seanbagshaw

The most important thing is that you feel good.

Yet a lot of people have a problem with this statement. In this article I want to persuade you that feeling good is actually the most important thing you can do in your life, by debunking some common reasons why most people say you shouldn’t feel good, including exercise and necessary evil type arguments, and I give some reasons people be stuck in the belief that you have to go through some sort of bad feelings in order to get what you want like school and social pressure. At the end of this post I explain some ways you can start feeling good now.

Feeling good is the most important thing that you can do. Why? Because when you feel good you start to attract other feeling good things to you. If you are not feeling good with what you are doing, then you are going to attract to you more of those things that don’t feel good to do. Like attracts like.

But some people might say “But I have to do this thing I don’t like to do right now, so that I can pay my rent.” Or other similar things. And if you say it is so, then it is so for you. You create your reality, over and over again we create our reality each day with each choice. This type of thinking that you need to do something you don’t like in order to achieve your goals, or to survive even, is pretty common in our culture, a lot of people subscribe to this belief, and therefor its hard to go against.

When we look around and see that most people are doing what they don’t like to get to some level of survival, we automatically think that this is the way it simply is. This type of thinking is systematic and has its roots in the education system most people go through. Most kids don’t want to go to school, but are told that they have to and that they are given this false hope that by doing something they don’t like (like homework) they will get something good out of it.

Well let me tell you something Nothing good has ever come from doing something you don’t like. Nothing.

What about exercise? Some people might argue that exercise is just something that you have to bear through in order to get what you want. To this there are a couple responses; first, ask most people who have some sort of exercise routine, they like to exercise it feels good to them. Secondly, if you don’t feel good while exercising you probably are not going to reach your goals, whatever they are. Sure it might hurt a little, it might sting a little, it might push you a little when you are exercising and these actions might not feel “good” in the body at the time, but in a lot of ways it does actually feel good to exercise. It might not feel “good” in the normal way we think of feeling good, as in some blissful relaxed equilibrium of the body, but it does feel good mentally, emotionally and in other ways, and it sure feels good after, really good.

The most successful people don’t subscribe to the belief that you have to do something you don’t like in order to do what you do like. In fact the most successful people and tell everyone (again and again) that to be successful you have to do what you do like, you have to do what feels good. The most important thing to achieving your goals is feeling good. The hard truth is that you are not going to do anything worthwhile if you are not enjoying what you are doing. I know this might be hard to accept now, especially if you have some job that you spend most of your time doing something you don’t want to do, but its true, you know its true.

So then, we must make it our top priority to do what makes us feel good. It must be our number one top priority.

But someone might argue that that sounds pretty hedonistic, maybe even animalistic. If we all just went around doing what made us feel good we would be like animals, just fucking all day, or just doing drugs all the time. Well first, what is wrong with fucking all day? And secondly doing drugs doesn’t actually feel good in the long term. The argument against doing what feels good, because if you did you would just do drugs all day, is really the same type of argument as the exercise argument except the other side. Yes doing drugs might feel good in the moment, but it doesn’t feel good in the long term, not at all. Exercise might not feel good in the short term, but it does feel good in the long term. The high from drugs don’t last long, then you need more, and more. Even given the best circumstances, lets say you are rich and can afford all the drugs you want, eventually your body will begin to shutdown, our bodies just can’t handle large amounts of drugs for long amounts of time. We can’t stay permanently high with the use of drugs. We always have to come down, always. So a lot of drug users are unhappy because they have to keep getting high in order to feel good, yet most of the time they are not high, so most of the time they don’t feel good. A drug users life is not a happy life, a drug user doesn’t feel good most of the time. Don’t take my word for it, look at one of them for yourself.

So the key is to do what makes us feel good for extended periods. The most important thing is that we feel good, all of the time.

OK, some people might be convinced that feeling good is the most important thing yet what does this mean practically? How does this affect my life, and how can I feel good most of the time?

Practical Ways to Start Feeling Good

Start slow and start with awareness. Just being aware of those things that make you feel good is a great first step. Also being aware of those things that you do that make you feel bad is a good first step too. Be aware of your feelings, what makes you feel good, what makes you feel bad. You don’t even have to change anything just notice them, write them down. This is the most important thing you can do to start feeling good; be aware of your feelings. The next step is natural, when you are aware of those things that make you feel good do more of them when you are aware of those things that you make you feel bad do less of them. To have the best chances for success the slower the better, but also know that the key to change is perseverance.

