Every powerful, legendary relationship to ever exist has always had two things called by different names, but we’ll call them love and fear
Leaders and followers
Children and parents
Armies
Lovers
Employers and employees
Preachers and congregants
Death and survival
“The desert is a capricious lady, and she drives men crazy”
The Alchemist
“Treasures are uncovered by the force of the current, but they are also buried by the same current”
Melchizedek, the King of Salem, the Alchemist
Lucky
“Luck is like a bus that comes to the same stop every day, and if you can’t catch it today, you can catch it tomorrow, but until you have the right fare, you will never get on”
Lu Qi
The water that nourishes, drowns
The same air that gives life, can take it away
We know this, we know that the person who makes you feel as light as air can make you feel like a boulder in the ocean
And the friction of that love and fear, that hatred and admiration, that feeling of them being the Sun: you admire them for all the life they give and nurture but you know that if you can too close, you will get burnt
And that there’s nothing but millions of stars, and billions of rocks between you and the sun, who you would have to become to overcome all those obstacles just to get near the sun might leave you beyond recognition
I have accumulated a bit of money, I have run on a sprained ankle, punched the wall ‘til my knuckles bleed, wake up at 6 am to climb the mountain, study for endless hours on psychology, personal development, history
I have reached a milestone that allows me to have a runway of at least 6 months of my expenses paid
But I am afraid, two sprained ankles, injured knee, bruised knuckles, enough knowledge and experience to at least be in the company of psychologist, sociologist, personal development coach, a business person without buying into the sales nonsense along with the true nuggets of wisdom
But this was never about accolades or acknowledgment, it was always about self, about understanding and knowing self, about not being afraid
Reaching a milestone comes with it the temptation to sit back and relax, to take a break and chill on the achievement
But one battle does not win the war, just as one date does not make the relationship or one fight makes a warrior
Back to Beginner
The fear is who I think I am
Whether it be media or messed up family, or even shitty school years, the story of not being enough has been repeated, reiterated and reinstated in so many angles that my mind defaults to believing that every time I take a break for an extended period
Every stage of this journey will require a new version of me, with the only things that are usable being the persistence, humility, and ability to suffer to gain that which I desire
I have nothing
I know nothing
I am nothing
At first glance, these words seem self-deprecating but what they do is cleanse the ego of all attachment, for in truth, anything material can easily be taken away
The ego has a purpose, it is not evil nor is it good: it gets you to do better, it keeps you clean, it keeps you striving for more and yes, sometimes it even keeps you safe
But the ego is an animal, a pure beast and it will level the society and scotch the earth if it is left unchecked and not understood but guided and allowed to merely be when the conditions are right, it truly fuels greatness
I have nothing
I know nothing
I am nothing
As Sadhguru once said, “if you are in a dark room, will you not take every step with the utmost caution?”
And so it is if you allow yourself to understand that though you may have things in your name, money in the bank, a spouse that proclaims to be yours and an occupation that is said to be yours
When you allow yourself to have nothing, you now have nothing to protect, nothing to hide, nothing to lie about and everything to gain from taking that risk, from exploring, from searching
If you know nothing, all you can do is learn, you have no point to make, no lesson to teach, only questions to ask and explorations to be made
If you are nothing, then you can become anything you desire, you have no reputation to maintain, protect, nothing to stand for, no grand truth to define yourself by, you just are, as a baby
As the sun is born every morning, cleanse yourself and be as the sun
Protect Your Achievements From You
Fear draws me back into familiarity, into comfort, into competence
It is hard to fail at something I have succeeded in many times before
Thus why musicians want to play the songs they know best
Actors want to act more
Engineers want to create more
It is so safe, comfortable and affirming to double-down on my strengths, keep doing what I know I am good at
Even if sometimes it means destroying that which I have created, pulling my seeds out by the roots, staying a while not playing that song I know so well, spending all that money I worked so hard to accumulate
Just so I can do it again, achieve it again, accumulate the money again, lose the same amount of weight again, even if it is just me playing the same song again, playing the level again, repeating the same stage
It makes me feel competent, validated, valued
Even though the feeling becomes less and less potent each run of the circuit, opponents becoming younger and younger, better and better
It makes me feel better to achieve, even though it’s something I’ve achieved a thousand times before
Only question is: Is It Worth It?
