Every Four to Six Weeks
Are you just trying to enjoy the present or are you building the future?
Anyone who puts serious effort into creating things from scratch has to ask themselves some fundamental questions about their creations ...
Is it for myself like whistling a tune or is it for other people like performing at a concert?
Is it for money like a business logo or is it for beauty and art like a painting in a gallery?
Is it temporary like building a sandcastle or is it permanent like building a cathedral?
None of this is easy to figure out.
Usually the only way to gain any real clarity is to just start creating stuff and see what comes of it. This is why I've spent the last few months experimenting with producing different types of online content and seeing what resonates.
I've written articles, filmed YouTube videos, gone live on Facebook and Instagram, posted fitness tips and exercise videos, sent email newsletters like this, and all sorts of other experiments. As I’ve been doing this I look to see what’s getting good reactions but also what’s feeling good in my gut.
I want the things I create to both help others AND work for me. Ideally, I would like them to eventually generate a decent amount of money for myself and my family. That would be nice too. But I think the most the important thing for me is to create something that lasts a very very long time.
These things all reinforce and multiply each other. I want to serve you, the consumer of my creations, at the same time as making what feel right to me because if it doesn't feel authentic and enjoyable, I'm going to really struggle to keep doing this for an amount of time that makes it worth doing. I want to make things that feel true now. And I want to make things that will still feel true in 50 years. And I want them to continue to feel true 500 years after I'm dead.
I'm juuust starting to feel like I'm now arriving at a way of doing things I can happily work to week after week, allowing me to continue building things up for a long time. By finding an approach I can sustain, I am much more likely to succeed in my long-term goals.
"You and I can build a better world for everyone forever, together."
I want to be a catalyst for Elite Wellness in the Modern World.
Elite status doesn't mean you are chosen by some outside force. You are the one who makes the choice to take action. This is what makes you Elite.
Wellness is not just about having a beautiful body. It's about joining in the continuous process of becoming more perfectly integrated and aligned.
The Modern World is our current context; comfortable, shallow, and uninspired. But from this starting point we can build a better future together.
A couple of weeks ago I spoke about The Path I’m taking. It’s a 3 step framework I've arrived at after trying and failing to do meaningful work over the years. I'm now correcting mistakes I made in the past and moving forwards with confidence.
The final step on The Path is to build the future. Not everyone is as interested in doing this as I am. If you want to just enjoy the present, I get it. But if you have something to contribute, and are ambitious enough to put in the work for a better future, then I want to partner with you.
To build the future, we begin with the seed of a vision and voluntarily go through the long process of bringing it into reality. The modern world can make it difficult to directly participate in this kind of activity, getting into close contact with that process. But once you understand it, you can apply it to anything you want to build.
I like to tell people to start with the body because you always have your body with you. Getting your body in great physical shape is the safest and most immediate way to experience something like this. But we can also build the future and grow in vitality, prosperity, and agency through the process of raising children, or building a business.
These kinds of ventures require a certain mindset; willing to be in it for the long haul, learning as you go, and correcting mistakes in real time. It's like growing a tree that won't bear fruit for many years, preparing the ground, feeding new growth, and cutting off dead wood.
When we embark on transcendent acts of creation like this, the process also works in us.
If you want to be a great business owner, a great parent, or a high achiever in anything that takes dedication and sacrifice, you will see a direct benefit from the lessons you can learn by achieving transformation in your physical body.
I'm even noticing it myself ... !
GymnasiOn.net is the business I’m building. By trying different things as I go, being observant to see what is working and what isn't, following the best practices of those that have gone before me, being patient for the results to come, trusting the process, and putting in the required work, I expect to eventually see success in the same way I have already seen success with my body goals.
So I’m making a few changes to the way I am creating online content based on things I have learnt about myself and my business over the last few months.
Firstly, I will no longer be sending this newsletter weekly. The posts I've been sending about the Muses and Worthies will still go up on the Substack site but will no longer go to your email inbox. Instead of a weekly email, you will get an email update like this every four to six weeks.
In these posts, along with a personal update, I will be including some of my ideas about what I think the future looks like and what we can build together based on those ideas. At its core, GymnasiOn.net is about building the future, and creating a better world for everyone forever, together. In order to do that we need to think deeply about what the future holds.
I believe the future looks less like a sci-fi movie and more like the Middle Ages…
So on that theme, here are some provisional headings for the kinds of things I will be posting in this newsletter over the coming months ...
The Modern World as a Transitional Phase
The Dark Age Myth
The Death of the Internet
The Invisiblification of Tech
Patronage, Apprenticeship, & Cottage Industry
Proof of Work, Trust, Guilds, & Credentials
Resurrecting the Lost Warrior Monks
The City State Scale
If you don't want me to send you all this, please feel free to unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of the email. I don’t want to send you things you don’t care about. But before you do that, try and think of somebody you know who might be interested in these ideas, and send them a link to the Gymnasion.net newsletter at Gymnasion.substack.com
Are you just trying to enjoy the present or are you building the future?
Comment below or send me a message.
My handle is @GymnasiOnUK on Youtube, Twitter, Substack, and Instagram.
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See ya!