We hope that you are all safe and healthy.
During societal change such as coronavirus there are always winners and losers. Here are some strategies on how to get ahead during this time.
It all comes down to focus. There is a saying by Paulo Coelho
“If you can conquer yourself then you can conquer the world”.
Paulo Coelho is the author of the Alchemist – a great book about finding your dreams.
During this time it is extremely important to conquer yourself so you can spend your time well, and focus on your dreams and goals. What are your goals and dreams? have you written them down? How would you rate your self-discipline and focus? What parts of yourself would you like to improve?
How often are you thinking about these things?
There are two things that I think are very dangerous and can take a lot of time your time, attention and focus away if you are not careful. They can get in the way of thinking about the above things which should be extremely important.
Avoid Social Media
Do you have any notifications on facebook or instagram? Do you want to check it now quickly? and get back to reading this.
Have you ever spent one hour on facebook or instagram and realised that you’ve not actually achieved anything?
Each time you check something you get a feeling of dopamine that rushes into the brain and makes you want to keep checking things. You feel the urge to check randomly.
Do you know that social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin are all designed to make you addicted? They use what is known as “The Hook Model”.
The purpose of these platforms is to make it addictive as possible so that you stay on the platform and they can sell your attention to companies for adverts.
For them, you are the product that is being sold.
This is dangerous for society and dangerous for you if you want to achieve something with your life.
We think that products should serve the best interests of the user.
Delete these apps. How much time will you have left to focus on your hopes and dreams?
We highly suggest that you take a “Time Audit”. Record how you spend your time each week, and review it at the end of the week, and see how you can improve it.
So instead of checking your social media first thing in the morning, how about checking your list of goals? What kind of things do you want to achieve in your life? Start doing that and see how your life will transform.
Avoid the News
The news also exploits a weakness within humans, and that is fear and danger.
Ever since primitive times, we have always been designed to be highly responsive to fear or danger. In those times, our survival depended on it.
It was dangerous then, and as a result, all those that responded to danger quickly, survived, and those with less fear didn’t survive.
But now it is not so dangerous, there are not so many threats, but we are still as highly responsive as we were in those times.
News outlets know this and if they write about these things they know will get more traffic and views.
While it is important to know what is going on in the world, we don’t need to keep checking or watching the news, or responding to news in a reactive manner when you see a dangerous looking headline that turns out to be clickbait.
Instead, be proactive, make a list and plan yourself of how you will get the information that you need to know what is happening from reliable sources, and most of the time that can only take 5-10 minutes per day.
Or, why don’t you invest some time to really deeply understand a global topic so that you can become an expert. You can learn about it on your terms.
Lets Conquer Ourselves
We can still stay connected to people we care about and keep up with what is happening without checking social media and the news.
Lets focus, conquer and improve ourselves so you can get ahead during this time!
Here are some free online courses you can take:
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