Krishnamurti said this in 1975.

To me, and most of us it feels like 1975 was actually better place than today.

That might not be categorically true: prices were rampant, wars were being waged, cost of living was high, with new invisible wars happening.

The modern alignment of inflation and a tech-driven Cold War echoes the oil crises and geopolitical fractures of the 1970s. A philosophical reminder that whether through industrial oil or autonomous AI, humanity continuously invents new machinery to fuel the same old cycles of division.

So if the world hasn't changed that much in terms of the problems, power and control - then neither has the measure of health to be adjusted to it.

I guess the difference back then was that it was felt, before it was understood. If you didn't seek the news in the 70s, you probably just adjusted and dealt with the consequences in your life.

Today, with access to the entire worlds information in the palm of your hand makes it difficult to avoid some opinion and existential dread with which to adjust.

Even so, you still have the same choices you always did - become locked in to contributing to that society, or taking a different path to contributing to a different one for you and maybe those around you

To do that you need to get weird - because if you are not weird - ie the same as everyone else - you're adjusting yourself and your life to accepting that which will never change: so neither will you.

My kids use a term for people who appear in real life like they do in video games: NPCs - Non Player Characters - bystanders who don't contribute anything to the narrative of the result of the game and their own life. They get in the way of the main characters, shout abuse, bump into walls. Every time you switch the game on, there they are, watching life past them by while the exciting stuff, the point of the game, and winning it, is controlled by the person in control if it.

You are the main character in this game you call life.

And the thing about main characters is that they usually stand out. They do stuff most people don't do.

And because they stand out, everyone else, the NPCs call them weird.

So - can you get weird?

And more importantly, can you like being weird?

This is the stuff I'm thinking about today.

And it's what we talk about inside Sovereign Soul. And then we do something about it.

If you want to join us weirdos doing something about - it reply 'weird' and I'll share how we're making it accessible for as many people as possible.

Happy Sunday

Society teaches us ‘quitters never win and winners never quit,’ but in reality a study suggests we would all be better off if we did more quitting.

The study looked at big, midlife pivots - quitting the current life path: “Should I quit my job?” “Should I move?” or “Should I leave?”

Instead of following the typical paths of reaching big decisions – talking to friends and family, listing out the pros and cons, losing sleep, overthinking - the decision was made by a toin coss.

Those who stuck to it were then sent two surveys following these decisions – one at the two-month mark and one at the six-month mark.

Not quit
At two months, people felt good about the status quo - not making whatever change in their life that was eating them up.
But at the six-month mark, that changed – most people wished they had made the change the coin gave them.

Toin Coss Quit
People who lived by the coin toss to make a change, particularly for big decisions like getting a divorce or quitting a job, they reported being happier at both the two-month and six-month marks.
As well as being happier they said they would have made the same decision again.

So if happiness comes down to chance - what's happening?

As we tell all the people we work with - 'action is the antidote to anxiety'. Not doing anything - or just doing the same thing - does not serve you. (unless you're super zen - but then, you wouldn't be reading this)

Most of the emotional pain is from deciding to make the decision itself.

The results, the study says, suggests a “substantial bias” against making changes when it comes to significant life decisions. You're going to get in your own way. Most people tend to be extremely cautious, overplay the downside and 99% of the time won't make a change.

By just taking action you feel better. The biggest regret is always the decision you didn't make.

I can tell you with 100% clarity - the life you seek is on the other side of the decision you are not makng.

The fact is you just have to make it.

So tossing a coin is a more effective way to make it, because whenever you cannot decide what you should do, choose the action that represents a change, rather than continuing the status quo.

Dare you?

Not your mother.

Not your father.

Not your wife, husband, or partner.

Not even your kids.

It's the 8 year old version of you, and the 80 year old version of you.

If those two people are proud, so are all the others.

Congratulations, you did it right.

Why?

You had dreams as a child full of limitless possibilities and you probably spent every year since being told every way how it was not possible.

Science backs this up: A major 12-year longitudinal study followed 1,700 from their childhoods into their mid-30s.

• The Finding: The researchers discovered that childhood and adolescent vocational interests are a much stronger predictor of adult life and career satisfaction than salary alone.
• The Reality: People who forced themselves into careers that didn't align with what naturally energized them as children reported significantly higher burnout and lower satisfaction, even when they made plenty of money.

At 80 years old you'll have chance to reflect on a life well lived, or not. We advocate reading the book 'The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying" to gain insight on just how you might think at that age.

Because the number one regret of the dying?

• "I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me."

The number one regret at the end of life tells us nearly everyone isn't proud of the life they lived.

So think about those numbers - 8 and 80 - they matter more than you realise.

But I was like duck.

Everything looked good above the water. But beneath the water line my legs were spinning like crazy. All that spinning was burning me out. It was like I was programmed in only one way - keep spinning.

I felt like there was more to life for me and my family. But I was stuck. All the obligations I had made me feel there was no way out but to keep going. So, I did. More.

I was 42.

Then my world toppled. Burnout led to 2 chronic illness, and over 18 months in and out of hospital with various bits cut out of me. Lockdown. Excruciating pain, bedridden. Company loss. Legal dramas. Family bereavements, then my own NDE.

That was the moment. When all I saw were the faces of my wife and children. And everything else faded into insignificance.

The very next conversation with my wife was about how we needed to take some drastic action. Change I'd be craving for years. We both decided there and then, none of what we had mattered except each other.

So without any plan, we left it (nearly) all behind.
The things we wanted to do were unrecognisable from everyone else we knew. No one else we knew was doing what we were. We just knew that together we had to be, do and have more of what we wanted - and that meant ditching the identity I had built up and searching for a new one. We shifted, from Life 1.0 to discovering Life 2.0.

We didn't know what we were doing. We weren't able to plan - the world was still adjusting to lockdowns. And the fact we didn't know what the hell we were doing - apart from being together - was the most liberating thing about it all.

Fast forward 6 years 2019-2020 was the best worst thing that happened to me. Without such drastic events, I probably would have just carried on. Getting slowly more ground down, burnt out, unhappy, legs spinning while the world got crazier around me and I had to pretend all was ok on the surface.

Today I see the duck is the best analogy I can think of for how most people are living, trying to keep it together while spinning circles.

It's interesting to see the results of our survey coming in. I'll share more soon.

But here's a sneak peek at the top answers. They're like echoes from my 2019.

Most people say they are stuck in their current career roles and are not sure what to do about it.
Most people say they've currently hit burnout, or big life changes.
They feel most alone trying to make the shift from who they are to who they want to be.
And they don't know how to start to fix it all.

I recognise exactly where they are. Everyones circumstances are different of course, but it seems this is the new pandemic.

And I know how it goes if they just keep going, doing the same thing, and not exploring what they could be doing. What they WANT to be doing.

The statistics aren't good. The world is getting faster, sicker, more stressed, and poorer.

On the flip side, there are a lot of people who have figured it out. Living a life thats more fulfilling, healthier, more connected and wealthier.

You want to know how to start to fix it?

Make some big decisions. Different choices. Seriously. That's all it takes. Look at your situation with a different perspective. Hang with people who have made the shift from who they were to who they want to be. They'll be able to help you see what you can't. You'll need to be brave. Make different choices. You might have to let go. But I know you can do it.

I'm living proof, that life is made of small margins. we take it all for granted and think the way we're doing life is the only way. "Because.. (insert reason why)"

One day you might be in my situation, praying you make it out of it so because NOW you finally will do it differently.

Don't wait for that. Take it from me.

The life you want is on the other side of the decision you are avoiding.

See ya on the other side.

From $200Billion in 2025 to $800Billion in 2027.

Proof of ability is more important than proof of showing up.
What you can do matters more than what you did, or what degree you got.

Credentials are expiring.

Employees are now asking for portfolios, skills, and results. This means a wider range of experience and agency.

Technology, in a fast economy means everyone wants people who can solve problems

Its a new era where the most valuable asset is your ability to think, create, communicate and execute.

For most of human history labor was leverage.
Hands produced value. Hours earned the wage. When people were needed, it gave them some power.

AI takes that need away, and so your power might disappear too.

The consumers, and those still showing up the same way they always have, haven't noticed.

The creators have. They're riding an economy that is doubling every 2 years.

AI created the first one person $1B start up - it already exists. So why can't you start my making an extra $1000?

You might not lose you job to AI. But you will lose it to someone using it.

If you aren't using it yet to make life easier, save time, or making money. It's not too late. You just need to start.

