 So I talk a lot about how to reach your goals and really your big life aspirations and dreams in a very systematic, habit-based way. But it's undeniable if you live long enough. Sometimes you reach some of the coolest, most amazing goals without even really trying. And the first time this happened to me, it made me think, well, what if I just let life take its course? Maybe some of my goals would have happened on their own without me having to kill myself to make them happen. So in this video, I thought I would share two of my goals that showed up in a very unusual and a very interesting way. So check out the snippet that I filmed prior, because I wanted to share it again. So this is what I really love by someone named Adya Shanti. And it says, what the universe manifests when you are aligned with it is a lot more interesting than what you try to manifest yourself. Now, the reason I'm sharing this is because I had this profound experience realizing that sometimes some of the best experiences in my life happened when I was just living in alignment with the universe, so to speak. These were not things that came to me because I set out on the goal to meet my dream girl or to write a best-selling book or to have a successful business. They were merely things that ended up where those outcomes happened without me pursuing those outcomes. So it resulted in a very kind of Taoist-like success which is pretty awesome. I mean, if you could not actively work towards those goals but some of your most important life goals happen on their own, who the hell would not take that? The first story I wanna share is the story of when I went on this vision quest in the Sahara Desert because I had always been a soul searcher since I was a very young kid, 12, 13 years old. And I had read about these vision quests as well as kind of fast and prolonged periods of retreat that mystics and holy people and sages had done throughout history to really refine their senses and really step up their growth and their spiritual and religious evolution. So the vision quest that I did was when I was 21, I went to the Sahara Desert. I was there for three weeks in the desert bordering Algeria and Niger and I was alone for five or six days with no food in this little cave in the Sahara Desert. Now, one of the things that came to me during that time was I started developing this fascination with Daoism. I don't know why, I don't know how, I just had this kind of tug towards studying Daoism and lo and behold, in the weird setup from the universe and the way it works, one of the other men there on his vision quest had a book on Daoism. So he gave me that book on our last day leaving the Tamarassid from Algeria flying back to Switzerland, back to New York. Now, I forgot about that for a while, but I read the book he gave me and it really just picked my interest in the way that it felt interesting. You know, it's the way like when you sit down on a date you feel drawn to somebody whereas it's not about their beauty or their intellect, it's something that draws you to them. It was that kind of feeling, a gut feeling. I'm drawn to this thing called Daoism. I read that book in a couple of days. I had highlights, underlines everywhere. It set my mind on fire. I was really trusting my gut impressions. That book, eventually, even though at the time I was looking at grad school, a year later I was living in China because that book was a piece of the impetus to go to China and pursue that kind of quest of mine over there. Now, even though China I didn't end up staying in, even though I moved there from martial arts, even though I moved there for things that I didn't end up really using, that actually came back to help me because in a roundabout way, one of my closest friends in China ended up staying there to study Chinese medicine. And when I came back to the US, he was the same person that told me, you know, why have you not decided to study Chinese medicine yet? You're always interested. We're always talking about it. Why are you not into it though? That was a pivotal piece in my life journey that eventually ended up getting me to study my doctrine in Chinese medicine at 29, which is my absolute passion in life. So, remind for a sec, that quote, what the universe manifests when you are in alignment with it is a lot more interesting than what you try to manifest yourself or through your own desires, right? It's very different from putting up this vision board like you see everyone doing and them being like, this universe is what I want. That's the kind of girl, that's the kind of guy, that's how much money. This is how much free time. This is what I want my baller apartment to look like. That's totally almost antithetical to what I'm saying, which is that in the absence of those goals, you will still achieve many of them, if not all, by doing this practice. So, that little thing of trusting those hunches eventually brought me to the Sahara vision quest, to Taoism, to China, Chinese medicine school, and now where I am this day. Now, in the same way, trusting that non-linear aspect to life. Another story that might help you. I had been out of a relationship for a while and I was right about at the time when I was feeling ready for a relationship again. And I wasn't sure how to go about it because I was very tired. I was working like 70, 80 hours a week. And I just, same thing. What does it mean to be in alignment with the universe? You're doing things that excite you now. You're pursuing passions, doing things that your gut tells you to do. I don't know why I go on that trip. I don't know why I go to that coffee shop today. I don't know why I take that night class. So playing life like that, kind of intuitively, instinctively, no real plan, just very day by day, just trusting hunches and not being attached to the outcome. At the time, someone was telling me I should maybe consider using Instagram in my business because it was something I hadn't really used much. I didn't really like, I didn't really like doing it. So I put it out and add on Craigslist for a photographer. And I was looking for someone to take pictures that we could then use. And I wasn't sure the best way to go about finding one. So I posted an