For the 4th year in a row, I’m sharing my annual reflection with the world. The format is simple. For each area of my life, I categorize it into one of two buckets based on its overall rating:
- What worked?
- What didn’t work?
I then expand on it and share the highlights of what I achieved, how I progressed (or didn’t) as well as why or why not. Afterwards, I share the most important lessons I learned over the past year.
This reflection was lengthier, coming in at 5000+ words, but it was filled with tons of gold. Let’s get into it.
Content Creation/YouTube
Out of every area in my life, I grew the most as a creator. Over the past 12 months, I put in some serious work and made great progress on my storytelling, communication, film and video editing skills to the point that I feel like less of a content creator and more of a beginner filmmaker. For the first time ever, I felt like I was ready to take YouTube seriously, build my channels for growth, and get views.
First off, my style of content did a total 180. Before, I focused on documenting above all and made long-form vlogs that were unfocused, verbose, filled with fluff, abundant with talking head footage, and quite frankly — weren’t good enough for success on YouTube. Burnt out from the unnecessary complexity of this style, I sought out a more simple style and approach.
I detached from the idea of capturing my day-to-day life, especially in the traditional vlogging style and instead became passionate about storytelling and creating a great visual experience. I opted to make shorter videos that were highly focused on a key narrative that told the story in as few words as possible, which drove everything I was creating from a filming and editing perspective. Dedicated to serving the audience with the best video possible, I began pre-planning and structuring almost everything I touched, including scripting hooks and outlining vlogs ahead of time (which saved me hours in post-production and made the video infinitely better). I also became super stoic and at peace around re-shooting and became willing to re-film moments, bits and lines, as many times as it took to ensure the end product was great for my audience.
As time progressed, I viewed myself more and more as a filmmaker and acted accordingly (thanks to Matt D’Avella). I became obsessed with visual storytelling and started filming b-roll for my videos, capturing quick reactions and thoughts to replace lengthy rambling sessions, then started using voice-overs to connect the moments and drive the story forward. My editing skills and pacing went through the roof as I let go of reusability and instead focused on delivering the best video possible, with retention prioritized above all. The standard for what I include vs. what I won’t hit new levels, as did succinctness in communication, and the overall structure of the video — including hooks, middles and conclusions. I also started taking titles, thumbnails and SEO seriously and it’s been critical to my channel’s growth so far.
With the major change in content came a major change in distribution, as well. First and foremost, after years of experimenting with different formats and platforms, I’m now 100% clear that focusing on video within YouTube is my top priority within content creation. With this newfound clarity and focus, I took my old main channel and rebranded it as a podcast channel under the oh-so-creative title of “Josh Moxey Podcast”, which will host full-length episodes and clips from the podcast (more on this below). I then started a new main channel for the highest quality videos I make about personal growth and self-improvement, which is strategically built for retention and growth in mind. I also started a “second channel” called “More Josh Moxey” for deleted scenes and bloopers from my main channel videos, purely-entertainment based content, documenting essential moments in my journey and sharing videos that didn’t quite make the cut on the main channel. So far, this strategy has been incredible for me and the second channel has been a great creative outlet for me and has made YouTube a lot more fun as the main channel becomes more and more intense.
As my skills and content strategy upgraded, it was time to do the same with my equipment and gear. After years of filming on my iPhone, I acquired two Sony ZV-1’s, a Rode VideoMic NTG microphone, tripods, key light and lightbox, a DJI Mini 2 drone and DaVinci Resolve Studio (finally made the switch from Premiere, let’s go!). It was a great step in the right direction and has made my content look infinitely more professional. Gear isn’t everything, but it does help a lot when the skills are in place. Next step: full frame.
