This Week
- Some of the rewarding conversations I had this week.
- The unexpected message I got from someone and how it happened.
- My honest and raw thoughts on growth and change.
May 2025
| Su | M | T | W | Th | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 5/1 | 2 | 3 |
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
Where In The World Was I?
- 🇮🇩 Bali, Indonesia
Metrics From The Week
Instagram use is now overtaking YouTube usage. I haven’t really been watching YouTube much lately. I eat lunch pretty quickly then get back to working.
Instagram now on the other hand… I mean, I don’t really scroll that much, most of this is probably posting and a good handful of opening up the app to check likes/views/messages.
Business
Nothing much to update this week. Been working on my last 3 reports. Got two delivered and one halfway through.
For all of you shouting at your laptops right now, I’ll touch on my new mindset in the Thoughts From The Week section.
In other news, I heard back from the creator whose video did extremely well.
This translates to something like $250 with another possible $1500 from the coaching discovery call, who is also a qualified lead because she put a form in front of it.
From one video 😏😏😏
Reinvesting
I decided to join Dan Bolton’s Inner Circle community this week. I resonate with his approach to life and business model. I figured if I don’t get immediate value, I’d use it for the next step of my journey.
Am I his target customer, someone with a $10k/mo business looking to scale to $50k-$100k/mo? Uh, no not yet 😉
I feel VERY unqualified to be in there, but I’m at a point where I need to start breaking down the limiting beliefs that are holding me back.
Focus
Despite being complimented by multiple people on my routine and focus, I’m definitely not working as much as I have previously (Da Nang, KL, etc.). I’m getting decent work done, but it’s been a bit of struggling knowing what I could be doing.
Snaps From The Week
Socializing
Redirection
I had a great coaching-style conversation with a friend (fitness coach) here one night.
It started with “hey can you look at my new LinkedIn profile”
But he had like 3 tabs open with half-completed applications for remote copywriting jobs.
I was like “what are these?”
He started explaining how he really just wanted to be able to “pay the bills” with some easy remote work, but has been struggling to get clients for his fitness coaching.
I basically told him look, I don’t know your financial situation, but you HAVE a fitness coaching business, you’ve already had clients AND gotten them results, and fitness coaching is literally your passion and what you want to do… Why the f- are you not doubling down on that?
We ended up chatting for the next maybe 45 minutes, uncovering what was holding him back from being able to get clients.
And midway through he goes “… this is very therapeutic, you should be a therapist”
😂😂😂😂🤦♂️🤦♂️
I’m like “I can count on six hands how many times I’ve heard this”
Anyways, there’s so much other context and things we talked about, but it was a great conversation. He ended saying something like “man, this was really transformational for me…”
🤝🤝🤝
I’m not quite sure how to pin the feeling but it’s some mixture of interesting and meaningful knowing that when I was here in Bali last time (end of 2023), literally in the same place (Tribal), I basically did the same thing with someone else (The Week I Considered Changing My Entire Career Path (Again), December 10th, 2023)
After lots of conversations and many questions asked, we got into talking about her struggles with prioritization and time management. And at some point I asked a simple “why?” question and she went… *pauses* “do we really want to get into my childhood? 😄” That was a big moment for me, knowing that she felt comfortable enough to share something vulnerable that she’s only shared with a select few of people (particularly, her therapist 😄).
I haven’t rewatched this DailyV I made but I think I explained more about this here: People keep saying I ask good questions, this is what I do (+5 tips)
I was thinking more about this, and aside from what I talked about, I don’t know if I could really teach someone how to do this.
I don’t want to come across that I’m a master coach and flawless, but I’ve had enough of these conversations to have a foundation of tangible evidence to stand on that there’s something I do that other people don’t do that actually makes a difference.
I attribute almost all of it down to curiosity. And can you teach someone natural curiosity? I dunno.
Community Dinner
I went to a community dinner this week.
Met some cool people!
But one of the girls there goes “wait a second, I recognize you…”
“I saw this picture that went viral on this Chinese social media app a couple months ago”
She pulls out her phone and shows me the picture (in the back at the high table)
Oh my god that is me 😂😂😂😂
She was like “you sit in the same place as last time” 😂
(taken from my perspective just now)
It would take me a minute to explain why I sit here, but it’s basically the best seat because you can sit OR stand and it’s furthest away from the edge. I got sun burned last time sitting at the edge even though it’s in the shade.
I thought this was hilarious
Inbound Leads
So last Sunday I went to Nirvana (big shocker), but just for a rest day (sauna+ice bath) and to see if I could meet anyone new.