ad on Craigslist. And after about two weeks on Craigslist, you know, I'd already hired two people, these two women. We even did a photo shoot. I had a photo shoot scheduled for the next day that I canceled. And I was like, you know, this is good and all, but let me just see what else is out there. So I left the ad open. The next day, a girl emails me and I just got a good feeling from the email. Sounds super new agey, very crunchy, but that's honestly how I felt. And then she said, hey, I think we go to the same school. There's nothing about me in that school on the internet that I could have noticed, but she got the feeling. So even though I'd already hired one photographer, she and I met up and it was like instant sparks, instant chemistry with this girl. Problem was she had a boyfriend. So I was like, oh, I guess my little, you know, manifesting ritual didn't work out so well. Flash forward two months and she and I did a round of photos and I go to LA for spring break. Cause I wanted to get out of gloomy Portland. And then she said, you know, where are you going for spring break? And I said, LA, she said, weird, I'm going to be there tomorrow too. Turns out she just broken up with her boyfriend right after I met her. It was already on its way out. We were in LA at the same time and we ended up hanging out most of that break and then ended up dating long-term after that. So think about how absurd that is. Think about how in the hell somebody could have ever planned anything like that. I posted an ad on Craigslist for a photographer. I already hired a photographer. This girl reached out, didn't need to be much info, but I had a good feeling from an email. Like, is this sounding impossible to you? Because it sounds impossible to me. And yet that was a, you know, a very special girl in my life that I dated long-term that I could not have explained, you know? And I was always complaining about not being able to find the kind of women that I was really into. I really felt strong feelings for and she just walked in from a Craigslist ad. So there are so many cool experiences in life that can happen, not from actively pursuing them, but from following that flow. And I'll give you a few benchmarks you can use to track your life going forward. Because again, trust me, I'm all Mr. linear logical. If every goal of mine could have been reached by just sheer effort, I would have done it. But I haven't found that to be true. And the very fact that I met an amazing girl through these ridiculous means, this ridiculous story of posting a Craigslist ad, how could I have planned that? Like, how could I have planned that? If anything, the most palpable thing was the physical chemistry, but we didn't meet in person until we met in person. There's no way you could have planned that and yet it happened. So the first thing is alignment. What it looks like is you're doing things that intuitively you feel drawn to and you're not going towards things that feel hard or heavy or make you feel tense or make you feel like you don't wanna do them. So number one is look for signs of resonance. We talked about this with Susie Patisse. Number two is it's fun now. Abraham Hicks calls this, it feels good now, right? So if there's two projects like you're thinking, I wanna build my business and I wanna date. What part of that business building or even which of those ideas excites you the most to work on it right now in the next hour? Versus I'm gonna plan, strategize, but I'm not gonna do anything. Which one excites you the most right now? Do that. Same thing for dating. Let's say you're like, oh, I'm an introvert, I'm an INFJ, I don't wanna go out and meet people, that sounds awful. Well, then what excites you the most is a potential venue for dating? Do that, that's the alignment aspect. The other thing is just trusting gut feelings. Sometimes you get these gut or intuitive sensations and you don't trust them. You have to start trusting them and just seeing what happens. You can try it in the micro, for example, by going to get a meal you like, but rather than trusting your mind or trusting your body, like pizza, Thai food, Vietnamese food, dumplings, what is it that internally, not my actual mind, but what does my body really want? That's training that gut and intuitive faculty. So those three things are gonna be very, very helpful for training that alignment factor, that kind of X factor that is really the measure of, are you in harmony with life? And you measure it by excitement, how alive you feel, how energized you feel. In addition to, are you able to recognize what is a gut hunch? Are you able to trust it? And are you able to take action on it? So that is an essential piece of this manifesting module because some incredible things will just happen to you without planning or without trying. That is the surest evidence that you're in the right place at the right time. So sometimes it is true that you have to get up and you have to look at your goal sheet for how you're gonna get fit and go to the gym, cook your healthy meals, but sometimes you just meet an amazing person that you end up dating or marrying without even trying. And sometimes you get that amazing job, you get that amazing opportunity, you just bump into this amazing, weird coincidental timing in your life and things just happen without you even trying to orchestrate them. So there's not always an easy answer as to how to go about achieving your goals, but sometimes just by chasing what excites you the most and just by really trusting your gut about life and letting go maybe of the reins in terms of how you think you're gonna actually end up getting there. Because maybe you get there or to something 10 times bigger, but you can't plan how or when or where it's gonna come from. And you have to relish in the fact that you don't know where it's gonna come from or when and let that be a good thing. All right, you guys, that's what I have for you today. If you'd like to stay in touch, I have a free journaling worksheet below this video, which is for an exercise on how to actually get your life together and design your dream life going forward. So you can check it out below this video. Besides that, I have two related videos here.