Sometimes you gotta lay waste.
Sometimes waste gets laid on you.
You never forget the sound of a human head bouncing off the ground.
Thick. Hollow. Sickening.
THUD.
Even now you can FEEL it as much as you can HEAR it.
THUD: The word itself has the skull-bounce sound as its foundation.
But when its your OWN head...
...you only hear a dull buzz.
Like a hive of mechanical bees invading your brain.
Nothing brings clarity like your own skull hitting pavement at high speed.
- Extreme clarity (IMMEDIATELY).
- Everything slams into focus.
- Eyes wide.
- Heart pounding.
- Mouth open in pain and surprise.
- In the moment.
- FULLY alive.
"That didn't work out how I envisioned," my concussed brain tried to reason.
Location: Carthage, Missouri
Setting: Town square
When: Fall of 1986
Time: 3ish AM
This was the first time I was delivered a bonafide ass whoopin'.
Let's get this clear:
- I'm not talking about some schoolyard scuffle.
- I'm not talking about some pushing, shoving, or hair pulling.
- I'm not talking about some figurative ass kicking life delivers us all.
I'm talking about the kind of ass whoopin' that makes you question every life decision. I'm talking about the kind of ass whoopin' where you lose teeth, swallow your own copper-flavored blood, and spend the next week with one eye swollen shut.
The first time I got my ass kicked...
...I cried...
...DURING the ass kicking.
Nothing good happens at 3 AM.
"I should be in bed asleep. Why didn't I go home hours ago?" my mechanical-bee-filled brain quizzed.
I was flat on my back in the middle of the street. The ass kicker laughed as he stood over me. His eyes bulged wide. His neck veins bulged even more. He glared down at me with a Batman-villian grin. His iron fist levitated straight up then dropped like a blacksmith's hammer.
Again, my face was the anvil. Smack.
The back of my head met pavement, again. Thud.
Smack. Thud. Laughter.
Smack. Thud. Laughter.
Smack. Thud. Laughter.
Smack. Thud. Laughter.
I disassociated. I pictured Run-DMC rapping to the beat of the rhythm of the violence.
I started controlling my bouncing head to time the smacks.
In moments like this, one MUST keep the blacksmith's hammer on rhythm. Once a musician, always a musician.
I smiled an inner smile at the psychotic beauty of the moment.
Back in the real world I was sobbing. The bloody-snot-dangling-out-your-nose kind of sobbing.
"Look at this little bitch crying!" the ass kicker laughed as his friends circled.
To paraphrase legendary boxer Mike Tyson,
"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."
I was 16 years old.
And I was a total dumb ass.
I deserved that ass whoopin' the same way every red-blooded teenage male deserves an ass whoopin'.
It’s a right of passage missing from modern culture. Every culture has various "rites of passage." Those brutal rituals young people endure to pass the test and enter adulthood.
At age seven Spartan boys were turned over by their parents to the state. They lived, studied, and trained together.
The boys went barefoot and didn't bathe so their skin became hard and dry. To make them learn to endure heat and cold, they were given just one cloak to wear year round. They made their own beds from plants they had to rip out of the ground with their bare hands.
Spartan youth had to present themselves for regular inspections, in the nude. Any boys who didn’t look sufficiently fit were flogged. Any considered too weak would be ostracized and left in the wilderness to die.
To make life even tougher, Spartan boys were fed a meager diet. Hunger was a constant. To make sure they learned cunning, any boys caught stealing food were whipped until bloody.
Such harsh punishment was a prominent part of the Spartan training system. The Spartans even turned it into an annual ritual. The boys tried to steal cheeses from a temple altar. This required them to evade guards armed with whips.
“Whipping was a test of courage and stoicism,” writes Kimberly Reiter. “Spartan Boys looked forward to the public display of their fortitude.”
In 1986 my rite of passage was an ass whoopin' in the middle of the street in front of a crowd of drunken rednecks.
I failed the fortitude test. I cried all night long. I was humiliated.
The Spartans would have left me in the wilderness to die.
Little did I know, that ass kicking was just a primer. Progressively harder trials were coming over the next 30 years.
Time travel?
"What would 52-year-old me say to 16-year-old me?" I've often pondered.
