Escaping The Digital Rat Race

110: Less is more.

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Welcome reader! We are starting an article with crypto. We hope you're buying crypto now because things look promising, and it's the perfect time to stack more. The same applies to those who are investing in the stock market. You already know our take on it. Use market corrections to your advantage. Easy 2x - 3x return can be achieved with minimal thinking and engagement from your side. Use it.

The markets did cover a bit since we wrote this.

What about our main topic? Escaping the digital rat race. What is a digital rat race? It is the endless pursuit of consuming more content - a digital one. The big majority struggles with this. Finding themselves in the endless loop of digital consumption without moving forward with what matters. The first step? Realize you have a problem.

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Digital Rat Race

Rat Race: We doubt anyone is reading this who has not heard the term rat race before. Often being thrown around by youngsters who have never worked a day in the corporate environment. Most heard it from someone else, so they have incorporated it into their vocabulary. The rat race is the endless pursuit of something on the other end. There is always something at the end, and there is always more. Nothing wrong with that. Following this often leaves you in an unfavorable position - long term. Ending up with fewer choices and golden handcuffs. Those working in the professional environment witnessed it multiple times. There is not a single individual out there who doesn't know at least one example of someone in their 50s in a high-end position with a solid yearly bonus. Yet those same individuals operate from desperation. The common example most have witnessed. All because of their moves and financial choices throughout their lives. There is a big difference between those operating from the place of abundance and those operating from the place of necessity. Does that mean you should not pursue bigger things? Not at all. Everyone reading this should strive to improve and become as efficient as possible - to get the maximum out of their lives. What does the majority miss? There is a big difference between those who pursue something and those who are efficient.

The more you consume, the less you create. - Cal Newport

Digital Rat Race: What happens when you combine endless pursuits with digital content? Throw in the popularity of starting your own business and escaping the 9-to-5 that has become popular over the last few years. What are you getting? The perfect playing field for those who consume. Just one more course, one more Telegram group, or one more PDF no one knows about. It's a form of golden ticket chasing and what comes with it. After answering well over a hundred messages over the last year. The conclusion is simple. Most suffer from the same problem. Endless pursuit of more resources. Believing there is always another material that will help you achieve what you want. Missing out on the important part - putting in the work. The worst part is that those who suffer from this problem are unaware of it. Spending years learning and finding new methods to end up in the same spot they were in. Developing no transferable skillset or knowledge. The grass is always greener mindset. New-age gurus claiming they have the new best business model every few months don’t help either. Unfortunately, for those who don’t know how to filter or separate what is right from wrong. You will manage to get so much out of the digital space. The layer everyone has access to and is pushed to the masses? Mediocre at best. A few months back, we already concluded that you should expect to pay for quality information going forward. This way, you will avoid wasting months of your life on the material that won't get you anywhere - instead, you will end up with practical advice you can apply. Another part of the problem is that the internet has become available to everyone. Having a direct impact on the quality of the information. Making it harder to separate legit information that applies to your situation. Opposite to the one written by someone to get a few likes.

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Escaping The Digital Rat Race

Where You Are Now: The first step in escaping the digital rat race is realizing you are participating in it. As with everything else, if you are not transparent with yourself… There is so much you can fix and achieve. The day has twenty-four hours. If you sleep for eight hours and work for eight hours - you are left with eight hours. If you spend over two hours daily on "learning new business methods" or reading "how to make money PDFs". You are participating in the digital rat race. The same applies to watching YouTube videos, business podcasts, or other material. If you are starting or have zero business knowledge. This makes sense - the first month should be about learning about the industry and what is happening. After the first month? Waste of time. Focus on putting what you have read into practice. We are not saying you should not bother learning. If you are in the consumer mindset, realizing there is a huge difference between those learning and those consuming to feel good is not easy.

