Wow! This August is epic.

1. 1.I have released my first free eBook, Life   

2. 2.On August 23 I closed my Youtube account because it was creating too much noise into my life. It was becoming a time consuming place in which I had uploaded interesting videos, but I now feel the need to untether from this all.  

3. 3.I started decluttering my music collection. Until now, I have reduced my overall consumption of music. Less quantity equals more quality. I will dedicate an article to this, in order to explain better what I did and how I did it.but I now feel the need to detach from this all. 

To consume media information I will try to rely quasi-exclusively on these sites: Archive.org, Ted.com. Most of the time I watch no TV, and if I must absolutely watch it, is to enjoy a nice movie with someone I truly care for.

As Matt Madeiro put it, we need to need less. We also need to step back from what keeps up anchored to a reality we don’t like. I love everyone of your for being so interested in my work!

Change happens through action: what I’m talking about now is the need for quality, instead of quantity. We need to live more, we need to be aware of what’s going on. We need to do something remarkable in our lives. Something meaningful. Let’s start Now.

>NO POST NEXT WEEK!
On next week I’m not going to publish any article, because I will be on a digital sabbatical until september 10. It’s time to create some distance again. It’s time to create new content, something to move this blog forward.

>what will I be doing during my digital sabbatical?
1) I will stay away from computers
2) I will read on paper
3) I will write with pen and paper
4) I will try to stay away from technology as much as I can

see you soon with some insight on the overall experience! 🙂

Detaching from technology is not enough.

I’ve been asking myself if there is a way to bypass the gap between the perception of ourselves and how it affects our daily life. I really have no answer, but I think there is no way to alter the human natural instinct we are made from. Also, I think it would be counterproductive and unnatural to do so.

When you find coherence between your inner self and your ideas, and there is a bond between you and the rules you set for yourself, your reality will strengthen.

I noticed that in the exact moment I start detaching from the result I want to see things start to make sense. Sure, our life is the result of the interaction between our layers of existence (mental, emotional, spiritual, physical) but this doesn’t mean we should always concentrate on the results we get from living.

It is a matter of subtle force: if you’re too attached to the result, you will never be able to live fully in your own body because a sense of FEAR of failing originates from your thinking. That’s the bare truth. That’s why you should adopt a minimalist mindset out of life: no goals, no results: just a productive POSITIVE present.

Life is freedom of choice; patterns can be identified, but they cannot be fully understood. Why? because the notion of “pattern” means there is a repetitive process. The process is still identifiable, but we can’t control the result. So, to change the result, you first have to get a better habit.

So, why caring for results? Stop thinking about results… start creating action NOW!

Being selective about the information we consume can point us towards a healthier lifestyle. This is post is the first part of a little series of 2 articles devoted to the whole concept of Intermittent Fasting and how to put it into practice.

I wrote an article about IF some time ago. But I feel I have to clarify something, because people is scared by the idea of IF.

Intermittent Fasting is not a real diet as you may think. It is the most effective method for weight loss and healthy living I’ve ever tried. After 7 months, it is still working for me. I have never had this kind of results with any other dieting method I tried, over my lifetime.

You know, nowadays it’s really easy to talk in public about one’s diet, nutrition or lifestyle. What keeps me interested in writing this sort of report, though, is the necessity to let people know what they miss when they consider following “the traditional way of dieting and eating”, refusing the Intermittent Fasting in their life. Intermittent fasting is a lifestyle; it is not a diet that you implement for 2 weeks in your life, and then return to your old bad habits. If you’re not motivated to see results and strong enough to believe your gut, then don’t go for it. But I can assure you that if you are going to try it out, you will be amazed.

Society has got us so scattered that when we see someone in a perfectly built body, we automatically assume that this person is either a bodybuilding freak or a fitness expert, and that we will never be like that. There is so much incapability to look from an objective point of view. We’re stupid because we expect to have abs while living in idleness; we expect to lose weight by just using a magic pill while waiting for results that will never come.

Move more and eat Less

Intermittent fasting is the most incredible nutritional “advice” I’ve ever tried in my life. Truth is, IF is not advice; it is common sense. It is saner living; it is removing what’s surplus, keeping the bare essential. I have lost lots of weight with it, and I have never ever, ever, ever taken that weight back again.

I started my journey with IF on January 8 th 2011. I had 72kgs. I couldn’t see my abs. In 30 days, with IF, I reached 67kgs. Since then, my bodyweight has been between 66kgs and 62kgs. In this period I stopped training, completely.

