working on now is basically to keep fuelling positive momentum, keeping aspirations in composing music alive, reduce overall anxiety, footsteps of enlightenment. And more.

Edited February 5, 2016 by Simon Zackrisson

[Alena K.]

I am Alena Krchnava, age 32, female, Slovakia, EU

Occupation: coach; NGO coordinator (work with disabled kids and youth)

Hobbies: jogging, trekking, experimental cooking, raw food diet, reading, understanding religious beliefs (as a non-religious person), psychology of human behavior

I got a chance to work as a coach in the travel business company I worked for. Started with no experience, and looking backwards, actually with a very shallow idea what coaching is about. Realized that it is a powerful stuff..and also realized that I have to first develop myself to be really great at this job. So I quit after 3 years and I slowed down my life to have more time to invest into myself. I am currently taking a course to become a certified coach. I am a big fan of coaching techniques. They are the ones that started shifting my life to a whole new level.

Personal challenges I've overcome:

Not accepting myself (was hyper-active "annoying" kid).

Quit smoking, drinking alcohol, overeating and lost weight.

Being very unconscious about how to live life, passive and quite negative.

Low self-esteem.

What I'm working on now:

Continue building my confidence.

How to be attractive for men.

Discipline in time management

Identifying my life-purpose.

Feels really great to list publicly the challenges I´ve overcome so far!

[Tancrede Pouyat]

Presentation :

• Name : Tancrède Pouyat
• Age : 20                    
• Gender : Male
• Location : Geneva, Switzerland                                             
• Occupation : College Student
• Marital Status : Single
• Kids : No
• Hobbies : psychological cybernetics, being an artist, healthy eating, self-improvement, self-regulation (as in, not too much of bad stuff, and more good stuff instead), visioning for the future, realising my life purpose.

So, it's June 2014, I'm sitting down in front of my new gaming computer, I've been skipping school for 8 months and been playing WoW for18 hours a day, I haven't had a shower in 10 days, I haven't been eating anything but pasta, pizza, fast food and other unhealthy stuff I gained 20 pounds in 6 months, I'm always tired, my bedroom is a mess, it smells horrible, and I drink 2 litres of wine every day. I decide to type in "How to Kiss a Girl" on Google, because I've never done that before. I get really in touch with this idea that I can actually develop myself to get better with girls. One thing leads to an other, I come across Leo's relationship videos, but I don't really take action on anything at all. Months go by, I get kicked out of school for not going, and I get thrown back into depression to a really deep level, almost killed myself. At this point, in January 2015, I start to take personal development seriously. Now, after a year, I have gotten Leo's Life Purpose course, and his book list, even though I'm only 20 I feel really passionate about my field of mastery, which is psychological cybernetics. I feel confident about the future, I know that I'm going to live an extraordinary life, even though I still haven't kissed anyone

Personal Challenges I've overcome :

• Massive Depression (even though that actually wasn't hard at all)
• Addiction-Driven Lifestyle
• Bad Physical Shape (always wanted to gain weight, then simply got fat, now getting lean muscle)
• Victimhood (actually still a little bit of a victim, but much better now)
• Always felt like I couldn't make friends, now knowing that it's a lot - a LOT - easier than what I though it was.

What I'm working on now :

• Deliberately practising psychological cybernetics
• Being an Artist, creating an audience to build a business around
• Working on my Life Purpose/Looking for it, even though I'm pretty certain of what it is
• Really starting to share my greatest gifts with the world

[Andrew]

Name: Andrew
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Location: London, UK
Occupation: Financial Analyst 
Marital Status: Dating
Kids: No
Hobbies: Self development , Travelling ,working out , healthy eating , Rugby 

I got into Self development at 18 when I read the Power of Now then later my sister gave me a self development book the principle message being you can change your life by changing your thoughts which has led me down this rabbit hole to here ! I took 5 months out last year to travel through North Central & South America where I had a lot of time to reflect and think about my life. 

Personal Challenges I've overcome 

- Letting go of difficult divorce of my parents 

- financial hard times while studying for my degree at University 

- Partying/Drinking to much/drinking to escape 

- Unemployment after moving to a new City 

- Succeeding in a very fast paced aggressive business culture to advance in my career 

What I'm working on now

- becoming my authentic self

- discovering then fulfilling my life purpose. 

