The system is broke, you know it, I know it, we all know it, yet we continue feeding into the very thing that is keeping us down. I’m not trying to point out something that’s hard to find, it’s more obvious than ever. What is it going to take to change? A few things, but first we must get our priorities straight.
If money is the only language they speak, then you better learn all about the language.
Priority 1: Eliminate Frivolous Expenses
Entertainment, eating out, gas, energy bills, and vacation are variables that fluctuate your checking account statement. Whatever you can cut out, cut out. The reason I’m telling you this is because we don’t really consider these expenses as draining, rather we think of them as essential. If you’re on the protest tip, which if you’re reading this blog you must be, or just a very well read hater, then you should try to pin point what is distracting you from your goals and prioritize accordingly. You need Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu subscriptions? Probably not. Can you spend less on food? Maybe. Can you run your air conditioning unit less? If you live in LA it’s probably impossible but you could. You get the point.
Priority 2: What are you investing in?
I’m saving up enough cash and dollar cost averaging into digital assets to hopefully get me ahead in the coming years. I’m investing in my self by learning how to program mobile apps, becoming part owner of an herbal supplement brand PlantsBasically, starting this blog, expanding readySketch, and starting a podcast.
I’m being very ambitious with my self because I know that investing in myself is the single most important investment I can make.
Same goes for you, what can you bring to your audience or your work place, that will allow you to become successful in your own way? Let’s face it, no one wants you to succeed at what you do, they hope you fail so that you can make room for them to succeed. Push through the criticism, the insecurity and be vulnerable.
Priority 3: What is your goal?
This has become a blog post about personal strength, but maybe that’s not a coincidence that personal strength is considered a protest. Let’s face it you can not go out and change the entire world by holding a sign on the street that reads, ‘No Justice, No Peace.’ There’s a point where you are just repeating a phrase like a wind up toy and no one cares or even understands what you mean. My goal is to build up my businesses enough to allow me to live on land that I own with friends I love in a technologically sustainable way. That means, solar passive housing, homesteading, gardening, hunting, foraging the whole nine yards. I want my expenses to be cut down far more than they are now and have more income to travel and live the life I want. How do I get there? Well I got to have a plan.
Priority 4: Make a plan
My plan involves saving, investing, building brands, and educating myself. It took a pandemic for me to understand what I needed to do to get to where I wanted to go. I call this the pandemic effect, where I was faced with my mortality, so much so that I feared for my life. I didn’t want to see my girlfriend, I didn’t want to go to work, I was a victim of the fear surrounding the virus. I’ve grown past it and learned a lot since the initial headlines, but it rattled me. This survival instinct went into full effect. For the first time in my life I realized how easy it is for it all to be taken from you. Remembering you are not infinite and that you will one day leave behind just a story of you really kicks planning into overdrive. This is when I knew that I can not rely on the grocery store, the job, the gas stations, and the almighty dollar for security. This will not last forever, and I want to be ready when it collapses.
Priority 5: Do the work
You can get all the way up to the planning stage and just give up, realizing that you just don’t have it in you to continue to do the work day after day. It’s so easy to just sit on the couch, drink a beer, tell yourself you had a hard day, and turn on the T.V. I’m sure your day was hard, but let’s face it, it wasn’t 1920’s depression hard or 1700’s witch trial hard, it’s just hard compared to what you see on television and on the internet. People live kush lives online don’t they? Influencers that never did a day of hard work making millions shaking their asses for a McDonalds endorsement or whatever. Stop comparing yourself to others, and just start a habit of doing the work necessary to get you to where you’re going.
Priority 6: Positive reinforcements
When I’m fed up with all the stuff I have to do, and I just want to sink into my bed and watch an episode of The Simpsons, instead I put on something that will reinforce my work ethic. Maybe listen to something Gary Vee has to say about putting out content, or Seth Godin on marketing, or hell, even Ram Dass on experiencing all the love around you not as separate from the world but of it. There is an endless database of positive reinforcements that live on the internet at your fingertips that will keep you motivated in what you are doing. Digest great quality content, do not feed into the “I’m feeling sorry for myself” narrative our brains want to so quickly resort to when things get tough.
I’m tired of seeing all of these large corporations being propped up by billions of tax payer dollars during economic recessions. You’d think we should’ve had our revolution already. You know why we hadn’t? We have not yet put a finger on what to do otherwise. We keep looking up to our political mothers and fathers for permission to eat, breathe and sleep. How will we be able to get our point through the heads of our theatrical political show runners? Good question, my advice, do your best to not have to rely on them. Seek alternatives to the dollar, seek alternatives to traditional health care, seek alternatives to energy consumption and finally seek alternatives to the mainstream narrative of polarity amongst citizens. We all forget the truth too easily, and that’s I Am The Walrus or “I am you, you are me, and we are all together.”
