Do you lack the energy and ability to focus on personal projects? How much of your time is spent on activities that prevent you from achieving your dreams? Are you continually hacking away at your ‘work’ only to see your daily efforts result in nothing?
Welcome to monk mode ⎯ a lifestyle dedicated to practicing extreme obedience toward a specific task, project, or goal.
If you’re ready to cut the clutter from your life, this guide will give you an actionable approach to activating and unleashing your true potential.
What is Monk Mode
Monk mode is a lifestyle commitment that’s dedicated to practicing extreme obedience to a specific task, goal, or behavior.
While real monks are focused on attaining spiritual enlightenment, we can learn and apply the same principles that they use to unleash the better parts of our inner talents and abilities.
Think of all the things you ever wanted to achieve in life:
- Traveling the world
- Making a little extra money
- Losing a bit of weight
- Building a successful business
- Learning a new skill
- Finding a long-term partner
- Being a better human
Monk mode is a way to eliminate all unwanted and wasteful thoughts, activities, relationships, and behaviors that prevent you from attaining them.
Fundamentals of Monk Mode
Each of us has unique strengths and undeniable weaknesses.
Knowing how to tap into your strengths and accept your weaknesses will depend on factors such as your personality, motivation, and discipline.
In general, monk mode is an intentional pursuit that focuses on identifying and eliminating patterns of compulsion and mindlessness.
Are you familiar with introspection?
Introspection
the examination or observation of one’s own mental and emotional processes.
Definitions from Oxford Languages
Monk mode takes introspection a step further by practicing techniques that regulate emotional processes and reinforce new habits.
Take a look at the fundamental objectives of monk mode:
- Elevating mindfulness
- Amplifying self-awareness
- Increasing productivity and output
- Improving health and well being
- Stabilizing emotions and thoughts
- Developing constructive, self-sustainable habits
- Maintaining harmony and happiness
Collectively, each objective is interconnected and builds on each other as you progressively apply monk mode to your life.
Types of Monk Modes
There are also varying types of monk modes you can choose to use, depending on your personal goals and commitment level.
Based on my experiences, there are three types of monk modes:
- Total Isolation – This type of monk mode is similar to living at a monastery or a cabin in the woods. It requires complete withdrawal from society, technology, and relationships.
- Steady State of Solitude – This involves shorter periods of isolation, or solitude, to avoid activities that lead to overwhelming amounts of stimulation or prevent people from being in alignment with their true self.
- Selective Engagement – This is for people who don’t want to completely neglect or abandon social connections or obligations. It involves reduced participation in external affairs and selectively attending activities to maintain relationships or develop opportunities.
The type of monk mode that’s right for you will depend entirely on the routine you want to establish.
How to Create Your Monk Mode Routine
By now, you may be wondering: “Do I have to isolate myself in the mountains and turn my back on society to achieve monk mode?”
In short, no.
However, that’s not to say you shouldn’t try that either. If embarking on a spiritual-like journey to elevate mindfulness, awareness, and focus is your forte* ⎯ go for it!
*Forte
a thing at which someone excels.
Definitions from Oxford Languages
To create your own monk mode routine, start by defining what you want or expect to achieve from monk mode.
- Do you want to improve your ability to be mindful?
- Is there a specific project or goal you want to accomplish?
- Do you want to improve your health and overall wellbeing?
Next, identify any habits, relationships, and behaviors that may act as obstacles or barriers when you activate monk mode.
- Do you struggle with addiction (e.g., Sex, Drugs, Alcohol, Social Media)?
- Are your relationships with family and friends building you up or tearing you down?
- Does your sleep routine negatively affect your productivity and performance?
- Are you consuming too much unhealthy food and beverages that compromise your long-term health?
Finally, decide on the skills and behaviors that you will dedicate yourself to during monk mode:
- Daily meditation (to increase self-awareness)
- Personal development and growth (i.e., study an online course, join a workshop, read more books)
- Physical fitness (to reduce stress, promote health, and find peace).
- Purposeful isolation (i.e., reduce social outings and activities outside of important events)
- Dedicate time to work on important projects (i.e., setting a time to work with zero distractions)
It’s helpful to use a notebook and write everything out. Be sure to include a dedicated start and end date. And track your progress to ensure each day is spent actively pursuing your desired achievements.
Challenges that May Appear During Monk Mode
Whenever I enter monk mode, I find myself overwhelmed by mental noise and old desires.
- Mental noise – The humming of thoughts and feelings that surface during moments of silence while creating mental and physical agitations.
- Old desires – The impulse to act out habits and behaviors which cause monk mode to be temporarily delayed or entirely abandoned
Monk mode, if done correctly, will help to raise awareness and overcome these experiences. They are an inevitable part of the process, and the only thing you can do is remain calm, reinforce obedience, and ride it out.
