“A sound soul resides inside a sound mind and a sound body.” –Soul Eater. In the last post we talked about using Bitcoin as the foundation of wealth for our future economic freedom. Take 10% of your income and buy bitcoin. 10% seems to be the universal consensus from all the wealth books I’ve read. The Richest Man in Babylon is my favorite because the wisdom feels ancient so it must be true. Make this automatic and never sell it. Don’t worry about your other expenses, you will figure it out because you’re smart. If you can manage that much, I will show you how to use your bitcoin to create wealth by applying the same strategy that the rich use once you have a respectable amount (as little as $400). Now you have a target to aim for and focus on. As Robert Kiyosaki said in his book Rich Dad Poor Dad, focus is acronym for: (F)ollow (O)ne (C)ourse (U)ntil (S)uccessful. You can finally release that gnawing mental drain and anxiety on your subconscious by freeing yourself from the uncertainty that your money will be worthless in the future. You can move forward knowing that this path will take you toward a destination worthy of your ambition and potential. You can rest easy that your family will have access to your bitcoin when you are gone, if you teach them the rules of the Information Age.
A word of advice about this period of time is to not fret over the details. A challenging part of realizing a worthy vision is to develop the faith required for its fulfillment. I believe in the “Trust, but verify” mentality of things but the verification can become an obsession for some unbalanced souls that inundate precious mental resources and time away from the true goal. Although I encourage everyone to do your own research (DYOR), the bitcoin rabbit hole will always be there whenever you want to know more. The fundamentals are immutable and will never change. From personal experience, this wonderland adventure into bitcoin and crypto lasted almost a year, turning me into a gluttonous zombie of crypto content to the point of insomnia and delirium. This ‘do or die’ tenacity was bred from the endless hours spent grinding various mmorpg’s as a youth attempting to learn and apply everything I could find about this strange virtual world. I told you mom it would pay off some day. If I learned anything from gaming, it is that the real endgame is always the outfits and who looks the coolest, money no object. The similarity of this phenomenon to the NFT craze going mainstream provides a practical application of status symbols reflecting social power from the principles of psychology.
In hindsight, I acquired the knowledge I sought within a few weeks but the mind simply doesn’t know when to stop. Ever go through a Netflix binge? Same concept. All I did was “orange pill” myself into having multiple nerdgasms of collective holy shit moments. When the time is right, everyone will have to go on this journey. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t completely understand it. There is so much data and superfluous information that goes into technology. We are willing to pay for convenience and functionality that requires the minimum necessary effort. Because nobody has a clue about what makes an iPhone work but we like that we can go to what we want in less than 3 thumb taps on the screen. Like comedian Ronny Chieng said in his standup, “We just… want shit… to work.” So even without a degree in engineering, you know just enough to recognize that there is no agenda other than giving you the awareness that bitcoin is only truly free market in the world. Common sense will tell you that you can place faith in it because it the only asset that is not controlled by any human, influenced by any entity, and is virtually immortal. It is an immutable law and that no one can ever change. If you die with your bitcoin wallet private keys in your head, then your bitcoin will be lost forever and the increased scarcity increases the value of the remaining supply. This is called a donation to the network. I believe this information will become a part of the normal childhood curriculum once the Information Age reinvents the antiquated educational system. Parents will recognize that the educational system is preparing their children for a world that no longer exists and will opt for Information Age education and skillsets. In order to be effective in the coming age, you must develop a balance in a conceptual framework I call the “Trinity of Self” which includes: the body, mind, and soul. Let’s get started.
The body is easy. It pretty much runs itself. It already knows what to do without being told to keep you alive. It has ways of communicating with you when you are hungry, in pain, thirsty, sleepy, hot, cold, horny, or a combination of two or more of them. Life was much simpler when there was a fewer selection of products. We drank water, ate organic, exercised regularly by running from sabertooth tigers, and participated in natural selection. Things were great as far as genetic competition was concerned for the survival of the species. This process allowed our ancient ancestors to pass on genetic qualities that allowed humans to survive through the ages. Oh how far have we fallen from a physical, genetic standpoint. We are living longer than ever but the quality of that life is up to interpretation. It is the threat of our lives that sets the polarity of possible experiences on the other end of the spectrum. We’ve opted for security and longevity in exchange for a diluted, less fulfilling version of life. This led our civilized practices to deify the mind as the most important part of the trinity of self.
