INTRODUCTION
“In a civilization of human beings sleepwalking through the finest years of their lives, fuel the majesty of your audacity by regularly reaching for what the herd claims to be impossible.” - Robin Sharma, author
This book is designed to help you create a magic life within one year. How do I define a magic life? Well, it’s a life you absolutely love…
You’re making money doing what you love
You’re living where you want
You have a clear life purpose and written goals that light you up
You have inspiring and uplifting friends
You’re having great sex with a partner you care about
You have positive and supportive daily habits
You’re truly healthy and happy
Yep, it’s possible. This is the version of you that is happy, healthy, wealthy, and fully alive. The version of you with your inner spark intact and your soul truly happy. That is where we’re going.
Regardless of your age or place in life, a magic life is possible. Yes, it will take intentionality, effort, and consistency, but it’s within your reach. Some changes and a lot of joyous and consistent effort will be necessary. But you have a really good guide in your hands for designing the next version of yourself.
Are you in?
After spending the last 20 years learning, achieving, messing up, exploring the edges of personal growth and transformation, and building communities of purpose-driven leaders, I’m deeply committed to helping people actually create magic lives for themselves.
When I was 27 two things happened to me that changed my life forever.
I sold the marketing software company, iContact, that I’d spent 10 years building for $169M.
My mom passed away from Stage 4 Glioblastoma brain cancer.
Suddenly, I had all the money I needed. But no amount of money could keep my mom alive. I resisted her death, creating lots of needless suffering in me and kicking off lots of inner questioning of the meaning of life. For once, I didn’t feel in control of what happened.
This dark night of the soul made me realize that life is short and catalyzed me into a twelve year journey to find true inner happiness and optimal health. I followed my mom’s dying advice. She told me, “Ryan, always follow your bliss.”
After she passed, I went to Harvard Business School for an MBA and then used my part of the proceeds from the sale of iContact to fund a 12 year adventure across 40 countries, leading to life changing experiences and magical encounters in California, India, Bali, Thailand, and Costa Rica.
Along the way, I discovered Burning Man, ayahuasca, vipassana, tantra, open relating, biohacking, purpose-driven leadership, the formula of success, and a new philosophy of joyous and simple living -- and created a magical family of my own.
I also created Hive.org, a global community of purpose-driven leaders with 3,600 alumni in 135 countries. So far we’ve put on purpose workshops in 15 countries -- and are planning to expand further in 2024. I love teaching people how to discover their purpose, write down their goals, create the right habit stacks, build cash flowing engines doing what they love, and create the life of their dreams.
Today, I live in Nosara, Costa Rica, a small beachside surf and yoga town, with my wife Morgan, young son Apollo, and close friends. We’re living the life of our dreams. We are truly happy. We figured out some of the secrets to lasting health, wealth, happiness, and presence -- and we want to share them with you.
So yes, Magic Year is everything I learned during the last 20 years of my life on this journey of achievement and exploration -- packaged into a twelve step structure designed to help anyone create the life of their dreams.
If you apply what’s in this book and do the action items inside -- you can design the life you’ve always been dreaming of and be well on the path toward making it real one year from today.
To get there, we will cover these topics in a lot of depth: Purpose, Goals, Habits, People, Happiness, Health, Money, Community, Love, Sex, Family, and Awakening. If you choose to follow the premise of the book -- of actually doing all the action items and implementing the habit stacks within, you can shift a lot in the next year.
There are some edgy topics in this book that aren’t in most books on personal growth -- topics like tantra, open relating, community living, and medicine work. Enjoy these sections. I hope they will give you a guide to some of the more hidden parts of transformation work.
There are exactly 111 action items in this book. If you actually do all 111 of them, you will undoubtedly change your life and be on the path to creating the life of your dreams. Yes, you do have to do the action items inside to create the change you seek. You can’t just passively read and expect transformation. I challenge you to do every single one and see what happens.
And I challenge you to join our online course at www.magicyear.com for added community, coaching, workbooks, accountability, and support (and invites to our events!).
So think of Magic Year as your personal guide to creating the life of your dreams in every single aspect of living. At the beginning of each chapter you’ll find the key concepts and definitions for that chapter. At the end of each chapter (starting with the Purpose Chapter), you’ll find an implementation guide that recaps the action items.
Now, let’s take a moment to anchor into your own mind the future vision of you. This is called advance visualization.
Imagine for a moment the upgraded version of yourself a year from today, the version that becomes possible after applying the knowledge from this book.