I also spent a ridiculous amount of time studying my craft this year and it paid off big. In years past, I tried to not watch too much of others’ content on YouTube to stay unique and avoid having generic styles rub off on me. But because I was serious about growing on YouTube and evolving my skills, it was time to suspend that idea and learn from the best so I could learn what it takes to win at the highest of levels. I invested hundreds — if not thousands — of hours into watching and studying creators that I wanted to emulate in some way: Casey Neistat, Peter McKinnon, David Dobrik, Logan Paul/Hayden Hillier Smith, NELK, TommyInnit, Airrack, MrBeast, to name the main people — and was constantly rewinding, watching at half or quarter speeds, and even downloaded some videos to break down on a frame by frame basis to understand exactly what was going on from a storytelling, film, communication and editing perspective and it took my videos to unprecedented levels. I also went through Matt D’Avella’s Master YouTube course and other how-to-based teachings including Peter McKinnon, Matti Haapoja, other film and photography creators, and William Zinser’s book, “On Writing Well” which is just as applicable to video. Becoming a student of all the aforementioned helped me grow my craft to levels that will be apparent in the coming years if it isn’t already obvious by my recent creations.
In 2022, I’d like to work on staying consistent on each channel by sticking to the upload schedule, continuing to improve my titles and thumbnails, creating a better system for storage, repurposing visuals and older content, simplifying and healing any and all resistance I have to the creation process and of course — continuing to evolve my skills and make the best videos possible and build a badass audience of creators, entrepreneurs and free thinkers.
Newsletter
After years of procrastinating, I finally started a newsletter and it was one of the best experiments I conducted this year. At the beginning of November, I felt the energy rising on this project. Inspired by the formats from Tim Ferriss, James Clear and Gary Vaynerchuk, I tested out a simple hybrid format that shared ideas I’m thinking about, resources that I’m getting value from and the latest from me — taking the best from each of my favourite newsletters.
After I wrote the first entry, I loved it so much that I’ve written one every week since and it’s fundamentally changed my content strategy. As of writing this, I haven’t actually set the email portion of the newsletter up because it began as a low stakes test that was posted on my website, but I’ll be setting it up soon because I am absolutely loving this format right now and packing it with so much value in such a short read. I hope you love it as much as I do. Feel free to go back and read the archives of past entries to get a taste of what it’s like!
Spirituality
As always, the spiritual growth was tremendous. In the past year, I’ve done a lot of work to become the most grounded, present, detached and peaceful that I’ve ever been in this lifetime. I’m still human and I experience fear, anxiety, doubt, etc. at times, but on a day-to-day basis, I’m much more easygoing, less stressed, more present, less rigid and more detached from ideas like “being productive”. I can now do things beyond work without freaking out on the inside and be very accepting of whatever is most essential for me to do (or not do) in the present moment. I also got to the point where I properly disidentified with my body, felt my “central channel” and further harnessed my intuition.
To make this all happen, I integrated a spiritual-based yoga practice for many months, tested out Moxey Energetics’ continuous energy work system and of course, consistently evolved myself through customized energy work sessions. In mid-November, I also added a new spiritual practice to the repertoire. For the last 2 months, I’ve used the new techniques to feel into everything and healed a huge amount of suppressed, stuck energy patterns in my body that I’d pushed away for years. TSW. It was powerful how much I transcended this year and I can’t wait to properly share these tools with clients and get paid to help people evolve at the highest of levels!
Simplicity
When I began this year, I had no clue that this was going to be the year that I would become obsessed with minimalism, essentialism, simplicity and focus. But alas, I made massive progress on releasing my attachment to complexity, “more is better”, general chaos, making things unnecessarily hard and my dire need to have things go a certain way that my limited ego thought was right.
The major shift occurred through the combination of healing trapped energy around making things complex and experiencing enough pain from how often I would make things complicated and verbose within my content, systems and creations. I also read On Writing Well, listened to Effortless and The One Thing, and re-listened to Essentialism which helped drill the mindset of simplicity.
While on 75 Hard — a rigorous mental toughness program that took me 4 months to complete correctly — the daily test of dealing with time and energy limitations forced me to focus on what really mattered, to make sure I executed on the essentials. During the program, I became so burnt out from extreme thinking and complex rules within my day-to-day rituals, that I dropped the power list, daily journaling, my morning rituals requirements and any other mandatory habits and rules that I had set for myself and once the program was complete, I also dropped the program’s mandatory rules. Additionally, I also re-designed my execution systems, website and other creative processes to match my newfound simplicity.
