I remember sitting in the local coffee shop when I was 7, my dad was at another chess tournament. The woman behind the counter came out with my raspberry Italian soda, and asked me what I was reading.”I’m reading about the laws of thermodynamics”. I still remember how her brow furled. It made me happy.

I read everything I could get my hands on. Old sci-fi, new sci-fi, travel books, classics, math, science… everything. Between that and the trumpet I was playing, I fancied myself a young renaissance man.

The Day Stopped Learning.

I hit the peak of my vocabulary around fifth grade, and I don’t think I ever caught up with where I was then. If I ever meet my fifth grade self, I’ll have to challenge him to a game of scrabble.

Around fifth grade, I was tired of being different. I was a weird, introverted little kid. I’d read Tolkien in first grade, and Steven Hawking in second. I was tired of not fitting in, so I started playing Super Nintendo and stopped reading quite so much.

Over the last four years, I’ve come full circle. I read quite a bit, but I’m definitely not one of those super geniuses. I’m probably more like you. Not a genius, not lazy… but something else entirely. Here are three things that make me different from my fifth grade ‘learning for learning’s sake’ self.

1. Knowledge must pay rent.

maybe when I was 7, I could afford to sink 20 hours into a book just because it made me feel smart.

Now though? It better lead somewhere. I intend to learn about local edible plants, since I might need that skill. I intend to learn more about Chinese herbalism and field first aid. Even rudimentary healing abilities are extremely useful.

I intend to continue learning Japanese and Chinese, and I have plans to go to live in China and use it within the next 12 months.

I am actively pursuing marketing, psychology, and all kinds of ‘influence’ skills. It’s completely changed my life. Everything in life is different now, and the whole world is alive with possibility.

There are things out there that are like that. Knowing certain things will completely change your world. When you don’t have a lot of time and space, any knowledge that wants to make it’s home in you had better have something to offer for your trouble than “7 letter word for ‘battery type’ in the daily crosswords.

Here’s the cool thing. If you’re looking for how to apply what you’re learning, suddenly almost everything can get more useful. Steven King? Awesome writer and communicator. You can use that. Television shows? Being able to film, select shots, pace a scene, there’s some real value in being able to work with a film crew to put a piece together. Especially if you have any entrepreneurial aspirations, film is a useful skill.

The important thing, is just to start demanding more from what you learn.

2. Knowledge must inspire.

Action is where ideas take shape and become solid. It’s when learning goes from being a mostly selfish, isolated hobby to a powerful world changing use of your time.

One of the most powerful impacts you can make, is to either inspire, or to be inspired. I love being a storyteller, and I love seeing people’s eyes light up. If you can do that, there was real value there.

If you’re reading something, it doesn’t need to lead to a new skill necessarily. It’s enough if it inspires you to be more grateful, more loving, more passionate about following your dreams. What you learn doesn’t need to lead to action, but at the very least it better be helping to shape you into the person you want to become.

3. Knowledge isn’t the end all be all.

Knowledge is power, but it’s not the only kind of power.

The biggest difference between who I am now and who I was when I was young, is the way I value community. Books are really, really powerful… but they’re not enough.

I don’t read as much now as I used to, and I probably never will again. There are too many things to see, too many people to talk to, and too many items on my bucket list that need crossin’ out.

I used to feel a little embarrassed when I didn’t know a word, or when I got some science trivia wrong. I wanted to know everything!

Now though? I know it’s not what you know. For that matter, it’s not who you know. It’s not even about who knows you.

It’s who you are, and it’s how that guides what you do. First and foremost, know thyself. Are you a healer? A communicator? However you want to see yourself, find the purest, most hardcore way to live that. Find others who embody those traits and skills you want, and never accept second-rate. That’s where the pursuit of knowledge has it’s place.

Being ‘smart’ is just another kind of mental masturbation if you only use it to find a little meaning while you’re living a marginal life.

“If you love life, then don’t waste time. Time is what life is made up of.” – Bruce Lee

Choose your teachers and your books well my friends.

I’m neck deep in another Dan Kennedy book. What are you reading right now? I’ve got a ridiculously cool reading list any aspiring marketers should get moving on… is anyone interested in an article on that?

namaste,
James

The ‘what ifs’ are often the biggest obstacle between us and our real destinies. Maybe you’re meant to be the first member of your family to clean up your diet and lifestyle. ‘what if they look at me differently after I’ve changed?’

You might be meant to start a business, or maybe you’re meant to be a teacher. ‘What if I fail and lose money’? ‘What if I look like a fool’?

The worst case scenario often looks just scary enough, that it’ll keep us on a quiet, small road to nowhere.

In honor of failure week, it’s time to blow that fear wide open.

I’m going to tell you about the time I tried to change the lives of hundreds of children, and ended up looking like a fool. And losing a wonderful relationship. And having to start dumpster diving for food.

I’ll also share why I wouldn’t go back and trade the experience for anything.

Think of the children!

Like most socially minded jobless young seattleites, in late 2008 God introduced me to canvassing.

In short, I was given the opportunity to go hit the streets of seattle and do my very best to inspire people to sponsor children in need. My task was simple: get complete strangers to hand out their credit card info on the street, and agree to start paying $22 a month in exchange for making a difference.

Naturally, I was pretty excited to have the chance to inspire other people to do something worthwhile. My boss was crazy inspiring, I cared a lot about the cause, I was excited to have the chance to overcome my (then still fairly intense) social anxiety, and the pay was enough to allow me to live up to my end of the relationship I was in at the time.

Then reality hit.

