2023! - The Year of Experimentation & A NEW YOU

2023 has the potential to be one of the most powerful, transformative years of your life. And all you have to do is step into and make the choice to let go of the familiar, to let go of the past patterns, the past emotions that you've been tied to, and allow yourself to wire in a new version of you. Which does mean stepping into the unknown a little bit. So in this video, I'm gonna share with you how I believe the year 2023 will be the year of experimentation for you. It'll be the year of stepping into the unknown and the year of really transformation for you. And the reason I'm inspired to make this video is because I was also just realizing these common themes in my life, my friends' lives, and also the lives of my clients and the people that like, you know, I have a monthly membership with and all that. And I just noticed these common themes and it's happening for so many people. I'm not sure if it's to do with astrology and other stuff, but basically let's get into what some of those changes I believe are. Now, the first thing I wanna share is something that I'm going through that also I can tell is something a lot of other people are going through. And that is a new updated version of how you could go about your passion. So maybe you haven't found your passion yet, but you're starting to plant the seeds of what could that be. You're starting to open up to like ask yourself the question, am I doing what I'm truly passionate about? Or maybe you've already found your passion, but you're not living it completely yet. Maybe there's aspects of it that you're kind of doing, but you kind of have one step in, one foot in, one foot out. You haven't completely like jumped into this new version of you. Well, right now that's what I'm going through in my own life. I am going through a process where I'm realizing that even though I've built a big following online with YouTube and social media and stuff like that, I'm realizing that there's a new expression of me that wants to come forward, but it's gonna come from me stepping into the unknown. And the unknown for me is actually something I've done a couple times, but I should say more so it's also the unfamiliar. I've done in May of 2022, I did that of the first Shift Experience live event. Shift Experience was the 80 people here in Austin, Texas. It was magical, it was an amazing 3 days. And it was a way that I wired in this new passion of mine of like public speaking and running live events. I did that, it was fun, it was very transformative. And after that though, because I also do like retreats in Costa Rica, there was just like, dabbled in it a little bit, had one foot in, but I haven't completely commit to it yet. And I think part of me also just feels so familiar with what I've always done, which is make YouTube videos, have like online digital courses and stuff like that. And there's a part of me that knows that I can continue to keep this momentum going with like having a majority of my focus on YouTube videos and other things, but I know deep down that I must step into this new version of me and actually like kind of throw the hat over the fence and just trust that process. And the old part of me though, I can tell there's like momentum going where when it comes to making videos even, there's this pressure that I feel sometimes to make videos. I know that like sometimes if I went from making 5 to 7 videos a week to making 3 videos a week to now making like 1 or 2 videos a week, And maybe even though you've seen more videos on YouTube than that, it's because I was ahead on videos. And what I'm realizing though is that I must commit my energy to this new version of me and put a majority of my energy into it for me to really be living that passion, for me to really be in that frequency. And it reminds me of too, of before I went full-time on YouTube, working my 9-to-5 job selling women's shoes. For a long time, I'd make a video and then I'd wait 3 months and I'd make another video and I'd wait 3 months. It wasn't until I completely jumped in and committed to the daily videos on YouTube, I committed to that new identity 100%, and I stepped into the unknown, that things began to change for me. It wasn't from one foot in, one foot out. It was from committing to the new identity. And maybe you feel like in some ways there's certain things in your life that is kind of running its passion, like the passion isn't there like it used to be. Maybe there was a job you had and you used to tell yourself a story, oh, this is like, pays the bills, it's gotten you by, but it feels like something's missing. And I know it can seem scary to let go of the past and to let go of what's always brought you familiarity, but when there's that recognition, you start to hear the call, that puts you on a timeline of being able to jump into a new version of you. So one thing that I've been working on within myself is really acknowledging this. And I think one thing I'm gonna do is I'm actually gonna plan, even though it's like December right now, I'm gonna plan the live event. We're looking into venues right now, me and my team. I'm gonna plan the live event, have an event date set so that that gets the energy moving. You know, it's interesting because we do these plant medicine retreats in Costa Rica. One thing that's very interesting is the moment people decide to drink the medicine, the