Lifestyle Traps to Avoid
101: Don't let yourself become a victim.
Welcome reader! Today, we are starting with the news regarding the TikTok shop. The requirements to start the shop are back up to 5k, meaning that something is happening in the backend that the public doesn’t know about yet. Until then your best bet should be to focus on it and drive traffic to your offer. There has been quite a few interesting news over the past week. One of the most interesting ones is Apple incorporating ChatGPT into their environment. Things are heating up and the giants are getting into the game (those who are already not in it). What Apple did with this partnership alone wiped out a bunch of startups with their innovative "idea" - if you don’t understand how. Soon you will. Another bullish crypto news? MSTR - Saylor is raising 500 million to buy more BTC. Another confirmation that we are early and that you should stack your portfolio with it. Enough with the news. Time to get back to our main topic. Lifestyle traps you should avoid. Something we often talk about on our Twitter profile and something we know that will benefit you in the long run.
Impact of the partnership with an OpenAI on the Apple stock.
Lifestyle Traps
Lifestyle Traps: Let us define lifestyle traps before going forward. To keep it simple, everything holding you down or limiting your ability to reach your full potential is a trap. To clarify it further, everything that affects your life could be considered a trap. So what is the difference? Lifestyle traps have long-term consequences - stealing your future from you. The average falls into most of them by their 20s. Some of them are impossible not to fall into, while the other ones are in your control. Taking a 30-year mortgage to make your girlfriend happy? Leave that to someone else. Your goal should be to challenge those "norms" and realize that it is something you do not want to participate in. Limiting yourself long-term because you know someone will knock on your door each month asking for the payment. No one can deny it is a trap most fall into. Traps are not only financial. They are also mindset-related, health, social, or career ones. You are eating processed garbage, and you know that is bad for you, but you can’t help yourself? Your health is not something you will be able to return or repair. Poor diet is a trap and having someone bring you junk food with one click is not helping either. Another reason they are lifestyle traps is because you can’t get rid of them. Over time, they become part of you and what you believe in - trapping you down. Identifying ourselves with them and making them part of our identity.
Mindset: Humans are emotional creatures, so our situation often blinds us. Your best friend who took a 30-year mortgage to keep his girlfriend happy doesn’t understand what he did. He doesn't see how he limited his potential or how those few thousand per month could bring something that would bring wealth long term. Maybe he knows, but his internal self-belief system will convince him he did the right thing. Over time, he will start believing that it is the only proper thing to do, and as time passes, he will tell other people that it’s the only way to do it. Human nature will never change. The human rationalization system will not change either. Defense mechanism all of us possess. We are mentioning the mortgage because it's one of the most obvious ones that the majority can relate to. When diving deeper into the lifestyle traps, you realize that most unknowingly fall into them. Part of the reason is that we live in an instant gratification environment, and another part of the story is that no one is challenging "normal beliefs". The "normal beliefs" should have died by 2010 - when things lost a complete sense of normality. It’s 2024, and people are living better off meme social pages than from certain career paths requiring a proper college degree - this should tell you everything you need to know. Things are not how they used to be. Lifestyle is different from what it used to be for your parents. Much more different than what it used to be for your grandparents. Your best way to avoid becoming victims of lifestyle traps is to challenge "normal beliefs" and start understanding how things work out.
Traps To Avoid
Play in the background for the maximum reading experience.
Debt: Cars, houses, apartments, vacations, luxury items. Your priorities are wrong if you take debt to purchase any of those. No one can deny that there are times when you must make hard choices and get into debt to afford something necessary. But a German mid-luxury car? Not necessary. That watch you want from Switzerland? The same. A place to live? Maybe. Depending on your situation and the market situation. You don’t need 80% of those "must haves" you think you need. Extra points if you are a young individual. Getting into debt to buy material items to impress others is a path to a mediocre life. Those who had a chance to meet those playing status games driven by debt understand what we are talking about. It’s a castle built on sand. Debt will also directly impact your ability to take risks and act on ideas. No risk = no profit. We are sure our readers understand the point we are making here. Now ask your work colleague or normie friends about debt in their 20s. You already know their answer… That is the exact reason those same ones live a mediocre life.
Impressing those who don’t matter: Goes hand in hand with the point above. Keeping up with the Joneses has kept millions of people in the same spot for years. The same principles apply to impressing a group of anonymous Twitter frog profile picture profiles with the watch you paid a few grand. Instead of buying a large-market crypto coin or stock with that money - waste of money and time. You should reevaluate what brings you value and joy. Before buying any item always ask yourself the same question: would I buy it if no one else could see it? You will stop spending your hard-earned money on the stuff that doesn’t bring any value to your life. The result of that will be a bigger bank account and proper confidence. One that comes from internal self-beliefs and is not built on the validation of others.
