The Content Within, Imposter Syndrome & The Ideal Life

Happy Thursday my people.

This week I've got 3 ideas I want to share with you.

First of all, here's something a subscriber commented yesterday which caught my attention...

"Another fantastic video, I learned heaps, but nothing in it will help me turn everything I know about what to do differently into actually behaving differently :( That's the one problem I can never seem to solve; the disconnect between useful knowledge and actually putting it to use.

It feels like everything I learn about mental health just becomes part of this collection of vast knowledge I keep solely for the sake of collecting. Like I desperately need energy to power my electricity grid and all I can do is put different kinds of nuclear reactors in my basement and learn their engineering inside out but never turn them on.

I don't know how to develop new perspectives for this that'll result in my behaviour shifting."

Here was my response...

"I so wish I could send a voice note right now, but text will do.

My first thought was: turn it all off for a while. Tune out, to tune in.

If you're experiencing overwhelm from information and a lack of practical application, its time to engage with the content within.

Your brain already has all the important stuff stored (from the content you've absorbed). It just needs space to reveal everything to you.

So cultivate that space.

Go for long walks in nature without listening to anything. Then write letters to yourself. Workout without listening to music. Spend more time unplugged and allow your thoughts to wonder. Think of questions you want answers to and give yourself permission to write essays on them. And you'll realise everything you need to.

Then those realisations will spur you towards application and action. And once they do, you'll feel clear, vitalised and courageous to explore what's being revealed rather than bury your head in the next piece of external knowledge; convincing yourself you need to because "you lack it".

Your brain needs to digest what its learned. No application is coming to you right now because the brain is overwhelmed.

The energy and action you want is already there. You just gotta peel back the distractions.

Tune out, to tune in."

I wanted to share that because I think its a problem we all face.

In fact, centuries ago a taoist philosopher called Chuang Tzu wrote a short essay called "what's the point of a great deal of knowledge?".

It's short and all over the place, but in true taoist fashion he argues the importance of actionless action rather than the accumulation of knowledge for the sake of it.

He said; "a great deal of knowledge is needed to make bows, cross-bows, nets, arrows and so forth, but the result is that the birds fly higher in distress. A great deal of knowledge is needed to make fishing lines, traps, baits and hooks, but the result is that the fish disperse in distress in the water.

A great deal of knowledge is needed to make traps, snares and nets, but the result is that the animals are disturbed and seek refuge in marshy lands. In the same way, the versatility needed to produce rhetoric, to plot and scheme, spread rumours and debate pointlessly, to dust off arguments and seek apparent agreement, is also con-siderable, but the result is that the people are confused.

So everything under Heaven is in a state of distress, all because of the pursuit of knowledge. Everything in the world knows how to seek for knowledge that they do not have, but do not know how to find what they already know. Everything in the world knows how to condemn what they dislike, but do not know how to condemn what they have which is wrong. This is what causes such immense confusion."

Tune out to tune in.

The second idea I want to share with you is something I learned about imposter syndrome this week from the school of life that slapped me across the face...

"The root cause of impostor syndrome is a hugely unhelpful picture of what other people are really like. We feel like impostors not because we are uniquely flawed, but because we fail to imagine how deeply flawed everyone else is beneath a more or less polished surface.

[So] the solution to impostor syndrome lies in making a crucial leap of faith: that, despite a lack of reliable evidence, everyone else must be as anxious, uncertain and wayward as we are. The leap means that whenever we encounter a stranger, we are not really encountering a stranger, we are encountering someone who is - despite the surface evidence to the contrary - very much like us. Therefore, nothing fundamental stands between us and the possibility of responsibility, success and fulfilment."

As with most things I read from the school of life, I felt a calmness wash over me while reading it. As if I was given more permission to be human, and to recognise, in a playfully light-hearted way, the all-too-humaness of others.

Finally, the last major realisation I've had this week came to me the other day while I was walking back home from the gym...

I was feeling calm, grateful and peaceful; reflecting on my life and realising I don't want anything right now. Everything is as I want it. Largely because I've been surrendering more. Letting go of control.

So I wrote down...

The ideal life is one in which everything you do serves the purpose of maximising what you’re already doing, who you’re already with and where you already are. In other words: how can I do more of what I love, with who I love, in the place I love?

But the thought wasn't complete. Because I posted it on x and a follower called David replied:

As long as what you’re already doing, who you’re already with and where you already are, are the right ones. With all respect, I think the baseline, the starting point comment was missing for this to be totally correct.

So that's the key.

First build a life you're not trying to escape from; mentally, physically, socially and spiritually - then your only task is to maximise and maintain it.

That's all for this week.

Lew

P.s. you can still join the waitlist for the new Go First course here. (It'll teach you how to bypass social anxiety and initiate interactions with anyone, anytime anywhere + you'll get first hand access to it via the waitlist (because I'm only releasing the first version to 100 people) & a 50% discount).

P.s.s love this spot in nature + got some new green bois.

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