Slow steady change is the key to success.

So go forth and start to become aware of your feelings, and after awhile start to do more of those things that make you feel good and less of those things that make you feel bad. You are destined to win.

In love, -Wayne

When you are tapped into the present moment, all things flow to you, all things. Yet the moment we start to try to brings things to use we loose our ability to stay grounded in the present moment, and therefor loose our ability to bring things to us.

Trying means that we are yearning, which really means we aren’t quite in the present moment we are thinking about how we can get something in the future.

Yet when we are truly and fully in the present moment we become like extremely strong magnets that attract all those things into our life exactly that which we want, without trying.

The more we dwell in the present the more we start to see that which we want is that which we have. Gratitude is inherent in this space, again we do not have to try and be grateful, we are inherently grateful in the present moment. When we are present, and we look around we see that all we want is here right now and gratitude can not help but flow.

It feels good to be present, it feels really good.

Feelings Felt in Presence

When we are present we feel directly, without the confusion or need of words. When feelings are felt in the present moment, they are not labeled, they are felt fully for what they are and we get the sense that they are felt much more deeply. When we are not that present we usually feel feelings like how someone might touch water with their tows in the water before going in a pool. When we are present, when we are fully here, with our self, now, its like we are plunging into the water. Your whole body feels. Its not an intellectual word game anymore, your not feeling “grateful” or “happy ” or “joyful” (words) you ARE the essence of gratitude, you are happiness, felt. When we are present we feel without labels.

To feel without the mental chatter, feels freakin good. Even if its a “bad” feeling, a feeling felt totally for what it is fully is amazing. Its the joy of being human that we can feel, and feel so deeply. Again its obvious that gratitude is fundamental to the present moment. To be grateful is to be present, and to be present is to be grateful.

These words that I use to describe the present moment, like gratitude, really don’t mean anything by themselves, and in themselves they are empty and hold no value at all. Value is in the present moment. Value is felt, and somehow if these letter combinations help you feel the value of the present moment, they have done their job in my eyes. Letters, words, sounds, really everything is an invitation to the power of the present moment. I trust that these words will help you feel the now, and its power.

Most people would agree that we all want to be happy. The question then becomes what is the best way to become happy? To this question there are a thousand and one answers that get at some superficial aspect of happiness; like someone might say to themselves that they need a bigger house, more friends, a mate, more money, a better body. Essentially more of this or less of that.

A lot of ‘self help’ books and articles feed on this idea that happiness is something that can be found outside of oneself. To me these articles are built on the presumption that if you only had something else you didn’t already have now then yes you would be happy, so let me teach you how to get it…

There is nothing wrong with getting or achieving things, but we must be clear on the reason why we are doing what we are doing in order not to be disappointed when we are done.

I have started to understand the quest of happiness like the quest for balance. Everything in this universe is in a constant state of balance, the planets in their orbit are balanced by the sun, the waves by the moon, and our bodies are constantly searching for their homeostasis.

So might argue that we are happy when we are in a constant state of homeostasis, but I don’t think this is true. While it might feel good to have all our needs met, there is still something that spurs us to action, after a time just having all our needs met becomes boring. No matter what, we all have desires that spur us to action, no matter how “good” we have it we will always want more.

We will always want more. If this is true then it would seem like happiness is doomed to momentary relief while most of our life is unsatisfactory.

It seems like we can’t espace an unsatisfactory life because no matter what we achieve and no matter where we go we will still just want more. This reminds me of the first nobel truth in Buddhism: Life is dukkha. Dukkha is a pali term that is usually translated as suffering, but this translation really misses the point. The better translation for Dukkha is unsatisfactory. So the first nobel truth becomes: life is inherently unsatisfactory.

And it is, normally. Life can be this constant chase for happiness that never actually leaves us happy. More time is spent chasing happiness and fighting for happiness than is spent in actual happiness, we are constantly searching for more.

I think its human nature to always want more; which is to say its human nature to have needs and desires. Any attempt to subjugate our desires just leads to more unconsciousness and suffering.

So then what do we do? Can we ever be happy? No, I don’t think we can be happy in the way most people think of happiness.

The true happiness we are all searching for isn’t that transitory happiness that we get every once and awhile when we achieve something. True happiness isn’t dependent on anything. Thats the joy. Thats the bliss of being.

