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	<title>Hack The System</title>
	
	<link>http://hackthesystem.com</link>
	<description>Cheat Codes for Life with Maneesh Sethi</description>
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	<itunes:summary>Maneesh from maneeshsethi.com sits down with interesting entrepreneurs and finds out what makes them tick: How did they achieve blogging success, but business opportunities have made them successful, and how have they successfully hacked the system to become successful?</itunes:summary>
	<itunes:author>Maneesh Sethi</itunes:author>
	<itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
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	<itunes:owner>
		<itunes:name>Maneesh Sethi</itunes:name>
		<itunes:email>maneesh@maneeshsethi.com</itunes:email>
	</itunes:owner>
	<managingEditor>maneesh@maneeshsethi.com (Maneesh Sethi)</managingEditor>
	<itunes:subtitle>Hack The System with Maneesh Sethi - Travel Hacking and Taking Over The World</itunes:subtitle>
	<itunes:keywords>maneeshsethi, entrepreneurship, 4hww, lifestyle design, digital nomad, online marketing, business</itunes:keywords>
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		<title>Set place – What You Think About Becomes Who You Are</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Maneeshsethicom/~3/TIX0V52yoeQ/</link>
		<comments>http://hackthesystem.com/blog/set-place-what-you-think-about-becomes-who-you-are/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 16 May 2012 15:18:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>maneesh</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Habit Hacking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lifestyle Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Self Improvement]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://hackthesystem.com/?p=1225</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One thing that I&#8217;ve noticed is that everyone has a set place, a default action that people tend to reset to. Think about it&#8211;when you&#8217;re not working or executing something on your calendar, what do you spend your time doing? You might think you have no predefined place, but dig deep. Do you find yourself [...]<p><a href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/set-place-what-you-think-about-becomes-who-you-are/">Set place &#8211; What You Think About Becomes Who You Are</a> is a post from: <a href="http://hackthesystem.com">Hack The System</a></p>
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/set-place-what-you-think-about-becomes-who-you-are/" title="Permanent link to Set place &#8211; What You Think About Becomes Who You Are"><img class="post_image alignnone" src="http://farm1.staticflickr.com/51/175387410_1797edd976.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Post image for Set place &#8211; What You Think About Becomes Who You Are" /></a>
</p><p>One thing that I&#8217;ve noticed is that everyone has a set place, a default action that people tend to reset to. Think about it&#8211;when you&#8217;re not working or executing something on your calendar, what do you spend your time doing?</p>
<p>You might think you have no predefined place, but dig deep. Do you find yourself tending to default to Facebook, maybe television? What do you spend most of your wasted time doing?</p>
<p>For me, I know that I default naturally to email or Facebook. Both of these are negative &#8216;Set places.&#8221; By watching my successful friends, I see extremely stark differences between the successful and the average</p>
<p>The average person defaults to passive, distracting activities. The successful, however, default to an activity that furthers their mission. My photographer roommate spends his free time taking photos. My musician friends spend their free time producing and practicing music.</p>
<p>The major thing to take note of is the time requirement of excellence. Malcolm Gladwell says that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert. For people who have a set place as a passion, they&#8217;ll approach and achieve that goal just by doing what they normally do.</p>
<p>So, lets look at how you can diagnose your current set place&#8230;. and how you can replace it with one more in line with your goals.</p>
<h2>Diagnosing Your Current Set Place</h2>
<p>- So what do you spend your time doing now?</p>
<p><strong>1) Install <a href="http://rescuetime.com">RescueTime</a> on your Computer</strong></p>
<p>RescueTime is an incredibly sleek, simple app that sits in your system tray and measures exactly how much time you spend on your computer; sorted by application, website, and level of productivity. For example, if I spend 4 hours on FB and 4 hours on a Word document, RescueTime will give me a 50% efficiency rating for the day.</p>
<p>This application has some pros and cons. Pro: it doesn&#8217;t require any work, other than simply installing toe app and waiting. On the negative side, because it is so easy to operate, it doesn&#8217;t tend to induce change- it just monitors what you&#8217;re already doing.</p>
<p>RescueTime will show you which web sites which apps you are using the most. To actually monitor what activities you&#8217;ve installed as a set place, you need a Time Log.</p>
<p><strong>2) A time log</strong></p>
<p>The best way to diagnose your current set place is to do a time log. For at least one full day, track everything that you do. Every time that you switch tasks, or check Facebook, or get up to grab a snack, jot it down.</p>
<p>I recommend the app <a href="http://www.getklok.com/">Klok</a> for this.</p>
<p>Two things will happen-first, you&#8217;ll start to become cognizant of what you&#8217;re doing to waste time. Secondly, you&#8217;ll notice that you&#8217;ll resist those urges because you won&#8217;t want to jot these notes down.</p>
<p>This is a great example of Peter Drucker, the famous Management scientist, and his statement of &#8216;that which gets measured gets managed. If you start tracking your time, you&#8217;ll naturally manage it better.</p>
<h2>How can we improve?</h2>
<p>So now that you know your set place, we need to figure out how to adjust yours to help you achieve your goals.</p>
<p>Achieving a new set place is the same process as creating any new habit. Let&#8217;s look at the form a normal habit takes, and the process to change a habit.</p>
<p><em><strong>Habit </strong></em></p>
<p><strong>Trigger -&gt; Routine -&gt; Reward</strong></p>
<p>Currently, something causes you to do something at a certain point in the day. Perhaps whenever you feel stressed, you smoke a cigarette. Whenever You get bored with your work, you switch on Facebook. Whatever it is, there is a trigger and a  consequence.</p>
<p>Our goal then, is to break the bond between trigger and non-desired Routine.</p>
<p>But, just like breaking bonds between electrons and atoms, the trigger cannot exist in a vacuum. The trigger must instead be set to induce a different, desired consequence.</p>
<p>In order to instill a new set place, we must substitute our current set place for another.</p>
<p>What is your dream goal? Is it to become a musician, or build a business, or get in serious shape? What activity, if you were to practice it for hours a day, would help you achieve it?</p>
<p>Now you actually have to focus on making this action your go-to action. This part is just pure focus. Set specific goals, and find someone to hold you accountable.</p>
<p>Then, every time you find yourself off task, or distracted, instead of switching to your old outlet&#8212;the previous &#8216;set place,&#8217;&#8212;make a concerted effort to either return to your work, or do the new set task.</p>
<p>One example of this is Leo Babauta of <a href="http://zenhabits.net/">Zen Habits</a>, who told me that whenever he had an urge to smoke, he would do ten pushups instead. By recognizing triggers pushing him to negative habits, he managed to substitute positive ones in their place.</p>
<p>If you want to be a music producer, make an effort to replace your standard Facebook set place with Ableton Live instead. Every time you catch yourself distracted, either return on task, or work on music.</p>
<p>When you are done for the day, instead of relaxing with TV, go back to your new set place. You&#8217;ll need to force yourself for the first month, and that is okay. After a few weeks, your new set place will become a habit, and if you consciously monitor it, you&#8217;ll be able to induce a new set place&#8212;and build automatic success.</p>
<p>===</p>
<p>Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sazeod/">SaZeOd</a></p>
<p><a href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/set-place-what-you-think-about-becomes-who-you-are/">Set place &#8211; What You Think About Becomes Who You Are</a> is a post from: <a href="http://hackthesystem.com">Hack The System</a></p>
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		<item>
		<title>The Automation Mindset</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Maneeshsethicom/~3/OddFxjEm4mA/</link>
		<comments>http://hackthesystem.com/blog/the-automation-mindset/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 11 May 2012 12:05:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>maneesh</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hacking The System]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lifestyle Design]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://hackthesystem.com/?p=1217</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Whenever you have to do something, how do you approach the problem? I grew up as a programmer, starting to program when I was about 10 years old, and the act of programming instilled the idea of automation within me. If you can do a task once, a programmer will do it by hand. If [...]<p><a href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/the-automation-mindset/">The Automation Mindset</a> is a post from: <a href="http://hackthesystem.com">Hack The System</a></p>
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/the-automation-mindset/" title="Permanent link to The Automation Mindset"><img class="post_image alignnone" src="http://hackthesystem.com/wordpress/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/skitched-20120511-080332.jpg" width="544" height="387" alt="Post image for The Automation Mindset" /></a>
</p><p>Whenever you have to do something, how do you approach the problem?</p>
<p>I grew up as a programmer, starting to program when I was about 10 years old, and the act of programming instilled the idea of <em>automation</em> within me. If you can do a task once, a programmer will do it by hand. If a programmer has to do a task ten times, they will start to consider writing a script to do it for them. Once it increases past ten times, well, there is no way a programmer will continue to do it by hand.</p>
<p>However, most people never wrap their heads around the idea of automating a task. I have friends who work inside of spreadsheets and have done the same repetitive tasks, every day, for years. If they knew how to program, they would be able to automate their entire job out of existence.</p>
<p>I was browsing <a href="http://reddit.com">reddit</a> yesterday when I landed on this thread: <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/tenoq/">Reddit, my friends call me a scumbag because I automate my work when I was hired to do it manually. Am I?</a></p>
<p>Now, you can debate whether or not the author was a scumbag, but the fact is that there is a lot of power in automation. If there is something that you do often and repeatedly, then there is definitely space to make it automated.</p>
<h2>How do successful people get more done?</h2>
<p>One awesome article I read at <a href="http://www.bakadesuyo.com/">my favorite blog</a> pointed to a <a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2011/05/the-only-way-to-get-important.html">Harvard Business Review article</a> about successful people: How do they get so much done?</p>
<p><em>The answer, surprisingly, is not that they have more will or discipline than you do. The counterintuitive secret to getting things done is to make them more automatic, so they require less energy.</em></p>
<p>Habits are a perfect example of automation. If you automatically go to the gym every morning, without thinking, then you can free up the space in your brain to think about other things&#8212;and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/decision-making-willpower-2011-9?op=1">conserve your willpower as well</a>.</p>
<p>Apart from habit change, what other tasks can you automate?</p>
<h3><strong>Automate your entire business process</strong></h3>
<p><strong></strong>One of the most influential books I&#8217;ve read recently was <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1929774877/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=blitzprogramm-20&amp;camp=0&amp;creative=0&amp;linkCode=as4&amp;creativeASIN=1929774877&amp;adid=0DD7G5RSSGH8P4Y1FTDS&amp;">Work the System</a>. The author, the founder of a business in Oregon, found that he was working at his business up to a hundred hours a week, spending most of his time putting out fires. Suddenly, he had an idea&#8212;what if he began documenting all of his processes, making it foolproof to complete the tasks that he commonly did?</p>
<p>Suddenly, his employees were able to put out the fires for him. If everything was followed to a tee, then everything worked perfectly&#8212;and if not, the employees could find which step wasn&#8217;t followed and fix it accordingly.</p>
<p>If you are running a business, definitely check out <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1929774877/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=blitzprogramm-20&amp;camp=0&amp;creative=0&amp;linkCode=as4&amp;creativeASIN=1929774877&amp;adid=0DD7G5RSSGH8P4Y1FTDS&amp;">Work the System</a>&#8212;it will help you understand the idea of building a self-propelled business.</p>
<h2><strong>Automate your finances</strong></h2>
<p>Using <a href="http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/03/26/the-psychology-of-automation-building-a-bulletproof-personal-finance-system/">ING Direct</a>, I always automate my finances to allow me to enjoy guilt free spending. ING Direct allows you to set up multiple sub-accounts, and create automatic transfers that occur on a specific day, every month.</p>
<p>Using this tool, I manage to save up for goals of mine (DJ Equipment, travel, plane tickets, etc) automatically, every month. The money is transferred from my account at the beginning of the month, and by the time the remaining money arrives in my bank account, all of my savings goals have already been met for the month&#8212;leaving me with an amount for guilt-free spending.</p>
<p>Learn more about this <a href="http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/03/26/the-psychology-of-automation-building-a-bulletproof-personal-finance-system/">from a guest post by Ramit Sethi</a> on the Four Hour Workweek blog.</p>
<h3><strong><strong>Automate your cooking</strong></strong></h3>
<p><strong><strong></strong></strong>Are you following a specific diet plan? Often, one of the biggest problems is cooking the right food, or knowing exactly what to eat. When you are tired, coming home from work, you might find it easier to stop over for fast food, rather than cooking a healthy meal.</p>
<p>Fortunately, there are ways to automate your cooking. I&#8217;ve seen two pretty successful ways.</p>
<p>1) <strong>Hire a personal chef on craigslist to cook a week of meals.</strong> You can easily find a chef on <a href="http://craigslist.org">Craigslist</a> or <a href="http://taskrabbit.com">TaskRabbit</a> who will cook for you, often for reasonable rates. You can work with them to determine a meal plan, and then enjoy the fruits of their labor.</p>
<p>2) <strong>Sign up with a company that delivers an automatic diet, directly to your door</strong> - I know someone who is working on achieving fitness goals. Rather than think about cooking, they simply have the <a href="http://www.inthezonedelivery.com/">Zone Diet</a> delivered directly to their door. They don&#8217;t have to think about what they will eat&#8212;whatever shows up, they consume, and nothing else.</p>
<p>As you can see, there are a lot of ways you can automate your life, allowing you to focus on the most important things. If something isn&#8217;t your core competency, should you really be doing the task? Or should you find a way to automate/outsource it?</p>
<p>What are some tasks that you have or want to automate?</p>
<p><a href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/the-automation-mindset/">The Automation Mindset</a> is a post from: <a href="http://hackthesystem.com">Hack The System</a></p>
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		<title>How to Lose 23 Lbs in 28 Days (hint: it requires radical system-hacking)</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Maneeshsethicom/~3/d3tJPzIUJsU/</link>
		<comments>http://hackthesystem.com/blog/how-to-lose-23-lbs-in-28-days-hint-it-requires-radical-system-hacking/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 07 May 2012 12:24:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>maneesh</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Exercise]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Habit Hacking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hacking The System]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://hackthesystem.com/?p=1208</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On September 25, 2011, I weighed in at 185 Lbs. 28 days later, on October 22, I checked the scales. 162 lbs. I didn&#8217;t count calories. I didn&#8217;t have to use willpower, go to the gym, take magic weightloss drugs. Nope. My method was much simpler: I moved into the desert and tried to survive. [...]<p><a href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/how-to-lose-23-lbs-in-28-days-hint-it-requires-radical-system-hacking/">How to Lose 23 Lbs in 28 Days (hint: it requires radical system-hacking)</a> is a post from: <a href="http://hackthesystem.com">Hack The System</a></p>
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/how-to-lose-23-lbs-in-28-days-hint-it-requires-radical-system-hacking/" title="Permanent link to How to Lose 23 Lbs in 28 Days (hint: it requires radical system-hacking)"><img class="post_image alignnone" src="https://img.skitch.com/20120507-nafg1fgjkjeee7gt3n61k1kn91.jpg" width="550" height="458" alt="Post image for How to Lose 23 Lbs in 28 Days (hint: it requires radical system-hacking)" /></a>