I was ignored. I was politely dismissed. I ended up in exciting conversations that petered out and ended up with a ‘we’ll check it out when we get home’.

The quota is to get two kids sponsored every day. You need to earn your keep obviously, and it was a little bit more than I could handle.

I had three days of straight zeros. I had to fight just to keep having the opportunity to try again another day, and I had to do that knowing full well that I was costing the company money that could be going to the kids. As long as I was failing, I was taking food out of their mouths. 

I did manage to save a child my fourth day. And my fifth, and my sixth. My eighth day I had another zero and that was it.

Jobless Again.

My relationship ended, I moved into a closet (at an amazing intentional household in the U district) and went out looking for another job.

In the end, I only managed to get four kids sponsored. Assuming those sponsors stayed with it, it would be almost a year of payments from those new sponsors before they’d end up making up for the pay I recieved. The three kids I’ve been sponsoring might even things out a bit, but obviously this wasn’t a rousing success.

Here’s the silver lining though. – every one of the entrepreneurs I respect started out in one-on-one sales of some kind. Tony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki, Frank Kern, Perry Marshall, etc. Part of my mission in life is to bring a worthwhile message out into the world, and tough times as a salesman seems to be a grand tradition I unknowingly followed in the footsteps of. Here are some of the other successes that came on the heels of this epic failure:

• I didn’t end it with a complete failure. A few weeks later I ended up canvassing for the ASPCA for over two months, and slowly but surely got good enough at it to keep my job, and make a measurable difference. I raised around $4,000.
• that old social anxiety? Gone. Without a trace. Phone calls don’t make me break out in a sweat anymore, and if you and I happen to make eye contact on the sidewalk, I’ll smile and maybe even strike up a conversation. My world is friendlier and more connected because I spent time as a canvasser.
• I had some truly meaningful moments. Girl with the H.P Lovecraft constellation tattoo? You know who you are. You were a tour guide at Yellowstone national park. Our conversation a year and a half ago made my day, and I still think about how you stepped up and donated, even though you were bootstrapping. When I came three days later with the beer I said I owed you, your appreciation (you were clearly having a hard day that day) really gave me a moment to remember. Moments of true gratitude are rare, and any path that brings those moments to my door is one I’m grateful for.

Why This Matters To You

If the only failure you’re worried about is embarrassment, or ‘failing at yet another diet’ who cares?

Keep Moving.

Keep believing, keep striving, and keep your eyes open for the beautiful (and sometimes painful) things that will come your way. 

Want an easy start on something you can do right now? Today is ‘one day without shoes’ day. Tom’s Shoes was founded in 2006 by a brilliant philanthropic entrepreneur, and the basic idea is that for every pair of shoes you buy, they donate a pair to a child in need. They’ve given over a million shoes so far, and it’s a great thing to be a part of.

I made a short video, basically going over why one day without shoes is a cool thing to be a part of, and how exactly I managed to fail at it before 8:00am. New record? 

Failweek was inspired by Emilie Wapnick, brainchild behind puttylike.com.

Now it’s your turn! What are some of the lessons you’ve learned from failures? I have a dozen I can think of, ranging from my parents divorce, to my failed business ventures, to my failed classes. All of them taught me something, and I am a better person for all of them. What are your hardest earned blessings?

And of course, more importantly, what important things have you been putting off due to fear? Make this month life changing, all it takes is putting one foot in front of the other.

namaste my friends,
James

What’s it mean to let down the people you care about?

Before, I always assumed that just meant to do what you say you’re going to do. Be a shoulder to cry on, and help people when you say you will.

Then last month, I read something that changed my whole perspective.

How To Raise a Wildly Successful Baby

So as of a few months ago, I’m an uncle. In between the piles of diapers and baby clothes, I found a book that my dad had gotten for my sister.

“Brain Rules For Babies”.

Basically, the author organized all the scientific literature, studies, and experiments that science has done over the last few decades, and taken all the best practice parenting tips and put them into one place.

Some of the myths that were done away with were fun (in-utero Mozart doesn’t lead to math babies), but there were a few major conclusions that caught my attention.

The most important? The number one way to raise a successful human being, is to encourage action.

It’s not to praise intelligence. It’s not to praise success. It’s not to raise self esteem, it’s not to comfort.

It’s simply to praise the fact that they’re doing something new.

The Real Way I’ve Let Down Friends

We’re a very results oriented country, and that’s okay.

I don’t know about you, but if I’m going to change my eating habits, it’s usually because I either want to feel different, or because I want to look different.

I know I also spent a lot of time in the past disappointed when I didn’t get those results. Even worse, back when I used to dabble-and-drop, when someone I knew was embarking on their own life-changing adventure, I’d tend to expect they’d do the same thing.

All of this led to a few bad habits I think it’s time to give up.

1. I want the people I care about to be ‘happy’ (read: comfortable).

I can see how when you have a baby, you want them to feel like they’re smart, loved, strong, etc. Problem is, if that’s what you encourage, then when real problems come they don’t know how to handle it. They’re not used to striving.

Same goes for family and friends. Some of the southern hospitality scenes in movies come to mind here. You know that scene in The Nutty Professor when the son goes home? Trying to lose weight, and his mom is bring him all this food. She wants him happy!

If you’re focusing more on keeping your friends happy just in the moment, you might be shortchanging them. What kinds of goals do they have? What potential do they have that they might not even see themselves? Momentary comfort might even destroy a potentially wonderful chance for changing a life. All change after all either comes from inspiration or desperation.

When you put someone’s momentary comfort above their long-term happiness, you’re letting them down.