A lot of this most rapid growth transpired in Q2 but continues to stay with me because I consciously shifted my identity. I am now the type of person who naturally defaults into simplicity and focuses on the essentials because I committed daily to the self-image of, “I make things fun, simple and easy,” for almost the entire year. I’m now more carefree, happier and infinitely more effective now that the web of complexity that I trapped myself in has been vacuumed away.
Style
Continuing on the simplicity train, I switched up my style big time this year and pulled a Steve Jobs/Zuck/Matt D’Avella. In April I got multiple pairs of the same light grey shirt, purchased my first pair of Lululemon ABC pants (black, skinny, warpstreme), then put the rest of my clothes in storage and wore this outfit almost every day for the rest of the year. These skin-tight pants fit incredibly well to my body, were as comfortable as pyjamas but could pass for dress pants (this actually happened) and can work in a whole host of situations, from athletics to business — which was a big upgrade from my previous look of sweatpants only! Not only was this one less decision I had to make every morning, but it made filming, re-filming and thumbnails so much easier. This simple change made me look a ton better and when I rebuild my physique again, it’s going to look even better. Next year however, I’m moving to a black-only wardrobe because I’m tired of worrying about water spills and oil stains.
As for the rest of my style, I grew my beard out to the longest it’s ever been (around 1 inch/25mm), but then dialled it back to 12mm and have kept it there ever since. It’s a little patchy on the sides and on the neck, but it’s improving day by day and looking really good right now. The hair on the rest of my head however, needs some improvements. At over 3 years of growth, I love that it’s at shoulder length with curls, but it’s too dry because I haven’t given it the proper attention with trims or treatments. My hairline is also a sick joke right now, so in the next year, I’ll be trying to correct all of the above with some experiments. Aside from that and a couple of insecurities, I’m very satisfied with my current look. It’s minimal and it’s working.
Communication
Though this has been alluded to in other sections, my communication skills have increased significantly. In a written sense, my craft evolved by putting in a ton of reps through social media, blog posts, newsletters, private journals, public journals, video structures and scripts. After reading On Writing Well — the first book I’ve ever read about the craft — I became obsessed with re-writing, simplicity, sentence structure, word choice, flow and communicating the essential message in as few words as possible. As for tools, Grammarly helped save my ass constantly by correcting my mistakes (which it just did as I wrote this sentence).
Because becoming a better writer forces you to become a better thinker, all of the aforementioned had an impact on my verbal communication as well. Though my storytelling and communication skills have a ways to go in all areas, my enunciation continued to improve, I became more of a stoic professional on camera and I let go of my attachment to verboseness — as an obsession with communicating messages in as few words as possible took over — as evidenced by how much less I’m talking on camera now.
I also spent an entire year penalizing myself each time I swore and reduced my bad habit of swearing to the point where it’s within my control now and I don’t subconsciously default into it. As a consequence (or benefit!), my vocabulary has drastically expanded and I have a much greater array of alternatives to select from.
Health
I’m a little torn where to put this because there’s good and bad, but mostly good. I began the year with very mediocre health — in a very acidic state, with a poor diet and in the middle of a 3-month hiatus from working out which started out as a good thing but turned into pure laziness. To shake things up and experience the tremendous benefits, I began Andy Frisella’s 75 Hard program in March 2021 and resumed lifting again and started to rebuild the muscle and strength I had lost in the prior 3 months. I ended up in a routine of strength training one day, spiritual-based yoga the next. For the outside workouts, I added cardio for the first time into my regime which included walks, jogs and runs — and I went from hating it to loving it! I succeeded with my 75 Hard journey after 3 failures over 4 months. The growth that occurred — especially in the mind — was incredible.
