The other day, I wrote about how blissful burdens can be.

I stand by that. The right struggle, the right labour and the right calling can work wonders for you.

Well, I’m writing this email from my favourite speakeasy. There’s some phenomenal jazz playing, a smoky whisky in my glass, good people all around and some tiramisu on the way.

Revere God before all else.

But enjoy yourself along the way.

I like how C.S. Lewis described it – you can commit yourself to the war effort while still living your life. The closer you are to the front line, the less you talk about the war.

You have to enjoy yourself. So long as you keep God first and avoid sin, you’re all good.

Some Christians might hate me for enjoying myself like this. But Jesus attended a wedding – and when the wine ran dry, he kept it flowing.

Besides, I earned it. I did battle with one of my demons today. Doesn’t that mean I deserve a treat?

… No, me idiot. All glory of that victory goes to God, without whom the fight would have been lost. All shame goes to me, without whom the fight would have been unneeded.

Oh well.

Anyway, here’s link. You might enjoy it:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

Let me begin by saying I’m a fan of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy – or CBT.

Stoicism is some of the finest psychological advice out there and CBT is basically just modern Stoicism.

But it’s not perfect.

As much as I like it, CBT doesn’t work with some of your biggest problems.

CBT assumes you can consciously figure out what the problem is.

Then consciously figure out a better way of doing it.

Then using your willpower to replace the unhelpful thoughts with the better ones.

If all three of those things line up, then it’ll probably work great.

But sometimes you don’t know what the problem is. You know something is wrong. You feel off, you’re not getting the results you want and something hollow gnaws at you, but you can’t think of what it is.

Sometimes you know what the problem is but now how to fix it. It’s a classic human error to replace one mistake with another – like the workaholic who moves to a beach and drinks mojitos all day. Both paths are folly.

Then there’s having to remember to stick with the changes.

Honestly, that’s not so bad. Plenty of problems are clear and seemingly insurmountable. CBT helps with those. But what about when it’s not clear?

Then you want an epiphany.

An epiphany is a single moment that changes everything – one you can’t put into words, even if you can make a decent attempt at that. Once you have an epiphany, everything in your life feels different.

You problems can simply evaporate in the face of that.

Useful?

Not really, unless you know how to create the conditions for epiphanies.

By the way – I know how to create the conditions for epiphanies.

I’ve helped people overcome problems where they still don’t even know what those problems were.

It’s something I do with some of my coaching clients. And with myself sometimes. It’s a phenomenal experience.

But I’m not here to sell you on my coaching – that’s invite-only anyway.

All I’ll say is there’s more to self-development than you might think.

The usual approaches – Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, sunshine, exercise, prayer – are fantastic. Start with those.

If you need something different to get different results, then check out the link below:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

Recently, I had a vision of something I can offer all of you.

I’m working on a new project, something I’m proud of. I plan on launching it at the start of April, so stay tuned. Especially if you want simple, practical steps to help save Western Civilisation.

This means I’m working hard on it, writing more than I have in a while.

So I’m rushing this email out after writing a few thousand words. It’s late at night, I’m tired from this and the gym, and I just want to go to bed.

It feels glorious.

A burden isn’t a burden when it leads to a worthy purpose. Scaling a mountainside is hard work. Scaling a mountainside to reach the wise man at the summit is a joy. Every slip of the fingers and strain of the muscles brings you closer to glory and wisdom.

It feels great to take up a mental sword and swing at some dragons.

So I won’t make this long, nor will I employ any clever email marketing tricks. I’ll keep this one simple.

(Couldn’t I have skipped this email? What, and break my 256-day streak of daily emails? Please.)

So:

Your Story Isn’t About You is an incredible resource. The title alone carries a worthy life philosophy. When you read, reread and apply it, then you learn how to live like that.

Everything is better when you stop fixating on yourself.

Here’s how:

People don’t listen to you – here’s why

I recently watched a few episodes of a TV show.

