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Do you feel like giving up? Read this...

ZCP

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@TheProcess ..... now narrow that down to a couple of sentences...

what is your 'why'? .... tune it in to one or two sentences..... be very precise

what is your perfect day? what are you doing? what time is it? who is with you? what do you smell? if you turn to the left, what do you see? what time is lunch? what will you eat? ...... be VERY specific. take your time.......

what does that cost? one time cost to get there, monthly cost to maintain it?

what do you need to make that happen? specifically?

------
once the above is done:
what three things can you complete this week to make that happen?
 

Andy Black

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Holy cow this thread is dripping in gold. Thank you to all the contributors posting helpful thread one after the other, this is going directly on my bookmark bar to keep looking back on when I get stuck.
This is why we all keep coming back to the forum. Thank you for your feedback. Thank you to all the contributers in this thread.
 

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Thank you! I appreciate the encouragement. I have a question.

You said: "whereas your focus should be "I noticed this problem/possible improvement and I want to offer a solution""

I honestly have been thinking and I just can't think of anything. How can I go about finding problems?
Have you read Unscripted ? There's a whole chapter dedicated to engineering value and finding business ideas.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr_sj4Cq6GM&t=205s


This video by MJ also summarizes it pretty well

As for me, I have a note on my phone where each day a write down things that I notice that could be done better (example, the product that I use to comb my hair does not hold for long, and the fragrance is not that great, I write it down), things that I would like someone to offer (example: I cooked some roast meat on Sunday and the coal made my cloths smell terrible, I wish someone offered something to help me with that, write that down), or random thoughts/complains from others (my mom is on a diet and complained that she had to go a lot so the supermarket, is this something that can be solved?, is there value to offer here?, write it down).

Some people do it on paper, for me its more convenient to do it on my phone.Honestly, finding ideas is a practice, you do it every day, you write down every potential business idea that you get, no matter how dumb you think it is. As you keep doing it every day, you start to become more and more aware of all the ideas that are out there. If you absolutely can't get yourself to do it, allocate 30 minutes of the day to sit down with a piece of paper and a pen and just brainstorm things that can be done better, solutions to existing problems, ways that you can help your fellow humans, stuff you wish someone somewhere could please make.

If you keep struggling with ideas, I suggest you read the book "Steal like an artist" by Austin Kleon. It helped me tremendously with creativity and coming up with "new" ideas.

Hope that helps
 

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TheProcess

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Can you go through the video in the first link and report back here.

What are your takeaways?

What will you do differently this week?
Takeaways:
- Don't think too big. Just try to help people. Just try to help one person to start with, and everything will slowly fall into place.
- You don't need to be an expert. Just get started.

What I will do differently:
- I will try to shift my focus and perspective to one where I'm trying to help people. I'll contact some friends that are in business and ask them if there's anything they need help with, for example.
 

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I'm convinced besides MJ you are the best poster on this forum.
@sparechange you up for making a summary of what i normally post? seems like i've done the list / process enough that we should be able to flesh it out into a step-by-step and pin it?
why / what / how / get F*cking started / give yourself some credit

i'm just a dude along the path up the mountain to the pantheon that our true legendary posters are on ..... :)
 

TheProcess

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As promised, @sparechange, here is an update. @BlackMagician also asked for an update, so here it goes.

Why I left:

First of all, I think I need to start by talking about why I "left" and became inactive in the first place. It's not because I had given up. I left because I was overwhelmed. I had all you amazing people commenting on my thread giving amazing advice, such as @Bekit and @Andy Black, but I was not able to put any of it into action. I even had @sparechange who was commenting and who was harsh but quite motivating. I spent days reading and analyzing and making notes of every single gold and notable thread on this forum, but still, unable to actually put anything into action. "Every idea had a flaw. Every project was not worth it." I know that's bullshit, but that's how I felt emotionally.

I needed to take some time off. To get some clarity of mind. I had a good summer. I spent time with family. I spent time with friends. I did many things that I enjoyed. Of course, this can be framed in a different way. One can say that I "ran away", that I "made excuses". And these people would not be wrong. But what's done is done. At the time I felt I needed time away, and that's what happened. No need to dwell on the past. What's important is that I have not given up. I still believe in my vision, and I know I can still be successful and provide immense value to people.

