Sunday, June 24, 2007

what do you want?

A friend asked me for advice.

Here's my—slightly altered—response. This gentleman's favorite activity happens to be watch repair. It doesn't matter. Yours will be something else, but my answer would be the same had you asked me similar questions. Throughout my material and throughout the years, I have made sure to be redundant about the fact that I cannot and will not give advice. Please DO NOT take my "answer" as advice. I am confident you will take full responsibility for all actions you take--and for the ones you won't take. In other words, what you do in the future is based on your decisions, of course, and not on my stuff.

"What do you tell a person who KNOWS what needs to be done and just won't do it?"

Nothing.

We need to figure out our individual "moving speed", and I vehemently disagree with you that you have "wasted the first 34 years of [your] life." Your first 34 years were important. Maybe not to get things done, but that won't count in the end anyway. You needed to discover what you don't want and apparently you found out what you do want: watch repair. Your last 34 years were extremely valuable, as most people NEVER find out what they want. They allow themselves to be distracted their entire lives by the garbage they don't want, like jobs for example. You are--as bleak as it may look at times--in a privileged position. You know what you want to do.

Do you, really?

I am playing the devil's advocate. So, forgive my nasty question. Here's what I mean: you are pissed off about not getting ahead with your dreams. THAT is the energy you need to utilize. You being upset or frustrated about your last 34 years is pure URGENCY for you to do what you haven't done. "Sometimes I wish I could just give up all emotions--like a Vulcan--and live my life as it is right now." Give up all emotions? No, USE them! Indeed, you are sitting on a Volcano. We all do. You want to waste the steam, the pressure, and curl up in a corner and die? Tap the immense power of YOUR Volcano and funnel it into what you want to DO. If it's watch repair, fine. If you find out it's not at all watches in a couple of weeks, that's alright also. It got to be something that can handle the unbearable pressure and urgency you will be doing things with from now on. You hear me?

URGENCY!

Your emotions aren't to be neglected nor thrown away for nothing: You must translate your emotional Volcano into the urgency you are longing for, and you will begin doing a bunch of things you haven't done yet.

"Will I become one of those old people living in poverty? These are my fears. "The fear of living in poverty may never leave you: Plenty of millionaires are scared throughout their entire lives that they may end up dying in poverty. Well, lots of people do die poor, but you better get used to the fact that some of your idiosyncrasies or quirks maybe part of you and they won't go away no matter how much money you have and make. You can't wait until the fear--any fear or emotional condition--stops before you act. Neither can you make enough money, so that fears and emotions quit bugging you.

You "chose" to pursue watch repair. Bull! Maybe that is a great idea for a hobby, but it may not be what you really want to do. You need to find out. I don't "choose" to pick my nose. I pick it!

You say, "Everything I've ever done in my life, came back to wanting to collect watches. I realized last year that if watches are my love I might as well make that my career." "Wanting" to collect watches? Did you collect watches? And if collecting watches is your love that does NOT mean repairing them will be. "... I might as well ..." Forgive me, but that is the most lame excuse for "love" or for a professional choice I have ever heard. I am not surprised you don't start or you don't get further into it. I'm surprised you didn't fall asleep while writing your e-mail to me.

DO WHAT YOU CAN'T NOT DO.

Forget love (I want to do what I love to do). Yesterday, two murder cases made the headlines on yahoo news: Guy shoots his wife and his two children, and another guy butchers his pregnant girlfriend. And don't forget the preacher's wife blasting her sleeping husband in the back with a shotgun. Most murder victims have had a loving relationship with their killer. Marriage is supposed to end with death. Well, if all goes as desired, that is. “Until death do you apart”, remember? And lots of marriages begin with love. Love, my dear friend, is not at all free of risk.

And if you really love watch repair so much that you can't help but doing it against everybody's advice and better judgment, then you may be on the right track. May that lead to doom or to success, you shouldn't care. But that is not--as I understand--your relationship with watch repair, or is it? It's lukewarm, a typical relationship, like government employment, a slob job. It's predictable, boring, and predictably bad. And in your case even more costly than profitable.

What pisses you off so, that you can't stop thinking/talking/ranting about it for hours/days/years at a time? Love is heavily overrated! “Love what you do and the money will follow,” is so 20th century and utter nonsense. Wussy and--god forbid--pussy talk. Even if you do what you “love”, you'll always have to do plenty of things you hate ... preparing income taxes, for instance. “I want to do what I love,” makes me throw up.

Anger or frustration are fabulous money makers. Give your HATRED a try. For instance, Mr. Gillette was so pissed off about his clunky shaving equipment--he traveled as a salesman--that he invented a disposable shaver. He sold all of six or eight shavers in the first year. Not encouraging, but "his Volcano", the fire in his belly, didn't allow him to stop. History proved him right, as you know. More examples? MADD (mothers against drunk driving) begun with a pissed off and terribly wounded mother. I can't stand MADD's politics. Nevertheless, it exemplifies my point of starting something powerful with uncomfortable, so-called "negative", emotions. Cindy Sheehan: same thing. I don't like her and I do NOT endorse her nor her message, but that's how it can be done. PETA (people for the ethical treatment of animals), etc., etc..

Money: MAKE MONEY. I admire your wizardry of getting by on peanuts but man, start using that brilliant head of yours and make an extra $50 this upcoming week. When you can do that every week, raise it to $100 extra weekly. If you have no idea at all, sell something on ebay.com to supplement your income, but do shake up your tired wallet. Take money for the things you do and begin doing things you can take money for. NOW! THIS WEEK! Urgently! You'll like it!

One more thing--and it's none of my business--but then it is, because these things are LINKED to each other: You need to get laid! Maybe that's a tad too personal, but trust me, our income situation and our sex life have more in common than our parents and school teachers wanted to admit. Start reading David DeAngelo's newsletter (http://doubleyourdating.com/). It's free. And no, not even if you purchase his materials will I get a commission. It's so sad, but I won't—unfortunately.

Last thing: Are you doing anything physical for and with your body? It doesn't matter what you do, but you got to do something. I cannot be happy or sufficiently productive without DAILY (six days a week at least) physical exercise. Mentally, emotionally, and physically I need to DO something--and if it's just a long walk. Your pooch needs exercise seven days a week, but we think three days a week are good enough for human beings. Say what?!

Do yoga, martial arts, Tai Chi, weight lifting, anything, or best of all, begin Matthew Furey's “Combat Conditioning” (http://mattfurey.com/). Personally, I hate Matt's sales pitch, but his material is worth its weight in gold. Buy Combat Conditioning and nothing else for now, and something amazing will happen to your emotional and mental makeup as well as to your body. You can do it in the tiniest hotel room or in the forest. Again, I don't get a commission if you buy Matt's stuff, boohoo.

Take CASH for the things you do, in fact take LOTS OF IT. If you do your stuff for free, “for the betterment of the world”, you are just another self-serving hypocrite and asshole. Hordes of fake followers may believe your humble schtick and the pope may steal your popularity by forcing you into sainthood after you are dead, but I know what a creep you probably are: People who pretend to do everything for free are creeps and dishonest. Just like everybody else, they do NOTHING for free. They get something out of it that they don't care to disclose publicly. They feel good and even better than others!

Saints have dark sides and that includes Mother F. Teresa. And your dark side maybe the most important commodity you own to develop a satisfying productivity. Taking money for your services is as INNOCENT as a baby's freshly powdered ass. Being meek and pious, not taking cash and thinking smugly, “I'm so much better than the rich who make and take money for everything,” has fascist elements that are dirtier than money ever will be.

Heal your damn self and the world by making money for yourself, hand over fist. How's that for a change?

Good luck, Egbert

P.S.: Note: I am giving you this valuable--and free--information because I am such a creep, just to make myself feel good about myself. But then, my ancestors were the nastiest genocidal fascists on earth ...