Table of Contents, Ep. 006

1) The Quest for Clarity: A Travel Story from real events (5-minute read)

2) Weekly Book Review: “The Creative Act: A Way of Being”

2) 3 Quotes to keep you inspired for a week

3) The Paradox of Internal vs External Orientation

5) Free Weekly Screensaver Image

Quest For Clarity

I'm staring at the screen while sipping my morning coffee. It's 6 a.m., and I'm sitting on the porch of my Airbnb in Kandy, Sri Lanka. Despite witnessing a beautiful sunrise, I am filled with dread.

Actually, it's restlessness and desperation.

Alone with my thoughts, I felt a mix of nostalgia and anxiety, as if each sip of my coffee was stirring up old dreams and present fears. I understand that what I'm experiencing is completely normal. Millions of writers have been there before.

The writer's block.

Just a week ago, I published my first travel story and committed to adding storytelling to my content. It sounds great, but to deliver meaningful moments and stories, I first need to experience those meaningful moments!

They don’t fall out of the sky, and my newsletter needs to be delivered every Friday!

"Failing is just not an option," I think to myself.

My obsession with metrics isn't helping either. Open rate, subscriber count, and a daily cell phone check first thing in the morning to see how my social media is performing. It's Saturday, and I am still hoping to see my numbers improve.

I hate it when my mood depends on how many likes and shares I receive, as if my self-worth depended on it.

So much for 10 years of meditation practice. I decided to let go.

Instead, I focus on planning for the next day since Sunday really is my only free day in the week. Yes, I am a digital nomad with a tight schedule.

From Monday to Saturday, I do 4–6 hours of online tutoring in the evening, so Sunday is crucial for winding down and figuring out some story-worthy activities and locations for photography.

There's one place, in particular, that caught my attention: Ambuluwawa Tower. It looks straight out of a fairy tale and is only 20 miles from Kandy.

It didn't take me long to figure that out, and I also added Kandy View Point and the famous Spice Walk to my list to ensure the day was packed with activities.

I wake up early, and by 6:30 am, my TukTuk driver is already here. My TukTuk driver, a man with years of stories etched in his smile, shared a few tales of Kandy's hidden gems, each word a thread weaving into the rich tapestry of local lore.

The early morning air in Kandy was a refreshing mix of the fresh breeze of the Sri Lankan highlands and the sweet scent of blooming flowers, a stark contrast to the hustle of the city of Colombo.

Our first stop is Kandy View Point, an awesome scenic spot from which you can see the lake and its inhabitants from high above and close up.

And there it is, surrounded by all its marvelous beauty.

Since it's early in the morning, there are no police around, so I can take out my drone to visit the majestic Big Buddha.

We continue the trip to Ambuluwawa Tower, and I find myself wondering if we're actually going to make it safely since my driver seems to believe his TukTuk is some sort of rally competition car.

To be honest, the word "chaotic" doesn't do justice to the state of Sri Lankan traffic.

"Why did you decide to go in the afternoon instead of the morning?" he asks me. "Because I want to see the golden hour for photography," I reply, to which he counters, "But in the afternoon it is usually very cloudy and misty!"

“Oh no,” I think to myself.

I could already tell he was likely right as the first raindrops started to appear on the windshield, potentially ruining my mood at that moment.

And he was right. After an hour of driving, we finally get to the parking lot at Ambuluwawa. Here we are, amidst the clouds, with zero visibility.

Resigned to the reality unfolding, I distract myself by looking around and seeing a man with a huge python and two closed baskets in front of him.

"Sir, do you want me to make the cobra dance to the music?”

“That’s what I would call an exotic tourist trap,” I think.

I feel a pull in the other direction and slowly walk up towards the tower. To the left of it, there is another building and a staircase leading up to a rooftop, a perfect drone landing platform. As I walk up, I realize it's a good idea, and to my surprise, there is nobody there except for a family of three.

Suddenly, the light breaks through. I see the tower in all its glory, and around me, the most dramatic landscapes open up as if a veil has been pulled away in a second.

I am awe-struck by its beauty.

In those moments, some young men call me to take photos of them, and Mischan, the guy on the rooftop with me and his family, turns out to be a professional social media manager.

“You're hired,” I say to him jokingly.

I shift into what can only be described as a state of flow and play. I have no idea how long it took me, but here is a glimpse of it.

As I launched my drone, it captured the breathtaking panorama of Ambuluwawa—the lush greenery, the distant hills, all bathed in the dramatic light of the threatening storm clouds lurking behind the tower

In that moment, it struck me. These young guys asking for my phone number and Mischan, the owner of a social media firm, were all part of an opening in the sky—a sudden clearing up or lifting the curtain of the hidden marvels—while I stood atop the mountains under the fairy-tale-like Ambuluwawa Tower.

Just wow.

