Just keep showing up.

Even when you’re tired.
Even when you barely have words.
Even when you’re unsure of who you are.

Don’t do it for them.
Don’t do it for fame.
Don’t do it for the money.

Show up for YOU.
Show up to discover YOU.
Show up to remember YOU.

Rest, sleep, eat and be merry, but keep fucking showing up.

Don’t let resistance win.
Don’t let comparison win.
Don’t let the algorithm win.

You’re stronger than you realize.
You’re stronger than you realize.
You’re stronger than you realize.

And we all have hard parts in our lives.
The hard parts make you strong.
Don’t be afraid of the pain.

The pain is a gatekeeper to separate the bystanders from the masters.

Don’t be a bystander.

Be a master.

Many years ago when I was in my 20s, I was working at an advertising agency. I remember posting something on Instagram and then “liking” the post. Not even 10 minutes later, someone at our office came to my desk and said, “Wow, you liked your own post, who does that?! Don’t you think that’s a bit vain?”

I immediately felt embarrassed. I had apparently broken some sort of online social contract. I asked a few other co-workers if they ever “liked” or hearted their own posts, and everyone said they did not.

This experience left a big impact on me.

I actually went back and unliked several of my posts. I didn’t want to look selfish or self absorbed.

A few years ago, I decided to re-examine this belief that our content should only be liked by other people.

New Darius concluded that this concept is ridiculous and might even be harmful to our self confidence and sense of worth.

Today, my mission is to hit that like, heart, or thumbs up button before anyone else even has a chance.

I make it a fun ritual. I’ll post and rush to the page and hit the button and say something like, “Good job, D! No matter what happens from here, I’m proud of you.”

Maybe you do the same and have been hitting that like button for years, or maybe, the idea of doing so feels like an edge for you.

If you’re up for a challenge, open one of your own social media profiles, scroll back in time, and hit that like button on at least 10 posts. Let Past You know you love and support them. Or if you’re posting something new this week, see what it feels like to be the first in line to support and celebrate yourself.

Then, if you have the space, close your eyes and just feel what comes up for you. All feelings are welcome. There is no right or wrong way of doing this.

I wonder if other people feel how I felt back in my 20s. Is it embarrassing to like your own social media posts?

Or maybe YOU feel something totally different.

Big love,

D

PS: On a scale of 1-10, how willing are you to “like” your own posts? (10 = totally willing, 1 = totally unwilling). Let me know in the comments below or reply to this email if you received this in my weekly community letter, because I’m genuinely curious how other people feel about this.

Hi, I’m Darius.

For the past 22 years I’ve been a creative entrepreneur and artist.

Many of you know me from my photography, some of you know me from my meditations, and some of you know me from the many videos I’ve shared on social media over the years.

I’ve created a lot of stuff in the last 2 decades:

• 1 million+ plus photos

• 2000+ videos

• 500+ podcasts

• 150+ guided meditations

Someone recently asked me if I’d be open to mentoring them in creativity, and it got me thinking about what my best advice would be. So today I’m sharing my best strategies for building creative muscle.

PHASE ONE: Build Your Dreaming Muscle

• Use guided meditation, guided visualizations and journaling to find the creative dreams inside your heart.

• Seek support and guidance to bring your dream out into the world. Write it, speak it, share it, feel it, see it and eventually BE IT.

PHASE TWO: Build Your Courage Muscle

• Create a weekly workout schedule for your creative courage.

• Write, make videos, take photos, or share your voice for 90 mins a day, 2-5 times a week. These are called creative sprints. No phones, no internet, no emails, no texts—just deep, focused work.

• At the end of each creative sprint, you MUST publish something (even if it’s on a private social media account at first). The point is to practice feeling the nerves and insecurities and doing it anyways.

• The more your mind and heart see that you will consistently show up to these workouts and continue to SHARE the new work, the less scary each sprint will be. As you build courage, what was once terrifying will become a walk in the park.

It’s easy to get caught up in the outcome: What will people think? Will my work be loved? Will I get views and comments? The truth is that the PROCESS is infinitely more important—especially if you want to create consistently (and perhaps professionally).

Which muscle (Dreaming or Courage) would you like to see grow must this year?

Big love,

D

Perfectionism is a trap.

If you’re not careful, your idea or project can fall into the sinkhole that is perfectionism and be lost forever.

I have personally wasted too much time in the bottomless pit of perfectionism, waiting until I was ready or until the work was just right.

In other words, it to be perfect.

Now I know there is no such thing as perfect. It’s an illusion a mirage that steals our energy by convincing us that we are never good enough.

The good news is that there are specific ways to elevate yourself from the trap of perfectionism.

There are 7 pillars I use to supercharge my creativity and help me build forward momentum, and also to protect me from the bottomless pit of perfectionism.

I share a lot about these pillars in my 7 day course on InsightTimer called Supercharge Your Creativity.

