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The Benefits of Free Time 150 150 admin

The Benefits of Free Time

In this article I’m going to share with you the benefits I’ve experienced through having lots and lots of free time. If there’s interest I can share the downsides too cuz uh…it hasn’t been all roses.

Backstory of Having Damn Near No Free Time

There was a period of time where I was working a job I hated then doing deliveries on the side and it felt like I was just spinning my wheels. My expenses = money I got from the job I hated + delivery money. I just kept hearing this message in my head that said “you’re wasting your time”.

Then, I went to a conference called Love Rising in Hollywood, CA led by Kyle Cease. A core message I got from that conference was to stop chasing money, and so that’s what I did. He published a book called The Illusion of Money not too long after this workshop.

I tried my best to do everything – especially creative work – from a heart-centered space. I really felt like I was fed up doing work and feeling like a damn slave. I quit my job right after getting out of that conference (because I was doing it just for the money), and life hasn’t been the same since. In many ways it has been amazing, and in many ways it has been horrific. I’m sharing the good stuff here now though.

Online learning

There is literally so much information on online that you can web surf through – especially with YouTube. I also like my local libraries online resources, and if your local library sucks then…I’m sure you can find a way to break some rules…Just don’t hold me responsible.

I tend to gravitate towards the practical information and online courses. People are taking their knowledge and putting it in online resources at a level that has never been seen before – especially with COVID. All i need is an internet connection and a device that can use that internet connection to show me stuffs. I just found another course I wanna take today from Scott Scorch (a little disappointed it’s only 2 hours long). It was a gateway to find the other courses on the platform though.

Finding Money to Play With

I’ve been able to “find” money through different ways. Lowering expenses dramatically helps with this a lot! No more car note draining my finances, and no more expensive rent. HAD I BEEN MORE PATIENT, last year would have been my first 6-figure year by way of crypto. 2020 was the first year ever I felt like I was able to play with money. And it was all because of downsizing, doing independent contract work as a gig worker when COVID hit, and binge watching videos on crypto.

Self Care

Sometimes I wonder how people deal with self care with a job. Meditation, hygiene, fitness, food prep/shopping, self care appointments i.e. doctors/dentists, vehicle care, living space care, fun/hobbies/creative outlets, assessments about all of the above, and learning about how to improve all of the above.

This about this – I’m a single guy, but what about if you’re in a household and have to take care of others? Many of these things can’t be outsourced or helped by a significant other. How do people adequately do self care when a job takes up such huge blocks of time. How do people fit all this in? I think the answer is many people don’t.

Doing Things At Different Times Than The Majority

In a populated city like Houston, Texas it feels so much better to do things when others don’t do them. I don’t have to sit in traffic during lunch time when everyone is one the road. I don’t have to deal with large crowds in stores because I can shop while everyone is at work.

No More Resentment For Things That Were Taking Up My Time

I don’t find myself saying “I don’t know enough time”. I could easily say that when I had a job, and it would make me resentful towards the job. I was spending a lot of those days working feeling resentment.

Lately, if I can deal with what others say and think about me and accept it and not be triggered by it, then I can experience that freedom. That is a part of the freedom. I might be called lazy or a bum, or not self sufficient (nobody’s really self-sufficient) in the short term, but over the long term things start to get really good. You don’t relate to money with this neediness and it can flow to you.

Depth and Quality Creatively

I put depth and quality together because depth has a lot to do with quality. I can’t get to the level of mental depth I could creatively as long as I was using so much mental ram on my job. This is the biggest benefit. It gives me room to breathe. I can step back and see the forest for the trees, and not always be stuck in the trees.

I don’t even think my brain could go into writing an article list this or many of the other articles I’ve written without sufficient space to let my mind wander into different rabbit holes. Eventually, the rabbit holes start to connect together in a way I can’t predict.

Nothing feels rushed now. Even if there is a deadline to things, I don’t feel the intense pressure I would feel going to jobs. I can take my time cooking up good shit. Good plans, good assessments, good articles, good presence with people, good quality overall.

When I would work at jobs, I very rarely got to see my own work. It was purchasing and data entry, so…it was gone as soon as I did it. I never got to see it or marvel at it or add to it or build on top of it. I’ve created a lot that I get to look back on these past years. It makes me waaaaaay more proud.

That’s it folks

That’s all I got. I’m thankful that I made it a priority to downsize and take my time investments away from chasing money and started to embrace and cherish the time I have on this earth. There is nothing like it.

Deep Thinking Without A Job 150 150 admin

Deep Thinking Without A Job

One of the things that surprised me the most about not having a 9-5 office job is the creativity and depth of thought I can have in other areas.

Originally, my thinking was “hey…I’ll conserve some brain power by taking some bullshit job that doesn’t require much thought, and then I’ll work on my project(s) on the side”.  I tried that, but that line of thinking (along with some processed junk food) left my mind pretty dull at the end of the day.