We did a survey this week, and so far the biggest take away for us is that most people still don't know how to start plus they think they need more money and more time.

But there's a way forward where not knowing goes away, you find the hidden money and time in your life and you understand what to do next, because AI becomes your assistant not something you have to take time to learn.

We're building it right now.

• Instead of college, I decided to be in a band: “But you’ll miss out on starting a career?"
• Instead of starting a career, I started a company. “But what if your company fails?”
• Instead of buying a house, I built my own “How will you find the time?”
• Instead of traditional treatment for critical illness, I chose holistic therapies “But what if it doesn't work?”
• Instead of keeping my kids into mainstream schools, I educated them myself, found alternative schools, volunteering and projects around the world “How will they pass their exams?”
• Instead of staying in the UK, on the same path, I travelled with my family across 4 continents and finally relocated where our family is thriving. “But how will you make life work in different countries?”

Every decision I’ve made, people have said ‘but what if it doesn’t work out?”

It’s amazing to me, because I always say “well…what if it does?”

And if it doesn't - what's the worse case scenario?

Get a job. Start a career. Rent a house. Try traditional medicine. Go to mainstream school. Head back to the UK.

I haven't done anything amazing. I just did it differently.
And it maybe reveals more about the person asking, than it does about me.

My worst case scenario is often their current reality.

I'm not judging anyone.

I just think we are so quick to hop on the bandwagon of risk when we don't realize the real risk might be not starting, not taking the trip, not jumping.

The life you seek is on the other side of the choice you are avoiding.

If you’re over 40, that’s when staying static starts to burn. It did for me.

So today, take this as an invitation to not think…”but what if it doesn’t work out?

….and to start thinking….”but what if it did?”

Because, really - What's your worse case scenario?

Most people I talk to over 45 have quietly decided AI is a young person's game. They don't say it out loud. They just stop paying attention, the way you stop reading the small print on something you've decided isn't for you.

This week a study came out that points the other way.

Two researchers, one at Stanford and one at King's College London, looked at 1.25 billion job adverts across 41 countries.

At companies that adopted AI, senior employment rose by about 8.7%.

Junior employment continued to fall by about -4.5% year on year

The firms moving fastest are hiring more experienced people, not fewer.

The pressure is landing on people at the start of their careers.
For many of you reading this, that means your children.
That's not great news, but the opportunity for them is different.

The work that's disappearing is the work a junior used to do, and it's exactly the work an AI assistant is really good at.

So your experience is worth more, but only if you're the one directing that work rather than doing it yourself.

"Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him."..Aldous Huxley

Your years in work count for more than you realise.
Opportunities are rising for you, if you're ready to meet them.

A 52-year-old advisor with 25 years of client work uses the same tool and gets a thinking partner that scales two decades of pattern recognition.

Same AI. Completely different output.

The difference in success lives in the person, not the prompt.

And that's your moat for the future.

You have data. You have your ideas. You have experience.

AI just closes the gap on making it a success in the world.

We work with coaches, career execs, yoga teachers, housewives, accountants, students, store owners, engineers, poets, farmers, lawyers, musicians, doctors and business owners...to make it happen for them.

They already have what they need. The just need help pointing AI in the right direction, with human connection.

It's an old fashioned term. But helpful when putting people into job categories.

We've been talking a lot about jobs in the areas of data, management, analysis, coding, marketing, administration, and such.

In the past few weeks we've been paying more attention to blue collar jobs. Because till now they've been seen as safe(r) from AI.

But what is now available commercially is bonkers.

Here's a list...can you guess the number of people potentially affected?

1.08 Billion. That's the total. Did you guess?

That's 13% of the world. And that's just in these jobs here. The world of white collar jobs is affected even more.

Does this mean its all going to happen tomorrow? No.

But none of these robots were doing these jobs last year. So this is going to happen so fast it will make peoples heads spin.

One day you'll see a robot for the first time and be blown away - within a month it will be 'meh'- normal.

But it's not just one thing...

If geo-politics and economic mis-management continue in the way they are now we're going to have a financial crash with inflation.

In that environment every company and employer is going look to save money in every job role they can.

And that saving is in AI and robotics.

Join the dots and it's obvious.

If you knew a tidal wave was coming, you'd pay attention and take some evasive action right?

It crosses money, time, and meaning. You'll integrate AI to enhance all three in the pursuit of building a more resilient and fulfilling life. With an assistant that can speed up the process to avoid the wave most people haven't seen yet.

Because you can get hit by a wave or you can surf it.

Stay Sovereign

A village used coins. One coin bought one loaf of bread.

The mayor made the coins, and the mayor loved to spend. Every year he spent more than the village had. To cover the gap, he wrote IOUs and sold them to the neighbours. For years the neighbours were happy to hold them, because they trusted the village.

Then a war started far away. It made oil expensive. Everything moved on oil, so everything got dearer. Soon one loaf cost two coins. Then three.

"Don't worry," said the mayor. "Prices will calm down." They didn't. Year after year, the coins bought less.

Now the neighbours got nervous. When they lent to the mayor, they wanted more in return, not less, because they could see the coins were losing their worth. The mayor hated that. He wanted cheap money. So he started buying back his own IOUs to prop up their price. He bought twice as many. Then three times as many.

It still didn't work. The neighbours kept asking for more.

That was the sign. When a mayor has to buy back his own IOUs and they still lose value, the village isn't having a bad week. Something underneath has cracked.

And still he reached for more coins. With an election coming, he promised every villager a handful of free ones. But more coins didn't mean more bread. Each coin just bought even less.

A few quiet villagers worked it out. A coin is only a promise. What matters is the real thing behind it. So they swapped their coins for things that hold their worth: land, gold, grain, and the clever new machines that had just arrived and could do the work of ten people.

Then winter came.

The ones who had saved only coins opened their jars and found them nearly empty of worth. The ones who owned real things stayed warm and fed.

The lesson was simple, and the village had just forgotten it. When the people printing the money keep making more of it, don't keep your life's work in their coins. Own real things instead.

The happiest people I know didn't find a job they loved.

They built a life they loved and their job around it.

It made me remember that the advice I used to follow is out dated.

"Find your passion.
Find a job you love.
Find the right company."

Everyones out there is using the word 'find'.

Like your perfect life is something you find under a rock one day and everything becomes rainbows and coconuts.

So, most people aren't having a whole lot of luck finding anything. Because it isn't found. It's made.

The people I saw this week who are the happiest, are creating.

Their happiness moved when they started creating a life path.

The hours, the people, the place, the freedom, the pace and the income.

Then they built the work that fits around that life instead of the reverse.

The order is important.

When the job comes first, your life gets leftovers.
When life comes first, the job becomes the tool.

I built my companies this way.

And the life it was designed around it is still intact.

But it wasn't super easy. It just means doing things differently.

I looked, but didn't find it and doing it this way nearly cost me my life.

So please remember it doesn't just show up. It isn't found. It's made. Created.

I think most people want to do things differently. They just don't know how to create it. Maybe we can help.

If you'd like to start doing things differently reply 'create'.

We'd like to share something with you so you can start.

For us, that's the third question.
Ask it first, and you wonder why nothing happens.

The order is: save time, save money, make money.

Save time first, because until you've used this thing every day for a few weeks on work you already understand, you have no idea what it's actually good at.

You'll guess. You'll guess wrong.

You'll build the wrong thing and conclude the technology was the problem.

So start with an audit, and it's the one that gives you the insight that currently holds everyone back.

You get 24 blocks a day. Take out sleep. Take out getting ready, eating, the commute, the admin. Take out the hours you're paid for. Look at what's left, then look at where it actually went last week.

Most people find six hours a week doing something they hate, that they're not paid for, that isn't theirs to do.

That's the number. Not "how do I monetise AI." That number.

Because once you can see it, you've got a choice you didn't have before. Spend time and automate it yourself. Or spend money and pay someone. Either way you're buying something back that you'd otherwise have handed over for free.

Start by saving time. And soon, you're saving money.

There's a book we push on everyone we work with. Top Five Regrets of the Dying. Nobody on that list regretted not making more. They regretted the hours they lost to things they didn't want to do, or the things they said they didn't prioritise.

For most? That's making memories and prioritising people.

AI, used the right way, actually makes this happen.

Weird, But true. We see it all the time, when we help people follow the process.

They opened the free version, typed a question, got a mediocre answer, closed the tab. Verdict delivered. Case closed!