- Increasing my self esteem and self confidence 

- Letting the real me shine through 

- Finding my spine in life: Being more assertive instead of a people pleaser 

- Finding and then curing myself of Neurosis 

 

[Achilles]

Name: Pedro Silva 
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Location: Lisboa , Portugal 
Occupation: biomedical engineering, student 
Marital Status: Single 
Kids: No
Hobbies: meditation, personal development, reading, learning, muay Thai, ultimate life purpose course, exercise 

 

My English isn't perfect, reason that I unfortunately didn't apply to be moderator :(. 

I got into personal development in 2006, I when I discovered a torrent about how to attract women. Since that I studied a lot of personal development stuff and  I commit myself to be happy for the first time in my life. Now I can say that I'm happy, but I still want to achieve big things in my life. The first time that I saw a Leo's video I became immediately excited! The way he speaks and explain many things is very special and let me to understand things much better. Now I'm doing his Ultimate life purpose course, and finally I'm discovering the reason to be here, that course is priceless and definitely will change my all life! 

 

Personal challenges I've overcame:

- Now I'm happy! 

-I've started two startups without success but it was a beginning 

-I can understand the way people function and I accept it, which is so important. 

 

What I'm working now:

-I'm finishing the ultimate life purpose course (I'll miss it) 

-meditating every single day

-Reading some that Leo recommends  

-programing my unconsciont mind

 

I'm very excited to be a part of this forum. Together we will achieve big things! 

[Rares]

Name: Andrei Rares
Age: 27
Gender: Male
Location: Iasi, Romania
Occupation: Student
Marital Status: Dating
Kids: No
Hobbies: personal development, learning, fotbal, tennis, mountain trips, philosophy, history, nlp.

At 25 years old I seen that its something wrong in life. My colleges who were very good in college had crappy jobs...and other colleges which were not so good had very nice jobs and a good social status. I start to read and soon I realized that success in life its a combination between: knowledge, social skills, flexibility, a good health: mental, emotional, physical, a continue hunger for more...

 

Personal challenges I've overcome:

I did not  know my priorities

Did not understand women at all (I'm very logic)

Used to be emotional unstable and hide my emotions

I did not had self confidence

Fear of public speaking

Time management

What I'm working on now:

Master emotions

How social dynamics works

Career (start my dream job/projects/business)

And I want to live in alignment with my own thoughts, passions and values. THE LIFE ITS GETTING BETTER EVERY DAY

 

Edited February 6, 2016 by Rares

[Guest]

Name: Lars

Age: 25

Gender: Male

Location: Cheltenham, UK

Occupation: software tester (finding a life purpose is a major area of focus for me at the moment)

Marital status: dating

Kids: 5 year old daughter

Hobbies: music, art, writing, reading, meditation, yoga, personal development, philosophy

 

I’ve dabbled in personal development for many years but have only started taking it seriously after stumbling across Leo’s channel 8 months ago when looking for ways to improve my meditation. The last 5 years have been quite a process of transformation for me, following an early fatherhood and a very tough couple of subsequent years. I’ve gone from what us brits call a ‘wasteman’, primarily concerned with getting fucked up and lackadaisically tinkering with music to someone concerned with living life passionately, deeply and with purpose. I’m tremendously excited to have embarked on the path of self-actualisation - I feel like the kid Leo talks about in ‘vision for a self-actualised life’, buzzed up on the discovery that an amazing life can be engineered  Big up yourselves people, it's all about this community - you guys rock!  

 

Personal challenges I’ve overcome:

- Overseas fatherhood/ legal battle for custody/ toxic relationship, etc

- Quit smoking

- Gone vegan

- Excessive partying

- Built several habits: exercise, yoga, visualisations/ affirmations, italian practice, GTD weekly review, journalling

- Fixed a paralysing lack of energy that was really getting in the way of my goals and happiness

 

What I’m working on now:

- finding a life purpose/ building a vision of my future

- mindfulness/ ‘beginner’s mind’/ getting control over my perspective

- social skills

- self esteem

- improving my balance of theory/ action (I’m guilty of procrastinating via overthinking!)

Edited February 6, 2016 by Stretch

[Olafur Thorsteinsson]

Name:  Ólafur Tryggvi
Age: 18
Gender: Male
Location: Fellabær, Iceland (a smal town of 700 people)
Occupation: student
Marital Status: Dating
Kids: No
Hobbies: Traveling, learning personal development, learning new languegs, meditating, reading, journaling, volenteer in rescueing people in the mountains and helping people out that realy need help, volenteer in AFS exchange program.

