Chapter 2: Taking Flight

Dear reader,

How are you feeling today? :)

We get asked this question a lot. Yet, tell me how many times do we answer this honestly? "I'm good, thanks. How are you?" "Fantastic" "Not too bad". The truth is that most of the time we don't  really know what we are feeling, and this is not our fault. We simply feel what we are supposed to feel, and do what we are supposed to do. If you are taking exams, you should be feeling stressed just as your friends and your older siblings before you had felt. If you are facing a job interview, you should be feeling nervous and if it went badly, then perhaps you should feel great disappointment.

At the end of the day if you are feeling for the sake of feeling, you are probably not in as much control of your life as you thought. What I realized over the last year has been that quite often people will give their selves away to the flow of the river of life and they feel obliged in this almost sheep like mentality, to follow the person in front of them. This not only puts limitations and barriers up to people's potential, it stops us from taking action--it stops us from literally doing the impossible: to take flight.
These exterior factors that are responsible for dragging you into the flow of life, are what we like to call "distractions". These are different for everyone. I will share with you what my personal distractions were and how I solved them and how I am now living a much happier routine where I can control the way I want to feel.

I am a computer lover by design-- pardon the pun, I don't really deny this, I won't say that it is the most attractive thing about myself. Many days I would come home from studies (and now work) and jump straight onto the computer. What I found was that I was escaping one reality, ie: one where I was forced to shut up in a lecture hall and do my work, or contact clients and then I would fall into another prison, where I was glued to a screen and this would be my reality. What I thought I was in control of, was actually controlling me. Do you understand?

The things that caused my procrastination on the internet, and 99% of the time this was the case, were the twins known as Facebook and Youtube. Good, I see you smiling :D, you know them well.

Facebook is like a demon, the big "F" and suddenly I feel like an exorcist. Facebook becomes so much of a hobby, your hands will become zombified, you will find them clicking your saved bookmarks or typing into the address bar almost as second nature. What is worse is that you will literally find any reason to stay on that website no matter how stupid or obscene the reason is. You will read Maureen's status about how she injured her little toe, and you will read Robert's frape by his friend Stephen but how he secretly loves men, you will look at all of those beautiful ducky pouts from Sarah's 20th (oh don't worry I was doing it too, maybe I still am...mwahahaha) and you will read the thousand of Candy Crush requests from Dave who just really wants some extra lives.

And remind me, please, why do you read all of these things? Are you entertained? (Amazing line from Gladiator, applicable here). Please, don't let me stop you if are. Haha, you might be saying to me "Daniel, you really are are bum sometimes" but believe me I was doing this website for years not knowing why and what reason for. To chat with friends? Yes, definitely--very good if you don't have their number. Seeing photos? I can see the good in that :). The point is that while there are some features great for you, there is also a lot of rubbish.

This is the same with every distraction in life. It is up for to you to control the stimulation and not have it control you. Take out what doesn't benefit you, and keep what does. Remember, you want to be able to control what is good for you, and what isn't. Take Youtube as another example. I would end up staying on this website for hours, clicking on the related videos (because this is how cleverly it is designed). While the content would be purely entertainment, which is fine it should have never been a dosage. I have recently discovered a channel called "Real Social Dynamics" that funny enough is a channel that specialises in meeting and attracting women, but fundamentally is about having a better lifestyle. Now I have watched a dozen of this man's videos and every single one I have gained insight, I have felt better, I have been inspired. This for me is a fantastic use of Youtube. In fact, I almost feel that Youtube is frowning at me for doing this because now I have taken my addiction to procrastinate and have turned into a passion for finding new knowledge, new ideas, and new ways to live my life.

What I want you to do sweetheart, is to draw your demons into bullets like this:

1. Facebook
2. Youtube
3. Junk Food 

Then quite simply, take the bullets and shoot them in the head.

I found ways to counter these and it's really simple.

1. On your news feed, where you see that someone has posted something, you will find an arrow in the top right of the post, that if you drag down will give you the options to "Follow", "Hide" and "Report Spam". Click "Hide", and then hover over "Choose what updates you want to view from x" then click "Unfollow" This will remove any future posts from that person. It sounds harsh, doesn't it? But let's say you see something that is pointless, and doesn't benefit you. The more that you can unfollow, the less reasons you have to go on Facebook--and if you decide to go on Facebook, you will be limiting yourself to the good and useful reasons to go. ie: events, photos and messaging. From spending three hours on the website, I now spend about twenty minutes tops in a day.
2. I recommend watching education on Youtube. This is the best. TED talks, dance tutorials, singing, you name it, drawing, acting, web design, piano. Anything that you want to learn, you can learn and this will help you. Again the related videos will work for you, instead of going against you because they will keep on giving you gems instead of giving you reasons to stay.
3. Exercise. I will make another blog post on this. Recently I have started running and my word do I feel different. Not only this, look up articles online that help with health--again the paradox is that you can be just as addicted to good things as you can to the bad. I go out every day because I want to feel better about myself and not because I want to lose weight. This is where you get addicted to the feeling. Instead of moping about how bad but delicious junk food is. Look up all of these delicious healthy foods and believe me you will feel greater and better.

Finally, come here, give me a hug. You deserve it if you've read this far :). 

Remember, the point of doing these things is not for the short term results, ie: spending less time on silly websites or losing weight. It is all about the overall result: the result on the deeper level. The result on the deeper level is this: you will have more control over your life, you will have more purpose, more of a destiny and more of an energy about you. The more of this energy you have, the more successful you will be, the more attractive, and for you women, it will even make your boobs larger, so DO IT.

Haha. Have a look at these websites to help you use the internet for good purposes:

http://springpad.com/ the website that organizes my life in one place in digital notebooks. Write to me if you want a tutorial.

https://www.wunderlist.com/ for organizing your life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn13UfHDm3I&list=FLx-Cwocrqd_Up6naWC8EZZQ&index=29 Huge inspiration

http://www.lumosity.com/ which will improve your brain and will make you a genius if you pay...

http://www.reed.co.uk/ for job hunting

http://www.lex100.com/ for Law students

As well as NewTabPlus if you have Google Chrome for managing your favorite websites in one place.

So there we have it :D. Enjoy the rest of your day and remember to face those demons. If you can rid yourself of those, you can finally find yourself--you can fly and be who you are supposed to be.

I'll leave that for the next chapter. Peace and love.