They used software. They never hired anyone.

Someone had used one on a free trial, loved it, and felt locked out when the trial ended.

You don't need it. And it can be the most expensive mistake in this whole space, because it feels like progress.

If you aren't already using the cheaper version daily, the expensive one changes nothing. It's a better member of staff for a job you haven't given anyone yet.

Here's what costs you $0 but makes the shift that actually matters.

You're paying for this monthly. So treat it like the person you're paying - your employee.

1. Give it context. Tell it what you're trying to do and what you're not.
2. Tell it when it's wrong. Ask it to challenge you rather than agree with you.
3. Tell it what challenges you currently have and the barriers you think are in the way.
4. Set yours up as top level advisors. Mine is set up to call me out on my blindspots and answer like 4 of my mentors.

Those single instructions can be worth more than any model upgrade.

You would never hire someone, give them one sentence of instruction, then conclude from the result that hiring doesn't work.

And it costs as little as $20.

Right now you get to figure this out before everyone else. But they are getting wise to it in more numbers, every month.

You can start today by asking your AI those questions.

Not because the best person got worse.

What used to take fifty people takes ten. What used to need a specialist and six weeks needs an afternoon. There are three-person companies eighteen months old competing directly with firms that have been trading for thirty years, and winning the same business.

And kids too - my 15 yr old son got an internship because he used AI to build an interactive resume about himself. Before he got AI to build it he got 9 rejections - and a yes at the first attempt after.

Everyone is one of those type of people.

The capability ceiling didn't drop. The execution floor came up. (That's the flattening).

Which kills a specific excuse that a lot of us have been carrying around. "I could never get into that industry." "I don't have the background." "I'd need a team." "I don't have the time". "I don't have the money"

That was true. It isn't now.

But we want to be straight with you about the other half of this, because a rising floor helps everybody equally, and something that helps everybody equally helps nobody in particular.

The advantage was never the tool. Everyone can access the tools

The internet democratised information. AI democratised execution. Both needed the person driving it.

The advantage is being early to it while most people are still deciding whether it's worth their time.

Don't sleep on it.

Digits or atoms.

If what you do is move information around: read it, sort it, summarise it, decide based on it, write it up - you're in digits.
That's where AI lands first, and it's already taking jibs at 15,000 per month (just in the US)

If what you do is move physical matter around in a messy, unpredictable (human) environment - you're in atoms.

You've got longer. (And get it right and you'll thrive.)

Now the uncomfortable part.

A doctor is in digits. Looking at symptoms, reading results, mapping a treatment path. That is analysis.

A nurse is in atoms. Presence, touch, judgement in a room with a frightened person in it.

Most people assume the doctors job is safer because they trained for it right?

As you'll see in the AI Fastrack Update - that's NOT how this goes.

So here's the real version of the test, and we'd like you to be honest doing it.

Can you describe your job as a set of rules?

Almost everyone says no. Almost everyone is wrong. Sit down and try it properly - what you look at, what you decide, what happens next - and most jobs turn out to be about eleven rules and a lot of experience knowing when to break them.

The experience is the bit that's still yours. For now. If you retrain yourself today.

The future is in truly human connection, innovation and most exciting - inspiration. Because as you'll see - your ideas no longer have the barriers to becoming real.

You feel messy in terms of being able to make it happen - but AI here is here to make it happen for you - because now you have an army of employees ready to do it for you.

And what most people don't realise is if you just use it like we do, you figure it out.

Our non-techy members are building companies making $1000's per month and being valued at numbers they can't believe are real.

And they are just like you, but they started earlier.

Its called the 7/10 zone.

Where things aren't bad, they're just good enough.

7/10 job, 7/10 house, 7/10 body, 7/10 vacation, 7/10 relationships. Making your way to the weekend. Likely 7/10 busy. 7/10 happy.

Most people stay 7/10 their whole life. Because, well ya know....its good enough right?

But the ones hitting 10? They're the ones refusing to have 'just good'.

They go for a 'hell yeah!'

They're willing to close that 3 point gap with a bit of uncertainty. (secret: that's where the juice of life actually is)

And the uncertainty for the 7's usually sounds like "not enough time, not enough money, not enough skills, not enough motivation..."enough enough enough to be ready.

And so 10/10 slips away.

(#1 regret of the dying: 84% of people regret not being bolder, and reaching for a 10/10 life, because when you're at the end of your life you realise you only had the one)

But what if I told you there is a way to get enough time, to find, save and invest money, where the skills you need are there in abundance, and the time is NOW?

This picture explains the biggest career shift of the decade.

And no, AI isn't the be all and end all of life. (its in options, memories, people, and time),

But if you're looking for the way to close the gap, it's a bigger opportunity than the internet.

Why?

The way most 7/10 were working for the people who had the ideas. And it was true. Building anything took an army, so companies paid armies, and your whole value was your ability to deliver it through your job.

But AI collapsed the cost of building. The idea that needed a 40-person team in 2020 is now one or two people with Claude Code and a focused week. AI can be your analyst, researcher, manager, designer, VA, customer service. Everyone can execute now. Which means execution stopped being the thing that separates you from 10/10 life.

The edge moved upstream: now the people with ideas need less and less of the people to execute through jobs.

(some stats say up to 150,000 non AI related layoffs are already happening)

What they do want is more people who know how to use AI like them.

And today, right now, they're willing to pay an up to 118% higher for it (average is 62%). Not developers, not tech bros, not people with skills, time, money...just someone who knows how to use it to create value, in a job they already do.

Execute your way to a 10/10 life.

Have you seen the Disney/Pixar movie WallE?

It's about a cute robot who is left on earth to clean up the awful mess humans have left behind.

Meanwhile, the humans that left earth float round in a spaceship courtesy of a corporation, developed into overweight slobs, plugged into screens showing them endless advertisements, holographic announcements, and social updates from the Buy n Large corporation.

The constant screen time keeps passengers distracted and buying useless stuff they will never use.

It's never mentioned where they get the money to buy stuff from, but the fact they consume junk food and junk content 24/7 tells us they do not actually earn money because no one works - they have an automated corporate system where everything is paid for through a continuous cycle of corporate credits and infinite debt.

Since BnL robots do all the work it costs the company nothing to produce goods. Giving humans "free" credit to buy things simply serves as a psychological trick to keep the population compliant, comfortable, and addicted to constant consumption.

If you ever make your brain hurt and think about stuff like this (like I do) - you'll see parallels with today, yesterday and the future.

You can see the rails being made now, if you understand the bigger picture.

It kind of reminded me of lockdown. It was hard for many.

But at the same time many people received 'credits' printed out of thin air - stimulus checks, furlough payments from the governement - because their jobs shut down with the economy.

For the majority that 'free money' was a way to spend and consume.

People splurged on Amazon, Netflix, Pelotons, and Uber eats deliveries, while zoom, and social media went into overdrive usage. Buy n Large in real life - buy, and get larger!

The people that made these decisions, 'Consumers' - when lockdown ended they went back to the way things were before. They'd had a nice lockdown, but they'd spent all the money. And now everything was more expensive (inflation), and stressful. It hasn't let up since for many.

For others - 'Creators' they took the lockdown pause as an opportunity. Some spent time learning new skills. Starting new business. Understanding investments. (Bitcoin was less than $4,000!). These decisions changed many peoples lives after lockdown ended. New skills, new wealth, new opportunities.

Most people don't realise that fiction is becoming fact. The humans in WallE are just exagerrated versions of earths citizens today. That another crisis looks to be on the cards like the pandemic. And the same opportunity presents itself today and throughout whatever happens next.

We can all choose to be Consumers or Creators of our future.

It just starts with inspiration, awareness and support. And maybe a spark to see its there.

Its why we say harnessing AI today is like buying Bitcoin in 2014.
Its why developing an entrepreneurial mindset today is the way to protect your tomorrow.
Its why you won't lose your job or business to AI, but you will lose it to someone else who knows how to use it.

So become a creator.
Your future self will thank you.

The first time you actually used it, then kept using it every day without ever deciding to.

For most of us there are years between those two moments.

Mine started in 1996, in a college computer room with a friend about to 'go on the internet' for the first time.
Neither of us knew what to look for. We decided to look at a book we were already reading. (Mr Nice FYI)

There was no Google. Mobile phones were for businessmen.

1998. I made money from my first website. An online catalogue with a phone number on it. You saw the product, you rang me, I sold it to you down the line.