Envision a fully integrated, healthy, healed, fit, confident, abundant, and relaxed version of yourself. Imagine a happier, more content you, adept at flowing with the ups and downs of life and embracing the lessons stemming from challenges. Imagine yourself with a complete life reboot. Yes, imagine the version of yourself who:
Spent 10 days at a Vipassana silent meditation retreat (visit dhamma.org to schedule yours), emerging with a clearer and happier mind.
Finally decided to shed those extra 25 pounds that’s been hanging around -- either through diet and daily exercise or a combination of diet, daily exercise, and new clinically proven appetite suppressants like Tirzepatide or Semaglutide.
Committed to healing your central nervous system, prioritizing frequent digital detoxes by taking time away from your phone and immersing yourself in nature for at least three days every quarter, and scheduling weekly full-body massages and cranial sacral sessions.
Limited television and social media use to two hours per week, redirecting the extra time towards exercising, reading, and socializing with family and friends and building a cash flowing creative project.
Took a couple weeks out of your life to sit with the Ayahuasca plant medicine in Costa Rica or Peru and was able to heal childhood trauma and overcome the fear of death.
Chose to explore beautiful, lower-cost places such as Thailand, Bali, and Costa Rica, and then actually moved to a community of inspiring individuals (read the Community chapter for more on this!).
Overcame PTSD and anxiety through daily breathing practices and by working with a practitioner who utilized cutting edge entheogenic therapeutics like ketamine, psilocybin, or MDMA during guided sessions -- the same therapeutics that have been shown to heal PTSD in military veterans.
Realized life is short and proactively planned incredible adventures with your family and friends every six months.
Left the job you dreaded and decided to actually make money doing something you truly enjoyed. I’ll show you how to do that while actually earning more every month -- either via a remote job or by building a business that turns into a passive cash flow engine that makes you money while you sleep.
Took the time to write down your goals, create a written purpose, get an accountability coach, and then take consistent action toward generating massive results in your life every week for a year.
Decided to hire a sex coach (gasp!) and invite them into the bedroom to help you uplevel your sex life with your partner(s) and bring you to new heights of pleasure, presence, confidence, and awakening.
Realized that being happy is a relatively simple by-product of daily exercise, not eating processed foods, minimizing sugar and alcohol, installing your miracle morning routine, learning to not worry by letting go of obsessing about control, spending lots of time with people you care about, and choosing to be unconditionally happy.
These are merely a few examples of the changes you can make and actions you can undertake inspired by this book. This version of yourself is attainable, it truly is.
No matter your geography, income, or education -- this book works when applied. Through my writing (or through the online video course version of this book at www.magicyear.com), let us be your personal coach for the next year of your life through this book and course. We promise to be kind and friendly AND also take a stand for your potential and hold you to your highest vision of yourself.
Yes, we’re looking to create a version of you that is:
Happy
Healthy
Wealthy
Fully Alive
So yes, if you implement the action items in this book, you’re going to go through a massive life upgrade in the next year. The path won't always be linear, but once you commit and initiate action, you'll find the universe moving with you.
This book is designed to help you create an inspiring vision for the next phase of your life, escape from the cultural conditioning matrix of wherever you live, subscribe instead to a positive and uplifting information diet, surround yourself with interesting, smart, motivated, healthy, and kind people, create what really matters to you – and live a life true to yourself and your dreams.
So whether you want to upgrade every area of your life -- or simply improve a few elements -- this is a comprehensive and in-depth guide. Together, let’s create an upgraded life for yourself—a life you deeply love and in which you’re thriving in all areas.
As you implement this book, send me the stories of what happens, and share with the world what you learn. Post about it, share about it, and tell your friends about the journey that you’re going through. Send stories to ryan@magicyear.com.
Drumroll please… magic friends… here’s (nearly) everything I’ve learned over the last 20 years about building a life of meaning, purpose, joy, pleasure, contribution, and magic. I hope you enjoy it!
Welcome to the start of your upgrade process and your magic life. Welcome to a catalyst in your awakening process, and welcome to a book that might just change your life. Enjoy the adventure. Let’s jump in.
Yours in Purpose,
Ryan P. Allis
Nosara, Costa Rica
August 14, 2023
P.S. - Magic Year is designed as both a book and a course. If you want to actually DO the course as you read the book, go to www.magicyear.com. The online course provides videos, content, assignments, templates, community calls, accountability, coaching, and more. It’s for the people who are committed to personal growth and actually transforming your life in the next 12 months!
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