I strive towards having as much rational detachment from- and control over my emotions as possible. This does not mean I strive towards feeling nothing at all, I still embrace the positive aspects that come with the human condition, it is impossible not to and it would be a shame to miss out on the positive experiences. Furthermore, we need the contrast of experiencing the negative to fully appreciate the positive. However, what rational detachment does mean is that I strive to understand WHY I feel a certain way, while at the same time not letting my emotions or state possess me.
Being More Than a Hairless, Domesticated Ape
Being able to look at- and control your emotional state with a certain level of rational detachment is a healthy thing, it allows us to rise above being instinctual animals, it allows our cognitive faculties to be firmly in the drivers seat of our own lives, rather than our animalistic instincts.
Being able to exercise control over your emotional state and understanding why you are in a certain state means that you can safely embrace those feelings that are good for you, while at the same time being able to discard and divert those that are detrimental to you.
A lack of control and understanding of emotions can lead people down many detrimental paths: crimes of passion, unhealthy obsessions, irrational fears, depressions and many other self perpetuating bad habits. Being able to lead and direct your inner dialogue and state is a powerful tool not only in understanding yourself, but in avoiding many self destructive and self defeating behaviors in our lives.
Transcending the Human Condition
As human beings, we are endowed with intelligence, rationality and sentience, these are the things that makes us stand out, that enabled us to become masters over this little planet of ours. To me, emphasizing and improving these gifts over our more basic instincts is what being a better human is all about. It does not mean that we should not embrace the fact that we are emotional, feeling animals. But it does mean that we allow the sentient, rational part of ourselves make the important decision in our lives and be what guides our decision making.
It means not being slaves to the biochemical reactions and impulses in our brains, but rather mastering our own biochemistry.
Embracing rationality, gaining understanding and insight through detachment from self or “id”, rising above the animal inside us is a way of becoming more human. It is a path to enlightenment that is a truly spiritual journey. A path that can allow us to transcend humanity through profound insight and knowledge into ourselves and the world we live in, giving us tools that will quite literally allow us to define our reality, and through action create almost any outcome we desire.
For most, it is plain to see that a massive shift of power is happening in the world economy: the old Western empires are crumbling under the weight of regulation, excessive taxation and crippling debt. But I think the Western decline is not only related to policy mistakes and financial bubbles, it is a more deep-seated issue than that, it goes all the way to shifts that have happened in the mentality and psyche of people living in western Europe and the US - I believe there are three fundamental mental shifts that have occurred over the last 30-40 years.
From Building Wealth by Saving & Investing to Feeling Wealthy by Spending
This shift is something that is plain to see not only in the racking up of massive consumer debt with no productive purpose or rampant consumerism, but in the very commentary of contemporary economists.
Even the academics and financial forecasters of the west have been fooled into believing wealth is created by mindless consumption by invoking fairy tales such as “aggregate demand”, rather than understanding that the consumption can only occur because something has first been produced!
As long as this mindset prevails, the west is not only doomed to stagnate, but to actually be in perpetual decline.
From Self-Reliance to Entitlement
The Welfare State can only function so long as its citizens have the morality to only use its safety net in their hour of need, rather than as a means of financing their idleness and hedonism. In most of Europe, we probably passed the point of no return a good 20 years ago.
Generations of children grow up in families where the parents have never worked, nor even shown any interest in working. Without a massive effort of will to break free, the children are doomed to follow in their parents footsteps. With no interest in work or education, entire generations become the permanent clients of the Welfare State, not only accepting perpetual dependence, but also expecting it, seeing as an entitlement they have a right to.
Those who are slightly more interested in their own welfare try to get jobs, but even in these cases, if you take away the jobs permanently, most would fall into the same dependence rather than take the step to build their own future by starting businesses and making sure they become self-reliant. Food, clean water and shelter are our most basic needs, yet 90% of the western population would probably starve to death if they didn’t have it handed to them, and most major European and American cities would probably descend into looting and civil war if water and electricity went out for 3 days.