2002. First $250k, and by now you could buy without ever speaking to me. Enquiries ran fifty-fifty, phone and email. Phones were for texting.

2006. Dial up dies. Broadband birthed. First million online.

2009. Third million, this time with social media inside the business. People had started living in Messenger.

2012. Fourth million, selling the systems I'd built to make the first three. Everyone had a smartphone by then. WhatsApp arrived. People stopped calling.

2016. My systems talked to each other, and to suppliers, and to vendors. Maps and navigation in every car. Content everywhere. new opportunities.

2020. Everything moved to Zoom and never really moved back.

And everything changed for me, on and off line (that's another story)

Twenty-three years online. From beginner to global entrepreneur. The world rewired underneath us. My life changed forever.

I wasn't a tech bro. I wasn't skilled at anything. I was just interested, with an idea.

And at no point did it feel fast.

That's the part people forget. It never felt like the revolution it was. It felt like Tuesday.

And one Tuesday you realise, most of your life revolves round a screen and a wifi connection.

Which is why the internet happened to so many people, instead of happening for them.

If they didn't pay attention they missed the opportunity to change their circumstances.

Here's what I keep coming back to.

AI became available for general use at the end of 2022.

Not even 4 years later, more AI advances have happened since then than the entire 23 internet years.

Hell, more has happened in the last 6 months than in half that internet timeline.

Which means the AI timeline is being measured in months, not decades.

And almost nobody has noticed, because to them, it still feels like Tuesday.

Whatever you think of AI, good or bad - it is still just a tool. And how you use it matters.

Because on a Tuesday soon, you'll either be using it to create opportunities for you, or because everyone else is and told you to create opportunities for them.

She found me.

I don’t know how, but she did.

Diane.

I few weeks ago I told you about my encounter in a hot tub with an elderly lady.

Beneath the Bali stars and in the volcanic spring water, the conversation didn't feel like a chance encounter.

It seemed like our paths were meant to cross, at that exact moment, to create a moment.

A moment significant enough that I wrote to you about it, and significant enough to Diane to track me down a few weeks later.

What she shared will remain between us.

But the fact that the moment created this connection is what I want to share.

The effect you can have in someones life in the small moments can have impact that changes someone’s perspective and alters their path, and future.

And yours too.

I could have left the tub when the other ladies did. But I didn’t. I didn’t have to a start a conversation with someone I wouldn’t ordinarily. I didn’t have to share my own story. I didn't have to be interested enough to ask her questions.

On another day, in another place, maybe I wouldn't.

On this day, I decided I would.

And it allowed Diane to share her story. We bonded beyond connection. And for both of us a future path appeared where it wasn’t before.

Created.

Lit up.

Like a candle flame that lights another.

And that candle light may pass to someone else too, and so on and so on.

Small moments. Lasting impact.

It’s a reminder the smallest things you do with presence, can make more difference than you know.

But you might miss it the opportunity.

Because we get in our own way of us sharing our truth, for others.

How do you not miss it?

You measure it.

Your connection to something beyond yourself.

The stretching into the new.

It could be a conversation.
It could be bring your gift to the world.
It could be building something bigger than you.

Light the candle, or power the grid.

And then?

Your life lights up. Expand. And you are on the way to having more, doing more, being more and giving more.

You have a reason you are here. But if you never light a candle you’ll never be able to start the fire. In you or someone else.

Hello there,

I'm currently in the remote part of North West Bali.

Last night the stars came out. I decided to have a pre-bed soak in one of the volcanic hot spring pools.

An elderly lady appeared, and got in.

Then another four. And another three.

I'm sat with 8 of them, having a lively conversation.

They tell me they are all from Australia and on a retreat, connecting around a mantra workshop.

They all are experiencing the magic of Bali. Harmony. Inspiration. Connection. Feeling change and wondering how they will take it home.

Nice chat.

They get up leave as another lady arrives and announces she's late to the party.

It's quiet with the gaggle of gals gone.

Just me and this other lady. She's in her 70s. She seems shy. I strike up a conversation.

She asks me why I'm here. How I ended up in Bali. Why. What happened.

I'm happy to share. Its the environment.
Stars. Volcano. Ocean. Fireflies. A full moon.

There's parallels between us. Different background, generation, different country.

But still human.

The steam rises with the light smell of sulphur from the spring.

The conversation goes deep, quickly.

Sulphuric soul.

Honesty, it seems, can be easier between strangers.

She and her husband retired last year.

Within 6 months they discovered she has pancreatic cancer and he has dementia.

*.......*

She waited her whole life to start to live. Only to confront death.

She has regrets. Resentment. She felt she did all the right things. Played by the same rules as everyone. Did what others told her to do. And she says, they still are. Telling her what she should do wth this diagnosis. How to live. Obsessed with doctors and death.

She swears. "F___ them!"

She laughs. Not how you often hear a septuagenarian speak.

Now, she wants to be free. Facing the biggest change in her life -- she's ready.

"What do you want?" I ask

Different people. Different places. Different experiences. Different focus.

"What a waste. Why did it take this to make me see?" she says.

So we talk about it.

Obligations. Opportunity. Love. Fear. Future. Surrender. Meaning. Big questions.

Change.

Everyone fears change, deep down.

Because the perspective, people, places around us often don't let us.

And the reason isn't strong enough. Yet.

Here's what I see.

People only change:

When they see enough - they're inspired to. Awareness.
When they learn enough - they know how. Experience.
When they receive enough - they're able to. Empowerment.
When they hurt enough - they have to. Pain.

Most people ignore the first three.
They can never ignore the last.

We're a blip on the face of existence.

We're nothing. And we're everything.

We take so much of the wrong things too seriously. And not enough of the right things, seriously enough.

Diane says so. There's a connection between us. And she sees it too.

"No one has ever said these things to me before" she says.

Suddenly it's past midnight. Time to go.

"What's your name?" I ask.

"Diane" she says. "What's yours?"

"Richard" I say.

"Oh." Diane says. "That's my husbands name too".

Woah.

I hold her hand. Wish her the best.

Moments like this don't feel like a coincidence. They feel like an intersection. Where change can actually happen.

We all have the same life. The same choices. Our circumstances might feel different. But at some point we all might face the same.

The life you seek is on the other side of the choices you aren't making.

You don't have to wait till pain makes you have to change - you can choose it, today.

My hope is that you do. It matters more than you know.

I want to tell you something about Dani.

He ran the family business in Manchester for years.

Feeling the itch he stretched into new circles. Searching for new answers.

Found a networking event in London that changed everything.

He'd get on the train to London to go to personal development events.

And every week he'd feel it.

Heading south: free. Alive. Like himself. The exciting new location where people supported him because they wanted the same thing. New, and a little bit scary.

Heading north: heavy. Constrained. Like someone else's version of him. The familiar place, that represented a life accumulated not created. Same people, same problems.

He started asking a question he couldn't un-ask.

Which one am I?

The man on the southbound train. Or the one going home.

One day on the train north, coffee and notebook he did an exercise.

Peak positive. Peak negative.

Write down when you felt most alive. Write down when you felt most like you were disappearing.

The answers were so obvious it was almost embarrassing.

He got home and told Christina: I'm selling the business.

Not because the business was failing.

Because he finally saw it clearly. The biggest thing in his life was the thing blocking his life.

Because he saw that his Environment Quality - his location and routine - was no longer serving him. And his Relationship Portfolio - the people in his life that supported his growth - they weren’t where he spent most of his time.

That exercise took twenty minutes.

The decision took one conversation.

The life that followed was unrecognisable.

Opportunity. Adventure. Excitement.

It sounds so simple its almost stupid. But I'm willing to bet you haven't done it this way?

Whatever you are not changing, you are choosing.

I'm putting together the slides for the upcoming workshop, putting all the tips and tools we use to build the life we want.

It reminded me of when I was most fearful.

In a hospital bed alone during lockdown. Dealing with a life threatening illness. My businesses crumbling because I wasn't in it. People I trusted trying to sue me. Kids not knowing why I wasn't there. Burning through savings. Not knowing if i'd see my family again. Everything I had built in dust.

Kinda makes you worry about the future. Reassess your choices.

I facetimed my wife.

We talked about what we would do when we got through this.

We were facing a fork in life's road.

Keep things the same - the things that had put us in this situation - or go a different path.

That path looked scary.

But I had a tool we wanted to try.

Fear Setting.

It flipped fear into actionable clarity, minimised anxiety, defined, confronted, and defused our biggest fears.

