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I’ve been on an Albert Camus binge again.

His philosophy centres on absurdism, the idea that life has no inherent meaning, and our search for meaning often clashes with the silent, indifferent universe and when you look at it from just that lens. Damn that is some bleak shit.

But instead of letting the despair get to you, Camus advocates for rebellion. Embracing life fully, creating your own purpose, and taking action despite the absurd.

One of his most famous quotes comes from The Myth of Sisyphus

“One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

In this story, Sisyphus is condemned to endlessly push a boulder up a hill, only for it to roll back down.

He suggests that Sisyphus finds meaning, but not in the outcome, but in the act of pushing the boulder itself.

At the surface level it’s just “hey man push that massive rock, you’ll be fine!”

But if you look at the lesson around that alone it’s pretty profound and I’ve written about a similar thing in past emails…

If there’s a “boulder” standing between you and where you want to be, don’t waste time questioning why it’s there or waiting for life to make sense.

Just do the thing.

Show up, push the boulder, and find fulfilment in the process of striving, even if you’re unsure about the outcome.

We get sucked into over thinking.

I mean a few minutes of scrolling online will get us stuck because we’re looking to compare our lives with someone else’s.

It’s just a highlight reel after all…

Just remember it’s in the action of doing, that’ll get us where we want to go.

So if you’ve been putting something off. Just go do it.

THEN you can have a little break and not beat yourself up about it.

Stephen Walker

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

Today’s email is a remix of one of my all-time favorites, originally sent one year ago. Enjoy 🙂
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(FYI: Strong language in this one…)​
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​I woke up in a whiny-a** mood today.​
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From the jump, my mind was tossing out complaints like a toddler who needs a talking to, so that’s what I’m gonna give myself right now.
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Hopefully we’ll both learn something along the way.
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For context:
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​I’m a little over a month into a two-month solo retreat, where I’ve stripped away most of my favorite things…​
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Coffee, MMA, podcasts, most books, TV shows, ~90% of the food I normally eat, and a bunch of other stuff I listed (along with details on why I’m doing this) here.​
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​So when I woke up, and my mind started reaching for…
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Coffee — nope.
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UFC news — nope.
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Sht, a snack? — nah, bro. ​ Well, can I at least watch YouTube or something? — hahah. No. ​ …And I realized all I had to look forward to was: ​ ​Silence.​ ​ And then more silence. ​ For a month. ​ …My — should I say it? — yes,Goggins would be proud — inner btch — started crying like a — well, I just said it.
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​”Why did you do this to me again?!”​
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“Seriously, again?! We just did two years of this!”
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“And you want to do another six months next year?!”
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“You’re a real prick, you know that buddy?”
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At this point I should probably mention that this happens pretty much every time, to pretty much everyone who does this protocol.
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So while I may be a prick, at least I’m not special.​
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And over the years, I’ve learned a cutting-edge technique that instantly transcends the noise of the mind, effortlessly transforming it into deeper power and clarity:
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​Telling it to shut the fck up.​ ​ (told you there would be language) ​ This little-known technique is rare in spiritual circles, where gently stroking your inner child while attuning to the inner light of the sacred heart chakra manifests a space of gratitude that generally frowns upon kicking your inner btch straight in the teeth.
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But damn, it works.
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​Two seconds of tough love did what ten minutes of patiently listening to my whining mind couldn’t do:​
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Got it to stop whining, and made me feel way better.
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Of course, there’s a time and place for being gentle with yourself.
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But working on your “inner child” doesn’t mean letting it kick and scream and throw food on the floor just ’cause it isn’t getting what it wants.
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It means being a good parent, which means (full disclosure, not a parent here) dropping some tough love, every once in a while.
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Hey, I feel better now 🙂
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I hope you got something out of that, too.
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More tomorrow.
​

• T
  ​
  ​P.S. Important point:
  ​
  We’re not talking about repressing emotions, here.
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  We’re talking about shifting into a stronger, more determined state of mind which in turn shifts your emotional state.
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  The measure of effectiveness, of course, is how you feel afterwards.
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  If giving yourself tough love leaves you feeling stronger, more capable, more determined, etc — bueno.
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  If it doesn’t, change your tactic.
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  Or, if you wanna just cut to the chase:
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  ​You could join us here and never wake up in another whiny mood, experience another painful emotion, suffer another defeat, be served another undercooked hamburger, or stub another toe.​

​

Ever again.