From Improving Your Own Lot In Life to Coveting Thy Neighbours Lot
Jealousy is probably a universal feeling that has been around for as long as man has been able to strap on a loin-cloth, but with the combination of consumerism and an entitlement mentality it has gone into overdrive, at least in Europe. People seem to have lost track of the fact that wealth is not a zero sum game: unless you are a robber or criminal, someones gain is not another persons loss, but also the other persons gain. Capitalism and wealth creation drives living standards upwards by mutually beneficial exchanges.
What your neighbour has doesn’t matter to your standard of living, so why are we so focused on what others have? If you burnt all your money, how exactly would that benefit someone else?
If the west is to break free from its decline, and try to avoid entering a free fall, it must rediscover som fundamental truths that it lost somewhere along the line. Maybe it was the Welfare State, maybe people got too comfortable, maybe it was a combination of the above. Either way, as long as these mindsets remain in society, the decline will continue.
Tenth and final week of my official “decluttering challenge”. This is what’s going this week. Slightly less than some other weeks, but I think I’ve done well so far.
In addition to what is pictured above, I might be able to sell off a Nintendo Wii, PSP, Apple Time Capsule and four quite large books before next week is up, so that’s money in the bank and less stuff. I’ve gotten rid of a lot of junk to the point where my apartment is looking very neat all the time with a minimum of effort, as I don’t have stuff cluttering up the place all the time.
I’ll try to keep getting rid of stuff: I own a Kindle, so most of my books are going, though I’ll sell and donate them away rather than wholesale throw them away. Same thing goes for a large amounts of DVD’s.
End Result?
So what’s the actual end result of all this? Well, if you discount the obvious things that go with a home (furniture, kitchenware and utensils etc) and the books and DVD’s I have already marked for giving/selling away, I would venture to guess that I may only own somewhere in the region of 100-150 “things”. In effect, if the proverbial shit hit the fan, I could probably fit most of it into a backpack and two other bags. Not exactly “minimalist” if you buy into the gospel, but that was never my goal in the first place: the goal was decluttering to the point where I was down to the things that mattered.
A lot of my “stuff stress” is now gone, and I feel much freer, being able to move should I want to without having to worry too much about removal and storage.
I’ve had a lengthy discussion over the last few days in various threads with Carlos Miceli of OwlSparks, my sister and various other people about feminism, inequalities, privilege and the difference in opportunities different people have given different circumstances.
You Don’t Want What I Want & That’s OK
I wrote about this some months ago at some length. But the gist of it is that different people want different things. All too often people frown upon or judge others if their values and goals in life differ from their own, even though there are infinite possibilities and infinite choices to make in life.
Some might find comfort in the town they grew up, others want to see the world. Some might strive for wealth, others for spending more time cultivating their hobbies. Some might want a big family, others may find peace in solitude. There is no “right” or “wrong”, just your choices, wants and goals. Hopefully you’ll find a balance that aligns them as closely as possible to make you happy.
Privilege, Disadvantage, Excuses & Redefining Your Reality
There is absolutely no doubt that poverty and racism exists, and there is very little doubt that women are severely held back in some backwards cultures. People are born with diseases, disabilities and different educational opportunities, depending on the genetic and geographic lottery of birth.
But I am an optimist. I refuse to believe that anyone who grows up to an adult age is condemned to a bad life because of their circumstances - people can still make the most of whatever they have, and quite often you need little more than your wits and willpower to perform what to some would seem like miracles.
Are you a woman being held back in your career because of the “old boys club” running the place? Why the hell would you want to work for them anyway? Why not go somewhere where you are more appreciated (or better yet: start your own business). If you’re any good, it will only ever be their loss.
Are you an ethnic or religious minority subjected to prejudice or held back because of the colour of your skin or religious beliefs? Why stay where you are being abused or disadvantaged? Go somewhere else where circumstances are better. If immigrants in the 19th century braved the unforgiving American wilderness with little else than the clothes on their backs to escape religious persecution in Europe, I’m sure you can move your ass too.
The point is that you can chose either to use your disadvantages as an excuse for continued unhappiness, or you can redefine your frame of mind and do the most with whatever you have. I would even argue that early disadvantage can act as fuel for the fire driving you on, because you have a point to prove and a very clear obstacle to overcome.
