Daniel Karim

SO, WHY DO YOU WRITE ABOUT THIS PSYCHOLOGY STUFF?

Many years ago I was diagnosed with F 60. 31 G. This is doctors Code for Depression. Or in much more casual words I was not happy. Since neither doctors nor psychotherapist were able to help me I took it upon myself to look for ways to hack my way to happiness. Hence this Blog is a manifesto of my own journey to my happiness.

In order to do so, I went straight to the source. I studied psychology at the University of Hamburg. I wanted to know what the f**k was wrong with me. So I started to my pursuit of deconstructing unhappiness.
I learned the behavioral patterns of the unhappy in psychiatric facilities I worked in.

And I found many commonalities to my own behavior. This for me was a gold nugget. I realized that if you would do what my patients and I did for many years the result would be a depression. Or in simpler terms, I knew what you had to do to be unhappy. This was amazing. Because I could teach people by showing them „how not do it“. Suddenly I had a calling in life and I knew I could make a profession out of it.

WHATS UP WITH THIS EXCESSIVE TRAVELING?

Did you ever wonder why people from Africa seem to laugh so wholeheartedly? Or why people in South America seem to dance more? Or why the French seem to have a better time eating with their families?
Well, I sure did, so I went there and asked them.
I traveled the world to observe and interview people from different cultures. I went to Africa, Australia, Asia and South America to find out steal-able commonalities and habits among the happiest people could find.

One of my weird habits is that I love living as a nomad. The Idea of traveling as a vagabond around the world and learning about the different paths that can lead to happiness was always compelling to me. As a lifelong student of human behavior traveling was somewhat a necessity for me.

On my journey of investigating the different expressions of human psychology I could combine my hunger for knowledge with my wanderlust.

Wayfaring around the globe in order to learn from humanities most outstanding teachers in science, spirituality, business in order to crack the code of human peak performance.

Ranging from Psychology Professors in Stanford, to Spiritual masters in India, to silicon valley entrepreneurs to fulfilled stoic fisherman in Laos.

Goal is to find habits, patterns, stories, tools and strategies that will help me become the best version of myself and share my findings with the world. And have a s**t ton of fun while doing so!

SO WHY WRITING ON A PUBLIC PLATFORM?

Most of what I write is written for myself, first and foremost.
For me happiness is progress. I’m constantly on the hunt for stuff that makes me better. Stuff that makes me better will make you better also.

So I thought I can add value by sharing actual Life Advice and Biohacks that don’tsuck.

It is my dream that I create a system around myself where I become a professional learner. That my job is to get better, to evolve and to add value to others.

By creating this platform I want to design a lifestyle for myself where my job is to learn, to interview, to read, to experiment and to start expeditions that will bring me around the world and connect me with other inspiring, hungry people.

WHAT IS YOUR BOOK CLUB ABOUT?

Here I explore and write summaries of books recommended by out of the box thinkers, entrepreneurs, visionaries, and pioneers.

I believe that when we emulate the habits of high achievers we will eventually get similar results. And in my investigation of the successful one habit popped up over and over: They read a lot!

So I asked myself: what happens if I start to read the same books as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Tony Robbins, BJ Fogg, Barack Obama and Steve Jobs?

In here you find the Books that world-class performers have recommended on podcasts like the Tim Ferris Show, the Tony Robbins Podcast, or Lewis Howes school or on my own Podcast.

From Nicolas Tesla`s favorite Books to Warren Buffets annual letters to the books that influenced Tony Robbins the most.

WHAT IS YOUR PODCAST ABOUT?

Grow is a Psychology Podcasts, in which I interview extraordinary people and pick their brains.

The main focus of my interest is the psychology of fulfillment.

In my Podcast, I portray people who have an inspiring story to share that will help you to live a rich life yourself.

Goal is it to investigate and deconstruct happiness and success and explore what it takes to evolve as a person and kick ass in life.

Who do you interview?

Each episode will feature a guest who will inspire your mind and give you a different perspective on the many paths that can lead to a fulfilled and rich life.

My definition of success varies from the conventional way.

I believe a dirtbag free climber who lives stoically in his van, in order to spend as many moments of his life doing what he loves, carrying out his purpose has as much to teach us as a millionaire silicon valley entrepreneur.