I missed at least 2 opportunities to at least ask for someone’s name in the sauna, so I went to sit by the pool a little disappointed. That’s the easiest way to meet people there.
I sat by the pool for I dunno, maybe 30-45 minutes. Put my headphones in for some time.
Made some eye contact with a couple people but nothing else.
Left feeling a little disappointed I didn’t make any “progress.”
But I posted a story and tagged Nirvana that they reposted.
Then the next morning I see like 6 new people follow me and I get this DM from this girl.
We’ve leveled up to inbound leads now! 🤣
So it WAS worth going.
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Dinner With Da Boys
We went to Woods and had some HILARIOUS conversation. Man I haven’t laughed that hard in a while. Such great energy between the three of us.
This content is not ready to be made public yet.
Fighting Fires
This content is not ready to be made public yet.
Uh
So I went to Nirvana on Friday night? Just went for recovery.
Went to the pool again and after some repeated eye contact, started a convo with this girl in the pool, “what are you listening to?”
“A voice note from my mentor”
“Ah nice! … What’s it about”
She pauses, laughs, then goes “uh… spirituality, tantra, and sexual energy”
I’m like 😅 “Oh!…” “Interesting!” 😂
Hahaha after a bit of an awkward moment, we continue the conversation, get past the “where are you from” and “how long are you here for”
45 minutes later… We talked about her very in-depth journey (more like, she shared her journey) with spirituality, religion, and sexual “awakening” that she went through.
I’ll spare you the details 😂
But it was the most unexpected conversation I think I’ve ever had. She was incredibly open about it.
Felt like a very “Bali energy” type of conversation 😂
Thoughts From The Week
202505290907 Validation isn’t the problem, it’s expectation for validation
202505290907 Validation isn't the problem, it's expectation for validation
#journal #expectations
So in my last life update blog post, I wrote about how the shirtless social media pictures and stories have kind of thrown my mental health through a roller coaster.
I just had a thought that I wanted to a share here
See the shirtless and whatever thirst-trapping and good looking Instagram stories, I get a lot of validation and likes and story views and whatever.
And I find myself checking Instagram more
Well this morning, I just posted a story with a little bit of a meme that I thought would get some laughing emojis from people
And in checking the story like an hour after I posted, I've realized that the problem here with Instagram, the problem with the validation is not in the validation and the likes...
The problem where it gets into detracting to my mental health is the _expectation FOR likes and validation_
And so the problem comes when I open up Instagram and I have an _expectation_ of seeing people like the story or laugh, or _expecting_ the story to get X number of views _and it doesn't_
It's like when you get a test back in school that you KNEW you smashed and you get an 85. Versus the test you KNEW you failed... and you get an 85.
And see the problem with this validation loop is the only way to continue to satisfy this mental desire is to continue to always progress up and get more views and more likes and more story views.
If that always happened and it was always ever increasing, then there would be no downside but this is just not feasible.
So, you were right past Peter (from 2020) [[202012072130 Expectations create disappointment]]
202505302217 It’s not worth it
202505302217 It's not worth it
#journal #sexual_energy
So we ([guys at dinner]) were chatting about women last night at woods. [name] was saying how being in a shared dorm has essentially made it harder to whack off and so he hasn't. But that's made him so much more confident and socially confident.
I was like wow this is literally the same takeaway and learning I had last time I was here.
But he slept with a girl last night.
And I chatted with him just now. I went, how was it?
And he goes something like, "honestly I don't think it was worth it." He was explaining that basically by releasing, he hasn't felt as interested in people today.
He was chatting with two Italian girls today and "it just didn't feel the same," felt more awkward, not as interested.
And then he goes (kind of softens his voice), "that energy that you get..." "I kind of want to keep that."
I thought woowwwww, this is fascinating. I mean I've had the same learnings, but to hear it from him too? Very interesting...
And I'll throw in here as well. I met [tantra girl at Nirvana] tonight, we go into talking about spiritually and sexual energy and sex.
I asked her if her view on casual sex has changed, since she used to be religious, but left the church, went full feminist freedom "my body my choice" type of thing, then back to the spirituality "my body is a temple" idea.
She was explaining how she now believes casual sex is a bad thing (for both parties). That you hold energy for years, and for men they need challenge and growth and women shouldn't just open up so easily.
Fascinating...
202505310959 The business and life ultimatum
202505310959 The business and life ultimatum
#journal #self-worth #business #limitingbeliefs
So I don't really know where this came from, but I want to capture this thought I just had after my chat with [friend] and pull on it.