Let’s do a thought experiment. If you draw a triangle, it should have 3 equal angles. If you make the triangle three dimensional, you get a tetrahedron, which is a triangular pyramid shape with four sides. R. Buckminster Fuller, past inventor and futurist, believed that the tetrahedron is the most stable structure in the universe for resisting gravity and force applied to the points. From the original triangle of your body, mind, and soul, the fourth point in this tetrahedron is your elevated, self-actualized self from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This enlightened self is transient in nature and the state can be threatened when one aspect of your trinity of self is out of balance. By focusing solely on a singular component, you upset the proverbial balance. Developing only the mind and disregarding the body and spirit, you alter the angles and structure of the best version of yourself. This compromises the integrity of the structure making it weaker against external forces like illness or negative emotions. For example, we’ve all seen the stereotypical computer super nerd with big brains, pale, skinny-fat body type, look like they do meth, and noisy breathing. Too often, poor posture, sedentary lifestyle, lack of sunlight causes the body to never fully develop even the most basic survival mechanisms like breathing. This is evident by hundreds of thousands of people in the world suffering from sleep apnea or other airway obstructions. James Nestor goes into great detail about this phenomenon and causes in his book, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art.
We already know the two things we need to optimize our health and reach our genetical potential: diet & exercise. Read or listen to Atomic Habits by James Clear on how to best get started on developing these positive habits. I just realized a “James” theme going on here. The name is Bond… Anyway, I’m attempting to point you in the direction of the good information and resources in a world drowning in misinformation. Their insight provides tools that you need to consider when making decisions to change the trajectory of your life and others. Another resource I recommend is Dr. Mercola, because he gave a medicine shattering presentation at Mark Moss’ Market Disruptors event in Florida. He talked about the dangers of seed oils and their direct correlation with heart disease and stroke. As nurses, we understand the importance of giving our patients good information and also to remain informed for our friends and family. Avoiding seed oils in cooking is the simplest “Pareto-level” change you can make for your health and longevity (Pareto is a dead smart guy who discovered the 80/20 rule in nature where 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes). I will refer to profound life-changing practices as “Pareto-level”, inferring that they offer the greatest benefit, for the least effort, in the simplest method possible. I’ve applied this change in my life and it’s been a shocking revelation how prevalent these oils are in modern culinary recipes all over America and the world. I personally had high cholesterol and could not for the life of me figure out what I was doing wrong. My problem is that I was trying unsustainable changes. Thank God I attended this event because Dr. Mercola offered me one acceptable substitute for seed oils: organic butter from cows who only eat grass. By giving me a positive replacement for a negative habit, I can finally make a change I will be able to sustain because nothing is lost. In fact, I happen to believe butter tastes better than the processed stuff. He admits to eating half a pound of butter every day and he appears to be in excellent health by assessing his skin condition, muscle tone, body weight, confidence level, all assessments that nurses are skilled at subconsciously. By stopping this single practice of consuming seed oils, I’ll guarantee that your health would benefit exponentially in ways you could not imagine. Now we have one concrete diet goal that is realistic, observable, achievable, and measurable. We have effectively identified the single worst thing in our diet and eliminating it for 80% of the benefit. I really love those odds and it’s a risk reward ratio that is infinite. Let’s move on to what people moan and groan about the most, exercise.