That day we made the biggest boldest decisions without regret.

It changed everything.

Today my life is uncrecognisable. I feel blessed every day. Life 2.0.

Its a crazy story, in the book of my life - it's an episode, a chapter.

You don't need to wait till life crumbles. (In fact definitely don't do that)

Most people take 5-6 years to make a decision they already know they want to make

That big decision you want to make?

Unmade. Because: People. Places. Money. Time.. "I’ll do X when I have Y."

Maybe seem like good reasons.

But the decision you already know you want to make will take you 6 years to make it.
6 more years not doing the thing you said you wanted to do.

This week, you won’t regret it. But longer than that?

Studies show in an average week people regret actions they took at 53% - and inaction at 47%.
Short term, It's about even.

But when people look back over their whole lives, regrets of inaction outnumber regrets of action 84% to 16%.

84%
That's nearly everybody. Not acting on the thing they wanted to do. A planet full of regret.

The Status Quo Bias study showed most people stick with the current state even when alternatives are objectively better.

The crazy part? That BIG life decision is rarely a permanent one. If you wanted, you could easily return to the life you have today.

People's most enduring regrets come from the gap between their actual and ideal selves — and "the failure to be your ideal self is usually an inaction".

It’s not what you did that causes regret, it’s always what you didn’t.

The world used to give you time to figure this out. It doesn’t anymore.

There's something that you want to do. You might not know how. That's ok. You can learn.

Break it down.

Its time.

The world used to give you time. It doesn't any more.

Most people take 5-6 years to make a decision they already know they want to make.

Those people don't or cant make a decision that feels like the right one.

Because they they're trying to cover too many bases.

“If I do X then I miss out on doing Y”

It's about removing not adding.

Subtract not stack.

But in a way that doesn't feel like giving anything up.

And that's something you have to learn, from someone who's already figured it out.

You overestimate what you can achieve in a month, and underestimate what you can achieve in a year,

One year goes so fast. A massive list of resolutions, new habits and to lists.

And in June they've all fallen away while you just try to make it to the end of the year.

Don't do this.

Gve yourself One Thing to achieve, in one year - and everything will change for you.

I promise.

"Extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus.

Nothing is permanent. So stop acting like it is. And everything changes.

You were never taught how to apply this to make it work, while the world got more complicated and noisier.

This is how we do what we do.

And how we help others do it too.

I spent the last month speaking to 70-80 year olds. Why? Because I want to learn at their age how they think, what they look forward to and what they regret.

And there’s a running bunch of lessons they wish they'd known in their 40 & 50s. When time became the one thing money couldn't buy back.

They all said there are three stages of life.

In your 20s, time and health, but no money.

In your 40s, money and health, but no time.

In your 70s, time and money, but health is fading.

Most people spend their whole life waiting for a stage that never fully arrives.

The fourth stage But there is a fourth stage. A window, usually somewhere in your late 40s and early 60s, where all three overlap. Enough money. Still healthy. More time than before. 70-year-olds say this is the window they didn't know they had until it was closing.

Lesson one
Don't miss the window. The trip to Asia at 42, 52 or 62 is not the same trip at 72. The hike. The adventure. Keeping up with kids. The thing that requires a body that still cooperates. Time doesn't pause while you finish one more year.

Lesson two There are three types of time. Most people in their 40s & 50s are ignoring the most important one. Career time. Relationship time. And recovery time, the thing that gives you energy for everything else. Most people don't protect it until it's gone.

Lesson three It is okay to say no. The first half of life required saying yes to every opportunity, every obligation, every open door. The second half requires protecting what matters most through priority. 70-year-olds say learning to say no was one of the most valuable things they ever did.

Lesson four Time is not money. Money can compound while you sleep. Time cannot. Every day you have less of it. No investment strategy changes that. In your 40s-50s time is the scarcest asset you own. Most people treat it like it's unlimited.

Lesson five You can buy time back. You can pay someone or automate to do the things that drain you and reclaim those hours for the things that matter. Successful retirees figure this out early. Do what you do best. Pay for the rest.

Lesson six Prioritize your health in your 50s like your retirement depends on it. Because it does. Yoga, fitness, meditation tools that make you look and feel a decade younger. Pick something that lights you up, not feels like a chore.

Lesson seven Watch the status or accumulation game. Buying a Porsche is exciting for two weeks. Accumulating and hoarding net worth is a limited flex. Expensive things signal success. Experiences deliver happiness. The number one regret of the dying is not seeking enough experiences.

Lesson eight Retirement costs more in year one than almost anyone expects. Not because the plan was wrong. Because this is the go-go phase, the window where you can and should spend more, and most people underestimate how much life they actually want to live in it.

Lesson nine Nurture your relationships now. Not after you retire. The longest living people in Blue Zones all have the deepest relationships. 70-year-olds say time with the right people is the only thing they wish they'd protected more.

Lesson ten Don't just run away from work, or the life you have today. Decide the life you want to run toward. Six months into retirement, retirees who had no answer to that question said it quietly: "I didn't know what I wanted my life to look like at 40, and I still don't today". Purpose doesn't show up automatically. It has to be found before you need it.

The world used to give you time. It doesn’t anymore.

You over estimate what you can achieve in a month and underestimate what can change in a year.

I travelled the world for 2 years with my family, to re-prioritise what our life looked like and rediscover what it meant to be truly present with each other.

When we decided we were going to relocate permanently we each wrote a checklist. The things we wanted to be able to see, hear, do , be and feel in our new home, every day.

When we landed in Bali, we checked the list and we just, knew. We were home.

One of the things on our list was the pursuit of presence.
Not creating too many expectations of our future.
Not looking back to our past with any regret.

You see this every day on the faces of the Balinese.

Rituals of gratitude, ceremonies of connection, a way of being, a way with words that tells the listener....I am present.

A Balinese 'tomorrow' can mean next week. A 'yes' today is actually a 'maybe'. All said with a smile that says, it does not truly matter.

Because, in Balinese language, there is no past or future tense.

What happens when a whole civilisation is grammatically incapable of escaping the present moment?

It changes the way you are. What you think. How you act.

The Balinese don't even think time is linear, they live within a cyclical 210 day year.

A 10-day cycle with 10 concurrent weeks running simultaneously. No linear progress. Every day is a quality, not a position.

When time is cyclical not linear, there is no urgency about the future. The harvest will come again. The ceremony will return. The bumps in life are gone tomorrow if they are here today. So be fully here for this one.

It's all just part of a cycle, and one that gives us the opportunity to learn, to grow, be grateful for the lessons.

For the Balinese, they don't know any different. It's always been this way.

And believe me, life looks a lot simpler and happier like this.

But in the West, it's hard to escape the programming. And it can seem like we are always living in the future, striving to get there.

"When I get X I'll feel Y"

But wherever we go, there we are.

In Sovereign Soul we call it Thriving, not Striving. Because a person who Thrives isn't the wealthiest. It's the person who has defined what makes them happy, stops accumulating, and lives it.

It's a change of state, not a change in circumstances.

You might be living a life today you only dreamed of a few years ago.

But today it doesn't feel that way.

The Balinese have a concept called Suka Duka — "The wholeness of joy and sorrow together"

The Balinese don't use this phrase to describe a problem. They use it to name the complete texture of present experience. And to signal that both states are equally valid, equally sacred, and equally to be accepted without resistance.

If we operate in linear time, we are rushing, hoping towards a time when 'things will be better'.

But in doing so we miss out on so much.

Life isn't perfect, so peace is found when we celebrate its imperfection.

Think in cycles, not lines.

Celebrate the duality today.

Because then we'll stop speaking in the past, or the future.

What would change if you removed the grammatical option to escape the present?

Most people say they are learning something.

They’re doing the course. Pile of books on the bedside table. Following experts on LinkedIn. 14 browser tabs of “things I’ll get to.”

And almost none of it is changing anything.

When someone else tells them about some latest life/career/growth/consciousness hack they feel like they need to do it too.

Is this you?

It’s exhausting. Because you add to your to do list instead of prioritising, or removing things from it.

The course becomes the thing you feel you need to do instead of the thing you’re avoiding.

Studies show that taking three professional development courses in a year are no more likely to make a major career or life change than adults who complete zero. (Harvard EdLab, 2024)

The variable that matters isn’t how much you’ve learned.

It’s whether you actually applied it.