What am I working on right now?

So a few weeks ago I decided to sit down and write my thoughts on a notepad. I really dove deep into my fears and my insecurities, and I asked myself honestly what it is that is stopping me from starting a business or at least working on a project like a YouTube channel. I wrote down every single reason and came up with solutions for every single one of these fears. I realized that I am not in fact "stuck" in life. Despite maybe not having the level of urgency that I wish I had, or the free space that I wish I had (I live with my family), I still have control over things, and I can still come up with solutions. Despite the fact that I haven't had my FTE Moment (I believe that's how it's written right?), I can still build good habits and work on creating something and providing value. The first thing I asked myself was what did I want to start? What kind of business? I realized that my natural instinct was to start a YouTube channel. I already had bought all the equipment, and I've always been really good at speaking, and writing, and philosophy and story telling. All I needed was to get good at video editing and a couple other YouTube skills. I had 3 problems.

1) I didn't like the fact that my family was always home and I never had the quiet/private space to make my videos without anyone listening in or "judging" me. Yes, it's an irrational fear, but it's still something that bothered me.

I came up with the following solutions. First, I spoke to my family about this issue and they were very understanding. They told me if I needed a few hours in the house alone every week, they could all go outside and leave me be. Second, I decided to start walking outside and finding parks and other places where I could film in peace and privacy. I've been going in the early mornings for example, where I know there will be nobody there.

2) I was torn on the following two options. Gary V, (@Andy Black also recommends this approach from what I remember), says that we should focus on quantity over quality when it comes to making videos. Essentially, we should just pick up a camera and start filming and go from there, without overthinking.

However, someone like @Valier recommends a different approach. He says that we should focus on quality over quantity, at least at first. The music, the writing, the clips are all very well edited and taken into account. We should focus on creating a great catalogue of videos. Apparently this is what the YouTube algorithm prefers nowadays.

Both of these approaches are good, for their own reasons. On one hand I'm an overthinker so approach 1 is better for me. On the other hand I'm a perfectionist so approach 2 is better in its own way.

The solution I came up with is to create two separate channels. My first channel goes with the first approach. I will upload videos daily and the filming will be very casual. I can simply pick up the camera and talk about interesting thoughts, my habits, my progress, and things like that. I won't put much effort into the editing and the music and the filming. This will help me, first of all, to get a good feel for filming and for producing content. This past week I've been making clips and filming every single day. I talk about my habits, about interesting concepts that I notice, and things like that. Sometimes I even vlog. I've got a lot of really cool ideas for this first channel and I think it has great potential.

I also decided to create a second channel. This one is similar to what @Valier has done with his brilliant channel (my ideas will be different of course). Essentially this channel is about create great videos. Everything will be analyzed, things like music, and the filming, and the angles, and the writing and story telling. Essentially creating mini documentaries on interesting and relevant topics. The goal is to create a great catalogue of well made videos, not about posting regularly like with channel 1.

I'll see which channel picks up. Maybe they can both help each other. One channel is more so about my process, about documenting my journey, the other channel is about creating great entertaining content. I believe both can create value for people and we'll see how it goes. I might make an execution thread or something discussing these things in detail. It's still very early on right now, still learning how to video edit properly but it shouldn't take too long to get the hang of things.

3) The third thing I needed to do was to fix my habits. I was waking up late and sleeping late and had other bad habits too. So I decided to do something I had never done before. In the past, I always went through this cycle: I'd indulge in bad habits, and then try to fix everything at once. This lead to me getting overwhelmed, and then I'd go back to indulging in bad habits. This made me unhappy, then I went to trying to fix everything at once.

This will never work, because I was putting too much stress on myself and I wasn't able to fix everything at once. If I focus on exercise, and sleep, and diet, and working hard, and school and on all these things all at once then I'm bound to fail because none of these behaviours have the time to become automatic and to become habits.