2. My Friends and Family Are Being True to Themselves, That’s Good Enough.

Accepting people for who they are is important, but don’t do it at the cost of losing sight of who they could be. I’m especially thinking of my mom when I say this.

When I was growing up, she was a customer service rep for a local public transit company.

She answered phones, talked to angry customers, you know the drill. She did that for years and years.

While there’s nothing wrong with being a customer service rep, you know where she’s at now? She’s a director of human resources at a nursing home. She’s always been wonderful with people, and now she gets to use her actual God-given talents to help create a good place for people to spend their last few years of life.

When you let someone settle for a life that’s beneath them, you’re letting them down.

The Real Way to Encourage Friends

“Do not ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive. The world needs more people who have come alive.” ~ Howard Thurman

You already know it’s your responsibility to live with purpose and make your life matter. That’s why you’re here, that’s why you’re changing how you’re eating, that’s why you’re (hopefully?) starting to practice gratitude and intention in your day-to-day life.

Your new responsibility is to start being that voice of encouragement (and occasional boot of encouragement) and let the people you love most know that you won’t accept anything less from them than to be what they’re meant to be.

Who do you have that you are planning on encouraging today? What dreams are you going to help someone bring into being? Don’t settle for comforting. Inspire.

Namaste,
James

You know the types. They know what they know, and they’re shocked if you don’t know it too. Some are worse than others, but even the ones that accept you for your beliefs will still be really slow to change theirs.

Oddly enough, it’s not my meat and potato loving friends that got me thinking about this. It’s some of the vegans and raw foodies.

When Good Healthy Living Goes Bad.

I was reading a story maybe a month back about a long-time vegan that had to go back to eating fish.

Did I mention this was after being vegan for 17 years?

The reason she went back to a more ‘normal’ diet was because she ran into some serious health issues caused by nutritional deficiencies. It’s easy to get away with a lot of deficiencies for years, but eventually they catch up with you. B12 will cause some real problems if you don’t get enough, but it can take over 10 or 15 years before those problems come up.

To make matters worse, a lot of my health peeps out there hold a lot of negativity for the medical community. I don’t blame them, but when you’re running the risk of being deficient, it’s not a good idea to refuse to take any of the tests that could let you know when you’re in trouble.

The Pain of Letting Go.

It’s good to feel like we’re right.

I used to feel smart that I was drinking soy milk instead of cow’s milk. Imagine, all those Americans drinking milk without even realizing how unhealthy it is!

Then last year I read into soy a bit. I didn’t want to believe it at first, but my favorite go-to source of vegan protein turned out to have some serious downsides. So what changes? Feel superior while drinking almond milk instead of soy milk?

Feel good about yourself because you’re making your almond milk raw at home instead of buying it from the store?

The Different Between Education and Indoctrination

I heard David Wolfe speak for the first time last thursday. It was amazing.

I loved his delivery, he’s obviously gotten very good at inspiring and teaching and communicating his wisdom.

The thing that caught my attention though, was his willingness to step outside normal labels. As a raw foodist, he specifically mentioned he integrates insects into his diet.  He still doesn’t kill them himself, but he does eat matter that was once living. Turns out there’s no other way to get B12.

One big point that came up a few times when he was speaking, was that the real value in these teachings is the changes they can make in your life.

If they don’t quite live up to the hype, that means it’s time to keep learning. Time to keep exploring. If you can stay humble, grateful, and flexible, you can’t fail. It’s when you turn your way of life into a religion that you start running risks.

I’ve been 100% raw for almost three months now, and I haven’t quite gotten all the benefits I’m looking for. I’ve lost weight, my digestion is way better, I don’t need quite as much sleep, but I’m not 100% to my goals yet. All that means is I’m still on my journey. I haven’t arrived yet.

The last time you’ll ever need to be right.

I’ve got a simple challenge for you today.

Let go.

Do what you do, keep learning, but just make sure you’re keeping some humor and flexibility in there. Perfection is always just around the corner, we’re never going to arrive. The whole point of going on adventures and adopting new habits is to keep things fresh, keep things moving, and keep ourselves from taking our lifestyles and our beliefs too seriously.

As a followup challenge, if you’re one of the readers that’s 100% vegan, this week’s the week to call up your local nutritionist and arrange for some testing. Once you know what you’re missing, David Wolfe’s book “Superfoods” has been a great resource I’ve personally used to fill out all the nooks and crannies of my diet.

Namaste my friends,

James

Someone munching on tomatoes and lettuce? Maybe some oranges and apples?

All those things are good of course (except for lettuce, get some real greens!). But we’ve all heard the stories of people who jump in whole hog without doing the proper research.

15 year vegans who have to go back to fish, well intentioned parents that almost go to jail when malnutrition sets in for their kids, there’s all kinds of horror stories about what can happen when you don’t do your research.

That’s why the green smoothie is the number 1 best way to transition in my view. You get hardcore doses of greens and vitamins, and you can take your time researching how to go about getting all the things a body needs before cutting out your ‘normal’ foods.

Got your green smoothie going? Good. Here’s where to start researching before you give up meat in lunch and dinner too:

Bee-12 and other Bee vitamins

You’ve all heard of the B vitamins.

Out of all the different deficiency’s, B-12 is the number one that’ll come back to haunt a well intentioned vegan. It’s an insidious one too, since it can take up to a decade before your body reserves finally run out.

The result? You go a little crazy. It’s not good.

You can get some B6 from a lot of different foods. As long as you’re getting enough calories and enough variety, it’s likely you’re set. If you want a boost though, the single highest source of the B vitamins (excluding B-12) is Bee Pollen and Propolis. You can pick up some bee pollen for fairly cheap ($6 a pound) at health food stores, or you can always order some online. It tastes a little foul, so if you find any good recipes for getting some of that down every day, let me know. I’ve just been taking a spoonful like a daily cod-liver oil dose.