We saw this when we hosted our Bitcoin community. We convinced them BTC was worth the investment at under $10k. Many said “Great! I’m going to go and do a course on buying Bitcoin before I buy it”

Not on our watch.

Our coaching took them through the baby steps of buying BTC live on zoom. They learnt more by doing that than they would have in ‘learn about Bitcoin’ course.

And then they owned Bitcoin under $10k.

This is how we approach everything in Sovereign Soul: get to the core belief and reason, and take action on it.

Here’s the shift:

1. Stop adding inputs. Name your One Thing.

The single move that, if you got it right in the next twelve months, would change everything else. Not ten things, or five. One. (this is the highest ROI move we see people make)

1. Make everything you’re doing in pursuit of it.

Every course, every book, every workflow filtered through one question: does this move me closer to the thing I actually want? If it doesn’t, skip it. The 14 tabs collapse to 2.

1. Take the smallest possible action toward it.

One specific move, however small, that wouldn’t have happened if you were still just studying. That’s where compounding actually starts.

1. Find people doing the same.

Action amplifies in places where everyone has named their One Thing and is moving on it - not learning about it.

The question isn’t “am I learning enough?” It’s “am I learning something specific enough to matter?”

It’s the same with AI. You can do a course…but if you don’t know why it will be just another tab open.
Or like buying Bitcoin at $100k instead of $10k.....

The media is screaming at us about how bad everything is right now.

War, cost of living crisis, immigration, debt crisis, hantavirus, cybersercurity, economic crash.

But if you tuned out of the media scroll, would your day to day be hugely different from how it was before?

We may all be effected long term by what's going on in the world - but today isn't all that different from yesterday for most people.

They just get anxious because that's where their energy goes.

Anxiety is maintained by avoidance. Every avoided thing grows. Every confronted thing shrinks.

72% of people who took deliberate action in the face of anxious feelings have them diminish within 48 hours - even when the action didn't solve the problem they were anxious about (APA, 2022)

Here's 4 hacks:

1. Turn off and tune out of all media
   Your nervous system was not built for the world's problems delivered at infinite scroll speed.
2. Do a novel thing or learn a new skill
   Science shows this slows perception of time while creating new neural pathways in the brain.
3. Project a positive future, then take action toward it today.
   Your brain cannot fully distinguish between a vividly imagined future and a real one. So spend time building one you actually want.
4. Spend time with people who want what you want, and are doing something about it
   Research shows emotions are socially contagious and spread up to three degrees of separation. Your network is either amplifying your anxiety or absorbing it. Choose a different network and everything changes.

Energy flows where focus goes. Which of these 4 hacks can you say you are doing, every day?

Jevons paradox says that when a new technology disrupts the job landscape millions of people lose theirs because of it.

AI is going to make that happen on a scale we have never seen before.

The job you work in, your industry WILL be effected. How soon will be depend on how exposed it is, but it will happen.

When the world is under financial pressure, so is your industry, your boss. They're forced to make decisions based on economics. Loyalty counts for little. When they lose money and efficiency to competitors deploying AI they are forced to do the same.

And it might be more financially efficient to pay for your layoff than get behind and remain uncompetitive.

Admin and managerial roles. Creative industries. Legal and financial services. Data, analysis. Consulting. Web and graphic design. Health. These are just a few of the industries being hit, today. NOW.

And if YOU are a business owner you will (or should) be thinking the same thing. Because there is a one man operation out there without your overheads who is using AI to come after your business too.

Its already happened - the first one man, AI aided company has reached a valuation of $1B.

Most people aren't seeing the scale of this threat yet to them, or the scale of the opportunity. Virtually everyone is not doing anything to prepare for it.

Because the Jevons paradox says that when jobs are displaced, millions of new ones are created. Roles that never existed. Whole industries are birthed. And the world moves on.

So, you can't afford not to. It starts with learning how to set it up and then use it.

So you might not lose your job or business to AI, yet. But you will lose it to someone who is using AI, in ways you aren't, today.

You don't have to if you start.

"AI isn't relevant to my life."

"AI is something technical people do."

If this is something you might say, think again.

These are the same statements people made about the internet and Bitcoin. Because it doesn't seem like it's going to have such an effect on our lives immediately.

But here's why the AI revolution is different: adoption.

Here's how long it took for previous technological revolutions to happen.

The reason they get faster? Access.
If you had access to land you won the agricultural revolution
If you had access to capital you could build factories to win in the industrial revolution.
If you had access to capital and training you could build technology to win in the digital (internet) revolution.

But now? If you have access to the internet you can win in the AI revolution.

That's why the rate of adoption of technology rewards early adopters.

And you are one of them.

Because of the tools available today can transform your life to what you want.

This access has NEVER been available like this in human history.

You just need the will to improve your life and a few AI subscriptions of $20+ a month - you could unlock the next level of your freedom.

The problem is most people are using AI like googles search. Maybe they're using the free version of chatgpt.

But that's the childs toy of AI.

And its getting easier than ever to access models beyond 'chat' version of AI.

Cowork, Codex, Code, OpenClaw.

These are where the 'aha' moment hits.

Where you know how it can save you time, and make you money.

Some average joe made this:

It scans satellite images to find suitable backyards, creates a realistic pool design, estimates the cost and potential increase in property value, and sends a personalized postcard with a QR code to homeowners. Passes that lead onto pool builders. Make commission.

And the crazy part? It's getting to the stage where you can 'speak' an idea like this into existence.

No technical expertise. No coding training. Just the ability to spot an opportunity and go for it.

So many of you tell us you want 'passive income'. But...what if it doesn't exist in the way you want?

What if the true unlock to passive income is something YOU build, then automate.

Giving you ROI every month, on repeat, with no risk of someone else scamming you.

TRUE FREEDOM.

It starts today, with education. It follows with implementation.

Your future income, and your future self will thank you.

I started keeping a list.

Want to see it? Read on.

• OpenAI raised $122B in a single funding round. More than some countries spend in a year.
• Oracle fired up to 30,000 people by email at 6AM. No call. No meeting. They fired them because they're spending the 95% increase in profits money on data centres
• Amazon got thousands of engineers to spend months documenting every code pattern, every workflow, every optimisation trick... then fed it all to AI. Then fired them. Made them train their own replacement.
• Grok AI is paying Wall Street bankers to teach it how to think like a banker. So it can REPLACE ….Wall St Bankers.
• JP Morgan apparently warned $150B in bank loans could be at risk because the workers backing those loans are being replaced.
• Entry-level job postings are reportedly down 35% in two years. The first rung of the ladder is disappearing.

Most people are pretending like this isnt happening.

And most people will read it, nod, say "wow, crazy times" and do absolutely NOTHING.

The problem is that people confuse being INFORMED with being PREPARED.

They think because they read an article about AI, they're somehow ready for what's coming. They're not. Reading about push-ups doesn't make you stronger.

People are BUILDING with AI. And now the gap between us is enormous, not cleverer.

So when someone tells me "yeah I've been meaning to look into AI" — honestly? I don't know what to SAY to them anymore.

Because the list I just read you? That wasn't a year of news. That was just the last THREE WEEKS.

And next month's list will be more crazy.

The window where you can start and still catch up is CLOSING.

How do you plan on fixing that?

Most people we speak to say some version of the same thing.

"I want more freedom." "I want to build something of my own." "I want to quit my job."

All reasonable. All kinda true.

None of them are the real answer.

In Sovereign Soul we use a technique that's 2,500 years old. Socrates used it. Toyota formalised it in the 1950s. Sinek built a TED talk around it.

It's called the 5 Why's. It's so simple I used it this week with the students at Future Human School.

You take the thing someone says they want, and you ask why.

Then you ask again. And again.

And again.

Here's what it sounds like:

Why do you want to leave your job? "Because I've outgrown it."
Why does that matter now? "Because I'm 44 and I can feel times running out on life."
Why does it feel like that ? "Because every year I stay, I get more stagnant and less brave."
Why does that scare you? "Because my kids are watching. And right now they're learning that a job matters more than meaning."
Why does that bother you? "Because they're 8 and 11. And in seven years they'll leave. And I'll have spent their entire childhood showing them how to endure a life instead of build one."

It's not the job. It's the family. Going deeper creates emotion they can take action on.

That last answer is where the real work starts. And we put the plan together for them.

I know because I've been there.

When I left the UK, the surface answer was that the environment I'd built no longer served my mental or physical health.

A new chapter. A fresh start.

But when I kept asking why, the real answer was simpler.