So lately I've been trying something new. I focus on one big habit at a time. This month, I made it a goal that I would wake up early, at the same time, every single day no matter what, no matter how hard it was. And so far I've been following through with it every single day. It feels automatic now. The first couple days were brutal but now I'm used to it. Next month, I'll add a new habit to the mix and once that was is ingrained in me, i'll add another one the month after that. In a year, maybe I'll be superman haha.

In the past I was never able to fix my sleep schedule because I always tried to fix other things at the same time, and I always gave up within a few days. It's remarkable how well I've been doing with my sleep lately. It's been my "one thing" as Gary Keller would say.

Conclusion:
I'm currently working on two YouTube channels. I'm back on the Fastlane Forum after a several months absence, and once again I want to thank everyone who has commented on this thread or who has helped me in general on this forum. I'm excited to be back!
 
Last edited:

Kevin88660

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I want to be working on something right now, on something that I like. But no matter hard or how much I try I can't seem to figure it out. I started this online business a couple months ago, but it never went anywhere. I've tried things dropshipping and created an online store for t-shirts a couple years ago but quickly gave up.I just don't know what to do anymore. I'm tired and frustrated.

All I'm trying to do right now is work on a cool project where I can work on my skills and make progress. But I don't know what. I don't know what I like or what I'm passionate about. I've read dozens of success and business books but to no avail. I'm tired of thinking. I'm tired of reading. I just want to get to work, but I just can't figure out what to work on. My mind goes blank. Every idea that I think of, I either don't like, don't have the means to do it, or the idea is garbage. I don't know what to do.

Has anyone ever been in my shoes? How did you figure things out?

Edit: Spelling.
Not really a bad start. You have tried things and got your hands dirty. You know how to run business operations in the fields you tried.

Probably you have chosen low barrier of entry business that are already overcrowded today. The not so difficult money was made in the earlier day. These games were like 19 century gold rush stories, by the time everyone was rushing to buy a shovel the only money making business was selling a shovel.

If I were you I would pick a trade or industry that is going to be difficult at the start but you can accumulate long term assets (skill, client base, experience) that acts as a barrier to entry.

I will consider

1) What country do I live in and what are the Stable or growing industries here? What are the trends in consumer behavior?
2) How big is the market?
3) What existing assets do I have? (Skill or network, like an uncle in the industry?)
4) Is it something that I can kick start with low cost so that I do not lose too much if things do not go as well as I wanted?
I am not sure if you have a full time job now. If so You could understand that industry really well.

If not you can brain storm and research..You can also seek to get a job in the industry for 1-2 years to acquire domain knowledge. It is a much easier path if you have bills to pay and it is not so easy to acquire knowledge without working for someone.

Cool project...not sure what skills you have or willing to learn. If you look at Riots in Minnesota And Hong Kong, government demand for riots control and Surveillance will go up and will continue to do so. I talked to a friend working as a policeman he says mass installation of high solution 24-7 cctv is simply financially not feasible. So Private Security or surveillance technology in my opinion are two big trends. Surveillance technology doesn’t have to be super high-tech. It could be an app for Ordinary civilian snitches to upload photos of rioters. The app just need to have basic intelligence that these four photos are pointing to a person and that two photos are point to another person for easy categorization. The GPS on mobile phone can already point to riot locations.
 

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That's very funny

What have you done today? Did you do anything at all to help future-you?

Like learning a marketable skill that offers value to people?

If the answer is no, then maybe he's right.

You should take the advice on working out multiple times during the day, especially before getting work done. I have ADHD, workout 3 times per day and have since been picking up the phone daily to cold call and meet up with prospects and I got 2 clients for my baby web design business.

You should know that I only started working out this way about 10 days ago and just a few days later I began picking up the phone to make cold calls, the very same activity which I despised with all my heart until that point. My stomach would turn even then but after just a few days of doing it I now don't care at all, and it feels great!

In the past I've gone on NoFap and semen retention (a bit hard in a relationship unless you're a kegel overlord monk living in the Himalayas) which had a huge impact on my brain, emotions and even changed the way I view life and the world, but it didn't make me more productive.. in fact it made me more complacent with mediocrity.