True happiness is already. True happiness is now, its not dependent on anything. Its the underlying fabric of this moment. Beyond thoughts, feelings, beyond it all, at the base, at the core of experience lies true happiness. Its a wonderful place to dwell in, our true state.

True happiness never leaves us, even when we are struggling, even when we are hurt, even we are momentarily superficially happy, true happiness underlies all experience in this moment.

So when we begin to realize true happiness we start to see that while our actions are usually motivated out of a desire for superficial happiness we become OK with that. In fact we just start to become OK with life. We know that we desire, and we are OK with that. The key isn’t on what desires we have, or how quickly we manifest our desires, or our emotions or our thoughts or anything like that. All that becomes like the sound of children playing outside. True happiness is found and effortlessly sustained in this moment, without needing to do anything, it is.

When we are truly happy we know why we are doing what we are doing. We are not deluded as much anymore. Our life is intrinsically happy no matter what happens, we are happy, even if we don’t have the emotion of happiness, we are happy.

It being my birthday I think it is a good time to give thanks for my life so far.

I am so ever grateful on my birthday today. Twenty five years and boy I have seen so and done so much! I have a running joke with a lot of my friends where we say “kings don’t have it this good,” and they don’t. I can honestly say that much of my life I have felt this way; so grateful, so blessed.

First let give thanks first and foremost where it belongs first and foremost, my mother. I had the amazing luck to be born to a mother that always gently, securely, and lovingly lit my path without ever, once, indoctrinating me with her views. Mom, I love you.

My childhood was amazing, I grew up on the beach playing in the sand while my family surfed. I went to an amazing high school where I quickly learned that partying wasn’t my style and started meditating with my neighbors(!) around my senior year of high school.

After high school I had the privilege of going to an amazing college in the middle of the red woods. I lived in a place where the most profound and influential events life of life took place; our meditation housing CoOp we started called the Dharma Pad.

If you know me you probably have heard stories of the Dharma Pad. That place had so much love pouring out of it you could have tapped it and sold it at the farmers market. What an amazing time, and what an effect it has had on me. Those three years with those amazing people utterly and completely changed me. I am who I am now mostly because of that time spent with those friends in that house. The things we did, the memories… That house is when my journey into exponential growth started.

So many amazing times at the Dharma Pad. I couldn’t even begin to list them here. So much love. So much love, how can I even begin.

From there, I moved to Hawaii. What a blessed life I have lived! I lived in Hawaii for about 9 months or so and again had such an amazing time, that that place, those people I met there still, and will always, linger in my soul as a beautiful impression that I get to take with me everywhere.

Hawaii with its sweet tropical fruit, amazing sun rises, people and places. I am grateful for you.

After Hawaii I moved back to LA. And not just anywhere in LA, but on the ocean, in Venice! This was my view:

Now we are close to here and now. Now I live with amazing, absolutely, beautiful thriving housemates that inspire me to be better everyday. A living situation in LA like I always wanted.

From Santa Cruz, to Hawaii to Venice Beach, I have lived a blessed life.

And a blessed life I am to have more of! If the last quarter of my life was just me getting off the runway I can’t wait to see whats next.

In the end, how can I end a post on what I am grateful for without saying what I am most grateful for. My friends and family! You all shine my life with such amazing beauty, you all are the reason why I’m so happy all the time.

Love to you all. Blessings.

First let me preface this blog by saying that I am not trying to start a holy war on diets here, this is my experience and the conclusions I have come to.

A raw vegan diet is an evolved diet. A raw vegan diet leads to greater mental, emotional and physical health, let me now try and explain why I believe this to be true.

Your ability to see the truth, no matter what you are trying to become clear about is rooted in your ability to observe and your ability to notice correct cause and effect.

For example, I noticed that when I ate meat I felt one way, when I was a vegetarian I felt another way, when I was a vegan I felt yet another way, and when I ate a diet of 99% raw vegan foods I felt another way.

The key to life, as I keep pointing to again and again in my blog posts, is not strict adherence to rules or dogmas, it is self observation, self awareness.

My diet choice has been an evolution, an evolution from the Standard American Diet (SAD) to a more and more evolved diet. In my eyes one of higher and higher energy vibration:

A raw vegan diet contains foods that have the highest type of energy, closest to where most of the energy on this earth originate from, the sun.

