Personal Philosophy

Live life intentionally and avoid being distracted from what really matters. The only thing that matters is your life, and your future, and your success, and your happiness.

Every moment you're distracted by entertainment and consumerism - watching someone else's video, scrolling someone else's feed, watching someone else's life, buying someone else's product - is another moment you're making their life better, putting more money in their pocket, and delaying your own progress, and your own freedom.

Every moment you're drawn in to a pattern of worrying about trivial things and engaging in unproductive gossip is another moment you miss being truly present, of allowing yourself to think something different, to feel something new. Or it's another moment you forget to focus on the bigger vision of creating something meaningful, of designing a lifestyle that you intentionally created, one that you're genuinely proud of. Born of your own true wants and needs, not those that society tells you to want. Aligned with your own meaningful values, not those superficially created to serve other people's interests.

There is no idea of identity. It's an illusion holding you back. Any time you avoid learning something new, avoid living differently, avoid trying a new way of exercising, or a new way of working because it doesn't fit into your existing idea of who you are as a person, is another time you close the door on further personal growth and new opportunities, becoming more rigid, more limited, more stuck, more outdated.

The identity you think you have is a self imposed limitation, a prison you've created for your own mind. It doesn't really exist.

Have a strong work ethic, honesty, and discipline. Always see the true potential in others and what they are capable of. Believe in them and give them the space, encouragement, and personal responsibility to become the best version of themselves. Hold people accountable for what they should do, and what they say they are going to do, just as you hold yourself accountable.

Have a long term plan. A vision for your life. A vision of what you're going to have outside of work when all of the hard work is done. Have a vision for how you really want to live, and how you're going to get there. You need to know what you're measuring your progress against to have peace of mind of knowing when enough is enough.

The modern world and the systems we live in now are largely something we've created over the last 100 years. Most of it isn't real. It's an illusion. They're concepts built on top of abstract concepts, artificial materialism, artificial structure, concepts that only exist in your mind and the mind of others. They fuel worry, and they fuel attachment to the system they want us to serve. Barely any of it you can actually touch. Barely any of it is naturally of the earth. Some of it serves us, the majority of it doesn't. Job titles, corporate structures, positions of power, salaries, material success - it's all a game, shared illusions, stories we tell ourselves and each other. It's important to play that game, and to learn to be really good at it. But never stop remembering it's just a game.

Liberate yourself, liberate your mind. Liberate it from the artificial limitations you impose on yourself. Free yourself from artificial rules, structures, and expectations imposed on you by society.

"The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it's very brightly colored, and it's very loud, and it's fun for a while. Many people have been on the ride a long time, and they begin to wonder, "Hey, is this real, or is this just a ride?". And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and say, "Hey, don't worry; don't be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride."
Bill Hicks