Life Alchemy: Become Your Own Life Chemist

I’ve never been one to subscribe to any one particular idea for too long.  It never works, anyway, because there is no one-size-fits-all anything in life that works for everyone…well, at least not me.

This is easy to see; just look around.  Look at all the diet books out there, all the self-help books, the religions, and so on.  If any one of these particular ideas and modalities worked for everyone, the others would quickly fall away into obscurity.

Even though I’ve known this seemingly simple concept for years, it’s taken me most of my life to deeply understand it and actually implement it into my own life.

Lately, I’ve been flirting with the term Alchemy, which is an ancient tradition (still practiced today) that combines chemistry, spirituality, and the pursuit of perfection all into one fancy, beautiful mess.

A classic alchemist is concerned with two main things: 1) turning base metals into gold, and 2) finding the one elixir of life that will provide ultimate health and immortality.

Well, I’m not so interested in #1, but #2 has the very thing that inspires most of us deep down inside; that drive to keep us moving forward into the impossible — perfection of self.

I Googled the term Life Alchemy recently and was pretty disappointed with what I found.  So instead of letting this awesome term that’s been officially trademarked go to waste, I’m going to use it as another definition on this site to further describe where I’m heading in my life, and a way to help others always remain on that path of ever increasing growth:

Life Alchemist: One who takes different parts of life and combines them together to create something greater than the individual parts for the purpose of achieving the Best Life Ever.

Not bad for my first attempt at this definition, but I’m not done with it yet.  I’ll be updating it as I go along with my continued Life Experiments in order to Live the Best Life Ever.

An Example of Life Alchemy in Action

Ok, as you probably well know if you’re a reader of this site or Raw Food Right Now, I’m a big believer in the concept of raw foodism.

“But wouldn’t that be pigeonholing yourself into one concept?” you may be asking…

Well, yes and no.  I’ve found the concept and practice of raw foodism to be one of the most profound experiences and changes in my life.  But it’s not a perfect philosophy.  I won’t get into the nitty-gritty details about it in this post, but suffice to say, there is no end to how healthy you can get, and there is no end to finding the perfect diet for you.

But with all of my research and experimentation (and talking to hundreds of raw foodists), the concept of “pure raw foodism” usually breaks down for most long-term raw foodists fairly quickly.

I’ve seen successful 100% raw foodists.  I’ve seen very unsuccessful 100% raw foodists.  I’ve seen extremely successful 80% or more raw foodists.  I’ve seen successful raw foodists who eat meat.  And some eat dairy.  The list goes on, and on and on.

What it really comes down to is building the right diet for yourself.  For me, raw foodism is the “base” of my diet.  It’s where it all starts.  If I choose to eat something non-vegan or cooked, there is a reason for it.  I study food on a daily basis, I study how my body reacts to it and I adjust accordingly.

I don’t use “raw food” as a religion, as many, many people do, because I’ve seen the dogma of it break people down way too many times.

Mad Scientist

Other raw foodists would call me mad, but the majority of modern Internet raw foodists have discovered that a purely raw food diet is not optimal for most people, or at least not optimal all of the time.  Instead another round of “the debate rages on”, I remove myself from those debates completely and get down to the original reason I went raw: to achieve the best health possible. (Notice how that doesn’t say  “be raw” in there, it just says the best health possible).

I think you get my drift.

What’s really important is beginning to live your life like a mad scientist.  You know, like in those crazy black and white movies where there is a wily-haired scientist in his basement, always conducting some insane experiment which usually blows up in his face?

That’s me.  And I love it.  I’ve adopted, used, modify, and trashed more beliefs, life systems, and ways of living than I can count.

What remains is a particular way of living that works best for me, my body, mind, and soul.  Not only that, but like a true Life Alchemist, I’m always reaching towards the next, better, more improved platform.

Until next time, don your craziest mad scientist wig and start some experiments of your own in your basement.

Explosions are optional, but can be very fun.

~ JS

Related Posts:

• The Biggest Mistake People Make When Trying to Get Organized – Extreme Cleaning Update 2
• Three Keys to Start Your Extreme Cleaning and Update 1.

With Extreme Cleaning comes Extreme Circumstances.

I knew, from experience, that cleaning out my life always brings unexpected changes, but now that I am diving deeper than ever before, I’m experiencing some incredible events.  Painful and pleasurable.

One thing for sure is happening:  growth.

The Biggest Mistake Most People Make When Organizing

After years of cleaning out my life I’ve realized one very important lesson.  It took this exercise of Extreme Cleaning to really “get it”.

Before I tell you that lesson, I want to mention that I’ve read, taken notes on, and categorized just about every single book on organizing your physical and informational life imaginable.  I’ve tried all these tricks, tips, and techniques…with minimal to moderate results.

I’m no organizational newbie.

Even though I did receive certain positive results from each of these books and articles, the biggest single oversight that these organizational “experts” are missing is that organizing is more than just shuffling your crap around.

Some books and philosophies are better than others.  Some are smart enough to tell you that you have to really go through all your stuff and make some tough decisions about what to keep and what to get rid of.  Emotions will come up.

But after years of monkeying around with these organizational tools and techniques, it’s taken me this process of Extreme Cleaning to realize that you should never have to truly organize your life very often, if done properly.  If you do this process of Extreme Cleaning properly, the rest is just maintenance…better known as “shuffling stuff around”.

Extreme Cleaning is a life changing process.