When you eat a dead animal, you are literally putting into your body energy that has passed through at least one other animal before it got to you, the energy went through a transmutation step. The energy might have went from the sun to grass to a cow to you, therefor the energy has stepped down a level, it has been transmuted into lower vibrational standing when it went from grass to cow. So you are getting a slower, denser energy vibration when you eat a dead cow (not to mention a cooked dead cow).

Now different plants transmute the suns energy differently, as do animals. A small animal like a fish probably transmutes the energy of the sea vegetables it eats much faster than a cow, and this is probably why many “vegetarians” feel fine when eating fish, it might not be a big step down in energy levels for them to notice.

I on the other hand am very sensitive to my body and how I feel, especially now after being 3 years raw vegan and 5 years vegan.

My diet has been an evolution from eating dense slower vibration foods to one of lighter higher vibration foods.

This is one line of reasoning, not that scientific. But you can’t really argue that there is a transmutation of energy from grass to cow to human, and that going from grass to human (figuratively) does in fact take out one energy transmutation in the chain, what can probably be argued is that transmutation step makes any difference at all, it might even be argued (as it usually) that step is necessary for some reason.

Let me address these claims here. The first being that a transmutation in energy makes no difference. The key here is to define difference, difference in what? When a turkey digests its food and then you digest a turkey there is longer chain of events that take place from the suns energy to get to you, of this fact there can be no doubt. But how does this change of energy affect humans when its consumed? This seems is where most people argue about food, and where scientific literature actually has some interesting findings, so lets look at some here:

So how does eating meat affect humans?

This study from the UK points that those who eat a eat a vegetarian diet or in general more intelligent: Vegetarians are more intelligent, says study

Here is a story from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that says meat eaters are more likely to be obese than vegetarians

Vegetarianism also seems to affect mood positively says this article on Nutrition Journal

And if I really wanted to I could probably find many, many more scientific articles on vegetarianism.

Sadly, there isn’t much literature on veganism, and there is about none on raw veganism so all of my science loving friends, science just hasn’t caught up yet, so you can leave these diets in your black whole of “not enough data” for now.

I can really keep writing about this subject further, and I probably will. This blog is just me getting started laying out my arguments for a vegan diet. Not to make alienate anyone, or make people feel bad, or start some sort of comment flame war. I don’t write this to even change anyone’s dietary patterns. I’m inspired to write about this topic because its a topic that inspires me.

I just read this great blog post called: A Vegan No More. Basically it stated how a vegan of 3 years became ill and her path to how eating meat eventually cured her of her illness. I also found the comments on HackerNews quite thought provoking (as usual) in that no one there was arguing for the vegan side, most people on HackerNews were of the eat-a-little-meat-as-long-as-its-organic philosophy, which is quite a different point of view from what I normally find myself in.

I wasn’t going to write about this until someone mentioned in passing tonight that I was dogmatic about my diet, so I want to talk about that general theme of being dogmatic.

To quickly give my thoughts on nutrition while we are on the topic; I believe that nutrition is a pseudo-science at best, no one can tell you what is “best” and I believe that no one can ever know what is best for you. Only you can know what is best for you.

I am for self investigation, for observation, and deductions based on your own proven experience, especially in the realms of nutrition. Here is a great youtube video my friend and housemate did that explains it well: The Raw Food Diet Exposed

But what about this idea of being dogmatic, of being so tightly coupled to your ideology that you fail to see any other ways of doing something. Dogmatism leads to fanaticism which is basically a way of quickly discrediting all other conclusions on the topic, no matter what.

Dogmatism as we can all agree, historically, doesn’t lead us to good places. It leads to things like eugenics, and religious fundamentalist wars. At its core dogmatism is dualistic, its inherently us vs them. “Us” who are somehow right, and “them” who are somehow wrong.

There have been countless essays on why fundamentalism or dogmatism should be avoided, and interestingly enough there have been countless essays on why dogmatic fundamentalism should be embraced.

Contrary to how this blog might be going, I do not advocate for or against dogmatism. To take either side would fall into the same dualistic whole from which the “problem” of dogmatism arises.

I am reminded of a quote by Einstein:

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

We can not solve this problem of dogmatism by arguing for or against one or the other, that in itself quickly turns dogmatic.

To me there is no one train of thought, there is no one logic, there is no one way, no one book, etc, that can encapsulate the Truth.

“The Tao that can be spoken is not the Tao.”

Everyone has their own truths, everyone has their own experiences. All routes are correct and all routes are incorrect. This is not because there can be no Correct. Correct does not exist, yet it does exist at the same time.