On the final days of 75 Hard, however, I tore a muscle in each of my arms so after the program I took a hiatus from lifting for the next 3 months but continued with cardio and yoga periodically. By September 2021, I healed up enough to rehab and then resumed training and I’ve been lifting consistently ever since, but with a less extreme regime because I’m trying to reduce the absolutes in my life. Because of the extended pauses, my physique isn’t as great as it once was but I’m slowly but surely rebuilding it back to its former glory, while equally remaining detached with how I look.1Side note, I looked at pictures of myself from my 2018 transformation and I was blown away at the physique I crafted in such a short period of time. At the time, I didn’t appreciate it anywhere close to what I should have, and I noticed a present pattern of not feeling like my body is good enough because the same thing happened with my 75 Hard transformation as I looked back at the results and they were even better than I saw with my eyes at the time. Time to work on this energetically!
As for nutrition this year, I integrated an alkaline diet while on the program which gave me a taste of the best physical energy and vitality that I’ve ever experienced. Afterwards, the pendulum swung back to the other extreme for about a month and I ate a ton of acidic and junk food (with a ton of guilt for dessert), but then self-corrected and resumed a healthier diet with minimal alcohol and cheat foods. Ever since this, I’ve been a lot more lenient because I’m finding that I operate much better under a degree of balance right now, but I now know what to do when I want to create a state of peak performance again within my body.
What didn’t work?
Moxey Energetics
I’m putting this under what didn’t work (again) because I still didn’t give it the proper time and energy but I’m pleased with what was accomplished behind the scenes. Though I still haven’t jumped into the sales portion of this business, we made some great progress on the backend within product development and marketing, including developing energetic services and products, performing tests with myself and other clients pro bono and designing the forthcoming membership. I also learned 2 new energetic techniques that have changed the game for me in the past 2 months and are going to be a core pillar for Moxey Energetics in the next year.
Also, even though I didn’t achieve my goal in 2021 of “becoming a real entrepreneur,” as defined as the external measurement of consistently making money in business, my identity has shifted and I now feel like one. I reshaped my self-image daily and healed subconscious blocks around it. When I started taking YouTube seriously, I realized how much of a business being a successful creator can be and started treating it as such. I began to understand the similarities between an entrepreneur and a creator and realized that my world-class creativity was my greatest strength within business and leaned fully into it. Then something just clicked inside of me. I now feel like I’m an entrepreneur/creator who just needs to take the essential actions within whatever business I’m focused on and the results will be there. So by the time my 2022 reflection comes, I plan to finally put Moxey Energetics under what worked.
Productivity
This is a weird topic for me because, for the first time in many years, I no longer care about “being productive”. I’m putting this under what didn’t work because of how complex, advanced, rigid and unnecessarily future-focused my systems were at times this year. As I tapped into simplicity and evolved spiritually, however, I became more willing to go with the flow, do things in their proper time, focus on my one thing — rather than the many that with the power list — and when action didn’t feel so mandatory, I just did it because it was the right thing to do. I also rebuilt my life OS within Notion on 3 occasions, each time making it even simpler, but it’s still not cutting it and I can feel how much simpler it can be. My systems for execution and alignment are ripe for change in the coming year.
Social media
As a consumer, I’ve never cared less about social media. I typically just post, respond to DM’s and then leave. Aside from YouTube and Reddit (which aren’t really social media in my eyes), I could count on both hands the number of sessions where I sat down to scroll through my social media feeds. On my feed, I either saw woke, liberal lies or incredibly self-serving content that aimed to stroke one’s own ego, seek validation or PR themselves — none of which I cared for. So, I began cleaning up who I follow because in all honesty, I don’t care for all the ideological opinions or keeping up with almost anyone’s journey. I’m focused on my own path and having a positive impact on my world. The more I’m consuming, the less I’m creating. The less I’m creating, the less impact I’m having on the world around me.
