How I Created Version 2.0 of Myself

At age 18 I began to my shift my worldview. Prior to this I had never heard of “mindset” or “being the best version of yourself.” I started to face some conscious resistance in my life that implored me to either continue living in blindness or embark on the honest true journey of journey’s where there is no turning back. 

I was buried by my problems in life. Buried by stress, anxiety, thoughts that never end. The kind of thoughts that are hopeless and continue to dig you deeper and deeper in a hole, one doesn’t even understand how to get out of. However, where there is more potential for danger there is more potential for you to find the champion that lives within. 

This is not the easy life. This is not the path of least resistance. You will face pain, suffering and will have to sacrifice what you know today to get to where you must be tomorrow for your legacy, the people you love and for the ultimate development of your character. 

What else are we here to do on planet earth . . . pay bills until we die?

1. Truth is the Panacea

As a kid, I lied all the time. Sometimes I would lie for the sake of it, to look cooler, not let my self-esteem take the real blow it needs, to escape punishment as a kid and many more instances. You may not think twice of lying but I actually learned that when you lie you actually create a different version of reality where you value the other person over yourself. It’s like you are creating another parallel reality that is so distorted and not based on facts it begins to warp your mind. 

Every time you lie you take that event and put in the back of your mind. I’m talking about the deep dark shadows of your mind that most of us use to throw in a bunch of stuff we don’t want to remember or want to purposely forget what we did. Well guess what? That’s not exactly a clean slate and comes back to haunt you and even dictate your actions & behaviors unconsciously. 

The truth isn’t just admitting what you lied to yourself about, but it’s also about understanding that if you lived a warped lying dimension of your life….your goals that you have may not even be yours. 

The truth is getting yourself to thoroughly admit your desires, your greatest dreams and aspirations for yourself. Do you know how painful that is?

Just take this quote from Gretchen Rubin (Ep. 180) here:

“It’s extremely painful and unsettling that’s why people don’t do it. To really sit down and ask yourself, what do I want to do? What are my secret dreams for myself? What am I good and bad at? What am I interested in learning more about? That’s very painful for most people because you are confronting the truth about yourself. Not what other people expect from you or what you wish you were like.” 

The moment you genuinely begin to live in your truth is the moment you truly begin living your own life. It’s not easy. Ever since humans discovered language we have been lying. In a world of comparing ourselves to the person sitting across from us wearing a perfect suit & tie with a smile on his face and our social media perfect life illusion …. it gives us the feeling that somehow we are the only ones that have problems when all of us have them. 

2. Feel the Pain Now & Future Pain

Once you reach the point of no return, many of us are still stubborn enough to cling to the certainties of our dishonest fake life rather than venture off into the real truth land because in the unknown lies fear. This is where people begin the cycle of attempting to drown out their own consciousness to avoid these truthful thoughts with various vices.

Vices = Distractions and Paths that Do Not Match the Life You Truly Want to Live

Vices include: Alcohol, Food, Sugar, Sex, becoming a workaholic at a job you hate, Instagram, Movies. For me my vices were binge eating, Netflix, downing a bag of sugar, sleep, hanging out with people I didn’t want to hang out with to waste time, and mindlessly scrolling through Instagram and various other social networks were obstacles I had purposely placed in my path. 

Most of us drown out the current pain we are facing in this moment of not living our dreams, but what’s even worse? Imagining yourself doing the same thing for the next 40 years. Imagining yourself waking up in the morning with dread, go to a job to pay bills that you don’t even care for, go to the grocery store to buy the same old food that keeps your energy down and healthcare bills up, decaying on the couch in an infinite stream of Netflix shows just waiting to die unforgotten and unremembered. 

That is the thought that keeps me up at night. As I was writing that sentence my soul was screaming horrified to death. That’s why going to the next level of yourself, version 2.0 and seeking growth in every moment is the key to success. I’m sure that description doesn’t sound as bad to some of you but just imagine your worse case hell scenario. That’s the future punishment and pain of what will indeed happen to you if you don’t change.

3. Gain Energy

I don’t typically see this mentioned in the typical how to change your life posts 101. For my process gaining energy was necessary because the more energy you gain, the more dimensions you witness in front of yourself of where you can go. 

