Bring Back the Basics (Adopt the Beginner’s Mindset)

Anyone who has instructed men (and yes, this tends to be a male issue) has endured the frustration of hearing bizarre question after bizarre question…from people who haven’t mastered the basics.

If you teach a man how to ride a motorcycle he’ll tell you the guy on YouTube told him something else, and then he’ll ask you how to avoid colliding into an asteroid. Meanwhile he can’t remember to let up off the accelerator when hitting the brakes.

Men who aren’t eating enough protein or moving enough iron or training with any intensity obsess over whether it’s better to do fasted cardio, or cardio after taking BCAAS.

In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu guys learning a basic move like a kimura want to know what to do if the other guy escapes it. Well if you can’t get the guy in a kimura, why are you worried about escapes?

People want to argue with me about Internet marketing plug-ins and squeeze pages when they can’t even draw an audience…How can you sell something if you can’t get people to read what you’re offering for FREE?

Adopt the beginner’s mindset.
“Do everything I tell you to do and nothing I’ve NOT told you to do.”

Find a guide.

REAL life is BEST – and a requirement for a fighting art like BJJ.

But the Internet is full of books, instructional videos, and podcasts. You can learn anything you like.

Do everything you are told. Yes, follow the guide blindly.

You don’t know enough to form coherent arguments. Don’t worry, you’ll be a “know-it-all” soon enough.

I had no idea how to build an email list until one of my Internet Marketing cousins showed me how to.

Now I do my own experiments and we exchange ideas as peers, but make no mistake: I started off by keeping my mouth shut and paying attention.

Do not do anything you aren’t told to do.

But what about taking initiative?!

You don’t know enough to take initiative, and all of your actions will likely be counter-productive.

Embrace being a beginner by adopting the beginner’s mindset.

You don’t hate the basics because you’re smart.
You hate them because you’re bored.

Learning the basics is boring, as there are only a few basic moves.

You must drill these moves over and over until they become instinctual. Learning the basics well is painstakingly boring.

What is writing?

We all know 10,000 words by the time we are 8, and we know 30,000 or so words by adulthood.

Writing is nothing more than stringing together words you already know, day-after-day, week-after-week, year-after-year.

Writing a book is simple. Write every single day.

“How can you build an audience, Elijah?”

Write 2,000 words every day and take 3 pictures you can upload to your website. That means writing 2,000 words every single day.

Who wants to do that when there are widgets to “optimize your SEO,” and you can pay for Twitter followers and Facebook likes to get that ego fill.

Facebook likes are worthless.

How can you lose fat?

Don’t drink any calories other than green juice and protein shakes (with minimal fruit).

For 80% of people, that’s the #1 KEY to successful weight loss.

Cut out the colas, beer, and wine, and you’ll look better than 80% of Americans.

Drop the bread, dairy, and processed foods and you’re in the top 10%.

How can you become better looking?

Do you wear sunscreen each day?

UV rays cause premature aging.

You should also be drinking green juice, drinking smoothies, and eating a lot of vegetables, as the pigments in vegetables give your skin a glow.

But if you’re not wearing sunscreen every day, forget about the fancy stuff in those skincare for men articles.

Focus on the basics.

How can I make more money?!

How many hours did you spend today (after your regular job) earning money?

Even if you only earn $5/hr on eLance, you’re adopting the right money-making mindset.

Break The Cycle Mindset shift: It doesn’t matter how much (or little) you earn when starting your side business.

What matters is you start something and begin to focus on earning supplemental income. Those income streams will become rivers over time.

Are you working every weekend on your side job or business?

Or are you too hungover from the night before?

Break The Cycle Mindset shift: If you’re poor, you’re not allowed to have fun.

“But I don’t have time.” Fair enough.

You know it all.

Why are you asking me questions?

Good luck.

Yes, life can become complicated.
After you’ve mastered the basics.

When you have a good physique, life gets hard.

How do you go from 14% body fat to 10% body fat while holding on to your muscle?

How do you keep that grainy and hard muscular look?

How do you diet for a men’s physique show.

That’s hard! That’s where fasted cardio, optimal cardio timing and heart rate, and other stuff factors in.

Looking like me (even at my best) is simple. Looking like a Professional Bodybuilder is very, VERY complicated!

Once you have some money, life gets hard.

How do you manage your money most efficiently?

How do you deal with “friends and family” asking you for money or telling you about their great investment ideas?

How do you maximize your return on investment by doing a present value calculation?

What’s a yield and how can you play the spread and what’s geo-arbitrage?

Is wealth management a scam or does it have value as you’re given access to a private banker, and also your wealth management fees are tax deductible.

What about taxes?!

But until you’re dollar cost averaging into an index fund and following the other money mindset principles from Break The Cycle, you don’t need to worry about any of that.