Achieving extraordinary results isn’t the lottery.
There’s no luck. Some kind gentleman with a pink bow tie and a polite British accent doesn’t say “here you go Sir/Madam, now be on your way chappy and bless the world with your gifts.” Nope.
That’s a naughty fantasy I just had about what I wish success could be like.
The truth is nothing worth having comes easy. That’s what makes it worth it. That’s why achieving whatever success is to you is so bloody brilliant.
During the darkest period of my life I sat on my ass and watched the equivalent back then of Netflix. Mindless entertainment that made me feel dead inside. Back-to-back 7-Eleven slurpees. More skittles and Kit Kats than should be legal according to the sugar police.
The 2% mindset explains where I was back then and where I am now. The difference can help you rethink your next big decision.
98% of the population do this
(This is also a list of things to avoid in life)
Be like everyone else
I call them sheep.
They walk, talk, and act all the same. Stuck in the Matrix. If one person screams, they scream (louder).
If some virtue signaling busy body changes their social media profile photo to whatever is the in fashion ‘good cause,’ they do too. Lots of signaling. No action to help the good cause.
If there’s a trending news item full of outrage, they’re outraged. It’s not that they want to be like everyone else. It’s just they don’t think for themselves.
Randoms transplant ideas into their head that live rent free.
A cup of coffee with one drop of arsenic will still kill ya. That’s what bad ideas do. Except you don’t die and there’s no funeral. Nope. But you die a little each day as the bad idea virus infects your life.
Be insecure
Be uncertain about everything. Think you can’t do anything big or noble. Doubt yourself.
Listen to critics who make money off your misery. Wait for magic mentors to show up and make it all better. Hope for miracles. Join a cult (consumerism is the biggest).
Barely survive
The amount of people who have zero savings is scary.
The masses are weaker when they don’t have money. It points their focus towards money and away from the big philosophical questions in life that really matter.
Then there’s the dreaded calendar. Not a lot of free time. Lack of time is the excuse used for most kickass opportunities.
Fill that gorgeous brain full of fear
Fear about everything.
Will the earth survive? Will we blow each other up with nukes? Will high gas prices take away our precious metal lounge suites with four wheels?
A brain full of fear can’t think straight. It’s forced to survive. It’s forced not to think at all.
Live a dull-as-hell life
Get woken up by a loud-ass alarm clock. Ride some stinky subway to some painfully boring office with white walls and hot desk noise pollution. Sit next to the fat cat leaders while they cream off the top every spare minute you have.
It’s not prison. But it’s close.
Play it safe
In Australia we call it “tall poppy syndrome.” Grow too tall and the rest of the flock will chop you back down to size.
*Does karate chop sound*
Don’t take risks. Follow the rules. Believe in career paths that don’t exist (because there’s zero guarantees, especially from a corporation).
Delay your life goals until the future when you might be either dead, or tragically sick from the processed food diet that created the obesity epidemic (cause sugar/sweeteners/high-fructose-corn-syrup aren’t nutrition).
Definitely don’t use social media. You could get canceled. How dare you have an opinion or try to be a voice for others? You’ll get canceled dontcha know. If your boss finds out it’ll be bad. Be quiet. Be vewy vewy quiet.
Unconsciously procrastinate
Getting started is hard. Easier to scroll the feed. Or watch another back-to-back tv season. Or send texts to friends on Telegram. Or look at phone notifications to see what’s fake-urgent.
Life is easier when you get unearned dopamine that makes you feel like work has occurred when it hasn’t.
Stack up a mountain of regrets
When we don’t act on our goals and experience real freedom, we stack up regrets. Slowly these regrets eat us alive inside. Benjamin Franklin said most people die at 25 and get buried at 75 for a reason.
A heartbeat doesn’t count as life. Only a meaningful existence counts.
Settle for less than your potential
When we feel like we’ve hit the limits of what we can handle we give up. Former navy seal David Goggins coined the “40% Rule” for this reason.
98% of society takes one too many blows to the head in the form of problems and says “That’s it, I’m done. I’m giving up.”
The 40% Rule says these people hit their limit with 60% of their potential still left in them.
Here’s what all those things are…
Your comfort zone.
The 2% Mindset
Going beyond your comfort zone is the next level, the holy grail. Here’s what’s involved in joining that group.
Image credit: WhoisChick.com
Go for your dreams
After childhood ends we forget how to dream. A limiting valve gets placed on our imaginations.
The 2% mindset says to have a crack, mate.
See what you can do. Come up with some wild plan and then try to execute it. It’ll probably fail but it will be massively fun and the stories that come out of it will get shared for generations. 100% worth it.
Whatever you think you’ll lose by going for it and failing is an illusion.
You enter this world with nothing and leave the same way. So you got nothing to lose 🙂
Act confident
Fake it until you make it. Confidence is just belief in yourself. Not to succeed but to have a go amigo.
Explore new things
Dare to change your mind. Try new experiments. Meet new people. Novelty interrupts thought patterns. It blows up your rules. It changes how you live. It forces you to see new perspectives.
We should only stop exploring when it’s time to die.
Choose happiness
Life ain’t that bad.
America isn’t going away. Whatever robs us of happiness is simply the result of wanting too much. Go the other way. You already have a lot. Heck, you got internet! That makes you bloody rich. Now you can be happy.
Needing more makes you poor. Needing less makes you a success.
Chase fulfillment
Where does it come from? This is going to sound cheesy as hell: helping others. When they win, you win. That’s true fulfillment.
Embrace the unknown
Quit a job. Get a divorce. Sh*t in your pants. Roll in the mud.
You can’t know everything — and trying to, becomes a form of squid games you’ll never win. The unknown is where you get a better education than Harvard could ever give you.
Get excited
In 2015 I had a near-miss with cancer.
It’s why I’m always so bloody excited on the internet. My heart beats. My lungs can breathe. My eyes still work. My ears can still hear despite the high-pitched tinnitus noise that nearly ruined my life.
What do you have to be sad about? You’re still alive, aren’t you? Or am I living in a simulation with Elon Musk as my holy savior?
Live without limits
There are no rules or limits. Except we don’t know how long your life will be or what you’ll die of.
Too many people think there’s a list of rules one must follow. That’s instagram influencer talk baby. People want you to follow their rules because it aligns with their incentives.
Incentives drive human behavior. Limiting you benefits them. Limiting you can even free them from money problems. Never forget that.
We’re all just making stuff as we go. No one has it figured out. Not even Oprah or Tony Robbins.
Seek abundance
Not by collecting useless consumer stuff.
By seeing other people’s wins as good for you. By helping people who can never repay the favor. By not wishing the collapse of some empire or political regime. By letting your mind think whatever it wants to think.
Most of all, by having an abundance of time to do whatever you want without the money virus driving your behavior.
Act despite fear
Fear tells you what you should do. Read that again.
Fear is energy. Energy creates momentum. Energy makes you come alive. Fears are normal. What’s not cool is using fear as evidence to do nothing and play it small.
Show me your fear list. I’ll show you your potential.
Closing Thought
The 2% mindset is to live outside of your comfort zone.
The 2% dare to be great. They lean into fear and use it as motivation. They don’t numb the pain of life with more Netflix to fill up their brain’s memory stick with entertainment that solves nothing.
Joining the 2% doesn’t require a permission slip. It’s a decision.
Do what you fear? Or watch other people do what they fear and come alive while you feel lifeless watching them on a big dumb plastic screen?
