3 Steps to Limitless Focus—Beyond Awakening and Reinvention: The Neo-Renaissance

Learn about digital nomadic intention. 

Leverage the digital renaissance.

Leverage social media.

Leverage the internet.

Leverage AI

Why?

This is what I want to talk about in this letter:

• Reinvention

• The Matrix—the catalyst for change

• Why intentional focused consumption is a superpower.

• The importance of aligning your consumption with your goals.

Reinvention

It was 2004; I was changing out the last 4,000-pound forklift battery for the rest of my life—my lower back was finished. Within 1 year, so was my job, my home, and the semblance of the life I'd built.

After hitting rock bottom, I reinvented myself—or so I thought. For the next seven years, I attended business school, graduating summa cum laude with a master's degree in accounting and taxation. Unbeknownst to me at that time, I'd spend the next decade tunneling myself into a dead-end career. I say dead-end, because no matter how hard or how much I work, this career will never pay me a salary or offer the kind of benefits that would allow me to retire comfortably—now what? I thought "going to school, getting a degree, getting a "good job" etc. etc. ad infinitum was enough to "make it" in America. If you think this, think again.

Now I know what you're thinking. "Not another newsletter ranting about the woes and ills of a J-O-B" (picture the eye-rolling).

No. This isn't another letter about the 9-5, or the education system, or the money, or the pain and suffering, and then climatic reinvention of one's self. No. This letter is about an awakening.

There Has Been An Awakening...

The Matrix

The conventional systems of societal programming—everything from ways to "get" an education, "make" money, "live the American dream", to feeling accomplished and self-reliant are, at best, archaic and outdated, at worst, designed to keep you stuck.

This is the matrix: a system of conventional means, processes, and programs designed to lure your mind into agreement with its promises. It does this by presenting you with seemingly coherent and socially accepted means and answers of clarity, freedom, order, and well-being.

A Program..

A program is a sequence of seemingly logical instructions meant to elicit action that produces a specific and intended result.

With any program, you must always ask how it will enable you to achieve personal long-term success in three key areas:

•  Health - will the program help or hinder my health, in the "now" and over the long-term?

• Wealth - how does the program impact my financial health well-being, security, and future goals?

• Relationships - will the program help or hinder my capability for quality relationships?

My rule of thumb is that if beneath a program's veneer you sense it will not deliver in these key areas, know that your "becoming" will never come—no matter how convincing its logic or how hard you work. Why? Because the Matrix never intends its programs to fulfill your becoming. It designs its programs to co-opt your thinking, control the overarching thought goals of your mind, and achieve its goals, not yours.

Catalyst for Change

20 years ago, I chose to retool myself through the college system. Back then, in 2004, the internet was just beginning to take off; social media was nothing like it is now. There was no real digital infrastructure. The digital landscape was more of a new digital frontier.

As the son of a blue-collar railroader, I had no other option, college was it, or work very, very hard at another job and try to move up through the ranks with no education.

My goals were the goals of my Matrix programming. I wanted a good job, a big house, a wife, etc. I believed that going to college and getting good grades would get me there—which it did, but only for a short time.

Fast forward 20 years. After the pandemic of 2020, costs began to rise significantly, to the point that simple things like groceries increased to over $1,600 a month for me. Housing and rent costs have increased exponentially—doubling, even tripling in some cases. What I once thought was a phenomenal base salary has disintegrated in an acidic vat of cost and interest rate inflation. Between the massive student loan payments I have and the unchecked rise in costs, I knew that I needed to change the trajectory of my life. I began to feel that if I didn't change course very soon, I'd never begin my big vision.

Compounding all this was a toxic and abusive workplace environment that finally culminated in a kind of stress I had never experienced before. By the time I realized what was happening to my health, I descended into one of the worst medical issues I have experienced since my lower back had given way 20 years earlier.

Awaken

Present-day society's conventional systems, processes, and means to "make it" are from another world, another time, another generation. They are the outdated, archaic, obsolete, and co-opted systems of education, government, medical care, religion, and employment. They all aim to control your mind and keep you stuck:

• Stuck in a job.

• Stuck in survival mode.

• Stuck with an inadequate salary.

• Stuck with a narrow, chaotic, and distracted mind.

• Stuck with outdated and ineffective coping strategies.

• Stuck in perpetual cycles of procrastination and cheap dopamine.

• Stuck in a never-ending juggernaut of empty promises fueled by propaganda.