1. Remove What Zaps Energy From You
2. Experiment with Childhood Activities that Gave You Energy
3. Venture Off into New Territory 
4. Upgrade your Body’s Physiology / Biology

I believe most of these are self explanatory but to give you an idea of how I began to gain energy. Food for me was the drug of my childhood. I never experimented with drugs or alcohol growing up but have memories of myself downing bags of candy without hesitation. I also had a case of an auto-immune disorder (like most kids in America) that showed symptoms like asthma, allergies, ADD, appendicitis, insomnia, irritability, fatigue, etc. 

Turns out when I cut out processed foods (stuff that comes in bags and boxes) as well as any kind of sugar and began eating many vegetables and healthy fats & proteins my brain turned on and I gained access to what seemed like infinite energy. When I gained energy I began to seek out other ways to express myself throughout the rest of the day.

That’s where I found other habits I could participate in daily that would continue building up momentum in my life like meditation, exercise, a proper morning & EVENING routine, and having riveting and intellectually engaging conversations. 

4. Create a Bigger System Than Yourself To Place Yourself In

Remember when I said this article is about upgrading and going to the next level for yourself? Well it turns out you actually can’t do that entirely by yourself. You MUST place yourself in a bigger feedback loop that creates value for other people to make it meaningful and to push you in the moments you feel like you can’t go any more.

For me, I noticed throughout my entire life ever since I was a kid at age 7 I was always trying to create things and make use of them in the world and create wealth for myself and my family. I went back to that and ended up starting a business, VU Dream to not only create value in the world but to initiate a BIGGER conquest for me to wake up every morning and to reach for to the highest potential every single day. 

Starting a real business is unbelievably challenging and is a full time job. Wait, it’s not a full time job it actually becomes your entire life. I view business as exercising your mind the same way someone wakes up in the morning and goes to the gym. 

Several months after that I ended up starting the Humans 2.0 podcast as a way to perpetuate that train of thought and continue building external systems to further my own personal development as well as my brand, network, influence and further possibility of collaborations and mutually beneficial partnerships. 

On the days where things are down, you aren’t just relying on yourself anymore. You have a bigger process that you have become an integral piece in to continuously grow & evolve. I’m not talking about building a golden cage for yourself like most solo entrepreneurs unconsciously create for themselves but something in the outside world that can keep you accountable.

For example, when I was first starting my podcast I occasionally had down days. Days where the motivation, discipline, passion and willpower just aren’t within reach to you. However, I quickly learned that if I had an interview to do at 3pm that day with an amazing inspiring individual, I would demand more of myself to be ready for that interview and in time become super motivated by my guest.

5. Understand It Never Ends 24/7

“There’s a faulty assumption in almost all of our personal growth…the idea that when we get woke enough or have a profound breakthrough experience all of the pain & suffering goes away and the pain that we experienced is gone forever!” - Jamie Wheal

The setbacks never end. The confusion never ends. It doesn’t matter how many hours a day you meditate or how many green juices you drink or even how many people you forgive in your life or if you start the next trillion dollar company. 

It never ends. This is so important to understand. You MUST make this a habit. This is not a one time trick. This is a process that unfolds every single 24 hours. At times it will be depressing, at times you will be lost, exhausted and alone. Never lose hope and never have the delusion that one day you will get to this point in your life where the anxieties end. 

Life’s a heartbeat. It goes up and down. If you are not grateful for that contrast, you have missed out on the very point of life. Because when you are always in the middle, you are flatlining and not actually experiencing the beauty of life. Just imagine how many people are sitting in a hospital bed right now begging God to give them another day to experience…when you and I have it in front of us right now to take advantage of this amazing opportunity. 

Create daily processes for yourself to push you to participate in every day. It doesn’t matter how “big” your bank account gets or how amazing your social life happens to be right now. Live in a state of preparation so you never have to get prepared. 

Trust the process and be patient but also understand that you have to continuously upgrade the process. 

If you need any assistance or help...don't hesitate to reach out!

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If you’re looking for a technological self-development podcast that focuses all about the human experience transformation in this 21st-century world, you should definitely check out my podcast, Humans 2.0 

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