Whew! I haven’t posted on my website in quite some time – just three weeks shy of a year to be exact. And while I feel pretty bad for leaving you in the dark like that without so little as a hello here and there, I do have something to make up for it! Introducing my brand new e-book: The Simple Art of Meditation.

I decided it was finally time to write down all of my thoughts, tips, and experiences with what I consider to be the best way for us to achieve a sense of happiness and purpose. After all, that’s what everyone is looking for. And while some may choose relationships, money, or material objects to get that sense of happiness, I believe (just as the ancients did) that true happiness only arises from within. And the best possible way to access that inner sense of well-being and peace is through meditation.

But most people don’t really understand what meditation is, let alone how to use it to become fulfilled. That’s the exact purpose of this guide. I take you through a step-by-step process in 66 pages where I teach you everything I know about meditation, what it actually is, and how to use it to change your life. Here’s a brief list of the main sections to give you an understanding of the flow of the e-book:

• I. Theory
• II. Technique
• III. Meditation Styles
• IV. The Science of Meditation
• V. Common Problems with Meditation
• VI. Reaching Higher Levels of Consciousness
• VII. Paradigm Shift
• VIII. Basic Spirituality: A Glossary

Each section contains many subsections that explore different topics relating to it. For example, under Common Problems with Meditation I explore astral projection (which isn’t necessarily a “problem”, but bear with me), and how I spontaneously started having experiences on the astral plane after learning to meditate and lucid dream, and what you should do if this occurs. Technique includes a nifty little hand position you can use to activate a sense of inner peace with you wherever you go. I’ve even got a section entitled How to Lose Weight with Meditation, which is grounded in science and is a lot less gimmicky than it sounds.

To help explain more about the vision of the book, here’s an excerpt:

As I finished my quiet session of meditation at the park, I opened my eyes and found myself surrounded by a world much different than the one I had inhabited just minutes ago. A profound silence seemed to permeate my entire being. While it was indeed beautiful before, the foliage and natural landscape around me seemed to be painted upon a majestic tapestry by some unknown, divine force.

As I got up and walked around, I had the strange feeling of being in the climax of an amazing movie. “This is where the great triumph of the film would occur and all would be revealed with epic music in the background,” I thought to myself – or rather, felt, because my chatterbox of a mind was, at least temporarily, switched to the “off” position.

As I stared in awe at the wonderful colors, shapes and subtle details that I had never seemed to notice before, my first thought arose. I mentally noted that it wasn’t really the park that was so beautiful, or the bridge or diverse foliage. It was actually the experience within me, along with that strange, glorious silence, that created the beauty. And as that realization occurred I had my second thought: I knew I could have this new reality forever, and that what I had just experienced was merely a shadow of the things to come.

Why I Decided to Write the Book

My goal is really quite simple. Having stumbled upon not only the amazing experience I described above, but also the way to create that as a permanent reality in my life, I felt that I needed to share how to do it. But rather than make a series of blog posts which may be read out of order or only in bits and pieces, I knew I needed some sort of central work. A “guide” of sorts that people could go back to as their experience grew. So I went about creating an e-book for that purpose which gives you all the essential theory and technique you need to start on your path, as well as some really neat information about consciousness and scientific research into the nature of our minds when we meditate, and much much more.

It is my hope that you’ll be educated by the book, but more importantly that you take what you read and use it to achieve a sense of inner peace like what I described above. If you’ve been frustrated or have had limited results from meditation in the past, chances are you are over thinking it. I show a very simple way to meditate, even while I include more sophisticated techniques, that will allow you to break through barriers and truly be one with the present moment.After all, that’s all we ever have!

Get The Simple Art of Meditation Now!

As I mentioned before, it’s 66 pages. I included a couple pictures to make it pretty and explain some things, but for the most part it is straight forward text that describes what I am talking about here. After much deliberation I’ve decided to sell it for $9.95. I hope you’ll give it a shot. It definitely can change your life!

In order to get the e-book, just click the buy now button below. You’ll be sent securely to Paypal where you can either sign in to your Paypal account or pay with a credit or debit card. After that, you will instantly receive an e-mail from me with a link to download the book as a PDF file. Click buy now to get started – good luck!

Woo hoo! I’m finally done with my 14-day savings trial. If you’ve read that article, then you know the purpose was to limit my spending as much as possible (as in, no spending except on absolutely necessary items). And while I’ve done just that, what surprised me was how easy it was to limit that spending. I didn’t expect it to take a Herculean effort or anything, but I didn’t expect it to be so easy either. Sure, the first few days were a little rough, but my body and mind quickly adjusted, and I’m stronger and healthier for it.

Coincidentally enough, after I started the trial, I came across a fascinating article with an even more fascinating title,  ”What is Hedonic Adaptation and How Can it Turn You Into a Sukka?”

After discovering this article, I realized why it was so easy to be just as happy as I was before even while severely limiting my “fun” activities.

What is Hedonic Adaptation?

I won’t go into a lot of detail because the article I linked to does that anyway, but I’ll give you a quick summary. Although many agree that money can’t buy happiness, few people understand exactly why. That’s what hedonic adaptation is all about.

Let’s say you suddenly when the lottery. Chances are, your happiness levels are going to skyrocket. They’ll increase even more as you buy your first McMansion and settle into a nice Mercedes or other luxury car of choice. But what happens a month later? And a year later? As it turns out, you will be the same exact person you were before, with all your problems, solutions, worries, and joys – just in fancier surroundings.

Money doesn’t buy us happiness because we quickly become accustomed to our surroundings, no matter what they are. We take them for granted. For a while there I was used to wasting lots of money on fast food and some unnecessary purchases. Then, a few days into the trial, I found that I adapted. I created different ways of having fun that didn’t cost any money. I was soon just as happy or even happier than my former self, plus I was able to save lots of money.

If you really understand this principle then you have gained some powerful insight into what does and does not create human happiness.

Improve Your Life

There are lots of ways to add this concept into your life. Chances are that you enjoy a lot of things you don’t really need. If the cost of keeping those things could better be spent elsewhere, like if you have debt or want to be financially free, consider cutting those expenses and letting yourself adapt to a new lifestyle.

It helps if you do this by committing to a 14 day trial, or better yet a month-long trial. This will ensure that you don’t wuss out during the initial adjustment phase, which can be rough depending on what you’re cutting out. If you make it the entire length of your trial without cheating even once, you’ll soon realize that you didn’t need any of that junk after all. Your wallet and your health will think you.

As a side note, you may have noticed that I haven’t written a post in a pretty long time (2 weeks). The reason for that is I started feeling like I was obligated to post regularly to keep traffic levels up. I started feeling like a sort of slave to the blog, where my emotional ups and downs would mirror the wildly fluctuating, often unreliable traffic graph in my WordPress stats. If I wanted to keep doing a “good job” I had to keep writing content, even when I had nothing to say.

If you’re a blogger, I’m sure you can relate to this. One of the most difficult things to do as a blogger is to keep coming up with fresh content. While I could definitely write tons of quality articles if I really forced myself, in truth, a lot of times there isn’t any need for that. While I’m sure my traffic will somewhat suffer as a result, I’ve already written about most of the things that are really important on here here.

When I come up with something new and fresh I’ll definitely let you know (I’m fascinated with self-sufficiency skills like carpentry and sewing currently), but in the meantime, you already know what to do – chill out, meditate every once in a while, and enjoy yourselves. That’s what I’ll be doing too.

Man, with all the posts I’ve been doing lately about money this is starting to look like one of those personal finance blogs. That’s okay though, because money is definitely an important aspect of personal development and life in general.

The purpose of this trial is to increase my savings rate while decreasing how much I spend. So, what is a savings rate? Well, let’s assume you make $1000 a month to make it easy. If you’re like most people, you spend that entire amount (and then some) without saving any of it back. If you save even 10% of that $1000, then you’re considered highly responsible.

This is what most people end up doing. They save back a very small amount of their income for the purposes of retirement throughout the course of their career. Typically this rate is 10-15%, and assuming you work roughly 40 years, you will have enough to live on in retirement. The problem is that I, and many people like me, have no intention of working that many years. Even 20 years is asking a lot. It’s a values thing. If you value luxuries like a big house and a bunch of stuff, but it makes sense to work a long time for them. But if you value freedom and time, then making some sacrifices upfront so you can choose how to spend your time for the rest of your life sounds like a pretty good deal. And that’s what this trial is all about.

The reason I’m only doing it for 14 days is that I thought it would be easier to start with a simple 2-week commitment right when I got paid. While I could go for a month, I don’t want to just yet because I’m going so extreme with this trial. It seems like a much better idea to try it out for just a couple weeks of first and see how it suits me.

Did I mention I’m going extreme? Like I said, consumer culture would have you spend about 90% of your income while saving 10%. What I’m looking to do here is to nearly reverse those two numbers, that is, a 80-90% savings rate and a 10-20% spending rate. And if that’s going to happen then I need to limit my spending much more than I already do.

