Nine Powerful Life Lessons I’ll Be Implementing In 2023 To 10x My Output.
Here’s how you can use them to achieve your most ambitious goals.
Author’s own image
Talk is cheap. Goals are disposable.
An article by Forbes predicts that 80% of your New Year Resolutions will be dead by the end of February.
To paraphrase Mike Tyson,
“Everyone’s got a goal until the reality of action hits them in the face.”
Most goals are nothing more than mental masturbation. Great while you’re doing it but ultimately detracts from achieving anything meaningful.
I’ve stopped making yearly goals and instead opted for creating quarterly ‘experiments’ that help provide valuable feedback for the direction I should move in.
These experiments are small, bounded and cost-effective.
More importantly, I learn whether I actually enjoy working towards this outcome and can make adjustments along the way. Not to mention how fun it can be.
#1: Design your life for your own psychology
I’ve finally accepted who I am.
I don’t like cleaning, cooking, or doing many mundane life tasks. So I pay to outsource everything.
My family and friends look at my life and think that I am wasting my money.
Sure I could do all those things myself, but that takes away from the areas of my life where I add real value — writing, winning clients, and content creation.
Once you realize that designing your life is not about spreadsheets or to-do lists but rather managing your dopamine and serotonin, you can start making real progress toward creating your ideal life.
Takeaway: plan for your personality, not society’s expectations of you.
#2: More than 90% of decisions in your life are reversible.
Aside from:
Getting someone pregnant
Addiction of any kind
Ending up in prison
Destroying your reputation
Most major life decisions can be reversed. Even marriage.
What does this mean for you? You can stop:
Overthinking,
Waiting for perfection
Procrastinating
These are the biggest time killers.
Takeaway: If what you’re deciding can be reversed, what are you worrying about?
#3: You can figure out most problems with 1 hour of YouTube or Google.
If you can’t solve most of your problems through the internet, you’ve got bigger problems.
I am not saying you should diagnose your medical conditions via YouTube, that would be a disaster.
The information to solve your problem is out there, you just lack the motivation to solve it.
Takeaway: Before you pay someone for advice, see if you can solve 80% of the problem yourself.
#4: Life is mostly permissionless.
Gatekeepers only exist in your mind.
With the internet, you have permissionless leverage at your fingertips. There are no rules. You don’t need anyone’s approval.
Asking for permission is fear disguised as a question.
I never asked anyone if I could start my own business. I simply saw a gap in the market, designed a solution, and started winning work with clients.
Simple but not easy.
All the other stuff — website, logo, etc — came after I already validated my value proposition and skillset.
If you’ve got an idea, start creating content on a platform.
All you can lose is a bit of time but you can learn whether you actually enjoy it.
Takeaway: Don’t wait for permission. You might be waiting for your whole only to realize the only person stopping you was you.
#5: You will be judged regardless of what you do.
The #1 reason why people tell me they are hesitant to put themself out there is due to the expectations and judgment of friends and family.
They are afraid of what they will think.
Since I started creating content online, I have learned one valuable lesson:
Most people don’t care.
They are too wrapped up in their own lives and the problems they have to care about you.
Most of the judgment I’ve had from family and friends has overwhelmingly been positive.
Sure, I might get teased every now and then. But I am at the stage now where people who once teased me are now asking how I did it.
This has happened to me multiple times in my journey.
Takeaway: At the end of your life, people are going to judge you no matter what you do. So you’re better off being judged for something you love doing.
#6: Stop taking free advice
Free advice is expensive.
The irony is that people who dispense the most advice are usually the ones who have done the least with their lives.
This year, I started building a house as well as starting my own business.
These two topics are where people feel the most entitled to give you advice.
The percentage of people who gave me ‘advice’ having neither built a house or started a business?
Close to zero.
I can’t stand people who give advice. I either ignore it or change the topic.
Takeaway: I only take advice from people who have achieved what I want to achieve.
#7: Look at what other people are doing and then do the opposite
Extraordinary results rarely come from living an average life.
I am at the age where 80% of people are either buying a house, getting married, or having kids. Or doing all three.
Average begets average.
If you want to live an extraordinary life, your life can’t be normal.
To do something different, you need to be different.
Takeaway: Live like most people won’t so you can achieve what most people can’t.
#8: What got you here, won’t get you there.
Each new stage of life requires a new version of you.
When I started my consulting business, I couldn’t use my mindset and experience as an employee to build and grow my company.
I had to evolve. I needed a new way of thinking. I had to change my relationship with risk. I had to get off the addiction of a salary.
When people set goals, they forget to think about the type of person they need to become, so they simply fall back to who they were before.
Takeaway: Evolve or repeat.
#9: You might have to leave some people behind
When you’re committed to self-development, you’ll quickly realize most people aren’t.
And those who might be are growing at a different rate than you. In the beginning, this won’t be an issue. But as the gap gets bigger and bigger, the gap starts to become noticeable. Eventually, you can’t ignore it.
I’ve had this issue with friends and mentors of mine. I’ve aggressively continued to grow while they have settled for a certain station in life. There is nothing wrong with that and I don’t hold it against them.
But you need to continually upgrade your circle if you want to keep growing.
Takeaway: Let go or be dragged.
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