Notes from Monk Mode Vlog of Iman Ghadzhi

I initially encountered the idea of monk mode from Sam Ovens. It is about being focused and regimented in following success habits.

Then,  I encountered the vlog of Iman Ghadzhi about monk mode which is in a way similar. The main difference was the monk mode approach of Iman is much simpler.

Iman suggested to have 3 non negotiable habits and 3-4 variable habits. He suggested to follow it continuously in minimum 21 days and maximum 90 days.

His 3 nonnegotiable habits are:

  1. 10 minute meditation
  2. 30 min exercise
  3. No alcohol and weeds

The pros of following monk mode includes setting expectations from people around you that they respect your habits as you are doing monk mode. It appears that it is also an effective tool to have dopamine detox.

I will be doing this monk mode and instead of monitoring it by encoding in excel file as Sam Ovens did I will be adapting the pocket journal style of MJ Demarco. MJ Demarco shared in his forum that he used a pocket journal to track his daily food intake. It worked as it is a simple approach in tracking.

Tracking is very important in achieving goal as it makes you accountable. Alex Hormozi said, “track don’t slack”.

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Here is the video of Iman Gadzhi

Journey to BHAG

The goal is the journey itself. Enjoy the journey to your big hairy audacious goals(BHAG). The goal is the hard work itself, said by top entrepreneurs. If you are an achiever, it is very painful to do nothing in achieving your BHAG. It is better to fail by trying rather than enduring the pain of regret that you have not done anything to achieve your BHAG.

Be happy now while pursuing your BHAG. Live in the moment but think long term. Successful people think 10 years but ultra-successful people think for the next generations.

All or Nothing

We were too early for a breakfast as we have to drop someone at the airport. We can’t find any restaurants that were open at that time. So we opted for McDonald’s. As I am currently reading the book How Not to Die I am excited to have a healthy breakfast but I can’t find any in McDonald’s. Here are my key takeaways and plan on how to proceed in my healthy lifestyle plan:

1. All or Nothing

This mindset holds a lot of people back. If they can’t do it all in, they just do not do it at all. It was a struggle to look for healthy food but a gradual change is way better than not trying. I will start by changing one meal out of three meals a day. If I can’t go all-in in the meantime, I will keep on trying and changing gradually.

2. No Regrets

I read a poem that says, no one had a regret by eating few. It is a simple but mind-changing thought. If there is no healthy food available then it can be a good chance to have fasting. There are also benefits to fasting.

3. Better Environment

Jim Rhon said, “We are the average of five people we spend the most time with.” I will look for people who are into whole food plant-based diet (WFPB) and will associate with them.

4. Better Structure

We can easily build new habits by decreasing friction. I will make it easier for me to eat healthier. I will not buy unhealthy food. I will make healthy food very accessible.

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How I Plan to Simply Manage my Blood Pressure

Are you not dizzy? The nurse who administered the blood pressure (BP) test asked me. I said no. It did not catch my attention at first. Suddenly I realized maybe the BP result was not good. And yes, it is at an elevated level. I am currently reading How Not to Die book and here are my key takeaways so far that can help me manage my elevated BP. I am looking at the changes that I can apply to my lifestyle. Here are the variables that are simple and I will try to incorporate them into my daily habits:

  1. Whole Food Plant-Based Diet
  2. Minimum of 30 minutes of work out every day

I will post here in my blog the updates. If you want to join me in my personal development journey, I invite you to join me in my book club and mentor tips newsletter, just visit KevinUmali.com/free

Vibrational Decluttering

You do not use most of the things you own. There are a few clothes that you keep on wearing. It seems we have favoritism on the things we own. I only use a few watches, shoes, pants etc. I just realized that I only use a few things. It turned out that most of the stuff I own just ended up taking so much space in my condo. This unnecessary stuff that I own also takes much of my energy and time. In other words, there are things that don’t serve me anymore. It appears that I am now serving those stuff that sits in my closets and cabinets as they collect dust.

One of the tips for a happy life is to be grateful. One way to be grateful is by realizing that there are people who are praying for what you have right now. I found one stone (solution) that hits two birds. I learn about the Segunda Mana, wherein they accept donations in goods. They sell those items and the proceeds are being used for charitable purposes like sending kids to school.

Vibrational Giving

I learn the concept of vibrational giving from the book Homeless to Billionaire by Andres Pira. He practices vibrational giving by giving to people that he meets that are in need. He has no rule or guide in vibrational giving. He gives because he feels like giving. My understanding is that he gives without feeling obliged. He gives without any negative emotions around the act of giving. When he gives, it is like motivation and affirmation to the recipient. Through vibrational giving, he is sending positive energy to the universe.