Material You Are Consuming: Now that you understand you should limit your daily consumption time. The next on the list is understanding and prioritizing from whom to learn. You should use the same principles as for loser friend groups. Do the same and be ruthless when it comes to disqualification. Something is off with the source you are learning from, or do you feel that’s not it? Don't waste your time. Close that webpage, delete that file, and spend time on something else. One of the common reasons the majority stay in the same place is they suffer from FOMO. Not possessing the ability to disuqlify and kill their curiosity factor when it comes to content consumption. How do you plan to move forward when everyone uses the same material as you? Now add into the mix that the majority is teaching you sequential processes. Without giving you a deeper meaning of what is happening in the background… Result? Unusable in the long run - story for another article. Your time should be spent finding material and mentors who are respected in the industry in which they are operating. That is how you develop the bigger picture. Instead of following the "ecomgodrevenuemaxxor12" on YouTube for eCommerce advice. Follow Paul Niklas or other respected individuals. Vouched and respected in the e-commerce space. Are you in the VC space? Follow Alex Iskod instead of a random Twitter profile who never spent a day in the VC world. That is the first step in how you should disqualify the sources you are learning from. They have to be vouched. If you want to take things deeper the next step would be to go straight to the main source. The pioneers of methods you are learning. Copywriting? Gary Halbert, John Carlton, or Eugene Schwartz. SaaS? Louis Tetu, Drew Houston, or Tobias Lütke. The software will have different criteria considering it is a never field, more prone to change, etc. The problem with this advice is that if you are inexperienced or new, often you won’t be able to transfer to the current market. One way to avoid that problem? Stick to the stuff created after the 70s. By doing what we have outlined you would go straight to the source of modern teachings. What happens when you consume material from YouTube? You are getting derivate from initial teachings. Watered-down product is one way to put it. Consuming the water-down content limits your ability to learn the deeper layer. The last thing you should remember is that you always want to avoid taking advice from those focusing their whole marketing around material goods. If someone uses lifestyle content (luxury goods, fancy places, cars, etc) as part of their funnel. It often means they are not worth the following - there are exceptions.

Your Learning Type: Applying what we have mentioned above will set you on the right path. Now if you want to take things to another level… There is something rarely mentioned. Two reasons why - 1) not many know about this and 2) it is impossible to prove the results. We recommend trying this because it has worked for our close circle and us. All of us have different learning patterns and preferences. Similar to what we already covered in designing our lives and the stereotypes. There is a test created by Roger James Hamilton called the Wealth Dynamic Test. We will not post links to the website or his books covering the same principles. The test itself isn’t magic. It helps you identify the natural path and understand your strengths and weaknesses. We encourage you to do so if you have a few extra dollars. The results we have gathered made sense. Roger himself will also provide you with an old-school guru feel and a proper funnel. There is no dream selling here. Roger is a guru. If you put that aside, you are left with an interesting quiz. The quiz results will provide a personality overview and a role. Knowing your role will make finding the sources from which you can absorb information easier. If your role is creator, you are better off studying concepts from Zuckerberg or Bezos. Both are creators. This is the opposite of someone who might be a supporter and will have an easier time studying Tim Cook or John Maxwell. Once you get the basic concept down, use it to detect profiles that fit you and learn concepts from them.

The more you know, the less you need. - Yvon Chouinard

The Less Is More: Information diet is one way to put it. After a certain point and hours of studying the vouched information. You can get so much from consumption without putting it into practice. Most get stuck in the consumption phase without putting in a bit of work. How should you proceed going forward? Start by eliminating any material you consume that doesn’t have a direct positive impact on your life. The material should be all about practical methods that work. YouTube channel you are not fully into? Unsubscribe. The random Tweet on your front page that should not be there? Click not interested. You got a free PDF from your favorite guru, but you already feel you will learn nothing new? Delete it. Subscribed to someone's newsletter without reading any of their emails? Get off that list. We are the first who would encourage all our subscribers, if they are not consuming this material, to get off our email list. This is specific content for busy professionals and those who are ready to put in the work to level up their lives. A big part of society doesn't fit that profile and category and can’t relate to the blueprint. That is the proper way you escape the digital race - realizing that less is more. Forty hours of work or, on average, 9to5 weeks should be equivalent to one hundred fifty and two hundred hours of material consumption - one where you are not putting anything into practice related to it. It sounds exaggerated, but it is not. It's a reality that those who escaped the consumption trap know what we are talking about. What is the main problem of the excessive consumption trap? The new guys are getting stuck in the "I am not ready" phase, which often lasts for months. Sometimes years. Individuals know what they should do - yet they focus all their resources on consumption. Convincing themselves, they are learning what they don’t know yet. Big trap. Removing noise from your digital life will also allow you only to consume advice that applies to your situation. What do you expect to achieve when you get five different inputs on how you should live your life from five different sources? Not something you should practice. Stop wasting your time and find sources you can relate to. Someone who gives you a sense of trust.

Summary: The digital rat race is real. Most participate in it without even realizing they are participating. Looking for the perfect moment. A perfect moment is one course away - what most use as an excuse. The reality is that the perfect moment doesn’t exist. It’s an excuse for why they are not executing. You should go on the information diet and remove all those sources of information that don’t align with your goal. Not chasing the next big thing and the useless PDF. Go straight to the source of the information - the original creators. Forget about the content's modifications, derivatives, and watered-down versions. There is so much you will be able to get out of those. What do you get when you combine all of those? More time, more information, and less noise - an overview of how to escape the digital rat race.

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