The B-12 is still an issue though.

I’ve heard that leaving your veggies unwashed is enough, because of the microorganisms growing in the dirt.

That’s bull.

I’ve heard that nutritional yeast has some, but that’s turned out to be false as well. (you CAN get nutritionally fortified yeast that has B-12. Look up Red Star yeast).

I just heard David Wolfe, and he’s researched this more than anyone else I’ve ever heard of. He hasn’t found any natural vegan sources. If the raw poster child hasn’t found any reliable unprocessed B-12 sources, I don’t think they exist.

His solution? Insects. More Bee stuff in this case. He’s got a no-killing rule, but if ants and bees happen to fall into his honey and die before harvesting, he just leaves them in when he eats it. Turns out insects are a way more plentiful source of B-12 than any animal, so you don’t even need that much. Who knew?

What about the Protein?

This one’s a fun one.

This is the one you’ll be asked constantly when you go raw. Worried parents, concerned friends, and dubious strangers will all wonder where you’re getting your protein.

Many people new to raw food get this wrong. I’m getting to be more and more anti-soy as time goes on, but I won’t tell you it’s bad for you. That’s for you to research and decide for yourself. What I will tell you though, is that jumping straight to soy without doing the research is an easy way to miss the boat on some really amazing superfoods.

I think I’ll do an article on this one soon, but in the meantime, here’s what I do.

Algae. I drink spirulina in my morning smoothies. Between that and some of the other foods and superfoods I’ve selected, I easily average 80~100 grams of protein a day. The algae by the way? 3 times the protein content of beef, and it’s much easier for your body to absorb and utilize. Good stuff.

Oh, and unlike soy? The protein in my superfoods is really easily digested, and it comes jam packed with a whole boat-load of other vitamins and nutrients. Who needs beef?

The silent deficiency: Calories

There are plenty of other nutrients I should talk about at some point. K2, DPA and EPA, vitamin D, but I wanted to stay simple for today. The last deficiency to worry about is not getting enough fuel in general.

If you switch to raw, it’s really easy to eat in a way that makes you hungry all the time. The hungrier you are, the less likely you’ll stick to the diet.

Easy to see why too. A cup of rice? 240 calories. A cup of spinach? SEVEN CALORIES.

In the morning, I do about a quart of green smoothie. You know how many servings of greens and fruit is in that thing? Maybe ten. I literally eat for breakfast more fruits and veggies than the average American child does in a week.

Course, then I’m hungry again two hours later. Those 7 or 8 servings of greens in there hardly pull up the calories at all. If it wasn’t for the fruit, I’d be hanging around 50. Altogether, my quart of nutritional goodness isn’t much more than 200 calories at most.

When switching to raw, I highly recommend grabbing a free account at dailyburn.com, and tracking what you eat for a day or two or five. Before I did it, I had no idea I was only eating 1,500 calories a day. I’ve since fixed things, and I do maybe 2,500 a day. (I like to exercise, so I aimed a little high).

I lost close to 10 pounds doing that 2,500 a day. If you’re overweight at all, you’ll be really, really hard pressed to not lose weight if you go raw.  For God’s sakes don’t make it harder on yourself than it needs to be.

Don’t count calories, and (at first at least) eat until you know you’re full. In time you’ll learn more about your body, and you’ll naturally start eating closer to what your body really needs. Long life does go hand in hand with eating less at each meal, but you can move towards there as you get an intuitive feel for what you really need.

Stay safe my friends. This doesn’t need to be an instant change, but when you do switch over make sure you’ve done your research first.

Peace and Love,
James

I love those moments, they’re part of why I learn about so many different kinds of things.

Plus, it’s been fun learning something with my dad. Financial wisdom is as important as of the other pillars in life, and at the moment, learning about the stock market happens to include some quality family time to go along with it.

My latest moment of clarity? It’s three major reasons why 95% of the people who try and lose weight fail. (according to a 2004 study, 95% of the people who start a diet end up 5 pounds heavier two years later than they were when they started).

For most of you reading this, you’re not looking for quick fixes necessarily, and you’re willing to roll up your sleeves and get a little dirty. Making a few green smoothies, adding in an extra dose of gratitude before meals, these aren’t normal diet tips and they certainly won’t get you normal results.

But even with these powerful tools for health and vitality, why are some of you still going to dabble for years without ever getting anywhere?

Lesson 1: Stick to the Plan.

Many good traders have a system where they lose 7 out of 10 trades. The trick, is that they don’t lose much on the losing trades, and they gain much more on the winning trades.

The traders who fail are the ones that let those inevitable losing streaks get to them, and change tracks right before things are about to pick up again.

How does this relate to health?

What if I told you I had a system that was 100% guaranteed to get you to your ideal weight, lower your cholesterol, cure type II diabetes, and bring you to a level of health and energy you’ve never experienced before?

It’s actually not that hard, I’ve got a few different systems that’ll do that. 100% raw is a pretty easy way, paleo is another that’s hard to mess up.I could teach you all the rules in a few hours.

The system’s the easy part. It’s sticking with it that’s tough.

What do you do if the scale doesn’t change right away? What do you do if in the first month or two you don’t feel any different or any better? What happens if you get more sick at first instead of less sick?

Our bodies are actually much more predictable than the stock market, but most people don’t really know how to listen and learn the lessons their bodies are trying to teach them. Early on, it’s very easy to get discouraged and switch back to old ways.