</p><p>On September 25, 2011, I weighed in at 185 Lbs.</p>
<p>28 days later, on October 22, I checked the scales. 162 lbs.</p>
<p>I didn&#8217;t count calories. I didn&#8217;t have to use willpower, go to the gym, take magic weightloss drugs.</p>
<p>Nope. My method was much simpler: <strong>I moved into the desert and tried to survive.<br />
</strong></p>
<h2>Radical Goal setting and the Importance of Systems</h2>
<p>One question I get asked often is: &#8216;What exactly does Hack The System&#8217; mean? God, that&#8217;s a loaded question.</p>
<p>Hack the System has a lot of meanings. Partly, it&#8217;s about looking for inconsistencies in systems to take advantage of them (for example, <a href="http://hackthesystem.com/take-advantage-of-the-system/" title="Take Advantage Of The System: A Free Travel Hacking Report">free airline tickets</a> or <a href="http://hackthesystem.com/officespace/" title="How To Get Free Office Space in Every City Of The World">free office space</a>). But another meaning is much deeper to me.</p>
<p>I believe that, for lifestyle design, you must design <em>systems</em> that aid you in achieving your goals. What is a system? <strong>It&#8217;s an automatic, self-perpetuating contextual set of instructions that induce success.</strong> Rather than relying on willpower to achieve our goals, we will try to build an environment that produces our goals, naturally.</p>
<p>For example, say that you set a goal to write 1000 words a day. With any behavior change, you must make the action automatic. Automatic means, creating a new habit.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bakadesuyo.com/how-to-get-more-done">What is the secret to getting more done? Make it automatic.</a></p>
<p>Many people will set this resolution, then do it for one day, maybe another&#8212;but eventually something will come up, and they will miss a day, and then another, and then give up all together.</p>
<p>Instead, what if we built a system to produce this habit?</p>
<p>We might start off by setting an alarm on our phone with the label &#8216;wake up and write&#8217; that goes off automatically.</p>
<p>Then, we&#8217;ll sleep with the journal and pen right next to our bed.</p>
<p>Then, we require ourselves to write one sentence before we get out of bed.</p>
<p>Then, we hire a virtual assistant to call us in the morning and ask us how much we&#8217;ve written. The assistant won&#8217;t get off the phone until we are in the process of writing. Of course, we&#8217;ve prepaid for a full month and the calls won&#8217;t stop coming.</p>
<p>Then, we find a group of other people doing the same goal&#8212;and get an individual buddy who checks in on us, and we check in on them.</p>
<p>Then, we install an app on our computer that requires us to say &#8216;Yes, I have written 1000 words&#8217; before we can use it.</p>
<p>Then, we publish our 1000 words to a Web site, so others can see our results.</p>
<p>Do you see the <em>system</em> in this process? We change our environment so that it requires almost no effort to succeed.</p>
<h2>Into the Wild&#8212;with no sleeping bag, no backpack, no tent</h2>
<p>When I boarded a plane on September, I had no idea what to expect. I had booked a 28-day Primitive Skills course with <a href="http://boss-inc.com">Boulder Outdoor Survival School</a>, and was told to show up to a tiny town in Utah. We were told what supplies to bring&#8212;basically a tiny amount of clothing, a blanket, a poncho, a water bottle, some cord, and not much more. No technology whatsoever besides a camera. This means no flashlight, no matches, nothing.</p>
<p>The instructors began to explain the phases of our month long journey. &#8220;We&#8217;ll start off on Impact phase, followed by a week of hiking and practicing skills, followed by a camping phase, etc. etc.&#8217;</p>
<p>So I raised my hand. &#8216;You said that we start with Impact phase. What is that?&#8217;</p>
<p>&#8220;Oh&#8211;you&#8217;re going to go four days with no food, no blanket, nothing&#8212;just a small cloth and your water bottle&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;What?&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll see.&#8221;</p>
<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 379px">
	<a href="https://img.skitch.com/20120507-1dm6ab6epa5sy4kxbwcyjejq7k.preview.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://img.skitch.com/20120507-1dm6ab6epa5sy4kxbwcyjejq7k.preview.jpg" title="The First Day of Impact Hiking" width="379" height="284" /></a>
	<p class="wp-caption-text">Hiking during the Impact Stage</p>
</div>
<p>And so we set off on Impact Phase. I went four days with no food at all, save an almond that I found on the side of a dirt path.</p>
<p>Over the next 28 days, we ate a maximum of maybe 1,500 calories, averaging probably 1100 to 1200. In the meanwhile, we hiked an average of 12-15 miles a day.</p>
<p>Using conservative numbers, let&#8217;s look at how much fat I likely would burn, given this situation.</p>
<p>If we assume that I burn 2500 as my Basal Metabolic Rate, and then add 12 miles at 100 calories a mile, I would have burned 103,600 calories in a month.</p>
<p>BMR2500 calories/day * 28 days = 70,000 calories BMR burned<br />
+ 12 miles/day * 100 calories/mile * 28 days =  33600<br />
70,000+33,600 = 103600</p>
<p>If I ate 1500 calories a day, I would have eaten a total of 42,000 calories</p>
<p>1500 calories/day * 28 days = 42,000 calories.</p>
<p>So, in total, I burned (103,600 &#8211; 42,000) = <strong>61,600 calories</strong>. At 3500 calories per pound, that is 17.6 lbs of fat lost.</p>
<p>In reality, we were hiking at huge elevations, with a lot of uphill movement, so losing 23 lbs is more than reasonable.</p>
<p>And the best news? It&#8217;s been over six months since the course finished. I&#8217;ve kept most of the weight off&#8212;I&#8217;m back at about 172 now. And I&#8217;ve gained a lot of muscle since the course.</p>
<h2>Creating Massive Results by Building Radical Systems</h2>
<p>So when you see the BOSS course as a means to losing weight, you see it as a <i>system that makes failure impossible</i>.</p>
<p>Radical systems are the key to learning any skill or achieving any goal in the fastest amount of time. If you really want to do something, why not go all in&#8211;and just actually fucking do it?</p>
<h3>For example, language learning</h3>
<p>One common goal is to learn a new language. Besides my native English, I speak 4 other languages (Italian, Spanish, German, Portuguese), and I learned them all in the last four years.</p>
<p>Yet, while traveling, I meet so many people who have been in Spanish speaking countries for almost a year, and can still barely order food at a restaurant. Often, these same people have spent time at language schools or in classes, and they always lament not learning.</p>
<p>The fact is obvious, though&#8212;these travelers have never really sat down and focused on achieving a goal. They offhandedly say that they want to learn a language, but they never sit down and actually design a system that produces results.</p>
<p>Instead, when I travel for language learning, I follow a specific process. I take four hours of private tutoring a day. I live with a host family&#8212;one that doesn&#8217;t speak English if possible&#8212;and I make an effort to spend at least one meal / day with them. I make local friends&#8211;again, ones that don&#8217;t speak English if possible. I begin thinking in the language, and when I don&#8217;t know the word, I write it down and add it to my flash card database, practicing every day.</p>
<p>In short&#8212;I build an all encompassing system of language learning. When I am studying a language, my identity changes. I am no longer Maneesh, traveling blogging weird Indian kid. I&#8217;m Maneesh, that guy who is studying German. <strong>And all of my decisions emanate from that new identity.</strong></p>
<h3>How to Build Your Own Radical System</h3>
<p>How can you design a radical system? Let&#8217;s look at some basic steps to get you started.</p>
<p>Building a Radical System</p>
<p>Step 1 &#8211; Set a goal: What do you want to do / learn?</p>
<p>Step 2 &#8211; Recreate your identity: You need to phrase yourself as &#8216;the kind of person who does this thing.&#8217; Write it in a sentence: &#8220;[Your Name] is the kind of person who does xyz.&#8221;</p>
<p>Step 3 &#8211; How can you implement a system that forces you to work? Can you pay for monthly classes/a private tutor or trainer who will force you to develop your habit? What kind of support group can you build to help you make it happen?</p>
<p>Step 4 &#8211; Post your first 3 steps in the comments. Email me at <a href="mailto:maneesh@maneeshsethi.com">maneesh@maneeshsethi.com</a> if you don&#8217;t want it public.</p>
<p>Step 5 &#8211; Make the leap. Hire your personal tutor/trainer. Set up an accountability system that will make you lose money if you don&#8217;t succeed.</p>
<p>Don&#8217;t forget to post your game plan in the comments.</p>
<p>If you feel uneasy or unhappy about any goal in your life, there is only one person who can fix it: you. And there is only one way to do it: by doing SOMETHING. Don&#8217;t live in mediocre comfort. <strong>Make a radical change.<br />
</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/how-to-lose-23-lbs-in-28-days-hint-it-requires-radical-system-hacking/">How to Lose 23 Lbs in 28 Days (hint: it requires radical system-hacking)</a> is a post from: <a href="http://hackthesystem.com">Hack The System</a></p>
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		<title>It doesn’t have to be like this</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Maneeshsethicom/~3/mMcIEWaMnsQ/</link>
		<comments>http://hackthesystem.com/blog/it-doesnt-have-to-be-like-this/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:54:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>maneesh</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Self Improvement]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://hackthesystem.com/?p=1200</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Some days, when I wake up, I feel invigorated, powerful, and ready to make something happen. But some days, I feel like a waste of blood and flesh. Like I have no purpose, that I&#8217;m floundering without meaning through life. Today is one of those days. Making a change I&#8217;ve written about expecting failure before, [...]<p><a href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/it-doesnt-have-to-be-like-this/">It doesn&#8217;t have to be like this</a> is a post from: <a href="http://hackthesystem.com">Hack The System</a></p>
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>Some days, when I wake up, I feel invigorated, powerful, and ready to make something happen.</p>
<p>But some days, I feel like a waste of blood and flesh. Like I have no purpose, that I&#8217;m floundering without meaning through life.</p>
<p>Today is one of those days.</p>
<h2>Making a change</h2>
<p>I&#8217;ve written about <a href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/embracing-fear-and-getting-kicked-out-of-an-airport-lounge/">expecting failure</a> before, and I know now that days like today will happen. I know that emotional states ebb and flow, and some days will bring feelings of success, and others will bring feelings of failure.</p>
<p>Is there anything that you want to change? Is there anything in your life that you dream of doing?</p>
<p>Maybe you&#8217;re tired of your job. Maybe you dream of starting a business. Maybe you dream of being better at talking to people of the opposite sex (The comments on this [recent post] show how common this fear is).</p>
<p>No matter the change you want to make, there is one thing you should know.</p>
<p><strong>It doesn&#8217;t have to be like this.</strong></p>
<p>You&#8217;re not alone. Whatever change you want to make, there are many other people, just like you. There are people who want to achieve your goals, and there are people who have already done it.</p>
<p>Knowing that you&#8217;re not alone is the first step to realizing that a change is possible.</p>
<p>My friend and <a href="http://unleashed.maneeshsethi.com/online-marketing/">MasterClass</a> student&#8217;s facebook status this morning was moving: </p>
<p><em>&#8220;please like this status if you feel like you have no idea what you&#8217;re doing WAY WAY WAY MORE OFTEN than you feel like you have life figured out&#8230;people need to 1) know they are not alone and 2) feel better about themselves&#8221;</em></p>
<p>I noticed the dozens and dozens of likes, the deep comments, and I realized that it often seems that everyone else has their life together&#8212;but really, deep inside, many of us are striving for meaning.</p>
<p>So, whatever you are trying to do&#8212;understand that you can. It&#8217;s possible. </p>
<p>If you aren&#8217;t happy with where you are, <strong>it doesn&#8217;t have to be like this.</strong></p>
<p>It&#8217;s time to make a change.</p>
<p><a href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/it-doesnt-have-to-be-like-this/">It doesn&#8217;t have to be like this</a> is a post from: <a href="http://hackthesystem.com">Hack The System</a></p>
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		<title>How to Travel like an American</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Maneeshsethicom/~3/E43k7SZ8q6I/</link>
		<comments>http://hackthesystem.com/blog/how-to-travel-like-an-american/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:28:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>maneesh</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Travel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://hackthesystem.com/?p=1186</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[After four years of traveling, I&#8217;ve noticed some differences in the way that Americans travel, versus how people from the rest of the world travel. Let&#8217;s look at the steps you should take if you want to travel like an American. First of all, don&#8217;t travel abroad in the first place (unless you are from [...]<p><a href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/how-to-travel-like-an-american/">How to Travel like an American</a> is a post from: <a href="http://hackthesystem.com">Hack The System</a></p>
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/how-to-travel-like-an-american/" title="Permanent link to How to Travel like an American"><img class="post_image alignnone" src="http://hackthesystem.com/wordpress/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Maneesh-and-Lula.jpg" width="550" height="477" alt="Maneesh and Lulu the Tiger" /></a>
</p><p>After four years of traveling, I&#8217;ve noticed some differences in the way that Americans travel, versus how people from the rest of the world travel. Let&#8217;s look at the steps you should take if you want to travel like an American.</p>
<ol>
<li style="margin-bottom: 12px;">First of all,<strong> don&#8217;t travel abroad in the first place</strong> (unless you are from California, New York, or maybe Colorado). Hell, you only have a <a href="http://articles.cnn.com/2011-02-04/travel/americans.travel.domestically_1_western-hemisphere-travel-initiative-passports-tourism-industries?_s=PM:TRAVEL">30% chance of having a passport</a>, anyway.</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 12px;">When you do travel, <strong>try to make sure it only happens for 2 weeks per year</strong>. You&#8217;ll probably go to a nice hotel and make the most of your stay, spending more in two weeks than others would spend in two months.</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 12px;">Don&#8217;t even consider the possibility of traveling without your laptop and cellphone. <strong>You absolutely MUST stay connected.</strong></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 12px;">If you do decide to travel longterm, <strong>understand that you MUST have a job back home, a business online, or plans to return to a job.</strong> The idea of quitting before setting out on a long journey is absolutely unthinkable.</li>
</ol>
<p>The above four bullet points may sound a bit critical, but they aren&#8217;t. They are common threads I&#8217;ve noticed in American tourists and travelers. <strong>We have a different cultural mindset than other countries</strong>&#8212;it&#8217;s not wrong, just different.</p>
<p>I, for instance, am an extreme example of #3 and #4. I find myself unable to travel without at least an iPad or iPhone. Hell, in the issue of my most recent <a href="http://hackthesystem.com/take-advantage-of-the-system/">email newsletter</a> I promised to take a trip to Southeast Asia without any technology. At the last moment, to my own chagrin, I found myself stuffing my iPad into my backpack. I am addicted to technology.</p>
<p>An interesting difference I always notice when I am in Europe is the process of meeting someone new. Think about it&#8212;what is the first question you ask someone in the US? &#8220;<em>What do you do?</em>&#8221; That&#8217;s unthinkable in Europe&#8212;the first question is always &#8220;<em>Where are you from?</em>&#8221; or &#8220;<em>Where do you live?</em>&#8221; In the US, we define each other by the work they do. While traveling, we stereotype by location and origin. Again, it&#8217;s not an insult&#8212;it&#8217;s just something we do.</p>
<h2>Is work really everything?</h2>
<p>Over time, I&#8217;ve come to believe that <em>American culture is shaped by work.</em></p>
<p>Call it the protestant work ethic if you like, but something about pure unadulterated <em>labor</em> is endemic in our culture. Americans cannot escape the feeling that we should be working&#8212;and if we&#8217;re not working, we guilty about not working.</p>
<p><em>But what happens if we stop working?</em> What happens if we manage to put a strict wall between work and travel? Would the world end if you were to take a month away from work, away from technology, away from communication?</p>
<p>Sean Ogle wrote a <a href="http://www.seanogle.com/featured/your-computer-is-depressing-you">great post</a> where he described an interesting effect that I&#8217;ve noticed for years&#8212;<strong>the less time I have to get something done, the more I actually do</strong>. Think back to when you were in college&#8212;didn&#8217;t you often get your work done at the last minute, when a deadline loomed? In today&#8217;s society, many people &#8216;suffer&#8217; from malleable deadlines, meaning that we can continue to waste our time on reddit and Facebook, and never actually complete our tasks. <em>But if we HAD to get our work done, they would get done much more efficiently.</em></p>
