Permission to be Powerful Podcast

EDITOR’S NOTE: This piece uses forceful, direct language to highlight the contradiction of caring for everyone but oneself. It risks oversimplifying complex mental health issues but aims to jolt readers out of complacency. Now let’s get into it… Your Secret Sociopathic Blind Spot. Dear Permission to be Powerful Reader, You’ll drop everything to rescue a friend... You’re the first to empathize when...

Dear Permission to be Powerful Reader, We’re standing at the base of the most explosive transformation in human history. 👉 Bigger than the internet. 👉 Bigger than electricity. 👉 Bigger than nuclear weapons And you’re not just living through it… You’re inside it. Because this isn’t just a “tech trend.” This is an extinction-level event for entire industries, careers, and business models— and the...

EDITOR’s NOTE: This is a quick update on my last seven-day meditation retreat. Many people wanted to know what the effects of this experience have been. The main obvious benefit has been profound clarity. I’ve had decades-old problems that suddenly reloved themselves. I somehow sniffed out several girls who were attracted to me who I didn’t previously notice. And my vision for Permission to be Pow...

EDITOR’S NOTE: Quick check-in on the No F***s Given Challenge : still going strong. Today’s post is unrelated, but the spirit is alive 🔥 DAY 5: BE SEEN, FULLY By now, you’ve felt rejection, embarrassment, judgment, and discomfort—and survived. Today is about showing up as the rawest, realest version of yourself. Your Challenge: ✔ Do one thing today that feels like "too much." ✔ Express a thought...

Dear Permission to be Powerful Reader, This Is Your Call to Action. Not the algorithm’s. Not the market’s. Not even mine. Yours. Because I see something in you— More than you probably see in yourself. 👉 I see a writer. 👉 A builder. 👉 A leader in the making. Someone who’s meant to play at a higher level. But maybe you’ve been flying solo. Doubt whispering. Fear riding shotgun. You’ve been runnin...

EDITOR’S NOTE: Quick check-in on the No F***s Given Challenge : still going strong. Today’s post is unrelated, but the spirit is alive 🔥 DAY 5: BE SEEN, FULLY By now, you’ve felt rejection, embarrassment, judgment, and discomfort—and survived. Today is about showing up as the rawest, realest version of yourself. Your Challenge: ✔ Do one thing today that feels like "too much." ✔ Express a thought...

EDITOR’S NOTE: Quick check-in on the No F***s Given Challenge : still going strong. Today’s post is unrelated, but the spirit is alive 🔥 DAY 4: F**K THEIR OPINION EXPERIMENT Today, you’re going to let people think whatever they want—and do nothing to control it. Your Challenge: ✔ Post an opinion online that makes you a little nervous. ✔ Let someone misinterpret you—and don’t correct them. ✔ Resis...

EDITOR’S NOTE: Quick check-in on the No F***s Given Challenge : still going strong. Today’s post is unrelated, but the spirit is alive 🔥 DAY 3: THE POWER OF NO Saying "no" feels dangerous because you think rejection = loss of love. Today, you take back control. Your Challenge: ✔ Say NO to something you normally say YES to. ✔ Do it with no excuse. Just ‘No, thanks.’ ✔ Feel the power of disappointi...

EDITOR’S NOTE: Quick check-in on the No F***s Given Challenge : still going strong. Today’s post is unrelated, but the spirit is alive. 🔥 DAY 2: PUBLIC EMBARRASSMENT EXPOSURE You think people care? Let’s prove they don’t. Your Challenge: ✔ Do something absurd in public. (Dance in silence. Sing out loud.)✔ Stand in the middle of a crowd and stare at the sky. ✔ Walk through a store holding an imagi...

EDITOR’S NOTE: Quick check-in on the No F***s Given Challenge : still going strong. Today’s post is unrelated, but the spirit is alive. 🔥 DAY 1: FULL-FRONTAL REJECTION Most people live in fear of hearing "no." Today, you’re going to hunt rejection on purpose. Your Challenge: ✔ Ask for something ridiculous. (A 50% discount on coffee. A stranger’s hat.)✔ Get rejected—and live to tell the tale. ✔ No...

Day 0: Why You’re Stuck (And How This Challenge Breaks You Free) 📌 "If you need their approval, you’ve already lost." Right now, you’re playing the game of approval—and losing. * You replay conversations in your head , cringing at what you said. * You shrink yourself to keep people comfortable. * You say “yes” when you want to scream “NO.” * You let imaginary opinions control your life. Here’s th...

