Quick! It’s about to go down – the sh#t is about to hit the fan. These are the things you need to learn in 2018. Start raising your awareness about these things if you want to prepare for the future.



“The World is Changed…

…I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.” – Galadriel, The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

Technology, globalization, the Internet, social media, virtual reality, blockchain, artificial intelligence, biohacking, decentralization – we’re living at a time where the world as we know it is about to be drastically changed.

Us as humans are standing at the doorstep of a quantum leap in our evolutionary development. The pillar stones of culture and society are about to be disrupted. Shaken from the old paradigms that have dominated the planet for thousands of years.

Change is something that our brain is hardwired to avoid. We want to avoid uncertainty because it jeopardizes our survival. At the same time, we’re also prone to be curious and explorers, as novelty sparks up excitement and can lead to improvement.

How to Prepare for the Coming Chaos

Whether you think it’s good or bad is irrelevant to the fact that the floodgates of innovation and curiosity have been opened and it’s very difficult to close them now.

What you as a person can and must do is prepare yourself for the unpredictable chaos and uncertainty that’s going to happen in the future.

There probably isn’t going to be a massive cataclysmic event that wipes us all out but more like a gradual transition process during which you don’t even notice how your life changes.

That’s why you have to constantly keep yourself up to date with these changes and to continuously adapt to them. Because like Charles Darwin said:

It is not the strongest of the species that survives,

not the most intelligent that survives.

It is the one that is the most adaptable to change

In this article, I’m going to give you some things you need to know and learn about in 2018. They’re new skills, new paradigm shifts, new habits, new investments, new ways of being antifragile and gaining from all this chaos. The world may change in 2018, 2020 or 2045 – it doesn’t matter, you want to be preparing yourself already in the present so that you could improve your ability to adapt to whatever may come.

#1 Meditation

Yes, you should definitely sharpen your meditation skills. It’s a mental technique that’s been used for thousands of years. What you’re basically doing is regulating your nervous system and brain through concentration and self-awareness.

Meditation is going to become increasingly more useful and important over the coming few years because of advancements in technology.

Our smartphones and other gadgets are constantly keeping our monkey minds stimulated and wired up

Social media notifications and marketing ads are targeting our crocodile brains to seek the feeling of reward from the likes we get

The fast-paced lifestyle of working and trying to keep up with all the news causes a lot of stress and anxiety

You Need to Know How to Control Your Monkey Mind

The Coming Superpower of the 21st Century

There have been studies that show how the attention span of an average student has dropped from 12 seconds to 8 seconds since the year 2000. A goldfish has the attention span of 9 seconds. Congratulations, you’re less focused than goldfish now.

Now, this is probably not true because if you were to really try then you can definitely hold your concentration for longer than that. #FOCUSEDLOOK

But the fact of the matter is that you’re probably watching this with several of your browser tabs open. You’re simultaneously on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, e-mail, and you may even be eating.

If you were to put a hunter-gatherer in the same situation then their brain would simply melt down because they aren’t used to that much stimulation. Processed food, funny videos, social validation – all those things are something we modern humans have become de-sensitized to. We don’t pay that much attention to those things anymore, yet our productivity and success may still suffer.

I’ve heard the saying: „The ability to focus is going to be the Superpower of the 21st century,“ which is why you need to practice your ability to concentrate.

Meditation is going to train you how to control your thoughts and emotions, how to not become reactive to the signals you get from your environment and how to develop more self-awareness in the present moment so that you could know what needs to be done and to be able to do it. It develops emotional fitness.

#2 Biohacking

The second thing you have to get into is biohacking.

Biohacking isn’t that scary as it sounds like. Basically, it’s the art and science of manipulating your physiology for improving your health, wellness and performance.

If you’ve ever drank coffee, taken fish oil or had a sauna then you’ve done some biohacking. It’s a fancy term for functional fitness and holistic health.

However, there’s also the technological aspect to biohacking. You can use those same gadgets and devices that are robbing your attention span to become more aware and conscious.

The Coming Age of Hacking the Human Body

Taking some blood tests can determine what type of foods fit your microbiome the best . They can also show which exercise your muscle fibers are best suited for. This will optimize your performance and extend your lifespan.

. They can also show which exercise your muscle fibers are best suited for. This will optimize your performance and extend your lifespan. Tracking your nutrition, your sleep, and mental processes can give you real quantifiable data that you can use to implement into your life. You can look past your cognitive biases because numbers don’t lie. I’m tracking my calories every day as to make sure I’m not randomly winging it. I also use this sleep monitoring device called the OURA ring. It tells me how well I slept and whether or not I’ve recovered from the stress of the previous day.

