You’ll be dead sooner than you think. No kidding! Really! What are you doing with your life until then?
Written by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter.
A few days ago I had a brief muscle spasm in my left arm. It stopped after a short while, but not before I remembered Jill Bolte Taylor’s Stroke of Insight. I’m having a stroke (I thought!)
Anyway I’ll spare you the imagined details, but I’d momentarily convinced myself that I was probably going to die mere days after my 25th birthday.
Well, I’m still here and have regained a normal feeling arm, but there is a way that thinking about your own death can stick with you for a few days.
You can die at any moment, and it could happen at any time.
Here are a couple of meditations on death, in regards to the topics that I write about here at Far Beyond The Stars.
1. You can’t take it with you.
It’s a well known cliche at this point, when you pass on most your stuff goes in the trash. No one cares anymore. I know some people will disagree with me on this, and have stories to prove me otherwise. There will always be someone who will save a dead person’s stuff, but the majority of everyone won’t.
I’ve seen the stuff that people leave behind. Most of it only has meaning to the deceased.
2. Being safe won’t save you.
So many people live their lives in fear of dangerous things happening to them. In some cases this is justifiable fear, but in a lot of cases it’s not. Staying inside your house won’t save you from death, it will lead to you dying inside from not seeing the world.
Get out and live your life, every single day.
3. Do the best with the time you have.
You only have so much time, do your best with it. If you aren’t happy with your situation, you need to start making a change. Sitting around complaining about it won’t make a difference.
Try to spend every day working toward your ideal reality.
4. Buying stuff is not living your life.
I know, the advertisers tell you otherwise every single day. This is why you should destroy your TV, because the ads are making you feel inadequate, so you go out to the store and buy another pair of shoes. You only need one pair of shoes, make it a good pair and they’ll last you three years. In truth, your consumption is destroying the planet, so stop doing it.
Going to the store does not equal living your life. Instead, seek experiences over consumption, and you’ll be much happier with your life.
5. What would you do if you only had a week to live?
I love this exercise, even if it’s so morbid. Steve Jobs lives his life as if every day is the last, and look at what he’s managed to accomplish.
Take a moment and dreamline what you’d do, if you had only a week to live. Actually write this down. Chances are it won’t involve sitting at a desk waiting until 5pm. Can you make every day into your last week? Imagine how much happier you’d be.
6. Having less can encourage you to find peace and happiness inside yourself.
When you remove all the clutter, you have a huge opportunity to search for the depth of ordinary existence. Many people fill up their lives with junk, because we’ve been taught by advertising that buying stuff will make us happy. It doesn’t do anything but give you a momentary spark of adrenalin.
When you remove all the nonsense, you start to see the wisdom at the basis of reality. This is very hard work, but I believe that every has the ability to ask these questions of themselves. Trust me, the answers are worth seeking.
As for me, I’m going to do my best to create my ideal reality every day.
At the moment, I’m listening to a live string quartet at Tea Lounge in Brooklyn. It’s beautiful.
Today might be my last, I want it to be a good one. Don’t you?
Ash has thoughts on this as well.
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Write a few sentences about your last week on earth and leave it in the comments, if you feel comfortable. I’d love to hear how you’ll spend it.
Retweet this story if it helped you. Thank you so much.
Karol Gajda can teach you to be free.
Written by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter.
Some people are content to live their lives in three places 95% of the time.
They valiantly wake up every morning, put on clothes, and walk the five steps to their car.
They fire it up and drive to work, where they spend twelve hours checking Facebook and doing what they’re told.
Then they go home, exhausted.
Once a year they hop aboard a flight to a cheap beach somewhere and spend a few days getting sunburned and sipping tequila.
Does that life sound familiar?
These people have convinced themselves that this is the only reality. There is no other option but to maintain the status-quo and deal.
Until they get to retire at some point impossibly far into the future, after they’ve wasted their youth. Then what?
Well you might be taking that path, but it’s not the only option.
There are people who’ve decided to opt out of this life sentence of working until you die.
These people want to teach you how to free yourself (if you want to.)
I want to introduce you to my friend Karol Gajda.
Karol went from having the house and an expensive car to living and working from anywhere in very little time.
Currently he’s teaching people how to attain his level of freedom over at Ridiculously Extraordinary. He just made a guitar with his bare hands in India! How awesome is that?
You can do this too, Karol can teach you how.
A few weeks ago Karol emailed me a Minimalist Quick Start Guide based off my work in The Art of Being Minimalist.
I’ve delayed too long in releasing it, so I’m just going to put it up here now!
The Minimalist Quick Start Guide explains Karol’s own journey towards living a minimalist life free from the confines of society’s expectation. It’s awesome, it’s free.