Some key characteristics:

Most of the characters have brown skin and non-Western accents.

The few white men in the show are the villains.

There are strong independent women – with new ones introduced all the time.

So according to the woke folk, I and other Western men must despise this show. You know, because we’re so full of hate and intolerance that we can’t stand seeing any trace of diversity on our screens.

Except the show is The Chosen – written by Christians, for Christians, about Christianity. Every character is Middle Eastern except the (adversarial) white Romans. Just like how it is in the Bible.

In fact, the Bible has always made a point of how strong and independent the Israelite women of Moses’ day are.

So the woke should love the Bible and conservative Christians should hate it – according to woke logic.

Of course, woke logic can’t explain why Western men have, for generations, adored the Alien franchise. Or the Star Wars franchise. Or Jurassic Park. Star Trek, Terminator, The Lord of the Rings…

All these series have had diversity and strong female characters since the first instalment.

And all are almost worshipped by the typical Western man.

The woke can’t explain that. None of these series fit their models, which say modern Disney invented feminism and men just can’t handle it. And yet 30 years ago – in 1994, for those who can’t keep track of the decades – those were everyone’s favourite books, movies and TV shows.

But of course they’re wrong about this. The core of the woke philosophy is that there are clear, rigid hierarchies of oppression based on your demographics, and the most social good comes from fighting that system. All of that is patronising, hysterical and wrong. Every hour, you encounter evidence that disproves the foundations of woke philosophy.

That’s why they can “so strongly oppose racism” while openly despising white people. Ditto for sexism and men. Ditto for straight folks.

That’s why they can say, with a straight face, that men can’t stand strong women on their screens – despite decades of evidence proving otherwise.

But the thing to remember is, from their perspective, they’re heroes. In their eyes, there really is a sinister patriarchy infusing every element of society, that’s both weak as American beer yet powerful enough to oppress everyone in every way, all the time.

If such a system existed, they’d be right to fight it.

If it doesn’t, then they’re raging against phantoms – at best a waste of energy, but more typically the cause of incredible collateral damage.

Pity them. Being the centre of waste and destruction is no easy way to live.

Love them, even as you resist them with all your strength.

If you need help with that, read, reread and apply Your Story Isn’t About You:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

I’m not that old, but I’m old enough to have seen diversity mutate beyond recognition.

When I was younger, folks would defend the benefits of diversity. A lot of that boiled down to:

Diversity is just one of the ways we’ll be more productive. It’s ethical, too, which is nice!

I don’t know when, but the talk around diversity evolved. People stopped defending it and started exaggerating its importance. Slowly, incrementally, it changed to:

Diversity is productivity.

And it some places, they’ve gone ahead so far that it’s become:

Diversity is our purpose. If it happens to help us be more productive, that’s great. If not, we’re sticking with it anyway.

I can’t be the only person who remembers how diversity was one tool of many, making promises that haven’t panned out.

Look at the five biggest economies in the world. The US and Germany are on the list, but their economies grew before mass immigration and diversity became enforced by law. Their economies are slow and bloated now.

China isn’t diverse. Japan is still in the top five despite an ageing population crippling their economy. I wonder why they haven’t opened their borders to hordes of young, virile foreigners from the third world. Maybe they know what that would cost them, even in purely financial terms.

The fifth biggest economy is India, which is an interesting case. There’s a lot of variety in what it means to be an Indian – the same as the US with its 50 different states. There aren’t many non-Indians living there though.

So either diversity has helped Germany and the US tap into the last drops of innovation and vitality out of their workforce… or it strangles economies and those two are too big to die quickly.

Either could be true. But I don’t China and Japan are quaking from the unity and shared purpose their people enjoy.

Besides, all this talk of diversity focuses on the boring kind. The demographic kind. I’m less interested in if you have a different shade of skin and more interested if you have different ideas.

I like seeing things through new lenses – even if most of those are worse than the Christian take.