Changing how I handle money

I’m actually not much of a spender. I don’t buy many new things, and when I do, it’s usually because they are immediately useful for me, like the pair of gloves I bought last month so my hands wouldn’t freeze when I deliver mail. I don’t collect anything (except for maybe books, which I need to sell actually) and I don’t buy anything just for the sake of having it.

While this is all good, one thing I have been known to do is to waste lots of money on eating out. Going out and getting food, whether it be fast food or dining in at a restaurant, has been a form of entertainment for me for quite some time. I can remember a few years ago when I had a nice summer job, I ate out every single day I worked. If I had to estimate how much that cost me, it was well over $500 just for those three months. What a waste of money!

I’ve cut back my spending in that regard lately to a maximum of $200 a month, but that’s still a lot of money, especially with the kind of lifestyle I’m trying to create (more on that in an upcoming article). So rather than trying to tone down the spending to a smaller amount, I’m going cold turkey. I decided that for this two-week trial, and probably for a long time thereafter, I’m going to cut spending to a bare minimum.

What this really means for me right now is I won’t be eating out anymore. I didn’t spend money on much else before in terms of non-necessities, so while this isn’t a HUGE sacrifice, it will require some discipline. It will also have the side benefit of making me consciously create a cheap form of entertainment that doesn’t involve unhealthy food and spending money.

Spending less means saving more

This also means a lot for my savings rate. Like I said, the, convention at least here in America is to save approximately 10 to 15% of your money for retirement. While this works for some people, I’d rather not work 40 years and retire when I’m 60+. If you can switch those two rates (yes, it is possible.. more on that later) and save 85-90%, and spend only ~10%, then you’re looking at retirement, at least in the sense that you could quit your job and live off the interest you have in savings and investments at any point, in about 5-10 years.

I don’t want to get too far off topic though, as I’m going to go into early retirement in an upcoming post. If you’ve been following my Twitter then you already know I’m talking about. Still though, let’s do some math just for fun.

Right now, I’m living with my parents. My necessary bills consist of gas money and car insurance. That’s about $130 a month total. I’m also going to give $50 a month to a friend I’m staying with part-time, as I don’t think it’s all that fair to eat her food for free. I quit the gym a few days ago in favor of running, so my only other bill is hosting for this website, but luckily the site has paid for itself for the past six months or so and then some. Therefore, my bills cost a grand total of $180 a month.

Even after I move out I’ll still be under $400 a month, plus my income should be much higher by then. Read my article about avoiding a mortgage if that figure made your brain explode.

If I can get a piddly part-time, minimum wage job to supplement my income, I could easily earn enough per month to save back well over $15000 a year. It simply requires that I don’t waste money on junk I don’t need.

Now, almost everyone spends more than they have to, especially if you live in a consumer-based culture like the United States. The real question and purpose behind this trial is to find out if I can lead a satisfying, happy life without doing that.

Can I substitute free hobbies in place of expensive hobbies and enjoy them just as much? Can I choose to eat at home instead of going out and have just as much fun? Can I be perfectly happy without a bunch of “stuff”?

I’m guessing the answers to these questions are all “yes”, but I’ll know for sure at the end of the trial.

Oh, and I’ll soon be covering why on earth I’d want to save a whopping 80%+ of my income as well as how I’m going to retire by age ~30 while still making less than most people.

If you asked most people what their biggest payment was each month, it would be their mortgage. Given that I’m just moving out of my parents house and looking to enter the real world, I’ve been doing a lot of research about these sorts of things. When I sat down to find out how much housing costs, as well as how much the mortgage payments on the housing would be, I was shocked. Expenses add up REALLY fast.

While I could afford a fairly decent smaller home at this point, I’ve found that there’s usually a way to circumvent or at least improve on the things that most people do. And housing is no exception. Plus, as I’ve decided that credit cards and financing a car are all really bad ways of handling money, I knew I wanted a way to create adequate housing without having to borrow money (and paying interest) to do it.

This is the solution I found.

Go Small and Go Home

The truth is, most American housing is way oversized. The only reason it might not seem big enough is because we as a consumer nation collect an absurd amount of junk in our lifetimes. But with some simplicity and a little Zen thinking, it’s quite possible to live well and spaciously in a very small house.

How small do you think I’m talking about? If you’re anywhere over 1000 square feet then you’re way off. If you’re thinking closer to a studio apartment that’s perhaps 500 square feet, then you’re getting closer. Of course, I hate monthly payments, and I’d rather own something than rent it, so apartments are personally out for me, but for size comparisons it’s a good starting place.