<p>In the same way, when Americans travel, we have trouble letting go of our normal life. We stay connected, chatting with the same people, posting stories to Facebook, and we live in two worlds at once&#8212;both in our old lives, and in our new travel destination. <strong>What the hell is the point of me being at a beautiful pool in Thailand if I&#8217;m on my iPad while I do it?</strong></p>
<p>And how the hell do Aussies travel so freakin&#8217; much?</p>
<p>====<br />
Picture above is from Tiger Kingdom in Chiang Mai, Thailand. You can also <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQwQLsspgrE" target="_blank">watch a video</a> of me holding it&#8217;s tail and being afraid.</p>
<p><a href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/how-to-travel-like-an-american/">How to Travel like an American</a> is a post from: <a href="http://hackthesystem.com">Hack The System</a></p>
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		<title>Embracing Fear And Getting Kicked Out of an Airport Lounge</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Maneeshsethicom/~3/0YUSrBCgJpw/</link>
		<comments>http://hackthesystem.com/blog/embracing-fear-and-getting-kicked-out-of-an-airport-lounge/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:59:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>maneesh</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Self Improvement]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://hackthesystem.com/?p=1176</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I was just asked to leave the Admirals Lounge at Miami Airport. For &#8216;soliciting customers&#8217; Ever since I started traveling, I&#8217;ve always wondered what is beyond the star studded gates of lounges and priority clubs. But, cough up $50 to enter? Never. While reading through the rule book, I found a small loop hole&#8212;priority club [...]<p><a href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/embracing-fear-and-getting-kicked-out-of-an-airport-lounge/">Embracing Fear And Getting Kicked Out of an Airport Lounge</a> is a post from: <a href="http://hackthesystem.com">Hack The System</a></p>
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/embracing-fear-and-getting-kicked-out-of-an-airport-lounge/" title="Permanent link to Embracing Fear And Getting Kicked Out of an Airport Lounge"><img class="post_image alignnone" src="http://hackthesystem.com/wordpress/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/1018_AdmiralsLounge2.jpg" width="549" height="412" alt="Post image for Embracing Fear And Getting Kicked Out of an Airport Lounge" /></a>
</p><p>I was just asked to leave the Admirals Lounge at Miami Airport. For &#8216;soliciting customers&#8217;</p>
<p><em>Ever since I started traveling, I&#8217;ve always wondered what is beyond the star studded gates of lounges and priority clubs. But, cough up $50 to enter? Never.</em></p>
<p>While reading through the rule book, I found a small loop hole&#8212;priority club members are allowed to invite a guest. So, I began asking random people as they entered to let me in.</p>
<p><strong>Here is the incident report: I didn&#8217;t get in. But the failure is on my end.</strong> I didn&#8217;t do the proper planning, or enter in the right way. The lounge officials were very friendly.</p>
<p>What I should have done: look for younger travelers, waiting in line. Approach them with the question &#8216;Hey, where are you traveling from?&#8217; Talk for 30 seconds, before bringing up the challenge.</p>
<p>Instead, I jumped in with confidence, <em>asked the first old man in line</em> (who was in the process of checking in, and was not happy being interrupted) and when I was told to stop, I <strong>ran away like a dog with his tail between his legs</strong>.</p>
<p>I should have waited outside until more people came, approaching before they entered&#8212;but I didn&#8217;t. And <strong>there is a strong feeling of conflicting emotions right now</strong>&#8211;I&#8217;m happy that I embraced the fear of asking random people and attempted to get in, but I&#8217;m embarrassed for giving up at the first setback.</p>
<p>I can make up rationalizations all day about it, but at the end of the day, I didn&#8217;t succeed in getting in the lounge. Next time. I&#8217;ll get in next time.</p>
<h3>The Emotion Behind Failure</h3>
<p>What stops people from trying something new?</p>
<p>In a recent email, <strong>I asked several thousand readers to tell me their biggest fears</strong>. I revealed mine&#8211;fears that I won&#8217;t make public on this blog, but strong fears nonetheless. (I reveal my deepest secrets only via my <a href="http://hackthesystem.com/take-advantage-of-the-system/">email newsletter</a>)</p>
<p>The results were <em>astounding</em>. After reading several hundred responses, the most common two fears were quite&#8230;<em>contrary.</em></p>
<p><strong>#1 &#8211; the fear of failure</strong><br />
<strong> #2 &#8211; the fear of success</strong></p>
<p>The reasoning behind these two fears were extremely interesting. The <strong>fear of failure stems from the fear that people will be rejected</strong> by their peers, friends, and more. Here are some emails I received where people described their fears of success.</p>
<div>
<ul>
<li><em>&#8220;I fear failure and perhaps subconsciously I even fear success&#8221;</em></li>
<li><em>&#8220;#1 fear - having too much success&#8230;too much responsibility.</em></li>
<li><em>&#8220;Fear #1: success. started a company, completed preliminary market testing, and i truly believe this product will sell. Just the magnitude of diving into unknown territory and the possibility of what this could be frightens me.&#8221;</em></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<div>The fear of success surprised me. <strong>For some, they were unsure what success would bring</strong>. Would it hurt their relationships with their spouse and family? Would it bring too much responsibility?</div>
</div>
<p>But what lies between failure and success?<strong> Comfort&#8212;and mediocrity.</strong></p>
<h3>Comfort, Mediocrity, and why I aim to feel embarrassed</h3>
<p>These two conflicting fears (often from the same people) in effect, represent a fear of change. People get comfortable with their life and begin to fear anything that pushes them out of their shell.</p>
<p><strong>Living in comfort isn&#8217;t really living at all.</strong></p>
<p>So when I approached the man at the admirals counter, and was rejected, and ran away like a puppy dog, I felt adrenaline. I wanted to start doing pushups in the airport terminal. The failure of the act, though, made me feel embarrassed, stupid. Emotions that I rarely feel.</p>
<p><em>There was a cognitive dissonance between pride and embarrassment.</em></p>
<p>I understand now that real growth comes from directing yourself TOWARDS the feelings of embarrassment, and accepting the emotion as a hitch on the road to personal growth.</p>
<h3>So, when do you feel most uncomfortable?</h3>
<p>Everyone feels comfortable at their own, home place. For me, when I&#8217;m on a computer, I feel the most comfortable&#8212;and as soon as I failed at entering the lounge, I jumped on to my computer to write the words you are reading now.</p>
<p><strong>But, comfort is a feeling that holds us back. Comfort keeps us mediocre.</strong></p>
<p>Think to yourself right now&#8212;where were you the last time you felt uncomfortable? Was it at the beach, was it during a social interaction, was it when you desired to talk to someone who you were attracted to&#8212;but couldn&#8217;t force yourself to?</p>
<p><strong>Fear, discomfort, awkwardness&#8212;these are all feelings we should be striving FOR, not fleeing from.</strong></p>
<p>From a personal perspective, I know that I felt awkward trying to sneak into a lounge. So I will continue to do it until I succeed.</p>
<p>We have to fight that odd compulsion that starts from your heart and runs through your legs, making you stand up and run to your refrigerator or computer and not return. Zefrank calls it <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&amp;v=RYlCVwxoL_g">&#8216;the Cheese Monster.&#8217;</a></p>
<h3>Now, for your challenge</h3>
<p>It&#8217;s easy to write a comment, it&#8217;s hard to actually do something. But readers of Hack the System aren&#8217;t average people&#8212;you&#8217;re people who really want to experience life in a different way.</p>
<p><strong>So fuck it&#8212;let&#8217;s do it.</strong></p>
<p>This post&#8217;s challenge is two parts.</p>
<h4>Part 1: I want you to write below, in the comments. Tell me Two specific situations that make you feel uncomfortable&#8211;two situations that bring out the Cheese Monster in you.</h4>
<p>Finish Part 1 right now. Go ahead. Write the situations below in the comments. I&#8217;ll wait for you to do that.</p>
<p>Now, <strong>Part 2 is a little bit harder. I want you to put yourself in that uncomfortable experience.</strong> If you&#8217;re afraid of talking to beautiful women, I want you to go and try to talk to 3 beautiful women. You&#8217;re going to feel uncomfortable. Embrace the discomfort. <strong>Accept it. You&#8217;re going out for a task, and you KNOW it will feel odd&#8212;but try it. And ask yourself &#8216;why do I feel like this?&#8217;</strong></p>
<p><strong>Then, come back and respond to your own comment with the results</strong>. How did putting yourself in an uncomfortable situation make you feel? Rationally, does it make sense? What would change in your life if you could get through this situation without that feeling?</p>
<p>I&#8217;ll be waiting for your response. Let&#8217;s fight those fears.</p>
<p><a href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/embracing-fear-and-getting-kicked-out-of-an-airport-lounge/">Embracing Fear And Getting Kicked Out of an Airport Lounge</a> is a post from: <a href="http://hackthesystem.com">Hack The System</a></p>
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		<title>Habits, Failure, and the Creative Process–How IDEO, the World’s Premier Design Firm, Succeeds by Expecting Failure</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Maneeshsethicom/~3/p-6k3brKQ1Y/</link>
		<comments>http://hackthesystem.com/blog/habits-failure-and-the-creative-process-how-ideo-the-worlds-premier-design-firm-succeeds-by-expecting-failure/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:31:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>maneesh</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Habit Hacking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Self Improvement]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://hackthesystem.com/?p=1158</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[[Note: Much of the research that I cite in this article comes from the Heath brothers' excellent, highly recommended book Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard] Failure is not failing. Failure is a part of the learning process. I received an email today that made me think deeply about failure, especially with [...]<p><a href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/habits-failure-and-the-creative-process-how-ideo-the-worlds-premier-design-firm-succeeds-by-expecting-failure/">Habits, Failure, and the Creative Process&#8211;How IDEO, the World&#8217;s Premier Design Firm, Succeeds by Expecting Failure</a> is a post from: <a href="http://hackthesystem.com">Hack The System</a></p>
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/habits-failure-and-the-creative-process-how-ideo-the-worlds-premier-design-firm-succeeds-by-expecting-failure/" title="Permanent link to Habits, Failure, and the Creative Process&#8211;How IDEO, the World&#8217;s Premier Design Firm, Succeeds by Expecting Failure"><img class="post_image alignnone" src="http://hackthesystem.com/wordpress/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/6635728429_9e6fa6d0da.jpeg" width="500" height="333" alt="There is no failure" /></a>
</p><p>[Note: Much of the research that I cite in this article comes from the Heath brothers' excellent, highly recommended book <a href="http://manee.sh/IyeYHu">Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard</a>]</p>
<p>Failure is not failing. Failure is a part of the learning process.</p>
<p>I received an email today that made me think deeply about failure, especially with regard to habits and habit change. Failure, to many, is an end-all. Either you succeed, or you fail. Either you exercise 6 times a week, or you don&#8217;t. Either/or, success/failure.</p>
<p>But that&#8217;s not how success works.</p>
<p>Here is the email I received:</p>
<p>=========</p>
<p><em>The stuff you do isn&#8217;t that impressive to me. I have no problem going up to pretty girls and talking with them. I can find great deals and I can network with people.</em></p>
<p><em>What I don&#8217;t have is an income that I can live off of. I eat healthy half the time but unhealthy the other half. I made good progress towards my goals for the GRE at first but now I&#8217;m helping my sister develop a business, work on a business for myself, and working on learning spanish. I&#8217;m not making progress on studying for the GRE now.</em></p>
<p><em>Also, I&#8217;ve gotten so caught up in an exercise plan at the gym and trying to figure out how I will afford a gym membership that I have stopped making myself workout even that small 3 minutes a day you had me start.</em></p>
<p><em>I feel like a failure.</em></p>
<p>=======</p>
<p>This reader feels like a failure because he isn&#8217;t achieving the (way too numerous) goals he is setting at the same time. He believes that, because he can&#8217;t succeed in becoming perfect in all of his goals at one time, he is a failure.</p>
<p>His problem isn&#8217;t in failing. It&#8217;s in his mindset. And here&#8217;s the good news: mindset is changeable, and by changing his mindset, he&#8217;ll be able to ratchet up his success faster than he ever thought possible.</p>
<p>Carol Dweck, a professor at Stanford, has spent her life studying the two learning mindsets: the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. People with a <em>fixed mindset</em> believe that their capabilities are predetermined and unlikely to change&#8212;their intelligence and capabilities are dealt at birth, and they are stuck with it. People with a <em>growth mindset</em> believe that, given enough effort and work, they can change. They believe that any skill is learnable, given enough time and effort.</p>
<p>Dweck&#8217;s research is very clear&#8212;in order to achieve success, in order to achieve your full potential, you have to adopt a growth mindset.</p>
<p>What are some common traits of people who follow a growth mindset? They value effort, not skill. In one famous experiment, Dweck and her team traveled to New York City classrooms, giving puzzles to two sets of fifth graders. The kids tended to do very well on these (easy) puzzles, and were praised afterwards. The two groups were given identical exams, but were praised differently: one group was told &#8220;You must be really smart at this&#8221; while the other group was told &#8220;You must have worked really hard.&#8221;</p>
<p>A small change, right? Just a single line of praise.</p>
<p>Shortly after, the same students were asked to do another set of puzzles, and given the option of choosing to take a set of easy puzzles or difficult ones. The difference between the simple line of praise had a huge effect: over 90% of the students that were praised for effort opted to take the more difficult test, while the majority of students praised for intelligence chose to take the easy exams.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s right. A simple line of praise for intelligence (rather than effort) made students extremely likely to take the easy way out.</p>
<p>Now, let&#8217;s take a look at failure. For some, failure is an all-or-nothing game. When some people set a New Year&#8217;s resolution to go to the gym, and miss a couple days, they see it as a failure. This is part of the fixed-mindset mind: either you succeed, or you fail.</p>
<p>Those with the growth mindset, however, see a failure as a chance to succeed. They know that all new habits will have ups and downs&#8211;be it a new diet, exercise, flossing, or anything else. The goal is to get back on the horse and try again.</p>
<p>Successful learners understand this, and they <em>build the expectation of failure into their plan</em>.</p>
<p>Enter IDEO.</p>
<p>====</p>
<p>IDEO is one of the most famous and influential design firms in the world. Their products include the first ever Apple Mouse. They know the creative process better than anyone else in the world.</p>
<p>With so many successful products, you would expect their design process to be airtight, right? Wrong. Their method of creation is designed specifically to account for failure. An expectation of failure built right into their design process!</p>
<p>One of IDEO&#8217;s designers created a <em>project mood chart</em>, to model how a team will feel about the design of a project from beginning to finish. At the beginning of a new project, the team is filled with hope&#8212;and thus, their enthusiasm is high. At the end of the project, when it is close to completion, the team is confident&#8212;and the enthusiasm level is high. But between these two points is a dip, a valley of low enthusiasm labeled &#8220;insight.&#8221;</p>
<p>At the beginning of any project&#8211;be it a creative project, or the creation of a new habit&#8211;there is a lot of hope and enthusiasm. Between the beginning and the successful conclusion, however, there will be periods where the project feels doomed to failure, where you have to fight through and keep tweaking until you can reach that successful &#8220;confidence&#8221; peak. And it is at this stage where <em>fixed mindset</em> learners fail and <em>growth mindset</em> learners prevail.</p>
<p><div id="attachment_1159" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 300px">
	&#8220;]<a href="http://leadchangegroup.com/hope-is-a-strategy/"><img class="size-full wp-image-1159  " title="enthusiasm-curve1" src="http://hackthesystem.com/wordpress/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/enthusiasm-curve1.png" alt="" width="300" height="189" /></a>
