NO PLEASURE WITHOUT SKILL – 6 TIPS to SKILL UP! – 023

Figure out what your territory is. – AUDIO NSFW

We talked about this on Friday, right? Your rewards are in direct proportion to the amount of fucking work that you’re willing to put in. That’s all it is. That’s what we talked about on Friday. Your rewards in life, please, don’t lie to yourself. Don’t lie to yourself, don’t lie to me, don’t lie to anybody. 

Your rewards in life—what you have achieved in life, past, present, future—is in direct proportion to what you put in. So if you’re unhappy with where you are, if you don’t like what you’re doing, well, guess what? That’s your fault. I sometimes use this in corporate consulting when it comes to understanding the issues. And I go through this fascinating exercise of sorts but I’ll give you one part of this exercise that I do with these corporate executives. 

This is the crux of sorts, it’s like there is one fundamental constant. There’s one fundamental constant in every single problem that you have had within your leadership, the management that sit under you, with the board that you’re trying to wrestle with, with shareholders, if that’s a consideration, or even your private life. There’s one constant in all of that, in all your failings, in all of the disappointments, in all of the distractions, and all the shame and all of that. There’s one constant. 

And the point of the exercise as they realize it as we go through these little workshops of sorts is they slowly emergently understand that the only constant in all their problems is themselves. That’s it. The only constant within all their problems in business and in personal life is themselves. Every time you have failed, every time you have fucked up, guess what? You’re the only constant in that equation. 

Everyone else is a new variable. Everyone else is a new entity. Everyone else is a different culture. They’re a different scene. It’s a different environment. It’s a different time in place. You’re the only constant with every single problem that you have. It’s your fucking problem. You’re the problem. 

Welcome to Sunday Sermon, guys. Welcome tamp, happy balls. No matter where you are–where you go there you are that’s right. The title of today’s Sunday Sermon is there is There’s No Pleasure Without Skill. 

Through today’s sermon of sorts, I’m gonna give you a couple of ideas around two different mental models to have when it comes to the world. And not only am I gonna tell you about two essential, I think, mental models when it comes to a world and in the context of, hey, I’m trying to do something. I’m trying to create something. I’m trying to grow something. You guys have heard the shit, you know, growth mindset. It’s true! As stupid as it sounds, it’s true. 

I think having a growth mindset. It doesn’t have to be on any particular topic, any particular area of growth. But having a growth mindset, I think can be boiled down into one essential principle which is simply this. A mindset like that. A mindset that is constantly, intentionally moving itself forward because it’s an intentional act to keep your mind within that model. To be constantly focusing on growth, to have that as the context or the filter of your life. 

I think it is an intentional act that will avail itself in some particular form and fashion. We know when it comes to the laws of physics and energy that you create energy. We know within biology and physiology that you create energy. And actually, this energy in many ways can be seen. And so we know from a scientific vantage point that you create energy and that energy does something. 

I’m not schooled in the deeper neurological sciences. I stuck mostly to the cognitive realm of just how does the cognitive realm manifest itself in the world. Not necessarily the deeper neurological considerations. So I don’t know how that works, but I’ll tell you, from spending a lot of time within that particular area…

Cory says, “The growth mindset can be a double-edged sword.” It is a double-edged sword. You will burn, we talked about that before, haven’t we on Sunday Sermon? You will burn because it’s an intentional act. 

The energy needs to be spent somewhere. That’s the whole idea. I’m done with the growth mindset. The growth mindset is it’s an intentional act. You’ll grow somewhere. I don’t know. Whatever will emerge will emerge. It’s probably better to have some semblance of a plan though. We’re going to talk about that. But I also want to share with you guys, how I have transformed my life multiplicity of times. I wouldn’t say that this isn’t as much as an intentional act as merely a function of how I was created. 

The foundational worldview that was created and instilled to me was simply this. The world is shifting sands. There is no solid foundation of life. It is a ride or fucking die. It is a survive mentality. 