Of course, even 500 square feet can be pretty roomy if you’re not a complete packrat. Try *drum roll* 89 square feet. That is not a typo, and you’re not in the Twilight Zone. While most people’s argument against a really small house is “my bathroom is bigger than that”, your argument may now be “my toilet is bigger than that” but don’t worry, just watch this video.

Did you watch it? If not, please do. It’s short, and awesome.

Honestly, the house is still somewhat cluttered by unnecessary items. You can make it look even roomier if you wanted to. The point is that even just 89 square feet is quite liveable.

The Tiny House Movement

I’ve been doing a lot of research into small homes like this, which are collectively referred to as the Tiny House Movement. The idea is to reduce consumer waste and save a lot of resources, including money. You can build one of these things from anywhere from a couple thousand dollars to around 15 grand if you really want to get fancy. They cost almost nothing (literally nothing if you get solar panels) for utilities and are a fantastic idea in general. They can also be quite quaint – I love the one in the video.

Of course, all this being said, I decided that I don’t want a “tiny” house. I think it’s a cool idea, but ultimately unnecessary. The main benefit behind having such a small house is that you can build it on a travel trailer and literally live anywhere, plus they’re small enough to get around any housing regulations so you can put them just about anywhere. But for me, I want something a little bigger.

I’m still in the beginning stages of this idea, but I’m thinking of somewhere around 400 to 600 square feet. It has to be small enough for me to build it myself, which I’m very determined to do, yet large enough so I don’t feel entirely claustrophobic when I’m in it. I’ll probably go for a similar design as you saw in the video, meaning there will be one or two large rooms and a loft, which I really love for some reason, I think it would be awesome to sleep up there by a nice window and wake up with the sun shining through every morning.

See, it doesn’t sound so bad now does it?

How I’m Going to Avoid Paying a Mortgage

The most obvious way that I’m going to avoid paying a mortgage is that I’m going to pay for everything I do in cash, which is quite a possibility in this scenario. I’ll be building my home step-by-step, which will allow me to pay for each part of the work individually. I can save up for a month or two and complete new portion of it. And because I’m building so small, I don’t think it’ll take me very long to do it. Of course I’m not going to move forward until I know specifics, as well as more about building, but this is my plan thus far.

I still need a place to actually put the home. My parents have an extra field on their land, but due to regulations I probably won’t be able to build there. My dad told me he would give me the field if he could, but I would insist on paying for it anyway. I really want to do everything myself, fair and square.

Do It Yourself

I’ll probably end up buying land here in Oklahoma somewhere. As I understand it, land is relatively inexpensive here as compared to a lot of places. I could probably pick up an acre or two for around 10 grand or less. Add on another ~10 grand for my housing project, and you’ve got a homeowner and landowner with no mortgage and absolutely zero loans – not a bad proposition.

It will probably take me a year and half to two years to save that this much money as I don’t earn all that much. If I could become a regular at the post office I could likely do it in six months, but it takes ages (approximately 5 years here) to become a regular, so I’ll be keeping my one day a week job at the post office and I’ll pick up something else on the side.

The reason I’m saying that is to tell you that it’s actually quite easy to solve the main big kid problems of life without going into crazy amounts of debt. At the time of this writing, I have approximately 0 net worth. Yet I’ll easily be able to purchase land and build a home for myself with cash within the next couple of years, even if I had to work a minimum wage job most of the time. If land is more expensive where you live, or you have a family, it may take longer, but it’s still doable.

The problems come when we add things into our life that we don’t really need. When traveling between my parent’s house (2700 square feet) and my friend’s apartment where I often stay (650 square feet), one thing I’ve noticed is that I really don’t feel much different staying in either one. I never think “WOW so much room!” at my parent’s, nor do I feel cramped at my friend’s. Part of this is due to sheer lack of clutter in the apartment, but even then if I’m being honest her apartment is a little cluttered, yet it still doesn’t feel cramped. Given my almost anal nature about not accumulating crap, I am sure even 450 squre feet we feel quite adequate. Or perhaps even smaller.

Part of the reason I’m doing this is because of money, but a big part of it is to prove to myself that I really don’t need that much to be happy. Even if I were going to inherit millions, I’m fairly certain that I would still undertake this project. I can already imagine how satisfying it will be to build my own simple home that I paid for myself. Plus, being able to say that you never had a mortgage or car payment and you did it without having any more money than anyone else is pretty darn cool.

What are your thoughts on this idea? How much space do you really need? Can you forsee any problems with my idea? Let me know in the comments below!