I started 1.5 years ago. It all started with this thought in my mind "I am so horable with girls" and I was also bad at socialising in general. So I started looking for "what do girls want" on the internet. I found some hypnotizing bullshit first. I found RSD when I was looking for something on the internet and started learning from them and stoped this hypnotizing bulshit because it didn't feel right. The same week I found Leo. I was looking for the "law of attraction" movie on youtube, but it was alredy geting late and this moive was too long. So I found video from Leo on the side, shorter version about the movie. I watched it and it was so fucking boring to me. I was judging him as nerd how did never get laid in my mind, but I still keept whatching it to the end. In the end he sad something about "and come visit my webside, there I have some more stuff about pesonal growth..... ect" (you know what I am talking about if you have been whatching hes videos). And I was just like "whooo that  is what I was looking for" and whent on his side and I have not stoped whatching hes video sense then and I have a great respect for him now and he is the reason why almost the only thing that I think about to day is self-improvements, my emotions, how I can grow myself, pelaning to grow myself, thinking about my thinking patterns and how they are stoping me from acctiving my best authentic-self.

Personal challenges I've overcome:

• Shyness to other people (being other than myself)
• Over coming people pleacing mentality
• Socialising without being in my head all the time (am still working on it)
• Attracting girls
• Exchange student in Brasil
• Learn portugues
• Telling my parents from when I got so drunk in Brasil that I tryied to kill me (It was tharder to tell the truth to my parents then the experience becaus I could been send home for this. I am shamed of it)
• Over coming people pleacing mentality
• Telling other people from peronal development and meditation (It is so hard for me because nobody that I know does it)
• Better habbits
• The fear of what other people think of my mouth becaus it is awry when I smile
• abuse when I whas in my childhood

 

What I'm working on now:

• Being authentic to others and stop all lieing (if I want to say something but I don't say it becaus I thing the person would judg me for it is a lie in my mind becaus then I am holding something from the other person or hidding myself and that is lieing and self-destructing)
• finding my life purpose
• Being funny
• better in socialising
• changing my negative motivations to positive
• finding friends how have interest in learnig personal growth

 

[christianblake]

Name: Christian Baclao
Age: 20
Gender: Male
Location: Las Vegas, USA
Occupation: Dayjob working on Cars. Full-time self development junkie.
Marital Status: In a relationship
Kids: No
Hobbies: self development / spirituality / dating and pick-up / fitness / bodybuilding / health / reading / traveling / skateboarding / meditation

I first got into personal development when I started to work on my health and fitness in late 2013. My primary concern was to look as good as I can. Following certain youtube fitness gurus I slowly became versed in a little bit of personal development. I remember one day vividly typing in the word "discipline" into google and stumbled across Brian Tracy's Audiobook. This was the first true self development content I discovered. Just like Leo, I eventually became involved in the pick-up / dating community. That was my pure focus for months on end. I knew it wasn't my end goal to just be good with women and fortunately the community was well versed in self development content. This eventually got me down into the road of creating a business, which I dropped and then eventually into full self-actualization where my main concern is emotional / psychological / spiritual growth. More intrinsically focused rather than on money , health, and women, and lifestyle. (Though this is still a focus for me). Finishing up Leo's life purpose course as I type this. Working on becoming a life coach. 

Personal challenges I've overcome:

Able to build some muscle being skinny my entire life. Though I still consider myself still skinny

Improved skills with women. Confidently can approach and attract women.

Really improved emotional growth and self understanding.

Independence from parents. Live on my own

 

What I'm Working On Now:

Enlightenment

Self-esteem work

Deeper personal development. Really getting into academia and psychology compared to general self help books.

Getting on track for building the body that I want and consistently eating healthy

My relationship issues with my girlfriend, friends, and family.

Becoming a life coach.

My dating skills with women.

[Siggi]

Name: Sigurður Andri Agnarsson
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Location: Reykjavík, Iceland
Occupation: Personal Development, Football (You guys call it Soccer)
Marital Status: Single
Kids: No...........
Hobbies: Self-Devolpment, football and hanging out with friends/family

I got into personal development in 2015 when I started watching you after my break-up with my ex-girlfriend. I first noticed you when I was making a joke to my ex-girlfriend because I thought I didn't have that many friends and send her a picture on SnapChat of your video on how to make friends. I always thought the mind was an underrated skill and my mother is finishing her masters degree in psychology so I was very influenced by he.

Personal challenges I've overcome since I started watching your videos:

• Im much more aware of my emotions and can control them better
• Im starting to take responsibility of all my actions 

 

What I'm working on now:

• Making my mind solid as a rock
• Being complete
• My dream in becoming a professional footballer