From Within

Every person is a monument to the human spirit.

I have always believed that if you pursue something whole heartedly everything will work out. Yet here I was in the middle of the desert overwhelmed by the weight of my credit card debt, reeling from a co-founder blow out, and feeling like I had put everything on the line and failed.

I was in Black Rock City having one of those moments that only Burning Man can provide – an absolute moment of truth. I was broke and living in my car on the streets of San Francisco. The start up which I had poured my heart into for the last three years was on thin ice and had one remaining employee – me. I had no idea what I was going to do when I got back to San Francisco.

The theme of Burning Man that year was Rites of Passage. In many ways 2011 had felt like a rite of passage. The year started with me feeling broken hearted from a break up, losing $40,000 through a unpaid loan to a friend, and moving into my car to save money. Here I was, eight months later, still hanging on to what life remained in Heartbeat by the edge of my fingertips.

In his book, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” Viktor Frankl posits that a person’s sense of purpose is more important than any quality of life they may or may not enjoy. The meaning that we feel in our lives is the true determinant of quality. I would go further to say that following one’s heart, that which is most important to us, is what gives our lives true meaning.

That year in the desert I was having a crisis of meaning when a profound epiphany crossed my mind. I envisioned a world where human beings lived in harmony with one another – with no war and no poverty. A world where we treasure each other and embrace our humanity. As I experienced this flash of insight into the future of our planet, I felt from the bottom of my heart that what I imagined was actually possible.

I had never given peace much thought before that moment, yet here I came to believe that world peace is absolutely possible and attainable within my lifetime. By the end of Burning Man, I had set my mind on moving to New York City and finding a way to work on making the world a more peaceful place.

Coming back to San Francisco, I had a very clear sense of purpose and absolutely no sense of direction. My credit cards were all getting maxed out, I had failed at raising money for Heartbeat, and I wasn’t sure if I could figure out a way to align my startup with my new found aspiration. I think most of my friends thought that I had fallen off the deep end at Burning Man.

I spent a lot of time contemplating the concept of peace. What would it take for humanity to co-exist peacefully on this planet? I felt certain this was something more basic than humanitarian work, economic policy, or government treaties.

The conclusion that came to me was simple yet felt the most true. World peace starts with people doing what they love. When we truly love ourselves, we value our energy, and our time becomes more valuable than money. When our time is more valuable than money we’re only willing to do things motivated by love. And when we’re motivated for the right reasons, all of a sudden the reasons for engaging in negative behaviors dissolve. If every person on the planet could feel this way, the world would be a much better place.

In a previous incarnation, Heartbeat had been focused on providing marketing services to fitness professionals. Having interviewed dozens of independent professionals over the previous year, I suddenly realized that they were all saying the same thing: making a living doing what you love can be really hard. The practical aspects of being a one person business can mean a person has to spend a lot of time struggling to do things that have nothing to do with their true passion. Wouldn’t it be amazing if a company took this idea to heart and focused on empowering people to be successful doing what they love?

Heartbeat is just getting started with a very small piece of the puzzle. We’ve built a strong team and managed to raise money from amazing investors. We’re working with independent merchants to help them connect with local customers and community. As consumers, when we do business with people that love what they do we support an economy based on a more conscious and sustainable way of life. The transaction takes on more meaning, and the experience becomes just as important as the product. All of a sudden we’re not just buying something, we’re supporting a human being.

Love is deep concept with many interpretations. I’ve come to settle on the definition that love is whatever brings us closer to peace. It is my belief that when we do what we love, we are more likely to be at peace with ourselves. When we are at peace with ourselves, we can be agents for peace in the world at large. Together we can heal the world one human being at a time.

Thank you.

Thank you Robot Heart and Lee Burridge.

I aspire to cultivate a deeper sense of service in my everyday actions. Service is the rendering of action for the benefit of others. The only way to truly deliver value to others is to be completely present.

On a deeper level, it comes down to serving the moment and valuing what I bring to each moment. In this life, is not time our most precious commodity? Everything else can be bought and bartered, but time alone affords no replacement. How I manage my time is the most important decision I can make.

For me, the key to managing my time well is starting my day in the right way. If I wake up at 6 am in a rested state of mind and complete my morning ritual I have a productive day. My morning routine is about four hours long and involves exercise, meditation, eating breakfast, as well as doing some inspirational reading, writing, and thinking. It’s a consistent process that I go through each day to set the trajectory of my day. Most importantly, it puts me in a proactive state of mind instead of a reactive one.

I have found that successfully cultivating discipline in the morning is a function of creating the right conditions the night before. Settings a plan for my day, preparing my clothes, preparing breakfast. I wake up and I don’t have to think. More importantly, I don’t give myself a chance to think about all the reasons I’d rather stay in bed or waste time.

If I manage my time properly, I can make time to enjoy time. I can be more fully present in each moment without thinking about the previous one or the next one. If I can be more present, I can truly serve.

In the broadest sense, serving the moment is about being the best that I can be right now so that I can serve others in the best possible way. Being the best I can be right now means having all of my attention completely focused on the present. Otherwise, I’m just selling myself, the moment, and everyone around me short.

Peace, love, and happiness have a reputation for being touchy-feely hippy values, but aren’t they just basic human values?  Shouldn’t we all aspire to find love in our heart for ourselves and each other?  Doesn’t every human want peace?  And when you come down to what we really want from our lives, isn’t it happiness?

At its core, peace is a state of non-violence.  When that core is cultivated, peace is a state of harmony.  That peaceful harmony is the product of love.  Love has many definitions, but at its simplest it is acceptance.  It is whatever brings you closer to peace, both within yourself and around you.