Back when I first created this site, roughly one year ago, I was all about slowing down and finding inner peace. I meditated a lot and had some incredible experiences that I wouldn’t have had otherwise had I not been willing to put the outside world on hold a bit. But lately I’m finding that in order to achieve my goals I need to increase my activity, which in turn has led to stress.

Of course, I’m not alone – this is a problem that affects everyone. We can’t always have tons of free time to meditate and ponder the nature of things. Occasionally (or even most of the time, ick!) we have to actually go out, and do stuff. But I’m starting to wonder about this whole “doing stuff” thing. Do my stress levels have to increase just because my amount of doing increases?

Personally, I think the answer is a definite no. While it may be difficult to maintain a peaceful state when a million things are happening all at once, it is possible. It just requires some adjustments in how we perceive that doing. And that’s what I’m going to explore in this article. Introducing Zen doing.

Regular Doing Versus Zen Doing

Although you might not be able to perceive it from the outside, there are huge differences between someone who practices Zen doing and someone who just, well, does. The primary difference is what each person is focusing on.

For example, let’s say a “normal” (I use that term a lot, don’t I?) person has a very busy schedule full of action items that they absolutely must accomplish today, or else the world will end. While this person might not be under huge amounts of stress, chances are that they are far from being at peace within themselves. The reason for this is their focus. When we have a lot of stuff to do, our natural tendency is to think about that crap over and over. How am I going to do this? I don’t have enough time for this. What’s the most efficient way for me to use this restroom here so I can get back to work as soon as possible? Yeah, I really have done that last one. More than once.

Unfortunately, this is the kind of stuff we usually have running through our heads when we have a really busy day. The problem is that our focus is entirely undisciplined. It scatters in 20 different directions all at once, which inevitably leads to feelings of stress and sometimes even outright panic. Zen doing is the antidote to this.

Like I said, it’s all about focus. Whereas most have their focus scatter when they have a bunch of tasks to do, Zen doing is all about taking that focus, combining it, and aiming it at all at once at the same place: the present moment. It’s a lot like your common household laser beam (this article is written for future readers, ha ha) – even though the beam is created from a bunch of scattered light, when you focus that light with intensity, it becomes powerful. Powerful enough to cut through metal.

And that’s the irony of Zen doing. While you might assume that it’s “weak”, i.e. that it doesn’t achieve results, it actually achieves more than you would otherwise. The feelings of peace and let-go that accompany the state don’t decrease productivity, they intensify it. The powerful focus we get from it allows us a level of insight and understanding into each task that we wouldn’t have otherwise with our brain running on overdrive.

Bringing Zen into Our Everyday Life

There’s more to Zen doing than increased productivity, though, and if you did it solely for that reason you probably wouldn’t get anything out of it. Zen doing is a no-mind, let go and flow type of activity. It’s basically meditating while taking action.

As you already know, one of the characteristics of the state is an increased sense of peace. Even though you may have loads of things to do, when you are completely, purposefully wrapped up with each one, and with the present moment that each activity occurs in, you learn to let go. You let go of the idea that you “have” to achieve X, Y, and Z. You still achieve them, of course, but it comes from an entirely different level of consciousness.

Typically, our daily life and distractions take us away from this meditative state. We often get so wrapped up in our own little things that we forget about everything else entirely. Zen doing allows us to do those things and participate in the real world without losing the overall picture. Although I’m still trying to make this into a habit, I can say with certainty that this is an incredibly satisfying thing to do.

Being Zen

Even things as simple as washing the dishes or taking out the trash become joyous activities. The next time you do something that you deem a waste of time or a chore, take some time to really get in the moment. Stop and appreciate the sights, sounds, and sensations around you. This brings an incredible sense of immersion into your activities. It’s like taking a simple sketch on a sheeet of paper and turning it into a vivid, colorful 3d masterpiece. That’s how real it becomes.

It isn’t our modern obsession with being busy that creates so many of our inner problems. Instead, like most things, it’s our attitude towards it. It’s quite possible to be “busy” on the outside and yet complete and whole on the inside all at the same time. In fact, understanding this paradox and really living it can be said to be one of the greatest achievements that a human being can have.

This is because beyond that door lies the key to both inward and outward success, all at once. Why sacrifice your inner world for busy productivity, or your outer world for inner stillness? You can have both, and one very satisfying method for achieving that is the fine art of Zen doing.

Although I still can’t understand why, this is the third time I’ve tried to write this article. There’s something about it that’s inherently easy to understand but hard to communicate. Let me try one more time.

