self-actualization

Turning 30 Triggered Some Kind Of Fire In Me

  • Reading time:12 mins read

I’m sure this is the same for a lot of people on this planet. My quarter-life crisis didn’t come to me until I turned 30. When I was 25, I was still foolish, still searching, and still dreaming. I thought everything would work out perfectly, because I still had a lot of time. But when I turned 30, all of a sudden, there was this alarm bell that rang out in my head that said, “Warning, warning, you are 30, and you haven’t accomplished anything useful with your life.”

That was the whole point of my crisis. My existential crisis, or my quarter life crisis, whatever you wish to call it. I hadn’t accomplished anything that I could be proud of until then. Yes, I had filled my life with stuff. I had filled my life with nonsense. I had done things. So many things. Things to speak about, things to brag about, things to fill my conversations and head with.

But those things, were they meaningful to me in any big way? Not really. They didn’t touch my heart. They were fun to speak of, and other people would go buggy-eyed when they heard me tell my lifestory. But I knew in my own heart that I had not reached my highest potential. (more…)

Continue ReadingTurning 30 Triggered Some Kind Of Fire In Me

Chiang Mai Is The Flow Capital Of The World

  • Reading time:12 mins read

I have discovered this fact about Chiang Mai, with a bunch of other dilettantes and I had to share. Why not keep the secret to myself? Because the people who are going to feel flow in Chiang Mai are the kind of people I want to meet. In reality, most people will not feel the flow quality of Chiang Mai and they will leave. This post is going to be all about what is flow state, and why I think Chiang Mai brings out that flow in me.

#FlowMo Not #FOMO

Remember when you were a little child, and you used to go on the swings. You would go higher and higher. And much higher than you could ever imagine going. Then, you would let go and FLY. For that brief moment when you were in the air, you were higher than a kite. You were experiencing the flow state that comes from weightlessness, and defying gravity.

It was easy as a child to experience flow, wasn’t it? I would get lost in almost everything I did for hours on end, experiencing the four qualities of flow state. Timelessness, Selflessness, Effortlessness, and Richness. You can read more about all of this in the book, Stealing Fire, by Steve Kotler, and Jamie Wheal. I highly recommend their book for a glimpse into how people are experiencing flow nowadays.

I am not going to speak in this post about how other people experience flow. You can read about that in hundreds of books. This post is about my experience of flow state, and how I deliberately put myself in that state through all of the systems I have set up for myself. (more…)

Continue ReadingChiang Mai Is The Flow Capital Of The World