Would I have tried to stop the pain?
Would I have tried to warn of the coming storms?
Would I have tried to change anything at all?
We all have moments in life when things burn down. Those dreaded moments when everything changes in awful ways we could never anticipate. Those moments when we get our asses kicked.
In those moments you have a simple choice:
Choice #1: Stay down and die.
Choice #2: Rise from the ashes and try again.
The Great Reset
According to quantum physicists, all atoms in the universe are vibrating in and out of existence over 100,000 times per second. This means we are experiencing a constant state of death and rebirth faster than our 5 senses can comprehend.
100,000 times per second you die.
100,000 times per second you are reborn.
Each moment carries a new experience, based on your every choice.
Ass kicking happens all day every day. We all fight a never-ending stream life-changing battles.
The result of our choices in those battles is our life.
Think about your worst ass kicking. Would you change things? Or did it lead you to exactly where and WHO you are now?
You can choose both. The red pill AND the blue pill.
Death AND rebirth.
Blow it all up. Rebuild with renewed vision.
My first car was a 1974 Mercury Cougar. It was $400.
It took me almost a year of slaving away at shitty jobs to the save that $400.
It was muddy brown with brown canvas top. The car was huge.
We called it The Land Yacht.
It had those giant doors that were popular in the 1970s. The doors were the size of a Mazda Miata and could remove a finger if you didn’t get out of the way when they were closing.
Sometimes that beast of a car wouldn't start. The beast also had transmission problems. Many times it left me stranded in the middle of nowhere.
It was ugly, unreliable, and dangerous.
And I loved it.
I worked so hard to buy that car. I used to lay awake at night fantasizing about what it would be like to drive wherever I wanted.
It wasn't just a car. That car was freedom.
It was the most beautiful car in the world to me.
Since then I've owned over 100 cars. I've owned 5 Lamborghinis and nearly every brand of luxury car there is. But none of those cars hold a candle to that ugly 1974 Mercury Cougar.
It was the first major thing I worked for and achieved. My chest is swelling with pride even now as I think about it.
"Life is suffering." That's what Buddhists say.
I used to think, "Wow Buddhists are negative Nancys!"
But life IS suffering. Our suffering is how we define our lives.
- Without suffering we wouldn't have our stories.
- Without suffering we wouldn't understand beauty.
- Without suffering we wouldn't have music, art, or dance.
- Without suffering we wouldn't appreciate love.
Humanity's Great Reset is here.
Over the next 2 years everything we know is being undone, rewritten, and reimagined.
Notice I didn't said REBUILT. No, quite the opposite.
The time for death and rebirth is here.
We are in the age of the Fourth Turning. We are at the end of the 80-year cycle, the Crisis phase.
This is when the hero generation, entering young adulthood, faces off against the prophet generation entering elderhood.
When the Boomer Generation retires, the Millennial generation takes the wheel.
But it's not that simple.
War is the reality.
The Boomer Generation can't understand changes happening yet won't let go of the quest for power.
Their skills are outdated and ineffective for what’s coming. The Millennial generation refuses to do things the old way.
Wholesale change is happening everywhere. World War 3 is already in full swing.
Everything you know is ending.
Fed up and disillusioned Gen Z will burn it all to the ground.
Death and rebirth.
The year 2026 will see a Great Global Renaissance.
But first, we die.
Blow it all up. Rebuild with renewed vision.
Pay attention.
Deep inside you know the truth; You are at the threshold of major change.
You've burned down a lot.
You're covered in the ashes.
Your lungs are filled with the smoke.
You know its time to make the ultimate choice.
#1 Get busy livin'
#2 Get busy dyin'
Blue Pill: Stay down and die.
Red Pill: Rise from the ashes and try again.
As your doctor, I'm prescribing both.
Intergrate the death lessons of the past. Use them as a foundation for rebirth.
The Great Reset
It's scary as fuck.
I know. I'm right there with you.
By any measure I've lived an extreme life. I've been rich and I've been poor. I've been on top and I've scraped the bottom. I've partied with kings and with paupers.
I been an inmate and I've traveled the world. I've flown on private jets and I've taken a prison bus across the country. I've had all the material things the Matrix tempts us with and I've been face down in the ditch with nothing.