It doesn't matter if this leads to something or not; it represents the next step and the clarity I was lacking. It points in a direction.

It's the piece in the puzzle that I was missing when sitting at my computer, suffering from writer's block a day before.

When you're at square one, your only concern needs to be square two. For me, in that moment, square two was my next story about a seemingly minor event in my journey, which turned out to be immensely significant.

Minor things remain minor as long as we don't give them the attention they deserve.

It's up to us to assign them meaning or not. The same five seconds of clarity, the opening of the sky, and the opportunities that emerged in that moment could have happened anywhere. It wasn't about the tower, the trip, or the circumstances.

It was about my readiness and patience to embrace clarity, to be open to it, and to seize the moment as it unfolded.

I was ready to plug in to the source.

Weekly Book Review: The Creative Act: A Way Of Being

This book, in its essence, is a book about spirituality and about the many misconceptions one might have about being an artist.

It is a great guide and signpost for better understanding the origins of art, which, as Rick Rubin argues, originate from outside the artist rather than inside. It is what has been forever, and the artist is only channeling the source in a creative manner. A never-ending transmission and reinvention of beauty, whatever shape or form the artist chooses.

Key takeaways:

• Discipline and freedom are not opposed to each other; rather, they are partners. Discipline is not a lack of freedom; it is a harmonious relationship with time.

  Managing daily habits well is a necessity to free up the creative capacity one has

• If there is only one rule to art, it is that patience is always present

• Not all distractions are problematic, mantras are not, procrastination is

• In terms of priority, inspiration comes first. You come next. The audience comes last

• Average is nothing to aspire to. The goal is not to fit in.

• The best art divides the audience. If everyone likes it, you probably haven’t gone far enough.

• To create is to bring something into existence that wasn’t there before. It could be a conversation, the solution to a problem, a note to a friend, the rearrangement of furniture in a room, a new route home to avoid a traffic jam

• The real work of the artist is a way of being in the world

3 Quotes to keep you inspired for a week

The Paradox of Internal vs External Orientation

I watched a YouTube video the other day from one of the biggest thought leaders out there, Robert Greene (The 48 Laws of Power) and he touched upon the subject of internal orientation as opposed to external orientation or validation.

One sets you free, the other destroys you.

This is something that strongly resonated with me because it touches upon the very notion of finding purpose from within and the catastrophic consequences of the lack thereof.

I know this to be true because of my own personal experience when I lost my livelihood in Mexico. Suddenly, I am stripped of everything. It stings to lose all of your money, relationships, and, in my case, my chosen home of 21 years.

What can kill you, however, is the perception of having lost your purpose.

Suddenly, I was no longer that successful CEO, but a broke 44-year-old guy. I believe this is predominantly a men's issue. I don´t have the exact statistics to back that claim up, but my gut tells me that it is at least partly responsible for the current male suicide epidemic.

Luckily, after being lost for almost 2 years and subsequent substance abuse, I knew I had to find clarity and not stop moving forward. I realized that there is no such thing as giving up. I quit everything and started to enjoy the struggle again.

I knew that deep inside, I would never cease to be an entrepreneur.

I just needed to find a new, clear path forward. And so I bought a one-way ticket to Thailand in March 2022 with my last 600 euros.

I am so glad and grateful I did not give up because now I can tell you about my journey on the Uncharted Road.

When do we need external orientation or validation?

Although I am making a strong case to really orient yourself internally when it comes to important decisions in life for a variety of reasons, there is also a case for a balanced approach because there is no denying that we need external orientation as well.

I think that the art consists in taking it in as valuable feedback to course correct since we also don’t want to end up being self-serving narcissists.

If the idea is to serve, give and create, then we have to take into account the feedback we get from our fellow humans but not fall into the mind trap of letting that feedback define our self-worth, as I described in my story. This is why continuous spiritual practice is so important, because one can know this to be true on a logical level and still fall prey to it.

That’s how beautifully broken and imperfect we all are—the constant battle against the overtaking of the egotistical mind.

The ego is the enemy, as Ryan Holiday points out in his book. He provides a compelling examination of how our ego, which is frequently regarded as a source of confidence, can actually be a significant impediment to success and personal growth. According to Holiday, ego can distort our perception of reality, impede learning, and lead to failure. He emphasizes the importance of humility, self-awareness, and continuous learning through historical anecdotes and practical insights.

In short, a more purpose-driven approach to life.

I think spirituality, which is the true internal orientation we want more of in our lives, is the key to a lot of problems because it offers an internal path not created by the mind but by the inner compass we all have innate. Our subconscious mind is connected to the source.

Most of the time, we are just not listening.

Your Weekly Free Screensaver Photo

This week, there is no question that the winner is the Ambuluwawa Tower, but because I don't know which photo you like the most, I posted three variations, presenting here just my favorite.

You may download all of them here: