Getting my “monthly” newsletter in under the wire since tomorrow is May.

I said last time that by age 35 we’re mostly memorized emotional responses and it can take real effort to change. But lately I’ve been seeing myself change. I think it’s all the new stuff I’m doing with my business. As I do more stuff I’ve never done, and as I confront my insecurities, I’m noticing my worldview change.

One of the largest shifts I’m seeing is being more open-minded. Politics and culture [wars] have made us “certain” about a lot of things when the truth is more gray. I’ve been experimenting with listening to people I disagree with and challenging my assumptions about some polarizing people. I find that this makes me more open to everything — opportunities, perspectives, and ideas.

Being more willing to listen and understand is evolution. It often seems like the country and culture is going the other way — more closed off, more aggressive in the face of what we don’t understand.

We’ve started to identify with our opinions and that is where problems arise. If someone disagreeing with you challenges your existence, we’ve got a problem (and we do indeed have a problem). It’s our responsibility to open, to let go, to be more understanding, to listen more, and to make sure that if someone disagrees with us we don’t feel like our very identity is threatened.

I’m reading “Think Again” by Adam Grant, which is about changing your mind. He talks about the importance of values over identity attachment. Basing your identity on principles allows you to be more open-minded.

This also means that when someone makes a negative statement about your profession or your chosen identity you don’t take it personally because you’re more identified with the values you uphold.

Sadhguru said the best thing you can offer people is being an evolved human being. To me, that means:

1. Not identifying with your opinions (or taking things personally)

2. Healing your trauma, triggers, or wounds to bring more peace and understanding to all that you do

People are running around looking for something to offend them. We need to turn inward to see that our outrage, fear, or sadness might be coming from an internal wound. And it’s our responsibility to heal it.

Be a light on the path, a breath of fresh air in the conversation — this is evolving. It’s acknowledging your wounds and the wounds of others and not judging, but accepting. I recorded a podcast about this:

Certainty of Self

Now, I realize I just said be more open-minded, so being more certain sounds hypocritical. But self-certainty is self-mastery. You can be open to ideas while also knowing who you are, in fact it’s necessary if you want to achieve anything.

Society and the system benefit from you being uncertain. Uncertainty makes us buy things we don’t need to solve a problem we don’t have. It makes us follow the more travelled path rather than forge out on our own.

I love capitalism, but it needs workers. Which is why the system is designed to encourage you to keep slogging through. To break out and create your own freedom (which capitalism rewards), you must have some form of self-certainty. You must know when something isn’t right for you and you must chase that thing that calls to you.

I just listened to a podcast dissecting the autobiography of James Dyson (vacuums). Dyson spent years enduring massive failure and in massive debt. He never considered anything other than his path of an inventor. In short, he was quite certain. He created his own certainty and bent the world until it materialized.

Take Control

As my conversion to business bro continues, I must share Alex Hormozi. He provides excellent insight on YouTube. Here’s one idea:

“I can guarantee there is someone who has had it worse, and done it better.”

Many people have been dealt bad hands, but it’s how they responded that’s the real test. Circumstances are not an excuse. By realizing you’re the only person to blame, you put the power back in your hands.

Energy is Everything

It’s so important to bring the sauce to whatever you’re doing. Don’t be a wet sock, be an electric current in any situation. Bring the energy, the ideas, the optimism, and the action.

My Health Stack

Your health is your first business. Implement the below health stack and I guarantee you’ll see a difference:

• Eat stuff from the dirt + eat your bodyweight in protein (120 pounds = eat 120 grams of protein)

• Move — walk, bike, hit the gym, take a class (Sun is the real G-O-D)

• Get your mind right — figure out how to make yourself happy, avoid stuff that doesn’t make you happy

Lol Tweets

Reminding you: don’t take anything too seriously, or personally.

Love you, bye!

Alex