It's you versus you is the biggest lie that you've ever been told.
I mean, just like, how is that not crazy to everyone?
But it's like the biggest buzzword or buzz phrase in the personal development space.
It feels like every motivational guru is just screaming at them.
It's you versus you.
It's like this, like, man, listen to yourself.
I mean, do you really think that we're supposed to wake up every single day of our lives, the rest of our lives, and look in the mirror?
And every single time that we do, we're supposed to see an enemy and a poser. an op.
I just find it bizarre.
I really do.
And the reason is because it's not that simple.
Like if you just thought a little bit harder, just a little bit harder, we can make this, make a lot more sense and ultimately live much more fulfilling and prosperous lives.
The opposing force that you feel as you pursue, whatever goal it is that you're after, whatever ambition or dream or vision you may have.
That opposing force is not you.
It's not.
There are two major forces in this world, and that is good and that is evil.
Evil shows up in many different ways, and it doesn't always look like tragedy.
In fact, the reason that evil is so effective is because it shows up in very small ways.
It shows up when you wake up for from your alarm and you press snooze and you have that like mental battle in your head of like i could snooze, i could sleep another 10 minutes, another 15 minutes, and then whatever.
Or it's time to go to the gym.
You're like maybe i should skip today, like da da da.
Or you know, i know i'm on this diet, but really, you know, these are temptations, these are vices.
That's what it is.
It's all rooted in temptation, because evil I mean that's its main superpower is temptation devices.
It tries to sway you away from your path of development, of prosperity, of fulfillment, by offering to you some sort of alleviation from an inconvenience basically going to the gym every day and working out and moving heavy weights not convenient.
Okay.
Having a strict diet and staying disciplined to that is not convenient.
You know, especially if you're out and you know you're with your friends and you're having a good time or you're traveling whatever, it's not convenient.
It's not easy.
Now, this goes without saying, you don't need to be perfect.
Of course, we'll slip up, right?
We're human.
The point is not to be perfect.
But we need to understand what the opposing force stems from.
We need to understand what the real enemy is.
It's not you, okay?
So these things are not convenient.
That's why...
Temptation is as tempting as it is, is as appealing as it is.
If pursuing our ambitions was a breeze, then temptation would have no power.
It's literally in the design.
Okay, so it's very clear.
Now, evil also presents itself in your thoughts, in your mind.
As they say, an idle mind is a devil's playground.
That's not for no reason.
There's a lot of validity to that.
When you sit and you're bored and you don't have anything to do and you're just in a dark room all day.
I mean, why do you think that you have negative thoughts?
Why do you think that you feel poorly about yourself?
You feel sorry about your life.
You start to victimize yourself.
You start to think about all the things you're afraid of and all the things that you doubt about yourself and your insecurities.
And it's just.
It just festers and grows like mold, like parasites.
But it doesn't come from you, you are not the seed from which these thoughts and feelings sprout.
Now you may nurture them, you may water them, you may feed into them and they will grow and they will fester like mold.
Now let me ask you a really important question.
How do you combat that?
If you are under this idea that Those thoughts, those negative feelings, those doubts, those insecurities are of you.
It is you, but you just have to fight it.
It's the part of you that you have to defeat every single day.
How do you overcome that ultimately in a way that is progressive?
And can lead to a life that is joyous and exciting and fulfilling and not just like war with yourself every single day.
How is that possible?
It's just not.
That's why this ideology is so... I'm sure it can work for some people, okay?
I'm not saying that it's...
It is objectively a bad thing.
There are certain people out there that it seems to be working for.
Now, I don't know how these people feel on the inside, I don't know how fulfilled they really are.
I don't know how prosperous internally that they really are.
I don't know how at peace internally that they really are on the surface.
It seems like they're doing well.
So I have no interest in, you know, uh, getting on anybody in particular.
It's more so just the idea itself.
I just think it's dangerous.
I really do.
So what do we do?
How do we go forward with a different approach?
Firstly, understand that one, you were created in God's image.
You were created in his light and his essence.
And so these fears, these doubts, these insecurities, these negative feelings, these negative thoughts, they are not of you.
That's not part of your innate nature.
It is of evil.
Evil has a place in this world.
It needs to have a place.
That's a whole other topic, but it needs to have a place in order for us to have free will really.
Second is understanding that what you are fighting against is not a part of you, it's not a version of yourself, it's not a past version of yourself or a future version of yourself or the present one.
It is evil, and you have to find the fighting spirit within you, deep within you, to stand up and not be bullied and and and controlled by this evil that is festering within you.