It’s Not About How Hard You Hit, It’s About How Hard You Can Get Hit And Keep Moving Forward
I am an avid reader of Sovereign Man, one of my absolute favourite blogs around. In the last week or so, the comments have exploded with peoples stories on how they are acting to increase their self reliance and prepare for future economic turbulence.
Some of the most heartening comments have been from people you would not expect to be there: in-debted widows, pensioners and many others who have been knocked around in life and not given a lot of breaks.
One of my favourite comments was by an elderly disabled man living on meagre disability income, yet he was still determined to take steps to increase his own self-reliance and quality of life. His comments where not words of self-pity or excuses, they where words of determination to improve his lot for whatever time he has left. If someone like him can take steps to transcend unfortunate circumstances and make a better life, I don’t think anyone else has a lot of valid excuses.
Not all of us can be billionaires (or even want to), football/soccer pros (too late for me now), famous actors, business moguls or whatever other high-flying dreams you may have harboured. But that doesn’t mean you should settle into the grey mediocrity of a life you never wanted, or self-pitying unhappiness. Do the best you can with what you’ve got to make your life the way you want it to be or at least as close as possible.
In the words of the famous Rocky Balboa: “Life ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward.”
Refuse to just be just a gender, race, religion or number. Each and everyone has the innate ability to be so much more.
In the future, every man will be an island. The promise of panarchy - people being able to freely chose the political system under which they live is a reality today, if you only reach for it.
In years past, the concept of panarchy seemed a pipe dream concocted by wild-eyed anarchists and libertarians. To most who still think inside the box, it will still seem that way. But if you redefine your frame of mind and think outside the narrow confines of Nation States and physical chains, you will quickly realise that you can live in almost any system you wish: highly taxed egalitarian socialism, untaxed, unregulated free-market capitalism, repressive authoritarianism or free to say what you want, the choice is entirely yours.
Free to Chose Your System: Rise of the Post Political Man
If you are smart, independent minded and shrewd enough to establish an income that is location independence, you are almost entirely free to chose the systems under which you want to live.
Most people are stuck in the rigid mindset that they need to have a home that is physically anchored in a particular country and place. From a legal perspective that may be so, but there is nothing stopping most people from having a few “homes”.
For instance, someone who is liberty minded could establish legal residence in a country with low taxation and/or territorial taxation where income sourced elsewhere is not taxed (Singapore, Hong Kong, Panama, Malta, Costa Rica and most of the Caribbean are a few that come to mind).
To avoid legal troubles, full legal residence would have to be established in a way which satisfies both your current/previous home country, and your new home country. However, establishing legal residence does not mean you have to be present all year round, in all likelihood, you could simply be present a small amount of time each year, and then spend the rest of your time in other places that you like, so long as you stay for a period of time that is less than what would make you considered resident for tax purposes.
In other words, you could have “economic” residence in one place, but spend the bulk of your time in a few other places around the world which fit your social wants and needs better. This would effectively mean that you would pit the competing systems of Nation States against each other in a way that would be perfectly legal.
For ages, politicians have been pitting people against each other for their own purposes, creating conflict where none were necessary: workers against business owners, ethnic majorities against ethnic minorities, the list goes on. It’s about time they got a peaceful dose of their own medicine by having to compete in the marketplace for ideas against other Nation States for the productive capacity of able individuals.
In a globalized world, where people, knowledge, information and assets are increasingly mobile, you’re in the drivers seat for once, the possibilities are endless. You no longer have to vote at the ballot box every 4-5 years in a single country, when you can give your vote on your own terms every day of the week by chosing which countries get to benefit from your spending and your productive capacity.
Freedom is Yours For The Taking
Some might ask “isn’t this a young mans game?”. Sure, it might be easier for someone with few worldy attachments to a specific location, but I know for a fact that there are many families that live a mobile lifestyle and love it. I believe that the biggest inhibitors to living free is fear of the unknown and emotional attachments to local friends and family. But with modern day technology and transport, it can often be a false objection: with the rise of Skype and low-cost airlines, those close to you are never far away. The price of entry to freedom is simply economic self-sustainability combined with mobility.
Our modern day is a paradox: as the noose of authoritarianism grips more firmly around the necks of regular people in large parts of the world, the opportunities for real freedom, for true individual sovereignty from our former masters are greater than at any previous point in history.