Do you know what I’ve learned though as I grew older? That’s all that context there is that surviving is good and surviving is fantastic. I have found that surviving is good, surviving works. I’m talking about succeeding, succeeding is an outcome. Winning is an outcome. But if you wanna have real pleasure in life and I use that wording exactly for what it means. Real pleasure—spine-tingling, toe-tingling, mind-open, getting down that LSD high, seeing the fucking hexagons and shit, eyes wide fucking open. Pleasure. 

That pleasure comes at a cost and the cost is skill. And you know what? You might just even have the outcome of winning and you might just even come out with the outcome of succeeding. But that’s not the goal. The goal is to have pleasure. It’s all I wanna talk about, y’all motherfuckers, about pleasure.If you want true pleasure in life it requires skill. It requires skill. It requires something that you can do extremely well. 

It is something that is intentional, it is something that takes time, it is something that, as Cory was talking about earlier, is something that will cost you. There will be battle scars and we’ve talked about this before. 

There is no pleasure without skill. There’s two models in which we can view the world. There’s two models in which we can view the world. The first one is what I would call a territory mindset. The other would be a hierarchical mindset or hierarchy mindset. I think it’s pretty clear the differential between these two. 

HEIRARCHY MINDSET

The hierarchy mindset is problematic. The hierarchy mindset is what is ingrained in us from young adults, young children. We are trained by the functions of living. You start at pre-school, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third, fourth, fifth, all the way up, you was now the king of the pond. 

You were senior in high school. The function of living in today’s America creates a hierarchical world view. It creates an entire behavioral understanding deeper than your skin. It is something that is not only a fact of life but is an empirical fact, a heuristic that you have ingrained and no one can take it from you because you went through the system. 

So hierarchy mindset is all about going up the ladder, but the problem is is that on any type of ladder, when does it end? But secondly there’s always people above you. There’s always people below you, but there’s always people above you and you don’t really see where the end is. All you’re really looking at is the person in front of your ass. That’s all. You’re just looking up and when you look up the first thing you see is an ass. It’s a terrible way to live. 

1. Everyone has to compete.

The problem with the hierarchy is that everyone has to compete. Everyone has to compete and all the other individuals in the order, right? They try to elevate themselves to a point where they can get advanced past the individuals in front of them, but also at the same time, you have to defend yourself from those underneath you. 

And so not only are you trying to fight them motherfuckers moving up the chain, moving up the pay grade, moving up the influence, moving up the title, but you got to also defend from those that are probably scrappy like those two motherfuckers in that picture. 

They’re willing to grind and maybe even beat you out. Guys, let it be known, we may not see it in our lifetimes—praise the Lord. We may not see it. We might not see the day when everyone has the tools to be a king. What John and I are building with the end that I believe is a manifestation of the philosophy that we hold which is permissionless, full-access, 777 access, full transparency, when you want it, when you don’t want it, we don’t give a fuck. Go on with your bad self. 

These are the philosophical tenants that John and I operate by. We wanna give the world a financial tool that includes all of that, that allows you guys to transact however the fuck you want, we are answering the call of scale. All these lame-ass ICOs and all these shitty projects that say, “We can scale. Okay, great. Show me the money! Oh, that’s right. Oh, you’re scaling algorithm. And your test net for scale is gonna be launched in 2020?! So why would I give you money?”

Please, we’re answering scale. We’re doing what Bitcoin could not. We’re doing what certainly no other coin can. We’re gonna allow you to transact with anyone, anywhere. And guess what? You don’t even have to know, you don’t even have to have the same exchange. You don’t even have to trust the other individual on the other side. If you’re transferring out of Binance and they’re transfer out Coinbase, you don’t give a fuck!

All you wanna know is the address right. They pull it out of Coinbase, you pull it out of Binance. And then you trade with another person. They’re fucking you because—what the fuck is this whobie? Okay, X. I don’t know what the fuck that is but I don’t care. Actually, you won’t know and you won’t care. We’re hiding all the complexities of these interoperability within our fucking social blockchain, guys. 

