We are Free to Choose but We Must Make the Choice
The life we live is the cumulative outcome of the choices we make
When the first lockdown was imposed, like most of us I wasn’t ready. I felt mine tiny world flipped upside down. I have two options either I can sulk in my own sorrows or I can try to start all over again. They say change is the most important thing in anyone’s life. But it is the hardest thing to go through, it’s man’s biggest fear, it’s the journey to the unknown.
But one thing we definitely know, to see good results in any field one must be effective. Being effective in something is the consequence of being consistent. It may be easy to start but showing discipline days after days, during a time of widespread fear and stress, I need to come up with a simple and effective idea.
So I decided to follow my GOLDEN Rule; live in the moment, concentrate only on what I can complete today within my capacity. I will give more on that later.
It all started in a day when I was sitting in my room watching YouTube videos. Out of curiosity I clicked on a short video on how to make money online. In that video a boy pitched an idea that how easily anyone can start a virtual POD (print on demand) store without any skills and promote his/her listing without spending any money.
I hate to imitate others. I don’t do anything if I can’t add personal touch into it. But for that moment I just wanted to start. I decided I will learn things along the way. I copied everything he did in that video. I signed up with a POD site, opened a new storefront, downloaded a royalty free “beach sunset” image with commercial uses right. Then upload that image for my first product listing and name it “coco loco”. I make a promise to myself I will learn something new every day about POD good enough to feel joy and small enough I can implement tomorrow. I tried to add something new every day within the first two week I learned file formatting, resizing, background removing, optimizing, integrating keywords in the main title tag and description and started targeting a niche with simple text base design. On the 20th day I received a congratulating email. I made my first sale!
Promoting wasn’t fun! Marketing sucks. Besides I don’t use social media. I don’t like one iota. To me it is a certified world to hide the reality. But to get the highest reach there are no alternatives to digital marketing and during the time of this pandemic I don’t know any other option. First I opened an account on Instagram, eventually I had my account on all different social media platforms. Within three month my engagement reached a million. Even today when I check my insights I only ask myself one question, why my account reach is this high and increasing every day because I don’t even know how this platform works and what on earth I’m doing here!
I never thought I would ever tell this story to anyone and now I’m publishing it. Maybe sharing my findings not only on POD but all other ways I tried to make a steady passive income, will be some help to someone. On the date I am writing this article, it has been about a month since I came to know about Medium. It is an excellent platform for new writers like me to start blogging. It helped me both ways, not only can I feed my soul by reading very good quality articles but also I can learn from this great writers community and practice on this beautiful platform at the same time.
How do I get started with a medium? How to grow a successful blog on Medium. I shared all my Tips and Tricks in this step-by-step Medium guide that helps beginners to understand this beautiful platform. Feel free to check it out!
“In the end we only regret the chances we didn’t take” –Lewis Carroll
As I started to write I wanted to publish an eBook. At this time I don’t have enough courage to write a complete book but if I put together all my notes I’m sure it will be just enough for a 20 page mini eBook. It doesn’t sound much but the hardest thing of any job is to Start. If I gain nothing bare minimum it will give me a new feather, a new memory. What can I do I will never know if I never try!
When I’m in public transport I really love to listen to audio books. It works as a boost for my mental health and listening to stories for 10–20 minutes help me to stay in a good mood for the rest of the day. Keeping that in mind I decided to convert my eBook into an audio book. I found converting a PDF to an audio book is surprisingly simple. After converting all is left is to try to sell this in a digital asset selling platform.
It is no surprise that I was watching a ton of YouTube videos during this time and it is obvious that I will want my one channel. I noticed fairly new channels in a few niches doing really well, on top of that those niche channels don’t need any skill set to start. It’s perfect for me! And that’s how I got into YouTube.
How to Start a YouTube Channel Without Making Videos, Without Showing Face and Zero cost and start Earning Without Subscribers? That was the idea behind this article. With a bonus Any one with no Skill can implement this today!
Even a few months before I would never know this is a place I could ever be. But this journey was not a smooth sailing. I meet more failures in the last few months than in the last few years. Certain, Merciless and Unfair these are the most common characteristics of failure. I don’t believe where I’m now is in spite of adversity, it instead because of those adversity.
I’m really grateful that I made that promise to myself. That GOLDEN rule is from my book of discipline. I have only 5 rules there. And every single day I try not to break them. If I must say anything that helped me going, this is it!
Rules of Discipline:
· Learn something new today that I can accomplish tomorrow.
· Self appreciation for today’s work before sleep
· One thing at a time and never complicate the process.
Note: Work like this is the only work I have and this is the last time I’m doing it.
· Show interest, commitment and repeat.
Note: Commitment only comes when you do what you love or love what you do. There is no third option.
· Lastly be patient
The difference between being successful and not successful it’s not failing. It’s the courage to get up every time we fell and continue when we see no hope. Negative thoughts are natural; when we are born any sound that is loud, we are afraid of it, we tag it as bad but it could be a sound of celebration or expression of joy. Darkness is bad but half of every day is dark. Being alone is bad and we are afraid to be by ourselves but we came into this world alone and we are going to leave this world alone. Now the question is what we really want and why we want that?
Sky is never the limit, our limit is our fear and there is nothing we can’t achieve. But it comes with its price.
“If you don’t sacrifice for what you want, what you want becomes the sacrifice”
There is no escape, we are free to make the choice but we must choose one. If we can’t gather the courage to take the path to suffer the pain of discipline, we will be thrown into the ocean of regret. The only thing that can truly hold us back is our negative thoughts and the only person we have full control over is our self.
“We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret” -Jim Rohn
Still today I can summarize all my gains in a single sentence and yet I choose the pain of discipline. Even if my material gain might not be appealing to many but my story someday might find its way to light the spark in someone’s mind, that will be my moment of realization, it’s all worth it.
Now you know my story, what’s you! What will you choose? Let me know your thoughts in the comment below. You can send me any query through email at millionairesjourney01@gmail.com or connect me on my Instagram @journey2millionaires. And don’t forget to share and clap a couple of dozen times. Thanks for reading this article, have an amazing day!