Anyways, just do something dude. All businesses begin ugly, with an abundance of frustration, "bad" luck and tons of issues.
 

Andy Black

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Well I was very inspired by the YouTube thread, and it's something that I've been wanting to do for a very long time now, and I think I have the potential to be good at it. So I'm going shopping tomorrow to get a camera and tripod and the rest of the equipment that I would need to start filming. After that, my focus will be on creating my first video.
You can likely use a smartphone if you have one. A wee tripod can help, but isn't necessary. Just don't go down the rabbit-hole of buying equipment. Get something recorded and uploaded tonight?

Watch the video here. It's only 2 mins.

You can likely use Zoom or Loom to record video from your laptop. I did a quick video here this morning with just my headphones as the mic. Sure, sound isn't great, but I didn't let that stop me hitting record when I thought the discussion might have helped others.
 

Andy Black

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Andy Black

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ZCP

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@TheProcess
instead of chasing money, provide value.

start by providing value to yourself!

Three questions, one task.:
what is your 'why'?
what does that look like in specific, tangible form?
what would it take to achieve that?
now build a specific path doing the three most important things each day to achieve it!

why will lead to what will lead to how.
when you have a clear why, research brainstorming. then come back here and tag me to help.
 

andrewbaltimore

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I took a quick look through your threads just now.

Your intro:

You felt lost and wanted to quit college.



Fortunately, you decided not to quit.



You tried Lex's Upwork tutorial, but gave up the same day.




You started a progress thread and got some really good advice.

You had a minimum wage job as a dishwasher and landed a better-paying job that allowed you to work from home on a company laptop. This sounds like a dream to give you the flexibility to pursue entrepreneurship.


The job apparently brought you good things.


You don't have a clear goal and don't really know how to set one.




Your schedule is not very disciplined.



You do have high expectations for yourself.



You realize that you need discipline and work ethic.




You've actually had a bunch of really good contacts with potential mentors.






You experience a fair amount of anger at times. This reduces your ability to produce.





You've asked for a fair amount of advice.

You started a business! Yay!


That was April 22, 2020.

By April 28, you and your cofounder had already decided to part ways.



On May 4, you were still excited about the business and asking about how to build your social media presence.

By May 6, you were losing interest. You're not even really sure why or what to do about it.



And on May 12, you shared your observation that you work better with others.


Here's what stands out to me the most from all this. This is the common thread I see running through your posts.

I think you struggle with self-motivation. And that defeats your progress, which leads to self-hatred and beating yourself up.

(I say this out of kindness, not out of accusation or "piling on" to the self-beating you're already giving yourself. I am very similar. I know how it feels. I know how frustrating it can be to just not be able to MAKE YOURSELF DO WHAT YOU KNOW IS IN YOUR BEST INTEREST.)





So - here are some practical thoughts that I think can help you get out of the negative feedback loop you're currently stuck in, and change it for a positive one.