	<p class="wp-caption-text">[source: http://leadchangegroup.com/hope-is-a-strategy/</p>
</div>With IDEO&#8217;s chart, they are building the <em>expectation of failure</em>. Both the team and their clients understand that, in the middle of a project, success seems distant and unlikely. But, by creating this graphic, by visualising it, they are showing the team and their clients that this is a <em>normal part of the creative process</em>. You have to fail before you can succeed.</p>
<p>Failure is not failure. Failure is <em>part of the change process</em>. You must fail before you can succeed. The correct term is actually <em>learning</em>, not <em>failing</em>.</p>
<h3>Failure as Fodder for Habit Change</h3>
<p>Take a moment and reflect on the growth vs. fixed mindset. When was the last time you tried to institute a new habit? Did you try to go on a diet? Did you try to start exercising? Perhaps begin meditation, or stop feeling emotional, or something else?</p>
<p><iframe src="https://docs.google.com/a/maneeshsethi.com/spreadsheet/embeddedform?formkey=dDdiV1hEMWkzNkdGQnZZN3k4TTJvSnc6MQ" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" width="550" height="350"></iframe></p>
<p>For me, I&#8217;m currently trying to follow the Paleo Diet, a diet based on basically meat and vegetables and no carbs. I&#8217;ve tried dozens of times in the last two years to cut carbs out of my diet, without lasting success. I often go a week or two eating perfectly, and then give into temptation on a single day, and then keep eating poorly and forget about the diet.</p>
<p>However, each time, it&#8217;s gotten a little better. I&#8217;ve made an effort to try and get back on the diet faster. Whereas, last year I cheated for 6 months (ugh), this year, my cheating periods have gradually gotten smaller&#8212;from two weeks to two days to, most recently, two meals.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a learning process. I know that making the switch to Paleo won&#8217;t be a smooth process. But what I can do is try to improve each time. Each time that I eat Paleo, I am building the habit. I understand that perfection is impossible, and I will cheat at times. I <em>expect to fail</em>&#8212;and I&#8217;ve already created a plan to get back on the horse when that failure happens. It works like this.</p>
<p><em>Eat Paleo meal for breakfast.<br />
Eat Paleo meal for lunch.<br />
Eat Paleo meal for dinner.</em></p>
<p>If I cheat at any time, and notice it, STOP EATING IMMEDIATELY.<br />
If I cheat and don&#8217;t realize I&#8217;m cheating until after the meal, fast for the next meal&#8212;and eat a proper Paleo meal thereafter.</p>
<p>A simple reaction plan has helped me continue to get back on the horse when I start to fail.</p>
<h3>Your Turn: Can You Build a Habit Through Failure?</h3>
<p>Now, over the next few weeks, I&#8217;m going to be talking a lot about habits. Habits are the basis of who you are. 90% of what you do is automatic, so if you create successful habits, you will become successful. So let&#8217;s start now.</p>
<p>You answered above the most recent habit you&#8217;ve tried to institute.</p>
<p>I want to help you achieve your goals. What are the habits you find most important to you? What do you think is the highest leverage habit that you could institute in your life.</p>
<p>Tell me in the comments what that habit is, and what you&#8217;ve done to try and achieve it. Have you met with success or failure? What has held you back from success?</p>
<p>I&#8217;ll give you individualized feedback on each success and failure. I want to help you reach your potential. All you have to do is let me know in the comments:</p>
<p>1) What habit you want to develop<br />
2) What was the result last time you tried to do it<br />
3) What held you back?</p>
<p>Let me know below. Let&#8217;s change your life&#8212;one habit at a time.</p>
<p><a href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/habits-failure-and-the-creative-process-how-ideo-the-worlds-premier-design-firm-succeeds-by-expecting-failure/">Habits, Failure, and the Creative Process&#8211;How IDEO, the World&#8217;s Premier Design Firm, Succeeds by Expecting Failure</a> is a post from: <a href="http://hackthesystem.com">Hack The System</a></p>
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		<title>How Tynan Became a Pickup Artist, Made Earrings out of Human Bone, And Lives in an RV</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Maneeshsethicom/~3/rADjxU1HxD8/</link>
		<comments>http://hackthesystem.com/blog/how-tynan-became-a-pickup-artist-made-earrings-out-of-human-bone-and-lives-in-an-rv/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Apr 2012 22:18:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>maneesh</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Podcast]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://hackthesystem.com/?p=1151</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Welcome to the fifth episode of the Hack The System show! You should subscribe to this show on iTunes. The Hack The System Podcast is your access to interviews with the world&#8217;s foremost experts on blogging, lifestyle design, traveling, and life/system hacking. In short&#8211;you&#8217;re going to learn how to kick ass. In this episode, I [...]<p><a href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/how-tynan-became-a-pickup-artist-made-earrings-out-of-human-bone-and-lives-in-an-rv/">How Tynan Became a Pickup Artist, Made Earrings out of Human Bone, And Lives in an RV</a> is a post from: <a href="http://hackthesystem.com">Hack The System</a></p>
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/how-tynan-became-a-pickup-artist-made-earrings-out-of-human-bone-and-lives-in-an-rv/" title="Permanent link to How Tynan Became a Pickup Artist, Made Earrings out of Human Bone, And Lives in an RV"><img class="post_image alignnone" src="https://img.skitch.com/20120412-rnpsw7ay5khhtukq273qc3btrh.jpg" width="550" height="287" alt="How Tynan Became A Pickup Artist" /></a>
</p><p>Welcome to the fifth episode of the Hack The System show!</p>
<p><strong>You should <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hack-the-system/id496857754">subscribe to this show on iTunes</a>.</strong></p>
<p>The Hack The System Podcast is your access to interviews with the world&#8217;s foremost experts on blogging, lifestyle design, traveling, and life/system hacking. <strong>In short&#8211;you&#8217;re going to learn how to kick ass.</strong></p>
<p>In this episode, I sit down with Tynan of <a href="http://tynan.com">Tynan.com</a>. Tynan was one of the first bloggers that inspired me to become a lifestyle designer. Hell, his <a href="http://tynan.com/the-2009-nomad-packing-list">digital nomad packing list</a> was the basis for what I still travel with.</p>
<p>Tynan was Herbal in the book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060554738/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=blitzprogramm-20&#038;camp=0&#038;creative=0&#038;linkCode=as4&#038;creativeASIN=0060554738&#038;adid=1JNHHCMCKJ3111H8HPC4&#038;">The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists</a>. He traveled the world with just a small backpack, and lives the most interesting lifestyle that I&#8217;ve ever seen. And now, he just launched a new blogging platform (different than wordpress) called <a href="http://sett.com">Sett</a>&#8212;you can see it in action at <a href="http://tynan.com">Tynan.com</a>.</p>
<p>Tynan has been a huge inspiration for me, and you&#8217;re going to learn a ton of info from him. Below, you&#8217;ll see a list of things to listen out for&#8211;and a full transcript of the conversation.</p>
<h3>Transcript of the Podcast Episode</h3>
<script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"></script><div id='hider' style='border-style: dashed; display: block;border-width: 3px; border-color: #29628D;padding: 10px;'>Get access to the transcript. <br /> <strong>Tweet below.</strong><p /><div align="left"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-text="Currently watching: Hack the System Podcast with @maneeshsethi and @tynan">Tweet</a></div></div></br><script src='http://hackthesystem.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/TweetLocker/js/locker.js'></script><div id = 'hiddencontent' style='display: none;'></p>
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<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Hey guys! This is Maneesh Sethi your number one digital nomad. I’m coming at you today from Portland, Oregon. I’m here with my good buddy Tynan, from tynan.com better than your boyfriend. And, Tynan is freaking awesome. Men, I love this guy. This guy is one of the, like, one of my inspirations for travelling. Ty, why don’t you introduce yourself a little bit?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		I’m Tynan. I tend to do really extreme weird things and then try to convince other people to do them. Take the best parts of them. I program, I write, I travel pretty much constantly. Yeah, what else is there?</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	And that’s all basically all you do.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		That’s all I do.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	That’s all it is. Tynan, like, you guys remember my webinar that was recent, “How to take advantage of the system.” There’s nobody in the world I know who’s better at taking advantage of the system than Tynan. I’m going to tell you exactly why Tynan is here, because he is not from Portland. He is from San Francisco. And, basically, I was just going up to Portland and I told Tynan on chat I’m like, “Yo man! I’m going to head to Portland. I’ll talk to you later.” Twelve hours later I get a little IM from him, he’s like, “Yo man! Just booked a private jet, see you on Portland tomorrow.” The fuck! He’s like, “Yeah, it was a dollar.” How did that work out?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Actually free, they didn’t charge me the bag. I got an additional discount. Yeah, it was a company called Jet Sweep, private jet chartering company. You know, all these jet companies, they have to constantly move their planes around to get them in position for the next client. And, I think most companies they want to see them like, “hoity-toity”, so they don’t want to offer discounted rates when they have to move the plane but Jet Sweep does, normally for 500 bucks. And, for a week they have them for a dollar. And so, out of the past five days, I’ve won four times. Came back from Vegas on a private jet, won one from LA to San Francisco, couldn’t give it to any of my friends, no one will take it, then came out here and then I won one from Austin to Houston yesterday for my friends, who are actually on it right now.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Amazing. So like, do you ever feel that it, like whatever, like, first of all, it’s most hilarious thing I ever saw was your PJ’s in your PJ’s in a PJ, Kanye West’s song, he’s going to take a photo of himself and all of his buddies in their pajamas on a private jet. Insane! But, tell me more about like, other stuff, other deals that you’ve done. What kind of cool things have you like, taken advantage of in this situation?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Men, I mean, I feel like almost everything I buy or do, you know, like, I definitely don’t try to get like, the cheapest of everything because I feel like that’s sort of like, a losing strategy. But I try to, you know, I figure out what I want in life, you know, to buy or products or places to go and then I just try to get them as cheap as possible. So, a lot of them are focused around travel, like, you know, really cheap plane fares everywhere. Like, I just came back from, where I go Panama and I stop in Austin, Texas, Las Vegas and San Francisco. And I got all that for less than would have cost to go from Panama direct to San Francisco.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	How did you pull that off?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		The key is to know where the cheap hubs are. So, like, you probably know, for Central America, South America, Fort Lauderdale is like cheapest place. So you buy one way to there and then you buy one way, you know, on and on to where you want to go.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	So you check, still checking from Panama direct to San Francisco. You check for Panama to Fort Lauderdale to Austin to…</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Just as one ways.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	That’s one ways each way. </p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah, and then the other cool thing you can do with that is, you know, Tuesdays and Saturdays are the cheap days to fly. And so you just stay in each place for a few days and then, you know, have life, what’s going on, on Tuesdays or Saturdays.  </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	And what you do for like, staying? Do you pay to live in the hotel? Or do you pay to, do you find friends or couch surf or what do you do?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Depends where I am, I almost never couch surf because I spend a lot of time working and I felt really weird when I’m like on somebody’s couch working all day. So, I tend to stay with like, friends. Like in Austin I have a lot of friends, families, I stay with them. They [basically hoist] get cheap hotels. Here we do Priceline. I don’t know if people do this, but Priceline is amazing. Like, 65 bucks a night, we have four star hotel in the middle of downtown.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Captain Kirk recommends it.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Does he?</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	 I mean, yeah, William shatters the commercial yet?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. They kind of negotiate some deals for me. </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	He did?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yes, gets it done, Captain Kirk. </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	But yeah, so I like to know like, I love looking at [rest of your] stories because every time I talk to you, you just say something ridiculous, I’m like, “Jesus Christ! Are you serious?” Are you really wearing earrings from the cat? Tell me about the earring’s situation. This freaking shit is great.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yes, I don’t have them anymore. I have one I lost one. But, my friends and I were in Paris and you know, Paris is a cool city but a lot of it is very [sterile], it’s like, go see the Louvre with everything, you know, Mona Lisa’s behind bulletproof glass, you know, and whenever I travel I sort of want a little adventure. So, I was looking up on Wikipedia, the Catacombs, you know, the miles and miles and miles of tunnels underneath Paris. And, of course, there’s a Catacomb museum where you can see like half a kilometre of Catacombs behind glass. I was like, “Well, it sucks.” You know, that’s not enough. So, we looked online and we found this guy who had posted some pictures from inside the Catacombs. We emailed him and he read the, you know, we said, “Hey, we are doing videos.” us running from [Catherine] at that time. It says, “Hey, we are doing these travel videos, you know, will you take us down there?” he said, “Well, of course.” So, we meet this guy on the outskirts of Paris and next thing you know we’re on this like, abandoned train truck. We break through this hole in the bricks, in the tunnel and you’re like waiting knee deep in this water, you know, this guy is amazing. He knows everything about the history of the Catacombs. So like we and he knows it all by heart, so we’re going through like this World War two, this German World War two bunker that sells like, all the equipment in it. You know, this basement of a monastery where like all these monks died, you can see the gravestones and stuff. And then of course, you know, what the Catacombs are famous for are bones. And so, we get to this place where the bones are and the reason there’s all these bones is because during the war, they ran out of gravesites, so they would throw them down the wells, but the wells were connected to the Catacombs. So you know, you start seeing these bones and you’re kind of like, “It’s a little gross.” You know, like, walking around them, you know, there’s more and more so then you’re kind of just resolve like, “Okay, I’m going to be stepping on bones then you get okay with that. So, you’re stepping on the bones, they’re crunching below your feet, then they like, the ceiling starts getting low so you’re like, “Okay, I got to kind of crawl on these bones.” And before you know it, you’re just like, you know, clawing through the bones.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		You know, going through these passage ways and so I see all these bones. And, it’s not like he’s like, you know, like skeletons of people like this, you know, this is just like crunched up bone and you know, people have taken all the good parts, the skulls are gone.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		But I thought, you know, I may not have another opportunity in my lifetime to get human bones, I hope I do but I may not. And so like, you know, I met a few friends, “Oh my God. You know, we should take some of these bones.” </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Like for Leonardo da Vinci the modern age.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah, exactly. Nobody else wants to. It blew my mind. It’s like this private jet, nobody wants the free jet. Nobody wanted the free bones. </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Exactly.