moment they decide they're coming, which is normally 3 weeks in advance, like at least 3 months in advance, the moment they decide they're coming, it's like their spirit knows and the energy starts moving for them. It's the moment you decide. It's not the moment you're actually doing it that the transformation comes. The moment you decide and you put an investment into it even. Like if I were to find this place I wanna do the live event and invest my deposit on it, guess what? Energy starts moving. When people decide they're coming to Costa Rica and they're 3 months out, that's when the energy starts working with them. From the moment they make the decision and then they come, they drink medicine and then they have their downloads or whatever it is. And then even 3, 4 months afterwards, they're experiencing the reaping of that. Benefit of that transformation. When I did the Shift Experience, it was the same thing back in May. Leading up to it, there were all these, it was like then the energy was moving the moment I chose it. The moment I decided I was gonna do the live event, things started happening. And actually, first off, by the way, I didn't even decide I was doing the live event. I was gonna do the live event with a buddy of mine, and we were each gonna do live events one in Sedona and one in Austin. And we were gonna do both of them together and we agreed to it and we put deposits down, but then guess what happened? We realized that it was, we were meant to do those separately. We were meant to like, we had each other as a cushion, but we were meant to jump in 100%. So what he did is he took the Sedona one, I took the Austin one. And that got the energy moving, and then I was able to more clearly come into my own, like my own power. So for 2023, what I believe it's calling forth within all of us is more empowerment. It's committing to a new identity. It's committing to a new way of being that is more expressive of your passion. Even with YouTube videos, there's times I make YouTube videos where I can tell it's like, If I force myself to make a video, my passion doesn't come through, my authenticity doesn't come through as much. When I wanna make it, different story. It's much more flowy. And when it comes to doing live events, when I was doing that live event, I was like alive, I felt amazing, it was so exciting and fun. And just from being in that state, it brings other things into my life. It's like, think of it as like you wanna follow your passion and the energetic state of being, that is your most excited, that you're the best at, because when you're, or that you love the most, because when you're in it, it brings other opportunities to you that you're not even aware of. Even for my team, for example, I have like people that are on my team. One of them, Ayla, she's an amazing like event coordinator. That's what she does. She's like the event coordination person and she loves the logistics and the systems of live events. And then Max, which is her boyfriend, fiancé, he is a master at like recording live events and live streaming live events. He's a tech wizard. And they do other things within my business as well. Like they're part of my team, but that's what their zone of genius is. His zone of genius for sure is like recording the tech stuff at live events. He loves like the live event component and the recording of everything. He's amazing at it. Ayla, same thing. She's amazing at what she does. And that's her zone of genius. And what I'm realizing that my zone of genius is, is my zone of genius is holding the space and going in and like, and running the live event and engaging with people in a group dynamic and leading people through guided meditations. And really just that leadership quality is what I love. So what we're thinking for 2023 is how can we each do more of what we love? And if we're doing more, if we're doing things we don't love, how can we trim it out? How can we do less of that? Back in the day, I also used to tune in internet marketing, like what I do, I would like, okay, what works for somebody else? What's working for this person? What's working for this person? How can I model that in my own way? Now that energy works less and less. It's less what is everyone, what is working for everyone else? And it's how can I make this work for me? I do what's authentically expressive of myself. For example, every year I run those 21-day, every year I do a couple 21-day challenges where 21 days in a row we go through transformation, we go through breathwork, we go through 21 days of like identity-level change. By far, I've done 4 of 'em, they're the, like I've done 4 different ones like many times. They're the most transformative like 21-day experiences I could, like I've seen so many people transform through them and they're unique. In a way too. I know other people do challenges and stuff, but like I've really, the people I bring in, the breathwork, all of these things, I've got certified in breathwork now. Like all of these different dynamics, guess what? I've done it so many times and seen so many people transform. It's like, why don't I just do that? Why don't I just own the 21-day challenges for the virtual stuff and then do live events instead of like doing that plus like other courses. And everyone's like, oh Aaron, you need to do high-ticket online coaching, you know, and just like run, run traffic to sales calls and shit. I'm like, I'm not passionate about that. 2023 is a year where you'd stop listening to what everyone else is telling you you should do and you stop comparing yourself to everyone else and you start doing what is actually passionate for you. I'm now my internal compass, I'm getting better and better at it. I'm not always good at it because I will find myself losing and like trying to do whatever, like paying attention too much and comparing myself to other people. 