  1. You will likely continue to experience failure and frustration until you man up and develop self-discipline. It is urgent that you do this now. Otherwise, you could end up twice your age, still leaning on other people to crack the whip over you to get you to produce. 40-year-old you WILL NOT FIND THIS FUN. I would recommend a dopamine fast to kick off the process. Hike the Appalachian Trail or something. Get yourself outdoors and away from devices and TV, at least for a few days. Detox your brain from the dopamine drip you've been feeding it. Dig up the soil and plant a garden. Whatever. Interact with the physical world, not the digital one, for a few days.
  2. Design a setup where you can START winning and KEEP winning. Find the smallest possible WIN that contributes to your goals. In your old execution thread, your "WIN" that you were working for was "Making a sale." No. Break it down further than that. What do you need to do prior that sale, in order to lead up to a sale? Who do you need to BE in order to get that sale? Maybe you say, "OK, my win will be waking up at 6:00 AM every day for a week." No. Break it down even further, because waking up like that is not going to be a slam dunk. So you say, OK, my win will be waking up ONCE at 6:00 AM. No. Break it down even before that. Because you'll be going to bed too late to get up at 6:00 AM. So you say, "OK, my win will be to go to bed by 9:00." But then, you're not going to be tired at 9:00, so you're going to be tempted to stay on your computer. So you back up to the REAL step. "OK, my win will be that every time I catch myself wasting time on a distraction, IN THAT SAME MOMENT, I'm going to STOP and do something productive." (Define what it is so it's concrete. Also define a reward, and deliver that reward to yourself consistently. Even if it's just a silly reward like one chocolate chip.). NOW you're on track. This is defining your wins in a direction that will serve you.
  3. Verbal thrashings will not make you more productive or more motivated. What you're trying to do is alternatively hype yourself up into action (works for a while and then fails) and then scold yourself for not acting up to your standards (works for a while and then fails). This is not the solution.
  4. There may be a biological component to what you're experiencing. The way you describe yourself sounds similar to ADHD. Read about the executive function in the brain. Your executive function is the part of you that says, "OK, I'm going to do this now." You maybe be struggling to get the executive function to turn on. If this is the case, there are two easy ways to self-medicate. Try experimenting with yourself with these two things to see if it helps. One is caffeine. Try drinking coffee shortly before doing a task you struggle with. See if this improves your ability to DO what you've DECIDED to do. The second one is vigorous exercise (whatever level of physical exertion that will leave you breathless and sweating). Try exercise immediately before you sit down to do something that requires focus.
  5. There may be a psychological component to what you're experiencing. I suspect depression. There is so much help to be found in therapy, and the outcome can be removing that mysterious inner "boredom" that causes you to reject idea after idea.
  6. There may also be an inner resistance to the idea of what "working" and "adulthood" means. I have had to deal with this. Everything on the inside of me would be screaming, "NO! I don't consent to this. I want to be GREAT! I want to do things that are COOL! I want to be amazing! I reject drudgery! I reject monotony. I'm not ok with the next few decades of my life being dedicated to toiling and slaving away." It can be very difficult to come to terms with this, square your shoulders, look work in the face, and say, "OK. This is my existence until I make it. Deal." Work is not fun or pretty or sexy. It's the RESULTS of work that we like. As children, we enjoyed the results of our PARENTS' work without having to put in the work. As adults, we don't get to skip ahead to the results. It's a rude awakening.
[edit: This posted prematurely while I was still fleshing out my thoughts on #2]

Impressive, thank you. Really solid advice

@TheProcess try to carefully reflect on what @Bekit has said.

Based solely on:
  • You like/are good at sports
  • You like/are good at public speaking
  • You become easily bored
I think there is a high chance you too:
  • Think fast
  • You are good at reading people
  • You need high dose of stimulus to stay motivated/focused
  • You are bad at planing/following through
First thing is you really need to realize ASAP that in order to achieve things you have to focus and plan ahead. You're naturally going to struggle with this but for God's sake make the effort and start now.

You have tremendous potential but it is only useful if you work your a$$ off and stay focused on 1 big project that you decide to develop.

Use the recommendations given to you and get serious about your future
 

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Another time waster, what a shame. Great thread though, lots to learn.

Mindset is very important! A lot of wealthier people in the modern world aren't exactly ''smart'', just regular folk with the right mindset and work ethic.

At my local dollar store a worker there mentioned wanting to make a YT channel, yet every time I ask how its going, they mention not having time.....ah

Some people are just meant for jobs and careers, nothing wrong with that. Entrepreneurship itself is quite difficult, and for a select few people with the stubbornness to keep on going, I think there is sort of a madness to it, the ability to go failure to failure, flirt with bankruptcy and be judged by peers for going against the grain.
 

TheProcess

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How are you actually adding value with your businesses?
Who are you helping?
How are you helping them?
What problem are you solving?
How does your product or service solve that problem?

Money is just a way to signify value that can be transferred. People will give you that value-ticket if you give them something they perceive as more valuable.
If you change your mindset to giving back as much as possible then you'll be surprised at how the money flows in.

Your post was very "Me, Me, Me". A lot of people want to start a business so they can live a life of freedom. That's totally fine, but don't forget that your business doesn't exist in a vacuum and it REQUIRES other people to interact with it. If you structure your whole business so it just allows you to make easy cash with little effort then you'll be limited to only a few business models and they are incredibly competitive anyway because everyone else has the same mindset.