It’s been said that we humans are creatures of habits, and no statement could be more true. Aristotle has even been quoted as saying just that:
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” But how often do we take the time to understand this powerful notion? And if we really did – and we learned to manage this power – what could it do for us?

This post is all about leveraging the power of habit to create an effective framework for growing ourselves and creating interesting and varied lives. The first principle is as follows:

Good habits compound over time

The key to being the best that you can be is as simple as developing good habits. For example, a person who shall remain nameless (me) used to eat a LOT of fast food. In fact, that person sometimes still does (oops). But recently, this person has decided to get a gym membership in order to set himself on a path to better health. The transition period for this type of change may sting a little, but it’s definitely managable. And the best part is that once I’ve made the change a habit, it’s easy to stick to it. Why? Because humans are creatures of habit.

But that’s just one change. Let’s imagine another area that I’m really working on right now. I’ve never been horrible at managing my money, but I’ve been learning a lot of new tricks lately in an effort to be better prepared for big kid world. So, let’s suppose that I took the money that I used to spend on fast food and, after using some of it to pay for the gym membership, I took the rest and invested it. After doing that, even for just a few years or so, imagine how much better my financial situation would be as well as life in general. And that’s just a side-bonus from implementing one habit. Can you see how the effects of creating and maintaining positive habits can multiply over time?

Let’s go even farther and fast forward 10 years. Suppose that I decided to invest all the money I used to spend on fast food into some nice high percentage paying investments. At this point, I probably have a pretty nice nest egg set up, and am on the path to some serious wealth building. Let’s also assume that the gym thing worked out and I’m in excellent physical condition. So, from a minor habit change or two I now have a rockin’ bod and loads (relatively speaking) of cash. How many more opportunities are available to me now that wouldn’t have been otherwise?

Now I have access even more great experiences and habits that I wouldn’t have dreamed of a decade ago. And the best part is that it’s all autopilot. That’s why habits are so cool. Introducing the “set it and forget it” of the personal development world.

Set and forget it

Creating your habits is actually a really easy thing to do. One of my favorite ways of looking at habits involves the “set it and forget it” method. This is what I’m doing right now and it’s working out really well. All you have to do is create the basic schedule for what you want your life to look like. You could do it on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis.

For example, I have certain tasks that I’m working on right now that will lead to great improvements in my life. One of these is my upcoming e-book about meditation. In order to ensure its completion I have set aside specific days to work on it, where I achieve specific amounts of work done. I don’t go all out or anything – after all, hard work is bogus – but I ensure a nice consistent buzz of work going on at any given time. If I didn’t have the e-book to work on, I’d replace it with a different activity.

I do that for pretty much anything that I know will drastically improve my life. I do it for the site as well. I set aside specific times to work on writing articles and interacting as much as possible with my readers. I also set aside time for the gym, where, providing I don’t have a heart attack or something similarly horrific, I will absolutely, definitely go to the gym on that day.

These kinds of changes become habits very quickly, and before long you do them without even thinking about it. I’ll think, “oh, look, it’s Wednesday – time to write an article and work on my upper body.” Let me reiterate that I definitely don’t overload myself with daily to-do tasks. I’m far too concerned with peace of mind to do that. But I make sure that I achieve very precise, measurable, Pareto principle approved items each day that I know will put me on the right path. Without these, I often spiral into wasting huge amounts of time and receiving little to nothing in return.

Injecting intelligence into your schedule

Of course, your schedule is only as intelligent as you are. Even if you decide on a routine and stick to it, you need to set aside time to reevaluate your routine and make sure it is still working for you.

To that end, pretend that you are a computer programmer, and you’re tasked with writing an algorithm for success in your life. What if you were to put something like “work on cardio at gym every Wednesday” into your program, only to encounter a life situation where you find a group of buddies to go hiking with every Wednesday. If you keep blindly following your schedule of “cardio every Wednesday no matter what” then you’re going to overdo it and exhaust yourself. You have to code some amount of artificial intelligence and good decision-making into your life program or just isn’t going to work.

Now, that’s a pretty simple example. You could simply substitute cardio with weight training, or perhaps avoid the gym entirely that day, but it’s easy for things to sneak up on you if you don’t regularly reevaluate what you’re doing, especially for things that aren’t as obvious as exercise.

For example, suppose that you spend time twice a month with a friend in a mastermind kind of group where you brainstorm good business ideas. At first, this is a great idea, and you make a lot of progress with your friend. But eventually the meetings turn into little more than idle banter and gossip. It’s fun, sure, but you aren’t getting results anymore. Creating a specific time, say once a month, to reevaluate how you you are regularly spending your time – in other words, your habits – allows you to decide if you still want to meet with that friend for that purpose. That doesn’t mean that you have to stop seeing the friend, but then you’ll know if you want the benefits of a good mastermind session then you’re going to have to make changes.

