Hello Friends š
Iām starting a new series called, āRecent Revelationsā.
As Iāve ventured into the world of digital entrepreneurship, Iāve come across many personal roadblocks and errors.
āRecent Revelationsā is a collection of personal stories:
- Sharing helpful insights
- & Taking you behind the scenes of my journey
In this letter, Iām sharing what Iāve recently learned about:
- Ego
- Focus
- & Clarity
I want to share these lessons with you guys;
In case you also feel the call, to do something bigger than yourself.
In hope that you can learn from my mistakes.
Last week, I was on a networking call, and it made me think deeply about my approach to building a āPersonal Brandā online.
I was casually listening into a Twitter Space when a gentleman came on to ask a few questions during a Q&A.
I decided to scroll through his profile and found his “enlightenment” story posted as his āpinned tweet.ā
As I read his story, I couldnāt help but feel we went through a similar experience.
I sent him a DM and scheduled a call with him shortly after.
The conversation went back and forth, talking about
- Our personal experiences
- What āschools of thoughtā we followed
- & other discussions about our journey.
An interesting part of the conversation was receiving criticism during the call.
While I came in with the intention of sharing stories and where weāre at now, he listened to my story and addressed my āissuesā from his point of viewā
Which felt strange, but it helped me see where his perspective was.
The lessons he taught that resonated most with me were:
- āI AMā is to feel as if you have āwhat you wantā, now.
- The Mind is Allā ‘What you think in your mind’ is what you become
- If you want to ābeā someone, you have to do what that kind of person does
At some point, we even challenged each otherās ideas.
I said:
- Jesus Christ isnāt the āSavior of the Worldā.
- Heās a symbol for the āSavior of the Worldā.
- He was just a person who achieved Christ Consciousness like others before him.
and he said things like,
- Your work is a placebo effect because energy is secondary to the mind.
- Change your mental state and you change your energy.
- If you imagine what it would feel like if you were already the person you want to be, you would change the way you feel.
And this is fine.
The world is full of infinite perspectives; itās natural to have people disagree with your self-created identity.
Some people prefer hot; others prefer cold.
Republicans and Democrats are in the same field with opposing views.
When I got off the call, I started to think about the things he said, and it opened doors of insights.
This is where I learned 3 valuable lessons about building a āPersonal Brandā online:
Lesson 1: Ego
In the past month, Iāve been feeling abnormally self-absorbed and selfish.
I couldnāt say why, but I felt disconnected from people.
I thought:
āIāve developed my interests into such a deep niche that I find it hard to relate with others.ā
This seed of thought is what disconnected me from other people.
The thought then transformed into:
āLess ego. More Serving. Itās not about me. Itās about the people I can help.ā
Then, after the call, I suddenly realized this seed of thought was also incomplete.
It had been so long since someone had tried to teach me something unexpectedly that it felt strange.
The words āego is the enemyā kept repeating itself in my head.
Suddenly, I remembered a book called āEgo is the Enemyā and went to Youtube for a quick clip.
The author, Ryan Holiday said something that resonated with this particular instance.
He said,
Adopt the Student Mentality
Iāve come to realize that:
If Iām going to connect with more people on the Internet; itās better to approach with a sense of exploration and curiosity.
If you continue to think that there is nothing to learn from others, your ability to connect with new people will suffer.
Before you start any project or anything new, you must check your ego.
There is something you can learn from everyone.
Everyone has a unique experience in this world and listening to their stories and lessons can help us build ourselves.
So, the lesson I got from this experience was:
āIf youāre going to meet more people in the world, you must be open to learning from their perspectives as well.
Itās a collective contribution of experiences that will create the greater whole.
So, stop being self-centered; your experiences are not more important than anyone elseās.
Learn from everyoneās perspective; be the student.
- Listen to them carefully
- Put yourself in their shoes
- & Extract the essence of their message.
After I put on my student cap, I found that the internet is full of people with grand insight and experience in their own way.
It opened my mind to seeing the greatness in everyone.
I began to think about the lessons he was teaching me during the call, and that brought about the next 2 lessons.
Lesson 2: Focus
His lessons derived from new-aged spirituality mystics. People like:
- Neville Goddard
- Joseph Murphy
- Alan Watts
If youāre into spirituality, a few youtube videos of these guys can get you hooked lol.
He reminded me of an interesting state of mind.
He said something like,
āTo be who you want to be, you must imagine yourself as if youāve already fulfilled the dream.
If you imagine yourself in a fulfilled state, then your actions and feelings will change toward the direction of your dreams.ā
Not his exact words. Heavily paraphrased, but that was the idea I got.
Then he said,
āThe āI AMā is how you change who you want to be.ā
Thatās when it hit me.
āI AMā and Affirmations are re-focusing tools.
āI amā and other affirmations are re-focusing tools to keep your mind directed toward your desired outcomes.
Our minds run on autopilot throughout most of the day.
If we ever want to consciously re-direct our focus toward an ideal outcome, affirmations act as a constant reminder of “who we would like to become.”
After I came to the realization that āI AMā is a high-profile re-focusing tool, I learned my final lesson from this call.
Lesson 3: Clarity
I amā¦ Whatā¦?
You canāt just exclaim random āI amā statements.
Who do you want to become?
Thatās when I realized I lacked clarity.
I have my goals and affirmations scattered around physical and digital notepads, but I fail to re-visit them.
How can I consistently change who I am when I havenāt established clarity for my goal?
I have.
Many times.
But again.
Not revisiting them.
My solution is to buy a course I’ve been thinking about.
And this time, commit to being a humble student.
In Summary:
Lesson 1:
Ego can get in the way when forming connections with others.
Be open to learning from every experience and person.
Lesson 2:
āI AMā and affirmations are re-focusing tools.
Lesson 3:
Create your ideal life:
Who do you want to be?
What do you want to do?
What do you want to have?
Ā
Create clarity from your answers.
Revisit frequently or have someone hold you accountable.
You need some way of having the clarity of your vision in the forefront of your mind as often as you can.
Ā
Til next time,
David Chong