Everyone has their own way of giving back and it is personal. I tried vibrational giving and it turned out I gave more than the usual percentage of income that I give. It made me feel more like I am overflowing with blessings and love. Giving back is like a way to reverse engineer the gratefulness in our subconscious minds and our hearts.

Vibrational Decluttering

When I was thinking of ways to declutter, my first idea was to sell my old stuff. But I realized it would take much effort and time. Good thing, I’ve found about this Segunda Mana. They are the ones who will take care of selling the stuff that I do not use and the proceeds will be used to send kids to school. There is a lot of stuff that we barely use and is in very good condition.

I just call this practice vibrational decluttering. I enjoy the benefits of vibrational giving and decluttering at the same time. Letting go of the things I own is very hard to do. It is part of human nature, we give more weight to losing $100 compared to taking action to gain $1,000. Whenever I let go of things that I own, it practices my mind to have no attachment to things. As Marcus Aurelius said, “Accept humbly, let go easily.” I would also like to connect this from my key take away from the Fight Club movie, “Only when you’ve lost everything, you are free to do anything”.

Benefit of Letting Go

I would go back to my favorite saying, “How you do one thing is how you do everything”. If I can learn how to let go of the things I own, then I can also let go of attachments in praises, recognitions, and expectations that are the root causes of suffering. By letting go of the past and future expectations, we can truly live in the now where we can experience true happiness.

Through vibrational decluttering, I can happily and easily let go of things I own. I know it could be an answer to someone else prayers. We were taught that it is better to give money whenever we talk about giving back. I can say, donating the things you do not use is also a good idea in giving back.

I benefited from having a good education. It changed my life for the better. Whenever I donate to Segunda Mana, I know that there are kids whose lives may be changed for the better as they can attend school.

If you want to join me in my journey of personal development, I invite you to join my book club and mentor tips newsletter for free, just visit, KevinUmali.com/free

Blue Pill and Red Pill

The Matrix is a film series about a dystopian future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped into a simulated reality called the Matrix, which uber-advanced and intelligent machines have programmed to distract humans while using their bodies as an energy source. When Neo, the protagonist of the story uncovers the truth, he is drawn into a rebellion against the machines. Most of you probably have heard of it but instead of going into full detail, I’d like to talk about arguably the most iconic scene in the franchise. That still symbolizes one of the underlying philosophical problems that seem to be even more relevant today.

In the scene Neo was offered a choice by Morpheus involving two pills, the blue pill if taken meant that he would continue living in the simulated false reality maintaining a blissful state of ignorance without ever knowing what is real, or take the red pill and know the dark truth and be freed from the lies of the machines, but this comes with a consequence, his newfound discovery would lead him to a similar fate that Adam had when he bit the apple in the book of Genesis, he discovered the fundamental painful truth of life, that it is full of never-ending suffering and pain.

The Dilemma of Having to Choose

This may just be a movie but it shows the real-life dilemma of having to choose between taking the Blue Pill and continue living a life of blissful ignorance and clinging to ideologies and dogmas for answers or taking the hard-to-swallow red pill and face the harsh truth with guidance from philosophy, science, and most of all healthy skepticism to enlighten us and lessen the burden of the puzzle of life. The underlying question here is whether truth and knowledge are worth all the pain and anxiety, unlike in a blue-pilled life where you have beliefs that claim to give you absolute “truths” which then allow you to have a purpose and help distract you from the painful absurdities of life.

Red-Pilled Life

The red-pilled life will give you a herculean type of burden, the impossible task of trying to find out what is actually real and finding meaning in your existence. The painful truth is that if there is anything that can be said to be true about life is that it never stops sucking. Life is full of obstacles and sufferings and the looming threat of hopelessness and death plagues our very existence.

The Power to Choose

You still have a choice though, you can stay delusional and die blissfully ignorant by taking the blue pill or swallow the red pill and wake up consumed by the harshness of reality or fight back and find meaning in spite of all the suffering. I leave you with these questions: If there was a way of discovering the truth is it worth knowing? Now, what pill do you choose?