In conclusion

I’m not sure why this was so difficult to write at first, but perhaps that’s because it’s so simple. In summary: understand the power of habits and how they compound upon one another, then create a system that passively works for you, and don’t forget to regularly visit that system and optimize it.

This is something that has done a lot for me, and is sure to help anyone, especially those in the personal development world who find themselves bombarded with great information on a regular basis, yet don’t know what to do with it. Just integrate those new tips until they become habits, and don’t forget to revisit them from time to time.

One thing that people  really want these days is a way to live forever. As our standard of living increases and we accumulate more and more stuff, we soon realize that we will inevitably lose it all upon death. What a wonderful thing, then, if we could keep all that stuff and live forever.

But the truth is, in reality, we don’t want to live forever – we just want to think that we’re going to live forever. There’s a huge difference, with one of the main contrasts between the two being that the latter is actually possible. I’m not talking about brainwashing yourself though – this isn’t any lame trick of the mind. What I’m going to propose here is actually a fairly non-significant consequence of regularly practicing spirituality and meditation.

Aligning with Pure Consciousness as Identity

As I’ve mentioned many times before, meditation is a pretty good thing. It opens doorways to lowering stress levels, achieving inner peace, and gaining access to some phenomenal insights. But did you know that it also sets you on the path to immortality? Now, you may be thinking, “that’s impossible! No one lives forever.” And you’d be right. No one person lives forever.

All forms will die, whether we like it or not. But the same is not true of consciousness. In this context, meditation and the like is essentially a way of separating your identity from form, ego, and your human self, and merging it with oneness, the infinite, and consciousness.

And like I said, it’s not just a brain trick. When you make the leap “into the river that flows into the ocean consciousness”, as a well-cited example often goes, you set out on a journey that will eventually lead to a certain realization. This realization is that you are exactly the same thing as everyone else. Behind (and beyond) the myriad of forms and identities, we are all basically the same underlying field of energy. And hopefully you’re familiar with your science, because if you are, then you know that energy never disappears. It simply does what? It changes forms.

So what does this mean?

How to Achieve Immortality

After your identity is aligned with consciousness, you no longer care much what happens to your human body. You want to take care of it and respect it, of course, but there is no longer a subtle background fear of death. Why? Simply put: because you are immortal, and you know you are.

As you walk around each day, you understand that the thing you really are is something that can’t ever go away. It’s simply impossible. All of the fears and limitations we have due to our fear of death disappear. This allows an incredible freedom, and the dissolution of many other fears that had their root in the fear of death.

How cool would it be to walk around with the real subjective experience that you are immortal without having to be self delusional? It’s ironic then, that in order for most to convince themselves that they will be immortal, they have to plunge into ever-increasing unconsciousness, yet awareness and true consciousness naturally leads to the same result.

A Fantastic Enlightenment Book

This is definitely a cool little idea. I think the seed for this article was first planted in my head what I read a book lovingly called Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies and the Truth About Reality. I really love the complete lack of reverence with which the author describes his spiritual experiences and overall life story – it was hilarious. But anyway, in one of the chapters he describes his experience of enlightenment (even though he claims that he is not enlightened – whatever).

He says that he was passing over a bridge while walking to work, feeling rather peaceful, when it happened. All of a sudden, he felt an incredible sense of clarity, and he had the strangest sensation of looking around him, at the trees, dirt, water, and so on, and he felt like he was looking at himself. Like, he was really looking at himself. Imagine the sensation you get when you look in a mirror, and you just know that the person staring back is you. Well, he had that for every single thing around him. He looked at the trees and understood the bark and limbs as himself. He looked down at the water and saw not only his reflection as himself, but the entirety of the water itself. Talk about trippy.

This is such a cool thing because that really is what the experience of enlightenment does. It helps us understand that we are the universe, not just our little monkey-esque selves – though we are cute, sometimes. And when that happens, we understand the truth about our mortality.

That is, that it is a sham.

Although money isn’t something I’ve worried much about in the past, lately I’ve been focusing a lot on it. The reason for this is simple: I’m finally putting my big kid shoes on and moving out of my parents house – or at least doing it soon. The question is, what kind of state do I want to be in when I leave the nest? Do I want to leave in a state of debt and “I don’t know” or do I want to leave knowing that I have something to fall back on in case disaster strikes?