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		So it’s like, well I’m taking some, you know. Like, In my head I’m like, I got a few friends back home that wants some, so you know, I get a few. So, I got like few bones put them in this plastic bags, put them on my backpack and we’re leaving and we get, we were going to go up through this manhole but it was shut, like the police had put bricks on it so you can’t get up because this special police force is just there to police the Catacombs. And so, we make it all the way back to the entrance and then this other, like, explorer kind of walks by us, you know, I’m kind of like trying to practice French, “Bonjour!” you know, and he walks by and then our guys like, “No, no, no, dude that’s the police they’re surrounding us.” So that guy gets behind us, stops, there’s more police in front, they pull us up and we’re in this dark tunnel where we came in through that hole. And they’ve got us lined up with our backpacks, that same backpack you’ve got and they start searching everybody and I’m last in line. So, they’re searching people. There was like, there were four of us I guess. So they search the first person. And there’s getting hard on them like, going through the whole bag like, everything is getting opened up and I’m like, “God, the bones are right on top of this bag” like I had a chance, there were no lights on me. I say, “I can open up this backpack and I can throw these bones away and they would never catch me.” But then, I start thinking, you know, again, not that I’m going to have a chance to get these bones.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Or go to French prison.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah. And actually, and that was going through my mind to, I’m like, “If I went to French prison that would be kind of cool.”</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Exactly.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Like, how long they were really going to keep me there? You know.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Yeah, just stealing dead bones.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah. It’s not a big deal really. And so, I’m like, “Alright, I’m going to think of a plan” and so like, you know, fourth person get searched, they’re done, still don’t have a plan, third person, still don’t have a plan, second person, I’m like watching like, “Alright, this is the time, this is the time for a plan to kick in” done with him, my turn, no plan. </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	[Laughing]</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		So I’m like, “Alright, let’s do this thing.” So he says, “Open your bag” so, unzipped the bag and there’s the bag of bones and halfway on top is this hat I used to have. So, I’m like, “Okay, let’s try this.” So I kind of stuffed the bag under the hat like the head part of the hat, say, that was my hat, put down on the ground, go through the other stuff, they don’t notice. </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		So I made it through the bones. They actually, were going to take us to jail but then, I think Todd saved us, you know, when he told them how much we love French history and that’s why were there and all this and like at the end, they were like, “Okay, you can go.” So yeah, I had these bones, they were just kind of sitting around for a while and you know, I thought, “What’s the good use for these bones?” And I feel like sometime, I don’t know, maybe you’ll know this, I feel like I saw a movie once were like the evil guy in the movie had human bone earrings.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Mortal Kombat?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		I hope I didn’t see that movie.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	[Laughing]</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		If it’s that, I’m going to be really embarrassed. But yeah, I had this idea that there was like some evil villain that had human bone earrings that actually do, maybe cufflinks.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	I don’t know, I feel like human bones come up a lot of evil characters but whoever it was. </p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Whoever it was, I was like, “Well, I’m going to do it.” So, found someone, it took a while to find someone who’s willing to make them. I found someone who kind of carved them into stars, you know, like these guys here and…</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	The logo from your blog?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah. Logo from blog had them for a long time then finally lost them in a really vigorous karaoke session.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	In a freaky karaoke accident. Basically like, the fighting’s like, I go with Tynan every once in a while, we go out and get drinks and like, he starts telling a story and every story just goes to another story that’s just more insane than the last one and you’re like, “Alright, free karaoke care” apparently people were Tasing each other at the karaoke, we’ll talk about that in a moment but… [Laughing] We’re just going to throw in Tasing in karaoke we’ll get there eventually. But I really like the way that you have this mentality that I feel like not enough people have that I’m trying to have, I think I have pretty low.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		You got it too.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	The mentality of this is just like, what’s the worst that can happen? Like, I don’t always do what’s right for the situation but I always do what’s right for the story.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yep. Yeah. Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Like, you know, mostly like, “Oh my God! A French prison that’s scary.” I’m like, “A French prison, fuck you!” and I don’t know why other people don’t feel the same way that we do. What do you think? What makes us so weird? [Laughing]</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		I have a theory and I’ll be interested to see if it actually lines up with your past too but I feel like, you know, I think it all starts like, with school and maybe with parents a bit too. But like, in school you have this weird sort of like, discipline system where they actually have nothing over you, right? But there’s always this like, “You better do this assignment or else” or you know, “You have to do this or else” and theirs is this like, sort of illogical pressure to conform and to do what people say and like it’s not based on any sort of rational thought. Like I remember at some point, in high school like, realizing my grades didn’t really matter, you know, but everybody else is still working to get good grades and, you know, middle school even worse sounds like, “You’re going to high school no matter what, you know, if you get bad grades you’re still going, you know, if you do want to go to college or whatever, your grades in high school matter in your middle school.” So, it’s sort of this weird mentality of like, consequences that are illogical. And I feel like, for whatever reason early on I figured out, maybe because I didn’t like school, I was like, “Well, these consequences are crap. So I’m not going to [refrain] to them.” And, I feel like it’s the same thing here, where it’s like, “Yeah, like maybe you’re going to jail in France.”But let’s be honest like, you’re going to spend your life in French prison because you stole some bones that are really like mixed up with mud. Like, obviously not.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		You know and lot of times like, the worst case scenario turns out to be the best case scenario. Like, I have some friends who got, figure they were in Croatia or something, got kidnapped by rebels and like beaten up and all this and like, they’ve got an awesome story now, you know. These guys are on the radio show now because they have a lot of these interesting stories and they talk about stuffs like that.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Yeah. And the thing is like, we have, I have this friend who kind of blew my mind with the statement that he said when he was high as hell. And it’s like, one of these statement that people say, they don’t think it’s, they, that you say because they think it’s really interesting or like really deep but at this point it was really deep to me and what he said was that he had a cat, he’s like, “Maneesh I got this cat. And this cat walks around every day and he doesn’t understand roads, he doesn’t understand economy, he doesn’t understand there’s a system outside of what he’s inside of, what makes us think that we understand that there’s a system outside where we are.” And this kind of blew my mind because it just did and I started thinking about it I’m like, “What if we’re in this bubble that we just don’t realize that there’s another situation outside of it.” Now, people might take what I just said and think of it from like a religious or whatever perspective but when I started travelling, I started to notice that we in America especially have built this like system around ourselves that we assume is true and the system to me seems to be about getting into things. And the way I see it is like, when you’re in middle school, when you’re in high school, you’re trying to get good grades so you get into college. When you’re into college you try to get good grades so you get a good job. When you’re getting a good job, you’re trying to do well so you can meet, you know, a nice wife, you can pay your mortgage, you can get to retirement and it’s all about getting into the next thing. Well, as when I started to look at it from a different perspective, what if we try to navigate around it, you know, and look at a way to get into the system like from an edge, from an angle, what can we do with our lives? And so, that was when your stuff really resonated with me when you talked about removing, like, instead of making money equalling success by getting more money, what if you get less for your expenses? You know, what if you dropped a, so he was talking about his backpack, so Tynan recommended like, his backpack which I’ve been carrying with me for years and his camera and stuff and it’s all about getting it to be as little as possible. I try to adjust this 28 litre backpack, smaller than like a school kid’s backpack for like, over a year through India and that was all I had and I realized that if you don’t have many things, if you don’t have like a house that you’re paying for, if you don’t have a mortgage or a rent on a car, we call it car, are these loan? I don’t know these words anymore because I never use them. If you don’t have to pay these fees then suddenly your life can take a completely different strategy and I gave this presentation like few days ago about taking advantage of the system and I started with just the basic level. I just talked about less than what we’ve already talked about in this interview and some people’s minds were blown. They’ve never seen that there were ways to live outside of the normal system. So like, for example, your method of living with rent is really interesting to me. Tynan owns an RV. Tell me a little bit about the RV.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah. So, back in, what was that, about 2007, lived in this awesome place, downtown Austin Texas, this penthouse on the top of this building, we had like our own roof deck with the hot tub, all the stuff and it was awesome right? But when I was younger I had a school bus, my friends and I owned that we would take road trips on and I like, I really like have a lot of fun memories from that, so I was thinking, maybe I should get an RV, just like a little one, and so I could take some road trips around and stuff like that. And so, of course like I do, I start getting into the research, you know,  I’m on EBay everyday looking at these RV’s and like all of a sudden one pops up, it’s like really good deal, so like alright well I’m just going to buy this thing, so I bought it. Next day, my girlfriend and I fly out to, I think Colorado or Nevada or something [or] it was New Mexico and we go pick this thing up and we, you know, we got there in a day but on the way back we took our time and visit these cool places and actually like lived in the thing for a few days. And, I just fell in love with living there, by the time I got back, I’d literarily never slept in a condo again like every day was in this RV and since then, you know, I sold that one to travel, got another one, I now live behind a gas station, downtown San Francisco. Yeah, I love it. Like, it’s really, you know, I’ve lived in whole variety of house, I have my own house. I lived in, you know, of course the big place in LA, the condo. It’s easily my favourite place to live, you know, it’s a nice little minimalist existence, you leave it you don’t worry about like, do I have to mow my lawn, do I have to like, you know, pay somebody to clean it up, [do I] bills, you know. </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Just don’t worry about it.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		You worry about nothing. There’s no friction in your lifestyle when you’re in this thing.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	So take a second guys and think about this, imagine if you didn’t have any rent to pay. All you have to do is pay for a car. You buy it and suddenly you live in your house, you can travel anywhere oin the world, you don’t have to worry about any kind of expenses, you own everything in one space, imagine how much freer your life is and for me like the whole digital nomad lifestyle, the whole lifestyle, it’s just about freedom, figuring out a way to focus on what you want because you can really have anything you want in the world, you just can’t have everything. So, one question that I’ve actually got, I got a few request from Twitter and from Facebook that I think are really interesting is about how do you handle peer pressure? Like, we’re weird dude, people, we’re really weird people. And it’s funny when we hang out with each other and our friends, we think we’re normal but everybody looks at us strange [relieve], you know, that tiny mission bubble.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Or you’re going outside of the four hour for your community. My parents like, can’t handle me. My mom literally said to herself, “I don’t know where I went wrong with you Maneesh. What did I do wrong as a mother?” and it’s like, what, how do you handle this peer pressure, this problem from your family and from friends and from other people that just don’t understand our lifestyles.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		You know, honestly, I feel like I’ve just never felt peer pressure for whatever reason, it is, I mean, I’m sure I have in some degree but I think early on I just started doing things weird and just by fluke I’m sure, right? Like, I don’t even know what the first example would be but you know, I could think of a few, were like in a, when I started high school, I started selling things on EBay to make my own money because my allowance wasn’t enough. So, like, buy palm pilots, sell them on EBay, just when EBay was just starting out. And like, and it worked, right? Like, I have more money though than my friends and I remember like, through certain experiences like this realizing like, “Oh well, when I choose my own path and I do it, it actually works” so like really what other people want me to do, you know, like sometimes it’s good advice but it’s not like this definitive idea of what’s right that I have to like fit up against. So, I have just never really felt peer pressure to be honest.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	You know, that also makes me think because like when I was in middle school in high school I was doing entrepreneurial things like, I bought a DVD burner or a CD burner and when it first came out I started making mixed CDs for people and selling them to make money and like, I sold T-shirts with my face on it and stuff. And thongs also, those didn’t sell so well. But there’s something about us like, all of these lifestyle [status] we mean often were a little bit entrepreneurial in high school but I’m noticing like some people start jumping into entrepreneurship as we get older are also having success too but from your experience like, have you seen that most in the lifestyle design community or our community is, was pretty much like has an entrepreneurial spirit inside of us from the past.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		I think it’s more that independent spirit. It’s like, “Look, I have one life. I’m going to do what I want to do.” And when you translate that to making money, you know, like I don’t know if you ever have a real job, I had one for nine months and it was like, insane.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	I’m fired from 13 jobs.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		[Laughing] Okay. Yeah. Like I got fired too, right? And I was happy about it like, you know, my boss and I were friends, like great, you know, I wanted to quit anyway. But yeah, I think it’s just this, when you’re strongly independent and you sort of like have this mentality that like, you know what, I live once, I’m going to do what I want to do, I’m going to figure out a way to make it work, you know, that sort of, you know, independence coupled with self reliance, where you feel like you can actually make things happen for yourself. I feel like, entrepreneurialism is just part of that, like you can’t escape how else you’re going to work, how else you’re going to make money. </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	That’s true. How else we’re going to do? How else are we going to make money? Men, we have to work for somebody like, through a cubicle. </p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		The idea is totally insane to me. I would honestly rather be, I mean, I guess I am kind of homeless when you think about it, I’m living at a Gas station but I’d rather be like, legitimate homeless than honestly have a hundred thousand dollar a year like consulting jobs or [things] horrible like that.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Absolutely. Men, I have this like dream though once, I woke up from it, in a shivering sweat, literally have never had more a worse nightmare and it was, I had a dog, I had a lease and a dog and it was this scary, sounds like, “I can’t travel, what am I going to do?” it’s not like I’m anti-dogs, it’s that I’m anti-leashes, in the sense of like, I’m worried about always being forced to be in one’s particular place.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		That’s a big part of minimalism I think is like, people sometimes see it as only being about money and sure it is nice to have control over where your money goes but a lot of it is the obligation too. It’s like, you know, I don’t have to worry about sending a rent check in every month, I don’t have to worry about feeding an animal, I don’t have to worry about, you know, any of like mowing a lawn, like any of these things and when you have no, you know, obligations on your money or your time, you really are like free, you can really do what you want to do.