Even worse? Most people aren’t looking for a long term system at all.

Lesson 2: Are you looking for the perfect entrance, or the perfect exit?

You can’t predict the stock market, you can only make educated guesses. The perfect time and the perfect stock to buy is not what’s most important. Everyone’s looking for the next big winner, but pro traders are paying more attention to when to get out. If you have a system for when to sell, you start to keep more of your profits and lose less money on each bad trade.

The exits are one of the most important parts of a good system, but who wants to learn about that? We want to know when to buy the next big winner!

How’s that relate?

It’s really easy to get hung up on the short term with these lifestyle changes. I understand! Back when I was 50 pounds overweight, I wanted to get in shape by tomorrow. If you’re suffering from candida, I know you might be hoping for the herb that’ll fix it by next week. There’s some value to that way of thinking too. If you’re going to go to the trouble of making some major life changes, hopefully they’ll pay off, right?

But when you let your desire for short term results overshadow the long term, it’s easy to get lost.

Having the right entrance is nice. I’d love to be in the best shape of my life by June, who wouldn’t?

But I’m just as interested in the long term. When I go out, I want to be one fit, healthy old man. My exit strategy is to be like Jack Lallanne. What’s yours?

Before the final (and most important!) lesson I learned, I think this whole idea of ‘how do you want to exit’ is why terminally ill people are more likely to adopt a system instead of dabbling with tricks and techniques. Over half of the life-long raw foodists I know transitioned because of cancer. When you’re looking at the end, suddenly it’s easy to make your decisions based on them.

Save yourself the trouble. Decide how you want to meet the end now, not when you’re faced with it.

Lesson 3: Finding a system that works For You is more important than finding a system that works.

There are a million different ways to trade. Some of them are amazingly clever. I’ve literally seen trades that will make you money if the stock goes up, if it goes down, or if it doesn’t do anything. It’s a trading style that you virtually can’t lose money on.

The catch? You won’t be making more than 40% annual returns with it, and that’s after you get decent at it.

There are other trading styles that can make you much, much more of course. They take more experience, more knowledge, and even when you’re good they take more risk. You’ll be losing 7 out of 10 trades. Can you handle the stress? Do you even want to?

Some trading styles require 4 hours a day. Some can make you a good bit of money in 2 hours a week.

If you’re looking to lose weight and get healthy, it’s not about finding a system that works. I have two or three or ten even that I’ve seen work amazingly well.

Will they work for you?

That depends on your personality.It depends on how much money you have in your food budget. It depends on the country you live in, the foods you have access to, the amount of time you want to spend every week cooking, and what kinds of foods you love in life.

I know everyone’s body is different, so some food habits will work better for some people than for others. But the thing people don’t think about as often, is whether or not a system suits their personality.

Your lifestyle must be in line with your body’s desires, your personality’s desires, and your spirit’s desires if you’re going to find long term success. If you love the big Mc’D, then your personality and your body want fundamentally different things. But even if all three parts of your being are in alignment, you might still be trying to keep up a with a system that’s not in sync.

Finding the right system is a journey of discovery, it might take a little time and a lot of patience.

Once you do though?

You’ll feel like a million bucks. Heck, you might have even learned a few lessons that will make you a million bucks!

peace, love, and namaste my friends.
James

I’d been raised like most of you probably were. I come from a school system that punishes wrong answers more than exploration and honesty, and I’d gotten used to it.

Up until my 16th year my difficult choices all could safely end in ‘maybe’. Or ‘later’.

When are you going to start learning to drive?

“Next month”.

When are you going to decide what college you want to go to? What you want to major in?

“Next Year”.

Then I met The Real World

In classic ‘James’ style, the choices that took me to my little 16th year meltdown weren’t even made by me. I was still floating through life.

Through a series of coincidences and decisions my parents made, I ended up as a freelance 3D artist. I’d been doing small work for corporate advertising through a local graphic design firm, but then a big break came. I was taking care of all of the art for a massive new catalogue one of the industrial metal steel manufacturers was putting out.

Up until then, I’d been able to skate through crisis points without getting into too much trouble. If I ran into something I couldn’t handle, a few lost nights and a little dip in quality would usually get me through.

This time?

A 6 week solid portfolio piece turned into a really nasty 6 month trial by fire.

I was getting more and more behind, but I kept putting off coming out with it. Worse, I wasn’t even thinking about looking for solutions. The only solutions I was able to see (the only solutions I’d really even been prepared to see) were the obvious ones. Either complete failure, or a whole lot more sleepless nights.

In the end, things finally came to the surface. My boss at the time brought in some help, and did what needed to be done to get the job done. In the end, we shipped. It wasn’t even remotely profitable for us, but we got it done.

The Low Cost of Failure

The wild thing, is that it wasn’t the truth that caused all that stress. We all had a tough time because I wasn’t able to face the truth. I thought I was taking action, but I was really just spinning my wheels.

I learned that failure isn’t a bad thing, because it opens the door to trying something completely new. I hadn’t even considered bringing in anyone else to help me, but looking back it was really the obvious choice. It was the only way to salvage the deal. It took a while to get over the shame when that happened though, because I thought it was admitting failure. The real failure though was that I wasn’t ready to try something else when things clearly weren’t working. This time around, it took someone else making that choice for me. I wasn’t far enough along to make the tough choice myself yet.

Most people make their choices by default, it wasn’t just me. My own parents stayed married purely out of momentum. It wasn’t a true commitment anymore, it was just fear of admitting things were broken beyond repair that kept them together.