As a creator, my social media presence needs a lot of work. On my Instagram, I only published 14 posts, 6 of which I’m going to archive. Consistently posting on social media wasn’t a priority for me in the least because I felt super insular and didn’t care to share much of my life, for a whole lot of reasons. My story was the closest thing I had to consistency because it became a tool for me to share the truth about what’s really happening in the world, so the urgency to warn people was present and fuelled me to post a lot more than I wanted to.
Despite the minimal posting, I did do some cool things! I started an Instagram for a camera roll dump (@morejoshmoxey) and another Instagram for my creative projects (@joshmoxeycreations). These secondary accounts have helped me post a lot more and unlock a lot more creative freedom, but I still need a better system in place for consistently creating and sharing for all 3 accounts. I also started posting reels for virtually free attention and it will likely become critical to my content strategy going forward. Finally, because Twitter is by far the worst social media platform out there due to its highly woke and toxic culture, I can’t stand to consume it. But because I love the aesthetic of Twitter’s UI and the recall through search, I spent the final 3 months just posting and ghosting, meaning I posted then left. I literally haven’t seen my notifications on Twitter since October 2021 and I’m loving it so far.
In the next year, my strategy requires a shake-up. I’d like to heal whatever resistance I have to posting consistently online, prioritize short-term video (especially with the land grab of Instagram reels and the reusability with TikTok), and focus on making great infotainment. I’d also like to balance raw vs. professional creative, continue with the subtly humorous vibe that I’ve been on recently, and keep political posts as a side dish — not the main course.
Podcast
The podcast felt totally misaligned this year. I only filmed 2 solo episodes, which was actually a win because it meant I was at peace with not capturing so much of my journey in these solo podcasts anymore. I’ve become very disinterested in the theme of “hey, here’s what’s going on in my journey right now”, because I know I can capture these essential moments way better when they arise in real-time and then post them on my second channel.
In addition to not enjoying the current format, these solo podcasts have also felt a tad bit too serious, self-serving, way too long and just incredibly exhausting to create. It’s been challenging for me to not have any guests or co-hosts to bounce ideas off of, or help keep me on track if I digress hard enough. Because of this, each episode requires a significant outline and a ton of editing afterwards to make them watchable/listenable — and if you only had one angle as I had earlier in the year, the jump cuts make it look more like a YouTube video than a podcast, which really irks me.
Going forward, a lot is going to change. First and foremost, I rebranded to “Josh Moxey Podcast” this past year and the podcast is officially going to be what it probably should’ve been from the start — an actual podcast for conversations, not an audio version of videos from my YouTube channel. As much as I’d like to start fresh and private all of these old “episodes”, I’m going to painfully keep them live to honour my journey and inspire others with how far I’ve come.
Once the podcast is resumed, I’m going to use it as a place to have meaningful conversations with close friends and interesting people I want to learn from. Solo podcasts and formal interviews will happen here and there but will be rare. With the second angle, the video setup will result in higher quality output, although I wish to acquire a 3rd camera and upgrade to top-of-the-line podcasting microphones by the end of the year. As for marketing, I’m planning to position it as a non-woke, truth-seeking podcast for entrepreneurs and creators with libertarian and conservative perspectives because I’m tired of the constant left-leaning lies being pumped out into the world and you probably are too. Lastly, I’m going to finally start posting clips and make it a major focus to clickbait and deliver on key moments to get more people watching and listening to the full-length episodes and build its following.
Girls/relationships
If you thought I didn’t care about making girls or relationships a priority last year, you should have seen this year. It’s virtually a non-factor for me right now and I can’t express in words how little it matters to my current reality. Still, I spent time clearing some of my inner blockages and I feel more and more inclined to have a relationship at some point in the not-so-far-off future (maybe in the next few years? We’ll see), but I’m still so focused on building right now and that comes first.
As for a big win, I stopped watching porn in March 2021 (as defined as standard/hardcore porn that everyone’s used to watching) and haven’t looked back since. It’s helped my mindset become less corrupt, purer and I now see the world closer to how it actually is with a lot less warping.
