I Have 14 Ideas to Transform Your Life. Do You Have 4.5 Minutes?

#14 will ethically get people to admire you

Jul 20, 2023

This instalment of Unfiltered is free for everyone. I send this email weekly. If you would also like to receive it, join the 87,000+ other smart people who absolutely love it today.

👉 If you enjoy reading this post, feel free to share it with friends! Or feel free to click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏

Ideas are a spark of energy.

One good one can set you on a different path in life. Once you’re on that new path your entire life will change.

There are decades where nothing happens and there are days where decades happen – Anthony Pompliano

Here are 14 short ideas that have the power to transform your life in the next year.

1. Always choose paths where you have the most control

The ultimate luxury in life is freedom.

Yet we can easily choose a path where others dictate what we do and how we must act. But it’s a choice. Let me give you an example.

I write online. From the early days I saw that platforms and publications tried to play god. They thought they were smarter than the writers and readers they served.

This never sat well with me.

So, I purposely calved a path online where I’m in control, where no publication or platform can block me from writing for my readers (only the readers themselves can).

The same is true in our careers.

I’ve always chosen career paths where someone else has the least amount of control over me. Where I can just be myself and not get micro-managed into an early grave.

Make decisions based on whether you’ll have control.

Choose freedom over accidental oppression.

2. F**k productivity. Choose flow states.

I really couldn’t give a toss about most productivity advice.

I don’t wear a pomodoro clock around my neck or consume 150 diet pills to get more energy. I do something 10x more powerful.

I focus on flow states.

A flow state is where you do work you’re obsessed with. Work that taps into your creativity and imagination. When doing this work you get so in the zone that your perception of time is lost.

8 hours feels like 30 minutes.

The key to flow is the task you’re doing needs to be slightly beyond your comfort level. The difficulty helps your mind focus. Overcoming the struggle gives you dopamine which keeps the flow state lasting longer.

Stop ma$turbat1ng over evening routines and just choose flow.

Everything gets easier and your output will grow exponentially.

3. Chase an obsession – not a piss-weak, lukewarm passion or interest

A well-lived life requires something to chase.

Traditionally we would have said “find your passion/purpose/meaning in life.” Or set goals. Or create a vision board. Or write down a set of New Year’s Resolutions.

These ideas are weak. They lack energy. They’re esoteric. They’re not actionable. And they all rely on willpower or feeling like it.

It’s easier to chase what is effortless.

Obsession is effortless.

There are things in life that consume us. That takes us down rabbit holes and causes us to waste the dark hours on them.

These are obsessions.

You don’t look for them. You’re already doing them.

Commit to what you’re obsessed with. The thing you think about while in meetings. Or the idea you daydream about. Just stop trying to find a woo-woo purpose – or even worse, becoming a person of value LOL.

4. 80% action, 20% thinking and strategy

What holds most people back from transforming their lives is action.

More action is the answer to whatever goal you want to achieve. A simple framework I use is the 80/20 rule. 80% of my time is spent taking action, 20% is spent thinking and making plans. Most people have this formula the other way around.

Just do it, as Nike says.

5. The more decisions you make, the more your life progresses

If your life isn’t progressing the way you’d like, just make more decisions.

Decisions are what slice up the paths in life. Most of us know what we need to do and we just need to decide and move on.

Decisions create shifts. Decisions produce new opportunities.

But staying the way you are and doing what you’ve always done on repeat, which may have got you nowhere, is the definition of insanity.

I did this at work. I hated working a job. I kept changing jobs looking for better cubicles to occupy. In the end, I figured out I freaking hate cubicles. I should have just made the decision 5 years earlier.

Make more decisions. Decide.

6. If you refuse to sell, life will be much harder

There are plenty of people who hate to sell.

They think being salesy is evil. They love to label opportunities as “get-rich-quick” schemes. Your life won’t transform if you can’t persuade.

Instead, figure out how to ethically persuade people. Get good at building trust and delivering on your promises. This is how you build a solid reputation and that’ll make life a lot easier for you.

You won’t need to prove yourself. No. Your reputation will do the talking.

7. If you want to become a confident badass, learn public speaking

I used to be shy.

If I had to stand up and speak at work, I’d freeze like the iceberg that sank the Titanic. Then a friend introduced me to Toastmasters. I went along to learn and practice public speaking.

Now I’m not so shy or nervous anymore.

I can speak in front of large audience and not get brown skid marks on my underpants. Public speaking makes you more confident. It positions you as a leader. And it helps you write better too.

Join Toastmasters.

8. Become a problem solver to get unfair advantages

There are two types of people:

Problem solvers
Problem creators

The first category gets all the benefits in life. The second category serves the problem solvers and relies on them for survival.