Before I get into that though, here’s a true story about little Fred Tracy from third grade.

Saving Versus Spending at 8 Years Old

I was 8 years old and we had just been told about a cool little program our teacher was using to get us to learn more and do our homework. The program was pretty simple. Basically, we would get points for good attendance and good grades, among other things. Throughout the year, we would be able to spend those points on various events like movie days and field trips. And at the end of the year, we could spend ALL of our points at a classroom auction the teacher was having.

I’m not quite sure what was going on in my little mind, but I must have been pretty excited. I patiently turned in all my homework, did really well in school, and collected as many points as I possibly could. Many other students did this as well. What set me apart, though, was my ability to sacrifice and postpone gratification. I’m not even sure if this is healthy behavior from an 8-year-old, but here’s what I did.

Like I said, I did really well in school, but remember all those cool movie days and field trips? I actually skipped out on them and hung out with the kids in detention. Not because I thought it was cool or anything, I just wanted to save those points! I can remember very vividly sitting in detention with all the kids who couldn’t afford to pay (in teacher points) to go to the movie our class was seeing. One of the first things the adult who was watching gripingly said was, “Okay, you’re all here because you’re in trouble and didn’t do well enough in your class to earn enough points to see the movie today.” I very quickly let him know that this did not apply to me, and that I was gaming the system.

The moral of the story is this: Even though I had to sacrifice a few movie days and field trips, I got a lot of cool stuff (to an 8 year old) at the end of the year. This is exactly how money works in real life. You save and prepare, and then you profit.

Creating a Fully Funded Emergency Fund

The reason why I’m so excited about saving now is that I just finished (well, almost finished, I wanted to tell you guys about this today) watching a seminar by Dave Ramsey. I have no idea what his reputation is to most people, as I’ve just been exposed to him, but some of the things he has said has already revolutionized my life plan. One of the most important things is the emergency fund.

According to Dave, a fully funded emergency fund consists of about 3-6 months of complete living expenses. That covers food, shelter, utilities, transportation, and so on. It is the stuff that you absolutely can’t live without. This does NOT include big-screen TVs or credit card bills.

Therefore, how much you are going to have in your emergency fund depends on how much you earn and spend now. For me, since I’m still living at home, all I have is one credit card bill (of which I’m paying off completely by next month, more on that later), so I have to project forward a bit and see how much I will need.

To that end, I’m settling on roughly $5000. I have a friend who is essentially in the same situation as me, and she spends about $1000 on bills a month living by herself in our area. Therefore, I’ll have 5 months worth of money in my emergency fund in case disaster strikes.

Why Create an Emergency Fund? Why Not Use Credit?

For most people, their credit card IS their emergency fund. If something bad happens, they just put it on the card and (hopefully) pay it off later. The reason why you shouldn’t do this is simple: credit is stupid. There is almost never a real reason to use credit when you plan your finances consciously and conscientiously. The only excusable situation I can think of is for purchasing a house where you pretty much have to have it and can’t pay all that money up front. Otherwise, stay away from credit. There’s a reason why banks and everyone else want you to sign up for their credit card so badly – statistically, they will make a LOT of money off of you. Even if you pay off the credit card before interest is billed each month, you’re just breaking even. Why not take that money, invest it, and let it gain interest for YOU?

Financial things aside, the real reason to create an emergency fund is peace of mind, and as you well know, that’s what I’m all about. According to some statistics I learned from the seminar, roughly 7/10 people will experience a significant financially draining event in the next 10 years. That’s a pretty small chance to scrape by and be okay not having an emergency fund. Why not be prepared?

This becomes even more important if you have kids and a family. I’ve decided to stay single for, well, ever – or at least until further notice. If you’ve read my articles about relationships then you know why. That being said, if something bad were to happen to me, the only person relying on me, is me! I don’t have a situation where if I become unable to work, my family is going to starve. And yet even I am setting up an emergency fund. If I’m doing that, how much more important is it for someone that is the breadwinner of the family to do it?

How to Use an Emergency Fund

There is only one situation in which you should use your emergency fund. For emergencies! There is no other situation under the sun to use this fund. Ideally, you want it sitting there doing nothing. Don’t use it to invest, don’t use it to pay off debt, and don’t use it to pay cash for that really good deal you just saw. Just leave it be. That’s what it’s supposed to do.

How’s that for simple? I think a lot of people know they should have some money in savings, but it’s not enough at the forefront of their consciousness to actually do it. This is your reminder. Right now, devise a plan to top off your emergency fund (3 to 6 months of living expenses) ASAP. You can’t afford not to.