Winning in the New Society

This post builds upon my previous one - The Digital Renaissance

This one will be more practical as opposed to high-level macro thoughts.

Here is how you begin to build your legacy in the new world:

1) Identify What You Must Do

There are infinite roads you can take.

But the first step is identifying the work that you want so you can move in the right direction.

Dance between your desired career and despised career.

As you experience events:

• Be conscious and observant of those around you.

• Take mental note of lives that you do not want to live.

• Study the habits, patterns, and ideas of successful individuals.

• Add brush strokes to the vision of your ideal career over time.

It won’t be absolutely clear at first, and that’s okay. You have time.

2) Solidify A Vessel For Actualizing That Reality

This is where most people go wrong.

They dream and dream about doing incredible things but let it remain a dream. Why?

Because they don’t have a clear and certain path for making it work.

They don’t realize that nothing certain is worth having, and that the future is uncertain no matter what you do (this should be obvious).

You need skills and interests that you can practice and apply for life.

It truly doesn’t matter what skills or interests you choose.

If you are conscious of the problems that stand in the way of executing on your plan, the next step should be obvious. Don’t hide from it.

If starting a business is the path to the life you want, but you “don’t know how,” then learn how with the endless information online.

Yes, it will take some time.

If you realize that you need money to start that business you choose, but don’t have any, then you either have to start with a lower cost business model or get a higher-paying job (or experiment with budgeting techniques).

If you realize you can’t get a better job or don’t have the skill to start the low-cost business… answer the question yourself.

Too many people avoid doing what they “don’t want” even when it is standing in the way of what they want.

Change your perspective.

If it’s standing in the way of what you want, then you should want to do it.

Think.

Don’t get distracted.

Learn and apply the skills or interests that intrigue you most in alignment with your desired future.

When problems pop up, acquire the skills and interests necessary to overcome them.

Pretty simple.

No prescription required.

You have a self-corrective compass called a mind.

Use it.

3) A Powerful Habit Formation Heuristic

If you don’t know why you are doing something, why are you doing it?

Most people are unconscious as to why they are making 99% of the choices that they make.

Start questioning everything you do.

Everything.

If there is no conscious intention behind the action, stop doing it.

Why are you going out to drink and party?

I’m not telling you to stop. I’m telling you to have a reason.

I love the occasional party and can attribute a lot to the conversations and people that I’ve met during those times.

But it’s usually used as a tactical reset after a period of extended intensity. It is a forced low that balances out the forced highs.

Back to questioning:

Why are you shoveling hot and spicy McChickens down your throat?

Again, I’m not telling you to stop.

I love a Mcdonald’s trip, but it still does not derail me completely from my mental, physical, and financial health goals.

Why are you laying in bed instead of going to the gym?

Why are you going to work after complaining about how you hate it?

Because you have to?

Is that not wage slavery?

Do you even care?

Are you lying to yourself that it’s for another reason?

Are you going to do anything about it?

Or are you just going to keep doing the same things until the day you die?

When will you allow yourself to become fully conscious of the situation you’ve built yourself into?

The answers to these questions may shock you (if you’re honest with yourself).

There are no wrong actions, there are only actions without intention.

Lead. Your. Thoughts.

4) Personal Distribution

Building an audience, readership, or distribution isn’t only for online businesses.

It is the new way of life.

Building personal distribution is how you:

• Get a job without a job board

• Sell a book without a publisher

• Make music without a record label

Be you, learn to persuade, and you get to skip ahead of those that rely on others for their success.

The average self-published book sells 250 copies (Googled statistic).

They make less than $1,000 a year.

If instead they validated ideas through newsletters and social media engagement, they could virtually guarantee the success of their publication.

Same goes for any product that you’re thinking of building that has a slight relation to what I talk about.

Since I’ve built distribution, I can build whatever I want.

I can start a gym, supplement line, apparel store, or even start producing music and get on a big stage when most producers will never see an audience of more than 100 people.

Fair? Maybe, maybe not.

Or it’s just the reality that people don’t learn the game before they try to win.

5) Focus On Perspective Development

The biggest “shift” for me was realizing that audience building isn’t about the latest hacks and tactics.

It’s about novel perspectives – something that AI tools will never be able to do under the name of a human.

I don’t see how AI could take something like Ken Wilbers’ theory of everything, connect it to the creator economy, and distill “stages of creator development” from a place of experience like I’ve done in my past issues.

I’m assuming that AI can’t have insight and connect abstract patterns to its skills or interests.

There is a progression to this game, but you want to get to the point of contagious ideas that spread without your personal effort.

The creator economy is a game of mental warfare.

The more ideas you spread that form the identity and worldview of other individuals the more success will come to you.

If this doesn’t make sense to you, it won’t until you actually start building.

Good luck