Guys, admitting that what you’re doing isn’t working is a relief. It’s the biggest relief you’ll ever have, and it doesn’t mean you’ve failed.

The High Cost of Inaction

For my parents,  admitting things were broken beyond repair was the only thing that could have saved their marriage. It ended up being too little too late, but at least it gave change a chance. If they’d admitted they were failing ten years earlier, it wouldn’t even have been an issue… my parents might still be together today.

What’s inaction then?

Inaction is every time you look in the mirror, and keep doing what you’re doing even though you don’t like what you see.

It’s going to work for a company in a failing industry, and coming home to watch tv just to relieve the stress rather than getting serious about doing something about it. I know how hard it is knowing your whole future is uncertain. Believe me, I know… but ignoring it, working harder, keeping your head down… that’s the inaction.

Even if you have no clue how to fix things, admitting you need help and heading out to get it is still the first step.

My challenge to you today

My challenge for you today is a simple one. Just start taking stock of where your stress is in life. Do you get that sinking feeling every time you look in the mirror after a shower? Did you spend today (just one more day!) eating your old diet, silently stressing out about your blood sugar, or your heart?

It’s amazing, but admitting failure is one of the surest ways to starting making real progress forward in life. Is what you’re doing not working? Time to make a big change. Don’t know what change to make? Well, probably time for a coach then, or some new friends that live the life you wish you were living. That’s where community comes in of course, part of why I’m making this site.

The person I am now would have never even existed if I didn’t make some serious change a few years ago. The person I want to be will never get the chance to live his crazy life if I don’t make the tough calls as soon as they come. Yes? No? I will? I can’t? Those are all good answer.

It’s “Maybe” and “Tomorrow” that you’re going to have to leave behind.

Whether you want something simple like losing 5 pounds, or something huge like changing your whole lifestyle… you can do it. It just has to start with admitting that whatever you’ve been doing hasn’t been working, and there’s no shame in that. God knows I’ve had to go through that enough, and I’m sure I’ve got a whole lot more of that coming before my little life’s journey is over: ). Care to join me?

Yes or no, make the choice today.

peace and love my friends,
James

We always hear them together, and it’s easy to think they’re the same thing.

They’re not. One man who made the mistake of thinking they were ended up dying because of it.

Can you be fit and unhealthy?

Back in the days of George Harrison and Lyndon Johnson, a 60 pound overweight 35 year old Jim Fixx started running.

Ten years later, he became America’s first modern fitness guru when he published “Complete Book of Running”. He’d lost 60 pounds, and he’d completely turned his life around. Through that book and others, he used his story to inspire millions of people to making some major changes in their lives.

Lose weight, feel younger, gain confidence.

You know the shtick.  Really inspiring story, all things considered.

Just one problem, at the age of 52 he died of a heart attack while on his daily run.

The cause? Three of his coronary arteries were clogged.

How exactly does a healthy runner die of a fat man’s disease?

This is where things get interesting.

As you know, our bodies put garbage on the walls of our arteries when we live unhealthy lives. But do you really know the real reason our bodies do that?

I won’t get into a lot of technical details in this article, but think about it this way. Our blood needs to be kept at a very particular balance between acid and alkaline. If our blood is starting to lean more towards acid, what might happen?

Our body would start breaking down from the inside out. If we’re living stressed out toxic lives, our brilliant body starts to line the walls with fatty buffers to keep things safe. Risking death tomorrow, but in exchange we guarantee life today.

This is all really simple and straight forward, but what do you think is the best way to get rid of that gross cholesterol plugging up our systems? Running?

You don’t need to believe me on this one, but Jim Fixx convinced me that you can get fit, and still be a fat man on the inside. Why else would he have still had those lingering issues even after 15 years of turning his life around?

Healthy does what Fit Can’t.

So let’s say you’re 35 and 60 pounds overweight. Obviously just getting into running and quitting smoking isn’t going to get you were you need to be. What’s next?

Step 1: Alkalize
Our bodies are pretty smart. If it hasn’t healed itself already, it means you’re still doing something it doesn’t like.

For most people, the easiest way to get that old garbage out of your system is by restoring that balance between acid and alkaline. That means downing your greens, eating mostly hydrating foods, and taking a bit of a break from the fatty animal products and the unhealthy processed fair we used to live on.

If we give our body a chance to recover, it’ll start to clean up. Just exercise alone? You can be fit, and stay unhealthy. Just ask Jim.

Step 2:  Deep Breathing
We have 4 times as much lymph as blood, and yet most people still don’t know what the lymph system even is.

It’s the garbage men. When your body has extra mess it needs to clear out, the lymph is what takes it where it needs to go.

Only one problem.

There’s no pump!

Our heart gets our blood flowing, but the garbage men? They need a little something extra to keep moving. Exercise can help, but one of the biggest boosts is just breathing deep from the diaphram instead of shallow up in the chest. Jim Fixx had a lot of issues with stress, and this is one of the many ways it can lead to old problems staying problems.

If you’re trying to shake loose old garbage, breathe.

Step 3: Take it slow.
Stress, bad diet, lack of movement, and acid habits can all feed into a body that’s going to teeter over the edge a few decades before you’re ready.

The good news is you don’t need to get it all fixed tomorrow. Starting the morning with a green drink is one of the best ways to start alkalizing. Painless, piece of cake.

You don’t need to give up grains or coffee or start running marathons by tomorrow. As long as you keep moving forward and take it all one step at a time, you’ll get there. Just make sure you don’t lose sight of the health because you’ve got your eyes set on fitness.

It’s way easier to be fit when you’re healthy.