'Cause there are people that I, like, the comparison trap is a thing of itself. There are people that do what I do that have like similar size audience that like, you know, are in a completely different level as far as like the finances go and the external things. And I'm like, oh, I should be there. I should be doing what they're doing. But I realize like, why? Why? I'm like, I love my life. I love what I'm doing. Live with more than an abundance. And now I'm focusing more on like, what do I enjoy the most and what gives people the most transformation? 21-day challenges, live events. That's all I wanna do. We do these retreats in Costa Rica, same thing. I love doing those. And I wanna do more of what I love and less of what I don't love. And the thing is though, is some people though, they haven't committed. Like when I committed to making videos on YouTube, I had to learn editing. I had to learn marketing. I had to learn how to make thumbnails. I had to learn things I wasn't necessarily the most excited to learn. but I did it because it was a part of the package. It was a part of like me becoming, if I imagined the full-time version Aaron that was a successful YouTuber, I had those skills in my imagination, so I learned them. And even when it comes to doing this live event, the thread of passion will be there. There will be aspects of it that will be somewhat draining. After doing a live event, holding space for hundreds of people, guess what happens? I need like a week to chill. I like need a massage, I need to go on vacation or something. Like my body is tired. Leading up to it, I'm excited. During the event, it's like ecstasy. But afterwards, sometimes it's common to crash. But if I was like, well, that's not my passion, I don't wanna crash, then I'd avoid the whole thing altogether. So no, there might be aspects of this that you're not like, I'm so passionate about learning this one thing or reaching out to people or whatever it is. But look at it in the whole and understand that following the thread of the passion is what's important. Another thing I wanna talk about that I think 2023 is gonna be about is it's gonna be about really, when it comes to experimentation, it's gonna be about trying new things. For myself, the question that I have is I do things with my buddy Victor, him and I have a company called Full-Time Purpose where we show people how to go full-time doing what they love. We teach people the business side of things. Pretty much we teach spiritual people how to go full-time doing what they love. And him and I do that. We also do Solina retreats where we, with our plant medicine retreats, 2 or 3 times a year in Costa Rica. They're magical. And what we're feeling now is how much do Victor and I do together with our businesses that we have together and how much do we do of our own individual expression? On one hand, we love what we do together. And it's fun. And on the other hand, there's like a desire for us to like express ourselves authentically and separately even, like in our own, we have complete control over our own dynamic experience. And what we're feeling right now is what I'm feeling 2023 is gonna be about is us trying many different things. We're gonna try, we're gonna do FTP event where we show people how to go full-time doing what they love, like a bit, like we've always wanted to do that, but we've never done an actual live in-person event. We're gonna try that out. We're gonna try doing different styles of retreats. We're gonna try, I'm gonna try doing my own retreats with my team. I'm gonna try different things and then we're gonna see how it feels. We don't have it all figured out yet, but through the doing, through the experimentation, we're gonna get feedback. And what I have a feeling we're gonna do is we're gonna do different aspects of these, but one or two of them are gonna really resonate. Or maybe they resonate, but just in certain times. Like if we were to do our Selena retreats 6, 7 times a year, it would lose the magic a little bit and be too much for us. For us to tax and do the plant medicine retreats that many times. But 2 to 3 times right now feels ideal. Maybe in a year it's less or more, who knows? The key is going into the experimentation knowing you're gonna get feedback and trying it out anyways. You don't have to have it all figured out right now. Try new things. If you don't know what your passion is, try new things. Something I also wanna learn is I might wanna learn, I realize I'm not the best dancer. I know this is like random. I know how to dance like the two-step, you know, but I wanna learn, there's a part of me that wants to learn like salsa dancing or something. I feel like I don't understand where that desire's coming from, but I wanna learn how to do that. I'm also single, so it's like a fun thing to do, like, you know, sometimes just know how to dance. So I wanna learn that. I might either get private lessons or I might go do