Hey there, my friend. It's Jonah.
Today I want to give you a bit of my own personal backstory.
I once was a sheltered boy living with my mom and stepdad in a cabin in the woods.
Playing piano, video games and watching youtube was part of my daily regime.
I had discovered my love of playing piano at a young age, and so this was always a part of me. I was a passionate pianist.
Due to being diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease in 2016 (a terrible autoimmune disease that sits in the digestive tract),
I weighed 49kg (108 lbs) back then. The weight of a teenage girl.
I was severely skinny, malnourished, unhealthy and actually - near death for a few weeks of my life in the hospital.
This was due to my body's inability to digest food and intake nutrients and constant inflammation.
It made it hard for my heart to function and pump the adequate amount of blood.
Every week, I had multiple doctor visits (and multiple Iron Infusions due to losing so much blood within the bathroom).
They even made fun of me. I felt completely useless and inadequate to every other man I saw.
Due to this, I naturally had no friends and no social life as I was then taken out of school.
The doctors told me there was no cure for what I had. That I would have to suffer my whole life.
The best potential outcome might be an operation where they cut out my digestive tract.
Crohn’s Disease isn’t researched enough, they said. Always preaching conventional medicine treatments instead of a natural holistic lifestyle approach.
They prescribed me medications which stopped my height-growth among other things as it messed with my hormones.
Only to “suppress” the disease, instead of fighting the root cause.
Yet still, I had my entire mouth full of mouth ulcers that hindered my speech and left me in constant pain.
I still went to the bathroom more than 10 times a day shitting blood.
I was told my case of Crohn’s Disease was very severe and that it’s a life full of public bathrooms, food intolerances and painful inflammation for me.
Luckily, someone else saw through it. My mom.
My mom gave me hope and taught me the approach to life that I know today.
Taking accountability, not relying on outdated, bottompaid “doctors” and information.
Going my own path to figuring out a logical natural way to combat disease and reach my personal goals.
Basically, she was an entrepreneur at heart.
She taught me that the “normal” way that is preached often isn’t the best - and definitely not the only way.
She taught me self belief, self accountability, self control, and the importance of nutrition and a healthy lifestyle.
Over time, this worked better than any attempt these disgusting doctors ever made to help me.
I started to realise that ones own mindset will triumph EVERYTHING else.
It is the most inmportant asset we have, by far. An unhealthy mind will always be an unhealthy body.
It wasn’t easy to reprogram my entire belief system after years of indoctrination.
But my “incurable disease” naturally started decreasing in signs of inflammation - by doing what the doctors regarded as redundant.
I was basically doing the opposite of what the doctors recommended (like drinking “high calory” ultra procecced food shakes full of seed oils that would just lead me to be more inflamed and depressed)
I was able to start doing light exercises, and with time, I signed up to a gym in 2019. I was so happy.
I started going 6 times a week, finally being able to bulk up, becoming more masculine, feeling quite fulfilled.
The smile on my face was huge. I had a newfound gratitude for my life. I was finally healthy.
This translated directly over into other areas of my life.
I knew that I could make money and maximize my potential without a school or a wage job to have to sell my soul to.
I was on a good path.
Until, september 2021.
Because that’s when my mother died.
This came as a shock, because just 1 month before she died, nobody (besides her) had a clue that this tragedy would happen.
It came out of nowhere. We were completely torn apart as a family.
I was crying every night.
It started with her paralysed arm hanging limp to her side while we were on a family vacation, to me consoling her while she slowly lost her life force in our living room.
My stepdad then went back to America to heal. He had severe depression.
I was completely alone and accountable for my own survival. I had no one.
I switched to autopilot mode to do what was necessary.
For some reason I knew, if I give up here, I won’t make it at all.
The risk of becoming sick again was high.
And I could have easily gone under by drowning out the sadness and anxiety with drugs or alcohol, video games and porn.
Creating a false reality of comfort and that everything is okay.
Yet I knew that overcoming adversity is the only thing will get me out of this hell hole.
Because digging that hole in the first place would have left me there longer than using all my strength to instantly climb back out of it.
If I had given up there, I wouldn’t have made it to where I am today. I truly believe that. That would have been it.
I’d probably working in mc donalds right now.
I remembered what my mom used to tell me. “Trust your intuition”.
I was still teaching piano students, barely getting by and going to the gym to take care of my mental and physical health.
It was winter, and the family house I was still in was in a very secluded small area neighbouring the woods and huge fields.
It was barely in touch with any form of institution.
There was 10-20cm high snow everywhere and my only heat source came from fire wood in our fireplace.
Getting to the city and back alone took more than 2 hours a day.
But somehow I knew that what I was doing was right. Because I was still making progress and maintaining control.
I was staying true to what I felt was right.
After a while, of hard work, self belief and accountability, naturally came rewards. It felt like everything was falling into natural order.
I had a routine and some sense of security again. I wasn’t just lost in the darkness of imminent change anymore.
I had adapted.
I was meeting people, met my first ever girlfriend, and had room to grow every day.
Working on my mental health, physical health, social skills and finances, I started to realise all the things my mom used to teach me were true.
I am in control of my own destiny as long as I am absolutely accountable for any adversity and any success that comes my way.
I can create my own pathways to overcome and achieve the things that I believe are right for me without relying on conventional wisdom or advice.
In a sense, I should to be egotistical.
Why do I tell you this?
Because firstly, I want you to understand where I came from.
But secondly and more importantly,
I want you to understand that I went from being privileged and sheltered,
To going through maximum discomfort and adversity,
To now being the healthiest, happiest, strongest and most successful version of myself that I ever was and that I could be.
And I look back with a smile on my face.
Because I know, all that has happened, happened for a reason.
And I now have the ultimate incentive to make the best out of my life.
To not waste my life.
Because we all truly only have 1 life.
This is why I am deeply passionate about the things that I talk about.
Passionate to inspire change in you.
Just how my mom was able to inspire me.
Thanks for reading,
- Jonah
If you actually read everything until here, thank you. Means a lot.