Every once in a while I played football, but for the rest of time, I did nothing except moving, getting things done and studying a lot. I ate lots of stuff, both raw or junk food.

Now, I feel great, I feel satiated and I feel free to do different things than simply “think about eating” or “eating”. I admit it: this post is a BIG THANKS to Matt Madeiro. He is the blogger who let me know John Nguyen, whose site is The Lean Saloon (it’s really cool!). John has been living with Intermittent Fasting for about 2 years now. He is a great example of naturally lean man. Be sure to check his website out!

Practical HOMEWORK for this week

Visit Threenewleaves and The Lean Saloon, and read something valuable in there!

Prepare to read the next part of this interesting article series about Intermittent Fasting on next Monday, where I will include all the details, dos and donts of IF.

You know, I’ve been discussing a lot about lifestyle development lately. At 21, having found a sort of balance in my daily life, I’ve been able to accomplish 21 important things. Needless to say, I guess this is what you would expect from a lifestyle entrepreneur, right? If you missed it, be sure to check out the latest series of articles about the development of a successful lifestyle, by living fully on your own exclusive terms.
What’s amazing about this week’s post, is that:

1. there is some english literature in it 

2. there is a quick recap of what I’ve been talking about so far 

I recently read and studied Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Although I read it for one of my university exams, I have found this book to be quite interesting, especially for its content: an amazing powerful and romantic message which leads us to action, to the achievement of those goals we’ve decided to reach.

This message is a sort of “prayer” about personal goals setting and achievement. To discover what’s the powerful message of the text, read on…

“What do you mean? What do you demand of your captain? Are you, then, so easily turned from your design? Did you not call this a glorious expedition? “And wherefore was it glorious? Not because the way was smooth and placid as a southern sea, but because it was full of dangers and terror, because at every new incident your fortitude was to be called forth and your courage exhibited, because danger and death surrounded it, and these you were to brave and overcome. For this was it a glorious, for this was it an honourable undertaking. You were hereafter to be hailed as the benefactors of your species, your names adored as belonging to brave men who encountered death for honour and the benefit of mankind. And now, behold, with the first imagination of danger, or, if you will, the first mighty and terrific trial of your courage, you shrink away and are content to be handed down as men who had not strength enough to endure cold and peril; and so, poor souls, they were chilly and returned to their warm firesides. Why, that requires not this preparation; ye need not have come thus far and dragged your captain to the shame of a defeat merely to prove yourselves cowards. Oh! Be men, or be more than men. Be steady to your purposes and firm as a rock. This ice is not made of such stuff as your hearts may be; it is mutable and cannot withstand you if you say that it shall not. Do not return to your families with the stigma of disgrace marked on your brows. Return as heroes who have fought and conquered and who know not what it is to turn their backs on the foe.”

You can read and download the full text on ProjectGutenberg by clicking this link. I have found these words to be enlightening, motivating, both for my study and work career. I don’t know if Frankenstein can be the perfect match for every reader’s tastes but I guess that it carries a perfect underlying message that is great for whoever is interested in personal development and successful lifestyle creation!

We consume a lot of information, every single day

If I were you, I would love to know if the blog I’m reading is written by a honest guy. I would expect that honesty is one of his key traits. That is why, for a matter of value, transparency and credibility, today I want to make public the figures of my actual and real digital life.

Where I’m coming from

During the last few years I have always spent my digital life with a big amount of clutter.

1. I did never dare to delete old messages of my inbox;  

2. I didn’t care about the amount of never-ending information that constantly kept growing in my RSS reader.  

3. I never kept my subscriptions under control.  

4. I also enjoyed loosing lots of time, surfing the net to know something more. 

At that time, there was so much clutter laying around in my digital life.

Where I’ve come to

I created this blog as a reminder to be deeply honest with myself. So, in part, it helped me taking responsibility for the clutter I had built in my life, and it was the starting point to make things better and start decluttering.

I think that the world could be a better place if everyone would be honest with himself and with others.

Sharing my points of view enabled me to be more honest with myself, about what I want out of life. I’m happy to be where I am, because I understand the meaning of having a wonderful life. I feel freed from the clutter of a mediocre life. This is what I did to start my digital cleaning process: I deleted

1. my RSS feeds  

2. the useless files I kept in my hard disk 

3. the useless clutter I had in my mind and in my experience of a teenager 

4. Everything that “seemed” to be true, what I had been taught in school.  

Things have changed now, and I’m glad they did.

Because today, this is what my digital life looks like:

Average time checking inbox: 15 minutes /day

Email Subscriptions: 7

Social Networks: 1 (Twitter)

Blogs: the one you are reading!