The Leading Domino
Not all orgasms are created the same, not all battles are created the same
Just ask America: won nearly every battle in Vietnam but lost the war, how?
The only thing that’s truly fair in this life is chance, barring that, forget about fairness and pay close attention to the landscape; in any group of people, depending on what you desire from the group you are always more likely to achieve your desire if you win over certain members of others
For example, if you want to seed mutiny, find the disgruntled party
If you want to saw loyalty, convert the most disillusioned person
Wanna influence the group? Influence the leader first
One domino, cascade of results
Leverage
Question to self: how can I make this easier?
Always know that there is a version of anything that you want to do that is far easier than the version subscribed to by the average person, you need to find that version
What or who can you use to multiple results or gain insights that you otherwise would not have had? This is where research comes in handy
You already use this in your daily life, wanna contact someone? You don’t wait until the next time you see them, you leverage your phone to get your message across
You wanna get drunk but don’t wanna spend too much money?
You leverage your social skills to convince others to buy and drink with you because you know that our drinking capacity isn’t the same, thus all will contribute equally but some will drink more than others
As Robert Kiyosaki once said “the second most important word to know is Leverage”
Final Thoughts & Ideas
Victory and achievement of audacious goals is unfamiliar to me, so it’s natural for me to be afraid
Afraid that it was a fluke, a once-off, that I don’t have the strength, creativity or intellect to do it again, to keep doing it, as the levels get harder and harder, more and more complex
But I must
The one true fear that I have is dying with a life unlived, potential unearthed, living with that true dark depth of “what if?”
Fear will continue to try to rob me of doing scary things, I know it’s only trying to protect me but I must do this, if I am going to die anyway, might as well die having lived a life that mattered
Warning: Do Not Live With The Fear Of Loss, You Will Lose It All Anyway
Money is the lowest cost you can pay for anything on this planet because you can always retrieve it and the 10 bucks you have now is exactly the same as the 10 bucks you had yesterday and will have tomorrow, as Artists we trade on only two currencies; Time and Energy, we all have 24 hours a day, not a second more, not a second less, you cannot lend it or borrow, use it as you will, tomorrow you will wake up with a brand new set of 24 hours to spend. But if you have ever faced death then you understand the true value of time, if you ever ventured an idea, thought, relationship etc. for all of it to have been for nothing then you understand the true value of wasted energy
Fantasy is always better than reality, if we paid deep attention to everything we spent our time and energy on, it would become increasingly difficult to engage in frivolous things other, “enjoy your labor” king Solomon once said, to survive you must toil (work) and this work will consume about a third of your life, if you hate your labor, you will be miserable for over a third of your life, and unless the other two thirds are extremely pleasurable, the misery will inevitably spill over into the rest of your life, this is how you get happy kids but miserable adults
You learn mathematics, science, biology, engineering, music, marketing, information technology, medicine, security services (soldier, police officer and so forth) and all of this make sense as long as the system holds up, but unless you can use them in any situation, in any moment in time, they are practically useless, each of these arts have a practically application in any situation in this life but one would have to be intimately acquainted with the designs of its architecture in order to recognize these possible applications and one would only gain such designs if they had a deep desire to acquire them, we can define this desire as love
This is when loving what you do can mean the difference between life and death, only one power exists on this earth and that is knowledge, knowing, my knowing something you do not, gives me power over you, my usage of that power determines the direction of that power’s usage, study the water, being able to hunt or grow your own food, the value of a wise partner. Pricing is based on the results on someone else’s thinking and not your own, that person’s thinking is based on their motives, agendas, thoughts, feels, perspective and experiences, and if there is one thing that history teaches us, is that the results of one person’s thinking is not always for the good of humanity and mankind as a whole, or at least in manner that benefits us all, nothing else on this earth outside of these two things; time and energy, these are the only two currencies that matter and have matters since the beginning of time.
Just A Thought
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Have you heard the story? it wasn’t about Jesus, Buddha, actually it wasn’t about religion at all, the story was about the balance between adapting for survival and always keeping your eyes on those little things that make you who you are, those few things about you that you identify as defining factors, well then, the story goes…
A merchant sent his son to learn the Secret of Happiness from the wisest of men. The young man wandered through the desert for forty days until he reached a beautiful castle at the top of a mountain. There lived the sage that the young man was looking for.