You can look past your cognitive biases because numbers don’t lie. I’m tracking my calories every day as to make sure I’m not randomly winging it. I also use this sleep monitoring device called the OURA ring. It tells me how well I slept and whether or not I’ve recovered from the stress of the previous day. You can also use cutting edge technological equipment and training methods to get more results from doing less. With science and innovation, we can learn about how to save time while exercising, while being productive and while sleeping because it’s going to allow you to do more of the things you really love doing.

cutting edge With science and innovation, we can learn about how to save time while exercising, while being productive and while sleeping because it’s going to allow you to do more of the things you really love doing. Supplements and nootropics can help you to improve your physical as well as mental performance. They’re going to make you more focused, make you think faster, make you reduce anxiety and improve your mood.

Your Technological Enlightenment

You shouldn’t be afraid of using technology or doing some self-quantifications.

The immediate reaction of an average person is to frown upon tracking sleep or counting calories because they think it somehow makes them lesser of a human being. This, however, comes from fear, uncertainty, and doubt – being afraid of their blind spots being revealed.

Making quality decisions in any situation depend upon your level of awareness – how conscious you are in the present moment and how well you can look past your emotions.

Technology is consciousness. It’s not self-consciousness that can reflect back on itself but it’s consciousness in the sense that it enlightens our behavior, bringing light into darkness.

Humans are extremely biased and we’re overly optimistic about everything. We like to think we’re better looking than we actually are, that we’re working out harder than we really are, and that we’re more deserving of eating cheat meals when in reality we’re simply lying to ourselves.

You Need to Learn About Biohacking

Numbers don’t lie. You can lie to yourself about what those numbers mean but if you’re congruent and have enough integrity to look at yourself in the mirror with honesty, then you’ll take that data and make the right decisions in the future.

#3 Blockchain

You might have heard of stuff like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and other cryptocurrencies. It’s this digital money that supposedly can make you very rich. However, what most people don’t know about is the underlying technology that the cryptocoins are built upon.

It’s called the blockchain.

The blockchain is this cryptographed open distributed ledger of records that are made of many blocks of data. Each block contains information about the transaction between two parties. These blocks can be inspected and monitored by everyone because they’re open source.

Blockchain technology is being used for secure peer-to-peer transactions across the Internet. You can’t change the information in one single block without jeopardizing with all the other blocks.

You Need to Learn About Blockchain

Empower Your Wealth with Cryptocurrencies

The idea is to decentralize classical banking and give people more control over their finance. With cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, you become your own bank and you can bypass a lot of network fees when sending money across the Internet.

Although cryptocurrencies are digital and intangible, they’re more resistant to inflation, fraud and the situation where one single entity can hold up your entire life’s savings.

It’s the way money and wealth is going to be done in the future and you want to start learning about if you haven’t already. Remember, change is going to happen whether you like it or not.

The first and easiest step you can make is to start educating yourself about these things and open up a savings account for these coins. Coinbase is the world’s most popular wallets for the most common cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. If you use my referral link then you can get an extra $10 USD for your first $100 dollar payment.

I’m not a financial advisor or an investor but I’ve got myself into the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies because I want to be in control of my finance and I highly recommend you to start learning about how to store your Bitcoin, how to protect yourself against hackers and how to invest safely.

#4 Artificial Intelligence

You should also learn about the advancements in the field of artificial intelligence and technological innovation. In fact, this might be the most important thing of them all because it’s going to determine the future of the human race.

Artificial intelligence is replicated consciousness in a machine. At the moment, we probably don’t have truly self-conscious AI as in the same sense as you and I are. However, even unconscious AI will still have a major impact on the world.

Artificial Intelligence is being used today in:

Virtual assistants like Siri, Cortana, Google, and Alexa that follow your voice command. The AI is going to automatically make buying decisions for you and optimize your systems.

The AI is going to automatically make buying decisions for you and optimize your systems. Virtual reality and augmented reality applications that alter your physical presence in the actual world. You’re going to see more screens and hear more channels with the technology you’ll wear.

You’re going to see more screens and hear more channels with the technology you’ll wear. Robots are going to replace more vocations in traditional industries . Self-driving cars are going to take out the error of reckless driving because humans are horrible drivers. Who knows, maybe your current job is going to be replaced in the future. Whether you like it or not is irrelevant. You need to re-adapt and start preparing for it today.

. Self-driving cars are going to take out the error of reckless driving because humans are horrible drivers. Who knows, maybe your current job is going to be replaced in the future. Whether you like it or not is irrelevant. You need to re-adapt and start preparing for it today. Your neighbor in the future might also be a robot if we reach the point of self-conscious AI. This opens up a whole new set of issues regarding how do we grant them autonomy and how do we treat our technology.