Computers: 1

I’m also free from the cloud. I keep nothing personal stored online, except my public online stuff (blog, talks’ slides and podcasts, talks recordings).

I have been trying so many (new) things during the last months, both in computing hacks and productivity enhancing ideas. I have found Linux to be my perfect mate in computing; I am a proud Ubuntu Linux user and I will probably keep Linux running on my netbook for a long, long time.

I wanted to be a “minimalist” in my daily computing, but there is a fine line between minimalism and impracticality. Most of the time, minimalism simply means narrowing the effort’s range, so to focus better in a single direction. To me, it’s a great way of life, because it removes so much useless noise from our existence. The most important thing I learned during my voyage into a new life is that all I need to know and cherish is myself: who and what I am.

Yesterday I was in search of what’s better.

Today I finally found what it means to be free.

I will keep myself on this path.

The next step I’m taking

It is really easy to get rid of something digital. We can to that by pressing a button. No remorse, no nothing. As I write this, I feel that I can publicly announce the next step I’m taking. Even if I have less subscriptions to tame, the super sized portions of information I consume each day still keeps making me fatter and fatter. I need to put this to a drastic end, so to focus on something more important than the web.

This is what I will do for every week, starting from now: (I will let you know about it in next week’s post) every time I feel like creating new content, reading or simply decluttering my digital life, I will cut the Internet off my life.

Less connected: More Likely to live

So simple. Get rid of distractions.

It’s time to get down to business.

Hey! I’m back from last week’s digital sabbatical! Lately I’ve written so much content for blog posts, pages of books and guest posts.

The digital vacation (sabbatical) I was I enabled me to read a decent amount of books, and consume more information than I ever did during my whole lifetime. I also watched a video, on youtube, which was called “How many books will you read in your life?”. The description under the video writes:

A well-read person will read less than 1000 books before they die

This looks kind of interesting to me, because I now want to ask you a question:

is it really important to read a book from start to finish, to get the useful information it contains?

Now, I will try to tell you that your intelligence doesn’t depend on how many books you will ever read in your life;

Your intelligence depends on:

1. how good will you treat yourself,  

2. how you will reach the right information for your deepest self 

3. how you will put that information to good use in your life.  

4. that is, how you will put concepts into practice.  

This brief introduction leads me to the real concept of this week’s article: what’s the difference between reading on paper and reading on a computer screen? and how the digital book will lead us towards a better world?

Digital books (eBooks) vs. paper books

• First difference is a difference in experience, because reading on paper cannot compare to the digital consumption of books (or the other way around).   

• Accessibility is also different in the two cases, because we can read on paper during the day without having to turn a light on, or to boot our computer up.  

• Third difference lays in sight’s effort to read: personally, reading on paper has a susceptibility due to the fact that in some cases we can’t have a decent, optimal light to read. On the other hand, a computer’s screen allows us to read in a perfectly uniform page lighting.  

What about Data / Information retained during the reading?

The total amount of data we can retain from the overall experience of reading depends on deeply individual differences. Everything depends on how our brain perceives the information.

From the data excess to the perfect amount of information

(about the distinction between information and data, check this link)

The amount of data we find is in literature (and in other genre of books) quite impressive. Literature and narrative in general is made up of books of hundreds and hundreds of pages, most of whose content is totally useless. That is why I rely on Blogs and eBooks, and not on generic books. Books are a wonderful means to share knowledge, but the final user needs a way to find the perfect books for himself, for his own personal development, for his own perfect literary taste and style

In praise of blogging and bloggers

How do we find the perfect book, that will taste good to us? Blogs will be our answer: we will find everything by simply looking into blogs, bloggers’ nests and knowing a blogger in person, whose main concern could be sending out valuable information to the masses.

The blogger is a mediator and translator between the information contained in the net and the final user.

An article like this, for example, could have in itself a lot of great, valuable, incredible data. These words are probably the result of the last 100 books I’ve read (+ my personal experience in real life) so… there is no point in being so obsessive about reading something everyone talks about the whole time, or that you already know. Most of the books out there are a total waste of time for those who read them, and for those who published them. So, why waste your time too, now?

What to do then?

If you want to know more, study and learn, the best thing you can do is go out there, going out, or surfing the net in search of interaction with a speaker of foreign languages (in the case you want to learn a new language). Same idea if you want to start writing and get better at it, just start writing and know someone who has the same interest in writing.

Where to read and what to read?

