 When you're a kid and you're growing up, the people around you seem to have it all figured out. The authority figures of your parents, your teachers, and people around you, maybe in your church or community, and they seem to think that they know what's best for you, but I'll be the first to tell you that's bullshit because they may have good intentions, but they don't know what you want deep down to do. And in this video, I wanna share some really essential keys to building an incredible life by ignoring some of that advice. What's up you guys? Alex Hein here over at Modern Health Monk. So before we jump in, I've put together a free journaling worksheet right below this video, that first link. If you're trying to figure out how to get your life together, how to design your dream most ideal life, check it out right below this video and it'll help you have some simple exercises you can do today. Now, if you want to transcend a mediocre life, if you wanna do anything other than what you see the people around you doing, I would not advise you to take advice from the masses. And look, chances are your parents and your advisors fall into the category of the masses. When I was 21, I wanted to book a one-way ticket to China and become a monk and a kung fu master. Now, how the hell do you think my parents took that, right? Did they think that was a good idea, a practical idea, a financially sound idea, a safe idea, you know? You can guarantee that they didn't think that was a good idea on any front. But for me, my gut feeling was that if I don't do this now, I'm never gonna do it. And this was my deepest, most exciting, passionate childhood dream that I always wanted to do. When we talk about our friends and our advisors and our people around us, what they often want you to do is often what they did, which is usually follow the safe, secure path in life. So I bought this one-way ticket to China and you better believe, even when I got to China, people were saying, when are you coming back? What are you doing with your life? Why don't you get a safe, secure job or be an accountant or be a traditional doctor? Something that has traditional security and stability. The problem is, almost everyone is gonna be giving you advice from their perspective, which is, they want to see you be stable. They wanna see you be successful. They wanna see you be a productive member of society, whatever your culture is programming you to believe. But the problem is, a lot of those same people giving you advice, they themselves are not happy. They themselves are not fulfilled. They themselves have not a small twinge of regret, but a bucket, a sea of regret, because they didn't do the things that they always wanted to do. And so it becomes just a familial curse where my dad was an immigrant and so he took the safe, secure job, but there was something else he always wanted to do. And then my mom was from this family and struggled financially, so she says, listen son, get the safe, secure job. And that trip to China maybe just like, wait til you're like 60 or 65 or something. Inevitably, if you don't want to live the average mediocre life, but you take advice from people who are living that life, you're gonna get the same advice that produced the average, regular, picket white feds 2.5 kids life. And if you don't want that, maybe you should be very careful about taking that advice. So your friends and your family, they honestly cannot give you advice that they don't embody. I know that sounds maybe obvious, but are you taking financial advice from people who aren't financially secure or let's say wealthy? Are you taking advice on how to be a millionaire from people that aren't millionaires? I mean, I once sat down with someone that was just a regular worker and we were talking about money and finance and my plans for financial security in the future and always increasing my income over time. And he was like, yeah, you know, that's funny. You say like, when I become a millionaire, like that's cute. Don't you know that people only inherit that money or are born into it or get lucky with a Lado? He actually believed that the only way to make a million dollars a year or have a million dollar net worth or a million dollars in the bank was to inherit it or win the Lado. He literally believed that. But even when you look at the research done on most millionaires, they're entrepreneurs. The majority of new millionaires each year are entrepreneurs that build their own businesses. So if I was an impressionable young kid, which thankfully I've never been, if I was this authority figure who is 60, I could easily project on him and say, wow, he knows life. That's so discouraging. He said, I have to inherit it or I have to play Lado. But that isn't true. And so when you take advice from people, it's very important to see, are they living the life that I actually want? Because those same people will keep you in a small little box and you'll never have the success you want. You'll never have the travels you want. You'll never reach the potential to do the things you actually want to do in life because some authority figure around you said that it wasn't possible. Or this is how it is. These are the rules, right? And reality is, that's probably not true. Now in my mind, there are only two things that stand between where you are or who you are and where you want to be or who you want to be. And those two things are the same throughout time. They will always be the same things through time. And they will be these recurring sort of roadblocks. And those two things are fear and social pressure. Now the story of Paulo Coelho, the author of The Alchemist is really interesting because you can see how it embodies both of these two barriers. With Paulo Coelho, he grew up and he always wanted to be an author. He wanted to be a creative, an artist. He grew up in Brazil and his parents committed him to a mental institution multiple times. Basically because, you know, there are associations that if you became a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, a traditional status position, you'd be financially secure. And especially in a country that's corrupt, that was very important to his family, you know, middle-class family that wanted that stability. But he always knew internally what he wanted to do. Every time they committed him, apparently, he said that he had escaped these mental institutions. But deep down, he always had the feeling of what he wanted to do. And he was brave enough to follow that Dharma, to follow that personal legend, to follow that calling to do something other than what he'd seen everyone else around him doing, which is always the hardest thing. Because anytime you're doing something where you don't see anyone else doing it, it's extremely scary because it's almost like being socially excommunicated. If no one you know is an entrepreneur and you're an entrepreneur, now you're suddenly existentially alone because you don't know anyone else who's doing that. So Paulo said that after he had escaped these mental institutions, he had committed himself to following his Dharma, to being a writer and to being a creative. And he had passed the first test, which is the test of fear. The fear of what if I do what I really wanna do and it doesn't work out and I'm in a worse place later? Or it doesn't work out and then everyone excommunicates me, right? I get made fun of by my friends. My parents say, see, I told you so, it wouldn't work out. Or there's something else where I become different from the people around me. That's test number one. And the second one is social pressure, which is the voices of your friends and your family and whoever that really do have your best interests at heart, but they're operating from this very limited perception of life. They themselves make all their decisions from fear and social pressure, right? Your parents do the same thing. Are they working the job they want? Or are they working the job that's financially secure to support their family? It's understandable. We don't need to hate them for it, but are they themselves embodying those two traits? Bravery, doing what you want and not being afraid where other people think. Those two things are the things that will set you free, especially if you're following an unconventional path that no one else has done. If you follow a traditional path, it's easy. Everyone knows it. But when you follow an unconventional path, there is no map. And so you have to be the cartographer. You have to be the person who's designing the map and then even following the trail on the map. So whether it is you want to do an unusual career or go on an unusual trip or have an unusual relationship, if you can conquer these two things, fear and social pressure, which is also just fear, you'll be able to be that one in a million that follows their Dharma, follows their soul path, their gut to build whatever life is their absolute dream life. And that's something that ironically, when you reach that mountaintop, suddenly all those same people that told you to stay safe and play it safe and be small, will suddenly admire you and respect you because you were brave in a way that they were not brave enough. And you were brave enough to fulfill your Dharma and your calling in a way that 99% of people are not able to. And then you will become the advisor for them on their own soul path. And that's a pretty incredible place to be. I'm gonna leave you there for today, guys. Don't forget to check out the free journaling worksheet that will help you clarify what you really want in your dream life right below this video. And I'll see you in the next video.