Set Yourself Up For Success in 2021
I’m sure every man reading this has an audacious goal in his mind that he is working to bring into fruition.
In fact, I demand that you decide on something you would like to
Do
Be
or Have,
no matter how ridiculous or impossible it may seem right now, or even how small. Small goals matter to.
I want a community of men around me who are interested in building.
What else are you going to do in your time on this Earth?
Once you have identified a goal that you to reach, be it in business, with women, your body, or something else, the most effective action you can take after that is to set yourself up for success. You accomplish this by doing everything in your power to make it EASY for you to achieve your goal.
The worst thing you can do is cock block yourself by setting up unnecessary obstacles in front of the thing you want, especially in the beginning.
If you want a type of success you’ve never had before, it’s going to be hard at first already. Help yourself by smoothing the path towards what you want, as much as possible.
This advice seems to fly in the face of Gary Vaynerchuk screaming expletives, imploring you to “WORK YOUR FUCKING FACE OFF”, but it’s meant as a complement to such advice, not as a replacement for it.
Screaming “fuck” every five seconds is Vaynerchuk’s brand. It’s made him very successful and recognizable. I’m not here to disparage another man getting his money.
The reality is that Vaynerchuk’s advice, along with that of whatever retired Navy SEAL is hot this week, is meant to be entertaining, and get clicks on social media. It’s not gospel on how to be effective in real life.
More than likely, trying to accomplish some massive goal without breaking it down into smaller steps, and optimizing your chances EVERY WAY YOU CAN will only frustrate and discourage you.
I’m not telling you not to “work your face off”.
As far as I can tell, success in any endeavor demands a huge commitment of time, whether that’s time playing guitar, writing a novel, building a business, or getting good with women.
You have to invest time see what will fly, and what won’t. The process is:
try,
fail,
try again,
fail,
learn,
improve.
This is why the average age of the successful startup founder in Silicon Valley is 45. It takes more than 25 years for the average man to learn enough, and fail enough previous times, to execute a business.
This is also why mid-30s is a man’s prime with women. He needs to learn what works and what doesn’t. A man can read books, buy courses, watch hours of YouTube videos- and I suggest you do- but only time at the wheel, reading women’s reactions when you try different techniques, will show you what works, and what doesn’t, for you.
Back to making things easy.
Give yourself the best chance at success by removing obstacles that would waste time.
This is especially important if your goal is to remove, or create, a new set of habits. Any major shift in your life will require many tiny little changes in habits and how you spend your time.
Hire a Coach
Even Mike Tyson, the “baddest man on the planet”, Heavyweight Champion of the World, and feared KO artist, openly admitted that he would have been nothing without the instruction of his legendary coach, Cus D’Amato.
Tyson was naturally blessed with speed, power, and “Fight IQ”, but he needed guidance to get to the top of his game.
You are probably not as gifted at your chosen profession as Mike Tyson was at boxing, and even if you are, hiring a coach, mentor, or trainer will get you to your goals quicker.
“Isn’t your fucking time worth dropping your ego, hiring a coach, and getting some help?” -Wes Watson
1A. Read the best books on your topic.
Reading a book is getting into the mind of the most successful men who ever lived.
Remove Distractions
I heard a nutrition coach preach “Food in the house is food in your mouth”. The time to resist a temptation is BEFORE you even feel it. In this case, resisting the pint of ice cream in the store aisle is easier than resisting it all 11pm when you want a snack before bed. (Best of both worlds, just buy a small container instead of a whole pint. You can fit almost anything into your macros if you do it right.)
Make a schedule.
You’ll never “get around” to doing anything.
Even if it’s something I ENJOY doing, like working out, I never do it if I don’t MAKE time, scheduling a time slot to complete the task. I love weight training. Writing is a cathartic release, but I’ll never get any of these important tasks done unless I write down a time on my calendar, or set a reminder on my phone, and stick to it. The best time to do anything is first thing in the morning.
Don’t tell anyone your goals.
As Lil Wayne sagely advised, “Real Gs move in silence like lasagna”. Don’t tell people your goals, because they’ll either outright discourage you, or they will undermine your ambitions by asking ridiculous questions that cause you to doubt yourself.
Most people aren’t great. Most people have never built a profitable business, dropped 25 pounds of body fat, or completely changed the way they deal with women. None of these actions are difficult, but they will take time, and the discipline to repeat the same actions over and over.
If you share your goals with others, even your best friend or your own brother, they will plant seeds of doubt in your mind, out of ignorance of the process.
Keep your goals to yourself.
Show people what you have been up to when you finish.
Do the Smallest Action You Can
The process of building anything significant can be a daunting task. As people say “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. It wasn’t, imagine how stressed out you would be if you had to build Rome yourself, from scratch.
You’d psyche yourself before you even got started.
That’s why the best course of action is to identify the smallest action you can take to get the ball rolling, and do that.
Then the next one, and the next one after that. Once you have momentum going, you’ll feel excited and inspired to keep going.
This month I launched a hair regrowth product in an e-commerce store that I have been dragging my feet on for YEARS. I could have already been raking in cash on this business, but I was intimidated by the thought of creating a product, building a website, advertising, and everything that goes with running an e-commerce store.
This year, I DECIDED to make it happen.
I read a few articles about launching a product, bought a domain, and ordered a shipment from Alibaba.com. Just like that, I was in business.
It took me a few hours to accomplish an achievement that I procrastinated on for two years!
What is the FIRST small task you need to do to start building your dream?
-Solitary Beast