However, instead of finding a holy man, our hero entered a room and saw a great deal of activity; merchants coming and going, people chatting in the corners, a small orchestra playing sweet melodies, and there was a table laden with the most delectable dishes of that part of the world.
The wise man talked to everybody, and the young man had to wait for two hours until it was time for his audience.
The Sage listened attentively to the reason for the boy’s visit, but told him that at that moment he did not have the time to explain to him the Secret of Happiness.
He suggested that the young man take a stroll around his palace and come back in two hours’ time.
“However, I want to ask you a favor,” he added, handling the boy a teaspoon, in which he poured two drops of oil. “While you walk, carry this spoon and don’t let the oil spill.”
The young man began to climb up and down the palace staircases, always keeping his eyes fixed on the spoon. At the end of two hours he returned to the presence of the wise man.
“So,” asked the sage, “did you see the Persian tapestries hanging in my dining room? Did you see the garden that the Master of Gardeners took ten years to create? Did you notice the beautiful parchments in my library?”
Embarrassed, the young man confessed that he had seen nothing. His only concern was not to spill the drops of oil that the wise man had entrusted to him.
“So, go back and see the wonders of my world,” said the wise man. “You can’t trust a man if you don’t know his house.”
Now more at ease, the young man took the spoon and strolled again through the palace, this time paying attention to all the works of art that hung from the ceiling and walls.
He saw the gardens, the mountains all around the palace, the delicacy of the flowers, the taste with which each work of art was placed in its niche. Returning to the sage, he reported in detail all that he had seen.
“But where are the two drops of oil that I entrusted to you?” asked the sage.
Looking down at the spoon, the young man realized that he had spilled the oil.
“Well, that is the only advice I have to give you,” said the sage of sages.
“The Secret of Happiness lies in looking at all the wonders of the world and never forgetting the two drops of oil in the spoon.”
Your survival on this earth is highly dependent on your ability to adapt, your skill to change from one form to another, from a good person to a bad person (depending on perspective) from a leader to a follower, from gutless person to a courageous person, but we all have two drops of oil we always keep, those two reasons that make us who we are, that define us, the two reasons which keep us sane, the two reasons we feel separate us from animals, and it is these very reasons that keep us from hating a rapist, into becoming one
Two reasons, if these reasons are weak and/or shallow, they will falter when the true pressure emerges, and if your will is weak, these reasons will not matter, regardless of what they are. Search yourself; search your world, your true north, it is the one thing that will keep you from becoming just another organism passing through this existence
Don’t forget to checkout Music Mechanics’ Own Joshua and Ken On iTunes
A terrorist named Pain once stated “only through knowing the same pain, can people truly understand each other. Only through severe pain can people truly know peace”, as a specie, us humans are divided by default, separated by boarders, rules, norms, cultures and so forth, only when a greater threat arises, one that not only threatens annihilation but causes pain across the lines of separation, do people come together, putting aside all differences with the common goal of destroying the enemy and once they do, for a short period of time, true peace is achieved, whether the threat be a new terrorist or new virus, history has proven that only through pain can the many unite
There is no pleasure without pain: there is no pain without pleasure, the two not only co-exist but are co-dependent, when your life is filled with great amounts of pain; your entire being seeks pleasure and usually finds it in the most trivial things, it also happens on a much more subtle level: when you are doing a strenuous (painful) task, your mind begins religiously searching for thoughts which induce emotions of pleasure, it is usually called “zoning out” or “daydreaming”, your mind attempting to balance out the pain. I will give another example: those who have had an upbringing made up mostly pain, seek pleasure of equaling quality or exceeding proportion, and based on the impact of the pain on their identity, the conviction for seeking out that pleasure will exceed regular norms and even more so, partaking in it to the fullest becomes an breakable law due to the impending feeling that it is fleeting and will not last long. The search for this pleasure in a nutshell becomes an obsession, and this is how you get your artist of greatness: Amy Winehouse, Whitney Houston, Charlie Parker, Luther Vandross, Tupac Amaru Shakur, Christopher “Biggie Smalls, Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace, Ludwig von Beethoven and the list continuous
To partake in one is to allow the other and no, you cannot live happily-ever-after by avoiding either, the only balance is figuring out what your threshold is: where your limits lie, because the list of things which give pleasure in this life are more than the number of grains of sand at the beach and your time on this earth is limited, so are the resources which are available to you at any one given time because unlike in playstation games, these resources require procurement, which requires time and thus spending more of one of the two most important commodities any human has and has ever had