Friends and family
My social life was virtually nonexistent this year, so that’s why this is going down here. I kept a very close circle and have been continuously cleansing who I surround myself with. For almost all of 75 Hard, I didn’t want to do any socializing because I was in the zone, I had limited time, and I just didn’t relate to people all that much — it was different. Then in the summer/fall, all I wanted to do was learn and work on my craft, so I did. And, for the entire year, I couldn’t bear the thought of talking with anyone who was subscribed to nonsense narratives — so I avoided a lot of conversations. The only people I consistently made time for were my immediate family — my Mom, Dad and sister, who thankfully are on a similar page.
Throughout this time, I also grew a major appreciation for my dysfunctional immediate and extended family and how fortunate I am to have them, knowing that they won’t last forever (especially the older ones). It’s recently been really hitting me (hard) that time is catching up and I don’t have an eternity with my loved ones. For some, I can count on my hand how many more times I’ll be with them before they pass. There are only so many more meals, moments and memories before death comes knocking. Every time I think about this currently, I tear up inside. But the time is this physical world is limited. Be present, appreciate it and make it count.
Over the last few months, through my spiritual growth described previously, I’ve also had a change of pace where I’m more accepting of relaxation and recharging as well as sharing moments with people, so long as I feel like I’m growing and evolving. It’s a strange dynamic that I’m struggling to find the words to explain. In the next year, I’m still likely to suck at the traditional definition of a “family person” because my growth and evolution come before all. But I want to do a better job connecting with close friends and close family on a more consistent basis in the most present way possible.
Lessons
Fun, simple and easy
“What would this look like if it were fun, simple and easy?” Many of us have subscribed to the concept that life needs to be boring, complex and hard, but it’s not true. With any situation, we can arrive at the same outcome by consciously choosing the essential route and making things fun, simple and easy. Not only does it make the journey a whole lot more enjoyable, but our desired outcome can come faster and at a much higher likelihood. It’s not always going to be perfectly fun, simple and easy — but what would your experience look like if it was more like this?
Attachment takes away from performance
Attachment to productivity takes away from your ability to perform at the highest of levels. In years past, I was deeply obsessed with making sure I was maxing out every second of my day with as much work as I could and cared intensely about my output being at peak capacity. But attachment to the outcome of a process creates a significant amount of unnecessary stress, anxiety and pressure and creates no additional result. Instead, it actually wastes fuel that we could be using to actually be productive. When we detach from being productive, we’re able to get so much more done and enjoy the process infinitely more because we aren’t leaking energy all over the place and we can use those savings to operate at a way higher level for much, much longer.
Visual storytelling is the best way to tell a story
Visual storytelling is the best way to tell a story. Instead of talking about what’s happening in a rambling, unorganized, traditional vlogging format, create a visual experience that shows exactly what’s happening in the story. Capture essential facial reactions with a few words of real-time commentary. Film b-roll of the visual representation of what you’re speaking about. Record voice-overs over top of the footage to bring it all together into a coherent storyline. The best stories are visual in nature, so whenever possible — show, don’t tell.
Realism over idealism
Realism > idealism. It’s not about your made-up, abstract ideology, how you feel or how you want things to be. It’s about confronting the truth, dealing with facts and addressing how things actually are in reality. To create real growth, we must deal in reality — otherwise, the perceived progress will be merely fictional.
Feel the feelings
Feel the feelings. There’s a significant link between the emotions trapped in your body and the blocks across your life. Though you can continue to suppress those painful emotions that you’d rather die than feel, they are affecting you and your life whether you realize it or not. Suppressing the emotion makes everything harder later. History’s greatest warriors didn’t suppress their emotions and you shouldn’t either. Feel into whatever’s arising within you. Healing needn’t be complicated, either. It can be as simple as asking yourself, “when I think about X, where do I feel it in my body?”, then giving it your total presence, tracing wherever the feeling goes and sending it love the entire time until you get to peace with it. Yes, you can “succeed” in life without healing your inner resistance, but it’s the equivalent of walking up a mountain with a boulder on your back — you can still do it, but your chances of success are dramatically reduced and the journey is a whole lot more painful. By feeling the feelings and “running it out” you allow yourself to take the boulder off your back and live a much more peaceful, grounded life as you climb your respective mountain.