​

Guaranteed.

“If you focus on what you lack, you lose what you have. If you focus on what you have, you gain what you lack.” – Greg McKeown

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​

​

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​Unsubscribe | Update your profile | 5-420 Erb St. W, Suite 433, Waterloo, ON N2L6K6

And as with anything. The theft-y Mctheft of artist works seem to be getting worse as the days go on…

You can read the full article here, especially if you care for creative work.

That being said. A chap named Adam Nevill wrote this yesterday and I have automatically become a fan because this is sadly what’s happening in the creative space.

And as someone who punches away at a keyboard or scratches away on pen and paper to form sentences and stories. The sentiment is here for anyone pushing on tech to take over what makes us human.

Here it goes:

So, part two – and this is aimed at people who are using AI, and who intend to use AI, in the creation of books. It’s also for readers.

If you use AI to generate ideas for stories, you are not a writer. Similarly, if you need AI to rewrite your sentences and paragraphs, or restructure your book, or even produce any portion of a written work, then you’re not a writer.

If, by some combination of keywords, the AI produces something that appears competent, you didn’t create it; nor does this make you creative. The technology can only perform this function, at your prompting, because it has been illegally trained on the work of real writers. Tinkering with the output, editing it and rearranging it, doesn’t make you a writer either. Every derivative produced was produced by the software, not you.

If you truly love books but use AI to make them, you are destroying what you love. And once you have destroyed what you love, what then?

Very few people master anything. To master anything, innate ability is required, as well as a significant investment of time and a sense of purpose. To be original, you also need vision. There are no shortcuts. Any other method is cheating. The constant promise of tech companies that their apps will “unleash your creativity” is a shameful lie. It’s a heinous form of neo-Marxist propaganda. What this means is: no one is exceptional, everyone is the same, everyone is not only creative, but equally creative. Which any rational person knows is BS. There has only ever been one Shakespeare.

So, if you are taking shortcuts and cheating and destroying what you profess to love, what is your motivation? Laziness, self-deception, competitiveness, greed, uncertainty about what you are doing with your life? Or is it something malicious, like envy and resentment directed at those who have accomplished something – “look, what I can do too!” Only you’re not creating anything – the software is producing something and you’re cheating. What are you displacing?

Of equal importance to writers, in this catastrophe and in this entire space, are the readers. They’re hard to attract. Their appearance and interest and appreciation is a magical process. Once they appear, they invite other readers to read the same books. To keep readers reading your books, you need to build trust with a readership and you can’t let them down. This can take decades (in my case). It’s a contract and connection so precious, it is sacrosanct. AI produced/part produced books betray and cheat readers and kill all of the magic. Forever.

So, folks, if you are using AI to “produce” books, or part produce books, you and I are done. It’s over.

Every single time that someone cheats and uses AI to provide a story, or provide a character, or rewrite a description, another part of culture withers, another threat to human talent and expression is sent into the world. What we’re then reading will not be truthful, not sincere, not genuine, not even human, and it is a betrayal of human endeavour.

It’s a weird place to be in right now. I have people who ask me if it’s still worth being a writer or a creative of any sort and I’m like “Hell yeah!” the blood sweat and tears of getting good at something that fills your soul is WAY more important than some robo-tech-bullshit that pretends to mimic what it means to be human.

It’s the one thing we can do as people to connect with one another and if you think telling a machine what to do is it, then man do I have a bridge I want to sell you…

Anywho.

Go give Adam Nevill some love. He is a good dude.

Stephen Walker

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

What’s that you may ask?

