At the start of my self-improvement journey, I felt great. I was finally making progress, I was finally doing something with my life and as I continued to go on my path toward greatness I came to a point where I thought I knew everything. I made so much progress but eventually, I stopped and my ego took over. I saw myself as better than other people my age because I know about nofap and they don't lol. I thought I was superior to my peers and I acted that way towards them which made me seem like an arrogant piece of sh1t. Even worse I stopped progressing, I thought I was already at the end of my destination but soon enough life hit me in the face and I realized that I was holding myself back. My ego was holding my potential back and something had to change. My ego inflated and got bigger and bigger as my achievements became bigger and bigger which is a huge problem. You probably know Connor Mc Gregor a professional MMA fighter who had huge success and became a world champion in his weight class. Once he achieved a huge amount of success he fell off, his ego blinded him and he started to train less, eat worse foods, and take more drugs. Therefore he lost his fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov and he took his throne. While Khabib Nurmagomedov was out there training and grinding to take on Connor Mc Gregor, Connor Mc Gregor was drowning in pleasure and neglecting his growth. This just shows the importance of staying humble, not getting blinded by one’s ego and always staying on track in alignment with one’s goals. And to be honest I still struggle with my ego, a lot. I believe this is a lifelong journey and that we can never fully “kill” our ego as it's deeply rooted within our psyche. A few thousand years ago a big ego was necessary for survival because a strong sense of self made it easier to be more assertive and competitive in securing resources like food, shelter, and mates. On top of that we used to live in tribes where we had a social hierarchy and people with bigger egos were more likely to be in leadership positions as they were again, assertive. And in the sense of reproduction people with big egos came across as more attractive as they usually had bigger status and could provide and protect their tribe better.

I struggled with being overweight almost my entire life and I never really liked the way I looked yk, it was kind of weird. Chubby, crooked teeth, bad haircut, dark eye circles… And because of that, I used to get heavily bullied at school. Other guys stole my lunch money, and my food and pushed me around… it was not very pleasurable. Getting bullied destroyed my confidence and gave me anxiety so therefore I preferred to stay inside, just playing video games and eating chocolate which of course made my weight problem even worse. One day I had enough. One day I had so much pain built up inside of me that I had to make a change. And I did. I started to work out every single day in my room, I slowly improved my diet and failed countless times but in the end, I made it. I was so proud of myself and even better, I finally felt confident and went outside again, I was able to attract a beautiful girlfriend and build a good amount of muscle. But there is still one problem. I´m skinny-fat or well as I like to call it, muscular fat. I have a decent amount of muscle mass around my arms, shoulders, and back but somehow I still have love handles that give me hips like a girl (yes they are sexy but not for a guy lol). So I had to solve another problem and what did I do? I did something stupid. An 86-hour water fast. And I had to follow 2 rules. 1. I can only drink water with salt (by the way yes, I cheated and drank tee) 2. I can't eat anything (obviously) 3. I completed the challenge. It was hard. I craved food. I wanted to give up. But I didn't and I completed all 86 hours. The major benefit I experienced was my improved focus. Because I didn't eat anything my blood sugar levels were quite low ( sugar and carbs spike blood sugar levels leading to brain fog) I was able to sit down for 12 hours a day and work on my business and I felt amazing while doing so. Usually, I lose my focus after a couple of hours and then I get frustrated because I wanna work more but this time, it did not happen. it felt easy, it felt fun and I got closer to my goals. Probably the thing we all want the most, right?

Think back to your childhood. I bet you had an item that you loved. For me, it was my laptop. My little brother and I played Minecraft for hours every day. It was the best time ever, but after some time, the laptop broke, and I had to buy a new one. I decided to buy a PlayStation 4 instead, as it was better and cheaper. I still remember the day I got my PlayStation 4, crying in tears as I unwrapped it under the Christmas tree. It was the best gift I had ever received. I immediately went upstairs to set it up in my room. I connected it to my TV, plugged in all the cables, and I was ready to go. After some time, I secretly figured out how to connect the Wi-Fi to my PlayStation and discovered a whole new world of games. The first thing I downloaded was Fortnite, and I played around 8 hours a day for years. But why am I telling you this? What you own ends up owning you. Maybe you're reading this on your phone right now. You bought your phone, set everything up, and I bet you were happy to finally own it, right? Well, look at your screen time. 1 hour? 3 hours? Or maybe even 8 hours? Who owns what in this world? Your phone is consuming you, your time, your energy, and your potential. And this goes for everything. The more you own, the more you have to take care of, the more opportunities you have to get distracted, and the more overwhelming your life will be. Imagine you have a huge mansion, a big garden with a swimming pool, and a home gym. And because that's not enough, you also own two cars and a dog. All of that might sound like a dream to many of us, but think about it. You have to take care of so much stuff. You have to clean a huge mansion, take care of your swimming pool and your dog, repair two cars, and so on. In my opinion, that would stress me out. These things are consuming all of your energy and time to the point where nothing is left to you. These things own you, not the other way around. So what should we do about this? Maybe remove everything from our lives? Become a monk? Become homeless? Well, maybe, but I think we should just take a step back and consume with intention. You might think you want to have three cars, a million in the bank, two houses, and four cats.