In contrast with Jim Fixx, we had another health guru die recently. Jack LaLanne passed away at the ripe old age of 96. I still have one of his juicers, it’s one of my favorite ways to pack in the veggies.

Both started out as a wreck, LaLanne self describes as a 15 year old pimply faced junk food addict. Both him and Fixx did a lot of fitness stuff, but LaLanne’s focus on health is what bought him the extra 44 years. Diet, exercise, attitude. You need all three.

On another cool note, one of the most interesting things I’ve learned with my little raw experiment, is that my recovery time is way down. I can work it way harder and be much less sore the next day, so it’s easier now to get fitness as a second step.

I have more energy too, so once I’m up and moving it’s easier to take pleasure in a little bit of movement.

If you feel like exercise isn’t for you, or if you’ve been discouraged with all your failed attempts at getting those rockin’ abs and that toned body, here’s your answer.

Be healthy, then be fit. Start walking, and work up to running when your body’s started to clean up. Start slow, but start holistically. You don’t need to break through five walls and cough up blood just to get a good workout in. If you DO want to hit things heavy starting out though, you’re better off getting a handle on diet first and foremost.

Before building up the new, it’s time to tear down the old.

I’ve always found high levels of fitness to be really inspiring, and I still want to get up to those gymnast levels of speed and flexibility, but I’ve changed my track a bit. I’ll still get there, but now I’m running with a fresh start. Anyone else care to join me?

Leave your questions or comments in the comment box below.

peace and health, namaste my friends.

James

Image on Flickr by Laura Padgett

Abe was born into poverty, the whole family lived in a single one room shack.

When he was seven years old, his family was forced out of their home. Like a lot of children living in dire poverty situations, he had to join in and work to help support the family. Two years later, his mom died.

He started up his first business venture at 22. it went horribly wrong, ending with him and his partner swimming in debt.

After that, he tried running for state legislature. He failed. That year he also happened to lose his job (two big defeats in a row!). He wanted to go back to school and get his law degree, but you know how finances are.

He borrowed some money from a friend to start another business. By the end of the year it had failed, and he was completely bankrupt. He spent the next 17 years of his life paying off that debt.

I could keep going, but this is only the first chunk of a pretty heavy story. I’d take up the whole article going over all the crappy things that happened to him. You want to hear the real crazy part though?

After a long, long string of disappointments and failures, his ‘luck turns around’.

This Story is about Abraham Lincoln, Our 16th President.

I won’t even BEGIN to go into the crap he had to go through as president. There’s never been a president before or since that’s had a worse time of things. Civil war can’t be easy, especially for a compassionate guy like Abe.

Now I thought long and hard before using Abe Lincoln as the focus of this post, because the truth is that he didn’t take all this as well as some heroes do. He suffered from depression, had a nervous breakdown, and didn’t exactly die satisfied and loved after a job well done.

In the end, I chose him for one simple reason.

There isn’t any other man alive at the time who could have been more perfect for the task at hand. Abraham Lincoln was slowly molded into the exact man he needed to be, and it was his trials and difficulties that prepared him.

Who Do You Want To Be?

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the kind of person I want to be, and I’m sure you have too.

You want to inspire people! Right? Whether it’s your children, your friends or ‘the world’. I know you have something to share.

I want to be someone that treats this body as a gift. I want to live with gratitude, and put things into my body with intention and purpose. No sleepwalking, daydreaming nom-nom-nomming, if you catch my drift.

I want to be the kind of person that can meet trials with a laugh and a cosmic smile, a hug and just a little friendly ferocity in my eyes. Live with the heart of Zorba the Greek! Run from one end of the world to the other, just for the joy of it! And most importantly, go to bed every night in full knowledge that I’d be perfectly happy if that day was my last day. I want to know I just made the most of it.

The Trouble With Living The Life Of A Hero

Discipline is crap. It’s a lie.

See, here’s what we’re told. You can live in comfort, move forward at your own pace, and then with strength of will you can shape yourself into that person you truly want to be.

The truth in my life at least, has been a whole lot more interesting.

Step 1: Vision

Vision is something every hero needs. Abe Lincoln was aiming high for most of his life, and all those defeats never swayed him from his path.

Plus, his insanely crazy wife had one good thing going for her. Even before she married Abe, she knew she was going to be the first lady someday. You know that she probably kept that vision in the house too.

It’s tough holding onto a vision when life seems to be conspiring to keep you down, but you need it. Vision is the first thing that separates heroes from victims. If you have vision, then every step of the journey has purpose, and it’s a gift on some level. Often it’s a painful one, but it is serving to shape you into the person you’re going to need to be before you can live out your destiny.

Step 2: Belief

It’s not enough just to dream big dreams. Nothing’s worse than looking around at your meager little life, and then seeing the huge gap between where you are and where you’ll be. If you keep your hope, then that gap just feeds into making your hero story all the more brilliant when you’re on the other side. What’s more badass than a rags to riches story, or an “I beat cancer with raw foods and gratitude!” story?

If you lose hope, that gap is just the depressing downward spiral. If you keep it, then your current struggles are just going to make your inevitable transformation all the more inspiring.

Step 3: Relentless Action, Even in the Face of Doubt and Fear.

When Abe Lincoln was 40, he entered a period of depression. He had looked and seen how little he’d achieved and how far he had left to go. It’s not the presidency that was the defining moment of Lincoln’s life, it was this period of depression… because he made a choice at the end of it.

He was wrestling with how he wanted to see himself. Was he a victim? A failure? Or a hero in the making?

He made his choice, and started on an explosive campaign that took him to the top. He still had plenty of failures before he got there, but he was relentless. In the end he died a hero, one of the most loved of all the American Presidents.