I feel this feeling,
Stop giving away free work.
Stop giving yourself away.
The next person who asks for YouTube strategy help, you either chat with them, give them 30 minutes of your time, or they pay you.
That's it.
No more of this in-depth 14 hours spent analyzing their channel with no ROI.
You're better than this.
You have value to provide already.
Enough of this self-worth bullshit.
## Context
I just had a chat with [friend] for like 2 hours. She wanted to know how my coffee dates have gone in the last week, it was a fun conversation sharing the stories.
Maybe it came from this, she shared that she signed her first client and that she just officially offered intuitive reading sessions and her friend invited her to speak at her event this weekend.
My parents have also pushed me to do this, which might also be contributing. My Dad last week was like "tell your clients to pay you for these reports."
And maybe on top of yesterday, deciding to invest in Dan Bolton's Inner Circle.
But I'm almost associating it with [friend]'s energy, feeling inspired from her. Feeling this almost masculine reaction to her, to step up and into my full self.
I don't know how close to the truth this is, but it sure is a useful story to believe.
202505311006 Feeling more dopamine sensitive lately
202505311006 Feeling more dopamine sensitive lately
#journal #dopamine #feeling
Just a feeling to capture lately.
I feel more sensitive to music.
It sounds different.
It _feels_ different.
If _feels_ good.
And I keep finding myself reacting, going to YouTube Music to play something for the _feeling_.
## Context
It's been I dunno, 2 weeks on [SR], maybe 4-5 weeks with 1 release in there.
DEFINITELY a result of this, which is also contributing to the higher self-confidence lately.
Pretty sure I've captured this same thought/feeling before and it was probably when I was in Bali last, _also_ when I was on [SR] lol.
202506010739 Become unrecognizable
202506010739 Become unrecognizable
#journal
Good morning. I'm sitting here at Honey drinking a double espresso before my second date with [name] for brunch today.
Thought I'd do some reflecting.
I'm not sure how to categorize these yet but I've started accumulating these learnings and realizations lately.
Testosterone:
- I saw a post from Bryan Johnson on his testosterone levels and I remembered back to my own. But thinking about how much of my life has changed even in just the last 4 weeks is crazy. I FEEL more masculine and that my testosterone is higher. Getting sunlight daily, maybe a bit too much lol I'm a little bit pink. Going on dates with women. Working hard. Eating clean. Getting good sleep. Like bruh.
Life
- I also just look back at my past self and think man, he wouldn't even recognize this version of me. Talking to people at Tribal, waving to women that are waving back to me (even if I haven't talked to them yet). Chatting with guys like [names], meeting and chatting with other people like [name] last night and this morning, the ultra marathon guy.
- And that's not even to start to talk about me in the gym. Bro my physique is getting crazy and I feel like I haven't even made that much actual progress yet. [name] has been complimenting me in my physique at the gym and how different I look compared to just a couple years ago. [name] came over to chat for 10 min last night and we were talking about the gym and places like wrong gym and Nirvana. He was like there's a certain level of physique you need to go there, "my physique isn't like yours."
- I remember [name] kept watching back his own stories and reels and stuff. We were making fun of him for doing that... But over the last week I've started doing that same exact thing... Like bruh, I see my own gym stories and I'm like GODDAMN I'd [inappropriate word] me 😂
Travels
- I was on my phone a bit too long last night in bed before my journaling. I ended up scrolling back through my own Instagram feed, looking at all my past photos but also even my recent 9 photos since I got back on Instagram. I couldn't help but think fuck, what a life bro. *in your best [name] voice* Like what the FUCK bro.
Confidence
- And then my conversation with [name] yesterday morning. I just FEEL different. The amount of self confidence I have right now is insane. *in your best [name] voice* Man it's IN-SANE. And I attribute almost all of this to [SR]. Dude my banter back and forth with [name] was fucking HYSTERICAL. And as I was explaining to [name], I think this has also come down to coming from a position of not _needing._ If the coffee date goes poorly, it's okay it wasn't a good long term fit anyway. If she doesn't respond to my message, no worries I've got two other girls I'm talking to right now.
- I was telling [name] I'm interested to see what happens when I meet a girl who DOES check all the boxes and I'm like fuck wait don't mess this one up this time 😂
Retention
- [redacted, I've already shared enough here 😂]
Escalation
- [redacted, I've already shared enough here 😂]
Food From The Week
I’ve been eating basically the same thing every day so I stopped taking pictures. Just imagine something like this:
What’s Next?
Why should be there a next if life’s already good? Ya know?