If you really get into the heart of this, you’re going to start asking the tough questions.  Questions like “What does this thing I have say about me?”  “What am I organizing for?”  “Who do I want to be?”  “Who am I, really?”

This is really about digging through the crap that society has programmed you to purchase and “own” and finally getting down to the core of yourself.  That’s right folks, modern society is doing everything it can to prevent you from discovering your true self and making sure you keep buying and using and buying and using.  No, this isn’t some grand conspiracy theory, it’s capitalism.  Nothing wrong with a free market economy, but you’ve got to be smarter than the people selling you the things you want.  Ask yourself:  “Will this item truly enhance my life?”

Each thing that you bring it requires your most precious asset:  attention.  Not time, not money, not space…attention.

You must decide what it is, where it goes, how to use it, how to maintain it, how it should be stored, cleaned…the list goes on and on.  Multiply this by the thousands of items you have and your true life and purpose can easily get buried in just paperclips and forks alone!

Stripping it All Down

I’m going to leave it at that for now, but realize that this procedure is designed to strip you down to the absolute base of who you are.  Most people may think you are crazy and run screaming from the idea of questioning every single thing they own, every single thought they still hold, and every single thing that is a part of their lives.

Don’t trick yourself into thinking you’re going to “get organized” someday.  That will never truly happen.

Strip yourself down, Extreme Clean your life, and get ready to Live the Best Life Ever.

~ JS

Action Steps You Can Take:

• Get your immediate surroundings cleaned up now.  Don’t get caught up in maintenance mode quite yet.
• Throw or give something away that makes you uncomfortable.  Strengthen that part of you.
• Create a Life Purpose statement.  More on that later.

Related Posts:

• Three Keys to Start Your Extreme Cleaning and Update 1.
• Making Decisions – Shuffling vs True Extreme Cleaning
• Life Alchemy – Designing Your Life Like a Mad Scientist
• Join the 24 Hour Cleanup Project! – Extreme Cleaning Update 3
• Extreme Cleaning FAQ

You Need These Three Things to Effectively and Massively Clean and Clear Your Life

If you are just starting out on your Extreme Cleaning adventure, I recommend the following Three Keys to Start Extreme Cleaning as a way to start on the right foot:

1. Immediate Surroundings – Clean up your immediate areas first.  Get the dishes done, pick up your room, clean out your inbox, go get your headlight fixed.  There is no way you are going to want to or be able to get deeper without cleaning the surface areas first.
2. Make a List That You Can Refer To – Start a document on  your computer or a page in your journal or a notebook.  Just brainstorm and write down all the areas you can think of off the top of your head that you’d like to go through or that you know need some work.  I like doing this on a computer because you can keep updating it as new things come up and then take things off as you complete them.  You can also keep this as a long-term document for maintenance.
3. Imagine Your New Life – What is your life going to look like when you only own what you truly use and love?  How will you build your new life, your new self after this intense project?  You always here about having a Clear Vision before starting any endeavor, but you may never realize how important it really is unless you give it some serious effort.  Don’t get too hung up on it, though, you need to start taking action soon.

I quickly noticed that without #1, I had no desire to go deeper.  I could spend the rest of my life always getting to those dishes and never getting to the important stuff.  Clean up your surroundings first.

Without #2, you’ll never know where to go next.  You need it detailed out in front of you.  You need to see how much work you have ahead of you and a place to capture new ideas and areas when they come to you.  Once you clean one area up, ideas for further cleansing and refining come out.

And #3 is probably the most important.  You will have no motivation if you don’t imagine a better life.  Without improving your life in a massive way, what’s the point?

Haven’t Started Your Extreme Cleaning Yet?

Get it on.  Now.  I’ve also dubbed this Now Cleaning over at Raw Food Right Now because this is something you do now.  You can never do anything later.  I don’t care how many times you’ve heard some self-help guru say this, it’s true.  Just get it done.

Being a regular reader of JSOhlander.com, I will constantly call my readers to action.  If I don’t get you to do anything to improve your life, then this is just another pointless self-promoting site that adds nothing to your life.  I could wax philosophical on thousands of self-help theories and ideas like many other authors, but unless I give you concrete, real-world steps to take that actually help you immediately, I have failed you.  So please, take some inspiration and action from what I’m saying.

I will continue to use my life and stories as further inspiration and to offer real-world examples of someone applying action steps to continually improve their lives.

How Is Your Extreme Cleaning Going JS?

Even though I’ve found little time to really get into it (a common excuse, I am aware), the massive changes I’ve felt and had from the little I have done are incredible.  My Clear Vision for this project is getting clearer and  my excitement and expectations for this keep ramping up.

I do find a little resistance for the deeper cleaning I know I have ahead of me, but my Clear Vision is what really keeps me going forward strong.

I am noticing that with each layer of cleaning and clearing I am doing, my diet is automatically becoming more ideal for me.  I am craving some of the heavier and more processed things less, and my desire for more simple foods (and their effect on me) increase.  This connection between internal (bodily) environment and external environment is not just some New Age bullshit.  Try it and see.

To The Best Life Ever,

~ JS

Related Posts:

• The Biggest Mistake People Make When Trying to Get Organized – Extreme Cleaning Update 2
• Making Decisions – Shuffling vs True Extreme Cleaning
• Life Alchemy – Designing Your Life Like a Mad Scientist
• Join the 24 Hour Cleanup Project! – Extreme Cleaning Update 3
• Extreme Cleaning FAQ