Where

you can read everywhere, online, offline, listening an audiobook with your mp3 player while you walk or jog;

What

only the information you REALLY find valuable for yourself. The same idea, over and over, will not make you richer and higher in personal excellence. You have to view the same stuff from different points of view, interact with people over it (that’s why bloggers are a great deal for you, and you could also become one!). Know people, make friends, be sure to interact, and not only to read, but also to reflect, think, imagine, ask for suggestions and explanation. Digital or paper books are great occasions to interact with others. Normally, in free ebooks you will the most useful information out there, without any need to pay.

Why should I choose free eBooks?

Because they contain valuable information, cleaned from all the clutter we are so accustomed to, simplified and accessible from anywhere, usable by everyone!

The same concept of free sharing that lays behind the concept of open source.

And most of all.. I choose free eBooks because they are free!!

Also, If you are writing a book, you must do me a favor

First of all, you have to write it about socially useful things. If what you’re talking about is totally useless information or the information you’re trying to include is pointless, just trash it immediately into your pastebin! (digital or physical, it doesn’t make any difference!:) ) Always have an end in mind, and try to use all the means you have to get there!Instead, before starting the writing process, make sure you read this wonderful post by Dusti Arab, hosted on her Minimalist Adventures. You can join her at her new site, Undefinable You.

I know, I know, this is a pretty philosophical post, but I think it is essential to evaluate the real kind of information we’re consuming from day to day. From reading really useful stuff for ourselves, we can extend the habit of recognizing useful from useless information; living a richer life, full of joy and freedom.

It seems that the less I spend my time on the web, the more I can enjoy and learn when I find myself surfing it again. What’s amazing about it, is that whenever I check my inbox, I happen to find inspiring articles written by Leo Babauta or Everett Bogue which make me think a lot. Recently, Leo published an article entitled Decluttering as Zen meditation.

Usually, when I spend lots of time connected, I find myself hesitating in taking action. And the result is that I waste lots of time fiddling at the desk, ending my day without getting anything done. If this is the same scenario in which you constantly find yourself, read on.

As you probably know, I have been having some digital sabbaticals lately (not in the strict sense of the term, but something lighter, because my goal is to disconnect whenever I need to focus on a task!) and there are some technical info I would love to let you know.

Results of a digital sabbatical

I noticed that unplugging from the web keeps me free from the need of fiddling around. I have no distractions. That is why, feeling really focused and motivated on doing some “digital spring cleaning”, last week I decided to start a new decluttering session on my backup hard disk. As you know, I only keep my files stored in a single hard disk. I dumped useless files, junk and old projects logs and.. in 3 days of scanning, I deleted 21GB (!) of hard disk clutter.

21GB of totally useless junk and stuff I have kept in my life for no purpose. After reading Everett Bogue’s latest interview, it makes sense to delete old junk forever. What the hell are you gonna do with that? What were these 21GB made of? Hi-res photos, lots of pictures, wallpapers, music I don’t like anymore (or haven’t heard in such a long time), stuff I am not interested in anymore.

After the deletion of those 21GB, something is clearer in my mind;

• the old myself is gone forever, and I’m glad it is. 

• deleting the past gives me the power to enrich and create a new present. 

• This is what presence is all about: being present. Right here and now. 

And well, to me, this is what digital feng shui is all about

Hey, before you read any further, remember to subscribe to the blog and to follow me on Twitter.

 Every now and then, I casually read amazing articles. Through the inspiration they give me, they enable me to reflect, put ideas together and usually give me lots of different viewpoints I can develop in a further discussion on this blog.

 Affectionate readers of my blog will already know that what I write about is what I’ve been working on, studying and thinking about during the last days. This week, my aim is to create a collection of the most useful, inspiring and amazing posts I’ve come across recently, hoping you will spread these links and contents between your contacts, co-workers, colleagues, friends, etc…

This list of links allows me to retrace my most remarkable personal development achievements since my journey started last summer.

1. I am not my stuff. I freed myself from television. 

2. I gave away lots of my clothes (I lost over 12 kilograms during the last 4 months) 

3. I learned to tame my inbox 

4. I discovered my abs with the help of Intermittent fasting 

5. I can get more out of my time  

6. I learned to go with the flow. 

7. I took up reading valuable stuff. 

8. I created a reality that perfectly fits myself. 

9. I discovered Tyler Durden is my ideal minimalist self.  

10. I interviewed important bloggers. 

11. I decluttered my digital life a lot. 

12. I took on new activities. 

13. I started living on my own terms.  

14. I put some value in myself and in the people around me. 

15. I wrote over 50 posts in my personal blog, in English language to allow everyone to read them. 

16. I have been guestposting for Liz Strauss of Successful-blog.com and Arun Basil Lal of Millionclues 

17. I wrote 2 series of articles about lifestyle construction and development. 

18. I decided not to join Facebook (and I still am alive). 

19. I decided to join Twitter, to stay in touch with other great givers of value. 

20.  I have become a giver of value. 

What we talked about in the previous two parts of this in-depth looking lifestyle development guide was just the beginning of a wonderful voyage into a really wonderful life.