With a flexible mind, some business acumen and able execution, freedom is within grasp for anyone wanting to grab it: after millenia of struggle, the emancipation from our political overlords is now a real possibility - you are free to define and live your life the way you want without having to ask permission from anyone.
As part of my ongoing decluttering challenge, the following things went this week:
Next week will be the last week of the official decluttering, though I suspect I am likely to keep going for some time even after that date. The ten weeks where mostly as a “Proof of Concept” that it could be done, and it has been done with relative ease.
Since I started this blog in October/November last year, I’ve struggled somewhat to find a voice, a core theme - I’ve written mostly about things that have interested me, but they have been all over the place at times.
It’s been a slow process, but I think in a sense I have come full circle and worked out what I want this to be going forward:
This blog will not be about any one or a few particular subject alone, but will instead be focused around the core theme of the intersection between financial/entrepreneurial opportunity, personal freedom and becoming the best person you can be.
In a sense, the pursuit of financial opportunity, personal freedom and becoming the best man I can possibly be embody my core motivators and passions, so focusing my writing on the areas of intersection between these three is a natural evolution and in a sense coming full circle with a more clear purpose.
Financial & Entrepreneurial Opportunity
At heart, I’m an opportunity and ideas guy. My late grandmother never tired of pointing out that when I was four years old, while all the other kids wanted to be policemen and astronauts, I wanted to be an inventor and businessman. By age six I was designing my own imaginary space rockets, and by age nine I was an accomplished door-to-door salesman, running around the little town I was living in selling magazines and other trinkets, making a pretty penny for someone who was only a little boy.
As an adult, the same things still energize me: opportunities and ideas are what makes my heart pump faster and what turns my head.
Personal Freedom: the Emergence of the Post Political Man
My first ever blog was a swedish blog about politics, which at its height probably was among the top 20 or so political blogs in Sweden. It was often an outlet for me, allowing me to rant and vent my anger at the political system as it stands.
My political values are largely the same (though evolved); I am principled believer in freedom stemming out of the principle of non-aggression.
This means freedom in its truest sense: social freedom to live life the way you want as long as you do not hurt anyone regardless of what your chosen lifestyle and habits are, political freedom to express whatever opinions you have, however abhorable I may find them, as long as you do not incite violence against others, and economic freedom sell your labour, knowledge and creations in whichever way you chose without undue restrictions or taxation.
You may disagree with me, and that’s ok, but I won’t apologise for my convictions, nor my drive to live as freely as I possibly can.
In terms of this blog, my political values won’t manifest themselves in terms of ranty rages against the machine/system, I long since gave up on changing the political system, besides, local political systems are becoming less and less relevant:
In an increasingly globalised world, Nation States are becoming more or less irrelevant and people are becoming more free to chose the circumstances under which they want to live - I would call the concept “The era of post political freedom”, or being a “post political man”. There is no need to try to change a system which may take decades to just nudge in another direction, if you can simply hop on a plane and move to a system that is more compatible with your values, or even better, pick and chose by pitting competing systems against each other to your personal benefit.
Being the Best You Can Be: Fulfilling Your Potential
Personally, I don’t strive for happiness alone, though a fair amount of happiness is desirable in ones life. But just singular pursuit of happiness is not enough to fulfill the innate potential we all carry to be extraordinary. Pursuit of happiness alone could in some cases even degenerate some people into instinctual animals concerned with nothing more than alcohol fuelled orgies and excess.
Like most other people, I am a flawed person with more than a few hang-ups and faults. Some I have come to accept, others I try to get rid off. But at the same time, I feel it is my duty as a civilised and rational human being to be the best man I can be. This means finding a balance between happiness, mental discipline, enlightenment and physical excellence, wrapped in an existence of maximum self-awareness.
To me, every person who is not trying to improve themselves, at least fulfilling some of the promise that every person holds is a human tragedy. Being the best we can be is something we all owe ourselves, if no one else.
Some of these values and subjects have probably already shone through in my writing, some of it may not.