And one thing that’s helped me with that is learning that Your Story Isn’t About You.

Once you get that into your muscles, everything becomes clearer.

Here’s how:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

As a responsible gentleman of the 21^st century, I like nothing more than being a good ally to my sistren.

When women speak, it’s my duty and pleasure to be quiet and learn.

It’s a daily education. And today I learned something I can’t keep to myself.

Bumble – the dating app where only women can make the first move – has, in a shocking development, decided to rethink things. It turns out that women don’t like having to make the first move all the time.

Apparently, that feels like a burden.

Who knew? I – a mere male – certainly had no idea that approaching romantic prospects required effort. My goodness.

Yeah, okay, sarcasm is cheap, so I’ll end it there.

Of course having to make the first move is a burden. The guys with the best game see the burden as fun – like the burden of beating a PB at the gym.

Even for them, it’s an effort. It takes a lot of energy, enthusiasm and resilience to approach girls in the numbers needed to reliably score dates.

Along the way, there’s a lot of ghosting, game-playing, rejection and outright hostility.

Every man knows this.

Now that women know this too, they’ll respect men more, right? After all, women have had to approach men on Bumble for a few years. Men have had to approach women under all contexts for millennia.

If Bumble is a burden, they must appreciate the immense and eternal burden men have. Going forward, women are going to respect even clumsy approaches from men. They don’t have to date them or anything, but they’ll at least show some kindness and empathy.

Oh, wait, I said no more sarcasm.

I’m glad that women are learning that making the first move is hard. I don’t mind if they decide they don’t want to do that anymore.

What can I say? I’m a fan of the old fashioned ways.

Maybe the rethinking that Bumble should do is whether it should exist at all. It – and other dating apps – are predatory, only making money off the single and desperate.

Forget that.

Instead, invest your money in something that makes you stronger:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

There’s a reason zombies are so popular – the concept speaks to our intense urge to test ourselves in an apocalypse like that.

Obviously we don’t want billions to suffer and succumb, but there’s no denying the escapist thrill of it.

In a widespread battle against the undead, you’d enjoy the following benefits:

You can test your mettle and see how you’d thrive in a lawless wasteland.

When society collapses, all the bullmanure goes with it. No more mortgage, no more cubicles, no more SickTok.

Also, don’t underestimate the appeal of karma-free violence.

Another common male fantasy:

Becoming cool, suave and admired.

That’s why I wrote Your Story Isn’t About You. It probably won’t get you all the way to cool, suave and admired on it’s own.

(Then again, it might.)

But you will learn some funky people skills that’ll get you closer to that.

They’re fun, too, and they might just give you hope for humanity.

Learn more here:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

Lawyers are interesting in fiction. They can be the heroes, using the system to defend the innocent, even against stronger courtroom adversaries.

They can be puzzle-solvers, treating each case as a riddle to solve.

Or they can be evil – or at least amoral.

It’s not an even spread. If there’s a fictional character and all you know about them is they’re a lawyer, your best odds are to assume they’re a bad guy.

Remember the lawyer from Jurassic Park? He’s not evil as such, but he’s flawed. He cares more about compliance than justice – not a bad thing in the real world, but far from a heroic temperament in fiction.

Then, to remove all ambiguity, he abandons innocent kids when the dinosaurs come out to play. He panics, abandons them and tries to hide in a loo.

The narrative punishes him with an undignified, quick and painful death.

Compare that to Jurassic World.

The boss lady’s assistant isn’t much of a character, but she’s not shown as evil. She’s overworked but doing her best – in other words, most of us can relate to her.

When the dinosaurs come for her, her death isn’t quick. It’s slow, agonising torture, with all her fear and anguish filling the screen.

The narrative punishes her far worse than it punished the lawyer, without her committing any crime.

You might think this is okay. Real life doesn’t run on clean karmic rules – sometimes innocent folks suffer and sometimes sinister cowards prosper. But fiction both reflects and shapes the thinking of the time. We like to see sins punished and virtues rewarded, partly because it teaches us good lessons, partly because it’s cathartic.

Our heroes tell us a lot about ourselves. If we like clean-cut superheroes, that tells us something about us. If we like grimy, morally grey antiheroes, that tells us something else.

And what happens to characters tells us a lot too. In the West, most heroes save the day and get the girl. In other cultures, a hero is more likely to sacrifice themselves at the climax to take down the bad guy.

The stories we consume matter. It’s why we love them so much – and why the Enemy of Civilisation thoroughly infiltrated entertainment ahead of many other industries.

So you might think the good guys get rewarded and the bad guys get punished is too simplistic. Fine. And yet, Jurassic World couldn’t even get that right.

There’s a reason I tend to watch older shows and movies. Flawed as they can be, at least they get the fundamentals right.

On the topic of fundamentals:

What could be more fundamental than your ability to get along with others?

This isn’t an influence program.

It’s not a workshop on emotional intelligence.

No – Your Story Isn’t About You is a guide to an underrated skill: seeing things as others see them.

It’s only essential for every relationship you’ll ever have, including professional ones.

That’s why this page could be the most important thing you’ll read for a while:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

Maybe it’s not fair to pin this solely on the woke – I’ve heard plenty of others use this line.

But it’s the battlecry of losers, so the woke use it more than anyone else.

Someone will say something ridiculous and almost edgy. When others push back on it, these worshippers of weakness bust out this gem:

“Wow, lol, I’m just living rent-free in your head, huh?”

You might think I’m being harsh by calling them losers, but I’m just following the logic. No one with any achievements to their name would brag about having other people think about them.

It’s an absurdly low bar. Coat yourself in manure and roll around on your lawn – you’ll live rent-free in the heads of your neighbours for years.

Even if being thought about was an achievement, they throw that line around far too easily. Yes, someone acknowledged your argument long enough to point out a rusty bucket of ambergris has a better grasp on the facts than you do. Well done. They must be obsessing over you, huh? That makes you special, right?

Please.

The lack of nuance is the other tell for woke reasoning. Women sometimes get leered at, so they’re oppressed. Capitalism means you have to work to eat, so it’s exploitative. Christianity invokes wonder, so it’s just fairy tales.

Funny how for things that are actual spectrums, they default to binary thinking…

Anyway, let’s stop talking about the woke before someone suggests they live rent-free in my head. They get too much coverage on my pages.

So instead let’s talk about a hero:

You.

You follow truth, growth and service. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be here.

In the name of serving you, here’s a link worth checking out. Read it closely – you might just find something worthwhile:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

I’m not pointing any fingers here. I’m more guilty of this than anyone.

It’s hard to connect with the reality of God’s love. That’s no surprise – our minds are finite buckets trying to scoop up infinite affection. No wonder we overflow before making any noticeable change.

But that’s no excuse for failing so hard.

In prayer, we might celebrate the grace of God. But that prayer can quickly sour into thoughts of insignificance.

It’s a short hop from humility to feeling unworthy of God’s love, or the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

We’re lowly sinners.

He’s majestic.

Surely we’re not worthy of all He’s done for us.

This is a trap.

It’s not humility to think you’re not worthy of God’s love, grace, mercy and forgiveness. God Himself thinks you’re worthy of it – you and every other person.

So to be too humble to accept God’s grace is to say that God is wrong.

That’s not humility.

It’s arrogance.

Avoid that subtle trap and, difficult as it may be, remember you’re worthy.

While you’re being humble:

How good are you at taking all sides of a situation?

How good are you at seeing things through the eyes of others?

Don’t tell me, oh, yeah, you’re obviously great at it. A humble person would prove it. They’d point to their high sales (with satisfied customers), dating success or large number of close friendships.

Even they, humble as they are, would know that reading Your Story Isn’t About You is an excellent idea.

Not just reading, but rereading and applying it too.

Here’s how:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay