The Good Life Is Closer Than You Think

A couple years ago I graduated from university. I studied economics and finance. Surprise. Like the rest of the world.

I never even second-guessed it. I never sat down in my whole life and asked myself: “what the hell do I want to do with my life?”

I’ve always been a good learner, so university was a no-brainer. My parents used to say: “when you have a degree, you always have a plan B. So get your degree first”.

So here I was, 25 years old, a masters degree in finance, and no idea what carrier I wanted to do.

Naturally, I applied for a job at a bank and got into finance.

I like my job. I’m good at it. The money is good. But there’s something missing.

And I see this in all my co-workers eyes.

If you work at an office yourself, you know what it is. It’s all around you.

Life becomes mundane. Life becomes monotonous.

You start living life on auto-pilot.

Autopilot is a contagious disease

It’s everywhere. And the older you get, the more susceptible you are.

Auto-pilot happens when you do the same thing over and over again.

The first 2 months at your new job are exciting. Everything is new. You learn every day. But then you get the hang of it.

And the learning stops.

You can do the work without thinking. Like all your coworkers. In other words: auto-pilot kicked in.

Talking about what you did on the weekend. What you’ll do next weekend. How your favorite sports team played. Every single week.

Sounds familiar? I hope not.

But chances are, that it sounds familiar, or will sound familiar in the future if you don’t act on it.

Now.

The anti-dote to auto-pilot

Have you ever wondered why a mundane life happens once you get a (real) job?

Have you ever wondered why the first 2 months on your new job are exciting? Why kids are never living on auto-pilot? Why some people radiate energy? And others don’t?

The anti-dote to a dull, monotonous and complacent life is:

Awareness. Presence. Consciousness.

The first 2 months at your job, you are operating at peak awareness. You want (need) to learn everything. You are eager to learn.

Kids have a whole world to explore. Every day is like a new day for kids. Kids are fully engaged with life itself.

It’s this energy, this mindset, this view on the world, that keeps you from a monotonous life.

Somewhere along the line we “thought” we had to become all serious and grow up. Which is true. Because your responsibilities grow.

But this doesn’t mean that you can’t be fully engaged in life.

You can do your work on complete auto-pilot. And you can do it with full presence, full awareness.

The result of the work will be the same. You’ll finish it. The the way you experience the day is completely different. Completely the opposite.

There’s a reason why Randy Pausch (scientist) said to “never lose your child-like wonder. It’s just too important. It’s what drives us.”

When you lose your child-like wonder, you lose your drive.

Luckily, you can gain back control of this child-like wonder.

Raise Your Level Of Awareness

There’s a reason why it seems like kids are (almost) always happy and energetic: because they are. Kids live in the present.

What you have to understand, is that there are different ‘levels’ of conscious. Levels of awareness. This was first brought into map by David Hawkings. He created the map of consciousness:

The more aware you are, the ‘higher’ you are on the map of consciousness. The more you experience states of peace and completeness.

Someone who is angry all the time hasn't reached the level of awareness to realize that being angry doesn't serve you. He is just not conscious enough.

They are living life through a different paradigm. A different 'filter'.

And this is the case for every person on Earth. We are all in different states of consciousness. So we are all viewing the world through a different paradigm.

There are no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ states. It’s not someones fault that they are in a survival paradigm. Because these people don’t realize that they are in a survival paradigm. Because they are not conscious enough to realize this.

Ignorance is bliss

But is it? Living your whole life in a state of despair or pride isn’t the best state to be in.

Not being aware of all the negative stuff in the world might be nice. But the other side of the coin is that you are also not aware of all the positive stuff in the world.

But you are reading this newsletter. So you now know that there are higher states to be in.

You raise your level of awareness so that you can experience the world (and your life) more fully.

The higher your consciousness, the better your experience in this game of life.

You can raise your consciousness. You can raise your awareness. You can be in states of bliss and joy and love.

It’s just takes time and effort. Reaching the kingdom of heaven doesn’t come that easy.

How to raise your consciousness

Just like everything else in life: you train it.

It's like lifting weights in the gym. But now you do it mentally. Instead of gym sessions, do meditation sessions.

Every day, block out time to meditate. Start with 10 minutes. And increase the time under tension of meditating.

At first, this will be terrible. Focusing on your breath for 10 minutes will feel like a lifetime. Your thoughts will fly in every direction possible. But after a couple sessions, you'll feel the difference.

You'll feel more clear.

And a little time after that, you’ll notice your thoughts change. Your thoughts become friendlier. To yourself, and to others.

Slowly, you’ll become kinder. More aware and more present.

And one day, you’ll hear the birds chirping. And a smile will appear on your face.

The beauty of life is not in vacations, expensive cars and mansions (even though this is beautiful too).

The beauty of life is in the small moments. Sipping coffee on a cold day after a run. The first sun rays on your skin in spring.

This is what it means to move on higher on the map of consciousness.

Other ways to increase your levels of awareness:

• Be more in nature

• Read books that challenge your current worldview

• Microdosing psylocobin

How to break the cycle

All meditation does is making you more aware of your thoughts.

Your thoughts create your words and habits. Your words and habits create your actions. Your actions create your life. Your life is your reality.

Your thoughts create your reality.

Or as Neale Donald Walsch put it: Your thoughts create your reality. Your mind is more powerful than you know.

Breaking free more your negative patterns and habits and shitty life starts with identifying your thoughts. Toss out the ones that don’t serve you. Double down on the ones that do serve you.

When you start going down this path, it will shock you how many self-destructing thoughts you have. And how little self-constructing thoughts you have.

Once more aware of your thoughts, simply replace the negative once with a positive one.

Realize you are thinking: “I’m not good enough for this”, and replace it with “I can learn and do anything in this world”.

I’m not saying that it will be easy. Your whole life you have been scrutinizing yourself. You have been downplaying yourself. Breaking this pattern takes effort, energy, and intention. But the rewards are infinite.

Do you

As you get older, you'll spend less and less time with friends, and more and more times by yourself.

Practicing spirituality, raising your awareness, all lead to one thing: becoming more at peace with yourself. And by yourself.

99% of people never get to a state where they can be alone, and genuinely be at peace. They need distractions. Other people to make them happy.

This means that your happiness is literally in the hands of other people. You depend on others for your well-being.

Meditating, in all it's forms, teaches you to be okay with the present moment. It's teaches you to develop deep okay-ness.

No matter how rich you get, if you never raise your conscious to the level of serenity and bliss, you'll never be happy.

You will still constantly need more distractions.

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