 All right, and we're live Welcome to the Phil Ossofie podcast number six We have a very very very special guest today Isaac the Realized Man aka the Realized Chicken Introduce yourself, and let's get started. It's gonna be fun guys sit down relax get comfortable. Thanks for that introduction I'm glad to be here on the sixth installment on the Phil Ossofie podcast. Did I fuck that up? I didn't know Okay, my name is Isaac I've got a channel called the Realized Man. It's basically about self-actualization Person development self-improvement give you guys all the tools to battle that reptilian brain and Become successful in the modern world. So I talked about a similar stuff to Philip Stoicism and all that good shit philosophy. So yeah, I'm glad to be on the show Yeah, yeah, um Isaac's got an awesome channel He he basically kind of records what he's learning as he's going along the journey of self-improvement And it's something our friend Suhood pointed out, which is really cool I really like that about his channel because a lot of people if you guys know who Gary V is pause the video Look him up, but he was saying that too many people especially young people are just trying to add value and teach people stuff When in reality people at our age should also be documenting their journey because that's what people like to deceive That's why people like vlogs. They like to relate to other people and I think that's what Isaac is doing really well on this channel and that's something I'm trying to incorporate as well with a vlog coming out tomorrow. Um So, yeah, I think we're gonna talk about YouTube the hustle the grind to talk a bit about my book What's in it? What's kind of allowed me to push through resistance and Yeah, first of all Where do you encounter resistance in your day? Isaac like what's an example of where you encounter resistance? Is it in the morning when you wake up or When is it and how soon as soon as I wake up as soon as I wake up and I just think about all this shit I have to do I have to get my reading in somehow I have to meditate at some point. I have to study for university at some stage I have to film a video for the YouTube channel video a day some say I need to check up on my subscribers check up on the comments There's resistance everywhere to do it because we all know the natural state is to take the path of least resistance, right? You don't want to do any of this shit. You want to lie down in bed? You want to sleep? You want to you know, maybe have a fab and take it easy, but You're gonna have to push through that resistance somehow. So that's how I encounter my resistance throughout the day in those areas Yeah, for me, it's like, um Never been a morning person, but when I do get up, it's fine But it's that the first like two minutes when I'm waking up and I'm like, no No, you're just in your little You're just in your little cocoon in your bed and you're like, ah Because honestly, your brain does not give a fuck whether you're successful your brain doesn't give a shit about your dreams You want to or you want to write a book or you want to get 20,000 subscribers on YouTube your brain doesn't give a fuck It just wants to pump out some kids and that's it. Yep. It just calories into babies That's something Mario Tomic said calories into babies. That's the purpose of life Um, so it can be very hard to overcome that in the morning One thing I've really found to make a difference is negative visualization Hmm and I might um I might watch like a trailer to a movie like blood diamond if you guys have seen that Yeah, pretty so just like thinking about those thoughts and thinking about how fortunate we are to have the opportunity to pursue my pursue our dreams staying in that bed for a few minutes after that just feels like Like it's shameful, you know, and I like to inch to to negatively visualize and be practically pessimistic in the morning In order to just stopping a little bitch get out of bed and do what I have to do for the day Yeah, that's a very good strategy as well. I think people need to find what works for them some people use the negative Consequences are not doing what they have to do as a motivator So for example, perhaps you have to study for your exam so you can envision yourself failing your parents grilling into you You losing thousands of dollars Fucking living on the streets. You can just imagine the worst-case scenario, but some people are motivated by imagining the Potential success that so you can imagine what could go right, you know, perhaps you passing or perhaps you succeeding perhaps you Gaining your hundred thousand subscribers and chilling out on the beach and making videos for the rest of your life So you really need to find out what works for you I think for me personally a bigger motivator is the negative the fear of failure The fear of mediocrity. That's what really gets me going. So I Guess it's kind of negative visualization as well, but not so much in the extent of Thinking of how fortunate I am to be in a position. I am it's more of a thinking of oh shit I'm gonna be like the people Philip is thinking of if I do Yeah, definitely agree and like you said, it's different from different people and There is nothing you can say that's gonna apply to everyone and that's the same with every aspect of life You can't be like oh this diet is gonna be the best for you. We're all different So it's good to understand and hear what other people do so you can make up your own mind and try them out but I really do Like to to consider and contemplate how great what a grateful position I'm in in the morning just to get the day started what your thoughts or thoughts are about affirmations That's something that's pretty big and like you know self-help and personal development books people always talk about affirmations about Wake up in the morning with like certain affirmations. Do you think they work or do you think that's bullshit? I? Think affirmations are good, but it depends on what you're trying to affirm So I think that you know this goes back to the cliche of having a purpose right having a purpose something That's driving you and I think the the idea that you can judge a man by the size of his problems Is a really good way to approach whether affirmations work or not so I think that if your purpose is grounded and it affects other people's well-being then It's gonna be very difficult not to get up in the morning because whether you work hard or not is going to affect other people So if you have clients if you have a YouTube channel even or if you have like a duty to fulfill in society in value to add Your problems are huge they affect other people and you're gonna be much less likely to not get out a bit I mean if you have a student and um Their problem is only not doing essay for themselves for their own arbitrary number out of a hundred And it's gonna be much much much easier not to get out of bed because they're Whether they fail or succeed has no influence on other people, but if you if a CEO doesn't wake up in the morning Doesn't feel like getting out of bed the whole the whole fucking company is gonna crash Yeah, people aren't gonna be able to feed their families and he's gonna be in a pretty fucked up situation I mean he can do it, but he might even get arrested. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, like someone's probably gonna fucking kill him or something Yeah, that's pretty interesting. Um, I think that's an interesting byproduct of this whole YouTube thing growing The YouTube channel has increased my responsibility For example previously I didn't expect to be to hold so much responsibility in terms of other people's lives But as your subscriber base grows as the views grow like I think both and you have both You and me have similar metrics like 200,000 views So that you actually impact people's lives and people actually reach out to you and ask for advice And you kind of feel like a duty to give them the best advice to put the best information out there Because now you're almost like a you know like a role model to a lot of people yeah, I think and when it begins when you start on YouTube and Maybe not for all people but for me even I was just like so how can I make the most money? Like I'm just like I'm on eHow this is back like a year ago I'm like how to make a million dollars from YouTube and like yeah, that's cool You can make money from YouTube, but the more you kind of progress The more you start to realize that You can actually make a change to people's lives and it's not just about the money, right? It's about value It's about Influencing the world and it becomes less about that and I think today Everybody should start a YouTube channel every person because everyone has opinions Everyone has things they want to talk about but in today's age We've gone too far into this electronic centric lifestyle and no one has people to Express themselves to that to the fullest amount and therefore a medium like YouTube is almost I think a requirement for someone to not feel isolated and lonely and stuff because today It's ridiculous and there's no going back from this very Socially isolated world and we need a medium like YouTube to be able to express our ideas and connect with each other I mean unless we go back to caveman times and you go to some fucking. I don't know no internet tribe, I Think you've got no other option but to interact with the world around you so Isaac What do you think about YouTube channels? Do you think everybody should start them? Do you think everybody should be an entrepreneur heading into the future today? What's your opinion on that? I Don't think it's sustainable for everybody to be an entrepreneur. I don't think it's even possible because Generally to be an entrepreneur you need a certain type of mindset a certain type of work ethic and that's hard to come by So I think that everybody should try and find a job or something that they love doing something That's actually valuable to them, but not necessarily be an entrepreneur I think entrepreneurs should be entrepreneurs if that makes any sense Yeah, I definitely see what you mean. I think certain personality types are I Think a lot of personality personality types that would make good Entrepreneurs 50 years ago wouldn't today When I was talking with Mario Tomic, we were both saying that People who have been gamers for a lot of years make good entrepreneurs Because they have the capacity to sit on a computer, which is where entrepreneurs are made today Oh, yes, and I was on land to do really tedious boring tough. Yes So I grew that so that was something I was quite optimistic about when I heard because I used to play a lot of video games Me too, dude, dude, like ridiculous amounts like if I if I like tell a normal person how many hours a day I was on like fucking No, I'm not totally on the same analogy because I used to play actually made a video about this other day I used to play a lot of role-playing games like they'll disclose oblivion You know Dragon Age your name I used to play for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours into it with the primary goal of just becoming the best So I'll spend hours a day Researching the oblivion wiki trying to find our little bits of information They're gonna help me get the better upper-edge or over my opponents and stuff and You could definitely translate that into entrepreneurship Except instead of like trying to figure out how to get the party hat It's trying to figure out how to perhaps optimize your SEO or how to make your marketing funnel really good It's just translation something else, but the same mindset the same obsessiveness still applies. So yeah, I know you the one Yeah, I think I think it's also that purpose that competitive spirit that really makes a good entrepreneur because I Mean like we're all friends We have a huge network of Friends that we're doing YouTube with but at the end of the day we're all competitive but if you can kind of use your ego to be can kept competitive but kind of Be just attached from it then it can be a good thing. Yeah, I agree. Definitely. We're always checking each other's numbers To deny that is like is just saying that like come on right everyone's competitive We're all in this to to win I guess you could say but as long as deep down you understand that the victory is over yourself then you're you're in the right position It's a good thing to to be honest with you I think that competitiveness is actually a good thing because even if you lose let's say between our circle of Guys are doing this person film itself. So hard CMU me everyone else, right? Even if you lose chances are you're still gonna get like a hundred K subs You're still gonna have a really good channel You're still gonna have a huge following because you're driven to compete with other people or if I see you step up your video quality If I see some step up this video quality, I'm gonna be precious of my video quality So at the end of the day, no one loses if we're all being better with each other What's the point of aiming so high when I'm never gonna actually attain anything and that's I think I'm The misconception people have about what pleasure truly is when you attain something you're satisfied with it It's like, um, let's say you're sitting on this laptop. So I'm sitting on this laptop right now. I'm doing this podcast My pipe of felamis a region of my brain starts blinking and it's like I want something salty I feel like something salty and it'll keep blinking. It'll be like salty salty salty I'll get so distracted that I start to envision myself being satisfied by that salty craving and then I'll Kind of like a chain reaction from A to B. I'll stand up which I won't in this podcast But I'll stand up. I'll go to the microwave. I'll cook something salty and then I'll eat it and then I'll be satisfied after I eat it But that satisfaction is in the pleasure. The pleasure was sitting here envisioning That saltiness coming into my mouth body making the steps going about it and I Think people are just chasing The satisfaction as the pleasure today more and more and more and we have easier means to do it the example being walking to McDonald's swiping your credit card and getting something salty But the the journey towards that satisfaction is so short So you don't actually get any pleasure from it, but you get satisfaction So little pleasure lots of satisfaction over and over and over again turns into obesity Yeah, yeah, I definitely agree with that like it all boils back to the point of um How we still have the brains or the biology of a caveman, but we're in a world that doesn't really Help us in that regards. That's why you have all these people doing nofap these days because because of pornography on the internet a Average guy will see more ass than the most alpha caveman of that that ruled like seven clans So that does something to your brain if you're constantly getting pleasure pleasure pleasure without really doing anything without chasing it so yeah, I think That's change needs to be addressed and that's what I'm trying to do my chance to show people that this is your brain This is how it works, and this is the world we're living in and there's a disconnect there So