What I didn’t realize is, that no matter what task I’m doing for 8 hours a day – 40 hours a week – it’s going to take up a lot of mental space.  I underestimated how much mental space my job activities take up.  It’s going to be on my mind when I’m sleeping.  Finishing a task is going to be on my mind in the commute to work (which people usually don’t count as the 40 hours).  It’s on my mind when I leave.  It’s on my mind before I take the drive to work.

That mental space can be used so much more productively than on boring, repetitive tasks.  I created a whole course as soon as I quit my job.

 

Endless Creativity 150 150 admin

Endless Creativity

There’s always something to express!  And something meaningful and valuable too.  One thing I see time and time again is people not being aware of all the options there are to create.

I see lots of me-too articles or videos.  A celebrity moves their left pinky and there’s 1000 blogs on it that go something like “*insert celebrity* decided to move their left pinky today and it has set the internet on fire!  I think *insert their opinion here on said celebrity moving their left pinky*”.

Real Creativity

On the other hand, you blog or vlog about….

  • an experiment or a trial
  • a group challenge
  • a book review or movie reviews
  • a product review
  • lessons from your past, present, and/or future
  • learning from some other source

You can document your journey doing *insert journey you plan to take*.   You can teach.  You can cover music.  If you have multiple skills you can see where those skills interact.  You can create with other people too!

Even talking about your culture and how you grew up could be valuable.  I’m sure other people across the earth who might have grown up totally differently would find it immensely valuable.  Think about what would be valuable to others.  If you’re not sure how to do this, brainstorm with people who create value for others.

The important thing is that you connect it with someone else who will find it valuable.  That’s how you create flow…by putting those creations out there.  There more you do that, the more the universe will reward you with more to create.  All you have to do is put in the work of upgrading your skills and take the time to let things flow through you.  I find that the more I write, the more things come up to write about.

Does High Quantity Lessen Quality with Creative Work? 150 150 admin

Does High Quantity Lessen Quality with Creative Work?

A concern with a lot of quantity with creative work is…will the quality go down?  I saw this question posed by someone at the beginning of Steve Pavlina’s 365-day blogging challenge.  Since I’m participating as well, I actually wondered the same thing.

I’ve experienced quite the opposite in this 365-day blogging challenge.  I’m really proud of some articles that I’ve written, but I know they wouldn’t have happened without all the other articles I’ve written that I roll my eyes at.  It’s as if quality comes from quantity.   You have to get in the reps to realize the quality and see the results.

It reminds of something I read today about song writing, but one of my favorite song writers, John Mayer.

On the subject of writing good songs, John Mayer urges new writers not to worry too much about whether a song is good or bad when they are writing it. “Just write it,” he says. “The rule is: write bad songs, but write ’em. If you start writing bad songs, you start writing better songs, and then you start getting really good.

“If you try to get into the building on the twelfth floor, you’ll never make it. You have to get in the basement floor and work up from there.”

How I Learned to Be More Expressive 150 150 admin

How I Learned to Be More Expressive

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Becoming more expressive was a whole process starting from being a closed off, introverted, quiet child.

Growing up

I was pretty closed off and quiet for a large part of my life because this is how I grew up.  When I was younger I was essentially raised by my mother and grandmother and they would always tell me to be quiet when grown folks are talking.  The problem was they were always talking!  Even when I would somehow find a way to get a word in edgewise, those words would be criticized or argued with or I’d flat out get told something like “don’t say that” or “stop talking back” or “be quiet”.  And also, they didn’t actively put me around other kids very much, so there wasn’t much expression there either.  There weren’t many kids in the neighborhood, and there was a very low level of trust with the few families who did have kids, so I was left quiet much of the time having to listen to a whole lotta adult talk about a whole lotta nothing.

I can remember my mother saying to me…”I’m not going to be ripping and running take you here and there to go play with other kids…you’re going to have to learn to be content alone”.  I’ve asked my mother about this, and she denies saying it to me, but I can remember the moment clearly because it was when I reached a level of acceptance.  I remember that sinking feeling in me when she said it.  At that moment, I internally accepted the fact that as long as I lived with this woman, there wasn’t going to be many kids to play with, and I probably get in trouble if I kept asking about it.  I felt pretty powerless to do anything about it at that point, so…I got really good at video games, reading, writing, listening, playing piano, typing, eating junk food>>>introverted things that didn’t require me to speak up or express myself.  I can actually remember being told to speak up so many times as a kid and as a teenager by other people outside of my family.

I say this not to illicit any type of sorrow or sadness or sympathy or anger.  I just want to highlight where this closed off attitude came from.  I never looked at it as closed off.  I looked at the situation as an ability to be content with myself, but as I grew older, I was overwhelmed with evidence that this line of thinking had a ceiling.  Being alone could only take me so far.

My mother’s behavior and grandmothers behavior didn’t come from thin air.  It came from how they were raised, and it’s a pathology that was passed down from generation to generation.  I also think this is where a dad would have helped.  Someone to counterbalance this and to validate the few things I would verbally express, but there was none.  I know for a fact from talking with him, his absence didn’t come out of thin air either.  Again, a pathology.