The Bottom Line.

If Bruce Lee was incarnated into the body of a fat man, you know what would happen? twelve months, tops. He’d be into fighting shape. Two years? He’d be unstoppable.

Once Napoleon believed in his lucky star, what happened? It took him a while to get that unshakable faith, but once it was there it was a straight shot to the top. He had absolutely zero setbacks. A lowly artillery-man brought Europe to it’s knees.

One of my heroes is Tony Robbins. If me and him switched places, you know how long it would take him to be a millionaire again? To get back to reaching millions of people? Given my life as a starting point, he’d have it completely transformed in 90 days.

Think of your favorite hero. If they had your body, your resources, and your setbacks (crazy upbringing? homeless? disease?) how long would it take them to recreate your life?

None of our visions are out of reach. More importantly, they are inevitable once you become the person you are being shaped to be.

So deep breaths, gratitude for the bumps in the road, and press on. Those setbacks are there partly because you need them. Where else will you learn the lessons that are going to make you a true hero?

As long as you hold on to your vision, your faith, and your commitment to the path, it will all pay off.

All the trials you’re struggling through are there to make you more compassionate, more determined, and more ready to make the most of your turn in this world.

peace and love and namaste my friends.
James

image by www.doodlepress.co.uk

You know what my favorite day was as a kid?

Sick days.

I’d get to go over to grandma’s, get some amazing home cooked grandma food (and plenty of home-made cookies of course!) all while reading books that I found much more interesting than school.

Lame American school systems aside, there’s one great lesson I learned.

How to make yourself sick anytime you want.

You know how to do this too. All of America does! What’s that one time in the year when everyone joins in the fun and has a sick day together?

Let’s do a little thought experiment. Maybe there’s no such thing as a ‘bug going around’. What if it’s our choices during the day that decide our fate for the next?

Step 1: Get Stressed Out.

I was a nervous, shy little pip when I was a kid. Afraid of my own shadow when I was around people I didn’t know. Later on in high school, I learned that guilt was a great follow-up to the social anxiety.

Guilt because I was procrastinating. Guilt because of mistakes I made five years ago. If you want a sick day, guilt is a powerful tool.

Last time you chose to get sick, it was probably stress over the holidays. What am I going to cook? I need to be polite to my in-laws! How in the heck am I going to get all my Christmas shopping done?

quick tip 1: Anger, resentment, and frustration are all great things to try too.

Step 2: Eat food you know is bad for you.

I remember as a kid eating a whole pack of chips ahoy cookies. My healthier cousin helped me, and he was instantly ill with flu-like symptoms.

Me? I was used to it, so I didn’t get sick for a few days. When I did, it was a mild cold instead of a full-on ‘evacuate the stomach!’ emergency.

The last time you chose to make yourself sick, it was probably right around Thanksgiving or Christmas. Tons of Christmas cookies, candied yams, a big ‘ol plate of turkey and gravy.

Quick Tip 2: If you know you’re a healthy person at heart, and you look down at your plate and see a burger with a krispy cream bun, it’s really easy to beat up on yourself afterwards. This is a great one-two combo, since you get in an extra dose of guilt here too. If you can do this every meal, you’ll be sick in no time!

Step 3: Don’t give your body a break.

Our bodies are absolutely amazing. They can roll with the punches, and take a LOT of garbage and stress before they start to break down.

You might not succeed in making yourself sick with the first few hugely unhealthy and stressful days.

If you’re really needing to get a few sick days in, it’s important not to let up. You already overate, now in for a penny in for a pound. Go for the cookies and pumpkin pie too! Why not turn the splurge into a binge?

Quick Tip 3: Whatever you do, don’t back off the garbage entirely. If you go back to mostly raw, alkaline foods, you’ll start to undo all that hard work you’ve done. You’ll have to wait even longer before you get sick.

Step 4: Get Dehydrated.

Of all the tips here, this one’s my favorite. I personally managed to make myself sick with this one just last week, even while going 100% raw!

Most of you do this one on the holidays as well. Alcohol is a great way to speed things up, and following a major meal (like Christmas) with a night of binge drinking (like new years) is almost a guarantee that you’ll have a few sick days coming in the next week or two.

Other great ideas to make sure you get dehydrated:

• Drink soda (diet or regular) instead of water.
• Drink straight store bought, high sugar juices. Florida Orange Juice was my favorite.
• Coffee. This one’s brilliant, because in addition to dehydrating you, the caffeine in the coffee stresses out the body. Remember Tip 1?

It’s not just coffee though, most of these drinks are acid. I don’t have time to go into acid/alkaline, but the short answer, is that if you eat unhealthy foods, you change your body chemistry and make your tissue an inviting home for candida  and other nasties. Now just add sugar and you’re good to go!

You don’t have to worry about dehydration much. To drink enough you need to be hitting quite a bit. 90% of you aren’t even coming close, so this one will probably take care of itself.

Be Careful!

I know you only want a few sick days. Maybe you want out of that important meeting, or that big family ruinion on your partner’s side. Once you start changing your body chemistry and building up a good crop of nasties, it can be easy to get sick for a lot longer than you’d had planned.

I had great fun as a kid spending time at my grandma’s, but imagine my surprise when after a few months the doctor told me my little cold had turned into pneumonia.

Of course, I’d much rather have pneumonia than cancer, diabetes, or a full blown candida infection. Plan ahead, and don’t go for sick days too often!

When was the last time you made yourself sick? Any strategies you’d like to share? Leave your questions or comments in the box below.

Peace and love and HEALTH to all of you. Namaste,
James