Warning: This is not some self-help advice post where I tell you what and how to take everything slowly and patiently. it is more like my personal story.
I always try to save myself from falling into the trap of "rushing to grow". have you ever felt that there is just too much to follow up with? A lot of technologies coming every week -from ChatGPT to thousands of AI tools capable of wiping out the jobs of 50% of the population and on the internet and Youtube especially, we see a lot of people making videos on how they went from being broke to becoming millionaires, we see people posting their monthly earning and yearly earning in dollar value, 21 year old running a successful startup, and we question ourselves (and also feel jealous) Am I doing enough and doing the right thing ?.
In some sense, It is good because it allows us to reflect on our actions. "The things I have done this week, the project I'm working on, the courses I'm taking, are they moving me toward my goals. Maybe I should take advice from some expect in my industry". Maybe It can help you cut down unnecessary activities from your schedule that seem important and productive.
But most of the time, it is not the case. It can also make us that we are just not doing enough and that we should push ourselves harder to catch up or that those people posting their achievements know something that we don't, maybe there is some book or special podcast they listen to - and that might be true. There is just some much uncertainty because the world is moving too fast, everyone achieving something and we are not even done with the basics yet.
So What we do? We rush. We overthink. we block time to take leisure only to find that we are either thinking about work or feeling guilty because we should be doing something instead of enjoying life. So many people are dying of heart failure so you want to read books on health because you are a health-cautious person and you are also reading books on business because you want freedom, but there are also 10 books recommended by a Youtuber to bring your life back on track, you realize that your life is not on track, so you need to read them. What to read first and when will you read your favorite Hunger game series? You see there is just too much to keep up with. there is often conflict between "what we want to do " and "what we should do" and as a result, we lose our focus. We work with preoccupied minds, killing every possibility of deep work.
Real Meaning of Time billionaire
We are told that we all are time billionaires because we have a lot of time, which is not the case for actual billionaires - Yaa that's what they tell you. But nobody tells us are we patient billionaires. nobody tells you how to play strategically and systemically. Listening to podcasts about entrepreneurs is not going to help if you don't have any control over your day and your tasks.
You can't learn calculus if you don't know pre-calculus . you can't climb the mountain without enough training and preparation. All this means that we cannot move ahead if we are not done with the prerequisites and the same is true for almost everything. Being a time billionaire means that we have enough time for learning the prerequisites of life. You have enough time to grow your thinking and develop reasoning skills, learn about your body and biology, learn about business,learn about how to secure your career and learn about how to do what you do more effectively and efficiently.
Try writing down what are your things struggling with the most. Make a list of things and analyze them by finding if they are the root causes or just symptoms. Find out how you can eliminate them systemically without using willpower. Eliminate one at a time. And let me tell you it is a slow process and requires patience. Don't expect that you will sort everything instantly.
These achievers that you see on social media were invisible once, too, just like you and me and they too were reading blog posts like these at some point in their life. but they kept doing their good work, pursuing their goals strategically and realistically, filling the prerequisites that were holding them -one step at a time and, hence, they are on your feed. Remember some never made it on your feed because they were hard-working, but did not play systemically, and kept rushing forward without completing the simple pre-requisites of their life.
I take it slow
I keep a pocket notebook all the time in which I write down my realizations but it is a dangerous weapon against rashness. Whenever I feel the urge to watch some self-help content, I write it down (or put it in watch later if I'm on my pc.) and review the list at the end of the day. this allows me to overcome my short-term urge and I can see where I should spend my time and where not. this way I'm creating a barrier between me and instant access to everything.
I like to reflect. I have a block of time in my day in which I reflect on What I have done in the day, what are the things that went wrong today and Plan. If there is some month-long project, I research it. I'd recommend you to read this post.
On Weekends I pursue my other creative projects like writing this blog posts and making videos. I clean my body properly and also clean my workspace (both physical and virtual). I do weekly planning and reflections on Sundays.
I'm learning about branding, content creation, and blogging and I use social media to share my knowledge and connect with the experts because I know that these achievers are the kind of people I want to surround myself with.
I could not get anything done earlier. this helped.
I'm learning to go easy on myself and taking small and small steps to complete the prerequisites of my life.