I’m often asked how I achieved so many things, how I have been and done so much in my almost 44 years of life (as of writing this), but first people don’t believe me. I have proof of everything I am, have done, and am working on, and when I present people with the proof, I often receive, “how did you do so much?” The answers are often not what people think…

Since I was a child, I would have opinions from every corner of my life as to what I do, think, believe, feel, and I’ve learned from a very young age that people cannot wholly understand the individual side of who another person is. We can grossly generalize people, we can create ideas and formulate some semblance of who the individual is, but we cannot fully know that side of them. We can only ever come to fully know, what we know about ourselves, the human element, our humanity, and what makes us a unique species on our planet.

Therefore, any time I wanted to do something, learn something, practice something, or formed thoughts on something, outside opinions didn’t matter to me. If I wanted to do, learn, or be something, I did it and outside approval wasn’t necessary in the slightest. I didn’t care if people had an opinion on what I was doing, I was going to do it anyway and practice until I got good at it.

I grew better at the various things I did and do, by taking constructive criticism and applying it, but opinions and unconstructive criticism are and were useless to me. Art, music, writing, poetry, martial arts, spirituality, I have done and do still today, all without care for “opinions,” but with a desire for genuine constructive criticism to help me to get better.

The other aspect that helped me greatly is that I am obsessive in my studies and practice of what I want to learn and do. Judaism, within several months our sponsoring rabbi told me that I know enough and practice enough for conversion, but that they have requirements of time and an intro to Judaism course that we’d taken. Over the year and a half, I’d easily read over fifty books on all aspects of Judaism, from Orthodox, Hasidic, and Reform branches, and memorized every prayer in Hebrew (though I’m still learning the language). 

Meanwhile, over the years and decades, I have achieved some great things…

• 1 book of poetry was published, 3 occult books published (though I had them placed out of print since my conversion process), The six orbs of destiny (young adult fantasy novel) published by a large indy publisher, The naked darkness (adult horror compilation) published, Inferno of souls (adult horror compilation) self-published, published in dozens of magazines on a variety of topics.
• I’d given lectures on the occult (which I haven’t done in years) in front of 1.5 and I believe 1.2 million people online.
• I was a semi-famous Goth musician as D-Lux through 5 albums and a single.
• I hold advanced rank in Uechi-Ryu Karate-Do, Tae Kwon Do, Northern Shaolin Fist arts, Kenpo, Escrima/Kali. I am a master instructor under the world-famous martial artist Al Case, and am a Shodai Soke (original founder) of my own system Cook’s Kenpo Karate with the International Black Belt Association. I hold a blue belt with a stripe in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and am currently studying Wing Chun under Sifu Colin Ward, the Western representative of Ip Chun, Ip Man’s oldest son and heir to Ip Man’s Wing Chun. I was PA state grand champion in Tae Kwon Do with the World Tae Kwon Do Association at 13-16 years old.
• I’m a father of four children, two boys (14 and 13), and two girls (8 and 6). My proudest achievements! 
• I am a licensed therapist utilizing multiple modalities; Psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, Ericksonian hypnotherapy, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, stress management, Neurolinguistic Programming, and Strategic Life Coaching. I have just over 300 hours of fieldwork as well!
• I am a master herbalist and acupressurist.
• Became a professional artist at 40 and over the past 4 years have sold over 200 pieces of art.

So, I dismissed blanket outside opinions, took constructive criticism, and was obsessive about what I wanted to do, that’s my pyramid of achieving almost everything I’d ever done. The missing link between all of that is a genuine desire to learn and practice, half-hearted whims will get you nowhere.