Loving yourself translates to respecting yourself.  It means that you’re not willing to lie, cheat, steal, hurt others, or misrepresent yourself in any way.  When you can be true to yourself and accept yourself the way you are, you get to a state of inner peace.

Inner peace doesn’t mean that you are complacent and don’t push yourself to be better at the things you want to do.  Rather it creates the conditions from which your heart can best operate.  It removes the friction between you and what you want to do and when you follow your heart you’re more likely to be happy.

Doing what you love can be challenging.  Often it requires you to let go of fear.  Transcending your self-imposed limitations can be very uncomfortable.  It is through being willing to experience that discomfort – through being devoted to your heart – that you can rise to meet your full potential.

Being human isn’t easy.  You can embrace your humanity by making the effort to be true to yourself and recognizing how hard it can be for others to do the same.  We are all human.  We all struggle to find our way to be happy in this world.

Acknowledging this is the seed of external peace.  When that seed is planted you see the benefit in serving those around you.  You come to inner peace by loving and accepting yourself.  You find happiness by being true to yourself and following your heart.  Finally, you create peace around you by serving others and helping them do the same.

Serving others doesn’t necessarily mean doing charity work and volunteering.  It means serving the moment.  Every time you engage with another human being, ask yourself – how can I serve this person?  So often we think – what can I get out of this situation?  Inevitably we create a path to stress and frustration.  When you ask, what can I give to this situation, you create a path to mutual gain and peace.

Undoubtedly, modern life can feel more like survival of the fittest than peace, love, and happiness.  Ultimately though, you create the world you want to live in.  You decide what is important to you and the attitude you bring to every moment.  It isn’t about big decisions or completely changing your life, it’s about putting thought into all the little things that you do every day.  You have the power to be the change you want to see in the world.  It all starts with you.

Listen to the lyrics.

Love is acceptance.  It is whatever brings you closer to peace, both inside and outside of you.  Love is following your heart because that will bring you to inner peace.  Love is serving others because that is what will bring you to outer peace.

World peace starts with you.  It’s a decision to be completely true to yourself.  Only through that truth can you have a positive impact on the planet.  If you are not true to yourself, if you are lying or holding yourself back, how can you expect to make the world a better place?

When you take away the borders, the politics, and the skin color, we’re all human.  Every human feels emotion.  Every human feels sadness and joy.  Every human wants to be loved and has the capacity to love.  It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that every single person you pass by today feels things and struggles just as much as you do.

As individuals we build forts around ourselves.  We need more security, more money, more stuff.  The more we acquire, the more we are afraid to lose.  We become preemptively defensive and emotionally withdrawn from the world.  As nations we reinforce that fear.  We hoard resources, build military, and create immigration laws to protect against other nations, against other people.

We spend so much energy protecting ourselves against others that we lose sight of one very simple fact – we are all one human family sharing this planet.  What would the planet look like if we took all the energy we spend protecting ourselves and spent it helping each other?

Imagine a world with no borders.  No military and no wars.  No poverty because the trillions of dollars that governments spend globally on defense are invested in humanity.  Is it so hard to imagine?  It has nothing to do with religion, capitalism or socialism.  It’s about being human and accepting that everyone else is too.

You have the power to create a world based on love.   You shape the world with every choice you make – the way you treat people, the way you earn money, the words you speak, the products you use, and the companies you support.  Every day is an opportunity to cultivate love towards yourself and others.

When you serve others, you serve yourself.  You create the groundwork for a magical world where every person is his brother’s and sister’s keeper.  When you serve others, they serve you.  You can focus on watching out for yourself or you can imagine a world where seven billion people are watching out for you.

It all starts with you.

Great talk from Jeff Lieberman, one of the co-founders of BrainBot.me, who I did RockHealth with.

What does it mean to be selfish and completely selfless at the same time.  It is to know yourself in order to be able to give your self.   It is to know your heart, to master the gifts which have been given to you in this life so that you may give them to the world.

Your heart is the unique expression of who you are.  Nobody else on the planet loves the same things or does things quite like you do.  The things you love, the things that truly call your heart, are your gift to humanity.

In order to cultivate that gift, you need to be selfish.  Selfish in that you must be true to yourself first.  Your life has a purpose and it is to follow your heart.  That starts with cultivating love for yourself.  When you truly love yourself you can’t help but be true to yourself.

When you are true to yourself, you are true to others.  You aren’t misrepresenting yourself, you’re being exactly who you are.  It’s the greatest sign of respect for both you and the people in your life.  The people around you can see you exactly for who you are and they can love you for all the right reasons.

Being selfish simply means being true to your heart and doing what it takes to learn more about yourself and take care of yourself.  When you understand yourself, you understand what you have to give and you can be truly selfless.  When you take care of yourself and cultivate your energy, you can give more of yourself.  You can give yourself completely to the service of others as an expression of what you love.

Being selfless doesn’t mean that you give everything away to charity and don’t do anything for yourself.  It means that you strive to serve the world by sharing your energy with those around you.  Imagine you’re a fashion designer and that is what you absolutely love.  Your greatest service to those around you is to create the most amazing clothes by doing what you love.  When you do that, when you just create because you love to do so, rather than expecting a specific outcome or being afraid of failure, you are being truly selfless.

To be selfish and selfless means to do everything you can to build yourself up so that you can give the most back.  In order to give yourself completely, you have to know who you are and be true to that.  Otherwise, how can you know how much you have to give?