After 2 years of difficulty, hospital, near-death, losing my vision - I just wanted to make memories with my wife and kids.

That was it. Everything else came after that decision, not before it.

Clarity.

A plan.

Because your environment on its own is structured to help you avoid making the change.

Most people take 5 years to make a decision they already know they want to make.

Are you one of them?

For anyone hoping 2026 was going to be less crazy than 2025 is getting a reality check

UNCERTAINTY AS A WAY OF LIFE

The World Uncertainty Index (that monitors in government risk reports) is at an all time high, surpassing 9/11, Iraq war, Covid 19, and the 2008 global financial crisis. Combined. When you understand we are just seeing multiple cycles ending and converging, you are empowered, not uncertain.

AI IS ABOUT TO EAT THE ECONOMY & EMPLOYMENT

OpenAI and Anthropic released newest versions that are SERIOUS upgrades. it shook the markets, because analysts saw the future was already here. The companies are seeing record numbers of senior execs leaving. Why? Because these versions built themselves. The execs see their jobs being obsolete already. They can see how yours is about to be affected. And they are preparing in ways that aren't what you think.

WITH CRISIS COMES OPPORTUNITY (IF YOU ARE WILLING TO TAKE IT)

With these upgrades for only $40/month, anyone with an idea can now build, launch, and test a real business — the capital barrier is gone, the technical barrier is gone, and the gap between imagination and execution has never been smaller. People spend $200 and 200 hours, and are making passive income. You tell us this is what you want. But if you aren't willing to swap Netflix for Anthropic to explore your possibilities - you'll be on the wrong side: The world will be divided into those who create, and those who consume.

AI IS NOW YOUR ASSISTANT, YOUR MENTOR, YOUR PHILOSOPHER.....GOD?

We are at a nexus - AI is becoming a way to take all the information, emotions, history, art, science - of human existence and assimilating it in a way for us to comprehend what we intrinsically feel, know, and want to remember. Don't outsource your trust. But when a machine can absorb and interpret millennia of human nature, it can see patterns we can't. You literally have all the information and pattern recognition of human history. In your pocket.

To me. This is astounding.

What you do with that knowledge is up to you.

You have the tools, knowhow and tech to literally change your life.

But will you?

Knowing is worth zero without action.

This month we passed the point where you get to decide where your chips fall.

Without wanting to be dramatic - you actually don't have time not to do anything.

Your future wealth, autonomy, happiness and sovereignty depend on what you do next.

In a world where investment opportunities will reduce into safety and simplicity, the best ROI in the coming years will be in yourself.

We've been saying the same thing for years, but now people are starting to listen:

"Normal is broken".
"Who do you want to do life with?."
"Do life differently."
"Easy choices - Hard Life: Hard Choices - Easy Life"
"Get comfortable being uncomfortable."

And it doesn't just mean that you need to become a vibe coding ninja, with AI plugged into your soul to get ahead in life.

In a world where machines create economic opportunities, they also create disconnect - but they clearly are reminding us what it means to be human. And we're revaluing our very nature.

Human authenticity, connection and experiences will matter 100x more too. That's just as much of an opportunity to explore, create and live. Understanding how AI will be the tool to get more human faster is the key most won't unlock.

This is where I'm doubling down. Stay Human.

Zoom out to zoom in. It begins with being laser focussed on what you want life to look like.

It's time. Your time. To build.

When life gives you a mouldy lemon...

You cannot heal in the same environment that made you sick.

You cannot grow in the same environment that doesn't evolve.

Most people don’t like that idea. It feels disempowering.

They prefer to believe that if we’re strong enough, self aware enough, positive enough, we can outgrow any toxic partner, boss, or group, circumstance without leaving.

In 2006, an organizational psychologist named Will Felps tested that belief without meaning to.

He took high performing teams and introduced a single consistently negative person.

One.

He assumed the group would correct the behaviour. That the healthy culture would influence the outlier.

The opposite happened.

Productivity dropped by nearly 50%.

But more telling than the numbers was the shift in behaviour.

People started snapping at each other. Information stopped flowing. Cooperation turned into competition. The group didn’t just perform worse. The previously high performing individuals changed too. They became someone else.

Different. Negative.

The explanation was biological, not moral.

Humans are wired to synchronise. Emotions and behaviours.

Brains scan the people around you to calibrate tone, threat, and safety.

If your environment is tense, your nervous system adapts to tension. Because survival depends matching the state of the tribe.

You aren't “absorbing negative energy” in a vague sense. It’s your brain doing exactly what it evolved to do.

The mistake is thinking you can out-regulate a system that surrounds you 24 hours a day.

If you are stuck in a loop you end up blaming yourself for a reaction that was never individual.

You literally are no longer yourself.

Isn't that wild? Your personality and capability are different because of it.

A fresh lemon doesn’t purify a moldy basket. It rots faster. Sometimes the most regulated thing you can do isn’t to try harder. It’s to step away.

That's why environment is one of the SSN pillars.

"The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home." -Confucius.

When we talk about Environment, this is what we mean. Mental and physical health, strength and success finds it’s foundation in a stable living environment where you can be or are treated best. This can mean choosing to change locations, or improving, securing and protecting your current one. It’s an upgrade in the circumstances of your immediate environment no matter how big or little.

I left the UK for good in 2021. Because the environment was no longer serving me, my family, or my higher purpose.

I no longer agreed with the politics, views, economics, education, and behaviours of the UK.

It takes strength to observe, the people, community, society, that are influencing your circumstances. To know its not their fault or yours, But then take action.

It was scary. But now I'm in a place where everything feels possible. Because the people and places make it so.

So consciously choose your environment - the study shows that even if you are a high performer, your productivity and capability will be effected. A lot.

Remember that nature will make you emulate those around you who are negative with all the effects of a narrower, fearful, painful life.

It spreads.

Just like the mouldy lemon in the bowl.

Studies show that valuing Christmas can 4x your life. Read on.

Christmas is the one time of year when the noise drops just enough for the signal to come through.

We talk about: Family, Generosity, Peace, Gratitude, Presence

It might be a bit sentimental. But

When work slows , inboxes quieten, routines break.
These are the things that still matter when everything else pauses.

Your values surface naturally.

Which raises an uncomfortable question:

If you celebrate them at Christmas, why do you abandon values for the other 11 months?

Right now I’m choosing values for 2026. For me. And for Sovereign Soul (Dani and I have some exciting plans)

Here’s the list we have to choose from:

Values are decision filters.

They answer:

What do we say yes to? What do we say no to? What do we protect - even when it costs us?

Strong businesses decide by principle.

Here’s the part that changed everything for me and it can for you too.

Life works the same way.

Have you ever written down your values? I mean - REALLY gone through a process?

Right now our mentors are making us narrow the list down to 10.

It's hard.

Because you really have to choose.

But - Its the reason I: Changed countries, Travelled long-term with my family, Schooled my kids differently, Built a life that feels lighter, not louder.

Principles.

If you build a life without values. You’ll wonder why it feels heavy.

You’ll be:
Reactive instead of intentional
Busy instead of alive
Comfortable not fulfilled
Choose familiarity over growth
Driven by expectations, not choice

Gallup studies show having values means you are over 300% more fulfilled with your life.

That’s 4 times more fulfilled than without values.

So if you can measure that - it's a worthwhile exercise, right?

My values protect my long term mission: life.

They decide: Which opportunities deserve my time, Which relationships get my energy, Which sacrifices make sense, When to walk away, even from “good” options

One quote I come back to often:

“If you don’t decide what matters, everything will demand your attention.”

It’s not failing that is the real cost of not choosing values. It's Drift.

And you don’t have time to drift…do you?

So think about the values we all hold at Christmas. Then get specific about your personal values for 2026.

Here’s that list again. Go get your ten. Start the process to 4x your happiness.

Let me know which ones you choose.

Have a Happy, fulfilled, and value filled Christmas.

| Your current wealth – your desired wealth =The $Gap

But lifestyle investing works the same way:

| Your current circumstances – your desired circumstances = The Satisfaction Gap.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: You’re not special.

Winners and losers both want more of the same things:
Money.
Time.
Freedom.
Options.

Happiness.

So the gap itself isn’t the issue.

The direction is.

Most people are running away from something. ‘Escape’.
When they should be running towards something meaningful. ‘Fulfilment’

That’s why most people can’t tell us what they want life to look like.
That’s why those with money tell everyone who truly listens that money doesn’t make you fulfilled.