If you check out the successful businesses talked about here on the FLF, they're really giving back and focusing on how they add value. It's a real mindset shift. Have you read TMF and Unscripted ? Both books go into this in detail.
Yes I've read both books, twice.

I wrote this post when I was frustrated and angry. I've calmed down a bit now. I think I lose myself in what I want and forget about the adding of value, which is the very basis of what MJ's work is based upon. Thank you, this is what I was looking for.
 

TheProcess

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Ok so I've listen to the first half of it. This is my question to you. The person that you were talking to was able to help people because of his LinkedIn knowledge. How can you help people if you feel like you don't have that knowledge. I have no idea how I can help people.
 

Simon Angel

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Yes I did help future me today. I've been on this forum for a couple hours digesting the gold and notable threads and trying to contact some members. I work out daily.

Anyone can read and get motivated all day, every day. Nobody wants to get their hands dirty.

You sound like you want someone to hold your hand and lead the way for you.


These threads?

If you actually "digested" them then you'll be reporting back here tomorrow on how you cold called 5 businesses and tried selling *something* and/or helped someone by solving a problem for them.

Seriously, how hard would it be to cold call 5 businesses tomorrow? You'll gain a good amount of experience and confidence.

What about helping someone you know with whatever issue they may have?
 

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Anyone can read and get motivated all day, every day. Nobody wants to get their hands dirty.

You sound like you want someone to hold your hand and lead the way for you.



These threads?

If you actually "digested" them then you'll be reporting back here tomorrow on how you cold called 5 businesses and tried selling *something* and/or helped someone by solving a problem for them.

Seriously, how hard would it be to cold call 5 businesses tomorrow? You'll gain a good amount of experience and confidence.

What about helping someone you know with whatever issue they may have?

That's actually a good idea, call up some local biz's and probe them about problems they have, see if you can find a solution to that problem.
 

Andy Black

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What an awesome and wholesome thread, I don't know about OP but I sure needed this. And from what I gathered you are the one to blame for that person's mindset shift.

Thank you!
me too, this is a brilliant thread and should be marked as gold. OP has been given so much great advice, this thread will definitely impact the many who find it and are in a similar situation.

Thank you everyone for this post.
 
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Andy Black

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Just watched it. While I usually agree with your great advice, I will have to disagree here. The goal of my channel will be to provide high quality content. Uploading my first video might take up to a week. I have to think about many things such as what "theme" I want my channel to follow and be about.

And yes, I won't be going down the rabbit-hole of buying equipment, I'll probably just start off with a camera, mic and tripod.
Maybe have two channels. One for messing about on uploading content daily and getting better through doing.

The other for your more focused content?

My “Andy Black Jnr” channel is my sandpit where I upload videos however I want to.

All I’m suggesting is you *consider* getting started sooner rather than later.
 

sparechange

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sparechange

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Holy cow this thread is dripping in gold. Thank you to all the contributors posting helpful thread one after the other, this is going directly on my bookmark bar to keep looking back on when I get stuck.

@Andy Black We got one
 

MaxKhalus

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I want to be working on something right now, on something that I like. But no matter hard or how much I try I can't seem to figure it out. I started this online business a couple months ago, but it never went anywhere. I've tried things dropshipping and created an online store for t-shirts a couple years ago but quickly gave up.I just don't know what to do anymore. I'm tired and frustrated.

All I'm trying to do right now is work on a cool project where I can work on my skills and make progress. But I don't know what. I don't know what I like or what I'm passionate about. I've read dozens of success and business books but to no avail. I'm tired of thinking. I'm tired of reading. I just want to get to work, but I just can't figure out what to work on. My mind goes blank. Every idea that I think of, I either don't like, don't have the means to do it, or the idea is garbage. I don't know what to do.

Has anyone ever been in my shoes? How did you figure things out?

Edit: Spelling.
Well, let's go piece by piece.
1. You may not know what you want to do because there's too much to choose from. If you want to find your thing, at least you need to think clearly. By that, I mean Dopamine Detox, which means a distraction free environment. It helped a lot.


