I’m starting this blog for two main reasons. The first and probably most obvious one is to build a business and make money.
Yeah, you heard that right. I’m not hiding the fact that I do this for my future self primarily. This doesn’t mean I’m selfish. If you think about it, we ultimately do everything for ourselves. Even volunteer work makes you feel better in a way.
A seemingly selfless act like being a doctor in a third-world country wouldn’t be thought about if it wouldn’t satisfy some intrinsic need in us.
I’m talking about our need to help others.
Unfortunately, most self-improvement bloggers and YouTubers focus on the wrong things. They try to sell you the benefits of optimization, which is hypocritical because their success didn’t come from optimization.
Don’t get me wrong. Optimization could be beneficial in the long run. Imagine building a high overhead freelancing business. At one point you just have to optimize your workflow if you want to grow further.
Or you could just stay as small as you are. Riding the business wave as a one-man show. Which is perfectly fine.
And that’s exactly my point. Optimization comes ALWAYS after building.
I repeat. BUILD FIRST and optimize later. Makes sense right? There is nothing to optimize if you haven’t started creating yet.
So back to the self-help world out there, which is now focused on optimizing rather than building.
Why is that?
Well, optimization is easier than building. Often it requires less energy to get rid of something than to build something from scratch.
Therefore most people in the space talk about waking up at 5 am, or taking cold showers. Like if tactics like that somehow get you to learn a new skill or build a business automatically.
And because building a business is hard work and requires you to fail often until you see reasonable results pseudo-philosophical feel-good content is on the rise.
They all miss the point. This brings me to the second reason why I started this project.
Self-improvement is about LEARNING. Learning a new skill, learning from your mistakes, reaching mastery.
How to go about this? It’s simple really.
BY DOING.
Stop consuming self-help content just to feel better. It’s all just mental masturbation. Have you failed your business or can’t stop procrastinating?
Start something new. Start doing something. Learn a new skill.
After all, it’s about helping others. We are social creatures. Try it. Next time you ride the train. Smile at someone just for the sake of it.
Maybe you get a smile back, or maybe you don’t. Either way, you potentially improved the life of another person in a matter of seconds. This could be the icebreaker for starting a conversation. Who knows you could like each other and exchange phone numbers. Which benefits you in the end – if meeting new people is what you’re into.
So let’s summarize this little introduction here on my internet real estate.
If self-improvement is your goal, focus on helping others and becoming better at it.
I even wonder sometimes, why it’s called self-improvement.
Other-help would be more appropriate if you ask me.
Let’s improve the world people.
On to the next one,
Dustin