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	It’s true.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		You know.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	One thing that always interests me is like, how do you like, I don’t understand why, there’s like a law of attraction from the secret sort of happening with us and I hate, I don’t want to say that because it’s ridiculously bad. And the whole idea of it is mindboggling but I’ve noticed that like the more things I say yes to, the more crazy things I do, the more that everything works out like, I’ve never ever been in a situation where things went wrong and were permanently wrong. I mean, apart from losing a limb or dying, I can’t imagine anything that would go wrong that would just be bad and I’m wondering like, how do you notice that the more kind of crazy things you do the more crazy things that happen to you?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah. I have a theory about that too. Like, you know, I used to be a professional gambler. And the idea was, you don’t have to win every hand, you can’t win every hand, right? You have to, kind of have a system where you would win over 50% of money you put in. I think it’s the same sort of thing. And then, once you have that system you want to play as much as humanly possible so you can push that edge, right? Because say, 1% isn’t much but you make a lot of this, you know financial decisions and in the long run it’s a big deal. And I think if you’re the kind of person that can make really good independent decisions like, look, 100% of my decisions are not good like, you know, I can tell you that but maybe 60% or something like that. But if I’m, in putting a lot of situations where I’m making these crazy decisions and where there is a lot of upside, you know, 6, if most of them are turning out well over a long period of time, you build a huge amount of, you know, positive experience and you know, very [serious].</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	It’s true. That actually, that’s a good metaphor also for like any sort of money making opportunity or any kind of like blogging you’re doing or any kind of business you’re running. It’s just figure out a way to make 51% of the effort back, you know. If you’re, when once you get out just multiply, expand and grow. And so like, with the blog or with, you know, especially with your blog, like, how have you fine tuned it? How have you figured out? How have you, what are your strategies for actually monetizing your lifestyle? How do you fund it? </p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		I mean, I think I’m probably the worse person to ask for this. I feel like, I probably monetize terribly but, you know, I’ve read a couple of books and, especially the pick-up one sells really well, life nomadic’s sells, you know, a little bit but again I don’t have many expenses, so it covers my lifestyle.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	But it does cover your lifestyle, your blog?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yep.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	So, it seems like you, people are attracted to your blog because you do interesting things. And then from that you can sell them products that you trust and you believe in.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah. And a little bit of affiliate commissions, you know, like my gear stuff every year and stuff like that.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Yeah. So, what about your gear stuff? Tell me about your gear recommendations for this year? </p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		This year, so let’s see, you mean, one I just published or you’re talking about new stuff.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	What are you doing? What are you wearing these days? What are you wearing out?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		So this is Icebreaker or is it SmartWool? I forget. One SmartWool, one Icebreaker. One of the other. </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	SmartWool and Icebreaker on right now.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah. I mean, always 100% Marino wool. It’s, this stuff is unbelievable. Like, you get caught in the rain, these are Versace pants, the only wool jeans I could find, nobody makes them. I brought them to a tailor in Thailand, the guy who made my tux, and I was like, “Look, I need more of this.” He says, “Oh, you can’t get material like this.”</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	It doesn’t exist.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		So it’s like super hard to find but these are amazing, you get caught in the rain, I don’t wear rain pants anymore because this get wet, it doesn’t matter. They dry off, they’re warm, etc. </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	What watch are you wearing?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		The same one, the Suunto X10, the vessel keeps falling off.</p>
<p>Woman:	Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Do you want a close up on that bad boy?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		I’ve been waiting for a close up.</p>
<p>Woman:	Insert.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		There you go. </p>
<p>Woman:	What? What? What? What?</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Moving on. I just realized I…</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Awesome watch has built-in GPS altimeter, like I actually used them when I was skydiving, use the altimeter.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Oh yeah?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Because I was like what if it can really handle this sort of thing that [I can]. But the vessel, I don’t know why they do this, the vessel sucks it falls off all the time. So now it looks like some sort of like broken Cyborg watch. So I just stop gluing it back on.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	That’s amazing.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah. What else do we have? You know what this is right?</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	No.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		This is so when I die the [crutch] will be frozen.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Oh yeah! </p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		You know about that?</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Tell them about this.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah. So, when I die, well that’s pretty much what there is to it. [Probably] gently frozen and someday hopefully we’ll be able to bring me back to life.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Yes. Tynan forever! [Laughing]</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Tynan forever, exactly. So if you like my blog post.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	That will be your cryogenic blog post. You should like…</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		You’re a good shape. Your shit’s capable of, you know.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	You’re playing like 3 weekly different blog posts for the next 30 years, 50 or 100 years and then it will be tynanfrozen.com</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Honestly, I’ve thought about that.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	That’s actually a pretty good idea, men.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		I used to have a blog post that would post if I die. Like, I’ve [make] this like, elaborate mechanism where I had to like, keep pushing it ahead and so if I died, it would post. And I was going to have like years of posts queued up but, you know, it didn’t…</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Tynan forever?	</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah. Tynan forever.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Shit, that’s awesome. </p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		God he’s dead. </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Damn it stop posting. </p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah. Stop posting.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Your gear doesn’t even make sense, we have Cyborgs now.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah, exactly. Still like the same shirt I like back in 2011. People wearing like laser shirts or something like that, you know.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Men, so that’s really cool. I like to tell, I think fat I want to, what am I trying to say here, I want to ask you about your Taser karaoke. </p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Taser-oke. Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Taser-Oke, this shit cracked up yesterday.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Tell me about it.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah. So my friend Todd also, you know, he went out on “Life Nomadicaly” when we first started. We’re hanging out with another friend of ours also kind of like entrepreneurial girl and she had this Taser like personal protection 400,000 watt Taser, and for whatever reason Todd sees it and he says, “You know, I want to get Tased. I want to see what it’s like.” And we’re about to Tase him and I said wait a minute like, we should make a spectacle out of this somehow and at that time I hosted Karaoke. I use that back and I realized that Todd said, “I want to get Tased.” Actually, it’s way less, it’s way more common than you think, I’ll get to that in a second. And so, I hosted karaoke just because I loved it so much I want to cut all the time and if you host it you can insert yourself in whenever you want. So, that’s what we were doing. He said, “Okay. Well, let’s do Taser-oke. We’ll make this fake contest where you’ll sing against someone, you’ll throw it and then we’ll Tase you on stage.” And so, you know, the [Cobliners] don’t want to agree to this so I wait until they are really drunk at the end of the night and like, “Hey guys, we’re doing karaoke, Taser-oke next time.” And then like, “Oh, I don’t know we can get sued.” I said, “Oh, you know I’m going to right up a legal document.” He said, “Oh, yeah I do want to see someone get Tased.” “Okay.” Literally, that was the entire discussion, so they agree to do it and I decided I’m just not going to mention it. Show up the next time, get tough time in stage, just announce to the crowd we’re going to do it, so at that point you can’t back down, you know, they’re not going to stop you then. And so, Todd throws it, we Tase him and, you know, it was like, “Oh, you know that hurt, that was a big deal.” And then I’ll send people start lining up to, to sing, we had a line, because we had all these people get Tased then, people started coming up then they’re like, “I’m only scared to sing but can you Tase me?” Like, you will be shock of how many people wanted to get Tased but were too…</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	You will be shocked! [Laughing]</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Oh God.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Sorry.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah, there’s power through that. Yeah. You’d be stunned. No, that’s not, you’ll be surprised! How many people just want to get Tased and see how we did that for over a year, Tase people, you know, I’ve Tased hundreds of people now, and eventually got shut down when Todd and I left for “Life Nomadic” and my co-host apparently got drunk and Tased someone who didn’t sign a waiver, and that was that but they’ve been actually like, they’ve been [touched] from me, they want to have it again.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	The funny thing is when you start doing something crazy or new everyone’s like, “What are you, you can never do that. That would never work.” And the second you do it, everyone’s following. </p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah. It’s best to just do things.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Yeah. Ask for forgiveness and affirmation.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Exactly.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	That’s the truth. Nothing ever goes wrong if you just do it. So, Taser-oke, you’ve done your RV, let’s talk a little bit about pick-ups because that seems to be, it used to be a little huge part of your life, it seems like it’s cut down a little bit. </p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		It’s about to begin February 1st.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	February 1st.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		It’s getting push backed to bit, I’m doing it with a friend, we’re supposed to do it January 1st he is in Vietnam right now and he’s like, “Okay. Yeah I’m going to be back in January 1st” So I’ve got like, “Alright, January 1st pick-up.” And then he’s like, “Yeah, I got to push back January 14th.” So I was just talking yesterday, now it’s February 1st. </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	You got to pick a date. You got to start doing it yourself men, pre-game.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah. I know. The thing is if I do it, it’s going to be 100% like every day, all day, so I’m kind of I’m going to wait until we’re in the ideal situation. </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	So like Todd, Tynan is talking about, he used to be, if you guys have read the book “The Game” by Neil Strauss, Tynan was one of the characters who was, he was “Herbal”.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah. Herbal, British people call me “Herbal”. </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	“Herbal” in the game. So, he was one of the characters in the book. And basically, that book is about these set of guys a lot of them like awkward dudes who want to learn how to pick up women, so they all lived together and they try to like, basically, practice it all day and that’s all they do and that’s all they focus on it. And so, I’ve noticed like I’ve seen you change a little bit like the way you tell stories is pretty interesting and I think that, I’m wondering if like you used to be a lot meeker when you told stories or if you were like less, more jumpy and a little bit less like chill and relax when you told them. How do you tell stories? That’s my question.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah. I mean, it’s hard to know exactly, right? Like, there’s this weird thing that when you make, you maybe have experienced this too, you go through big changes, people assume you were always like that, even like your friends who knew you like everyone [are that good] at pick-up, I have this one friend who like, someone’s like, “Oh, you know, look at Tynan, you know, he’s into this pick-up artist thing.” and he’s like, “Oh, he’s always been good with girls.” Like, it’s not true, like I had no girlfriends, right? Like it made no sense but there’s that same sort of thing. So, even from my own perspective, it’s hard to really remember what it was like but…</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	I like, did read, read one day and stumbling in one of your comments randomly in a thread, it was about you in college in the most awkward situation</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		I’m not even sure exactly which one you’re talking about but there were some… is this the one where I passed out? </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	No, this is the one where the girl came in to your bed and asks…</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Oh! Yeah, I know.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	And she’s like, “I’m cold.” there was something, it’s funny because I saw this poster, it wasn’t your name on it, I was like, “Oh, that’s an awkward story and I clicked the button.” and I’m like, “This is Tynan. I know who this is.”</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		That girl’s actually, I don’t think she even knows it, she was basically the reason I got into pick-up.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	So, you went from being awkward to being not awkward and people thought you were always not awkward.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah. But I think, one of the interesting things about pick-up is it gets this bad, a bad rap for a lot of reasons, some of which, not so much just five but one of them is because of routines. What you do, is you kind of memorize these little stories, especially openers. And, if you’re going out at night you may just open, you know, your first thing you would say to a girl might be the same for every single girl. And, so like you know, people don’t like that because it seems like mechanical or whatever. But one of the interesting things is you learn a lot of these routines and your brain starts to see the pattern, like the sort of arch that they have to take and the arch is generally speaking like, you start off, you kind of build up the story, you had the high point and then you drop off a little bit to kind of rap it up but you never go back down here, right? So you go, “Oh, stop here and then you jump with your next story.” And, routines are sort of training wheels, like nobody is actually good at pick-up, uses them all the time, right? Maybe an opener just because it doesn’t really matter at the first time what you say is but what you do is you sort of engrave it in your head and you sort of subconsciously understand how to tell a story in a way that follows an art that’s interesting and just doesn’t get boring, doesn’t go off too many [attentions].</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	What I’ve noticed with pick-up and with anything really is that people always focus on these tactics, they focus on like the easy jumping into process, something that’s like, A, you know, six steps to doing whatever but when you start focusing on it, the experts aren’t focusing on tactics, they’re focusing on strategy, and strategy is much, much deeper than tactics and so like, when I used to try to do pick-up a lot or when I was doing, even with blogging or with web design or anything programming, you start off just like, following the steps but when you start to assimilate it that’s when it really gets powerful, like that’s when it really starts to get deep. Have you noticed that with other industries as well like, with programming or with anything really?