You can always say it in less
You can always simplify your message more and say it in fewer words. Simplicity is the ultimate form of elegance, for it takes the most energy and work. Complexity and verboseness are a result of laziness. Ask yourself, “if I was to communicate this message in the least amount of words, what could that look like?” As William Zinsser once wrote, “writing is rewriting.” Each time you re-write, simplify further. Identify the key sentences and words. Cut the inessential. Repeat until you’ve crystallized the message down to its core, essential form. No matter the format or the medium, you can always say it in less than you think you can.2I know this article came out long as hell and verbose to a degree, but I felt good about the value per sentence nonetheless. As much as I wish I could re-write this entire thing over and over again, I need to move on with life now and bring this reflection to a close
Invest in a platform built for longevity
YouTube is by far the best platform to invest in because it’s built for longevity. With social media, once you post it — it’s gone in a day or two and won’t resurface again. You have to constantly be posting to stay “relevant”. But with YouTube, you can post something 10 years ago and the content can be easily accessed and watched forever. If the videos are optimized correctly, they can be found through search. And with the way the YouTube algorithm works, at any point — be it a day from now or a decade from now — YouTube can begin recommending a video and it can get millions of views out of the blue. And when someone new subscribes, they’ll also be encouraged to see your most popular videos from the past which lets content stick around for decades instead of days. It’s also one of the best places to begin creating content because you can start with 0 subscribers, and if a video is good enough, it can hit total virality and help you build an audience at record speeds from scratch. Additionally, YouTube also has the best monetization system of any major platform which, if you do it correctly, you can properly set up residual income.
Do what the mind thinks you cannot
You are capable of infinitely more than your mind thinks you are. Under high pressure, your mind will tell you, “this is your limit, you have to quit!” but it’s almost always a lie. While being thoughtful about the situation and taking the necessary precautions, you can ignore it, continue pushing anyways, transcend your limitations and open up a whole new world for yourself. You’ll be seduced to quit far too early, but under the right circumstances, when your back is against the wall in extreme “do or die” situations where you have minimal brainpower, a tired body, or an empty gas tank — you can execute and execute well. When you stop listening to your inner bitch voice, you’ll be blown away by what you’re capable of because you have way more gas in the tank and more power than you could ever imagine. Do what the mind tells you that you cannot and tap into an entire new dimension of potential for yourself.3Thank you to 75 Hard (and Andy Frisella) for helping to show me this
Creators can be entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs can be creators
A creator and an entrepreneur are incredibly similar. For the longest time, I saw these 2 as separate. But now, I’ve realized that they’re almost the same energies. On the extremes, one is exclusively for art, the other for business. But in reality, there’s a whole lot of gray area in-between where your favourite creators often exist. They’re both creating something from nothing, solving challenges, and making something great for others and/or themselves. There are slight differences, but in general, the mindsets and executions are incredibly similar. And I believe that if one lets go of the narratives they’ve bought into, any successful creator can be successful in business and art. Not everyone will or want to, but if they tap one end of the spectrum, they also have the potential to do with the other side of it. Because art is a whole lot more systematic and business is a whole lot more creative than people would believe.
Conclusion
Thank you a ton for reading. I hope you received a ton of value.
Though this year was a mess at a worldly level, I really enjoyed all of the growth that occurred within me and my world. I expect the global darkness to continue in the next year, but the way out is through — not to avoid it, but to fully confront and face it. That’s how we fix things. Additionally, we need not define our year by what’s outside of our control. We’d be smart to measure these 365 days instead by the actions we’re taking, the decisions we’re making and the people we’re choosing to become.
Wishing you all a tremendous 2022 filled with good health, happiness, success, growth and evolution.
Love, Josh.