Kicking what to the curb?

Fear of judgement, that’s what.

If you look around online or even offline in person. People are scared shitless to do anything because they’re scared of being judged by their peers.

And yes. It’s natural. No matter how confident and good you are at something you’re always going to have to work on.

I know too many awesome people who are scared to do anything because they’re scared of what mom or dad or friends and partners are going to think of them.

Fuck it I say.

We’re all gonna die one day and that’s the harsh reality of it. So why are you not pursuing what makes you happy?

Wanna stream yourself getting mad at a video game and make a living off of it? Do it.

How’s about reviewing terrible B rated horror movies with a twist. Do it.

Wanna talk about how passionate you are about growing mushrooms? Come on. There’s a market for all of this and more…

I know a lot of the things I write and share with you are hit and miss. But I show up every single day cause it’s something I love to do. Some of you will never get to meet me and some of you will. That’s just the way this whole internet game works.

I don’t want fame and all of that shit but getting paid to talk about and share thing the things I love, well… That to me has always been the ultimate end goal.

You might need to stir the pot and go against what everyone else is talking about in your circle or market but you can make it valuable, cause it’s your own brand of secret sauce.

People will follow you just because it’s you and your own take on whatever is going on.

You just need to get into the routine of sharing all of the crazy shit you love and the people who dig on it will show up.

You need to think long term. Have fun and look at getting better every day. Even if you do have a few moments where you doubt yourself.

That being said. I’m gonna go shove some hot cross buns into my face hole and go see if I can find anyone else whose having a melt down about Tesla today.

Stephen Walker

https://stphnwlkr.com/theleague

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

Not everything you do is going to be an absolute banger straight off the bat.

I mean if it was then damn, you’d be rollin’ in the money and popularity and all the status you could ever dream of…

The only thing you’ve got control of is showing up daily.

Systems are gonna fail, algorithms are gonna change and Big Tech are gonna make it impossible (Or at least harder to get your message out there into the world)

But you just need to show up, even on the days you don’t want to.

I have the days were I wonder if what I’m doing and building will be worth it, but for me it’s just something I love to do.

I get to share my wild ideas and dreams with you. I get to take you on a little journey and when I get to that destination… I might celebrate with a beer or two.

All I’m saying is that you need to keep going.

You can’t have everyone liking you and believe it or not, people are also busy with their lives so they’re not going be stalking you all the time.

They will be watching but not all the time. So it’s your time to shine and not care what others think and do the best work you can.

Stephen Walker

https://stphnwlkr.com/theleague

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

Quantity is the goddamn engine that drives quality.

Michelangelo wasn’t born with the gift of perfect carving…

No. He learned to do that. He cut, he hacked, he made sloppy, half baked messes until…

…until he started making something worth looking at.

I love answering questions about the craft of writing and pretty much everything in the creative world and yet the best thing you can do to improve is to keep cranking out work.

I write a massive quantity of these types of emails. Sometimes they’re straight to the point or veer off on tangents or have a direct response cut to the bone style or even just random musings and ideas that come out of nowhere.

But the aim is also to be light hearted, not too serious, entertaining and at the minimum, give you something to ponder about.

And I get it.

Sometimes we end up sitting there, staring at a blank page, or canvas, or whatever, and we wait for the perfect idea. The perfect sentence. The perfect anything. Well, guess what?

Perfect is a myth. Perfect is a lie. Perfect is the reason you haven’t written, painted, coded, or created anything in weeks.

And the self help guru folk and coaches don’t want to tell you things like:

You don’t get good by thinking. You get good by doing.

You don’t improve by planning. You improve by shipping. Get that thing shipped out to the world and then repeat.

You don’t learn by theorising. You learn by failing fast and over and over and over again…

The more you create, the better you’ll get.

It’s math. It’s numbers. It’s volume.

Think about it like this from a gym analogy:

Every word you write is a punch you throw.

Every brushstroke is a rep in the gym.

