Share the Journey, Save a Journey.
You Have More Influence Than You Know
Welcome to the free edition of YouTopian Journey, a Substack featured publication. Each week I will be sharing unique wisdom that can help you in the daily battles that we must all fight in the game of life. This week we discuss the importance of sharing the journey. After all, when you share a journey, you also save a journey.
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SHARE AND SAVE
Before we begin, I want to share some amazing news. One of the great things about the growth of YouTopian Journey is that it has been the result of readers sharing it on their social networks and with their peers. I always wanted to reward readers and I am pleased to announce that now I can.
The topic of today’s issue is all about sharing knowledge that could truly benefit friends, family, colleagues, and even strangers that you will never meet. Now with YouTopian Journey’s referral program, when you share and they subscribe, you can earn rewards.
All you need to do is make sure you’re logged in and share via any of the “Share” buttons like the one below:
You will get credit for each new subscriber that signs up through your share link. At the end of the month, the top five subscribers who have generated the most subscriptions (free or paid), will receive a free paid subscription for the next year. The subscriber who generates the most subscriptions will also get a 30 minute phone call with me where we can discuss how I can use my vast network and knowledge to help you with your goals.
Now onto the good stuff.
THE HARSH WORLD
“Externally man has more or less conquered the world. But internally, he’s still as he was. He’s still brutal, violent, aggressive, acquisitive, competitive. And he has built a society along these lines.”- Jiddu Krishnamurti
Growing up, we thought our teachers, our bosses, and our leaders had all the answers. We believed that when we were that age, we would be just as knowledgeable, just as powerful, just as wealthy, and just as happy. We would know what we were doing and would be leaders in our respective fields.
Yet this couldn’t be further from the truth. We are more lost than ever before. The tools and platforms that were created to unite us have only divided us. We lack knowledge, fortitude, and seem to be at the mercy of the validation vortex.
This only compounds with time. We grow weaker as the world grows harsher.
And we do indeed live in a harsh world, make no mistake about it. This world promises no mercy and keeps its promise. It seems things are getting more difficult by the week.
Inflation, the crypto winter, the high rent, interest rates, stagnant wages, the threat to our freedoms, our crumbling democracies, a pandemic that seems to last forever, and the boiling heat are just a few of the threats that continue to mount.
And there is no end in sight. There are only more challenges. More obstacles. More hardships and more heartbreaks.
This is only made worse by the countless videos on social media, promising an easy way out. An escape. An oasis in the maelstrom of harshness. Bikinis and cocktails, exotic cars and trips to far away lands where the colorful waters are always warm and the drinks are always cold.
We can’t even see ourselves there because we are too busy trying to make ends meet, trying to cover all the bases and all the costs. Our world isn’t one of color, but one where we face the pressures of not only survival, but conformity and submission.
For the majority, the pressures and the harshness are too much to handle. So they retreat into the fantasy worlds offered by social media, distractions, MMOs, and whatever is trending. They let the harshness assassinate the best parts of themselves rather than face it head on. They find it easier to submit and comply rather than to resist and chart their own course.
It happens more than we realize.
“I see men assassinated around me every day. I walk through the rooms of the dead, streets of the dead, cities of the dead; men with manufactured feelings and standard reactions; men with newspaper brains, television souls and high school ideas.”-Charles Bukowski
Don’t let it happen to you.
You must face this harshness head on, fighting it tooth and nail.
This is more difficult than many understand, however it should not deter you from the battle.
Why?
Because the alternative is far worse.
“Slept, awoke, slept, awoke, miserable life.”-Franz Kafka
A stale and sterile life. Where everything is the same, everyone wants the same, and everyone is the same. Where the uniqueness of existence has been replaced. Where the individual is now a number, a face in the crowd, a social media handle, and a drone.
“We are a society of notoriously unhappy people: lonely, anxious, depressed, destructive, dependent — people who are glad when we have killed the time we are trying so hard to save.”-Erich Fromm, To Have or to Be? The Nature of the Psyche
You are more than this. You are capable of achieving whatever goals you have. You are powerful beyond measure. But no one can unlock this power for you. No one can harness it for you.
There is only you and your will.
Your will to learn.
Your will to act.
Your will to believe.
Even reading these words, you may shudder at the thought.
But you can not and must not.
What I say is true.
But only if you can battle against the harshness of it all. Only if you can discover the knowledge that will motivate, inspire, and cause you to act.
Because knowledge is a superpower. It allows for you to see opportunities where others see only chaos. Where the multitude sees insurmountable mountains, knowledge shows you stepping stones. Where the masses see defeat, knowledge shows the seeds of victory.
It is knowledge that will allow you to stand on the shoulders of giants and chart your own path, one that no one else realizes is even there.
Find this knowledge.
Use this knowledge.
Share this knowledge.
Begin today!
“Knowledge is that which, next to virtue, truly raises one person above another.”-Joseph Addison
KNOWLEDGE IS YOUR WEAPON
“The one necessary thing.— A person must have one or the other. Either a cheerful disposition by nature, or a disposition made cheerful by art and knowledge.”-Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits
Finding knowledge that can be lifechanging is difficult, especially in our harsh world. Where can we locate such knowledge that is fast, efficient, and most importantly, useful?
Is it from our teachers? The people whose knowledge and experience may no longer stand the test of time?
Is it from our peers? The self-appointed masters of everything and anything?
Is it from the gurus? The self-proclaimed experts whose only significant achievements are a blue checkmark?
Is it from webinars? Seminars? Forums? Workshops?
Even when we find this source of knowledge, the questions only increase.
How do we know which knowledge is the correct knowledge? Where do we begin among the countless books that are available? Who do we listen to in a world where everyone proclaims to be an expert?
The past. The vast reservoir of knowledge that is there for the taking.
Yes!
The knowledge of our predecessors. The philosophers who contemplated the great questions. The scientists who dared to push the limits and fail. The innovators who sought improvement. The thinkers who questioned their way into infamy. The writers, creators, dreamers, and warriors of days gone by.
Their knowledge can be your knowledge, if you have a desire to discover and use it.
Because action is required. The knowledge will not be automatically downloaded into your mind. You must strive to learn!
It is up to you!
It is up to you to seek out this knowledge. Up to you to make a commitment to learning. Up to you to learn from our best minds, arming yourself with the knowledge of the successful and using it to make your way in the world.
Locate the great books and read them.
Find lectures and listen to them.
Think critically on what you have learned and ultimately you can decide how to use it to better yourself.
Ultimately the more knowledge you have, the better. It provides you an edge and an advantage. As the world will only continue to become more harsh and difficult, your knowledge will be your arms and armor.
Use them with pride.
“The only defense against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.”-John Locke
SHARE THE JOURNEY, SAVE A JOURNEY
Always remember that the simple act of sharing a fact, a newsletter, a YouTube video, an interesting post can save someone’s life. It can change the course of their life, putting them on a new trajectory and unlocking the greatness within them. Suddenly, the harshness of the world is removed as their mind becomes focused on learning a new skill or the story behind some of the greatest theories or most successful companies.
You can be that catalyst for positive change and you can be rewarded for it. Share this issue today and change someone’s life for the better.
Catch you next time.
Shaun