Exercise or physical training (PT) can be broken down into three categories: strength, mobility, and endurance. The quickest ones that come to mind are weight lifting, yoga, and running. But there are limitless ways to combine or apply these categories into an activity like a sport. You just have to pick one. If you can do something that combines two or all three categories, that is phenomenal. The best way to start is actually setting the easiest goal possible like “I will show up to the gym on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays”. You don’t even have to work out. According to Atomic Habits, just creating the habit of showing up will condition your mind to run a new pattern. Once you setup the pattern and habit of showing up, since you’re already there, you might as well do something. If the activity you chose doesn’t work out, try a different one. If you’re still stuck on deciding, you should ask yourself what personality type are you? Do you like doing things by yourself or with others? Do you enjoy being able to talk and network like in golf or prefer not to be bothered and listen to your favorite jams? These are questions that led me on some interesting paths including joining a hip hop dance class, dancing ballroom, signing up for a powerlifting competition, and running the Los Angeles Marathon before lockdowns in March 2020.
I know that I am an introvert by nature as most introverts should because we enjoy our alone time. I consider this knowledge a personal boon for those that spend more time in their inner worlds. However, the world tends to favor extroverts so I learned through trial and error how to turn on the extroversion charms when the situation calls for it. In any case, I gravitated toward activities I can do on my own so as to not make excuses for not doing it. I wanted to try so many different things and a better approach, according to Timothy Ferris, is to try one thing at a time and give it your complete focus. I decided to focus on a different category in different years of my life. I graduated high school at 5’9″, 120 lbs soaking wet. The dialogue in my mind was always, I am weak, I am scrawny. It’s strange how families can push a subliminal belief onto their young that has such powerful consequences as they grow. At that age, we soak in everything around us, including those negative perceptions and beliefs until we’re old enough to attempt to break them. I always wished to be bigger and stronger because I was always skinny and weak. Don’t underestimate the influence of these child insecurities, they stem from the core of our souls to dominate your thoughts and make you fail at the worst possible moments and reinforcing the belief that it must be true. Identify them and destroy or disrupt that pattern of thought in order change the belief you have about yourself.
When learning about a new subject, I am the type of person that first looks for answers in books. I have this firm belief that books are portals to the author’s subconscious. I believe that the subconscious possesses all the wisdom in the universe and puts into motion a series of events to help you reach the ideal you feed it. This wisdom seems to flow more readily through the fingers onto the written page. I decided to start with Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength. It is a Pareto-level approach to strength training. It was this foundation that led me to join a powerlifting gym where I learned about the “Thousand Pound Club.” Among weightlifters it is a membership fee paid in the sum total of your one-rep max of the three majors lifts: squat, bench press, and deadlift. After a few years of consistently lifting weights 3x a week with marginal gains, my consistent habits led to a sort of sudden metamorphosis in my body. It felt as if within 3 months I had this acceleration of muscle growth and strength after struggling to breakthrough a plateau I had for about a year. I realized what I was pushing against was another mental barrier or belief I had about myself. During my heavy sets, I believed I would get hurt, I believed my genetics were bad, I believed I could not get stronger than this, I believed in the limit. After the breakthrough, my strength became noticeable amongst the other gym goers, that I finally reached the starting line of a powerlifter. Shortly after the gym owner, a young and pretty girl, invited me to register as part of the gym’s team in the upcoming powerlifting competition. At first I hesitated but I ended up signing up on a half-hearted dare and didn’t want to disappoint the owner who probably asked me out of pity for my lack of social skills. I thought of it as an opportunity to be more friendly with the other hardcore gym goers. Having done the minimum training necessary to not completely embarrass myself on competition day, I was able to PR (personal record) all three of my lifts for a total 445kg or 979 lbs. This was just 21 lbs. shy of officially joining the club. I always wondered to what possible ends can I reach had I given it 100%. At the time, I was working night shifts, so I suffered from poor sleep and eating habits. I contemplated all the possible ways I could have improved my performance to get that last 21 lbs. Although I am not an official member of the Thousand Pound Club yet, for someone who was small and weak all of their life, it was still an unbelievable achievement. I ended up winning a USPA silver medal that day and buying my own power rack and barbell for my garage. From that day forward, a childhood story in my life was rewritten and I was able to change one of my biggest limiting beliefs. I am strong.