Today I’d love to share more about Pillar #4: “Connecting with God”

There are many ways to connect with God or Universe, and prayer is one of my favourites.

I use this simple practice daily. I call it the Artist’s Prayer.

It helps me ground my energy and get me out of my own head.

It’s a reminder that my soul chose to come to this planet, at this time, in this human body so that I can fully express myself. That has nothing to do with being perfect or always getting it right.

This simple prayer also brings me back to love and service. Reminding me that by sharing my voice, my light, and my heart with the world, I can positively impact others.

I share the audio version of the prayer in the video above, or if you want the written version I have included it below.

—

Dear God,

Please use me as a vessel for your divine expression.

Use me as an instrument of your love.

Give me the courage to go into the depths of my heart and find my truth.

And the courage to speak my truth in my own authentic voice.

—

If you’d like to learn more about the 7 Pillars to Supercharge Your Creativity and Overcome Perfectionism here’s the link to my course. There are over 3300 students so far, with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5. —> Click Here.

I’m curious, do you use prayer in your daily life?

Let me know in the comments below or reply to this email.

D

Confession: several times a year I fall out of my meditation habit and go days without meditating. This is not good for my mental health. My mind feels more chaotic and my life becomes heavy.

Thankfully, I have a process that slowly eases me back into regular meditation when I’ve fallen out of the habit.

It’s really simple and I’d love to share it with you here.

It’s also great for anyone feeling distracted or overstimulated and has a hard time meditating, or anyone new to meditation in general.

These simple tips will help you ease into the meditative state and help you build momentum around the habit.

I go into more detail in the video, but here are the high-level tips:

1. Turn off your phone, or at least set it to Do Not Disturb.
2. Remove visual stimulus. You can do this with an eye mask, and if you don’t have one use a bandana or even a shirt.
3. Light a candle, or burn incense / palo santo / sage. Allow the scent to bring your attention inwards.
4. Grab your headphones and listen to a good playlist with theta or delta binaural beats. This kind of music uses subtly different frequencies in the left and right ear to bring the mind into a more relaxed mental state. There is literally nothing you need to do for the binaural music to do its magic.
5. Repeat after me: “There is no possible way to get this wrong.” Your mind might try to convince you that you are doing it “wrong” or that nothing is happening, but this is normal. My mind does this all the time. The key is not to fight it or give it much attention. There is nothing you need to do.

And one more thing…

I don’t waste any time trying to quiet my mind. That shit does not work for creative minds. Once I know there is no possible way to get this wrong and I allow my mind go wherever it wants, eventually my resistance gets bored and quietly leaves. That’s when things get interesting.

Try these tips out next time you are feeling overstimulated or stuck, and let me know if you have any tips of your own. I’d love to hear them.

Big love,

D

—

One of the hardest parts of being a creator, artist, or entrepreneur is pouring your heart and soul into a post or a project that ultimately does not meet your expectations.

This has happened to me countless times. Some projects were big and expensive, and some were as simple as a social media post that I was really excited about that got barely any views.

You might be surprised to know that my ego gets bruised up a lot. I might appear confident in my posts, but I’m still human and susceptible to insecurities.

It hurts to see a post or a project receive low engagement. My inner child feels like no one wants to come to his birthday party and he gets sad.

Here are 5 things I do to stop obsessing about how my work might be perceived:

1. I remind myself that these creations are NOT mine. They come from God/Universe/Source and I am simply the channel to bring them into the world. This helps a lot to make sure I don’t get precious or attached to the work.

2. I remind myself that what happens after I release the work into the world is none of my business. Everyone is allowed to experience the work however they would like.

3. I bless and release. I send the piece love and let it go. I make sure I did the best with the time I had and energetically close the loop, so that I can make space for the next creation from God. If my hands are full with a past project, then when God comes by tomorrow with a new gift I have no space to receive the next one.

4. I make sure I have dozens of future creation sessions in my schedule. This helps me remember that this specific creation is just one of many, and takes the pressure off of having to do it perfectly.

5. I reorient myself by visualizing 10, 20, 50, 100 people in a room and remember how big that can feel. Social media is full of these ridiculous numbers where “only 10 likes” is not a bad thing. If 10 humans were really into the post that is fucking cool. Cooler to me than 10,000 humans that barely watched and then moved on.

Do you have any mindset tips you use to help you keep the joy in your creative process?

If so, I’d love to hear them.

Share in the comments or send me a direct message reply.

Big love,

D

I’m making a big decision and I would love your input.

For context: last year I launched a 7-day course to help people supercharge their creativity. The responses blew me away: over 3,300 students so far with an average rating of 4.9/5.

I am excited to launch a new course this year and I have a few ideas, but before I make the decision I want your input.

Our community is so smart and insightful, so let me know what you think. I deeply value your input.

What course would be of greatest service to you?

A) a course to help you supercharge your mornings
B) a course to help you fall asleep deeply and consistently
C) a course to help you supercharge your confidence
D) a course to help you build a consistent journaling and writing practice
E) something I haven’t thought of

Let me know in the comments or reply in a direct message. If your answer is E, please be specific to what you have in mind. And if you like a few, please list them in order of favourite.

I’m open to hearing any and all answers. Please don’t be shy; even half-baked ideas are welcome.

Big love,

D

On really difficult days, I ask God to hold my hand.

On other days, I sit back-to-back with God and we meditate together. I feel the warmth of God’s body against mine. It’s such a soothing and supportive way to start my day.

If I can be still enough, I can even feel God’s beating heart on my back.

God is a major part of my life and a key source of inspiration for all the work I do.

In the past I would be really cautious about using the “G” word in a post or a meditation.

Because I discovered that it can be really polarizing.

On several occasions people have shared that they got triggered or “checked out” because I mentioned the word God.

I would immediately feel guilty that they were negatively impacted by the meditation I created, or possibly just felt left out. I felt like I messed up and should have been more thoughtful.

Eventually this brought up a powerful inflection point for me. What was I trying to achieve?

Was my goal to make everyone happy? Or was it to speak truthfully?

I am still figuring it out.

It isn’t black and white. Context and intention matters.

For now, I want to share my relationship with God with my community.

I also want to stay open and hear perspectives that are different from mine. Even if they are difficult for me to hear.

Because some of the most important moments in my life started with me hearing things that are difficult to hear, and then taking time to unpack what is happening underneath my reaction. And then taking ownership of my own part.

Is there something that is true and important in your life that you are afraid to share with the world—or even with your family and close friends?

Most people don’t realize that dreaming is a skill. If you haven’t practiced it for a long time, there is a good chance you’re rusty.

But that’s nothing a bit of practice can’t solve. And like most things in life, honesty is the starting point.

If you want to bring as many of your dreams to life as possible, step one is getting super honest about what you want.

This step sounds easy, but in real life it’s illusive and full of landmines.

1. Just acknowledging that you have a dream takes a shit ton of courage. You may end up face-to-face with all the times in the past you wanted something and you didn’t get it.

2. Additionally, dreams often bring up issues of worthiness and a lot of imposter syndrome. “Who am I to have a dream like this?!” “How selfish and greedy of me!”

Sometimes it gets to the point that it’s easier to bury the dream and pretend it no longer exists. Or you find a much safer dream and convince yourself that is what you really want.

Claiming your own dreams requires a lot of patience and love. I suggest going slowly.

First, create a safe container for yourself, with no judgement and with no limitations for what could be possible. Ask your brain to take the day off so that you and your heart can have a playdate together. You can refine your dream with your brain later, but first start with no boundaries and follow the joy in your heart.

The more time we spend imagining our dreams coming true, the greater the likelihood they will come to life. Especially when we share them with like-minded humans that support and believe in us.

I love hearing other people's dreams and yet, I still get nervous sharing my own. In these moments I remind myself that the nerves are just an indication that I am doing something new and exciting.

How do you feel about your own dreams?

Do you have a dream for 2024?

If so, how many people have heard you talk about it?

Today I woke up longing for the freedom of 2017 Darius. I wondered what it would be like to erase the word “algorithm” from my vocabulary and go back to being a *pretend* photographer and writer with fewer than 500 followers and nothing to lose.

In 2017, I became a portrait photographer. I honestly had no idea what I was doing, but somehow the photos looked great and the experiences fed my soul.

In 2017, I also started writing publicly. I wrote a lot: at least 5 times a week, sometimes over 3,000 words a day.

When I paired the writing with the photos, things got really exciting.

In February of 2017, I started booking photography clients for the first time ever. I opened up 15 portrait photography spots per month, and within 2 days I sold out 3 months of portraits. This was truly a shock to me.

Everything was so new, so unknown and uncertain. I could only see 3 steps in front of me at a time.

I never knew what was coming next and I didn’t really care. This allowed me to be super honest and super ME.

I didn’t really think about the audience and it would be years before I even knew the word algorithm. Instead I would ask myself, “What feels most true this morning?” or “What feels most alive and accessible inside my heart?”

2024 Darius feels jealous of 2017 Darius. It felt easier to express and share my art in 2017.

It felt faster and more effortless... wake up, meditate, show up at my computer, write, share some photos, and move on.

It felt less competitive too. I didn’t really know who or what I was at that point, and with no professional title or status I wasn’t competing with anyone.

And it felt less risky, mostly because it felt like I had nothing to lose. I wasn’t yet a “real photographer” or a “real writer”—I was just a silly man pretending to be both.

Commercial success has many blessings. But it can also become a self-imposed prison if you are not careful.

I am sipping my coffee this morning, imagining what 2024 could look and feel like if I was brave enough to be me all the way.

Not me in 2017, but me right fucking now.

Big love,

D