 There is a lot of crunchy manifesting advice on the internet and I'm sorry I've probably put some of it out there myself, but I'm pretty candid that I will share when I do some kind of weird experiment what actually ends up happening. But in this video I thought I would share four stories from my life about how learning to surrender, let go, trust has really made a huge difference in not only the results and the goals that I want, but also how I feel internally. What's up you guys? Alex Hein here. So before we jump in there's a link right below this video for a free goal-setting worksheet to help you plan out how to have the best year ever of your life. So there's a worksheet there that will help you design your dream life and figure out how to get it. So check it out as you go through this video because it's going to give you some good ideas. So piece of advice number one is to view every difficulty as part of your dharma or your kind of divine purpose. Now when I was in my last year of undergrad I always wanted to go into medicine specifically integrative or alternative medicine. And I had this dream one night where I was interviewing for medical school and there was a man and a woman and they asked that fateful question, why do you want to go to medical school? And I gave what I thought was my most impassioned emotional answer. I thought they were going to smile and be pumped and yes we want you, but I gave my answer and I don't remember what the answer was, but they both looked at me like it was the most pathetic, underwhelming answer. I said make a gazillion dollars. They looked at me as if I gave an answer that's stupid. Now that dream derailed me because I didn't apply to medical schools and I decided not to go to them and I didn't go to get my doctorate until another 10 years later when I was 29. But that was a fateful blessing because if I viewed that as the end of my life that would have put me in a very bad state, but instead I viewed it as there was something better for me. And that dream led me to go on a vision quest to the Sahara Desert for three weeks in southern Algeria on a camel caravan to go contemplate what I had to do next for my life. And that led me to move into China and eight years later led me to doing my doctorate in Chinese medicine and coming back full circle to go to medical school for something way more aligned with what I'm truly passionate about. The second way to surrender and let the universe have your back is to really view fatigue, depression, lack of motivation as redirection. So this is one of the most common emotions and symptoms that people feel on a daily basis. And it's telling that a lot of my most popular videos are about fatigue, low motivation, low energy and depression because a lot of us are feeling that or are feeling that in the moment watching the video when we're searching for the video. When I was at my last desk job in my mid 20s, I was always feeling tired, always feeling unmotivated, always feeling like why am I doing this? This is the grand purpose of my human life and evolution to be sitting in front of a computer typing into spreadsheets all day. Like that's the point of my life to get a paycheck and exist on a little plot of land that I don't even like that much because it's a tiny apartment. This is the grand purpose of my life. And after I stopped complaining about it and I started figuring out what I wanted to do, I had stumbled upon this field Chinese medicine. And when I first realized that I booked this flight to go look at all the schools, the grad schools to study this field. And the first thing I remember I had to journal it because it affected me so deeply. When I got the school pamphlets and I looked at the course catalog, I felt so inspired, so excited, lit up, turned on my energy just increased so much. And I was thinking, I've been sitting at my desk for five years with no energy, no motivation, fatigue, no drive to do anything. And all of a sudden in one month all of that is gone. And it taught me that these things are not always something physical. And even if they are physiological, when you begin doing things that light you up and excite you, it affects your chemistry too. It's like falling in love. Some people are kind of miserable and unhappy and unmotivated. They fall in love and they're like rocket ships. They start working out, start eating healthy, they go for hikes, different human. So if I viewed that fatigue as a problem, everything's wrong, I would never have searched for the next thing. But if I viewed it as a redirection, it made me listen. It makes me listen and think, this is the universe's way of saying, I'm not on the right path. Let's go find something that excites us. This is not my thing. Let's look for that thing that excites us. That's redirection. The third way to surrender and let the universe have your back is really to, instead of pushing for your goals and dreams, figure out what draws you, figure out what pulls, tugs on you. So Angela Duckworth wrote this book, Grit. And one passage from that book really jumped out to me. She said that the people that were really, really, really successful that she interviewed, these were people that they weren't necessarily just the grittiest. These are the people when she interviewed them. I think she interviewed Rick Rubin or someone like that, like someone in the music industry. And he said that there's nowhere else I'd rather be on a Saturday morning than in my studio making, mixing, mastering, whatever music. And she said, this was a common thread. The people that were the most successful not only were the most gritty in terms of work ethic over time, but they were the most passionate. And these are the people that were naturally drawn to their field. You didn't hear them talk about grinding or yeah, they were hustling, but they were hustling in a meaningful field that was tugging on them. It wasn't just I want to be an investment banker. I'm going to push and do hard work every day. There was passion. It was passion and grit, passion and work ethic over time, passion and time and not just work ethic. And that's what really affected me about her book. It wasn't just be gritty, stick longer, you know, have more grit in a field you don't really care about. That wasn't her message. She said it was obvious interviewing these high achievers that they were a combination of passion and purpose and long term work ethic over time. And that was the thing that really made the big difference. So instead of pushing, figure out what tugs on you, what could you easily do on a Saturday morning? What could you easily work on for a few hours? What when you work on it leaves you still energized for more after? Now the fourth way to surrender to the universe and see that universe has always got your back is always strive to grow without a goal or an endpoint. So Steve Jobs talks about this story in his life where he said that he just took these random classes in college and one of those random classes was calligraphy. So whereas calligraphy may not seem related to being Apple, building Apple or becoming Steve Jobs, what he said was you could never really understand how things connect looking forward, but only in reverse. And for him, one of those things was that when he took this calligraphy class, when Apple created their computers, it was one of the first to ever have font selection. Now I know that's a minor thing in terms of selling trillions of dollars of computers, but that came back in because of a random life experience he had years before that seemed totally unrelated. And you'll see that often when you pursue things that naturally draw you, they will come back to support you and help you later in your life. Whether it is that you used to be a photographer, and now you have a cake shop, now you have the skills to create this incredible photography of your cakes and pastries, or you're a relationship coach, and now you are an investment banker and go figure your skills as a relationship coach, make you the most likable investment banker, and you've got a pack roster of clients. Sometimes you never know how the pieces connect, but you only learn looking back in life. And so that's why I'm all about exploring those side paths that don't seem logically related, but intuitively and gut instinctively, they are related because you feel excitement and you feel drawn to them. They will come back and help you, you just don't know when. So the surrender part is you don't know how or when it's going to come back to help you, you just have to trust that it will. And one of the most important things about trusting this is just learning random skills and random abilities that you can then have come back to you, like learning calligraphy or photography, or learning how to shoot videos on YouTube. And that's why one of the companies I love the most is Skillshare, because I've used them for years to actually learn random skills that don't seem related to my craft, but sometimes end up helping me become much better at what I do. So Skillshare has created an incredible package and deal for modern health among viewers, which is right below this video, that first link right below, check out that deal that Skillshare has put together for you. Check out all of the online learning communities and programs that Skillshare has with thousands of inspiring classes for creative and curious people on topics like illustration, design, photography, video, freelancing, and more. So take for example this course called DIY Filming that I went through. It really helped me, number one, figure out how to really storyboard my video in a much more strategic way versus just being a teacher, as well as how to properly prep a short but sweet kind of highlight reel, as well as edit it, put it together, and really polish it to be a much much better presented piece of content. So Skillshare has classes to fit your schedule and your skill level. Members get unlimited access to thousands of these different kinds of classes with hands-on projects and feedback from a community of millions of people. Now the classes are usually under an hour and they have short lessons to help you fit any schedule, but I would definitely go ahead and check out some of the topics that you might like. All right guys, so that's what I have for you today. Don't forget to check out that first link right below the video for Skillshare and I'll see you in these other related videos right there.