How to Accomplish Big Things, Even When You Feel Small
unstoppable.me
unstoppable.me
"I replaced all TV time with reading time. TV is full of stories of murder, betrayal, and pain. It’s riveting, but it also messes with your mind. Once I figured this out, I started going to the library every day instead of watching TV."
This part resonated with me and I want to give it a shot. I default to TV when I have nothing to do, but I recognize how passive and lazy it is. You basically outsource your thinking for a couple hours a day. And I hadn't thought about how the stories we watch might be subconsciously changing the way we think.
I can watch Bon Apetit videos but until I start actually making desserts in my spare time, I won't actually be able to frost a cake
- Finished 3 years qualification in record time - Doubled my salary - Managed to complete 3 profitable side projects - Improved my software development skills tenfold - and more...
In the process, I lost friends. I used to host 300+ people parties. I doubt I can be able to bring together 20 people in one place for a party.
You can be a couch potato and have zero friends too.
It mainly comes down to: I no longer have a default activity to when bored, so I fill the time with other, more engaging/deliberate, tasks.
Literally almost every evening after supper, we go to the bookstore until they close. Buy something from the cafe, and then just sit and read. Chit chat with the other regulars now and again. It's a nice low-key way to get out of the house.
> I default to TV when I have nothing to do
All of us have different defaults and if you replace that with something better, you will probably be happy with the change.
I'm actually trying to fit a little more TV in my life.
Super profitable if you're a sci-fi fan.
Visual media is actually quite rich, even if it's true that the subject matter isn't always wholesome. What's important is not consuming passively unless you mean to, and for your active engagement to be something you can fold meaningfully into your overall experience of life.
Great story, but the writing has a very new age, 'will a new reality into existence' Tim Ferris productivity porn vibe to it, which makes me just a little cautious.
EDIT: added after scribing the above:
Some Googling reveals:
"Over the last decade, Jon helped build three of the most popular blogs in the world, Copy Blogger, KISSmetrics, and Boost Blog Traffic (now Smart Blogger). Collectively, they have garnered over 200 million page views, earning over $50 million in revenue.
His main passion is Smart Blogger (fomerly Boost Blog Traffic) of which he is founder and CEO."
He seems to make money from devising traffic increase strategies for blogs and training courses for bloggers (at least that is what I could make out)
EDIT: see edit in the GP post. I think 'magazine' means 'blog'.
The most regrettable thing about Tim Ferris is his popularity essentially annihilated discoverability for a great science writer with essentially the same name.
Yet, I'd like to post a warning here. Putting the metaphoric gun to your head, as the article suggests, may sometimes be the only feasible option, but it can also lead to psychological problems later on. Not everything works better with force. In fact, there are things that require the opposite. It's easy to unlearn that when you put yourself under constant force and pressure, and your success becomes based on that solely.
Graven on stone of the resting place of Brandon Lee.
Part of mine is that I've had 3 bosses straight up steal money from me over the years. So the fear/pain of getting screwed by another boss is greater than the pain of starting a company.
Apart from that, I don't know about you, but I came to the realization of how short life is awhile back. You have 70 or so years to do your thing, then that's it. You're dead. For me at least, the pain of dying and not having done anything with my life, is more than the short-term pain of working on your dream.
So I don't know man. I'd say it's more what do you want out of life vs self imposing pressure.
I really enjoyed this piece - highly recommended.
I often credit my current position in life to watching Fight Club with a friend when I was 16 and forming my views on the broader world and how I would fit into it.
"Working jobs we hate to buy shit we don't need" was a big one for me.
Also "You're not your job. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your f-ing khakis."
"First you have to give up. You have to know, not fear, that someday you're going to die." and the Raymond K Hessel thing from the article. You only have a limited amount of time and there's no point wasting it waiting for "someday".
There's just a very real current of minimalism and intentionality underneath the absurdity.
For a show about how work will not save you from the emptiness inside, it really motivates you. Guess it's better to be sad and rich then just sad
The way I see it, the first half asked questions and explored various problems in society that many of us see and experience. It was cathartic and motivational.