I could never admit my ex-wife was a burden. From the very beginning. Constantly wanting so much attention… There was no time for anything else. We had coffee every morning, with me listening to her for an hour. By not admitting the truth. I was abandoning myself. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. It was a strange, delusional place. On my healing journey, I understood my wife, my family, and oth...

For years, I lost myself. I looked in the mirror and didn’t even recognize the person staring back. At my worst, people started saying I actually looked related to my wife. Our hairstyles were similar. I gained a bunch of weight, which made me resemble her even more. I had absorbed my environment like a sponge—until I had no identity. I became a hollowed-out version of myself. And that kind of sel...

Dear Permission to be Powerful Reader, Some people collect rare coins. Others spend thousands of dollars on anime figurines. Some obsess over a TV show they’ve watched 17 times… Or a celebrity they’ll never meet. Or even— serial killers. Obsession is a funny thing. Because when it grabs hold of someone? It doesn’t let go. But why? Why do people get so fixated on things that seem bizarre—sometimes...

Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. (I am large, I contain multitudes.) - Walt Whitman Everything I say is a lie. But believe me when I say this: I’m telling the truth. I’ve always been honest. Except for when I haven’t. And I never lie. Unless the situation calls for it. Which, let’s be honest, is more often than you’d think. You can trust me completely. But don’t take my...

A young woman in a codependency Facebook group asked how to deal with being guilt-tripped or feeling guilty for wanting what she wants. I said, “Sounds like you’re loyal to disloyal people.” That struck a nerve. She’s calling me for relationship advice. Damn. I’ve stayed in relationships I didn’t want to be in—not because I was in love, not because I was happy—but because I felt too guilty to leav...

Most people leave a relationship with nothing but heartbreak. I leave with a battle plan. And receipts. Because if I don’t learn, I’ll just repeat the same damn mistakes. This is what most people do. If you pay close attention to their dating history, a common theme usually runs across all of their relationships. That’s not a coincidence. It’s a pattern that exists for a reason. They are the commo...

I thought I had learned my lesson. More than a decade ago, I walked away from a woman who lied, cheated, and left me doubting my own reality. I wrote out every reason why I would never go through that again—why I would never let anyone else erode my self-respect like that. And yet… I did. Not just once. Again and again. The faces changed, the details shifted, but the story stayed the same. Every t...

EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m going off the grid for the next 7 days. Back to being a Buddhist Monk full-time at the monastery. For the next 7 days, it’s just going to be me and my thoughts… with almost no sleep and as much running as I can squeeze in. I’ve got posts lined up daily, so no worries, but I may post the podcast versions when I return. That’s probably how it will go. I’m a LITTLE nervous about it...

I got a call from my sister’s social worker. Well played. I’m more likely to answer her call than anyone else. She ambushed me into giving my sister an intervention. My entire family was there with her in the social worker’s office. I’m on speakerphone. At my computer. In the middle of the work day. Here to save the day, once again… But I didn’t shy away from the challenge. I know my role in this...

"Speak now, or forever hold your peace." The words hang. The tension thickens. Then— “I OBJECT!” That’s how it goes in the movies. Right now? I’m the one standing up. I’m the one objecting. I can’t understate how much I wish I could reach through the computer screen and shake you right now… Because you’re making a fatal mistake. And you don’t even realize it. You think you have time. Tomorrow is g...

I became a Tony Robbins fan when I was about 18. I remember listening to Awaken the Giant Within and being blown away. I had big, ambitious goals—and I was going to use every possible tool to achieve them. Tony talked about getting leverage on yourself. He said: 👉 Imagine a future that is your worst possible nightmare. 👉 A future so unbearable, so terrifying… that it scares you straight. It work...

WHAT THE F**K? This sensation that’s made the news. It’s a perfect mix of mystery. Paranoia. And flawed human psychology. There’s no doubt that a big ingredient to this mystery… Is human irrationality. But still… We have whistleblowers testifying before Congress . More and more sightings every day . Some are tracked on radar . Seasoned veterans swear it’s true. Now Congress isn’t so sure. The mili...

I’ve been thinking about the struggle of not caring what people think. Why is it so hard? Then it hit me— We’re spiritually malnourished. What do I mean? The spiritual world is where it’s at. Everything that exists here was created there first. When you’re at home in the spiritual realm, you start to shape and influence your reality. Spooky. Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation Think about the diffe...

You’re about to read something dangerous. Something that will haunt you. Get inside your head… Change you forever. And once you’ve read it…💀 There’s no undoing it. 💀 Right now, you think you’re fine. You’re safe. You’re just scrolling, minding your own business. But sometime within the next 48 hours , something strange will happen. You’ll realize I was right. That I was dead serious. And you’ll...