Become a problem solver. Any dumb ass can spot the negative or say it’s the end of America. It takes a wise person to come up with solutions and share them. And to rally people to take action on the solutions.

It doesn’t require SpaceX-style rocket science. All it takes is a commitment.

Mantra: “I shall create solutions instead of more problems the world doesn’t need.”

9. Dare to take the side of a debate you disagree with

The former Donald Duck president makes my blood boil.

I just don’t like the guy and it has nothing to do with politics. A challenge that takes every bit of intelligence and willpower you have is to sit in the shoes of those you disagree with, regularly.

I did this a few weeks back. I spent time seeing if there was one thing I could find about Donald that was notable. And I found it.

His brother was an alcoholic and died from it. It was hard on Donald. Out of respect for his bro he gave up drinking forever. Whenever he talks about it a slight amount of emotion shows up on his plastic Ken doll face (not much … but some).

Now I have something I admire about him even though I don’t like him. What this does is help you build empathy. It helps you understand we’re not all that different.

“A great way to understand yourself is to seriously reflect on everything you find irritating in others.” – Kevin Kelly

10. Relationships online are more powerful than money

The creator economy has boomed.

Everyone wants to post content, followed by the big question: how do I make money from content? It’s the wrong question to ask.

Focusing on money is such a shallow way to live.

The key to the online game is to build relationships with the right people, not send strangers to paywalls and ask for their credit card. That focus is all wrong.

The best money you’ll ever make on the internet comes from startup investment opportunities. Or the equity someone will give you in their business to do what you do online, but be tied to their brand in some way.

It’s why a meme account I saw on Twitter made $20M. Not from selling memes, but from getting access to business investment opportunities.

Get around the right people online and everything becomes easier.

11. Free stuff is bullsh*t

I gave my friend access to a $700 course I built.

All they had to do was attend live. They never showed up. They made me look like an idiot. Then they said to me “If I’d have paid the $700, I bet I would have showed up, because the pain of losing that money would be too great.”

We don’t value free. Free signals low value. And free has no financial accountability.

Stop getting trapped by free.

12. Financial mental illness is a thing

I coined the term.

*Queues applause*

When you haven’t mastered money, money is always on the mind. It occupies way too much of our thoughts. Even worse, money becomes a big factor in every decision we make.

Should I tip the waiter? Can't afford it.
Should I buy them a present for their birthday? Can’t afford it.
Should I see the doctor about this huge lump on my ass? Can’t afford it.

One of the best things you can ever do is cure financial mental illness. The way to do it is learn about finance, read money books, invest money into assets, and downgrade your lifestyle so you don’t need as much money to live (not financial advice).

Get money to work for you so you don’t have to work for money.

13. Use the fundamental algorithm of life

Algorithms are everywhere.

The tech giants use them to manage their platforms. Famous investor Charlie Munger said there’s an algorithm for life too.

Do more of what works.

To find out what works you need to make decisions, that lead to experiments, that generate results, that lead to new insights, that inform new decisions.

Too many people see what works then ignore it. Don’t.

14. This is how to ethically get people to admire you

It’s cool to appear flawless.

It’s what made the Instagram so popular. Flawless bikini babes and topless dudes showing how they can never set a foot wrong.

It’s as if the Barbie movie has become real life.

Mark Manson has an idea you must listen to:

It's an amazing trigger within human nature, the minute someone acknowledges their flaws, not only do we tend to forgive them, but we actually come to admire them.

I figured this out by accident.

I love to share how I screwed up or got burnt or made a fool of myself. I don’t know why. I think it was the 2015 cancer scare that told me to stop giving a fudge.

It’s counter-intuitive but when you lead with vulnerability it makes you relatable. And we tend to forgive people for their mistakes because we know deep down we’re making a sh*tton of them ourselves.

So stop trying to appear so goddamn successful. Stop worrying what others think.

Just say it as it is. Share the wins and losses in equal proportion. It’s the secret to the good life.

Bonus: Get a dead-end job

Getting a job is a good kick up the ass.

It shows you the alternative to what’s possible. It shows you how to build other people’s dreams and follow orders.

So get sh*tty jobs so you know what you don’t want to do on life. Come to think of it, I might just go get another banking job right now. It’s been a while :)

That’s enough ideas for now. Go do epic stuff, then come back in the comments section and share it. Love ya and gotta run.

PS. — A final idea that can transform your life.

Join The Write 4/28 Challenge.

It’s a community of 100 writers who publish every single day for a month.

Hosted by yours truly.

Click here to join while there are still seats available (19 are left as I’m writing these words)