When Things Changed

Nothing really changed for me until I found the movie The Secret, which helped me with my emotions which then helped me get back in touch with and become roommates with a friend I initially met in high school who was the complete opposite.  He was very expressive in all ways.  He expressed his self through fashion, words, through actions etc.  A lot of his whole attitude of life rubbed off on me.

When we’d be in conversations with other people, he’d always encourage me to talk.  He’d say “what do you think?” and it usually went well.  So it made me feel like hey…maybe my opinion counted for something.

Then it moved to another level when I watched this video.  Especially when he mentioned Lil Wayne.  I’ve listened to Lil Wayne the rapper, and he always seems to blurt out what I deem as nonsense every now and then in his music.  BUT after watching that video I started speaking nonsense, and it actually worked and people responded well.

One thing I tried that blew my mind was walking up to people and just blurting out words that were on my mind and not sentences or complete thoughts like…fire, water, ice, house, sadness, move, etc.  One woman even told me “I don’t know what this is..but it’s turning me on!” lol.

Then it moved to another level when I went to CLW and met so many people that were more aligned with me.  I met so many of the “right” people.  They were interested in what I was interested in and focused on things I was focused on at the time – heart-centered work and making it sustainable.  It is when I realized I had to put forth the effort to seek out the people who were better fits for who I am.  If I didn’t, I’d have to settle with arguments, debates, excuses, defending my point of view, etc.  That takes a lot of energy that could be used more productively.

Express what’s on your mind.  Start small.  Sit in a reality where you know we want to hear what you have to say.  It’s more about the energy behind what you say.  People and reality as a whole can feel the energy you use to express yourself.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Where Creative Ideas Come From 150 150 admin

Where Creative Ideas Come From

I set an intention to publish content every day here on This is Badass.  So far, so good.  This intention stirs something up in me that I didn’t predict.

This is the primary method I’ve used to write thus far.  I learned it concretely from DAI.

I sit back and imagine the wave of subjects to talk about.  Then something flashes inside me, like a spark.  It is a wave and I can chose to ride this wave or I can let it pass by and wait for another one.  There is an abundance of waves to ride at any time as there are an abundance of waves in the ocean.

It’s like surfing…and surfing is pretty badass, so I hear (I’ve never been surfing on actual water)

Sharing these little adventures in creativity is rewarding for others and rewarding for yourself if your intentions are for the highest good of all.  That energy must come back to you in some form…like every action has an equal but opposite reaction.

It can also work the same way if the intentions are dark.  They come back to you in some form.

Practice this!  Commit to writing (or creating another way), sharing and inviting feedback.

Make sure to add some “you” in your creations.  Every ride, every wave and every rider is unique.  Amplify the uniqueness.

Thoughts after 33 Days of Blogging 150 150 admin

Thoughts after 33 Days of Blogging

It has been 33 days of publishing an article every day, and I wanted to share my thoughts on insights I’ve had.

Impressed with the creativity

It’s been very insightful to see how creative I can be when I have to be. It’s really just a matter of choosing to engage everyday. I’m surprised that I don’t run out of things to write about, and I always wonder, when will the well run dry? I’ve noticed It runs a little drier on days where I don’t have much social interactions either online or offline.

A good approach for me has been viewing this like riding waves. I sit and I imagine a wave I want to ride creatively. I try to engage my head and heart and find a place where they meet and let go, and this usually works.

If I approach writing as daily habit, then a better time to write for me is in the mornings. If I write in the mornings, then I can take it off my mind for the day, not to mention I’m just in a much better headspace to work anyway.

“I have to write an article!”

The problem with writing daily, is it is honestly starting to feel like a chore – ESPECIALLY if I wait until the day is winding down to start writing. If I wait until the end of the day, then I’ll notice I will have had the thought “You have to write an article” many times throughout the day that I ignored until I couldn’t ignore it anymore. As the day winds down it will become more of an emergency situation like..”oh no!…the day is winding down and I need to write”. Now, I know from reading plenty of productivity books that if I’m saying things that start off with “I have to” and “I need to” I’m going in the wrong direction. This is definitely not where I wanted this to go, which leads me to my next point.

Batching might be a good idea

When I was learning about proper food prep, batching was a given. The people I talked to that had made it 10+ years of abstinence from sugar and flour all batched cooked in some form or fashion. It makes total logical sense too. If you don’t batch cook in some form or fashion, that meant a lot more time in the kitchen cooking, which over the long term isn’t sustainable. You might just go crazy from being in the kitchen so much. It also tethers you to a kitchen, making it harder to travel and making your relationship with the fridge very needy.

Riding waves longer

I think I will try to ride the flow of inspiration longer. Many times, when I feel one article is complete, I’ll say to myself “done for today!”. But so many times, I’ve felt like I could keep going and keep writing and riding waves longer. Even if I’ve exhausted what I think about a particular blog topic, it feels like I could start another one very easily, or there was a connecting blog idea that I could write about. Why not keep writing articles from those places where the flow is going and end up with 2+ articles to publish on consecutive days?

I want to try this to see how it works out! I think it will allow me to have a break from writing and creating on some days. I will definitely look forward to having some days off!