2019 Lesson 1: I may actually die poor.
Earlier this year (2019), in August to be precise, I wrote an answer on Quora on what my biggest fear was. This answer went viral and got around 80,000 views and now has close to 800 Upvotes.
I am a big goal chaser. Once I want something, I chase it with all my might. I chase it with everything I have got but then, as I began to live (for real) and chase my life goals, I noticed that I didn’t always get the things I want. I noticed things didn’t always go as planned.
Around May this year (2019), I wanted to grow some biceps. I figured going to a gym would be too much work for me and since we had a barbell lying around in my compound, I decided to start lifting them on my own in my backyard.
I lifted for 30 minutes every day. Doing the same exercise. Curls and then two others.
Months went by and I barely saw any results. My arms were bigger but not shredded. I believe in consistency so I kept at it until one day when I decided to read thoroughly on Exercises to build bigger biceps and triceps. I went all in and soaked in everything I could find.
In my reading and researching, I found out that one is not supposed to:
(1) Lift weights daily. Because the body will adapt to this and would start to see it as the norm and this would therefore yield no fruit. You should have a 48–72 hours rest so your arms can recover.
(2) Do the same exercises all the time. For the same reason as number 1.
(3) Make the exercises easier for him/herself, it is supposed to get harder and harder.
So essentially, 30 minutes every day was going to lead me nowhere. So I adjusted my exercise routine, and made do with all I had just found in my research — and in 2 weeks I started seeing results.
If I had not done that research I will have just continued trying to build my arms the wrong way and then wonder why I wasn’t getting any results. Throughout the year, I saw so many scenarios like this and it made me realize that I may become frustrated, die poor, not get my miss charming to give me a yes, or at worse, achieve nothing significant.
I went broke several times during the year. I fell sick many times during the year. I got more NOs than YES this year. I got disappointed several times. Why? Why?? Because I did things the wrong way several times. I slept at times not compatible with my body clock several times and then fell sick. I used the wrong words several times and then got more NOs than YES. And I acted the wrong way several times which made me a prominent signatory to disappointment.
As the year went by, I figured that the only remedy to reducing how much things went wrong was to just (and simply) do the right things. Tobi, just do and say the right things and you will get 20 clients weekly. Tobi, just do the right things and you will always get the things you want.
If you are fast on your feet, you may already be able to guess the problem with this. What and how can Tobi always know the right things to do? Is it even possible? How can Tobi know the right way to get his miss charming to give him a yes or the right way for him to always convert every single client he reaches out to?
Well, from all my research, I found out that there is no magic pill to this. But what I also found was that there is a way that guarantees I will always find the right way to get the things I want. A way that guarantees I will not toil all my life. A way that guarantees that I may actually never die poor.
And this is to simply and constantly adjust things; To never and ever become a rigid fan of persistence; To always pause and ask myself if the set of clients I was talking to were actually the clients that could pay me and then if no, reach out to a new set of clients in a different industry and see if that works and if it doesn’t then I adjust and reach out to a new set; To never get used to failing and listening to people that say “It is just how it is for the first two weeks” but become directly and indirectly obsessed with seeing and getting results!
I figured I may not die poor actually if I employ the the-right-things-i-must-find mentality in all I do. E.g: Instead of selling a product (or service) at a cheaper rate and then lamenting at the figures in my bank account. I could save my proceeds from that cheap product or service I was selling and then expand my offerings or maybe learn a high-income skill that people are willing to pay huge thousands for and then make some more money with that; Or instead of complaining of how bad my shop or restaurant was doing. I could stop spending all I made from it, save some percentage and then use that to expand my shop or restaurant or start a new shop or restaurant elsewhere; Or I could spend my nights (instead of only working) trying to build a muse, trying to build a system that generates me money while I am at sleep or at the beach. I could simply become a high-end fan of finding the right things. Of becoming smart at all I did!
The lesson here is that I must never become rigid and believe I am doing the right things — but to always believe that there is a better way to do things. And that I must become obsessed with finding those right things by constantly and consistently adjusting till I find what works. I may actually become rich as long as I don’t stay rigid at the way I am chasing a goal — and keep consistently adjusting until I figure out what works.
Drop some claps and let me know if this connects with you in the comment section below.
Link to Quora answer quoted in the article. https://qr.ae/Tit8Bf