you need to bridge the gap if you truly want to be successful. You need to understand yourself I think that's what you're trying to do with your child as well. Exactly You need to extend the pleasure. Yeah, extend the pleasure by fasting by nofap by Walking to the supermarket cooking your own food Expanding that act the real pleasure instead of being deluded into thinking the pleasures and the satisfaction itself This is something I'm really covering in my book that I'm writing that I'm always talking about but never actually go into depth on especially in one chapter on the topic of Sexual nature nofap for example, and I think that There's some kind of narrative today because we've we've become so sexually liberated That oppose anything of that is like kind of stupid Like why would you stop having why even talk about that? Why does it even matter? But in the brain, there's no Distinction between that and obesity and other drugs. Of course, there is on some level, but it's all dopamagenic It's the same. It's the same reward system. So how is it any different speaking badly about about sexuality itself? It's it's like the boat and it's it's taboo and it's like not allowed because we were so recently Liberated into it. So it's it's too soon to go back against it But yeah, but the rise of the internet has been so exponential that poem has come too quickly for us to to see it and Combat it and that's why this movement is growing So quickly but again, it's it's really eccentric and it's strange So I think that what all of us are doing is really good and voicing this and having people understand that Just because it's some taboo or whatever doesn't mean it's any different and any less dangerous to obesity or drugs obviously to a lesser extent but Yeah, so I think that's a really good thing and I think it's not for everybody in a very extreme sense But I think it's something everybody should try to see whether it's affected them negatively yeah, yeah, definitely different people have different reactions to the stuff as well and I Want to ask a question. Do you think? The problem is no fat per se or no porn like always a pornography or is it the fapping that really messes up the dopamine levels and people Since we're talking about that Pornography to a bigger extent I think that's that's like the most unnatural thing and that was something I personally found pretty easy to get rid of so that wasn't really a problem for me. Um, I Don't like how No fact to a lot of people is like you have to completely abstain like a Yeah No, it doesn't it doesn't work like that like Then you're just gonna go through ups and downs and it's like comparing philosophy to it cynicism which is complete restriction of all pleasure as Comparable to the very like the harsh advocates of no fat. No PMO. I've gone 300 days like cool, bro You've gone 300 days, but you're still thinking about it and typing on these forums for hours a day So how's it actually helped you? Worsened it to the point where you're just introspecting on it too much. So I think that pornography is better to answer your question Fapping not so much the point is that you're unattached from that's it Can you can you sit down and control? Orges if you can't then there's an issue, but if you can yes, and it's self-sustainable Then good for you. I think that's Yeah, that's my question for you. Let's go back to the topic of your book. So I know you're really into Stoicism, so what inspired you to write your book exactly? It's obvious historicism, but at what point in reading this philosophy or living it Did you say you know what I'm gonna write a book about this and Get this message out to people. Okay. Um, so I've been writing it for just over a year now. So it's been a long time Um, I can't say that I've always wanted to write a book like it was never like a dream of mine growing up It sort of just happened So I think it at first happened when I was getting into entrepreneurship online I'm like, how can I start a YouTube channel? It was more about a blog then firstly I started with a blog about global warming believe it or not Because that's what I'll study dude. I studied environmental science and biology. So I'm like fuck yet climate change like which is cool That's just rolling. I'll send you it was called just our planet calm But but anyway back to the point so I was in Starbucks and I was watching a video from Mario Tomic and Julian himself so they had a collaboration video and Mario was talking to him about how to lose fat was like an hour-long video and I was listening to that and I was like, okay, I could write like a small e-book or something So I had a page going there's just an outline like count your calories Mekronutrients and I was just typing at that typed away typed away a few weeks It had grown a bit and then at some point I forgot when I I kind of I knew about stoicism I read about it but I had come across an article where they were talking about how to make goals through stoic philosophy and that was that You should just attach yourself to the process and enjoy the journey So I was like, okay, I'll add in a little paragraph So add in a little paragraph and I was talking about goals and fat loss and that paragraph became two three a year later It's like the basis in the framework for the entire thing. So that's Yeah, I also want to um so what's the main difference between your book and let's say perhaps around holidays book or Some other books that are about stoicism right now Right. So first I'm gonna talk about how stoicism is making a comeback. So stoicism is making a huge comeback today And I think it's because like we're saying at the start of the podcast episode We're all rich and not in terms of materialistic goods. Otherwise, I'd have a fucking Rolex on right now But we're all rich in terms of evolutionary cells, right? We're all yeah, we're all satisfied um and And the difference between my book and Ryan holidays is that mine is more about health Okay, so it's it's like the stoic body That's the title of the book and it's about improving your health or VCD in the modern world using Stoicism as the ah for that. Okay. So that's yes So it goes into the science behind fat loss and all that stuff But it's all kind of based on stoicism the principle of the book being that you must Not live to eat but eat to live not live Yeah, exercise to live. So that's kind of what it's about. Yeah. Nice. Nice. Nice. Perhaps you can give me some tips on Getting to work on a major project with that because I've had a goal for a while now I'm gonna start writing it or making it but I want to make a course basically on Psychological warfare in regards to what we're talking about before about how we have our body in our mind That was made for a different time or that was that's been the same for let's say a hundred thousand years But because of the changes that are happening now There's a big gap. So I want to give people the tools to Mitigate the damage or to lower make that gap smaller as in like looking at cognitive biases and the way your mind thinks so that you know how your mind operates then you can Go around that and become more successful, but how did you? Get yourself to just start because I've been having this idea for a while But I haven't started yet. Did you collect a bunch of resources or did you start writing and change it as you go along? Or yeah, I really I mean I should have done it in a really organized way But you know in the best scenario you plan it out and you have all the structure and maybe I'll do that for the second one But for this first one it really didn't start like that and it just