One of the most common countermeasures in truly determining your in-take and experience of pain & pleasure is causing the pain in order to control the intensity and duration, thus pushing your own limits to increase the threshold and indirectly gain a greater capacity for pleasure acquisition, for example; pain created while honing one’s craft results in pleasure through the expression of that particular craft because “those who enjoy their labor, will be satisfied whether they eat much or little” King Solomon
Same thing with mothers; from the point of conception to viewing the life you’ve created causing you a great amount of pleasure and pain which intensifies there more they grow, same with honing a craft and so forth. It is human to focus more on keeping away from things we are afraid of rather than focus on what makes us feel good: we are more intent on avoiding pain more than we are on getting pleasure, and it is this little difference that separates those who have lived a life of many great experiences from those with a long list of “what if’s”
More Pleasure, More Pain
Don’t forget to checkout Music Mechanics’ Own Joshua and Ken On iTunes
Excellent, now that I have your attention I can begin feeding you things that you cannot unlearn after reading, the average human attention span in 8 seconds, which is one second less than a goldfish, only things that stimulate your primary emotions capture that attention, like those sexually arousing images, interesting? I’m just getting started
There are many fights on this earth, right? fight for resources, fight for freedom, fight for better wages, fight to end world hunger, but only if you pay attention do you realise that everyone is actually fighting for one thing; Just… A… Little… More… Time, mortality is a bitch like that, nothing is permanent in the land of form, what ever you pay your attention (time & energy) to, ultimately walks away with the larger profit margin
That looks scary, doesn’t it?. as I was saying, all things in the media are rated based on how much attention they get, in television they call this viewership ratings, and in the big leagues they are measured by the 10’s of millions, but here’s a different perspective, those are the same number of people who are neither thinking nor achieving anything else but paying their precious attention to a series of images with a storyline in which they know in the recesses of their minds will end a certain way, guaranteed
Now that is a sad kid.This is the same way you know that you will die, no matter how long you’ve lived how or near-death experiences you have had, YOU WILL DIE,regardless of what you do, and one-third will die of unnatural causes, which means two billion three hundred seventy-five million will not see old age, On average 151,338 die a day, and these are only 5 of the most common regrets the dying usually have;
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
I know, I’m really pissing in your drink and wiping my ass with your pizza slices but keep reading; a wise man named Katlego “Bruce Bruce” once said “smart people learn from their mistakes but the really sharp ones learn from other’s mistakes” and this holds a lot of truth but learning from other’s mistakes is not the same as fearing other’s experiences, see when you hear, or read about another person’s experience. you very rarely get the whole story, the true story and/or the story first hand, and even when you do, due to pre-conceived assumptions, you will subconsciously use the story only as proof of your assumptions
“Fear Is The Mind-Killer“- Frank Herbert, the average millionaire goes bankrupted 3.5 times, at some point Steve Jobs lost half a billion In less than a year, now you’re thinking that these people can afford to lose that money because they are millionaires but let go of dogma for a second and remember that most of these millionaires weren’t born into money, they did not have any of the advantages you and I do not enjoy in this very moment in time, you make money, you spend money, you do something or you do nothing, times moves indiscriminately, so live, go fuck, dance, travel, take chances and make memories
“rather a life of ‘Oh Well’s’ than ‘What If’s'” Awesombuka
Alright, here’s the punchline, none of what I just said matters, the average person forgets 40% of what they’ve learned in 20 minutes and 77% of what they learned in six days, than forget 90% after one month. now that you know that, I can tell you that even if what you’re thinking of doing goes bad, you ultimately won’t remember it anyway, it’s like always being tipsy
But due to implicit memory, that series of images you witnessed will maintain an emotional connection to this specific article, like finding something attractiveness and nostalgic even though you cannot say why
Shit! now that was a good nut, was that good for you too? it’s okay, you don’t have to say anything, the look on your face says it all
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& Don’t forget to checkout Music Mechanics’ Own Joshua and Ken On iTunes
That looks scary, doesn’t it?. as I was saying, all things in the media are rated based on how much attention they get, in television they call this viewership 
Voice Of Mechanics 