Self-Acceptance

Currently in Austin, TX staying with my friend Jesse Elder and today we are going to begin our private coaching day together.

I’ve been anxiously anticipating this for weeks, curious as to what we’re going to talk about.

Already thus far we’ve had some pretty amazing conversations, and yesterday the dinner we had with my mentor Ron and our friend Ani was absolutely outstanding.

I’ll get to what Jesse and I have discussed thus far in a moment…

But honestly, I wanted to start with something I thought I would never say.

Austin, TX has completely won my heart.

Probably about a year and a half ago, I was going to move to Austin, however, my goal was to completely isolate myself.

I didn’t want to make friends, I didn’t want to date, I didn’t want to network.

I wanted to sit in an empty house for 1-2 years and work my face off.

My reasoning at the time was that this was how I could get ahead of my competition, I just would do what no one else is willing to do.

I would sacrifice all forms of social interaction so I could accelerate the timeline of my career.

I’m glad I ended up not moving to Austin at that time and doing this because I can now see how bad of an idea that would’ve been.

I had an awful experience when I came here and it was right before this massive blizzard hit Austin, so on top of hydroplaning in a rented minivan on the highway, and almost getting scammed by a real estate agent, I was also cold as tits.

But yesterday running around Austin with Jesse, I had the most amazing experience.

I met some of the most amazing people who genuinely felt like they had a soul and they had some of the best energy I’ve encountered in a long time.

To be honest, I don’t find much of that in Arizona.

I can now see that what makes your experience of a city make or break, is the people you surround yourself with while you’re there.

Because the city itself is just a city.

There are restaurants, there are things to do, there are places to go, but that’s every city.

The people are really what makes an experience worthwhile.

So Austin, I just want to say that I think we may be seeing more of each other here soon in the near future, and there’s a possibility you may become my new home.

Just putting that out there, no commitments, but after my experience yesterday, I am highly considering it.

Anyways, let’s get to some juicy knowledge of life, shall we?

Jesse and I were driving to this sauna cold plunge place in Austin called Kuya after getting some amazing coffee at some place he called, “The Watering Hole For Austin’s Elite”

And he asked me a pretty great question…

“Nick, how much do you accept yourself?”

It was an interesting question that I don’t think I’ve really thought about that much at all so I gave myself a good moment to ponder my thoughts to find an answer.

“I think like 50% of the time I’m accepting myself, and the other 50% of the time I’m trying to change myself or be better because I want to grow.”

I can’t remember Jesse’s exact words but his answer was something along the lines of this…

Change is a natural component in life, and in my own (Me Nick, not Jesse, but him too) life I’ve seen that positive growth is a given constant in my life.

I’ve grown so much more compared to who I was last year.

And it’s the same thing with last year me compared to the previous year me.

Change is not something I need to force myself to do, it’s just who I am.

Positive growth is me.

And given that this is a constant variable of my life and just a part of who I am, I think that the 50%/50% answer I talked about earlier needs to be 100%.

Because total acceptance of myself means I’m not worried about being different or changing who I am.

I know that the forces of my own life’s current will change the parts of me that need to be changed, that’s a given.

Being in total acceptance of myself means acknowledging that the only moment which genuinely matters is the present and that I’m creating the future through the present.

I don’t have to worry about the future or what’s going to happen.

Being in total acceptance of myself means I have total faith that my upward trajectory will continue to grow exponentially.

And that’s a really different way of thinking than I’ve been experiencing.

Lately, it’s been if I don’t force myself to grow, I’m going to get weak, I’m going to fuck up.

But I can see how focusing on the prevention of that outcome, only creates that outcome.

Instead viewing myself as someone who’s practically guaranteed success because I’m naturally a hard worker and someone who constantly seeks growth…

That seems like a much better filter for reality.

Now that’s not to say there won’t be adversity and hardships…

There totally will be, but I’ve solved all of the ones that have come up thus far, so I don’t think that’s something I need to worry about.

I’ll keep you updated on how the rest of this trip goes and what kind of knowledge bombs Jesse shares with me today during our private day.

All the best, my friend.

Be in acceptance.