that and learn. I don't know where it's leading me, but it's something I feel like called to do. And for yourself, maybe there's certain threads that you can start to go down. Maybe it's learning yoga. Maybe it's learning pickleball. You guys know how fun pickleball is? I love playing pickleball. I'm actually gonna go in a couple hours and play pickleball, and it's so much fun. And I know, I had no idea I would be so passionate about it, and so it's so much fun, but you don't know unless you try it. Something else that I encourage you to do for 2023 that I think is gonna be huge is realize where you put your energy is where you, where you put your focus is where you put your energy. Now prior, something that I was in the habit of doing is in my phone so often, it's freaking crazy. On Instagram, on this, on that, looking over here, looking over here, looking at my emails, looking at my messages, DMing my team. So much shit. And what I've realized is there's this dopamine addiction to being, to busy work and to always being in my phone. And what I realized is that my energy is being dispersed, it's being scattered. So one thing that I realized is a couple weeks ago, I went on like this dopamine detox where when I was in Costa Rica, I don't think I was on my phone for longer than like 15 minutes a day. And it was just to like call people or like stuff like that. And I felt so much energy, freedom, and my mind felt so clear. And one thing that I really want to invite you, the invitation to look at for yourself for 2023 is, is 6 to 8 hours of your day going to your phone, going to TikTok, going to YouTube Shorts, or is it going to Instagram? Because if so, that is energy that could be going towards your passion. Could be going towards being present. People say they wanna find themselves, but how are they finding themselves when they're comparing themselves to other people? When they're in this like dopamine fix on their phone? If you wanna find yourself, you wanna know what you should do? You should go out in nature. Literally, you should go out in nature and you should chill next to a tree. You know how many enlightened people, I've heard stories of enlightenment, Osho, Sadhguru, all these other people who, you know, people consider to be enlightened. It happened next to fricking trees. It happened in nature. Never once did somebody become enlightened or have some like, have I seen some experience come from some mental stimulation of dopamine inside their phone of comparing themselves to other people or whatever it is. It's been some form of self-inquiry. Being in nature helps you get back to your own sense of nature. Some of the biggest epiphanies I've had have been swimming in a creek, been in the shower, actually, I have a lot of epiphanies in shower, just water helping me remember who I am. But I was on a plane ride going to Costa Rica and I had like a 2-hour conversation with this person that she ran retreats where she'd help people find themselves by just taking them in nature. And she was like a psychologist or something, psychotherapist. And it was fascinating. People find themselves in nature. One thing I recommend you do in 2023 is if you want clarity, go out in nature. Put your feet, your feet, the bottom of your feet, have reflexology in it to where your organs, there's nerves that go through your feet that go through every organ in your body. Walking barefoot on the ground, negative ions, you are balancing out your organs in your body. It affects your whole energy system. Walk barefoot on grass, walk barefoot in the dirt, be next to a tree. Trees are being, trees don't give a shit about what you think. They're not, am I worthy? Am I enough? They just are. And in the same way, you can learn how to be more like a tree, how to just be. I was listening to a video yesterday that was interesting on self-confidence, self-esteem. And it was interesting because what I learned is that we are the only species that has a concept of self. Think of a dog, think of a cat, Think of a lion. Think of a penguin. Think of a tree. They are just themselves. They're just being. They're not wondering, am I enough? Trees aren't like, am I worthy or am I not worthy? Penguins aren't like, am I worthy? Am I enough or am I not enough? Lions aren't like, ah, do I look cool next to this other lion? Am I enough? They don't question themselves. They don't have a concept of their self-image. They just are. But us, as humans, we have this idea of the self, and the self is a conceptual idea, and we either think that we're less than other people, and we have a low sense of self-image, and we think that we're not worthy, or we think that we're, we get all like, we get all hyped up on our own Kool-Aid and we think that we're the coolest shit ever. Both of these are temporary. Whether you have a healthy sense of self-esteem or a low sense of self-esteem, they're both temporary fixes. The key is knowing that just like a baby is worthy, just like a tree is worthy, just like a penguin is worthy, you are worthy too. There's a deeper level of presence that comes where you don't have to be hyped up on your own Kool-Aid, your own sense of self-confidence, but realize that it does come from having the courage to step into the unknown. It comes from the courage of like wiring in a new version of you. It does take courage in 2023. Committing to the unknown is where all the magic happens. There