I try to dissect and extract the habits, rituals, routines, tools, patterns of extraordinary people in order to understand their psychology.

This includes their favorite books, morning routines, exercise habits, time-management tricks, nutritional philosophies, and their ideas of happiness and success.

Why did I start a Podcast?

As a lifelong student of human behavior, I am interested in gathering happy habits, success secrets, hacks, strategies that you and I can use for our daily life to grow.

At the same time, I discuss with my guest, habits, mindsets, tools and life philosophies one should stay away from.

Goal is to come up with a recipe on how to become a happy and successful person and habits and patterns that one should avoid at all cost.

I think the quality of our habits determines whether we are successful or unsuccessful. Therefore in my podcast, I try to look for gold nuggets in the treasure trove that is the human mind.

Thanks for listening and enjoy the podcast.

HOW WOULD YOU SUMMARISE YOUR PHILOSOPHY?

Growing up in Germany I was always disappointed in the lack of collaboration among the separate medical disciplines in our western health system.
Having two chronically sick parents, I always held a childish grudge against our health system because I thought it failed to provide the help its promised.

Being the rebellious idiot that I am I didn’t feel fully represented by the already existing psychological and medical disciplines.
So I thought F**k it, I create my own approach.
This approach is centered around my vision of holistic psychology.
The 4 pillars of holistic psychology are Mind, Body, Spirit, and environmental psychology.
In my opinion, a true psychologist is one who masters those four disciplines as much as possible.
Hence this blog is my journey to grow my expertise in each of those 4 disciplines.

MIND

In this segment, I’m writing about psychological mechanisms and life hacks that I have read about and tested on myself that boosted/inhibited my mental performance.

Here I mostly talk about books I have read and seminars I took that accelerated my learning process and were game changers for me. This could be for example tips and tricks to implement habits of high performers or how to get rid of habits of unhappiness.

I’m focusing here on learning new behavior that results in happiness and ways to accelerate behavioral change. This could be as simple as a presentation of a book about speed reading. Or as extreme as self-experiments which involve jumping out of airplanes to fight anxiety.

BIOHACKING

Here I’m focusing on biohacking. In this segment, I’m writing on ways to hack your way to higher physical performance. I see myself as a human guinea pig.

Via trial and error, I try stuff on myself in order to become better. This can be as simple as me testing a new diet or a new sleep mask, or it can be as crazy as me emulating Wim Hof method and taking a bath in a frozen lake. In this section,. I’m going to present nutritional experiments, gadgets, supplements or smart drugs which will enable you to hack your way to your happiness and high physical performance.

SPIRIT

Here I’m writing about ways to hack my way to spiritual health. This could be me testing different meditation practices such as Transcended Meditations or different guided meditations. Or me writing about my participation in spiritual ceremonies that include taking ayuhaska in the Colombian jungle.

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

This aspect is dedicated to find ways to hack the things that are around us. This can be for example ways and experiments to master your finances. Or it can be ways to improve relationships with your loved ones. This can be for example me reporting over a Tony Robbins workshop I participated in. Or a comfort zone experiments that includes me totally embarrassing myself in order to fight my anxiety issues.

This is a two part-answer

While other kids my age were listening to Backstreet Boys and were watching Pokemon, I was reading Nietzsche. I was a weirdo (and totally still am). My mom bombarded me with books about philosophy and psychology when I was still in my early teens. Growing up with rather limited financial resources, books were always my escape. I always wanted to live an extraordinary life and very early I believed that books were the vehicle that could transform me into the person I needed to become to live that life. Progress is my form of happiness. The more I grow the better I feel.

2. I get bored easily. This gets me into trouble a lot, but it also causes me to live what other people would consider quite the extreme life with tons of „learning experiences“( i.e., crazy, stupid f**kups on my behalf). I think I got kicked out of every educational facility I ever was in(even preschool ). I´ve traveled to over 50 countries and I had a big crisis on every continent I was on. This includes surviving the biggest hurricane in Australia’s history or outrunning a gang of angry machete-wielding jakuzas in Thailand. I´ve gone broke multiple times, I struggled with alcohol and substance abuse and lived on people’s couches. I bring this up only to point out that I think real understanding only comes from living through failures. And I’ve never shied away from failure. After all, failure is never boring.