You need to Do what you have to do in order to cleanse yourself, detox yourself of this just infestation of these little seeds that it plants that ultimately will grow into their own weeds that you have to extract from the root.
And I promise you, if you approach it this way one, the path becomes a lot clearer and you also kind of cut evil at its knees, at its ankles.
You get you, you deprive it of of its power.
Uh, because When you're under this idea that it's you versus you, right?
You haven't identified the true enemy, the true opposing force.
And so as you stand there in the mirror and say, you know, I will defeat you pointing at yourself.
Evil is just lurking in the dark corner.
Okay.
And it has you exactly where it wants you because you don't even know it exists.
You're demonizing yourself instead of the thing that is actually pulling you down, that is actually controlling you.
You can't defeat what you don't know mean.
That's that that's warfare in general 101.
Like you have to know your enemy, you have to.
And so if you want to win this this, this war, which is the spiritual war which is very real, you have to know what evil is and how it works.
You have to know your enemy.
It's a non-negotiable um, Otherwise you will.
When you traverse these ups and downs in life, when you get down to that rut and you have these low points, which are a natural part of life, that is not something to demonize.
That's something to actually appreciate.
When you're there.
It's important to have your own back in those moments, and it's impossible to when you inevitably hit a rut and you're just blaming yourself.
I mean, it's just not productive at all.
All right, so what are some actionable steps that you can actually do like starting now?
Firstly, you need to spend intentional time with yourself.
You need to stop spending your whole day in perpetual distraction.
I know how it is in the society that we live in.
It's natural to wake up, hop in the shower immediately, go to work, go to school, do homework, run errands, be on your phone, hang out with people.
We're just always preoccupied with something.
We can't help it be into something.
We have our mind distracted by something or involved in something.
But every day i want you to spend an intentional 30 minutes just with yourself no noise, no distractions no, nothing.
Okay, it can be in the shower, it can be in the car, it can be in the park, it can be in your room, it doesn't matter.
But just an intentional 30 minutes by yourself, with no distractions, no screens and ideally, no light.
You really want to deprive yourself of your senses as much as you can.
It's sort of the same idea as like a sensory deprivation tank.
It's a very beneficial method.
Secondly, you should pray.
Whatever God that you praise, that you follow, that you have faith in pray, and however you want to pray is fine, but just talk to your.
Talk to god.
It's it's.
It's important um, because he will speak back to you maybe not, you know, metaphorically speak back to you.
He will show you signs, he will open up doors, he will reveal truths to you that maybe are not comfortable or convenient at the time, but they're needed, And you'll realize in due time that everything worked out as it should have been.
So speak to God.
It's very, very important.
Thirdly, activate your creative mind.
Paint, sketch journal, do poetry, make a song, like literally anything that's creative or expressive.
You need to express what you feel internally is.
This is like a filtering process.
If you think of a dirty pool, it has a filtering system and with time the murky water turns clear.
That's the goal.
As you express yourself, you have this creative outlet.
You're kind of filtering so that you can take your internal state, which might look like a glass of murky water, and filter it so it becomes crystal clear.
And now your internal system is it's clean, it's efficient, it's it's easy to focus and you're not, You don't feel as lost.
You know because you're listening to yourself.
And a lot of us aren't listening to ourselves.
And you know there's a, there's a.
The physicality of this is is very important to like physical health.
Make sure that you're getting some sunlight.
Make sure because I get it.
Like I've been in many many, many ruts before sometimes, sometimes it's just hard to get out of bed for weeks even, you know months, sometimes it's it's.
It can get treacherous, but it's important it's.
It's almost impossible to get into a good frame of mind when you're spending all of your day inside with no sunlight or nutrients like it.
Just you kind of make it impossible and so you have to call the bluff, you have to Make that spark happen and just step outside, get some fresh air, drink some water.
I prefer lemon water with ice.
If that's your taste, go for it.
Go for a walk, get some sunlight.
Eat good foods, eat nutritious things, stuff like that.
Very basic stuff that we just forget to do on a day-to-day basis because we're so distracted and we're so busy.
And I kind of just want to leave it at that.
I don't want to overcomplicate this.
And don't overcomplicate it because it's not complicated.
90% of the battle is just understanding and identifying who and what the true enemy really is.
It is not you.
Okay.
It is not you versus you.
It is you and good versus evil.
And I firmly believe that if you make the shift in perspective, the comeback, the progress, the development, the achievements will come a lot easier and you'll be a lot more fulfilled and joyous in the process, because You don't hate a version of yourself.
So there's that.
Anyways, I appreciate your time and I will see you soon.