All with eyes wide shut, head in sand, and the world barreling down on you like a freight train. Are you banging your head against the concrete yet?

You and I stand at the threshold of a neo reality just beginning to be born...

Transformation: The Neo-Renaissance

Transformation

Transformation is adaptation through assimilation towards a vision. The act of transformation adapts new assimilated learning to some of the old, good knowledge foundation. New learning renews the mind, preparing it to think in new ways, generate new ideas, and open it to new instruction and new energy.

When I say "new", "new ideas", "new ways", "new instruction" etc., I mean that literally. New is new. It isn't something that's been rattling around in your head for decades that you're just now willing to listen to and act on. "New" may build on ideas you already have, but new won't have you build the way you've been thinking you should or would build.

Genuine, authentic transformation is not what you think it is.

In the beginning of a transformation, you won't have all the details of where you're going; you will have some—you will have an idea that you resonate deeply with, that's it. You won't know what needs to be let go of. You won't agree with what you know needs to be changed. You will want to throw out everything in your life up to that point and start from scratch, but you can't. You won't want to wait anymore, not for more new information, not for direction, not for anything, but that is exactly what you must do. You will want to act, begin, rush headlong into chaos, but you can't because you don't have the skill set yet. You need a plan.

Wait..

Neo-Renaissance

The Neo-Renaissance is a new way of living; and with new ways of living must come new ways of thinking. Most people will not believe or trust this, and that is understandable. It is a lot easier to conform to the present conventional systems and programs, which the Matrix conditions us with from birth.

What is the Neo-Renaissance?

The Neo-Renaissance is a contemporary cultural movement that revitalizes the holistic and interdisciplinary spirit of the original Renaissance period. In other words, the Neo Renaissance is a new world where creativity, innovation, and collaboration across multiple disciplines are paramount. This movement emphasizes integrating art, science, technology, and philosophy, promoting a well-rounded approach to knowledge and innovation. By blending classical concepts with modern advancements, the Neo-Renaissance encourages us to push the boundaries of traditional fields and create novel solutions to contemporary challenges.

In a conventional world, the unconventional mind succeeds.

3 Steps to Autonomy through Digital Nomadic Intention

After 10 years of never “becoming”, I had enough.

The "career" I went to college for didn't make good on it's promise of a fulfilling life. What good is an education if it's sole purpose is to make me a slave and keep me stuck?

Below are the steps I am taking daily to change the course of my thinking and thus my life. My big overarching vision is to leverage the new digital landscape of the Neo Renaissance to build a new life.

Step 1: Become Aware of Where Your Focus Is Going

Learn to become sensitive to and aware of where your focus is going at all times. What the mind focuses on, the machine (you) will do; what the machine does becomes the reality that both must endure. The mind creates its own reality. Read that again.

Think of focus as the needle on a compass. What you focus on determines the direction you will go. Like the needle of a compass, you want your focus to be pointing in the direction where you want the machine to go.

Where you want to go is the big overarching vision that you have for your life.

Everyone has a big vision for their life, but they're too afraid to articulate it because they don't believe they'll achieve it. They're told it's an "impossible dream". This is Matrix programming. Don't believe this, or better, don't focus on it. Think of your big vision as a talent. You make good on that talent through focus.

What are you focusing on? Every seemingly insignificant point of focus you choose is either driving towards or diverting from your vision. Where is your needle pointing? Are you moving in the direction you want to go? If you're not moving in the direction you want to go, your focus is off.

Most 9-5er's minds are lost. Lost in an oceanic chaos of half thoughts, half truths, cheap dopaminergic distractions, or worse, locked in a juggernaut of antiquated conventional Matrix programming like modern societal "living" if you can even call it that. Conventional ways of living are massively disruptive. Think about it, your focus is always split. Split between what you really want (your vision) and:

• A job

• A family

• Your bank account

• Your car and home maintenance

• Everything and everyone other than your vision etc. etc. etc. etc….

Choose your big vision, or choose the vision the Matrix has planned for you—that is the choice 9-5ers must make every single day.

Step 2: Get Clear on Your Big Vision

Step two is about learning to control and adapt your focus by getting clear on what your big vision actually is.

Why is this important? Because it is through focus that you create reality. Aligning focus with goals and goals to vision is "becoming". If you focus on the wrong things—things not connected with your big vision—you will never become. "Becoming" is the journey towards your big vision.

How do you get clear on your big vision?

Ask. Seek. Knock ..through meditation, prayer, and learning.