We’re hiding all the complexities. That’s why I’m so excited because you literally don’t have to trust the other person on the other end, what security systems they have, what two-factor authentication they have, how much money do they have, you don’t need to care about any event. All you know is that you created a transactional opportunity where you sold the service or a good and they’re willing to pay you for it. You don’t care where it comes from as long as it fucking mixes right, and transacts, and gets verified on the blockchain. And you’ll look at me and say, “Damn, Peter. Fuck. You just created scale and you’re, like, I know, isn’t that fuckin’ awesome?” 

1. Creates Self-Worth Within The Ladder

And the problem with the hierarchy is it creates self-worth within the ladder. Another problem is it modifies your behavior. A ladder modifies your behavior. You act towards others based on where you perceive them on the fucking ladder. 

I would not change who I am if I’m talking to Bill Gates or John McAfee. I probably won’t curse as much as I usually do, out of respect because, I don’t understand that I don’t fully understand their context and I would like the interview to go on. And so obviously, I make a behavioral decision not to cuss as much when I do interviews. But the passion is still there. I’m excited to talk with them just like I’m excited to talk with you, guys. 

And so nothing changes. I don’t care if you’re John McAfee, Bill Gates, or fucking Donald Trump. If you got me the opportunity talk with Donald Trump, I’d be the same dogelord. I’ll be like, “Yo, Donald Trump, what’s going on, bro? These double spend problems that you’re having in the Fed, these banking problems that you’re having, this financial problems that you’re having? I got the answer, bro. Donald Trump, need to get on that Bitcoin. No, no, no. You need to get on that Bitcoin.” 

1. You Evaluate How You Behave

It would be the same. The last problem with the hierarchy is that what happens is you evaluate how you behave based on the hierarchy which is the whole point of that example. 

TERRITORY MINDSET

Let’s talk about the territory mindset. And this is the mindset that was ingrained in me. This is the mindset, the only mindset that I understood. So we’re calling this the territory mindset. We’re gonna call this the territory mindset. What makes the territory mindset not only the way to survive, but in my opinion, the way to absolute pleasure? It’s powerful what I’m calling a territory mindset. 

It cannot only give you immense pleasure but the pleasure comes at a cost. It’s the cost of skill. You need skill and how do you get skill? We’re gonna talk about that. But let’s first jump into the territory mindset. A territory provides substance. It provides life to you. Territory provides you sustenance. It’s what you’re going to survive off of. You need to find within your arena, your area of interest. 

We’re gonna expand upon this more. You wanna get pleasure out of the skill you’re trying to improve—a hobby, a side hustle, a new career, get off your fucking ass, you’re fat as fuck, time to get in shape, pay off debt. You gotta understand what the territory is. You gotta understand what’s going on. 

A territory in and of itself is your playground. It’s where you’re going to operate and frankly, you shouldn’t operate outside your playground because you’re trying to do something here. You’re trying to improve, you’re trying to change something. You’re trying to grow. That’s your playground. That’s your framework. That’s your guardrails. Stay in your fucking lane if you’re trying to improve something. Skill requires that focus. 

And what’s great about this territory, it’s not only your sustenance, it’s what you’re gonna feed off of. It is kind of like the same substance but to survive within your playground, it doesn’t require any external input. You got everything you need in your playground. You just gotta find out what’s going on, what tools you need, what skills you need. 

And did you know? When you’re growing your territory, you’re not fighting against the ladder. We talked about this in another Sunday Sermon, you’re fighting against yourself. A territory can only be claimed by one. This is very clear. Remember how the settlers of the ancient past, the Napoleon’s, the Columbus’s, all the explorers?

Territory can only be claimed by one person and you better be fucking sure it’s you. You’re gotta master this, motherfucker. This is your territory, this is your house. You guys hear me talk. You guys seen me talk on Discord chat. You guys know that I love my territory, physically.

I’m not talking metaphysically right now, just physically. You guys know what I’m talking about. This is my house. This is my land. I bought this land. I built a house on this land. My wife designed it. I designed the garage, but this is my land. I own this motherfucker and I take it seriously. This is my domain. 

