The Conflict
What is the irony, the conflict and the ultimate myth that no one talks about?
It is:
(1) If you want to figure out how to do something well, as long as you put efforts and time into the right direction, you can always figure it out and do it well.
(2) However, if you just want to make money, you won't be able to make it by any means, and the more ways you think of, the less likely you will be able to make it.
There is a fine difference between the two.
In (1), the focus and the goal is to figure out how to do something well, really well. To be the expert, to be the go-to person, to establish yourself in the relevant field.
You could be starting as a total novice - that doesn't matter.
As long as you continuously and commit to putting efforts and time into the right direction, you can always figure it out and do it well. And when you do, money flows to you easily and abundantly without you chasing after it. Money becomes the side effect and the consequences in this scenario.
In (2), the focus and the goal is to make money, the means of how you are going to do it is to figure out how to do something.
Since the goal is to make money, you may not care how well you figure out something, as long as you make some money from it. That leads to short term vision and quick money pursuit.
Chances are you won't get very well in your craft and field because when the focus is money and not figuring it out, patience is lacking. Without patience, we would find it hard to persist, hard to be consistent. And without persistence and consistency, trust is harder to build and value accumulation would be thin, which means monetisation would also be harder.
That is why, usually in the case where the focus and the goal is to make money, you won't be able to make it by any means, and the more ways you think of, the less likely you will be able to make it.
How to make sure that you fall within (1) and not fall trap to (2)?
There are 3 ways that I’ve identified (feel free to share your way with me):
No. 1 Goal setting
(2) could be really enticing because of the dollar sign $.
To focus on figure out how to do something well, really well, you need to know what are you doing.
Knowing what are you doing is about setting goal - not the cheesy SMART goal that we keep forgetting, but the real goal that is granular, that is actionable, that is achievable.
In Profitable Learner, I shared how to set such goal. There are 4 criteria.
Setting such goal is perhaps the most important step before we do anything else, before we start learning anything, before we start implementing any plan.
Without such establishment of a granular, actionable, achievable goal, there is no settling of the heart.
Settling of the heart is the ultimate secret to any achievement, whatever you want to be or have in life. Nothing can be achieved without first settling the heart.
Settling of the heart means that we know what are we doing, so that we are not jumping from one wish to another, so that we are not (or less) influenced by others, so that we have higher resistance to the noise around us, so that we are immune to the objections, so that we are not induced by the quick wins or quick money (falling trap to short term vision), so that we are patient enough to persist and be consistent to move forward and get the results.
No. 2 Look within
There is no external answers available. You can only find the answer by looking inside.
Good news is although there is no exact answers, there are many references around us. There are more than 100 ways to achieve what we want to achieve. Those different paths by various people provide the perfect references, case studies and inspirations for us.
We don't need to take their paths, their paths may not be suitable or applicable to us. How to choose the path for us? By knowing ourselves and looking within.
How to know ourselves and look inside? Again, I shared the system in Profitable Learner. Very briefly, we need to ask the right questions to ourselves.
The majority of the crowd live life based on the expectation of the society and others. What's lacking is knowing what they really want or what they can do. That's why many have "mid-life crisis" whereby one day we wake up and realised that we are living life on other people's terms.
The cure and solution to mid-life crisis is to know ourselves and know what we actually want and can do with our life, which is also our research topic and mission at this particular stage of life where we are.
No. 3 Say no
It's hard to say no, especially when we are offered a significant of money, or when we have an easy option.
E.g.
you already know that you want to grow the business, but you are offered multi-6 figures for a job role. If you take the job, you won't be able to have the time and energy to grow the business. There is always trade off in life. And it can be hard to say no to significant amount of money that is just in front of you, just waiting for you to take it.
If you have looked inside and set the granular, actionable, achievable goal to settle the heart, it would make it easier to say no.
E.g.
Another example: you have 2 options to learn AI -
option 1: involves you practice and apply what you learn daily (which requires more thinking and therefore could consume more energy),
option 2: you pay to learn in an online course and you just sit there and listen, perhaps take some notes but still it's relatively easier (requires less thinking and therefore could be more energy-saving)
Option 2 is easier because you have a more passive role, but doing things that are easier could also mean that you are going to receive less in return and face more competition (because most people would opt for the easier and less-thinking option).
Saying no to the easier option can be difficult, especially if you have short term vision and would like to make money as soon as possible.
Again, if you have looked inside and set the granular, actionable, achievable goal to settle the heart, it would make it easier to say no.
But generally it's about saying no to the easy money and easy options that can ensure that you are focusing on figuring out how to do something well (which will reward you of abundant money as a result), rather than the short term money (which you have to actively chase).
In summary,
- If you want to figure out how to do something well, as long as you put efforts and time into the right direction, you can always figure it out and do it well. However, if you just want to make money, you won’t be able to make it by any means, and the more ways you think of, the less likely you will be able to make it.
- To make sure our intention has not gone astray, there are 3 ways:
(1) goal setting - to settle the heart (the shiny object syndrome cure)
(2) look within - to identify the right and best path for us (the mid-life crisis cure)
(3) say no - to easy money and easy option
To your success,
Connie
