F*ck Being Normal. Here's How to Escape the Sheep Life.
Do away with the p*rn dreams of a white picket fence. Let me tell you a huge secret I haven’t shared before.
I used to be one of the sheep.
I traded by human meat suit for a sheep outfit. I wore it proudly everywhere I went.
Every day was spent trying to fit in.
I craved normal. I had p*rn dreams of a white picket fence in the suburbs. A 1-hour train ride each way to work used to make me horny. Ohhh how I craved to be a sheep.
Rejection after rejection has shown me that trying to fit in is stupid.
Know this: you’re not supposed to fit in.
You’re weird. Weirdness is brilliance in disguise. Embrace it. Kill the inner sheep hiding inside of you that wants you to follow the flock off a cliff into normalcy.
Here’s how I’d unscrew a life built on normalcy (in a year).
12 months networking in DMs
Sheep wait for opportunities.
Sheep wait to be chosen.
Sheep wait to get permission.
Sheep get qualifications like a college degree to feel worthy.
Don’t be a damn sheep. One of my biggest life hacks is to learn how to send direct messages. The point is to be proactive.
Everything you want in life has a human on the side of the opportunity. When you become a badass in direct messages, you become a badass in real life.
Don’t send “hi” or “can you help me?” These are weak DMs that never get a reply.
Send DMs full of:
Proof you’ve done the work
Proof you’re a good human
Proof you can respect people’s time
Proof you can communicate
Proof you can remove self-interest
Proof you’ve done research on the person
Proof you’re a whack job worth hearing more from
These are the messages that get answered online.
A year of making friends online – not networking – will change your life.
12 months writing online
Maybe you’re not a writer. But you write emails, don’t you?
Congrats you’re now a fully qualified online writer. You passed the invisible test that never existed. Qualifications aren’t required.
What’s needed is creativity mixed with curiosity. This is the intersection where greatness is found.
Writing is a good way to start. Obviously you can do video, audio, illustration, or some other form of communication. The challenge is that all the other forms require practice, whereas writing is something you’re already doing.
May as well put those language lessons from school to good use.
This is how to do it:
One short Tweet/LinkedIn text post per day. Don’t spend longer than 5 minutes
One blog post per week on the platform of your choosing. I recommend Medium or a Wordpress blog with an existing audience.
The whole process should take you no more than a few hours each month. Don’t overthink it. Start sharing your stories and experiences. This is uncommon.
Sheeple people don’t do it because they’re afraid of opinions or to be judged.
People that don’t give a f*ck and simultaneously change the world do it because they understand life is short and that criticism is guaranteed.
In fact, criticism equals hidden growth.
We need to hear about our blind spots. Otherwise, we live in a bubble.
12 months of daily exercise
This isn’t about 6-packs or gym booties.
This is about exercising your mind. Exercising wakes the body up. It gets the blood pumping and the thoughts flowing through your brain like velvety liquid gold.
As a former sheep, I never had time for exercise.
I always had meetings to go to or people to see. Most of the day I was tired. This meant that I wasn’t showing up at my best. If you’re not performing at your best, how can you be the best? You can’t.
Exercise changed all that for me.
I got my skinny ass to the local gym. It was owned by a cranky old lady, who had to run it for her ex-husband as he used her house mortgage as security for the gym. If his business failed she lost her home, despite them no longer being married.
The moment I walked in she knew I was a lazy one. She had a spidey sense.
So she made her mission to motivate me. “Go over there. Do this. Push harder. No sweat, no results.”
She wasn’t my personal trainer, but she did give me a kick up the ass. I had to wipe down the equipment too or get yelled at.
The discipline became addictive.
My beer keg waist fell off me. Sometimes I hear people say that we store all of our negative emotions in places where we also store fat (like my beer belly). Once my beer belly was gone, I felt as if many of the negative emotions went with it.
Maybe I’m an idiot.
Regardless, exercise helps you become uncommon. Stick with it. Make it a habit. Use the energy from exercise to fuel your life.
Make sure it’s vigorous exercise too, not a short 5-minute walk to 7-Eleven that involves the purchase of a 1-liter coke.
12 months sending a newsletter
Substack is where it’s at. That’s why I’m here.
Sheep keep their thoughts to themselves. Weirdos share their thoughts so others can benefit from them.
Let’s dumb down a newsletter to 5th-grader language.
Write with style and personality. Deliver commentary on something you love. It’s that freaking simple. And you love s-o-m-e-t-h-i-n-g.
Like what do you collect? What do you tell your partner about every night? What would you rather be doing than being stuck in a sheep cubicle?
The answer is what your newsletter can be about. A newsletter clarifies your thinking. It forces you to do research after hours on stuff you’re interested in.
Even if nobody subscribes, you’re going to become a badass.
Why?
You’ll know more about yourself. The future will look clearer.
12 months investing in Bitcoin/Ethereum
Let me tell you a huge secret I haven’t shared before.
More than half of my inner circle have become millionaires over the last 2 years. How?
Bitcoin and Ethereum. Yes it’s down a little at the time of writing. Who gives a damn. I don’t invest in any asset for less than 5 years.
The future of the internet will be built on top of Ethereum. Bitcoin will become a huge part of the new financial system. The change is already here. These two assets are the next Netflix, Amazon, Google, Facebook.
Crypto/blockchain/Web3 is just another name for tech stocks.
Sheep call crypto a scam.
Weirdos keep an open mind and see that the asset class is now worth $2 trillion. The US government wouldn’t let a $2 trillion scam exist for the last 10 years.
Consider tech investments (not financial advice so do your own research).
Summing up
Forget trying to be normal. It gets you nowhere. It’s a lie … an illusion even. Use the above ideas to transform in 12 months.
Become a person who can do whatever they want.
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Definitely doing this, but why Twitter or LinkedIn rather than Instagram? Monetization? Same for Substack instead of, say, Convertkit? Thanks. Great ideas.