You Need to Learn About AI

Why You Need to Learn About AI

At its core, the development of artificial intelligence walks hand in hand with understanding the nature of consciousness. What does it mean to have autonomous self-reflective consciousness and how do we have subjective experiences in the objective world.

Remember, you don’t see the world as it is but as you are.

Our beliefs, our biases, our cultural conditioning and what you ate for dinner all have a massive impact on the way you perceive and interact with your surroundings.

Artificial Intelligence like technology can help us to understand ourselves better and to make better decisions.

Are We As a Species Doomed?

Unconscious robots and artificial intelligence are safe as long as you can pull the power plug from them. However, there’s something called artificial general intelligence.

General Artificial Intelligence or Artificial General Intelligence is AI that’s capable of learning and improving itself. Basically, it’s self-conscious and can do any task as a human but only millions of times better and faster.

AGI is capable of updating its own code, process all the data on the Internet, write a Ph.D. thesis in an afternoon, read the entire Congress library in hours and carry out commands to everything that’s connected to the Web. It’s practically a GOD. We’re creating a god on Earth that can either become a nebulous being bringing abundance into this world or wipe us out.

If you look at an ant working and building a nest then you as a human being more than likely consider yourself more advanced. Maybe not superior, but still more intelligent and advanced. Now flip that situation between you and AGI and you get the same result.

Are You Prepared for the Terminator?

Nick Bostrom is a philosopher and he warns in his book Superintelligence that the advancements in technology pose a major existential threat to humanity. People like Elon Musk and Bill Gates have started to share similar beliefs.

Elon Musk has warned us about AI

You’ve probably seen the movies Terminator and The Matrix where robots and AI rule the world. Well, that doomsday scenario might not be too far away.

That’s why you have to raise your awareness about these things. I mean, you don’t ever want to be the one who gets a bag pulled over their head because they’re simply clueless. Never be clueless and always keep yourself prepared. Which brings me to the idea of prepping.

#5 Apocalypse Conditioning

These innovations, technological gadgets, better healthcare, more wealth and abundance are all great. But they’re not guaranteed to last.

Realize that your fortune and the current state of society is deviant in nature. It’s bizarre for one species to have that much control over their environment, their physiology and the ability to choose where their evolution can go.

With that being said, you can’t deny the potential scenario when it all comes crashing down. I’m talking about a full-on fallout, nuclear war, zombie apocalypse, shit hits the fan, aliens coming to attack us you name it.

Albert Einstein said: “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”

Which means you can’t and mustn’t neglect your physical fitness and body. You still have to put in some effort towards some real good ol’ fashion Spartan type conditioning because you may never know when you need it.

Body Mind Empowerment Conditioning

Have you seen the movie The Revenant? Or maybe Stranded? Or Zombieland? I’m talking about that kind of situations where you don’t have access to security, where you can’t Google how to feed yourself in the wild or download an app that gives you stamina. Rule #1: Cardio

Just being fit or having a nice physique isn’t the goal either. You have to have functional fitness both physical and mental – to be able to perform in random chaotic environments, to control your fight or flight response, to calm your mind and to adapt.

BODY MIND EMPOWERMENT HANDBOOK Siim Land

Here’s what to do to condition yourself for adversity:

Physical exercise that incorporates both high intensities and low intensities . You want to do resistance training as well as aerobic endurance to build up your mitochondrial density.

. You want to do resistance training as well as aerobic endurance to build up your mitochondrial density. Cold and Heat Thermogenesis. Condition yourself against low and high temperatures by taking ice baths and saunas. This will trigger hormesis and antifragility. Because winter is coming…

Condition yourself against low and high temperatures by taking ice baths and saunas. This will trigger hormesis and antifragility. Because winter is coming… Put yourself under nutritional stress by doing intermittent fasting and carbohydrate restriction.

by doing intermittent fasting and carbohydrate restriction. Learn the basic survival skills of how to start a fire, how to build a shelter, how to forage food, how to move in forests.

of how to start a fire, how to build a shelter, how to forage food, how to move in forests. Practice negative visualization. It’s a stoic exercise where you envision what the worst case scenario would look like and how you’re going to respond to it in the future.

This is going to prepare you mentally for dealing with the challenges of life that are inevitably to come. Even if we don’t see a doomsday scenario, which I hope we won’t, then you’ll still gain a lot of valuable skills of dealing with failures, of overcoming your fears and adapting to discomfort. And if the aliens do attack us then at least we’ll have something to show them because I’m not planning to go down without a fight.

#6 Minimalism

Like I said, we’re living in an age of plenty. You don’t have to hunt for food, you have access to drinking water, central heating year-round, and you can own dozens and dozens of possessions. There are things everywhere – clothes, gadgets, shoes, food, furniture, stuff you only used once and many others.

To be honest, most of them are unnecessary and overvalued.

DO you really need that many shoes, do you really need every piece of new hardware that comes out? Of course, having nice things…it’s nice. Very nice! ala Borat.

However…

An abundance of things can actually start to bondage you. “The things you own end up owning you,” said Tyler Durden from the movie The Fight Club and he’s right.

Fact of the matter is that the more stuff you have, the less quality attention you can dedicate to each and every one of them

So, although we’re living at the age of plenty, you should harness your desire to hoard unnecessary things and to practice some minimalism.

Choose for Less

I’m not telling you to get rid of all of your things completely and move into the wilds. Instead, I want you to objectively assess your belongings and start limiting them.

A minimalist approach to life is a very antifragile one. You’re not distraught by the lack and at the same time, you’re not rejecting what you’ve been given either.

The thing is that like with all types of conditioning, the more you get exposed to something, whether that be the cold, hard labor, carbohydrates, money and riches, you eventually develop slight resistance to them.

You won’t start to shiver under a cold shower if you’ve trained in ice baths

You won’t get sore muscles after a single day’s work if you’re used to it

You won’t be insulin sensitive if you eat too many carbohydrates in the wrong context

You won’t appreciate your abundance if you’re surrounded by it constantly

Hedonic Adaptation

This phenomenon is called hedonic adaptation – the tendency of returning to your baseline level of happiness after some time despite the positive or negative changes that occur in your life.

If you win the lottery, then at first you’ll be over the moon insanely happy because the level of abundance is that much higher with what you’re used to.

After a while, you get used to your newfound richness and you may start taking it for granted

Then your new baseline of happiness is set higher than it was previously as you’ve taken an upward swing

Avoid the Hedonic Treadmill with Minimalism

This hedonic treadmill isn’t guaranteed to happen as I’m sure there are many rich people who are still enormously grateful for what they have.

The idea is, to not develop resistance towards your wealth, towards the fortunate position you have in your life, towards the happiness of just being alive – to not develop insulin resistance – you have to occasionally get off the hedonic treadmill and reset your hedonic homeostasis.

How to Get Off the Hedonic Treadmill

If you buy new things, get rid of the old ones – don’t hoard them uselessly and practice addition through subtraction.

– don’t hoard them uselessly and practice addition through subtraction. Practice daily gratitude – remind yourself of the things to be grateful for so that you wouldn’t forget how many things there are to be happy for

– remind yourself of the things to be grateful for so that you wouldn’t forget how many things there are to be happy for Do some intermittent fasting – skip a few meals to see what it feels like to go hungry and uncomfortable

skip a few meals to see what it feels like to go hungry and uncomfortable Face your fears – experience uncertainty, feel your knees shaking, your gut turning itself inside out, get scared doing the things you know are going to lead to your growth

– experience uncertainty, feel your knees shaking, your gut turning itself inside out, get scared doing the things you know are going to lead to your growth Practice poverty – voluntarily don’t use your most valuable possessions. Eat the blandest food you can think of to reset your taste buds and start appreciating eating again.

Some Antifragile Conditioning

The Stoic philosopher Seneca had an amazing exercise for resetting his hedonic homeostasis. He was the richest man in Rome but he still practiced being poor one day of the month when he would walk around the streets like a beggar.

Seneca said: “Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: ‘Is this the condition that I feared?’”

Seneca on Hedonism

That’s the beauty of it. If you expose yourself to these stressors, to these uncomfortable situations, these opportunities for massive growth, then you’re building up your ability to deal with them better.

You become antifragile – you’re incredibly grateful for whatever circumstances you may find yourself because you know it’s only a matter of hedonic conditioning.

You can find incredible happiness and meaning even in what at first glance seems as suffering. But once you flip your perspective on it you’ll realize that you can control your mind. And that’s where you’ll be truly set free.

Never Stop Learning

Realize that whatever you may learn in life, wherever you may reach, or how much you accomplish, you still have to continuously keep learning and improving yourself. It’s important to maintain a beginner’s mind and stay humble in front of the chaos of life.

Like I said, whether you like it or not, the world is still going to change and whether or not you’ll follow along depends on your ability to adapt to these new conditions.

Because like Galadriel said in The Lord of the Rings: “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”

If you want to know how to prepare yourself physically and mentally for the future as to become a high performing individual, then check out my Body Mind Empowerment Handbook.

BODY MIND EMPOWERMENT HANDBOOK Siim Land

Stay Empowered

Siim