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		I don’t know if I have, but I think it’s mostly because I just have this weird tendency to not try to figure out how everyone else is doing it, like, even you know, Todd and I [are working] on this big programming projects right now. And even as I look at my code, I’m like, you know, I’ve seen other people’s code and it doesn’t really look anything like what mine looks like. And like I know I’m doing things different, I don’t know if it’s better or worse, probably worse or maybe better in some ways worse I think but yeah, pickup is one of the very few times where I was like just so hopeless, I was like, alright I’ll do whatever you people say, like, you know, I didn’t even try to figure it out myself.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	You just kept doing it until you pushed through, until it worked? …[you are] with the masters.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah. I mean, that had a lot to do with, and really like, what I learned from those guys, of course I learned tons of, you know,  tactic strategy but you know, it was the attitude they had like, when I was in Austin that’s where I used to live when I got into to this, you know, we’d all go out together, like 10 of us, we’d go to this club and we basically like make this one like huddle, like little school of fish, like all 10 of us like facing inwards like, “Alright, I’m going to go talk to her.” They’d like, “Okay. Well, alright, good luck. What opener are you going to use?” like, “Oh, I don’t know. Let me think about that” and you kind of think you’d like, “Alright I’m going to go do it. Oh, she’s talking to a guy. No, I can’t do it, okay” and like the next [they’re] like, “I’m going to go talk to her.” It’s like disaster, we’re like, you know, huddle of dudes and like maybe you talk to like 2 girls. So, first day, I get to Project Hollywood, I sort of have this like lingering worry I was like, “Oh, maybe these guys aren’t really going to teach me anything. Like, maybe they just wanted the rent money. Like, I didn’t know any of them.” So, I get there, that’s sort of like in my head, I meet Mystery and he’s like, “Oh. Well, I just came back from a club and hey let’s go out.” So, he takes me out, “Oh, my God. I’m going out with Mystery, let’s do this thing”, walk into a club, he’s instantly talking to a girl and I’m standing there like by myself like, “Oh, I guess this is what we do here, we just instantly go talk to girls, we don’t dick around and talk about it forever.” And so, you know, it’s like that sort of the attitude that I learned from them. </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Jump in, do what you got to do, don’t worry about planning, just fucking do it. The worse that happens is they say no.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Exactly.	And that’s really just one area, were like there’s all this sort of like mindsets they had which is really what I learned most.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	And, one thing you mentioned to me which I’ve been feeling a little bit with myself too was like that recently you would try, you were thinking about talking to a girl and you just got a little, the jitters, right? And I felt the same thing, I went to a bar in San Francisco and this is, granted I’m going to give myself a little credit I just spent a month in the wild only, with literally only dudes. So, after Berlin, I came back to this wild and I go, and someone’s like, “Yo, why aren’t you talking to these girls?” I’m like, “I don’t know. Why am I not talking to those girls.” and he’s like, she’s like, “Go talk to them.” Like, alright, and I walk over there, I started to have my conversation and suddenly I start to shake. And I’m like, “This doesn’t happen to me, what is going on?” And I’m like, this is one of those perfect examples of use it or lose it like, you have to keep doing it but I also like that when you start jumping back into it [when it come back]. </p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		It does yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	So, what other awesome stories, like what are your top stories?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Oh men, top stories? </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Like what, for example, when you start talking to girls during pick-up, you’re basically, you’re basically storytelling the situation. Like, I found that a lot of it comes down to you like keeping, you’re trying to keep the presence, like you’re trying to get [keeping] presence, so even though they want to tell stories you got to let them talk and you try to get them to talk but at the end of the day you’re going to be the one like telling the story usually in the conversation, right? Do you have like a set, a set group of stories that you use often or is it just sort of tangential depending on what you’re talking about. </p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah. I mean, I definitely try not to have a set thing. I feel like, a lot of times when people have sort of like a list of stories they want to get down and they start dropping them, it seems like bragging, right? Like, it comes up just not genuine in some way but, you know, at this point I have a lot of stories and they tend to come up like, you know, there’s certain themes like, I feel like anytime I talk to a girl, travel comes up because everybody is, you know, everybody likes travel, everybody has favourite places, you know, I’ve been to a lot of places, for girls like, “Oh, you know, I just went to Japan” and like, “Oh, I got about a million stories about Japan now.” And so, I think that’s how real conversation works, you know. And, the truth is if you’re going out and you’re talking to girls constantly or anybody really you say these stories enough that you kind of you see which parts are interesting, you see which parts aren’t interesting. Once [where] it comes up the time is how I got into pick-up to be honest because I feel like, you know, with a girl I have to tell her, like, she’s going to find out eventually.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Is it the first jump?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		That one actually, I do try, I try to get that one out and the RV one out very early because I feel like, if you don’t get the RV out early, it seems like you might be embarrassed about it or something. And then the pick-up one it’s sort of like, like, if they don’t know upfront then they find out, “Oh, was he doing these things on me?” where it’s like, “Look, this is what I came from, this is what I do, ask me questions, I’ll tell you about it.”</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Tynan’s like one of the good guys in the space. But the funniest thing was like, when my brother started going out right after Mystery’s TV show came out. </p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Really? </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Yeah. [We’d be] like, the weekend after for every single week during it, he told me what would happen is that, people would go up in the club and he’d be listening in and guys will go to girls [in line] straight from the club and good for them whatever they’re using what they got and then another guy would walk up to him always and be like, “Hey men, why are you using that pickup line you learned from the TV show yesterday?” It’s like if you’re not going to try out the line, why are you going to ruin other people’s like using a line…</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		That’s it. There’s a lot of like, a lot of the people will hate pick-up, guys will hate pick-up it comes with this insecurity where it’s like if they admit that it works and it’s an okay thing to do then they’re basically faced with, the only choice that they can possibly make is to do it, right? It’s like, okay this is okay to do this works, either I’m going to be lonely for my life or I’m going to learn this. And so, as a defence mechanism I’ve seen a lot of people who don’t want to accept that, so they have to either make it not work or they have to make it wrong, and you see that a lot.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Yeah. And then, I remember the beginning, like when I first started going out, I’d get so scared and I didn’t…</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		It’s terrifying.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	It’s freaking terrifying and then these days I’m like, “Dude, what the, who the fuck cares you’re going to see no, they’re never going to remember you tomorrow unless they do.”</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Unless they do.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Unless they do, right? So, why, I don’t know why, why do you feel like it’s such, so difficult for us in the beginning to break into it like why are social situations so hard.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		I’ll tell you Mystery’s theory which could be true, could not be true but it resonates with me I think it may be true and he talks about like, evolutionary biology. How we’re actually meant to be in like small tribes, right? And when you think about, you know, maybe a tribe with 100 people, 50 of them are women maybe 20, 10 are in your age range, some of them are already taken so maybe we’re left at 5 to 10 girls that are potential mates, if you get rejected by one of them, the other ones know, right? And there’s definitely that thing, where like, if somebody says no to something, “Wait, why did they say no?” you know, like, say you introduce me to a girl and you’re like, “Yeah, you know, I can never date this girl and like I’m going to back out, I might be [saying] wrong with her” and even more so with girls because they do seek a lot more approval from their peers with guys tend to be more independent not always usually. And so I think that you know, the way society [advance] is awesome and crazy but I think our emotional wiring’s definitely not caught up. So, I feel like, you know, because it doesn’t make any sense, like, even when I’m scared to go approach a girl, I’m like, okay, why am I sacred? And I can sit there for 10 minutes and not like, I don’t care about getting rejected, how many times have I been rejected, like, thousands, right?</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Probably.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		And never have I taken a [port], like, every time it’s like who cares, like she doesn’t actually know me anyway.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	I’m fucking Tynan! There’s a thousand users, only one of them…</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		You know me! You don’t know me. Yeah. So, it’s like, like it’s never even been bad to be rejected but it’s that something of like walking up you’re scared.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	It’s that shaking, like that weird…</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		It’s weird. </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	It’s so weird and I still can’t explain it when it happens to me, like, why, I don’t care about you, why is this happening. </p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		And the other thing too is logically you realize like, they’re not rejecting you, they don’t know enough, right? They’re rejecting your approach which is actually awesome because that’s good feedback. And so, it’s actually beneficial to be rejected in a certain sense. Yeah, and that’s why I’m getting back into pickup honestly, I remember there was this, I was in Berkley, got off the train and there was this absolutely gorgeous girl, like the exact type that I’m into, right? Standing there alone, perfect scenario, waiting for a bus that I’ waiting for too, like, that’s a gimme right? It doesn’t get easier than that and I’m looking at her like I should approach this girl, I’m terrified, I’m not going to do it. And like that was like the catalyst, I’m like, “I got to get back into it” it’s that 5 second rule like, you’re just like 3 seconds, come on don’t shit now. </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Shit.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		You have to do it.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	You have to do it right away. I don’t know. It’s crazy. It’s crazy situation, one thing I noticed, I went out a few months ago with some guys were just coming back from a pick-up conference, they were speaking at a pick-up conference and we went out to, don’t remember their names, this was in Club der Visionare in Berlin and we were there and they’re like, “Yeah, let’s go out, let’s see what happens.” I’m like, “Let’s go out.” And these guys just come back from a freaking speaking at a pick-up conference I’m assuming they’re going to be the kings of this stuff, right? Spend 15 minutes talking to each other, I’m like just, I look over the right, I’m like, “Hi! Where are you guys from?” And I’m talking to a bunch, a group of girls and I turn back and they’re like, “That was impressive men” I’m like “That was unimpressive guys come on you didn’t back me up.” Like, have you noticed this in the pick-up community that people talk?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		So common, so common. </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	What the hell is up with that? Who are the real guys? Like, in your opinion, like, out of the guys who were famous, who were the real guys?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Mystery all the real social dynamics guys are legit. I love simple pick-up, I think they’re the only new people who I’ve seen enough of to really like, and like but I think those guys are awesome I think they are making pickup fun again.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Why are we not doing a new simple pick-up of our own?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Where about to. What do you think is happening February 1st? Who else, I’m trying to think, I’m not leaving people out, I mean, Neil of course he’s the real deal. Like basically, like most the people I came up with in Hollywood were the real deal. And I think that’s why there were so much innovation happening then like really what’s changed since then, like, I’m not that into the scenes so I don’t know but back then like, people would come up with new amazing insight constantly and I don’t feel like there’s been much and part of it is because to be a coach like those guys are talking about, it doesn’t take much, you should be better than other people and you don’t even need to be sometimes. Like, it’s like football, like most football coaches would get tackled and probably break a hit and be done, you know, I’ve tried a lot of pick-up seminars or workshops we go to the field and I taught them way before I was qualified to do so honestly. But people got good results because all you have to do is push them but it’s okay go talk to this girl, hey go talk to this girl. And if you understand, you know, the strategy in the [redirect] you can teach it in a compelling way to other people but a lot of these people can’t really do it like you see them go out and you know, then they do nothing and I think part of the reason I actually, you know, rose up fairly quickly was, except about all these guys is because I sucked but I was absolutely willing to approach.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		I remember I meet the guy who [made] fast reduction, I caught him in Boston, you know, we’re in a mall in Copley Square and he’s like, alright let’s do this like great first 2 girls I went up and talked to and he’s like, “Oh, jee, I meet so many guys, none of them actually ever talked to girls.” Yeah. And it’s what it is.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	What about day time versus night time pick-up in your opinion?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		I mean, there’s a positives and negatives to both, I don’t drink so I like day time, I prefer day time like, when a girl’s drunk I’m pretty much, instantly, not interested.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Same as smoking, there tends to be more smoking girls at night. The cool thing about day time is that you get a lot of credit for the approach, right? Like, girls know it’s hard to approach them. But at night they figure you’re drunk and that’s why you did it, so you get like no credit. But, you know, I think in the day you go up to a girl like, with some confidence and like, not act weird and creepy, and she’s like, “Wow!” Like, the student knows what, you know, like, she knows it’s hard and she knows that you’ve done it and you’ve done it [recent lost] so you get credit for that. </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	They also don’t expect it and they’re just like, I think defences are down, they are not wearing make up all the time, you can tell they’re a good coke based on what’s in the shopping cart. </p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		My buddy, the one who I introduced to you today, Rockman, he used to do, I never went by, I wished I had, he used to do these epic pick-up dates. He’s like hardcore, probably more hardcore than like Mystery and this guy would go out on Saturdays, every Saturday with his buddies and he would have clipboards and they would just sit in the back and watch and he would have to approach a hundred women with like 25 different lines women each.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	A hundred women, how is that even possible?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Like, he would just do it! And he would just, I’m not sure about the numbers, but I’m pretty sure it was a hundred, I’m fairly sure it was and he would basically have his friend watch him from the back of the clipboard watching the effects of each pick-up and doing metrics on it and each week they would like push it forward straight up.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	That’s what Mystery did. That’s how he got good.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		It’s like basically doing it’s like Google Analytics for pick-up.