I've lived it all from top to bottom.
I've been through way too many of these Death/Rebirth cycles.
Smack. Thud. Laughter.
Smack. Thud. Laughter.
Smack. Thud. Laughter.
The universe has kicked my ass over and over.
I've had to build myself back up over and over again.
Smack. Thud. Laughter.
Smack. Thud. Laughter.
Smack. Thud. Laughter.
The ass kicker laughed as he stood over me. Eyes bulged wide. Neck veins bulged even more.
The universe's iron fist levitated straight up then dropped like a blacksmith's hammer.
Again, my life was the anvil. Smack.
My identity met pavement, again. Thud.
Smack. Thud. Laughter.
Smack. Thud. Laughter.
Smack. Thud. Laughter.
"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."
The universe has kicked my ass over and over.
I've had to rebuild myself, over and over.
"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks.
I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."
- Bruce Lee
Guess what happens what you practice one thing over and over...
and over and over and over and over and over...
and over and over...
MASTERY
I'm 52 years old and I'm still a dumb ass. I'm still that 16 year old kid in a lot of ways.
But now I have experience.
Now I'm the MASTER.
I've mastered death.
I've mastered destruction.
I've mastered rising from the ashes.
I've mastered rebirth.
For some reason I was born to test the limits of life.
It's been a roller coaster from hell to say the least.
One thing I know for sure: We are all in this together.
We all stand on the precipice. The world is scary as fuck right now.
We all know big changes are coming yet we are too afraid to stare into the abyss.
I'm there my too friend. But I'm exhilarated more than afraid. I have fears, no question.
But mastering death and rebirth has shown me those fears are the best compass there is.
Walk with me into this grand adventure of the life you were born to live. Everything your heart desires is on the other side of your fears.
You've taken enough ass beatings to know, you can get up.
You can win.
You really can live the life your heart desires, and more.
I've been to the promised land. I've lived it. I know it's all real.
You can have it all.
Peace.
Love.
Beauty.
Health.
and even Wealth.
It's called ABUNDANCE.
It's time to rise!
Since 2009 I've created several communities about the art and science of personal achievement.
Some have been very positive with hundreds of success stories like these.
Some have been ass whoopin's that I'll never forget.
Ego Death
I've died many times on the journey to become a hero of my own life.
As Joseph Campbell explains very well, "The Hero's Journey" requires death. But it’s a death that's rarely physical.
And it's a death that repeats quite often.
The typical hero's 12 stages:
1. Ordinary World - Where most people stay forever
2. Call To Adventure - Stepping into the unknown
3. Refusal Of The Call - "I'm not worthy and I'm afraid!"
4. Meeting The Mentor - That's me! :)
5. Crossing The First Threshold - Red Pill Moment - The point of no return to the old ways
6. Tests, Allies, Enemies
7. Approach To The Inmost Cave - Facing your demons
8. Ordeal - Hitting rock bottom, death
9. Reward - Real inner change
10. The Road Back - Healing, return to the ordinary world as a hero
11. Resurrection - Ego death, Rebirth, Rise of the Phoenix
12. Return With The Elixer - You are the fearless hero with the solution.
This cycle repeats until the hero learns the lesson.
I'm hardheaded and have to take things to extremes to learn lessons.
Turns out I'm a VERY slow learner.
I've spent well over $500,000 on:
- meditation retreats
- person development courses of all kinds
- events, conferences, conventions
- therapists
- shamans
- energy workers
- astrologers
- spiritual gurus
- sound healers
- REIKI practitioners
- somatic experiencing
- personal development coaches
- prayer circles
- Indian sweat lodges
- fire walking
- exorcisms (yes I believed I had demons inside)
- arrow breaking
- ayahuasca (and DMT) vision quests
and anything else you can think of.
Guess what...
None of it worked.
NONE.
After each experience I felt better for a few weeks then reality would slowly crush me again.
And then I would be WORSE off.
When I attended Warrior Week, Garrett J. White taught me I was using my past pain for fuel.
He nailed it, but I couldn't figure out how to change fuel tanks.