Eventually, you become more mentally tough and also better at conquering many other of life’s challenges.
Eliminate distractions to increase inner peace and productivity
There are many distractions in the world.
While distractions provide a much-needed break from our busy lives, they also destroy our ability to focus, think, and get things done.
What distractions do you have, and how are they affecting you?
- Social media – do you rely on social media for a boost in self-esteem?
- Netflix – are you binge-watching movies and series while in a state of zombie-like comatosis?
- YouTube – do you ever fall down the rabbit hole of YouTube’s algorithms then 4 hours later, you regret all that time wasted?
- Friends – are your nights spent at bars sipping on booze with never-ending small talk on insignificant topics?
- Family – does your family support your dreams or discourage you from making essential life changes?
Those questions may seem harsh, but perhaps it’s time for a reality check.
Monk mode is designed to redirect your energy toward important projects and backlogged goals instead of losing using it on distracting technologies and relationships.
Overcome addictions for more inner harmony and happiness
There was likely someone in your life who said to you, “Stay in school. Don’t do drugs.”
We have been raised to believe that drugs are bad. Meanwhile, numerous countries have been slowly legalizing drugs like marijuana in recent years. Isn’t that confusing?
While occasional enjoyment may not be harmful to us, chronic usage of any drug can jeopardize our mental health and overall wellbeing.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse claims that people addicted to drugs are roughly twice as likely to suffer from mood and anxiety disorders. Drug abuse can also result in short- and long-term changes in the brain, which leads to:
- Paranoia
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Aggression
- Hallucinations
And let’s not forget other readily available addictive habits such as alcohol, gambling, cigarettes, fast food, and sex.
Addiction
the repeated involvement of a substance or activity, despite the harm it causes, because that involvement is (and may continue to be) pleasurable and/or valuable.
Definition from MentalHelp.com
The best way to overcome any addiction is to call it for what it is:
“My addiction to [ insert your addiction here ] is disrupting and destroying my ability to [ insert your goal / desire / dream here ].”
Fortunately, monk mode is a powerful tool to overcome any addictions by helping you build and sustain new, healthier habits.
Yes, it will be difficult to push through many of the emotional and physiological cravings that will tempt you to return to substances and habits that are harmful.
When you activate monk mode, you build the strength and resilience to break free from any old, unhealthy habits.
Benefits of Monk Mode
Think back to your childhood. How many years ago were you enjoying a carefree existence with social, societal, and familial rules slowly transforming you into an adult?
Five years? Ten years? More than twenty?
Time is a slippery and strange concept that’s continually passing behind us. When we’re caught up in bad habits, both time and energy get wasted on activities and experiences that cause stress, harm, and regret.
Do you really want to live your entire adult life unable to achieve your childhood goals, ambitions, and dreams? Have you already given up on the possibility that you can make them real? Why?
Monk mode is your new life hack to transform your current state of being into a productive, peaceful life that achieves greatness ⎯ which can only be defined by you and you alone.
Use monk mode to start a business, write a book, or travel the world. You are in total control of your time, actions, and outcomes when you activate monk mode to improve your life.
Yet, there are still more benefits to monk mode aside from increased productivity and personal achievements.
Improved mental clarity and focus
Monk mode relies heavily on the principles of meditation, mindfulness, and self-reflection. It allows you to convert inner energy outward instead of having outward energy affect your inner state of being.
Practice breathing techniques to help you calm the mind, eliminate ruminating thoughts and feelings, and turn overthinking into actionable outcomes.
Increased empathy and healthy relationships
Empathy is an underrated skill that allows us to improve our understanding of how other people think and feel. While our instincts want us to react to people and situations immediately, empathy gives us the ability to respond appropriately to create helpful, stress-free experiences.
In the long term, empathy helps stabilize emotions and build long-lasting, healthy relationships with other people.
Conquered addictions and bad habits
Your brain is hard-wired to repeat the same behaviors, despite the harm it may cause you or the world around you.
Monk mode helps to reset the patterns and behaviors you have created by building new skills and opportunities that liberate you from the chains of any harmful habits.
Activate Monk Mode for More Inner Peace, Productivity, and Prosperity
Monk mode is a serious commitment that forces you to confront your demons while developing the inner strength and ability to conquer them.
As my mother always told me, “you are your worst enemy.”
Stop being your own enemy and learn how to use monk mode to unleash your true potential. You have a purposeful life. So, why let anything get in the way of achieving your life’s purpose?
On your new journey of purity and focus, I hope that you will successfully overcome any obstacles that stand in the way.
If, for whatever reason, you need support to ensure you stay committed to your goals or dreams, click here and I will do my best to help you along the way.
The world isn’t supposed to make you happy. The world is supposed to challenge you and provide you with incentives to access awakening.
Eckhart Tolle
The Batavian Blood Curse
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