Download Karol Gajda’s Minimalist Quick Start Guide for free.
Definitely check out Karol’s work at Ridiculously Extraordinary.
I interviewed Karol a few months ago.
How adopting a minimalist approach of unautomating your finances can get you out of debt.
Interview by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter.
Adam Baker and his daughter Milligan
If anyone can teach you the skills to get yourself out of debt, it’s Adam Baker of the blog Man Vs. Debt.
Over the last year, Baker, his wife Courtney, and their daughter Milligan, paid off all of their consumer debt, sold all of their ‘crap’, and traveled to Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand. Now they’re back in Indiana, and Baker has written an amazing and simple e-book on taking control of your financial situation.
I don’t talk much about finances her on my blog, usually my advice is quite simple: stop buying stupid stuff, start living your life.
Luckily, Baker goes into a great deal more depth in his new e-book Unautomate Your Finances: A Simple, Passionate Approach to Money.
I’ve been a huge fan of Baker’s, before I even started writing Far Beyond The Stars. His writing on Man Vs. Debt and as a contributing writer on Get Rich Slowly helped inspire me during my own journey towards minimalism.
My favorite part of the Unautomate Your Finances is Baker’s signature 2-page minimalist budgeting system, which is the simplest method I’ve seen to force yourself to acknowledge the money you’re actually spending during every transaction.
Today, I’m honored to present this interview I did with Baker over the weekend. We discussed the benefits of Unautomation, the danger of subscriptions, and how Baker sold all his ‘crap’ and traveled the world with his family.
Everett Bogue: Your e-book is called Unautomate Your Finances, and your theory of Unautomation is heavily discussed throughout the e-book. How can Unautomation help get you out of debt?
Adam Baker: Unautomation is simply any time you are willing to trade convenience in for increased consciousness (basically the opposite of what we do when we automate). It can help people get out debt in many ways!
First, it raises awareness of our situations. This is often the first obstacles in coming to grips with just how destructive debt can be in our lives. Unautomation also encourages us to focus on one goal at a time. Often, we never pay off our debt, because we are juggling so many of our “expected” responsibilities. We may be expected to live a certain life, save a certain amount, or do a certain set of things.
By ramping up and honing in our focus, we can start to really chew away at our debt.
Everett: What is one powerful way to Unautomate your finances?
Baker: In the guide I cover at least 27 “core action steps”. However, one of my favorites is adopting a simple budget.
Courtney and I primarily budget by hand, using two sheets of paper and a very straight forward system. It’s worked wonders for us and budgeting this way is not only easy, but it raises our awareness more than any other method!
Everett: I love your approach to stuff (sell your crap) in UYS. How can a healthy relationship with stuff help you get out of debt?
Baker: Excess stuff creates all sorts of burdens. Clutter begets more clutter. And excess stuff takes space to store and money to maintain. It trains us to want more and more. Look, there’s nothing wrong with having possessions, but like you pointed out we’ve crossed the healthy point as a society.
As a bonus, most of us can generate up several hundred dollars (or even more) when we go to actually purge our possessions. This can be used to aggressively attack our other goals!
Everett: What are some of the things that you got rid of when you were downsizing?
Baker: Oh gosh… Well, we really got rid of everything! We started with big obvious things… excess furniture, electronics, a television, and even one of our cars. But we kept going! Eventually we took what was an apartment full of crap and turned it into two backpacks to start our travels.
We’ve accumulated some more stuff since coming back home, but we’re desperately trying to fend off our urges to consume. 
Everett: You talk in your e-book about how subscriptions can take an unnoticed toll on our finances. What are some of the unnecessary subscriptions that we sign up for?
Baker: Cell phone contracts, cable services, rental leases, magazines, newspapers, online apps, widgets, bells, whistles, monitoring services, etc…
Let me be very clear, though. There are plenty of cases where subscriptions are necessary and/or desirable! My suggestion is to mentally purge your subscriptions and start from scratch. Examine them all and figure out which ones you really want/need.
Also, be sure to look for creative solutions and/or alternatives to avoid them (this is sometimes not hard at all). Be careful of signing long-term contracts on anything. 2-3 months from now your “necessary” expense could quickly become not so important!
Everett: Leo Babauta discusses in the forward of Unautomate Your Finances about how he used many Unautomation techniques to get himself out of debt, but now he’s back to automation. At what point do you think it’s acceptable, or even advantageous, to go back to automating your finances?
Baker: I think automation is extremely powerful when applied to healthy, sustainable finances habits and when it is reevaluated on a regular basis. But we have to be careful of looking at automation as a solution to our problems or financial issues. It’s not a solution. It can be a powerful tool, but it only magnifies the existing habits we have!