Every line of code is a step on the treadmill.

You don’t get stronger by sitting on the couch thinking about lifting weights. You get stronger by lifting. And yeah, sure, some of what you make will be garbage. Most of it, even. But here’s the thing…

Garbage is fertile ground.

You can’t grow a garden without getting your hands dirty. You can’t make a masterpiece without first making a mess.

So stop waiting for the perfect idea. Stop chasing the perfect sentence. Stop worrying about what people will think.

Just… create.

So go.

Make something.

Make a lot of things.

Make so many things that you start to forget what’s good and what’s bad.

And then…

Then you’ll find your voice.

Then you’ll find your style.

Then you’ll start making things that matter.

But only if you start.

Stephen Walker

https://stphnwlkr.com/theleague

P.S. If you’re still not convinced, here’s a bonus “secret”

A story by Dr. Wayne Dyer

In a mother’s womb were two babies.

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One asked the other:

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“Do you believe in life after delivery?”

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The other replied:

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“Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.”

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“Nonsense” said the first.

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“There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?”

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The second said:

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“I don’t know, but there will be more light than here.

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Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now.”

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The first replied:

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“That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short. Life after delivery is to be logically excluded.”

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The second insisted:

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“Well I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here.
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Maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore.”

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The first replied:

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“Nonsense. And moreover if there is life, then why has no one ever come back from there? Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It takes us nowhere.”

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“Well, I don’t know,” said the second, “but certainly we will meet Mother and she will take care of us.”

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The first replied:

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“Mother? You actually believe in Mother? That’s laughable. If Mother exists then where is She now?”

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The second said:

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“She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live. Without Her this world would not and could not exist.”

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Said the first:

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“Well I don’t see Her, so it is only logical that She doesn’t exist.”

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To which the second replied:

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“Sometimes, when you’re in silence and you focus and you really listen, you can perceive Her presence, and you can hear Her loving voice, calling down from above.”

Happy Monday 🙂

​

T
​
P.S. Something new…​
The only difference between you and the people you admire is volume.

They’ve just made more stuff than you have.

So go.

Catch up.

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

Quantity is the goddamn engine that drives quality.

Michelangelo wasn’t born with the gift of perfect carving…

No. He learned to do that. He cut, he hacked, he made sloppy, half baked messes until…

…until he started making something worth looking at.

I love answering questions about the craft of writing and pretty much everything in the creative world and yet the best thing you can do to improve is to keep cranking out work.

I write a massive quantity of these types of emails. Sometimes they’re straight to the point or veer off on tangents or have a direct response cut to the bone style or even just random musings and ideas that come out of nowhere.

But the aim is also to be light hearted, not too serious, entertaining and at the minimum, give you something to ponder about.

And I get it.

Sometimes we end up sitting there, staring at a blank page, or canvas, or whatever, and we wait for the perfect idea. The perfect sentence. The perfect anything. Well, guess what?

Perfect is a myth. Perfect is a lie. Perfect is the reason you haven’t written, painted, coded, or created anything in weeks.

And the self help guru folk and coaches don’t want to tell you things like:

You don’t get good by thinking. You get good by doing.

You don’t improve by planning. You improve by shipping. Get that thing shipped out to the world and then repeat.

You don’t learn by theorising. You learn by failing fast and over and over and over again…

The more you create, the better you’ll get.

It’s math. It’s numbers. It’s volume.

Think about it like this from a gym analogy:

Every word you write is a punch you throw.

Every brushstroke is a rep in the gym.

Every line of code is a step on the treadmill.

You don’t get stronger by sitting on the couch thinking about lifting weights. You get stronger by lifting. And yeah, sure, some of what you make will be garbage. Most of it, even. But here’s the thing…

Garbage is fertile ground.

You can’t grow a garden without getting your hands dirty. You can’t make a masterpiece without first making a mess.

So stop waiting for the perfect idea. Stop chasing the perfect sentence. Stop worrying about what people will think.

Just… create.

So go.

Make something.