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	All that guys friend have him watch you.  So I think that that is freaking, it’s an interesting situation, like pick-up is such a strange world.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		It is a very strange world.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	It’s a very strange world. I don’t know what is happening with the industry these days. Do you know where it’s going? Is it just…</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		I mean, I don’t follow it at all, like I have a somewhat pessimist [to fuel] that I feel like, you know, guys who are bad at women are vulnerable, like I remember back when I was there, kind of there again now, you know, like, it’s the same sort of thing where it’s like you need the help and the people who get into pick-up are the guys who are willing to admit they need help, which is like you’re really making yourself very vulnerable and I think a lot of people are taking advantage of it. You know, on one hand, they probably are offering some benefit to the guys because like, really just having someone to push you is beneficial and, you know, like, they are probably not teaching these guys anything they don’t already know but sometimes hearing it from someone you perceive as an authority is helpful but I don’t feel like things are really getting pushed forward. I think a lot of people are exaggerating how good they are.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		You know, because it’s a marketing tool.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	It’s very easy to do that.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Like, I’ve done that too. Like, maybe not intentionally I try not to but of course, you know, it’s part of it.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	And like when I went out with these guys who are talking about coming back from conferences like, I basically, I’d opened the set, I saw this girl and she just started talking and she was just so drunk and I was like, “Pfft! Peace!” and I walk away and the guy swings in and he starts talking around like, and even then he couldn’t pull it off, I’m like, this is just embarrassing men, she’s literally like shit face drunk, this is like not impressive what are you doing?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Yeah. And a lot of these guys too. Like, you know there were certain people who were trying to post up big numbers because they knew that if they told students that they’d be impressed and you’d see these girls they’d workout with and they’re like not girls the guys are actually interested in. You know, there’s like, you know, kind of terrifying girls in some situations and so it’s like.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	It’s like bringing in quantity of traffic versus quality of traffic. </p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		Exactly. </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Do you want to email subscribe or do you want to read it? [Click] through, you know what I mean? Like, some people are actually going to be useful in here. I don’t know. </p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		And these people are cross spectrum like there’s definitely people like simple pick-up I love those guys, you know. I think they’re cool about it, they’re genuine, they’re good at what they do and they’re making it fun and I think that’s an aspect that is been overlooked, it’s how much fun it actually can be. Like even, you know, I haven’t been really doing it for a long time I watch the videos and it’s like, “Oh yeah, you get into all these crazy, like interesting scenarios with new people like it really is a fun adventure.” So yeah, there’s some people doing cool in this stuff. </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	That’s actually the coolest part on pick-up is like you meet, first of all, cool people who are doing crazy shit and then just the night goes in a fun way, progresses and you never know what’s going to happen at the end of the night. Yeah. So, anyway, what else is going on in your life Tynan?</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		What’s going on, programming, doing a lot of work these days which I’m psyched about, I mean, I was just on this cruise for 2 weeks and literally probably averaged 10 to 14 hours of work every day but just really loving it, you know, you live in San Francisco and I feel like you can’t live there for more than a year without starting to start-up it’s just like the atmosphere there, I feel like it’s this gold rush, it’s time to do it.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	It’s been a gold rush for like 10 years.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		It has but…</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Keeps [failing], keeps coming back.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		But I also feel like right, I mean, I’m an optimistic to in most scenarios, I think maybe I always think it’s perfect time but you know, like the first dot com boom, it seem like everybody was trying their own thing, there was no real pattern for how it worked and some people are successful somewhere but I feel like now there is sort of this like generally accepted like good way to do things, not everything but for certain things there’s you know, start with minimum viable product, put it out, get mentors, you know, people are doing fundraising which I’m not really interested in but I don’t know I feel like it’s just an awesome time to be doing it. It’s fun. </p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	It is interesting. It all happens in awesome time. Anyway, Tynan, I think that, that is an interesting interview or probably in a long time but we have plenty more to talk about when I get to San Francisco in a couple of weeks. We should do a few more of these shows.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		For sure.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Guys, check out Tynan’s blog at tynan.com. Email him if you want, he’s pretty responsive.</p>
<p><strong>Tynan:</strong>		I’m getting in trouble now.</p>
<p><strong>Maneesh:</strong>	Yeah. He’s a nice guy usually. Anyway, thanks a lot guys. Tune in next week. Take care. </p>
<p><strong>Don&#8217;t forget to <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hack-the-system/id496857754">subscribe to this show on iTunes</a></strong>.</div>
<p></div><br/>
<p>Listen to the podcast here:<br />
</p>
<p>Watch it here:<br />
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<p>This podcast can be seen on iTunes. <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hack-the-system/id496857754">Click here to follow it via iTunes</a> (and automatically sync it to your iPod)</p>
<h3>A Summary Of This Episode</h3>
<p>0:27 &#8211; Meet Tynan<br />
1:05 &#8211; How to book a private jet for free<br />
2:45 &#8211; Knowing the cheap hubs<br />
4:05 &#8211; Catacomb earrings<br />
14:00 &#8211; Life in an RV<br />
16:39 &#8211; How to cope with peer pressure against your lifestyle<br />
18:06 &#8211; The entrepreneurial / independent spirit<br />
20:29 &#8211; 51% theory<br />
21:40 &#8211; Monetizing<br />
22:18 &#8211; What is Tynan wearing these days<br />
23:37 &#8211; Tynan Forever<br />
24:39 &#8211; Taser Karaoke<br />
27:04 &#8211; Pickup Art<br />
36:57 &#8211; Why is it so hard to get started picking up?<br />
39:58 &#8211; Who are the real pickup artists?<br />
43:33 &#8211; The state of the pickup industry</p>
<p><a href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/how-tynan-became-a-pickup-artist-made-earrings-out-of-human-bone-and-lives-in-an-rv/">How Tynan Became a Pickup Artist, Made Earrings out of Human Bone, And Lives in an RV</a> is a post from: <a href="http://hackthesystem.com">Hack The System</a></p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Maneeshsethicom/~4/rADjxU1HxD8" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>

			<itunes:subtitle>Welcome to the fifth episode of the Hack The System show! - You should subscribe to this show on iTunes. - The Hack The System Podcast is your access to interviews with the world's foremost experts on blogging, lifestyle design, traveling,</itunes:subtitle>
		<itunes:summary>Welcome to the fifth episode of the Hack The System show!

You should subscribe to this show on iTunes.

The Hack The System Podcast is your access to interviews with the world's foremost experts on blogging, lifestyle design, traveling, and life/system hacking. In short--you're going to learn how to kick ass.

In this episode, I sit down with Tynan of Tynan.com. Tynan was one of the first bloggers that inspired me to become a lifestyle designer. Hell, his digital nomad packing list was the basis for what I still travel with.

Tynan was Herbal in the book The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists. He traveled the world with just a small backpack, and lives the most interesting lifestyle that I've ever seen. And now, he just launched a new blogging platform (different than wordpress) called Sett---you can see it in action at Tynan.com.

Tynan has been a huge inspiration for me, and you're going to learn a ton of info from him. Below, you'll see a list of things to listen out for--and a full transcript of the conversation.

Transcript of the Podcast Episode



Listen to the podcast here:


Watch it here:


This podcast can be seen on iTunes. Click here to follow it via iTunes (and automatically sync it to your iPod)

A Summary Of This Episode

0:27 - Meet Tynan
1:05 - How to book a private jet for free
2:45 - Knowing the cheap hubs
4:05 - Catacomb earrings 
14:00 - Life in an RV
16:39 - How to cope with peer pressure against your lifestyle
18:06 - The entrepreneurial / independent spirit
20:29 - 51% theory
21:40 - Monetizing
22:18 - What is Tynan wearing these days
23:37 - Tynan Forever
24:39 - Taser Karaoke
27:04 - Pickup Art
36:57 - Why is it so hard to get started picking up?
39:58 - Who are the real pickup artists?
43:33 - The state of the pickup industry</itunes:summary>
		<itunes:author>Maneesh Sethi</itunes:author>
		<itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
		<itunes:duration>47:40</itunes:duration>
	<feedburner:origLink>http://hackthesystem.com/blog/how-tynan-became-a-pickup-artist-made-earrings-out-of-human-bone-and-lives-in-an-rv/</feedburner:origLink><enclosure url="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Maneeshsethicom/~5/zFqk4pIuffk/Tynan2.mp3" length="45752448" type="audio/mpeg" /><feedburner:origEnclosureLink>http://hackthesystem.com/wordpress/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Tynan2.mp3</feedburner:origEnclosureLink></item>
		<item>
		<title>The Failure of the Last Mile</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Maneeshsethicom/~3/Ci0b_U1qNXM/</link>
		<comments>http://hackthesystem.com/blog/the-failure-of-the-last-mile/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:02:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>maneesh</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Exercise]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Habit Hacking]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://hackthesystem.com/?p=1072</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[[Note: I just realized that this phrase, the Failure of the Last Mile, was first coined by my brother. We use it in conversation so often, I didn't realize it wasn't a common phrase. Sorry Ramit!] On Friday, I woke up with an intense urge to run. As soon as my eyes opened, all I [...]<p><a href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/the-failure-of-the-last-mile/">The Failure of the Last Mile</a> is a post from: <a href="http://hackthesystem.com">Hack The System</a></p>
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/the-failure-of-the-last-mile/" title="Permanent link to The Failure of the Last Mile"><img class="post_image alignnone" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6154/6183454874_c39f46c5d8.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Changing Habits can Change The World" /></a>
</p><p>[Note: I just realized that this phrase, the Failure of the Last Mile, was first <a href="http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/the-failure-of-the-last-mile/">coined by my brother</a>. We use it in conversation so often, I didn't realize it wasn't a common phrase. Sorry Ramit!]</p>
<p>On Friday, I woke up with an intense urge to run.</p>
<p>As soon as my eyes opened, all I could think about was how much I wanted to feel the open air, the liberation that I only experience when I run through hills in the early morning.</p>
<p>Yet, by 4pm, I hadn&#8217;t even gone outside. What the hell happened? </p>
<p>The answer was clear: I had created small barriers that made it difficult to run. I was staying in a hostel room, and wasn&#8217;t sure where my exercise clothes were. I didn&#8217;t want to make a lot of noise looking for my running clothes.</p>
<p>Even though I had good intentions, I didn&#8217;t succeed. I had succeeded in developing the habit, but I still failed. I call this &#8220;the failure of the last mile.&#8221; </p>
<p>But today, I woke up and immediately got to exercising. I drank a liter of water, began exercising, and cooked a great breakfast, all before 7am.</p>
<p>What was the difference? One simple change</p>
<p><strong>I went to sleep in my exercise clothes. I planned out the night before that I would exercise in the morning, so I removed every barrier to making that happen.</strong></p>
<p>By removing all barriers, and simply getting up and going, I was able to get all my exercise in before anyone else in the hostel even woke up.</p>
<p>When building new habits, it&#8217;s extremely important to make them as easy as possible. You don&#8217;t start a new diet while leaving cake out on the counter. You load your house with only healthy food, to make it <i>difficult to fail</i>.</p>
<p>So, what are you trying to achieve? Tell me in the comments: what goal/habit do you want to achieve? What obstacles prevent you from doing it&#8212;and how can you remove that obstacle by preparation?</p>
<hr />
&nbsp;<br />
I&#8217;m currently in Medellin, Colombia, after a long weekend of horseback riding and wine-sipping in the coffee region of Colombia. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrqdRT9CdgE&#038;list=UUOyAOAJyIsvXOlL5rwSXI-Q&#038;index=1&#038;feature=plcp">Here is a video of my film editor and me</a> standing up on the back of a jeep while riding at 40mph through winding roads in the middle of a thunderstorm. </p>
<p>Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/6183454874/">350.org</a></p>
<p><a href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/the-failure-of-the-last-mile/">The Failure of the Last Mile</a> is a post from: <a href="http://hackthesystem.com">Hack The System</a></p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Maneeshsethicom/~4/Ci0b_U1qNXM" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>11</slash:comments>
		<feedburner:origLink>http://hackthesystem.com/blog/the-failure-of-the-last-mile/</feedburner:origLink></item>
		<item>
		<title>How to Get Slapped by 50+ Colombian Women—And Do Pushups On A Mountain Side</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Maneeshsethicom/~3/Zs_PW3ZfblU/</link>
		<comments>http://hackthesystem.com/blog/how-to-get-slapped-by-50-colombian-women-and-do-pushups-on-a-mountain-side/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:51:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>maneesh</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Challenge]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Travel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://hackthesystem.com/?p=1099</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Greetings from Medellin, Colombia! I recently wrote about how I got a Business Class ticket to Medellin, Colombia, for just $77. Now that I&#8217;m here, I figured that it&#8217;s time to show you what the country is like. I spent a day heading to an idyllic city called Guatapé&#8212;and climbed a giant rock, El Peñón [...]<p><a href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/how-to-get-slapped-by-50-colombian-women-and-do-pushups-on-a-mountain-side/">How to Get Slapped by 50+ Colombian Women&#8212;And Do Pushups On A Mountain Side</a> is a post from: <a href="http://hackthesystem.com">Hack The System</a></p>
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/how-to-get-slapped-by-50-colombian-women-and-do-pushups-on-a-mountain-side/" title="Permanent link to How to Get Slapped by 50+ Colombian Women&#8212;And Do Pushups On A Mountain Side"><img class="post_image alignnone" src="http://hackthesystem.com/wordpress/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/how-to-get-slapped-by-50-colombian-women-1.jpg" width="549" height="312" alt="How to Get Slapped by 50+ Colombian Women" /></a>
</p><p>Greetings from Medellin, Colombia!</p>
<p>I recently wrote about how I got a <a href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/how-to-fly-business-class-to-medellin-colombia-for-77/" title="How to fly business class to Medellin, Colombia—for $77">Business Class ticket to Medellin, Colombia, for just $77</a>. Now that I&#8217;m here, I figured that it&#8217;s time to show you what the country is like.</p>
<p>I spent a day heading to an idyllic city called Guatapé&#8212;and climbed a giant rock, El Peñón de Guatapé.</p>
<p>But, I don&#8217;t like to travel like normal people. I like to push myself to new limits. So, on this journey, I decided to challenge myself. In addition to climbing a mountain (and of course doing pushups on the side of it)&#8212;could I convince 50+ beautiful Colombian women to slap me in the face?</p>
<p>Check out this video, and find out.</p>
<p><iframe width="550" height="309" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/l0n2vXhDLas" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><a href="http://hackthesystem.com/blog/how-to-get-slapped-by-50-colombian-women-and-do-pushups-on-a-mountain-side/">How to Get Slapped by 50+ Colombian Women&#8212;And Do Pushups On A Mountain Side</a> is a post from: <a href="http://hackthesystem.com">Hack The System</a></p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Maneeshsethicom/~4/Zs_PW3ZfblU" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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