I used to struggle with this question for many years until I accepted what was already within me. There are two ways to get clear on a big vision:

• 1.) Acknowledge what you've been wanting and stop making excuses to hide from it. We make excuses to not listen to our inner voice because we believe we can't have what we want.

• 2.) Acknowledge what you don't want. Acknowledge what repels you, drains you, causes fear and angst within you. Notice what you wish you could change. All these things are a picture of the life you don't want. Your big vision should be an antithesis to what you don't want.

You likely won't acknowledge that what you want is within you, either because you think it's too small and insignificant or too big and out of reach. There is nothing so small that it becomes useless, as everything has its own significance. And there's nothing so big that you cannot attain to it. Don't sabotage yourself here. Self-sabotage is Matrix programming—ignore it.

You identify your desires and aversions by the energy you detect in your body when you think about them. Through meditation, prayer, and learning, you verify whether these feelings have merit. By engaging in these practices, you seek direction, ask for assurance, and take action.

The body is an antenna. It is an electromagnetic energy generator, and at the same time, it is an electromagnetic energy receiver. You know when you know something is or isn't delivering in the three key areas of life - health, wealth, relationships - by the energy you feel. The same is true in that you will know if something will or will not deliver into the future.

Having identified what you want and don't want, the challenge now is to align with the new energy of this vision.

Step 3: Align Your Consumption with Your Big Vision

Step three is the most critical step and it's a superpower once developed.

You've become aware of what you focus on (step 1) and locked in on what you want (step 2). Now, focus on aligning what you consume with the vision you want to achieve. This is what it means to leverage digital nomadic intention in the Neo-Renaissance.

By "consume", I mean to consume those things that enable you to move towards your big vision. Consumption can encompass accounts you follow on social media, books, online resources, mentors, artists, and ideas. The goal is to align what you feed your mind, with your goals and vision. This is how to become a digital nomad with intention.

A digital nomad with intention is someone who navigates the vast digital landscape with a clear purpose, seeking out and assimilating knowledge to fuel personal growth and adaptation.

The digital tools available now were unfathomable 25 years ago. Social media, the internet, artificial intelligence (AI), generative AI (text-based, visual, and audio), high-powered computing resources - to name a few - are tools that you can use to self-actualize and grow at scale.

If you have a smartphone, you have access to all these tools. Use them to filter for information that aligns with your goals and vision. This is the education system of the Neo-Renaissance. Learning in this way will propel you forward faster than taking conventional college courses, which are time-consuming, stagnant, and expensive.

Conclusion

By being intentional with what you consume, and leveraging the new digital landscape to do so, you transform your thinking and thus have control over your future.

The point here is to be intentional with what you consume. Align as much of your focus on what you consume with your big vision. Don't be afraid to leverage online tools like social media, the internet, and AI in all its forms, etc. Don't be afraid to invest in online courses by reputable creators, mentors, influencers, and artists that you trust. This is the new emerging economy.

A few tips to help get your consumption aligned:

• Find social media accounts that you like, from creators and influencers that match your vision. Social media could be Instagram, X, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, or online forums, etc.

• Find books that align with your big vision. Books are very important. In a world where it is difficult to find or afford mentors, books are the next best way to get mentored. Look for books that align with your vision and buy both the Kindle and Audible versions. Having access to both formats allows you to listen or read from anywhere using your smartphone. I like to listen to Audible on my walks.

• Look for online courses from the creators, influencers, and authors you're following. Learn from someone who's already doing what you want to do. It's the best way to master new skills with minimal expense.

• Get a free Notion account. There are many different tools you can use for collecting, storing, and recalling information; but, through trial and error, I've found that Notion is king. Before Notion, I used endless Google Sheets, Google Word Docs, and a complicated file folder system in an attempt to collect, store, and recall the information I've learned over the years. Everything I've used pales in comparison to Notion. Capturing, storing, and recalling information is crucial for digital nomads. Get Notion - I can't stress this enough.

• If you're still a 9-5er, you won't have time or energy to do the things you've always dreamed. If this is you, read my newsletter, called "The Secret to Daily Energy: Without Energy, All You Have Is Ideas", to learn how you can transform your thinking and then your day to generate creative energy.

I hope you found this letter inspiring. If you'd like to see, hear, or read more of my creations, please subscribe to my newsletter "Identity, Autonomy, Creativity" and follow me on social media under @AIMusicArtWriting.

Audentes Fortuna Iuvat (Fortune Favors the Bold),

-Lawrence