“Wherever you go, there you are”— Zen Proverb

It doesn't matter what you have, do, or be - if you don’t truly grow, you’ll still be you. Dissatisfied, unfulfilled and looking for the next answer.

The Acorn

An acorn doesn’t resent being an acorn.

It doesn’t panic because it isn’t an oak yet.
It doesn’t compare itself to the trees around it.

It simply grows.

Because growth is encoded into what it is.

So are you.

Perfect where you are.
And meant to expand.

“Happiness depends not on what we have, but on how we grow with what we are given.”
— Aristotle

The real question isn’t:
Why don’t I have more?

It’s:
Am I growing — or am I contained?

Are you planted in fertile ground?

Or stuck in a pot that once protected you… but now limits you?

Modern life promises safety through:
Stability
Comfort
Predictability

But stability without expansion becomes confinement.

People aren’t restless because they’re ungrateful. They’re restless because:

• Their capacity exceeds their current role
• Their environment no longer requires more from them
• Their growth is being constrained, not expressed

Money, status, and recognition matter — because they create choice.

But real growth looks like:

• Increased responsibility
• Increased contribution
• Increased connection to something larger than self

That’s what creates fulfilment.
That’s what creates sovereignty.
That’s what actually feels like freedom.

Growth is the variable.

So ask yourself:
Am I growing — or contained?

Be like the acorn.
Close The Gap.

Like so much of life, we follow the same models that aren't fit for the world we inhabit now.

Education, money, careers. The new way broke the old model.

Most people still think about “retirement” using a model that was built over a century ago.

A straight line.
Work for 40–50 years.
Then slow down as your health is declining.

But that model doesn’t match the world we live in anymore.

A few years ago I came across longevity researcher Ken Dychtwald’s idea of the cyclic lifespan, and it completely made me rethink about work, learning, purpose, and community.

I've referenced it a few times in our live calls and coaching with members. Because when we're looking to make change happen in life we need a pattern interrupt - "do the same thing as before get the same results"

It's also the reason I went on my own Life 2.0 journey. Because I realised I might not make it that far. More on the that below.

In today’s breakdown, I walk you through how the cyclic lifespan works — and why it’s a far better model for a world where we’re living longer, healthier, more capable, purposeful lives.

You’ll discover:

• Why the old linear model forces people to delay joy, travel, and reinvention
• How the cyclic model creates multiple “mini-retirements” across your entire life
• Why peak health should include time for leisure, not just work
• How education, work, family, and community naturally repeat in cycles
• Why intergenerational communities outperform traditional retirement villages
• How the longevity bonus can be used at 25, 45, 65 — not only at the end of life

Back in 1900, the average lifespan was 32 years.
Today it’s around 71 years.

We’ve gained almost four extra decades (adding more years, every year we manage to stay alive) - a longevity bonus - yet we’re still following a blueprint designed for people who rarely made it to 40.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Check the image - this is the way we have been taught life is, and how most live it.

A single block of work dominating 40+ years, followed by a narrow window of rest. Where family fades around us. The notion of an actual retirement fund existed but, the our standard of health meant we may not have stood to enjoy it for long.

But now, with improving healthcare some people can expect to live a lot longer. Add the 'Longevity Bonus' to their lifeplan which can look like this:

That's up to an extra 30% of life to live beyond the old mode of retirement. Which when you chop it back into the rest of life, could look like this:

So what would you do if a new model could exist? Re-allocating the new time you have might look like this:

The point is, you get to choose. To re-educate yourself, learn new skills, apply them, maybe to new work that is more meaningful and purposeful, so that you get to choose how to spend your time and your money on the leisure that means so much more.

And your family? Well they too will be with you for longer in this new paradigm of the cyclic lifeplan.

So how to be able to apply it when we have industrial age thinking in the digital and exponential age?

Take another look at the new paradigm above. It's not linear anymore.

Just like so much of what we talk about in Sovereign Soul, from financial, cultural, technological, human, and emotional - It's cyclical.

Once we begin to think of our life as a set of cycles, with ever more wisdom, experience, and clarity gained with each turn, we can dump the linear paradigm that has held us all in place for SO long.

It becomes a new cycle with potential to learn, relearn, apply, work/volunteer, reflect and rest. Explore new pursuits, and start the process again.

Projects.

I've been of the firm belief that this how we should view life now - as a series of projects - so much so that I apply this thinking to the curriculum of the school I built here in Bali

And in this exponential age where access to wealth and technology means we will likely have to completely rethink what it means to be human (very soon) - diving into projects that means something to us, that connect us to our purpose and passions - will be more important and available to us than ever.

I am of the hope that we may even return to the notion of 'elder wisdom' for older people in our society, or the very real possibility that growing old 'disgracefully' becomes the norm, because now, you can.

“For those in reasonably good shape and with reasonable means, I believe they will have access to longevity escape velocity by the end of 2030.” Peter Diamandis

So live in good shape for another 4 years and you gain another year for every one you've been alive already.

This shift doesn’t just change how we plan our own lives — it changes how we design them.

As a community we'll be bringing this into our life design thinking for 2026 as we update our Thrive25 Lifestyle Investor Year Planner (we think we'll call it Fix26).

Because if you can bank on living longer, you'd better have the bank balance to make it worthwhile.

So come with us on the next 12 months of Sovereign Soul - we take topics like this and make them tangible, applicable and put our members at the forefront of thinking with action.

Life is just on the other side of the choices you are not making..

Sometimes it's just nice to share thoughts and musings.

Artificial intelligence is becoming the oracle of our age. It’s fast, confident, and increasingly embedded in every part of life. But there’s a growing question we need to ask as humans:

Can AI experience awe? And more importantly — can it create awe?

If you watched our Thrive 25 Lifestyle Investing workshop earlier in the year you'll remember we talk about Awe quite a lot.

Because as a novel experience it slows down time.

Dacher Keltner identifies eight pathways that trigger awe in people. They’re the ingredients that expand our perspective, dissolve our ego, and reconnect us to meaning. When you layer AI across those eight pathways, a clear pattern emerges.

Here’s the breakdown.

Moral Beauty

Awe often begins when we witness someone doing good at personal cost — courage, sacrifice, compassion. AI can generate stories about moral beauty, but it cannot embody it. Machines don’t make sacrifices. Humans do.

This is the realm of character, not code.

Collective Effervescence

The energy of being in a crowd that’s united — a concert, a movement, a shared mission. AI can coordinate people, but it can’t join the experience. It doesn’t have a pulse to sync with everyone else.

Nature

Standing under redwoods, hearing the ocean, feeling the scale of mountains. AI can illustrate it, but it can’t feel small in the presence of something greater. And that humility is the whole point.

Music

AI can compose, remix, and analyse music brilliantly. But the magic of music is often in the imperfections — the breath in the singer’s voice or the imperfect timing that carries emotion. AI gets close here, but it’s still imitation, not embodiment.

Visual Design

This is where AI shines. Tools like Midjourney or DALL·E can create visuals that genuinely spark awe. But even then, the raw material comes from the human imagination that trained the system.

Spirituality

AI can quote Rumi, but it can’t dissolve its ego, feel presence, or seek transcendence. There’s no inner world to awaken.

Life and Death

AI doesn’t age, lose loved ones, or sit by a bedside in the final moments. It doesn’t grieve or grow from grief. This pathway is exclusively human.

Epiphanies of Understanding

This is where AI truly contributes. It can reveal patterns and insights we’d never see alone. It can spark intellectual awe, the “Einstein moment” where everything clicks.

The Real Divide

AI is exceptional at generating information. Humans remain the masters of transformation.

Of the eight pathways, AI currently supports only three:

Music (partially)

Visual Design

Big Ideas (epiphanies of understanding)

The rest require lived experience, vulnerability, and consciousness.

Why Moral Beauty Will Always Be Human

Moral beauty is the one quality AI will never possess. It’s the awe we feel when someone acts with courage, integrity, or empathy — especially when there’s no reward for doing so.

It’s the kind of behaviour that makes us want to be better humans, not better machines.

And in a world increasingly shaped by algorithms, moral beauty might be our most powerful competitive advantage as humans.

So stay human.

Becoming a sovereign version of ourself allows us the luxury to explore this kind of behaviour with more focus. Itmeans that focus becomes laser like because we can pursue more meaningful things to do with our time.

The chase of 'financial freedom' is more important than ever in the pursuit of creativity, awe, and staying human