In sum I am trying to show that truth is relative. Dogma might be correct for a time, it might be helpful, and for a time it might not be helpful. It even might be helpful to follow some other contradictory dogma, for a time. This is the world that we live in seemingly full of contradiction the moment you try and define Truth.

Really there is no use to try and argue for one point or another. Sometimes your point will be correct and sometimes it will not. You can get all fanatical about any argument but its not going to last long, truth just can’t be defined like that.

So lets realize the nature of our own fanaticism, our own dogma, our own beliefs that we all hold. Fundamentally, all our beliefs are and can never be the whole truth.

All truths that can be explained are all partial truths. The key is just to keep that in mind.

Yes we can experience the full truth, in fact we are experiencing truth RIGHT NOW. Right now, the real moment of power, is where the only real truth resides. Dwell there. Really the issue only comes up when we try and talk about the truth, or write about it, or somehow encapsulate it. You must experience it, we can only point to it, and we will point in a hundred thousand different ways, forever, pointing at that which is here and now.

When I was living in Hawaii my good friend Nick Good turned me on to the word Hawaiian word manawa. Literally translated mana means power and wa means now. Manawa is a way of interacting with life, to me it means “do it now!” It reminds me of this blog post where this lady asked when she was going to find the time to write her script and Chad basically just replied “figure it the fuck out.” I like the strength in that statement, it takes some serous mana, some serious fucking power to start doing what you want.

We are beings of habit, the law of inertia might have well been applied to humans too, because once we start doing something we tend to keep doing that. And really we started doing what we didn’t want to at a very early age, it was called school and you had to get up at ridiculously early times and do homework and things like that. And so began our movement away from doing what we wanted. Maybe after 12 to 20 years of school we finally come out with such a strong inertia towards doing what we don’t want that its actually pretty hard to stop doing what we don’t want.

It takes a healthy dose of mana to start doing what you want, but soon you will gain an inertia around doing what you want too. Ultimately in the end its all divine because to go through the cycle of finding yourself doing what you don’t want, then developing the power to do what you want, and then to finally find yourself with enough inertia that you are always doing what you want is quite a beautiful experience. This experience of re-finding yourself is probably why most of us have incarnated as humans, to experience that cycle, but I degrees.

Manawa really means that the power only exists NOW to take action. Now is forever and always the only time that exists,, if you are going to do what you want it has to be done now, not later, but now. There is no time to waste. There is no future events that need to happen first.

I’m reminded of a recent gathering we were having at our house, everyone was happily being, talking, playing music, eating raw chocolate, it was quite nice. And my friend and housemate Anna said something that really struck me, she said something like “This is what I always imagined I would be doing when I was famous.” And while Anna is pretty famous already, I understood what she meant. She thought that it would take her being really rich and having a big house and all these other things that she told herself she had to have and do before she could start doing what she wanted, but here she was, not having all these things she thought she needed first, she was just doing what she wanted now!

Manawa if you want something, its best to take action towards it now. Now is the time. Figure it the fucking out, just do it, now. Manawa is really a frame of mind, a state of being, where there are no excuses there is just this moment, you are either doing what you want or you are not.

What are you doing right now?

Much love, -W

There is actually an awareness, a beingness that is behind the activity of the mind. That beingness is ever present, and to remember our ever present connectedness to this awareness brings a tremendous amount of peace.

The awareness that I talk about is what you experience your emotions in, what you experience your thoughts in, and what you experience all your experience in, it is beingness itself.

To remember that behind all of the things that we define ourself as, that we think “make us up.” Behind all of the things that we experience and label as ME, like thoughts of being someone specific, or even emotions of happiness or sadness, BEHIND and THROUGHOUT all of these things rests a fundamental awareness that is ever present. To remember this, to remember that there is actually an awareness that holds our thoughts, feelings, and everything that we experience, is when a deep understanding and truth is revealed, this can not be described easily, or completely, it is best if it is experienced.

Its funny to ask someone to experience this state, because that seems to imply that they are not already experiencing it now, yet they are.

When the activity of our mind, or the feelings of our body, or our sense perceptions start to become identified as who you are, a duality is created, with duality happiness and suffering result.

The beautiful, amazing, awe inspiring thing about reality is that for duality to exist, it must exist in pure singularity, and in pure singularity there is such a deep awe inspiring joy and peace I cry in gratitude in realization that it is the most fundamental.

