Reading time: 5 minutes
Hey legend,
How was your week?
I hope it’s been much better than ours…
During our 4-night stay in Ubud, my partner and I both copped a bout of #BaliBelly within 2 days of each other.
We basically spent more time in bed (or on the toilet bowl), than we did exploring or sightseeing.
Happens to the best of us eh?
Fortunately, we’ve both bounced back and have transitioned back to solid foods after experiencing an involuntary “calorie deficit” reminiscent of my bodybuilding era.
In the hours I spent cradling a stomach, I was humbly reminded of the importance of hand sanitisation and practicing caution while eating foreign foods, practices that we’d both been slowly neglecting…
Note: even though the same thing happened to both of us when we traveled to Vietnam years ago, life often continues to give you the same “challenges” or “tests” until you learn the lesson.
“In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson.”
– Tom Bodett
📚Learning – it never stops.
I’m going to share something with you that I haven’t shared publicly or with many people.
And it’s because most people don’t understand, or ever will.
But as you’re reading this newsletter, you’re most likely a growth-minded legend that’ll get it.
So here it is.
To date, I’ve personally invested tens of thousands of dollars into my own self-education beyond university.
And it’s easily totalled more than the cost of a Bachelor degree at one of the world’s leading universities….
Why?
Because I believe that real learning starts at the end of formal learning. Sadly for a lot of people, getting a degree marks the end of investing in their self-education, for either personal or professional pursuits.
Unless an employer funds their professional development through job-related upskilling through courses, seminars or workshops, it really doesn’t go much further. And the stats are showing that this trend is on the rise.
“..the results show 25% of the general Australian adult population have NOT read or listened to a single book (in any format) in a year. This is a marked increase on the findings of the Australia Council x Macquarie University Reading the Reader survey, which showed 8% of the population had not read a book in a year.
Source: The National Reading Survey 2021 © Australia Reads 2021
Regardless that I was Valedictorian of my graduating class, nothing in my formal education even remotely helped me form the building blocks of creating a meaningful life, such as:
- Managing my finances & building wealth
- Defining and living aligned with my values
- Becoming aware of my psychological blind spots
- Pursuing my purpose with courage and conviction
- Becoming a leader for myself, my family & my community
- Navigating personal, professional and romantic relationships
- Understanding how to tailor my nutrition & exercise for optimal performance
- And the list goes on…
Now I’m not writing off educational institutions as worthless.
BUT within a few years of entering the real world, far away from outdated textbook theories and hypothetical tutorial discussions, I quickly realised that I still had a lot of unanswered questions stemming from a mini-existential crisis in 2016.
Sidenote: this mini-existential crisis happened during my season of burnout and a subsequent tonsillectomy operation during my graduate year at Uber Australia (see CWC 022: Let’s Schedule Breaks in case you missed the story)
And I asked myself:
“How the f*ck do I consciously create a life I love by design, and not by default?”
– Me, circa 2016 (mini-existential crisis)
Like you, I don’t want to follow the masses and settle for a life of mediocrity…
🙅🏽♂️ Drifting through life on auto-pilot with no intentional direction.
🙅🏽♂️ Outsourcing my critical thinking to whatever is served in my newsfeed.
🙅🏽♂️ Living in accordance to what everyone else is thinking, saying and doing.
F*CK. THAT.
My friend.
You only get one shot at this thing.
There’s no “practice” run.
You’re in the real thing.
Right now.
And one day, it’ll end.
It could be in 50 days, 50 weeks, 50 months or 50 years.
While I hope it’s the latter, none of us truly know.
But what I do know, is that you don’t want to look back on your life with the weight of regret.
The regret of not living the life you were capable of living.
⚡️ Your Vibe attracts your Tribe
Following that existential crisis, I went in pursuit of answers.
This lead me into the self-development space and resulted in the first self-funded book purchase that wasn’t a high-school English novel or a required textbook for university.
It was Napoleon Hill’s seminal classic Think and Grow Rich
In researching for the book, Hill interviewed over 500 successful (and unsuccessful) businesspeople in the early 20th century to identify the drivers that resulted in lives rich in abundance of wealth, health and relationships.
And one of those concepts that stuck with me is the Mastermind principle that Hill described as:
“The coordination of knowledge and effort between two or more people who work towards a definite purpose in a spirit of harmony…no two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind…also known as, the Mastermind”
– Napoleon Hill
I thought back to all of the incredible results I’d achieved when working in alignment with others – whether it was sports teams, co-curricular activities & group projects.
If we achieved remarkable academic or athletic results together…why wasn’t I applying the same principle to the most important areas of my life?
🚀 From Surviving to Thriving
Since learning this principle, I started seeking out and investing in joining Mastermind groups across my 20s, to accelerate my learning and growth across the areas of life that I was struggling in, or didn’t have answers in. Doing so gave me access to the combined knowledge, expertise, energy, passion, beliefs, support and consciousness of those on the same path as me, while also having their guidance to help me create a game plan that was tailored for me across areas such as:
- Health
- Mindset
- Finances
- Business
- Creativity
- Spirituality
- Relationships
- Communication
Now – I love and respect those in my immediate circle, such as friends, family & colleagues.
But I constantly found that the majority of them weren’t in a place where they were similarly committed to self-development, growth or living aligned with their deeper calling.
And that’s OK.
They may be in a season of their life where they may be operating from a state of “Getting By“, otherwise known as a “Survival” state.
So instead of trying to force anything onto them, such as books, courses or resources, just let them be a.k.a the “Acceptance” state
And realise that you’ll have more of a positive, inspiring influence on them through how you are (your being) rather than what you say to them (your teaching or “preaching”).
For you, it’s time to focus on you and finding your tribe.
Because in surrounding yourself with like-minded legends, you’ll tap into a deeper level of energy and consciousness of what’s possible for you across all areas of your life.
Here’s an example of the kind of mindset shifts and breakthroughs that happen during our Storyteller Sprints
Are you part of your own Mastermind?
Earlier this week, I polled my IG community to gauge if they were part of their own Mastermind group and the results show that ~80% either weren’t a part of one, or had no idea what one was.
👉🏽 So if you fall into that category, then this is for you.
Next week, I’ll be opening up a limited number of spots to join our tribe of purpose-driven digital solopreneurs that are leveling up their business (and life) during our Storyteller Sprints.
Here’s what’s happening.
On Tuesday 25th July I’ll be going live across all of my social channels inviting my audience to apply to join our next Storyteller Sprint.
BUT if you’re on the waitlist, you’ll receive an invitation from me the day before (i.e. Monday 24th July), allowing you to apply early.
1 out of 2 scenarios will go down:
- Applications will close on Monday 31st July or
- We’ll fill up the remaining spots before Monday 31st.
^Whichever occurs first, so act accordingly because spots went quickly for the next Sprint!
👉🏽Head here to get on the waitlist to receive the application early.
Otherwise, I’ll see you in the next one!
🕺🏽 Mamba