I dropped a Tweet a few days ago that I want to expand on:

riley. @lamxnt As we kick off the New Year, I am focusing primarily on my biggest single mistake in 2024: Not operating from a place of SHEER abundance. I was pretty heavy on Optimism (obviously, @IrrationalOpt), but I was always operating from a place of LACK. I am OPTIMISITC about where I… https://x.com/i/web/status/1874833860548043016 10:3 AM • Jan 2, 2025 0 Retweets 23 Likes Read 2 replies

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Now, I have been a self-proclaimed realist since I was a kid.

I prided myself on being a know-it-all. Seeing through the bullshit. REFUSING to live in fantasy land.

This likely stemmed from a lot of childhood experiences, but the main one being:

Realizing everyone was living in a lie they created for themselves.

I was very young when I looked around and realized that the adults around me weren't happy.

These were the people I was supposed to look up to? Why do they look so tired? Why are they so eager to leave their job at the end of the day?

I realized as I got a bit older, I realized the lie of society. I don't need to get into that. We've been talking about how they "lied to us about going to school and getting a job!" forever.

But all this to say, for a very long time, likely as a defense mechanism, I've REFUSED to live in any state of mind other than pure rationale.

Until the tail end of last year.

It started with a new realization:

Why were all the guys I was looking up to religious?

Why were they all talking about things that weren't concrete, tangible, right in front of them?

I didn't care about "faith" or "purpose" or whatever - I had bills to pay! I needed to SCALE!

I refused to give myself even 5 minutes of dreaming. No "what ifs" are allowed.

My situation WAS my situation, right now, and the only way it was changing was if I CHANGED it.

Man. That was a real tough year.

In all reality, I was probably happy for a couple of weeks out of the entirety of 2024.

My trip to Morocco was awesome. A good 10 days of bliss there.

I had some great breakthroughs in business, landed a sick gig, had some date nights, caught a few laughs with friends over Zoom.

But out of 365 days, how many did I go to bed feeling good?

Less than 30, for sure.

So I asked myself:

"If I had to live this day, this week, this month, every day for the next 5 years straight, and in exchange I'd be rewarded $10M -- would I take it?"

And the answer was a RESOUNDING absolutely not.

So, what went wrong?

Why was I truly, genuinely unhappy? And what am I working on changing?

It was simple. I had this breakthrough the last week of 2024, from reading Proverbs, watching some killer lectures on YouTube and having some amazing chats with some friends (shoutout to Zach and Connor, thanks lads).

I was NEVER present.

I know we hear about the Eckhart Tolle "be in the now" shit all the time, it's literally "mindfulness" 101.

But I was SO focused on the future, on the next step, on my goals, on fixing, on improving...

That I genuinely didn't spend any time where I was, in the moment. I was ONLY EVER thinking about the future.

The things I was doing, RIGHT NOW, were ONLY being done for a future outcome.

Miserable.

It was a paradox. By spending all my time thinking about "what was to come" I was paradoxically spending all my time thinking about all the things I DIDN'T HAVE.

I was forcing myself into a state of lack, loss, and scarcity.

I was purposely making myself miserable for no good reason.

Fuck me. Glad I caught that one in my early 20s.

So, as I said in that Tweet:

2025 we are ONLY acting in abundance. We ALREADY HAVE everything we ever wanted.

Peter Kell said it best IMO:

You in 10 years, with everything he ever wanted -- what's the difference between that person then, and you now?

Just time?

And is time reality? Is it not just another unit of measurement?

So...

You already HAVE everything you wanted, you're just waiting for time to catch up.

BE THANKFUL!

Future you wouldn't have been able to have it all without you being BLESSED with the information, the network, the freedom, the generation you're in RIGHT NOW!

WE ARE THE BEST GENERATION ON EARTH.

WE ARE ENTERING THE ROARING 20s.

There is absolutely no strategic advantage to operating from a place of lack.

The ones who will win in 2025 will have brainwashed themselves that they are divinely chosen by God (they are), are destined for greatness (they are) and are simply waking up every day, thankful for the opportunity to CREATE, and then CREATING something worth working for.

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."

Matthew 7:7

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Were you happy last year?

I don't care how much money you made, how many things you built - you know as well as I do that every rich person we know would trade it all for a few more years of happiness.

Were you HAPPY?

I wasn't. At all. For most of it.

HAHAHA

How ridiculous.

Now, am I going to have tough days? Oh, absolutely. Do I still have a TON of shit to work through? Without a doubt.

But I will be spending most of my time with my head in the clouds, 3rd espresso down the hatch, blasting 528hz music through my Sonos, reading Proverbs shirtless in the sun, and putting every ounce of energy I have into building the GREATEST POSSIBLE THING I can imagine.

Because in reality, doing ANYTHING short of that is a limiting belief.

Envision The Highest Outcome.

- RL