Installing the empowering habits in the first place often takes the opposite of automation!
Everett: Thanks so much for this opportunity Baker. Good luck with your e-book launch!
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Adam Baker’s new e-book Unautomate Your Finances: A Simple, Passionate Approach to Money is available now for only $17.
Because I’m a huge supporter of Adam Baker’s work, I’ve decided to become an affiliate for his work. 50% of the sale price goes to support my work here at Far Beyond The Stars.
If this interview helped you, I’d love if you could share it with anyone you know who’s having trouble with their finances.
Thank you.
Special Launch-day Bonus (March 9th ONLY!): I’ve just been informed that the first 100 people to purchase the e-book get access to UStream with Baker himself, where he will discuss any questions you have about the e-book and finances in general. Don’t miss out!
We need you to change the world
Written by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter.
Over the last week the popularity of Far Beyond The Stars has skyrocketed (again). I don’t pay attention to stats often, but needless to say, they’ve gone way up. My traffic and subscriber count continues to double every month.
This ongoing success all because of you, the people who support these ideas.
Today I’m releasing a brief free e-book that I wrote over the last week. It’s a short 20 pages, and it covers what I believe are the basics of how to create a movement online.
Disclaimer: This e-book is completely free, and released under a creative commons license. You will not be asked to give me your email, or subscribe to a newsletter when you download it. It contains no affiliate links, and is not intended for any purpose other than to help you learn to create a movement.
How to Create a Movement by Everett Bogue
Download the free e-book, How to Create a Movement.
This e-book isn’t for everyone. If you’re content to sit at home, watch TV, and embrace the status-quo… well, you won’t find much information that helps you here.
How to Create a Movement is for people who want to help people, support themselves through their art, and change the world.
Why I wrote How to Create a Movement.
I continue to get emails from smart people who are seeking change, who want to learn my ’secrets’ to making money online. There are no secrets, but I hope this can help.
I believe that the easiest way to find success online is through creating or joining a movement. A movement is anything that seeks to change the world in a small way. There are a number of mediums you can use to create one. Some create a movement through art, others through music, speaking.
I choose to create a movement through words and ideas.
I hope this e-book can help you start your own movements. I hope that it helps you find greater success in your life. Most of all, I hope it helps you change the lives of others.
Thank you for all of your support over the last few months, it’s been a wonderful experience so far. I have a feeling the next few months we’re going to see even more powerful changes.
Download the free e-book, How to Create a Movement.
If this e-book helps you, I have two simple requests:
- Help spread the word. You can do this using the retweet button, or any way you should choose.
- Let me know what you think. Please leave a comment below, find me on twitter or contact me. I’d love to hear what you think.
-Everett Bogue
Special thanks to Chris O’Byrne for his editing expertise.
Many people don’t succeed for a simple reason: they set their sights too low.
Written by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter.
If you caught me a year ago and asked me whether I could have left my job, started a very small business, and would be earning enough passive income to live in New York City in only one year’s time, I would have told you that you were crazy.
And yet, here I am, doing all of those things.
In July of 2009, I set a series of seemingly unrealistic expectations, (to myself at the time), all of which have come true in a remarkably short period of time.
The reason is simple: it’s lonely at the top.
99% of the people in the world are content to exist within the confines of their own settled mediocrity. The boredom of sitting under florescent lights all day begins to set in over time. Their current situation burns into their psyche, and they stagnate.
The thought of rejecting the status-quo scares the crap out of them.
It starts with the idea that you have to be realistic. Everyone knows a horde of people who either are being realistic or will tell you to be realistic. Well, these people are wrong. They’re blinded by their own passivity.
They’ve given up. They’re walking zombies. You don’t want to be one of these people.
And more importantly, don’t listen to these people.
They call them worker drones for a reason. These people are not being compared to busy bees, they’re being compared to The Borg.
Does this sound familiar? When you look at yourself in the mirror are you beginning to see the last remnants of life seeping out of your soul?
It’s never too late to start having unreasonable expectations for yourself.
You can make a change, you can make a difference in your own life and the lives of others.
Since I’ve already achieved my “unrealistic” goal of living and working from anywhere and earning at least $30,000 a year (by current approximations) it’s time to up the ante.
Here’s my new unreasonable goal: By this time next year I want to earn $100,000 a year, in addition to all of the other accomplishments I’ve unrealistically achieved over the last four months.