kind of Evolved as I evolved and I Think what made it important and when it really started to snowball if that's what you're asking is when Everything I did in my day. I related back to that idea So even if I'm looking at a wall just like fucking staring at a wall and I'm chilling in my room I'm gonna relate something about Something on the wall to that project So that sounds quite strange and obviously it's not easy to be like okay Everything I do from now and relates to creating this course But I think that's it try to relate unrelated things to it start to kind of create your paradigm around that course Get obsessed like you said before Yes, that's it's definitely definitely like me. I think it's um you know I think that's how you'll make your best product like I could have finished this book ages ago and just like published it But yeah, when you put everything into it like It's got it's got to be coming from a frame where Your entire day is revolved around that. So go on. Yeah, definitely. Definitely like for me I think my problem is that I'm I'm trying to get it perfect straight away So when I think about making this course, I'm thinking of it being the best fucking course that anyone's ever View so that puts a lot of resistance and starting like I actually made video procrastination about how if you think about the whole Thing at once is going to discourage you from actually doing it So that's my problem right now, but it's hard to take my own advice and you know, just get started or just do a little bit or Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. I filmed a video on this today more for diets, but it was like the 80 20 rule and I'm sure you know Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so a rate of principle Yeah, so if you like relate it back to to youtube for example, imagine your project was youtube Right now you're focusing on what camera you have I guess Instead of actually filming the videos And that's the point like and I think that's the biggest thing we're starting it's it's hard It really is hard to actually start with the project, but Instead of just like think about which platform you'd use for the course and And you just start with something just like my example with my book What I had planned out as my draft is like completely unrelated from what it is now So it's never going to be perfect from the start never Otherwise, it wouldn't be good in the first place. Otherwise you haven't put thought into evolving it and changing it Yes, yes. It's not perfect doing it like that So we've just got to start with something even if it's rubbish even if you you see it as rubbish It's got to be something you got to put something down and then work with that. Otherwise you got nothing to work with Yeah, yeah, I want to talk a little bit about the fulfillment you get out of actually doing this kind of work Like you writing your book or you making videos and stuff like that um There's been times where I've had to make a video and I'll Be on the computer sitting down for eight hours straight just editing doing all sorts of things Especially for those animation videos. I pulled up it takes a long ass fucking time And during that process you sometimes get thoughts like oh man, is this worth it? Is it really gonna work? Should I give up? But what I found interesting is every single time when I've actually finished The project The sense of fulfillment you get or that little bit of pleasure you get is always enough for you to Do it again to get back into it despite eight hours of Shitting it and getting angry and pissy. Is that the same with you writing or once you finish a chapter You feel a certain amount of accomplishment and just keep Motivates you keep going or is there something else that's motivating you? I'll talk about writing in a second because it's different But I had the exact same experience with a video today So I'm gonna be honest like with every single video I film not most every single one I don't want to do it before I film every single one. I don't want to film it I do not want to film it. I would rather sit down and do nothing Um, and I had this experience today where I went out into public So I was at a park lots of people walking around and I filmed the video there And that's quite a strange experience for me to do instead of just doing it in my room where I'm more comfortable um And I like walked to the spot where I was going to do the video and I just like stood there And I just walked away I felt like shy I'm like no, I'm not I'm not gonna do it and I walked like a hundred meters and I was like Okay, I could go and play basketball now But I'm probably not going to have fun because I let myself down. So I was like fuck it. I'm going back I set it up in the moment. I started filming two seconds after that. I'm like, okay, that's fucking awesome And that feeling is worth it so with writing I compare it to I was listening to a podcast with Joe Rogan and Robert Green Robert Green We all know the mastery 48 laws of power and he and Joe Rogan asked him What he likes most about writing and he said I like the 10 percent So with writing 90th percent of writing is just like, oh this sucks. I'm so stressed cortisol I want to give up this sucks. Uh, I'm a fraud. I'm going to rip it up But 10 percent of it is like flow magic Jean is just coming out of you or at least I think it is Of budget bullshit, but that 10 percent is worth it. And I guess that's the comparison to videos the the 10 percent of actually Filming it versus the 90 percent of thinking about how much you don't want to film Yeah, yeah, definitely Something I find very interesting is once you start getting a bit more involved into this type of stuff It seems that you start getting ideas A lot easier or you start getting ideas from the strangest things Whereas like when I start making the youtube channel, I would have to perhaps sit down Maybe read the book and then you get some ideas out of the book and say, okay, that's a good topic for a video Whereas now because my mind or my subconscious mind is Um primed towards making videos. I would literally walk outside looking at my chickens like oh, I can make a video about that I'll be driving plus McDonald's. Oh, I can make a video about that. Oh, I can make a I've got like so many ideas now that I almost can't keep up with like that amount of videos I want to make yeah, I have a list of like 30 fucking ideas and like Yeah, for real. I write them down. I think it comes down to positive reinforcement so it comes back to perfection and what you were talking about before with starting the course so Before starting the course, you don't have the positive reinforcement of your ideas being created and actually being worthwhile but with the videos the more videos you film the more um positive reinforcement I guess you could call it validation from viewers But also yourself just seeing that people are responding to and actually engaging with it That gives you more confidence and instills more confidence in yourself that you're actually Saying shit that makes sense. Yeah, I first made a video. I'm like I don't even know if I'm speaking English. I need someone to tell me I'm speaking English I'm just kidding there obviously, but um, that's the point. I think positive reinforcement You know, I think your mind literally changes depending on like what type of influences you put in your mind What type of things you do often because a few years back I used to be obsessed with skateboarding, right? Me and my friends used to skate for hours every week and we'll be skateboarding So, um, when you skateboard, there's