Don’t take advice from those who are not better than you: You are a software engineer at FAANG. Your friend is working at McDonalds. Giving you advice on how to position yourself around your boss. You should not take it seriously. The only advice you should consume comes from 1) those who are better at it than you are 2) those who have done that same thing years ago. That doesn’t mean you should not listen to anything they say, but take it with a grain of salt. Why would you listen to someone sharing their knowledge if they can’t help themselves? You already know the answer. Those who have done it before? Patterns repeat. Especially if we are talking about human nature. Taking advice from those, not in the same position as you lead to wrong actions and feelings of disappointment in the long run.
Spending your free time with the average: The reason this is a lifestyle trap is because you don’t notice you are part of it. Watching sports games, spending weekends talking about high school days and women you have almost slept with. Those all are the traits of the average man. The good metric you should follow when vouching for your company is how much time your company spends talking about the past vs the future. You are in good company if the ratios are 30% past and 70% future. If it’s 70% past and 30% future run from those. They are not going where you want to be. You want to surround yourself with intensive ones, visionaries, and builders. Those are the ones you will count on later in your life and who will count on you. That’s how proper relationships are built and ones worth having.
Gambling mentality: Go big or go home. We have noticed this mentality being more common among the young crowd. Can't blame them. We all participate in a comical economy where no utility virtual coins can make you rich. Those no-utility virtual coins are nothing else but gambling. Everyone is chasing their golden ticket. Thinking they will hit it and make it big. We would argue you are better off sticking to the boring blueprint and passively participating in the golden ticket game. Sticking only to the golden ticket chase and putting all your cards into it is a great way to make your life miserable. Most will end up working in fast-food chain restaurants by the time they hit their 30s. Nothing is worse than being in the same position as the years fly past you. We are noticing a similar pattern with the young WiFi money makers. We encourage everyone to start their side business as soon as possible. But not finishing high school and "going all in" on your business while making you a millionaire or a bum. Convinced most of them will end up in the bum section. Stop chasing the golden ticket.
You can't help those who don’t want help: Your friend is in the same spot he was three years ago, even though you spent hours trying to help him? Giving him actionable advice and handholding him through the most of the process? The first thing he does when you turn your back or do not check up with him is that he is doing his own thing? Deep down he doesn't want your help. This is the lifestyle trap because you spend hours and energy helping those who don’t want it. Life is full of those. Disqualify those who claim they want help but are not serious about it - they will not change no matter how many hours you put into it making it a trap for you.
One source of income: The more dependent you are on something - the worse choices you make when it comes to it. Why? You are operating from a place of desperation. This applies to all areas of your lives. When you are desperate, you have short-term vision. Is your boss being an asshole? Karen from HR is making you explain all the daily activities to justify your role. Your work colleagues are not taking you seriously? Emotions such as those suddenly disappear when you know you can quit and not worry about paying your bills at any minute. Multiple income sources = abundance mindset. Your investments, contract work, side business, or job stacking. The choice is yours. The more of those you have easier you will sleep at night.
Trading your time for money: It will only get you so far. Limiting your ability to grow and scale past a certain point. Getting money driving Uber is understandable if you are in a tough situation. In the long run? Terrible. The same principles also apply to certain careers - you can’t scale them past a point. The topic we covered in depth in our corporate cheat sheet. Those not working in the corporate environment don’t understand that you are not actively trading time for money in most positions. Why you might be wondering? If you know what you are doing and position yourself correctly, you will be working effectively 20 hours per week, unlike the 40 hours you will be working on most jobs - having enough time to build a side business. There is so much you can get by trading your time for money. You have nothing going on? Trade as much as time possible for the money. Semi-set with your life situation? Take the gas off the pedal and let the moves you did earlier pay the dividends.
Drugs and alcohol: We don’t know a single person under 30 who doesn’t think drugs and alcohol are useful. There is truth in it. But, that truth changes fast when you meet someone who destroyed their life by using them. One wrong pill, one wrong line, one wrong trip, and nothing is the same. We are sure many of our readers are using them - especially those working 70+ hour weeks. Overall, they are nothing else but the social lubricants. There are pluses but minuses outweigh them. Our advice? Stay away. What about alcohol? Similar principles. Great for your creativity flow and social situations. If you must use alcohol, ensure you have a good enough reason to do so. The brain fog you will get by using alcohol is real, and no one can deny that. There are zero reasons you should be drinking daily - leave it for special occasions.
Thinking someone else is better than you: The younger crowd struggles with mental barriers such as this. Putting others on a pedestal and thinking they are better than you is a trap. Trap you want to avoid. You realize that those same ones you put on the pedestal are there because they have thousands of hours of work more than you. Your work colleagues, favorite guru, or friend are only better at something because they had more practice than you. Talent plays a role no denying. But talent is not something you should be worried about. It’s outside of your control at the end of the day. Enough of the brute force and working hours can take you to the top in at least 80% of things in life.
Leaving you with a short read to think about.
If you think you are beaten, you are
If you think you dare not, you don't,
If you like to win, but you think you can't
It is almost certain you won't.
If you think you'll lose, you're lost
For out of the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow's will
It's all in the state of mind.
If you think you are outclassed, you are
You've got to think high to rise,
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN! ― Walter D. Wintle