If this is all to abstract let me explain through analogy: Think of our thoughts, our emotions, our sense perceptions as the crayons in a coloring box, for us to begin to draw with the colors we must have a blank peace of paper. As we color on the paper it is as if we are experiencing life, we are having this emotion, or that thought, or these sense perceptions. As life goes by and our colors have filled up the whole paper we begin to forget what even makes all this coloring possible in the first place, it is the paper underneath. Underneath the colors there is a paper that holds all that is completely open and always present no matter what colors are there. This paper is like our awareness, our true beingeness, in which everything that we experience happens in through, and around.

To connect with our deep sense of awareness brings joy. It brings us so much peace and joy because it is whole, it is complete. It is fulfilling. It is what we most deeply want and strive for. It is fulfilling beyond words. It feels like home… You know how sometimes when you have been gone awhile and you get back home you feel this warm fuzzy feeling, you feel safe, connected, back again, its kinda like that, only more profoundly life altering.

Whats so amazing is that this state is always with us, we don’t even have to go looking for it. Its always with us. Our deepest home is ever present, behind all our experiences, to remember the paper under the colors, and to experience this deep awareness under it all, we are happy. We are home.

Enjoy.

DaveWilsonPhotography

I have a strong sense of what is right, but I don’t believe that what is right for me is right for everyone. My moral system is unique to my goals, beliefs, and life path. I don’t find the idea of a objective moral system very empowering or useful. I suggest that everyone find their own moral system and guide their lives to that. What is needed is not a blind following of any moral system, but what is needed is the creation of ones own moral system, based on ones own investigation.

It is far more effective for people to come up with their own guiding beliefs, not only will you believe them more but you will understand them and they will be a helpful addition to your life. If you take the time to investigate your beliefs and moral systems you will come to realize some very deep truths, probably even some truths that one could argue are absolute. But try as you may to communicate absolute truths you never can, for as the Tao so wonderfully says “The absolute that can be written is no the absolute.” One one experiences absolute truth it can not be explained to another, another must experience them himself. Absolute truths can not be transferred from one person to another in their completeness, gain one must feel them for himself. Someone can only point the way to that experience.

Hamed Saber

I just watched a fascinating youtube video about the relationship between work performance and monetary reward. Basically the video shows (with some very entertaining images) how increased monetary reward does NOT actually generate better performance from people in their jobs. Money doesn’t actually motivate us at all to create better things. The video goes on to explain that if we want to motivate others to create amazing things money is doesn’t help motivate. What does help motivate others is basically helping help themselves to gain a sense of meaning in their work. Meaning.

Shortly after watching the above video I watched this video by Gary V. on the shopify blog in which he said something that really struck me: “I made it…” And in the context of the interview, that means that he has made a lot of money now and is financially set, it probably also means that he is also fairly famous (heck I have read his book).

Now, take a look at that video by Gary V again. Do you really feel like he has made it? Even given his celebrity status and his million dollar business, do you really feel like he has made it? No, and neither do I. Why is this? This is the question that really struck me when I watched his interview, I didn’t really feel like he had made it at all when he said “I made it.” But at the same time I knew that in one sense of the term he had actually made it, he was famous and rich, but in another sense of the term, in a deeper, more accurate sense of the term I don’t feel like he has made it at all.

To me when I think of what it would feel like to “make it” I feel peace, I feel happiness, I feel creative, I feel inspired, and most importantly, I feel a sense of meaning in my life.

Giving and helping others feels great and gives meaning to our lives! It feels great to genuinely help and give, this is why the open source movement is so big (which is touched on in that first video).

So when I hear someone say they have made it, I don’t really care how much money or fame they have, because as we all know those things can’t make you feel everything that what we think with being on top creates, like happiness and peace. In other words gaining riches and gaining fame do not really mean that you have actually achieved the real objective of “making it.”

To “make it” means that you are happy, that you are at peace in your life, and more than anything you feel like your life is meaningful and that you are making a positive contribution to the world.

We really need to change the notion that making it means making a lot of money and becoming famous. Sure you might become rich and famous when you start to emit peace and happiness and meaning from every pore of your body, but Fame and fortune can not make you happy, peaceful or give meaning to your life.

Lets now define “making it” as when you have more peace, meaning, and happiness in your life, not when you have more money, fame, and things in your life.

So when someone says that they have made it, I wonder yea, have you really?