2. What I'm about to say my sound illogical but works. Why do you want success? What if you didn't care? For example, my only focus is becoming a stronger(skilled) person, whatever that may mean. That may include:
- Learning about business.
- Learning about copywriting, coding, video editing, closing.
- Eating healthy and working out every day.
- Beating my marks at work.
- Getting to bed on time and maximizing energy.
- Removing distractions permanently.
- Meeting valuable people


When you focus on getting stronger, success becomes a side effect. You start getting happy and creative.

3. Obsession requires all your free time. The way breakthroughs work is, you deeply focus on the problem or idea you want to find. Look at it exponentially:
- If you spend less than 80% of your daily time, you get no results.
- If you spend around 90-95%, you get mediocre/average/acceptable results.
- If you spend about 99%, you get stellar results.


This obsession thing could be the hardest challenge on the list. I'm still trying to master it. But once you're there, you will solve any problem you encounter, including lack of ideas. Also, as you approach that 99%, your motivation grows exponentially as well.

If you want to trigger that, go back to step one first. No distractions.


You know what I mean. Try it.
 
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TSM

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With ADHD there is a lot you can do that doesn't include prescriptions. The main one is to find an activity that works for you. This condition has really been a problem for me in my work as an artist and as a technical writer/web developer. The prospect of a big slot of time and a big project is extremely stressful for someone with this condition. Most likely you'll procrastinate all day and then work late and wreck the next day.
When I stopped these activities and became a massage therpist (very unfast lane but that's another story), all my symptoms disappeared. I discovered that I needed appointments, people, short deadlines and something that I was genuiney interested in (health and psychology).
Now I am developing webistes again and the symptoms are back -- so even if I am good at this work and I want to do it, it simply doesn't fit my personality. I've realised that no matter how determined I am, I cannot change my basic nature and each time I've tried it, I've put up a real struggle and got nowhere. It's really important to choose something that fits how you work best, otherwise you end up wasting a lot of energy and self-esteem.
 

Bekit

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As promised, @sparechange, here is an update. @BlackMagician also asked for an update, so here it goes.

Why I left:

First of all, I think I need to start by talking about why I "left" and became inactive in the first place. It's not because I had given up. I left because I was overwhelmed. I had all you amazing people commenting on my thread giving amazing advice, such as @Bekit and @Andy Black, but I was not able to put any of it into action. I even had @sparechange who was commenting and who was harsh but quite motivating. I spent days reading and analyzing and making notes of every single gold and notable thread on this forum, but still, unable to actually put anything into action. "Every idea had a flaw. Every project was not worth it." I know that's bullshit, but that's how I felt emotionally.

I needed to take some time off. To get some clarity of mind. I had a good summer. I spent time with family. I spent time with friends. I did many things that I enjoyed. Of course, this can be framed in a different way. One can say that I "ran away", that I "made excuses". And these people would not be wrong. But what's done is done. At the time I felt I needed time away, and that's what happened. No need to dwell on the past. What's important is that I have not given up. I still believe in my vision, and I know I can still be successful and provide immense value to people.

What am I working on right now?

So a few weeks ago I decided to sit down and write my thoughts on a notepad. I really dove deep into my fears and my insecurities, and I asked myself honestly what it is that is stopping me from starting a business or at least working on a project like a YouTube channel. I wrote down every single reason and came up with solutions for every single one of these fears. I realized that I am not in fact "stuck" in life. Despite maybe not having the level of urgency that I wish I had, or the free space that I wish I had (I live with my family), I still have control over things, and I can still come up with solutions. Despite the fact that I haven't had my FTE Moment (I believe that's how it's written right?), I can still build good habits and work on creating something and providing value. The first thing I asked myself was what did I want to start? What kind of business? I realized that my natural instinct was to start a YouTube channel. I already had bought all the equipment, and I've always been really good at speaking, and writing, and philosophy and story telling. All I needed was to get good at video editing and a couple other YouTube skills. I had 3 problems.

1) I didn't like the fact that my family was always home and I never had the quiet/private space to make my videos without anyone listening in or "judging" me. Yes, it's an irrational fear, but it's still something that bothered me.

