From the desk of Elijah “The Realist”
Subj: How to be a professional rebel
—————–
You think of rebels, and you think of outlaws, tattoos and guns.
But the reality is that all the massively successful people in the world were either rebels or they were born rich.
Were you born rich?
Maybe you were, but most people weren’t.
And the path laid out for normal people is not the path to riches, it’s the path to mediocrity.
Personally, I’m glad that accountants and dentists exist. I’m glad they didn’t follow their dreams.
But on his deathbed the dentist isn’t going to say to himself “I’m so thankful I never did what I really wanted to do. I’m so glad I never rebelled and fulfilled my destiny“.
Speaking of destiny…
I get the same question asked of me repeatedly…
“Elijah. I want out but I don’t know what I want to do. What should I do?”
Two answers:
- You’re a liar. You know exactly what you want to do. Everyone on earth knows exactly what they want. You know it in your gut. You’re lying to me and you’re lying to yourself when you say you don’t know what you want.
- Asking questions (permission) is simply a way of avoiding action. When you ask a question, you get to wait for an answer. Waiting is the opposite of doing.
There’s a surefire way to living the life of your dreams and a surefire way of living the life of your nightmares
How do you live the life of your dreams?
Easy.
Follow your gut.
Following your gut instinct is the path of the rebel.
How do you live the life of your nightmares?
Even Easier.
Follow the directions laid out by society.
To be a rebel is to face being ostracized.
They say it’s a lonely road to the top so it’s easier and safer to follow the path laid out for you. Gut instinct be damned.
Let’s go back…
Earlier I said you’re a liar if you say you don’t know what you want out of life.
The reality is that you know exactly what you want out of life, you’re simply scared of admitting it.
When you pretend that you don’t know what you want, and you ask questions like “What should I do?” what you’re actually looking for is confirmation that your gut instinct is “OK”.
Too bad. You can’t have confirmation.
Confirmation is for the 9-5ers. It’s not for the rebels. It’s not for the highly successful.
You can have confirmation if you want to be a dentist or a banker.
You can’t have confirmation if you want to be an artist or an entrepreneur.
No one is going to give you confirmation that it’s OK to rebel.
But there’s a conundrum…
You will only attain MASSIVE SUCCESS if you rebel and go against the grain.
Not only will success come when you rebel but you may be hailed as a genius and a leader. They’ll sit around you and say “wow, I wish I could do what you do“.
You’ll think to yourself “you can do what I do. Just stop waiting for confirmation. The longer you wait for confirmation the further you will get from your goal.”
But you won’t say it out-loud anymore. Because by that point you’ll realize that everyone who asks you for advice is a time waster.
Everyone that asks you “what should I do?” is simply looking for a way to stall.
How to fulfill your destiny
Stop asking “what should I do?” because you already know the answer. It’s been decided by your gut already.
I know but the self-doubt stops you.
I know you think you aren’t good enough, I know you think you don’t deserve massive success, I know you think you aren’t smart enough.
But it doesn’t take a genius to get wealthy. It takes determination and a belief in yourself.
Dumb people get rich every single day.
The difference between them and you?
Self-belief.
So how do you get rid of self-doubt and replace it with self-belief?
Always follow your gut instinct.
See, I know something that maybe you don’t know…
The gut is the second biggest nerve center in the human body and your gut can be called your “second brain”.
The decision-making part of your mind is tightly interconnected with your gut and the decision-making part of the human body has very little connection with the area in the brain that processes words.
So where does the decision making process happen?
In your gut.
Your gut makes a decision in an instant. What happens is your brain rationalizes why you shouldn’t want what you want. But you can’t fool your gut.
Here’s a game for the game players and time wasters
If you don’t believe what I’m saying to you, fine, no problem. But do two things for me.
1) Stop emailing me your time-wasting questions and
2) play this game…
The game is called “How to Decide What You Want”.
Here’s what you do…
Pick two options.
Pick what you know you want in your gut. And then, pick the thing that you’re pretending to want.
Now flip a coin.
Heads you follow your gut, tails you follow your brain.
It doesn’t matter if the coin lands on heads or tails. When the coin was in the air you were wishing for heads and you knew what you wanted.
Now you have confirmation. You don’t need to ask for permission anymore longer. You know exactly what you want.
So just go do it already.
No more analysis paralysis. No more questions allowing you to stall.
Until next time.
Your man,
-Elijah “The Realist”
