Improvement Pill here – my close friends and family have always told me that I thought
about things differently.
So today I want to share with you, 10 of my most unique ideas that I've either come across
or that I've personally come up with.
These are all ideas that have had a drastic impact on my life – and I hope that some
of them leave an impact on yours as well.
With that being said let's begin.
Idea #1 – You Can Max Out Parkinson's Law - Parkinson's Law states that “work expands
so as to fill the time available for it's completion” which basically means the amount
of time you think you have to complete something is how long it'll end up taking you to complete
that thing.
So if you have a project due in 3 months.
You'll probably end up taking 3 months to finish it.
Well it's more like you'll do almost nothing for 2 and a half months and then cram it all
in during the last couple of weeks.
This same thing can be applied to all your dreams and ambitions in life.
To all the things on your bucket list.
If you think you have decades and decades to live then chances are it'll take you decades
before you start taking action to truly chase after these dreams.
Luckily for me – I figured out a way to hack Parkinson's law.
See I've always been a pretty paranoid person.
To the point where every time I go on a plane, I vividly imagine it crashing.
Everytime I say goodbye to my friends and family to head off to my next adventure – I
will always say something along the lines of, “hey if this is the last time I see
you just remember that I always treasured our relationship.”
Now some of you might think that this is a bad thing.
For someone to be this negative all the time.
But I don't feel that way.
The fact that I will die doesn't make me cower in a corner somewhere.
I understand that it's unavoidable – which makes me want to experience as much of the
world as possible before my time is up.
And Because I feel like I don't have much time left.
– it causes me to take action every single day.
That's how you max out parkinson's law.
Idea #2 Everything Is A Gamble – I remember when I first dropped out of college, my friends
and family said...what are you doing?
You're taking such a huge risk.
But what they failed to realize is that everything has risk – staying in college is just as
much of a gamble as dropping out.
And when I think about it – it's actually the riskier bet.
See I was betting 4 years of your life and what would have been 60,000$ to pay for the
housing and tuition.
If the bet worked out I would have a job that paid around 60,000$ which is only really like
45,000$ after taxes.
Now assuming I spent as little as possible and saved every penny I could, I would probably
be able to save 20,000$ a year.
Which meant an additional 3 years to pay off my debt.
So in reality I'm actually betting 7 years of my life for a job that might eventually
pay me 80,000$ in the future if I work hard enough and rise through the ranks of the company.
And remember this bet isn't even guaranteed.
There was a chance that I didn't get hired that fast, a chance that the economy experienced
some sort of recession, or any number of things.
And if I didn't manage to get a decent high paying job right out of college.
I would have been left with a debt that would have shackled me like a slave for close to
a decade.
On the other hand – if I dropped out to start a business – it would only cost me
a couple hundred bucks and 3 months of time before I would have been able to start making
money.
If the bet worked out I had the potential to make just as much money as a normal job
with the possibility that I could make significantly more.
And if the bet didn't work out I would have lost close to nothing.
I would not be in debt – and I would have the ability try again.
In fact, I could have started 10 different businesses in the same amount of time someone
takes to finish 1 degree.
Which drastically increases my chances of one of them being a success.
I would have also had the option to pivot to a trade school which only requires 2 years
of time and much less money.
Now that I've laid all of this out on the table – all of a sudden taking the “safe”
route doesn't seem that safe anymore does it?
Just remember You are always gambling - No matter what choice you're making.
So make sure to take some time and look at what you're actually betting on – look at
all the pros and cons.
Only then will you start winning more.
Idea #3 – Buff Yourself With Rituals – have you ever played a video game where you can
buff yourself?
Where you can make your character move faster or hit stronger – all by chanting a spell
or consuming a special object?
Well the same thing can be done in real life with rituals.
See the week before every New Years – I will try to do 100 Free Coaching calls and
then on New Years Eve I will fast for the entire day and spend the large majority of
my free time thinking about what I want to do the next year.
This is a ritual that I made up and one that I've been sticking to for the past 3 years.
And the reason I do this – is because I believe it helps me to end the year on a good
note and I believe that it cleanses my mind so I can figure out exactly what I should
focus on for the next year.
When you create a ritual that you believe in and stick to it – you're essentially
casting a spell on yourself.
A spell that can get you into a certain state of mind.
Think of it as a tool you can use to prepare yourself for something important.
That's why so many famous athletes have rituals of their own that they do before their game
starts.
They want that extra speed, that extra confidence, that extra whatever they believe their ritual
blesses them with.
So that they can gain that extra edge and win.
Come up with your own ritual – and use it to power yourself up before battle.
Idea #4: We're All Actors – I find it very interesting when people say just be yourself.
Because who are we really?
If you think about it the person you are now is probably very different from the person
you were 10 years ago.
And to take it even further – we don't usually act the same way around different groups of
people.
Right?
Do you speak to your parents the same way you speak to your best friend or the way you
speak to your significant other?
Probably not.
And that's because we are actors.
We play different roles depending on which movie set that we're on.
The current version of you is just a role that you've been playing for a while.
And the truth of the matter is you COULD change it up if you so desired.
All you would have to do is go onto a different movie set.
Which basically means go somewhere new – somewhere outside of your comfort zone.
Where there are no expectations from the environment for the old you.
And more importantly where there is no one around you speaking to you as if you were
the old character that you used to play.
The reason it's hard to grow as a person - when you're with people that have known you for
a long time is because this new character that you're trying to play, just doesn't make
sense to them.
If we were watching Titanic and all of a sudden Leonardo Dicaprio playing Jack started acting
like Leonardo Dicaprio from Wolf Of Wall Street of course people would resist and respond
negatively.
So if you want to grow as a person and discover who you really are - go to completely different
movie sets and experiment with different versions of yourself.
Once you do – you'll start to realize what personality traits you truly enjoy.
And then you can create a version of yourself that you're proud of.
And once you get comfortable playing this version – you can return to your old environments
as the new and improved you.
Idea #5: Lower The Bar - Often times, we'll get overly excited and raise the bar too high.
We'll tell ourselves that we're going to build all these new habits and do all these great
things starting tomorrow.
And we both know how THAT tends to plays out.
I believe it's a better strategy to lower the bar – to the point where you're basically
just aiming to show up to do your work.
And the reason this is a good idea is because you'll have an easier time fighting procrastination
when the task seems easy.
You see - procrastination is mostly an emotional thing – when our work seems too big and
scary, we tend to turn to something more pleasant – like playing on our phone.
You can avoid all of this by setting the bar so ridiculously low that barely any negative
emotions can even occur.
Just take a second and think about opening up your laptop and writing just one sentence.
Now compare that to the idea of writing an entire 3 page paper.
There's a huge difference right?
When you lower the bar – and stick to it – you will also experience a boost in confidence.
As you'll start to believe that you are someone who can get things done.
And this will make it easier for you to overcome procrastination for bigger tasks down the
line.
The point – if you're just starting out.
Don't go so hard on yourself, lower the bar and just focus on showing up.
I hope you guys enjoyed the 5 ideas I presented in today's video.
Let me know which ones stood out to you – which ones you agree with or disagree with In the
comments down below.
I'll be going over the other 5 in a future video, so make sure you hit that bell icon
and stay tuned.
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Recently I've been listening to the 4th turning by Neil Howe and William Strauss.
It is a very interesting book that claims to be able to predict the future by looking
at the generational cycles of us humans in history.
It's crazy how accurate it's been so far – and it's definitely something that will open your
eyes to how the world works.
SO I highly recommend it.
Besides that guys stay tuned!