certain obstacles that you can find like stairs and ledges and rails Really fun to skate. So when we used to drive around in the car, um, everybody will be able to find a spot You can see how the corner you are you see the stairs are like, oh bro stairs over there And we'll stop the car and skate, right? So I hung out with a friend of mine who used to skate with me He still skates and we were driving the other day and um, we drove past like some stairs And he saw the stairs like, bro, do you see those stairs? But that's that's no longer in me. I didn't see the stairs. Well, I see stairs now. I just see stairs I don't see skating obstacles. I feel like the same, uh, mechanism that makes your brain look for that Has now translated into youtube or personal development or internet marketing and stuff like that Okay, I've got a question for you. So where can you see yourself in five years down the road from youtube? I know I know it's it's not that good to think long term and it's better to focus in the present moment Whatever, but where do you see yourself going in five years? Where do you want to be? What kind of influence do you want to have? Um in five years time I want to have developed a range of courses that really Help people change their lives as in because personal development is something that I've become incredibly passionate about like When I start talking about fucking audio books or some shit People will think I'm on cocaine or something. So if I can somehow make a living Doing that then I'll be very happy especially because right now. I'm never making any money out of it I'm just making these videos if you check me out on social blade freaking apparently I made 40 dollars or some shit Which I haven't But hopefully if I can make a living doing that that will be ideal and yeah Fucking and I'm not sure. Hopefully my brain would have changed because if I look at myself five years ago I feel like I'm a different person. So I want to see how far I can take it if I'm continuously evolving evolving over recreating myself as Robert Green says in the 48 Laws of Power What do you see yourself? Yes, the strain is kind of shifting into new paradigms as you develop as you learn more And it's kind of almost overwhelming to think about how many Paradigms are out there. Like there's so many available. There's so much you can do there's so much you can accomplish And become someone indistinguishable from who you are right now. So I don't know. I don't know what the answer is in five years. Um I just want to influence as much as possible influence have my ideas out there have them engaged with you People um share ideas discuss debate. Um Develop together, right? That's the whole thing. Yeah, yeah proof together as a whole. Yeah Especially the social circle like the group of friends you've been hanging out with um in five years Ideally, you want to be hanging out with people that are constantly challenging your views constantly showing your new things You know, I mean, yeah constantly mind fucking you per se. Yeah, and like I love my friends But I do want to have people in my life where who are like hitting in the same Uh direction who are really hustling like have that same. I'm firing the belly Minds it. Yeah, they just want to fucking go go go go go. There's no just fucking go. It's not like, okay Work hard and play hard. I mean, I want to like play hard and stuff as well But I mean just like go like a fucking ship It's hard to find people like that, isn't it? It really is Yeah, it's a rarity um And then I think for a lot of people watching as well You might be in the same mindset But you might feel like you might be lonely if you leave those friends because then you'd have no one, right So that's why I think it's so difficult for people to change as a whole because other people around them are so influential on them But they don't want to leave them Because they're not fucking lonely. Yeah, that's true. You sometimes you do seem extreme Um compared to your friends. I'm not sure about you but the way I operate is is pretty um extreme In terms of youtube and this stuff. I literally almost don't waste any time on anything else So if you were to watch me the whole day, you'd be bored out of your mind because I'll be there reading I'll be there writing something. I'll be there making a video. I'll be there studying for uni. I'll be there sleeping That's it occasionally. I watch like a youtube video about maybe lifting or something but I barely watch movies. I barely do any of that stuff. I'm not sure that's a good thing I'm sure balance would be better. But that's just the way my mind operates when I have something that I'm aiming for I go all in Yeah, and it's and that's strange because I'm the same. I'm clearly But there are times where I'm not actually being productive, but I'm still in that state of hustle it's it's like a it's like a Hustle is like high cortisol Yeah, I'm still in that state. It's like you get addicted to that to that cortisol feeling but But and you have to find balance But when you shift out of that it can be very easy to recline into that Instinctual nature of just chilling the fuck out because whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm just surviving Why are you hustling and talking so much cortisol increasing your body? Like what's the point? so I think a lot of entrepreneurs And people who are just hustling in general struggle to find that balance Because when you when you skew that balance too much then it's like all the way that way so That's a bit of a mind-buck just trying to And on this journey you learn more about how to balance yourself and that increases your self-awareness. Which is quite cool Yeah, yeah, I almost feel like it's actually almost impossible to really Have balance or extremely difficult at least to have balance in your relationships have balance in your Business or entrepreneurship have balance in your health have balance in all these areas generally if you're going to pursue one really hard All the other areas or one of the other areas is going to suffer There's only so much you can focus on on your plate I know it's like when i'm doing a video a day for youtube, for example I can't keep up with maybe my instagram posts. I can't keep up with my blog posts Or when i'm really studying for uni exams, it's hard for me to keep up with the youtube videos It's hard for me to keep up with my reading So there's always like a shift a movement and it's really hard to find that sweet spot Yeah, um, probably the one of one of the biggest forms of resistance I found with this book is that While you're writing it while you're spending one year on this while you're working the amount of hours where you could have made 40k at a job And you're working on this and there's no like actual result that's coming out to you That's probably the one of most difficult one of the biggest reasons why it's difficult to remain focused on a book And why so few people actually write a book and so many people um Uh Want to it's probably the same with what you're talking about with your course It would take you so many hours before you actually get results out of it And and maybe because you're focusing on youtube and hustling so much on it Making that decision Just opposes that so much because straight away you would be in a in a space where you wouldn't be getting any um You wouldn't be getting any fruit from the tree So yeah, so that's probably one of the most difficult things and fun Balance without is difficult Yeah, how do you deal with doubt? like for me personally, um As much as I have this hustle mindset. I do have brief moments Usually at least once a week where I just have massive doubt where I just Kind of think to myself is this all worth it? Am I wasting my time here? Should I be maybe I should be more responsible and do something else? You know like What's going on or when the results aren't really coming at the rate that you expect them to So how do you deal with that? Yeah, I think there's um There's two ways to deal with that and because there's two instances There's one where it's like a brief doubt Like oh, maybe I could chill right now and in that instance. You just tell yourself shut the fuck up Um and the other instance when you're having an existential crisis and you're like, uh, what's the point anyway? Um, I think what's important is to remind yourself of the value you're giving to others So that's when you take it out of yourself. That's when you become more selfless and you start to think okay I am working on my aptitudes. I'm working on my my gifts, right what I can add to the world. So um If I don't do this if If I if I like submit to this doubt then I'm not only doing a disservice to myself more importantly a disservice to the world So I think in that instance and you're like, okay now I've got to work Yeah, yeah, yeah I find that um, recently I have not been meditating Um as consistently as I used to in the past Basically because of the workload and just the habits kind of lost off Even though I'm always telling people to do it But I've found that the biggest difference Is that now I have more that resistance more those emotions popping up because I don't meditate when I used to meditate I used to just chill the fuck out Be all eco tall if things weren't working well It didn't bother me like if the channel wasn't growing didn't really bother me. I was just happy Being alive whereas now because I've uh reduced the amount of meditation I do Everything can start to get to me when she has the fan when I'm not seeing results when I put 8 000 to a video I guess like 200 views or something. That's when Yeah, um, I actually have a chapter on this and it's about buddhism versus stoicism So stoics will never um Like sit down and meditate like that and I don't actually do that anymore So stoic meditations are explicitly analytical just thinking Basically the way I phrase it is firstly asking yourself. What are you doing? And then secondly, why are you doing it? So this is mindfulness comparable to vipassana or samantha meditation and buddhism Um, but I think that the reason why people can't sustain that 10 minute meditation Every single day because if you think about it 10 minutes a day for meditation is nothing for the benefits it has on your brain Your prefrontal cortex and gray matter grows in volume there You get more benefits for 10 minutes of that than 10 minutes of exercise, but people exercise. Why don't people meditate? and I think it's Opposes our society. So there was an author called oswald spengler And he wrote a book called the decline of the west and he calls our society A fostian society. So it's a society that just wants to expand and grow and push push push push push All the while subconsciously knowing that there's no end result and satisfaction So he says that the end of culture is civilization and we're in civilization right now So my point is I think uh buddhist meditation where you go into solitude Is like comparing a zen master to a physicist um So how do I explain this so so the physicist is always pushing more more more more expanding and the buddhist person is contracting Yeah, stoic meditations do the same thing being mindful the pasana meditation But it doesn't do it to the point where it opposes our society so much. This is quite hard to explain, but um Because going into solitude is is a strange thing. You're attaching that mindfulness to just that state So when I'm meditating I'm mindful then and then I get out of mindfulness as I stop the meditative session But then I go back to to the real world So it creates such a like contradiction and two forces that are so opposing That it's difficult to maintain on a habitual basis. And that's why I think stoic meditations or mindfulness and just Finding an activity like writing or playing an instrument or skateboarding where you can be mindful doing it Is more like getting to the point of mindfulness in the real world and And avoiding the negatives that solitude might have if that even makes sense Yeah, yeah, I understand what you're saying. Yeah, um when I used to meditate a lot. I actually used to um do a variation So I would do the standard 10 minutes or 20 minutes sitting down But throughout the day as well as I was walking I would like try feel my feet Be more mindful of what I was doing or when I'm in a conversation with someone try be fully aware I think that's actually Better for you because you're using that mindfulness for practical things That makes sense. I just sit down because all people they'll sit down They'll do the meditation be super present then as you said as soon as they get up That contradiction will happen where they start yelling at their mom or they start maybe doing something unconscious back into it Yeah, yeah So yeah, so you're not like like I said, you're getting to the point with it more you're kind of allowing yourself to be mindful in more stressful and chaotic situations So I think it would be more beneficial to go to like a fucking construction site and then just try not get agitated by the noise Oh my god, because I I've had to deal with that so much because I'm writing this book right now and right next store for the last month They've been demolishing a building this I'm like Ah And that's been a really good practice to me. So Yeah, I'm grateful about it. Even though it's really really annoying. It's given me the opportunity to train that mindfulness It's kind of interesting too. Um observing how your brain works observing how your body works Like let's say you're sitting there while you're meditating and you you get itch You get itch, right and then you feel it and then you just observe it and you want to touch it But you try to be mindful you're trying to be a zen master But for some fucking reason it amplifies times a thousand Yeah, it's strange. It's really interesting observing that right out of nowhere. I'll find myself sometimes. I'm just like, okay, come on It's not working So so how about is is it the itch it's actually that painful or is it just your mind that's making that painful I really think it's just the perception of it and it's strange when you think about it like that Yeah, it's strange. Yeah with everything. I mean like events That are like traumatic in your past and you're like holy shit. That was awful at the time They don't mean shit right now. So they were just the Manifestation of your perception. It wasn't actually a big deal Yeah, yeah, that's actually a very interesting thing that I'm I'm reading about now in this nlp book Have you heard of neuro linguistic programming? Nope, that sounds fucking. Yeah No, it sounds pretty gnarly. Hey, but It's basically like a body of knowledge. I'm not sure how Scientifically valid it is. It could be someone which I've been reading about it And they've got all these techniques to change how your mind works. So in the book I'm reading. It's actually interesting It asks you to try to observe your thoughts a bit more So when you think about your memories and stuff like when you recall memory Try and notice do you recall in the first person or the third person? Or when you envision someone talking to you What direction is the voice coming from this all these little things that Happen in the way you think that you overlook So I think if you can gain a better understanding of how you think When some of these thoughts come these resistances that come when you're doing something you'd be better equipped to Block them That makes no sense. Yeah, it definitely makes sense. It sounds interesting I think a lot of these books are all kind of about the same thing right just present At the same time, I guess you have to hammer it from different angles to to get the point across That's that's that's really true. There's something I've noticed I think no one is ever good. I don't think anyone in the world is a hundred percent mindful ever Maybe like a zen master who gets close, but I don't think that's the point. The point is actually trying to do it it's the actually Being self that self aware To the point where you can actually recognize progress I think when you're recognizing progress of your mindfulness, then you're on the right track Also, you don't have to be a zen master Just a little bit of work into your mindfulness. You could literally be 10 times more mindful than what you were like last year Yeah, you know So there's heaps of benefits into it into being mindful meditating And it really helps you with pushing through that resistance that we were talking about I think a really great way to practice mindfulness what we've been speaking about for the last minute Is to find one thing every day that you do at a similar time So that's why in stoic meditations I'll always suggest you to do like your negative visualizations the moment the the minutes before you sleep because Every single day there are going to be minutes before you sleep So you can completely rely on that as your source of your time to associate mindfulness with that So whether you drink a cup of tea in the morning, find something that undoubtedly is something you're going to do every day It could be a cold shower, for example. Hopefully you're showering every day. Um, if not, don't choose that and that's why uh Choosing the moments before you sleep is such a reliable one and such an advocated one by the stokes because you're going to do it every single day So I think that's a good way to um to instill that mindfulness find something that you do every day Do do walk to a certain bus station every day Do drink a glass of water in the morning and be mindful while you do it Mm-hmm. Why do you think stoicism is making a comeback? Is it because of web 2.0? Is it because of these huge Crazy singularity thing we've got going on where everyone's sharing knowledge So some of these jewels that were hidden in the past that maybe our parents or grandparents weren't able to really Um find out about unless they read, you know, the dusty Meditations by Marcus Aurelius from the library is now no, I don't think it is that because like a book like uh William Irvine a god to the good life that came ages came out ages ago 10 years ago Stoicism wasn't as popular then the internet Like wasn't as big but it was still enough to the point where certain philosophies and certain trends can become viral and And of course today, it's a bit different But I think it's especially over the last few years is because we've become very very comfortable like to a ridiculous amount and We've become way too comfortable. So There's a need for it to come back You know, you're fucked up as a society when things like buddhism and stoicism increase in popularity to teach people how to be natural Like that's when you know, your society is fucked up and that's something oswald spangler talks about in his book The decline of the west. Um, he said, yeah, that's when a Culture turns the civilization where they need uh teachers of the world To teach people how to be natural Um, so that's why I think it's becoming popular because we're becoming increasingly more unnatural Four years ago people would actually speak about oh that person is looking on their phone while they're walking But now it's like, okay, it's just a person walking on their phone walking Yeah, not walking on the phone. Uh looking at the phone while they're walking. So that's why yeah Yeah, um, there's actually a quote that I heard from um ty lupus a while back I'm not sure who wrote it. Oh, who said it but knowledge in my garage But it's um It's I believe it's civilizations are born stoic by diet epicurean. So I feel like there's always A cycle going on where there's like a generation that works really hard And then the next generation enjoys the labors of the past generation The next generation has to work really hard again. So there's a balance that needs to be achieved You can never have too many generations becoming epicurean too many generations becoming hedonistic becoming too comfortable Otherwise civilizations actually die every there will be no people left. It's really interesting I I thought about that the other day. Um, and I was wondering if there was a philosophy That was about that cycle of cynicism epicureanism Stoicism and whether there's a philosophy that talked about that cycle of society being the natural way of being Something interesting. I was thinking about but it's funny that you mentioned that um, yeah Something I explore in the book as well. I have a chapter called the civilian. So I speak about how in times of um, uh, like the romans for example, they won Oh, sorry, they won the war. They defeated Greece, whatever and then they relaxed Before that they were all fit. They were all healthy because they had a war to fight They had an urgency, but then they fell into comfort and And their society became hedonistic about material goods and then the barbarians came down and destroyed the barbarians Northern Europe they came and they fucking chopped their heads off because they were way too comfortable. They had lost They'd become not fat, but they become materialistic and that's what's happening to us right now So that's why So important, especially in the the context of health and obesity, which I'm trying to cover It's strange and and Every time we win a war world war two is our most recent example With the rise of technology and the enlightenment period It's it's that same comfort the romans experience But it's just like Exasperated so much to the point where you've got people like kelly drink water on ted speeches Fuck it. Okay Yeah, yeah, well, so when's the next uh phat acceptance coming out, I've actually been looking forward to There aren't many other clips like I'm saying the same shit each video I mean if people want it, I'll make another one. I'm just waiting for the next Ted talker and then I could yeah It's ridiculous. Hey like I was come to that stage Yeah, I don't even I don't even know what to say about that about the phat acceptance Maybe I should just make a video just watching the video having me in the corner and they're just staring at it. Just like Just to like show the ridiculousness of it Do you think like do you think these people actually believe what they're talking about or it's just some elaborate lie they've made To feel better about themselves or so that other people don't judge them as much Or do they actually believe it? No, I don't think they actually believe it. I think they're very good at coming across Like they actually believe I think everybody has a Everyone's given a little spark of rationality at both But for some people it's very very hidden But some people it's bright, but for others it's deep in there somewhere hidden under the um blubber. Um I But yeah, I think I think that like she has a little voice that's like, okay, obviously this is stupid, but I'm full of shit Identity is so framed on that that escaping that and you know saying that she was wrong Just completely opposed to who her ego thinks she is Ego ego ego Ego ruins the world. Maybe maybe I'm wrong. Maybe she's just real fucking dumb I think there's a certain point with the example of people like that Where you have to step in and voice an opinion because there's a certain point where you can advocate these things and Being denial and just trolling stuff But the moment you're advocating for something like obesity and you have And you're a good speaker like she was and you can actually influence and convince people then you're gonna have kids That are just stuffing their faces Yeah Especially when they have platforms like tell x to be talking on Where they got the reach to reach like millions of people and there's other people that were beginning to believe that bullshit as well and now seeing someone on ted x say it and Yeah, they're gonna take it as a reinforcement like oh, okay. Look this person's saying this as well Ted x is everything that comes out of ted x is true, right? Everything you read in the book It's hard for people to take things with a grain of salt I've realized like especially like people when they read books and stuff like that or watch podcasts Say oh this person said sam harris said this sam harris said this so it must be right because sam harris has been right before You have to take things with a grain of salt. You have to make your own decisions and get Array of different resources to choose from you can't just take everything sam harris or joe rogan says Despite how influential despite how right how much? How how good that track record was in the past you still need to evaluate everything by yourself I was I really had that issue when I was a teenager and I think that's why um a lot of teenagers are very Closed-minded like that right because they haven't had they haven't been exposed to knowledge To abundance of knowledge to the point where they can kind of start to rationalize and connect the dots And I think teenagers are very closed-minded like that because they find Like a figure they can just look up to and take lessons from and absorb and then they become fucking emos and shit, right? Yeah But yeah, I think as you get no older that's something I've really noticed is that I start to think a lot more critically And I start to disagree with people and that's something I never did before even when I was watching podcasts two years ago I just kind of take it in and completely agree and I'm like, okay, that makes sense. That makes sense Oh good good good good good good, but the more you listen, you're like, okay That's not true because of this because of this because of this and That's why I think it's so important to to keep exposing yourself to knowledge So you can form your own rationalization Yes, yes Let's just try to tell my other friend of the day the one I was trying to come I haven't talked about but I was trying to convince this friend of mine to Read up on a bunch of books to expand his mind when you read books and when you Uh, listen to podcasts talk to different people Your mind literally changes the way you think about things literally changes some things that you perhaps thought were acceptable Prior start becoming unacceptable. Some of the values you held before start becoming ridiculous Some of the beliefs you had start disintegrating in front of your eyes So it's a really important that you get as much information as you can so that you can become Who you are meant to be if that makes sense because a lot of the things that we do are not really 100% Based on what we want to do is based on our upbringing based on our society our friends around us, but if you Um see all this knowledge you have a better chance of choosing what you truly want Definitely couldn't agree more with that. Yeah And I I also think or something I I disagree with for example So Joe Rogan he really criticizes like personal development and self-help literature and says oh, it's it's a bunch of like What have they done to be able to oh, yeah books like that? And I'm I'm like, okay um I think a lot of the time where these things isn't about the material itself and like we were saying before Presentness like people objectively know that that's good. So why there's so many different books on it? And I don't think that's the point. I think it's the state of mind people in when they're reading the books So it's going back to what we were also saying about uh being in that hustle mindset when you're not actually being productive So it's people objectively know what the right thing to do is they can read a book on productivity They know to be more productive that it just have to do the work But being in that mindset helps them escape from that hedonistic pleasure seeking mindset that they're always in so just reading the book for that period of the day or clicking on that rst video for example and listening to it already understanding and knowing what the fuck the guy Is trying to insinuate But it helps you switch back into that mode of like hustle improvement improvement improvement Hmm. Yes, definitely. Have you know have you um What's your reading like? Have you found that as you've gone along this journey you start you started um reading more material or reading less Personally for me, I actually used to read a lot more when I started The reason being is that as I've gone through I've noticed that a lot of books that I've been reading tend to be repetitive or I feel like there's a certain time when you need to uh start doing more action And seeing what works for you in the real world as opposed to just uh theorizing and reading about it Especially like this youtube thing So reading about perhaps, you know making a blog or entrepreneurship reading the four hour work week It gets to the time where you have to do it So you still pick up the books that are going to give you the knowledge you need But instead of like reading it Religiously you might just skim through it to the section that you need if that makes any sense Yeah, I think there was a quote and it was by someone who says there's a certain Point in a man's life where he has to stop reading and start writing And that was something yeah, but I don't think that That's in like an absolute like five years of reading and then writing I think it comes in stages and in cycles and like a month ago I stopped reading books completely because I have a deadline for the editor for the book And if I read anything else right now, it's just going to give me more ideas And I'm just going to start drafting more and it's never yeah So 100 couldn't agree more. I'll listen to podcasts, but I'll try to keep it unrelated Unless I know 100 that there's like a whole And a paragraph or a chapter that needs to be made better Yeah Otherwise you get a scope creep You finish the book a scope creep is like when your scope Fucks up. It's it's a project management term. I'm sorry my fucking engineering degree You said to the editor you sent an email, please send it back. I need to change the whole book I don't worry about sources no more Change my mind scopes Scope creep make sure you like the video guys. It will really encourage us for you know Gain up and talking all this shit for the past hour So you could talk bullshit Tell us what topics you want us to cover anything we'll cover it We're down to cover what you guys are interested in hearing about so let us know Interact in the comment section down below and check out the realized man's channel links in the description Peace. Thanks for having me bro. Until next time ladies