I came up with the following solutions. First, I spoke to my family about this issue and they were very understanding. They told me if I needed a few hours in the house alone every week, they could all go outside and leave me be. Second, I decided to start walking outside and finding parks and other places where I could film in peace and privacy. I've been going in the early mornings for example, where I know there will be nobody there.

2) I was torn on the following two options. Gary V, (@Andy Black also recommends this approach from what I remember), says that we should focus on quantity over quality when it comes to making videos. Essentially, we should just pick up a camera and start filming and go from there, without overthinking.

However, someone like @Valier recommends a different approach. He says that we should focus on quality over quantity, at least at first. The music, the writing, the clips are all very well edited and taken into account. We should focus on creating a great catalogue of videos. Apparently this is what the YouTube algorithm prefers nowadays.

Both of these approaches are good, for their own reasons. On one hand I'm an overthinker so approach 1 is better for me. On the other hand I'm a perfectionist so approach 2 is better in its own way.

The solution I came up with is to create two separate channels. My first channel goes with the first approach. I will upload videos daily and the filming will be very casual. I can simply pick up the camera and talk about interesting thoughts, my habits, my progress, and things like that. I won't put much effort into the editing and the music and the filming. This will help me, first of all, to get a good feel for filming and for producing content. This past week I've been making clips and filming every single day. I talk about my habits, about interesting concepts that I notice, and things like that. Sometimes I even vlog. I've got a lot of really cool ideas for this first channel and I think it has great potential.

I also decided to create a second channel. This one is similar to what @Valier has done with his brilliant channel (my ideas will be different of course). Essentially this channel is about create great videos. Everything will be analyzed, things like music, and the filming, and the angles, and the writing and story telling. Essentially creating mini documentaries on interesting and relevant topics. The goal is to create a great catalogue of well made videos, not about posting regularly like with channel 1.

I'll see which channel picks up. Maybe they can both help each other. One channel is more so about my process, about documenting my journey, the other channel is about creating great entertaining content. I believe both can create value for people and we'll see how it goes. I might make an execution thread or something discussing these things in detail. It's still very early on right now, still learning how to video edit properly but it shouldn't take too long to get the hang of things.

3) The third thing I needed to do was to fix my habits. I was waking up late and sleeping late and had other bad habits too. So I decided to do something I had never done before. In the past, I always went through this cycle: I'd indulge in bad habits, and then try to fix everything at once. This lead to me getting overwhelmed, and then I'd go back to indulging in bad habits. This made me unhappy, then I went to trying to fix everything at once.

This will never work, because I was putting too much stress on myself and I wasn't able to fix everything at once. If I focus on exercise, and sleep, and diet, and working hard, and school and on all these things all at once then I'm bound to fail because none of these behaviours have the time to become automatic and to become habits.

So lately I've been trying something new. I focus on one big habit at a time. This month, I made it a goal that I would wake up early, at the same time, every single day no matter what, no matter how hard it was. And so far I've been following through with it every single day. It feels automatic now. The first couple days were brutal but now I'm used to it. Next month, I'll add a new habit to the mix and once that was is ingrained in me, i'll add another one the month after that. In a year, maybe I'll be superman haha.

In the past I was never able to fix my sleep schedule because I always tried to fix other things at the same time, and I always gave up within a few days. It's remarkable how well I've been doing with my sleep lately. It's been my "one thing" as Gary Keller would say.

Conclusion:
I'm currently working on two YouTube channels. I'm back on the Fastlane Forum after a several months absence, and once again I want to thank everyone who has commented on this thread or who has helped me in general on this forum. I'm excited to be back!
Awesome report! Congrats on starting the YouTube channels and building the daily habit of filming yourself for the more informal channel. Also, congrats on working on one habit at a time! That's a great idea, and I'm very happy to hear that you've been getting some wins with a consistent wake up time. Keep up the great work!

I recently ran across the following video that helped me through a recent slump. I love the concept of "Motivation bridge" that's depicted here. It may be helpful to others.

View: https://youtu.be/OM0Xv0eVGtY
 

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