is a connection though to the familiar that sometimes we're addicted to. We're addicted to familiar sensation, familiar emotions. I've seen it happen many times where people, You ever see where people attract the same type of people over and over again? Same type of relationships over and over again? Similar energy, different face, different body. Why? Because the familiar feels safe, even if the familiar's toxic. It does take courage to step into the unknown. But one thing I encourage you to do for 2023 is to become energetically aware of where you're putting your energy. If it's in your phone for 8 hours of your day, if it's listening to, If it's being around people that are draining your energy, if it's going to a job you fricking hate, why? You don't have to have it all figured out to start. There's never gonna be a right time to start. I was just talking to my friend Lior. I was just on the phone with her. She is writing a new book and she's been writing a book for a long time. And she was telling me that she actually hired a book coach and she, there's something about the book that just doesn't feel right and she wants it to feel really good. So she has a book coach that's helping her like that's helping her like formulate her ideas and give her structure so that she can like, and she realized that she had like two books in one and she had to like trim some of the fat of a different concept that probably going into a different book or something like that. But one of the things that she realized is that she was gonna wait till after the new year to do it. She signed up for 6 months of coaching and she actually wanted it done in 3 months or something. She's like, wait, why wait? There's never gonna be the right time. And that is so true. I've been waiting, like I've done a live event. I've been waiting to like really leap in 100% to live events and to trust, like I don't know where all the money's gonna come from, all the abundance is gonna come from because here's the thing, I have a team of people, I have salaries and stuff. There is like a pressure for me to like make a certain amount of money every month to pay for it, to pay everything, pay for taxes, all that stuff, right? Live events, there's expenses. I don't know exactly how everything's gonna work out, but I do trust that it will. But there's never gonna be a right time where like, you just have to leap into it. Like Lior, she's leaping into her book being coached by this book writer, like coach that's gonna help her so that she could finally release her book. But she told me, she's like, there's never gonna be a right time. So I just decided even through the holidays to start getting coaching on it, to start doing it. And in the same way, what is something that you can start now? Stop waiting. Waiting is what is keeping you where you are. There's never a right time. There's never the perfect time. I could have waited till I learned editing to make videos. I didn't. If you go to my first YouTube videos, it says, "Insert title here." Literally, it's a photo of me and it says, or it says like, "First blog post," or something. I couldn't figure out how to edit it to say, "First blog post," but guess what? I posted it anyways because there's never the right time to start and that's a beautiful example of it. You learn as you go. The moment you start it, the moment you are it, the moment you get energy moving, the moment you decide too and you commit to something, you commit to the, like when we commit to the plant medicine retreats and people commit to it, things start coming up for them. When I commit to a live event that I'm gonna like schedule out soon, it's gonna move energy for sure. When you commit, energy starts to move. In 2023, let it be the year of experimentation. Let it be the year of you committing to a new version of you. Let it be the year of letting go of the past patterns, the past familiar energies. Let it go, let it, let go of the addiction that everyone else may have to their phone. You don't have to be addicted to it too. You can go out in nature. You could be more present. You can understand that as you do, there's a level of wholeness that comes in. That's what worthiness is. It's a feeling of wholeness. You feel whole when you're in your own energy, when you're being, when you're in your passion, when you're, when you're creating art, when you're just like enjoying, appreciating the food you're eating. Get down to the basics. A lot of times you can reverse engineer this shit down to the basics and then everything becomes clear. But really it's gonna be a lot simpler. If you let it be simple, it will be simple. Now also, if you haven't checked it out yet, you can calibrate your vibration. I recently redid this whole quiz. Go to www.whatsmyvibration.com. You get a meditation for helping you get to a higher level of consciousness. And then also, if you haven't checked out this video yet, this video is actually made for 2022, but it's the 6 steps you can make to have a complete identity shift transformation. It's one of my most popular or most powerful videos I've ever made. Check this video out right here to make 2023 the best year ever. This episode, I'm gonna show you the 6 steps that you can use to completely transform your life. And the challenge is that if we remain holding on to attachment, holding on to certain desires, holding on to certain patterns, we will continue