And you’ll say, “Well, Peter, why are you talking so passionately about it?” If you haven’t been fucking paying attention, I kill about two squirrels and one fucking chipmunk every fucking day! Ha-ha-ha! I’m defending my property guys from alien invaders! You guys know I don’t give a fuck. Guys, come on. 

Please take note, don’t miss it. Here we go. Territory can only be claimed by one. This is my fucking land. Hey, you wanna succeed? You wanna have pleasure? You gotta have skill. And you know what? You gotta figure out what your territory is. Open your fucking eyes see, what’s going on, are you in a blueberry picking, you’re in a blueberry making juice? Well, you know what? You need to know your place. 

What’s the blueberry market like? What’s the local market like? What’s the competition like? You need to fucking know if you wanna succeed fucking selling blueberries. You wanna do YouTube? Great! Understand the playground. Understand the YouTube world. Where’s your demographic? Is it guns? Is it fucking crypto? Is it making PCs? Is it PC gaming? Is it cooking? Is it making fucking blueberry juice? I don’t know what your interest is. That’s what we’re building Yen so you can create whatever sandbox you want.

But that’s your playground. It can only be claimed by one because you’re only fighting yourself. And remember, land can only be claimed by one. This is your fucking house. Take it seriously. 

Territory can only be claimed by work. You gotta fucking work. You want this? You want it? I think you guys know I’m passionate about Yen. I fucking want it. I want it so bad. I’m telling you guys behind the scenes, the functions that we’re creating, the fucking explosion, the podgy opportunities because I want this. I’m building it, guys! I’m so fucking excited! And you know what? Ain’t nothing gonna stop me. Ain’t nobody gonna stop me. Ain’t nobody gonna stop my brother. 

We’ve been hacked. We got people fucking impersonating us. I get fucking prank calls. I got the fucking fire department coming to me. I got people trying to whatever. Guys, everyone’s trying to destroy us. Everybody’s trying to take our juice. You can’t stop this! We all up in this mother fucker! We ain’t going away. We want this too bad. 

This is our house. This is our territory. We’re not competing against no ladder. We don’t wanna be the #1 fucking YouTuber. We don’t wanna be the #1 exchange in the world. We don’t wanna be the whatever fucking category you wanna put us in. We ain’t going away. That’s what you got to contend with. This is my house, this is our land, and we’re claiming this for fucking Yen. 

And the last with a territory mindset, we talked about this on Friday. A territory returns exactly what you put in. Your rewards in life are indirect proportion of the grind you put in. Don’t ever expect anything else different than that. A territory returns exactly what you put in. That’s how it is. A territory will give you back. You will reap what you sow. 

So let’s end this sermon, guys. Here we go. Six things, if you’re taking notes. Six things to how to get that skill with a territory growth mindset so that you can have extreme pleasure. And you say, Peter, you haven’t talked about pleasure yet? It’s comin’, guys! We exploded in the podgy! The build-up is by design. 

1. Gotta decide. Start today. 

You gotta have skill. Here’s how you get skill and pleasure. You gotta decide what you’re gonna do. That’s it. Don’t start tomorrow, start today. Start today. Just do it. 

You don’t know what’s gonna happen. Maybe nothing. Okay, great. Fantastic. At least you tried. Start again, but decide if you’re gonna do something and just fucking do it. 

1. Create a super light framework.

It sounds overthinking, but please create a very light framework. Not even a fucking framework, just a behavioral modification. A super light framework for how are you gonna start taking over this territory, how are you gonna stop eating that junk food and stop being fat and get healthy again. How are you gonna start that career change? How are you gonna quit that job? How are you gonna start that side hustle. 

Create it very light, super light. It’s just a model, just a framework for how you’re going to do it. Are you gonna wake up earlier? I don’t know? Choose something! You’re gonna wake up earlier? Are you gonna start exercising at 6:00 just on Wednesday? I don’t know! Light framework for how you’re gonna start changing your behavior towards that skill. 

Timeboxes. I know this is all B90X guys. I’ve talked about all this stuff on B90X, but I get to give you that in sermon format now instead of a 15-minute clip. 

1. Timeboxes. 

How long are you gonna be willing to dedicate this shit to see whether this is worth it? Because you know what? Ain’t nothing gonna happen in the first 90 days. Trust me. Ain’t nothing gonna happen. 

You know why you guys are here at Sunday Sermon? Because I did 90 days of B90X and fucking only 2.5% of pubbers actually go through that shit. If you go through that, it’s not gonna change your life until after the 90 days, when you’re reminded of something, and then maybe you join in Sunday Sermon and I get to grill it into you again. But you create a light behavioral change, a light model, how are you gonna start? There has to be some sort of consistency to it. 

Please choose something more than just once a week. I wouldn’t say every day. Let’s just pick a time. Pick a time to start. But timeboxes, motherfucker. How long are you gonna do it for? How long are you gonna run this experiment for? I like 90 days. 90 days is just enough time for me to hate exactly what I’m doing. 

And that’s just how I work. How I work is, is it takes me 90 days to fully hate and fully appreciate the experiment at the same time. It’s a fascinating thing that happens in my mind around the 85th to 90th day of an experiment. I know it’s coming because I’ve lived long enough and I’ve run enough experiments on my life. I know it’s coming, but it always comes for me and I don’t know if it’s gonna come for you but it always comes. 

The 85th to 90th day, for whatever that experiment is, I finally reached the abject pinnacle of my hatred for that endeavor. I’ve reached the wit’s end. I have at the end of my rope, the candle has been burnt, at both ends and it’s gone. I am fucking done with this experiment but at the same time at 85th to 90 days, I’d begin to really appreciate the value of why I did it. And sometimes, just sometimes the value of it is just to say that I fucking did it. 

1. Write. Take a good journal. 

It’s so hokey but it’s true. How many times have you heard it? Get a fucking journal. Keep it close. I have a Moleskine, I keep it close. You guys see my desk? I got sticky notes all up in this mother fucker. It’s just how I work. 

I know that note-taking is the only way that I can remember that ingenious idea that I thought about at fucking 2:30 in the morning. I have to roll over and have to fucking write it down. If I don’t write it down, it’s gone. It’s vapor. It is in the wind and someone else is gonna pick it up. I don’t know. But it’s moving out of my territory. I have to understand where my territory is and when ideas spring within my territory, within my mindset, whatever I’m trying to improve, when inspiration or ideas come, I must write it down because it’s part of the territory that has just been revealed to me and I need to remember it. 

1. Learn from others.

Start learning from others. You wanna get good at something? You wanna get good at a skill? You obviously gotta learn from other people. I think that’s pretty simple. Find people that are better than you at what you’re doing and start learning it from them. Whatever it is—farming, blueberry, selling, marketing, improving public speaking, becoming a better employee. I don’t know what it is. Whatever you wanna do. 

Learn from that people that are fundamentally better than you are in that particular meta playground that you wanna be a part of. 

1. You have to teach.

Number six is the artist, but it’s the most important. I hope you’re taking notes because this is the hardest one. Number six is you have to teach. 

Isn’t it fascinating that everyone that you’ve been inspired by, everyone that you’ve learned something very powerful from, you know what they’re doing? They’re talking to you. You could say at a larger cheaper way of teaching you. That’s why they’re good at it and that’s why you’re fucking listening. 

They have mastered their craft. They are now teaching others through the act of communication, whatever context it is, I don’t care. It could be under the context of marketing. It could be under context of selling, it could be the context of coaching. It could be the context of mentoring. It could be the context of contracting. It could be under the context of facilitating. I don’t know what it is. But you know what? They’re doing at the heart of it is they are communicating what they know and what they have learned. 

That’s when you know you’ve mastered or at least you’re moving towards the upper echelons of your craft, of your skill. Let me tell you, guys. We’re at the magnum opus. We’re at the end of this. You know what I’m doing with you guys right now? I am communicating my heart and my soul as imperfect as it is to you.

