Do less s*** better

And some vulnerable stories about death ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ Now for some of the most important lessons of my life… The other day I shared 29 things I've learned in the last 34 years...now for the final five... These are deep. They’re intense. They’re personal. They’re vulnerable. I'm gonna talk about my own death...my own fears...my own discoveries in hopes that you get something from them… 30. Love Yourself for No Reason. I spent the first 26 years of my life creating reasons to love myself. And I got good at it. I loved myself because I won at sports. I loved myself because I made people laugh. I loved myself because I was strong. I loved myself because a woman loved me. I loved myself because I made good money. I spent most of my waking hours making sure I "got stuff done" so I could have more reasons to love myself. I was building this mythical resume that was supposed to make me important. Or at least feel important. I had this idea in my head that there was some magical piece of paper that existed that other people could look at it and tell me how great I am. But there is no paper. And no one really gives a shit. They are too consumed with their own lives, loves, and hates to care about yours. This doesn’t make people bad or evil. It makes them human. The most important person in your life will always be you. It’s the same for everyone else. If you treat anyone else as more important than you then I can damn near guarantee you don’t have joy. You have fleeting moments of happiness based upon the happiness of others. That’s no way to live. You can’t control other people. You can’t make everyone happy. The only person you can truly make happy is yourself. But not if you need a reason to be happy. Here’s the secret to loving yourself and experiencing a life of joy: There is no reason why. There is no reason why you should love yourself. There’s no reason why you should be happy. The best reason to be happy is for no reason at all. If you only love yourself BECAUSE of something...then your love for yourself is conditional. You love yourself when you create the conditions that allow you to love yourself. True joy comes from loving yourself not BECAUSE you've met those conditions...but for no reason at all. 31. The greatest gift of being human is the ability to make mistakes. It is what makes us human. I believe in the Norse gods. I saw something during my Ayahuasca journey years ago that changed the way I view the world. See, I used to want to be perfect. And to be perceived as a perfect. Now I realize the futility in that pursuit. I now seek out opportunities to make mistakes. The gods envy us because they don’t have the luxury of making mistakes. Their perfection is their burden to bear. There’s a reason Eve ate the apple in the garden of Eden. It’s because God wanted us to experience the gift of imperfection. Our flaws are the things that make us human. 32. Uncertainty is the only thing we can be certain of. People spend so much of their life trying to create certainty. Yet that pursuit means you’ll never have it. I live in a state of certainty…certain that everything is uncertain. Certain that the only constant is change. 33. The only way to truly live is to fully accept death. Since I was about 18 years old I had this odd feeling that I was either going to die before 30 or after 100. I’ve told people that since about that time. It’s a weird feeling to realize I've made it a few years past 30. I’ve been lucky enough to experience my own death on two separate occasions. Both were two of the most profound experiences of my life. The first was what you’d call the "little death." The second was the full experience on the second night of my Ayahuasca journey. A complete merging with the void. The total immersion of Self with All Things. It was such an experience of deep bliss that I can’t ever use words to explain what it feels like to die. All I can say is that it’s much better than this. It’s much better than living. And I LOVE living. I love being alive. But as I "came back" from this death I experienced the most pain I’ve ever felt in my life. The result of separating from God, the Universe, The Void, etc was the single worst thing I’ve ever felt. (Btw I’m not speaking about this in a religious sense. I’m not "religious" in the traditional dogmatic way.) I wanted to die in that moment because I couldn’t imagine why God (MY interpretation of God) would give me that glimpse into death and then make me come back to life. After about an hour or so that feeling went away…and what I was left with was something far beyond anything I ever could’ve imagined. A total acceptance of death in each and every moment. With that understanding I’m able to live in THIS world with a level of freedom that few seem to get to experience. I’m not longing for death. I’m not hoping for it. The irony of our fear of death is it is what keeps us from living while we’re alive. Life and Death in Every Breath. That is the motto I live by. In each moment, to what degree are you willing to accept your own death? Nothing will bring you deeper into the present moment than the total acceptance of your mortality in each moment. 34. Do less shit better. You can do anything, but you can't do everything. I used to try to do everything. I had more businesses than I could count. I had a ton of different goals. I thought I could do it all. I was wrong, just like everyone who's ever thought that. You can achieve whatever you want, but not if you're focused on too many things. These days I have one primary business. And I have one other pursuit - comedy. Those are the things I focus on. Not a bunch of other distracting shit. The more you do, the worse you tend to do it. The less you do, the better you tend to do it. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you're the exception to the rule. But probably not. You can't do everything. But you can do some stuff really fucking well. Focus on that stuff. Most of the coaching and consulting I do these days is focused on telling people to do less stuff. Even my coaching for myself. I'm constantly pulled in distracting directions, but I coach myself back to focusing on the few things that matter. That’s all I got at this point in my life. I hope you enjoyed that little series. Talk soon, Ian "old man" Stanley P.S. I'm feeling a little philosophical at the moment. I may keep sharing stuff like this over the next week or so if you're into it. Sent to: {EMAIL} [Unsubscribe]( Almost Passive Income, 13359 N. Hwy 183, Ste. 550, Austin, TX 78750, United States