What it is all about is getting better at managing your own skills of living the life you expect to be living. This is what it is all about, really. But how do we do this?

In this final part of the Ubuntulook’s lifestyle development series I would love to get to the point of no-return. Why, you will ask? Because I want to give everyone the chance to be his own best self. For some, the content of this article will sound crazy; for others, it will make total sense and will lead them towards joining their best self completely in life, during time. I think there should be a chance for everyone and I just want to give it here. No strings attached, only down to earth conversation to let the most essential (important!) things be understood by you. Part by part, this series of quite short articles is becoming a point of deep reflection, inner introspection and a place in which every single detail stays bounded with the whole in a perfect tension and harmony, making perfect sense.

I can see lots of graphical interfaces getting better, more defined skins and themes, offering a blissful atmosphere to the visitor, or the user. Tv commercials and other flashy stuff, eye-catching images and colours; Yes. Everything can appear great, blissful, enlightened by trends, fashion and public interest. But this won’t last for long. During time everything fades, every white thing blackens, everything goes away if it is not nourished and cultivated the right way. This is how emotions, feelings, states and life in general work.

Consider dropping every useless surplus of negative junk

Cultivating your life the right way should lead you to tell what’s good or bad for you; what’s really valuable and what’s really worth of your attention and time. What’s essential to know, in this case, is to become conscious on how you act – react towards the experiences you live, and to model your behaviour in the right way for you to be successful in life, developing great habits (both mental and practical) to let your success grow, while dropping bad ones.
This is why I only encourage you to pursue those passions you’re really into.

Let only the important things be the path of your life.
Exceeding chaotic and useless activities, subjects, things, arts, study guides, critic stuff, written stuff that you find everywhere, judgements, general consideration, counterproductive thoughts, study books, wasting time if you have no practical return, redundant thinking, regrets, people you knew once and you have never met again, wasting time with something or someone that is not any good for you, reviews about something, negative people, negative music, negative-everything, criticism, undecision, abstract things and matters is total JUNK. Pursuing excellence in what you love, excellence in the way you want life to appear, excellence in your personal view and take about something, excellence in what you really want from your life. You got it: you are going to model your life with the only thinking. Your imagination, you will make it reality.

How can you tell what’s importan for you and what is not?
Just ask yourself, paying attention to your physical response towards the activity. Let your heart to the talking. Consider your evolutionary and biological roots, your instincts are the only thing you have to follow. If you feel that something is non sense, just drop it immediately;

Be superior, look for your best self in others, in you and in what you love doing in your spare time, and your main activities (work, ecc). By saying “be superior” I am not saying you should be that way towards other human beings (that would become a negative thought!):

you have to be superior to what YOU were yesterday.
Detaching yourself from the result
This is what it is all about. This is what I am talking about. This is what Robert Pirsig is really talking about too, in his famous book, Zen and Motorcycle Maintenance.

Detachment from the result means focusing on the process, on doing something, on living.
It means acting more, and thinking less.It means nourishing ourselves from our experience more, and thinking-about-doing-something less. This is all we should remember, in acting the way we want, in building the life we want, the one we have ever dreamt of. This is where everything reaches its maximum height and depth. This is the really important point both you and me are geared towards, unconsciously.

We are naturally made for more, there is no point in hiding ourselves into mediocrity or uselesness.
We are made for excellence, we are made for more than some useless thought or some useless micromanaging. Micromanaging is bad for us. The answer to this is just to take on new responsabilities in our life, new attitudes towards life, looking at it from different perspectives and approaching life with a really great smile; while dropping everything useless from your life. This is what I did, this is what I wanted to do.

Think in affirmation, not in negation
Uncertainty is not welcomed today. Your brain doesn’t know what negation means and the only way you can communicate directly to your interlocutors is through affirmations. Think positive, think in positive statements, think seriously great and live big, the same way you dream, the same way you learn to live through experience of realy and tangible stuff.

Thanks for reading! Remember to spread this unconventional guide about lifestyle development, sending it to your friends, colleagues, and whoever you think could be interested in taking on a new perspective in life. A successful life is what you’ve been made for.

Make your life the best you can, and not the other way around