You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

~ Morpheus

This post was written by: Mario Emmanuel T. Bonleon III

FB: @Mario Emmanuel T. Bonleon III

IG: @mebonleon3

Do not Blame External Triggers

Notifications like pings and dings of your phone are not the culprit for being distracted. We often encounter that external triggers like phone notifications are being blamed for being distracted. But in reality, there are internal triggers that bring more distractions than external ones. Internal triggers are the pains or discomfort that shift our attention and actions into something that could ease the pain. For example, if you are studying for an exam, then that pain of studying is being soothed by pseudo productivity like cleaning your room. When you can see your phone at the moment of hardship it is easier to submit yourself to the red dots of notifications. Those notifications however are easily ignored when you are having fun like watching Netflix. Just like what Tony Robbins said, we do what we do because we move away from pain and move towards pleasure.

You can manage your distractions if you can manage your pain. I am currently reading the book Indistractible by Nir Eyal and you can learn more about this kind of content in that book.

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How to be not Distracted

Checking and responding to emails even seems productive activities are distractions. Yes, those productive activities are distractions if they are not helping you achieve what you intend to do. If your goal is to spend quality dinner time with your family, then checking email is a distraction. If it is time to relax, then watching Netflix or taking a nap is not a distraction.

I am currently reading the book Indistractible by Nir Eyal. I learned that distractions are activities that move you from your tractions. It is better to define your tractions first. Be definite on what you want to achieve. After that, you can determine the activities that do not support you in achieving your goal at the moment. Those activities are distractions. We can focus more and be more productive in the absence of distractions. In the mental model of Charlie Munger, use inverse thinking. What are the activities that keep you away from your tractions?

Time Blocking and Life Domains

Nir Eyal suggested to time block in accordance with the three life domains: You, Relationships, and Work. He showed the three domains in diagrams of circle with You in the innermost of the circle followed by relationship and lastly your work. There is no relationship and work without You. Time blocking for You includes the basic way of nurturing ourselves like, eating healthy meals, sleeping, learning, and exercising. You have to put a time block on those activities.

Most people, spend a lot of time on one of those domains at the expense of the other. There are people who are so busy that they cannot give themselves time to sleep and exercise. Again, You are the foundation of other life domains. There is this saying that a sick person has only one wish and that is to get well.

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Brahamavira

The world today is more advanced, technological, and efficient than in any time in history. In almost every aspect from transportation and communication to medicine, we have witnessed how the world has gotten more safe, convenient, and accessible which is mostly thanks to the rise of scientific thinking.

Since the creation of the scientific method and the rise of movements emphasizing rationality and efficiency, society has turned its focus away from all the incalculable and vague things like religion and virtuosity and instead focused on math, science, and technology.

This type of revolutionary thinking has turned most people into efficient work-centered machines, All of a sudden everyone’s purpose was to be as rational and efficient as possible so that we can do our jobs well and produce as much as possible but with all great reforms and gains we have made there are consequential trade-offs.

Why is it that we live in an era with the most access to technology and information both of which can make us better and nobler than any of our ancestors yet crime is still increasing, racism and hate propaganda is still an issue and that is despite all the new information that we have today.

I am by no means justifying the horrible crimes of people from the past generations but what I am saying is that if they knew what we know right now, they probably wouldn’t have been as hateful and prejudiced as they were.

So what’s the problem? I believe the problem is that people today are too focused and too reliant on data, results, and numbers for solution to problems (all of which are measurable) and we have turned our backs on the things that make us human.

Acts like Love, Compassion, Equanimity, Joy are irrational true but they are what makes us human, these “immeasurable” acts that the Buddhists have been preaching for long have been the reason that we have gotten so far as a species and for us to survive and face the brave new world that’s filled with unknown dangers and threats.

We must come back to our roots, we must relearn the things that make us human and connects us to all the other things in nature.

the immeasurable acts of simple kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity may be the remedy to the surplus of depression and lack of compassion that has plagued the modern age.

I would like to conclude with the very wise words of Jacqueline Novogratz

“Sometimes the most important things that we do are things we cannot measure”

This post was written by: Mario Emmanuel T. Bonleon III

IG: @mebonleon3
FB: Mario Emmanuel T. Bonleon III

Not Sharing is a Disservice to Others

What you know is valuable to others even if it appears too easy for you. I had a conversation with a teenager, probably he is 15 years old. As an older man, I ask what are your plans in college. His options are a business course or being in the military. I asked who inspired him to be in the military. He shared that he was amazed by the mindset of those who are in special operations. He told me that he was listening to podcasts of Navy Seals like David Goggins and Jocko Willink.

Imagine if David and Jocko decided not to share their mindsets, then that will be a disservice to a young guy whom they have just inspired and influenced.

Whenever you feel like giving up on sharing your thoughts, stories, knowledge, experience, passion, and skills online, think of it as a disservice to other people. Go ahead and keep on creating.