This blog won’t be about finance, entrepreneurship, politics, nor self-improvement though those subjects may be touched upon. This blog will be focused around the intersection of opportunity, being the best you you can be and shaping the life you want for yourself outside of the limiting confines of national party politics and social convention. This will be more of a theme, concept and idea than fixed set of subjects - call it the mission statement of this blog if you will.
These are the things I believe in, the things I value, the values that define who I am.
Survivalism has a number of “Rule of Three’s”, for instance one states that a man can only survive for a maximum of 3 hours without shelter under extreme weather condition, a maximum of 3 days without water and a maximum of 3 weeks without food.
Survivalism author Ragnar Benson has turned this rule into tangible survival advise, stating that under survival conditions, you should strive to:
Bensons idea behind this is to lower your risk and increase your chances of survival, should one or even two sources be contaminated, destroyed or otherwise unavailable. In a survival situation, having contingency sources for your basic needs can become a matter of life and death.
Turbulent Financial Times
We currently live in a time of almost unprecedented economic and social turbulence: the banking crisis may soon enough become the sovereign debt crisis. Economies in developed countries are barely recovering from a deep funk.
Questions have to be raised: can you trust the value of your money? (the dollar has lost 99% of its purchasing power in the last 100 years..)
Are you sure governments won’t impose new confiscatory taxes, or even means test or outright expropriate your pensions to save their own skin? (Spain is already propping up its sovereign debt by forcing pension funds to “invest” in it).
Is what you do for a living now still going to be able to sustain you in five years time?
The short answer is: you can’t be sure of anything. Going on as if everything will always be the way they are in a comfortable status quo is a surefire way to get badly burnt when the next crisis hits (they always eventually come around).
A good way of hedging against being caught out by the next financial storm is to adapt Benson’s Survival Rule of Three to your finances.
Assets: Derisk Your Asset Holdings
Don’t hold everything in one currency or asset class. Don’t tie yourself in to one geography, make sure you could potentially move at least part of your assets around the globe if the proverbial shit hits the fan: banks collapse, governments go bad or collapse, the economy hits a depression etc. Ideally:
Income: Don’t Rely on a Single Source
Your very worst-case starting point should be at least investing in yourself, making sure you have a skills advantage over others doing the same or similar things, though it is generally a bad idea to rely solely on employment income.
You should really look at establishing multiple sources of income:
Costs: Live Well Within Your Means
This should be common sense, but to millions of people it is not. The smaller the financial footprint you require to live a decent life, the better you will fare in the face of financial setbacks or difficulties. The less junk you have to carry around, the more mobile you can be in your pursuit of new opportunities. For happiness, it is better to collect experiences, not things.
Unlike others, I am not advocating all out “minimalism”, I could certainly not live with less than 50 things (or whatever the perceived limit is these days). Most of us like having some creature comforts around, I certainly do. But at the same time, a lot of the clutter we amass over the years is just an unecessary ballast holding us back - tokens of consumerism that cost us more in money than they gave us in satisfaction.
If you can at least reign in your consumerist tendencies and keep clutter down, you will not only have more money in the bank, but you will also have more freedom and less stress. Building wealth is all about under-consuming to enable investment.
Survivalisms Rule of Three: Applied to Your Finances
As you can see, Benson’s Survival Rule of Three can easily be applied to your financial survival. If you’re lucky, applying these rules will just give you a leg up on building your wealth for the future. If the proverbial s*** hits the fan, these rules might just be the difference between financial oblivion and successfully navigating stormy waters and surviving.
This week, I finally got around to throwing out some stuff long overdue that have been in my storage for over two years:
To be honest, throwing out stuff is just getting easier and easier the longer I go - I am starting to disconnect emotionally from all the junk I have amassed, and come to terms with the fact that it’s not a waste throwing it out - the waste occurred when I bought it in the first place.
This is what bit the dust this week:
Cleaned out the entire set of drawers - from five full drawers to having only some things in two of the drawers. What’s in front of it is what I will shred during the coming days (lots of old bank statements, bills etc from years past, plus check books I have never even used).
Old jeans, old shoes and a bag full of more junk from the drawers.
Old debit-, credit- and various loyalty cards that are expired and/or never used. Thoroughly shredded.
..oh, and if anyone gets the idea of going dumpster diving outside my place, I do have a cross-cutting shredder, so you better be good. :D