No matter what I did, no matter how extreme, I always had this gnawing self-loathing.
It would always return and stronger than before.
I was raised in a very strong Christian home. I always thought I was going to grow up and be a missionary. I taught Bible studies and led Christian youth groups. I strongly believed the Christian religion was the answer to everything.
I preached that message until age 35.
Then I went crazy.
I tried every drug, every alcohol, every escape, every "cure" that anyone would suggest.
I did month-long water fasts. I went full vegan. I turned alcoholic then gave it up for 2 years to see if that was the problem. I tried marijuana to extreme levels until I had to quit that too.
One shaman had me put energy crystals in my underwear while doing Ayahuasca. I once hired a strange girl to do energy work requiring crystals on my crotch and for hours on end.
But still I persevered.
Each time, after each convention, after each course, after each whatever...
Hate for myself always returned.
And with that hate came self-sabotage, procrastination, and pain.
What I didn't realize was that the answer was simple. It was right there in front of me the entire time. I saw the answer in everything but missed it completely.
I went on a long journey of self-discovery to learn it.
I went on the Hero's Journey.
So here's the short lesson...
If you want anything more than a mundane, boring life...
You HAVE to face your fears.
You HAVE to live in the moment.
You HAVE to try new things.
You HAVE to rewire your limbic system so it doesn't use pain for fuel.
We live in a very safe world. There are no large animals trying to eat you. No one is trying to murder you.
Most "bad" things that happen to you only happen in your head.
"The cave you fear to enter,
holds the treasure you seek."
- Joseph Campbell
All we really have is the present moment.
Literally EVERYTHING ELSE is a fabrication by your body's limbic system (ego) attempting to keep you safe.
It's memorized emotions that are completely fake.
There's infinite love in the present moment. There's infinite safety. There's infinite you.
But you are too scared to go there.
Most people these days would nearly lose their fucking minds if they were forced to sit in a quiet room by themselves for more than a few minutes.
Cell phones and social media have us cracked the fuck out on dopamine kicks. It's far more addictive than heroine. When the dopamine wears off, the present moment is all there is.
That scares the SHIT out of most people.
But in reality, that's where the real power is.
That's where the real you resides. The only way to get there is to step into the void of the unknown.
I've taken the Hero's Journey, waded through my darkest shit and came out the other side.
I was in your place once.
I was once too afraid to move. I was once too afraid to speak out of turn. I was once afraid of getting my ass kicked, again.
But you know deep inside, fear is the ONLY thing holding you back.
Imagine a life with less fears than you have now. What could you achieve? What could you build? What could you create? What would make your heart sing?
But fear keeps you stuck.
Fear of getting your ass kicked again is treated with therapy and drugs.
It's called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
PTSD is most often suffered by war veterans. But we ALL have PTSD in some area of our lives. Every person on earth who's lived at all has something they fear so much it paralyzes them.
I'll never claim to know how to conquer fear.
Fear is part of the life experience here in the Matrix.
But fear does not have to hold you back from having the life your heart desires.
I've spent decades testing with my own life. I've used what I've learned to help thousands of people improve their lives.
Here are just some of the success stories.
Now I'm opening up an all new project to help more people get what they want.
ANNOUNCING: The Phoenix Project
The Phoenix Project is an all new 90 day accountability group.
Rise from the ashes. Learn to master death and rebirth.
You will learn how to tap into your true self and become a hero of your own life.
And you'll learn how to get more accomplished in 90 days than most people do in a year.
You'll learn:
- The simple trick to cure procrastination forever
- The 5 second meditation that I use to live in the present moment
- How to achieve more than even the hardest working people in the world in only 3 hours a day
- How to set and exceed 90 day goals (One year and 5 year goals are STUPID!)
- How to shed your trauma and become the REAL you
- What 3 things to put on your daily todo list so there's never a guess
- How to compress your "work" day to 30 minutes and make more money than ever
- How I lost 105 pounds & how you can lose weight and keep it off forever with no dieting and no workouts
- How to consistently be the smartest person in the room
- How to turn your fear into an automated income stream
- And a lot more
The course is a 90 day program.
I teach you how to set real 90 day targets and EXCEED them regularly.