In the metagame of my life, I have achieved the upper echelons of greatness within my playground. I speak at international conferences. This is before fucking YouTube. Fuck crypto for a second, my previous career. I published two books. I travelled the world consulting at some of the most beautiful countries and met some of the most beautiful people that I’ll never forget. Some of them become lifelong friends. For almost ten years, I averaged 165,000 miles in the fucking seat. Delta.com, baby. 

And I was making great money, fucking excellent, exceptional money. But that’s not the point. The point is, what I was just saying before the money. I met wonderful people. I got to do awesome things. I got to see amazing places. The places I have seen, guys? The inside of corporations. When you say, “Well, Peter, I thought you’re talking about landscapes and fucking mountains and skiing.” No! I have seen the insides of some of the most powerful, and profound, and innovative companies on the planet. 

And I’m telling you guys. Don’t believe me please but when I have the opportunities to travel internationally, go to these international company, these huge, powerful, innovative companies and see the backbone, and see what’s going on behind the scenes, it allows me to make very powerful decisions for myself. 

But did you know that being able to have all that pleasure! Being able to be that excited! And sometimes I get migraines sometimes because I get so excited! I get so excited going to these places. It’s like, man, brother, I get to see X, Y, and Z. I get to see what they’re doing. A, B, and C. Brother, did you know these motherfucker were doing, you know, D, E, and F? 

Guys, that is my pleasure! But you know what? The gateway to that pleasure was skill. And I became in one of my longest pivots as a top tier, Agile and Scrum Software Development Consultant for the world. It was great. It was tiring. It was hard work. But man, the most pleasurable moments of my entire career, my most pleasurable moments of my entire career could only be manifested if had grinded, how I grinded and worked harder than anyone else to do this, to be on the international book tour circuit, to be on the international speaking circuit, to have consulting gigs in different countries all over the world. I had to earn it and I had to have the skills to allow the world to allow me in! 

And so you guys right now, you guys are seeing the pinnacle of my skill set which is communicating. My skill set is communicating, like, I am a communicator. Did you know that I was not always that way? Did you know that I spent years at Toastmasters? That I spent years at Carnegie Mellon Public Speaking Training? No, you didn’t know that, but I can show you the certificates. 

I knew that for me to be a technologist who builds cool shit, I knew that I needed to be able to see what the most influential and powerful technology companies are doing. The only way that I could understand that meta play and to get behind those doors without being an employee is I got to be a consultant and I got to be good at it. 

I got to be able to tell powerful stories of how we can change the world through Agile and Scrum Software Development. And now, my message is very simple. It’s even simpler. My message now is how can you change your fucking life, oh, and by the way, we’re gonna use crypto to do it. We’re gonna use crypto to do it. 

1. Decide on what the fuck you’re gonna do and start doing it. 
2. Create a very light model, a behavioral change in how you’re gonna start establishing a cadence for your delivery of that change. 
3. You gotta Timebox this motherfucker, how long you’re willing to go for this experiment? 90 days? Please, make it six months. You want a life change? It’s gotta be better than B90X. 
4. Take fucking notes, please. 
5. Find people that are better than you and learn from them.
6. Doing exactly what I’m doing right now. I’m teaching you what I have done to not only change my life multiple times, but to have immense pleasure doing it at the top of my game. 

You know what? Guess what, guys? When it comes to cryptocurrency. I’m not even top of my game. I’m a fucking noob! I am a fucking noob in cryptocurrency in terms of my social standing in this world of crypto. I am a fucking green bean. I am a nobody and I love it because I traded, please don’t miss this, I traded the highest level of success in a consulting world to see the plays so I can make great programming decisions on my own. 

To be a vessel, to be a fucking plebe, to be a fucking peon in the world of cryptocurrency and I love you guys being right here with me because we’re gonna take over the world. But it’s gonna take some time and we’re gonna have to earn it.