Make a lot of things.

Make so many things that you start to forget what’s good and what’s bad.

And then…

Then you’ll find your voice.

Then you’ll find your style.

Then you’ll start making things that matter.

But only if you start.

Stephen Walker

https://stphnwlkr.com/theleague

P.S. If you’re still not convinced, here’s a bonus “secret”

The only difference between you and the people you admire is volume.

They’ve just made more stuff than you have.

So go.

Catch up.

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

but I’m considered a genius cause I always look at the smarter folks and apply what they share in my life.

It doesn’t always work out. Sometimes it backfires like shit and well, you gotta roll with what happens.

Well. I was asked today by a long time subscriber of my shenanigans:

“How do you keep going when things just feel stuck?”

Now I’m no guru or life coach or whatever but the dudes miles smarter than me have always said something along the lines of; “No matter what happens to you in life. It’s your fault. Good, bad or whatever. The only person you should blame is yourself.”

It’s not the type of message that does well. Especially with the way the internet has been shaped over the last few years.

If you start talking about putting all the blame on yourself and accepting everything as your own responsibility, especially if you’ve got a penis between your legs. You’ll get the whole “That’s such toxic masculinity!!!” crowd pouncing on you and trying to drag you under whatever metaphorical bus will make them happy.

It’s a bitter pill to swallow but it works and to a varying degree, especially if you’re reading this right now…

You have the privilege to do so. Does it sound arrogant? Of course it does, but it’s true.

You and I have the ability to open our phones and have access to almost everything we need to live a life of comfort and our own success. (Putting the work in is a whole different kettle of fish)

So if you’re feeling stuck or even if things are kicking ass. It’s all your fault.

You can either mope around and be mad or you can be grateful that you have the opportunity to be awesome.

Adopting this frame of mind is also one way to overcome some of the harder things in life that the world will inevitably throw your way.

We just need to keep on going.

We’re the only ones who are able to put our own oxygen masks on after all…

Stephen Walker

https://stphnwlkr.com/theleague

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

“Originality is not something you invent so much as it is an utterance through you by your origins.” – Toko-pa Turner

I’m reading a beautiful book right now called The Dreaming Way, by Toko-pa Turner.

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And I’m reading it old school:

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Not by asking ChatGPT to summarize it, extract the bones and feed them to me in a single, raw gulp.

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But slowly. Deliberately. One word at a time.

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Retracing sentences, paragraphs, pages, and sometimes entire chapters.

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Stopping, thinking, considering what I’m reading.

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Feeling through the words to the deeper energy they carry, and allowing that energy to saturate my mind until the message becomes an experienced reality.

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​Books like this don’t come along often.

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Once or twice a year, maybe. Sometimes less.

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And when they do come along, they leave bookmarks in the timeline of our lives:

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Noting the shifting of a paradigm, when we leave an old version of our worldview behind and step into a greater one.

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​These books don’t simply offer knowledge, they offer an experience that transcends knowledge.

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An experience that, if we let it, can transform us permanently.

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To speed-read a book like this would be like blending a Michelin Star meal into a smoothie to swallow it faster. Sacrilege.

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But this is a possibility AI has opened, for us:

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Rapid ingestion of information unlike anything humanity has ever known, where limitless knowledge can be mainlined into our mind with the click of a few buttons…

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​…Inspiring us to move faster and consume more while thinking little and experiencing less.

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It’s not bad and it’s not good, it’s a tool that unlocks potential, and potential swings both ways.

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What you use it for and how you use it makes all the difference.

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But if you want my advice:

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​Be careful what you use it for.

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While AI can accelerate our learning, innovation and advancement, it often does so by stripping the soul from our experience.

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So, when you come across something truly beautiful:

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A book, a piece of art, a video, a talk that inspires you…

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Slow down.

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And then, slow down further.

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Take it in — all the way in.

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Give it time to work its way through your mind, into your heart and spirit where it can come alive.

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When it’s finished, you won’t be the same.

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• T