So much so, you'll become a new you every 90 days.
You'll collapse time and live in the present moment more and more often.
It's time to rise from the ashes Phoenix.
To the rest of the world operating on autopilot you'll look like a magician.
I've lived it. I've helped hundreds of others do it to.
Now I'm launching a brand new program to help you, be you.
It's a six-week masterclass on personal development, on steroids.
Plus a 90 day accountability program to help make sure you actually do it.
The Phoenix Project:
Module 1: The 3-Hour Work Day - Tim Ferris had it wrong, but not by much. How to work only 3 hours a day and accomplish all your goals, and a lot more.
Module 2: Project Procrastination - How to turn your procrastination into a masterful tool that serves you instead of sabotaging your life. (This is the NUMBER ONE thing I had to learn.)
Module 3: Slay The Demon - How to stop using pain as fuel. You have a dark side. We all do. You have to learn how to embrace it and turn it into an asset. If you don't learn this, it will destroy you.
Module 4: Superhero Training - How to overcome fear and live the life you were born to live.
Module 5: How To Go Pro - How to go from a whiny loser to the hero of your own life. This training teaches how to turn your hidden dormant skills into professional level results you can be proud of. (HINT: How to make money.)
Module 6: Accountability that doesn't suck! - We all know that accountability to others is a powerful thing. But I hate it! So I fixed it with a simple system you'll look forward to.
This training and accountability program will help you:
- End procrastination
- End self sabotage
- End self doubt
- End self loathing
- End negative self talk
- End the cycle of failure
I love you but don't come looking for rah-rah motivational speeches.
Motivation doesn't work!
It never has and never will.
Why?
Because feeling good is just an emotion. Emotions come and go like the wind. Even the best motivational seminars only last 6 weeks AT BEST!
At worst, you forget everything you experienced as soon as you get back home to your real life. Your real life that's nothing but a reminder of all your mistakes from the past.
In The Phoenix Project you'll learn how to achieve everything your heart desires:
- Even when you are depressed.
- Even when you are pissed off.
- Even when you can't get out of bed.
- Even when you hate yourself.
- Even when you've created failure after failure.
- Even when you're ready to tell the whole world to get fucked
You'll learn to be you all the time, without fear.
If this resonates with you, I'm opening the first group right now!
I'll walk side-by-side with you the entire 90 days. I show you everything I'm doing to hit my own 90 day targets.
I'll be going through it with you just like I've been doing every 90 days for years now.
I do the exact same stuff. It's the system I had to develop after spending over $500,000 and getting no results.
The Phoenix Project works. Here are almost 100 testimonials from people who learned the very first version of this years ago.
The Phoenix Project has been through several changes and refinements over decades now. I've refined it down to a simple system anyone can follow.
Just do 3 simple things per day that take no more than an hour to do.
That's it.
Work no more than 3 hours a day and achieve every dream you've ever had.
I've lived it, and to the extreme.
I've helped others and now it's your time.
You'll work directly with me and my team for 90 days.
You'll learn the entire system.
You'll learn the operating system for YOU.
You'll even learn how to make money from it all.
If this resonates with you, then click here to sign up.
It's only $111 for the first 33 people.
After that the price goes to $333.
Get in now for 66% off and rise from the ashes >>>
I'm now the hero of my own life and I want to help you do the same.
But don't get it twisted, this is HARD!
You have a lot of bad programming to unwind.
But there's a system to it. I've tweaked it and tweaked it and I'm constantly making it better, and simpler.
If You Were Looking For A Sign, The Phoenix Project is it.
And you'll have an accountability group to keep you going when it gets hard.
Plus you'll learn how to automate income streams using your quirks and fears.
Here's what you'll get access to when you sign up:
- Private community for accountability and support
- Weekly group coaching calls
- Weekly live training
- The Phoenix Project Training
- A new you
If you are ready for a new paradigm, its time to rise.
The Phoenix Project
Click here to sign up for only $111 >>>
See you on the inside,
Matt "The Reverend" Trainer
P.S. The Phoenix Project - The $111 price is only good for the first 33 people, then it goes to $333.
Rise from the ashes. Learn to master death and rebirth.
Be one of the first 33. Join now.