I don’t want to do this so I can spend it all on hookers and plasma TV’s. Because of my minimalist lifestyle, I’ve estimated that I can live comfortably making around $25,000. When I make this unrealistic amount of money, I will use it to help as many people as I can achieve exactly what I did. This blog will teach how to achieve everything that I’ve accomplished.
But enough about my unrealistic goals, and more about yours.
Here are 13 ways to start thinking about achieving unrealistic success.
1. Set at least one unrealistic goal to achieve in the next year. I’ve become a firm believer that everyone should set unrealistic goals for themselves. Take a moment and think, draw, write down your unrealistic goals. For reference: last year my unrealistic goal was to work from anywhere, quit my job, and move to another city. Done. Done. Done.
2. Map out your ideal life. So you’ve set your unrealistic goals, now you need to visualize them. Tim Ferriss calls this practice Dreamlining. It’s the idea of mapping out your unrealistic ideal life. On that piece of paper, start adding more details to the unrealistic world you’re creating. Do you want to be sipping margaritas on the beach? Swigging wine with Colin Wright in New Zealand? Training to run marathon? Ask the girl of your dreams out on a date? Write it all down: but please, do NOT be realistic.
3. Change your career. Have you always wanted to be a writer? A photographer? A chef? Now is the time to make that change in your life. Now, I don’t want you to be an ordinary member of these careerists. I want you to think unrealistically: contemplate how you can rise to become the best in your field in just one year, using very few resources. It’s hard, but possible.
4. Remove the floor. Many people exist with a constant safety net to catch them if they fall. What if you remove that net? Take it away, and then start to have unreasonable expectations for yourself. The Bahamas or the gutter, which will it be? You’ll have no choice to fly to the top, because there are no other options.
5. Be unrealistic about what you don’t need. Just like thinking about what you unrealistically want, but the opposite. What can you survive without? Basically, everything. You can live in a room, eat Brussels sprouts and be happy. It’s very hard to hit the bottom when you have big ambitions. Trust me, I’ve tried to hit the bottom.
6. Learn a new skill that you never thought you could master. When I was 16, I decided that I had to go to New York. The only way I could see to do that, at the time, was to become a professional ballet dancer. So, I took 14-17 dance classes a week for months on end. I lost 40lbs and became a vegetarian. Eventually I auditioned for NYU’s Tisch dance department and was one of 24 dancers accepted into their program. I did the same routine with this blog. What can you train to do that’s theoretically impossible?
7. Gatejump your way to unrealistic success. The last 150 years were defined by Gatekeepers. These were the head honchos in charge. A few television networks, newspapers, and publishing houses had all of the power. But no longer: everything has changed. If you’re still waiting for a Gatekeeper to come along and let you in, you’re going to be waiting a long time. We now live in a bottom-up media society, and everyone has the power to develop a following on the Internet. These Tribes are the basis for our existence. These people who support you are your power. How can you harness your tribe to Gatejump your way to success?
9. Leave your old life behind. Over time we humans get sedentary. We have our old friends, our old habits, and we keep returning to them. Where do you want to go? Who do you be? I’m going to live in Oakland California, and I’m going to be a blogger who earns $100,000 a year.
10. Ignore everybody. People will nay-say you into oblivion, and they are not to be trusted. Do not listen to negative opinions or influences. You are able to accomplish anything if you put your mind to it. And ultimately, it doesn’t matter anyway, because nothing you do matters. Man has gone to the moon, you can leave your day job, trust me.
11. Concentrate on existing systems to amplify your unrealistic success. One of the biggest mistakes that people make when they’re being unrealistic is to try and build everything from the ground up. Don’t! There are tools available to amplify your success. Use social media to have a 1:100 connection with your Tribe. Use a blog to publish big ideas. Use automated services to make your income come without effort. Nothing can stop you if you use tools that already exist.
12. Quit early and often. If you’re unrealistic and it’s not working, don’t be afraid to change course. There’s a huge difference between being unrealistic and being a stubborn numb-nut. Set your sights above 99% of the population, but don’t be stupid. If you’re in The Dip, push on, if you’re just failing constantly, learn to abandon your projects and focus on ones that have a chance of success.
13. Read books about achieving unrealistic success. I owe a great deal of my success to the work of a couple of authors. I’d suggest reading these books, as they will help you start to think bigger about what you can actually accomplish. There are no doubt many more books that will encourage you to think unrealistically, these are just a few of my inspirations. Linchpin by Seth Godin. The Power of Less by Leo Babauta. The 4 Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith.
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It’s my birthday today. I’m 25. The best gift you could give me is to purchase a copy of The Art of Being Minimalist. It’s only $9.95.
If you’ve already purchased the book, thank you so much. I’d love it if you could email your copy to five friends.
Thank you.