But the second half was more of a warning. If we can't replace the things we reject with something 'greater', the result is ugly.
I credit Fight Club for helping me turn to various life philosophies (stoicism among them, and in particular Buddhism) rather than hedonistic abandon or angry nihilism, or something like utopian socialism, because I sure as hell didn't want things in my life to become some variation of the second half of the movie.
1. No smartphones
2. No internet
3. No social media
4. The news came maybe once a week (correct me if I'm wrong)
5. No TV or movies
6. If you wanted to be entertained, you would have to physically go somewhere
7. Otherwise, you would have to create your own entertainment yourself - like playing an instrument or writing something
8. No government. Government restricts and funnel much of what we do now. Responsibilities ment freedom because there was no one to do it for you and no one to tell you not to.
We need distractions because if we didnt have them there would be nothing for us to do. America has created subsistence of mediocrity. No way to win or lose. You dont get to have a say in your society because its not yours.
Remember to vote because this is the only chance you get to effect your surroundings that the government allows without tons of red tape. And we know that it really doesnt matter that much. Where's the border wall? What democrat would really change wallstreet banking and think of the little people?
Government will be out of our way when we stop relying on politicians to act. I dont care what side you are on. Our politicians are thin veils to give the rich access to powers that the constitution would not normally grant.
Besides, we live in an innovators paradise, where thanks to the cloud you can build whatever you want for peanuts and there are VC's lining up to fund the next big idea. Starting a business is not hard, it's staying in business that's the hard part.
Washington was a surveyor, working on the fronteer at 13.
Does anyone think _she_ thought "hey why don't I accomplish big things" or "what do I need to sacrifice to get to where I want"? No? Was sitting in a library turning pages of books for someone part of her life ambition plan?
Accomplishing big things sometimes is getting a lot of help from your family and friends. They're not telling themselves Fight Club quotes as they're lending you money, talking you off the ledge or making you your favorite dinner every Sunday. They do it because it's the easiest thing in the world.
Maybe it's the most valuable too, even though no one, like, actually writes about it.
Judging only the article however - what always lacks in my opinion in those kind of motivational articles is an approach to achieving minor, everyday goals. Not all of us have a desire to "threaten themselves with a gun" to achieve a goal - sometimes we just want to do something but nor think about it every second of our lives.
I still fail, a lot, but I try to keep the phrase, "build the brain you wish you had" a lot. Which is really just synonymous with building habits, but there's something more physical about influencing your brain.
Recently, I stumbled on a website called Focusmate and I think this is going to help me in the long run.
I had a student in one of my software engineering classes with a similar disability, a few years after I dropped out I found he developed a VR game and Playstation bought it!
Sometimes I wish I had the same willpower.
It's not about willpower.
Uh... wow. I've got my complaints about disabled people being used as Inspiration Porn, but throwing that in really makes it clear how much this piece is an insult to the disability community.
Grats to him for being in a situation where his disability didn't get in the way of what he's talented at, but not everyone is so lucky. And "avoid minorities" is... really shitty advice, no matter how you phrase it. Why not just focus on the groups he did join, instead?
Hard work, an appetite for risk and resilience are required for success. But they are in no way a guarantee.
Instead of taking an all or nothing mindset, you can choose to invest in yourself over the long term. Financial investments, education. Maybe this won't be enough to achieve your goals, and you'll still live with regret. And maybe you'll die before you reap the benefits. Or maybe this will be enough for you.
Who knows. The only certainty is death. Doing something is better than nothing.
If you don't do any of these then you are guaranteed to fail. These things give you a better chance of success.
Nothing is guaranteed here it's that kind of planet/universe. Maybe when you are designing the next planet or universe have no laws of probability always have guarantees, but then you will miss out on all the chance encounters and surprises.
Too little and we don't grow. Too much and we break. Do something uncomfortable. Fail a few times. That will make you more resilient.