From Scratch (Ep. 38)

The Clear Path, Sleep, Week 38 Updates

The Clear Path

The typical path of life was drilled into my head as a kid.

Do good in school.

So I can have a good job.

Then I can be happy.

Do - have - be. Should be a formula for success in life right?

Well, if that was the case then these happiness surveys wouldn’t be so abyssmally low.

I’ve been reading a book called the Happiness Advantage. And it’s reinforced and validated what I’ve questioned about general entrepreneurship culture.

In short, people who learned how to be happy without needing a certain thing (materialistic or status)…

Did better work overall and got better results.

And got what they wanted faster and in higher volume or magnitude than what they were expecting.

In other words, Be-Do-Have.

But flashy social media reporters will tell you…

Hustle, hustle, hustle. So we can build a big ol’ business or live in a mansion overlooking the water.

I’ve met a lot of business folks over the years. Or maybe I haven’t met enough, I don’t know.

But the number of people who make it out of the hustle Do-Have-Be mindset is small. And of those who make it out, the ones who are actually happy is an even smaller number.

You have no idea the amount of people I’ve seen posture and post wins constantly, pretending to be undefeated like Floyd Mayweather.

Then it all stops one day.

Suddenly a long post comes out detailing how their life was a mess. How they’ve changed their ways.

The funniest part is some of them go back to doing exact same thing as before.

Of course you can argue that business is hard and not for everyone. I agree.

But if what the Happiness Advantage says is true, could there be more successful entrepreneurs emerging from the graveyard of burnout?

Not only successful… but happy too.

Legendary salesman Zig Ziglar says, “You have to be before you can do, and do before you can have.”

James Allen in As A Man Thinketh says, “Men do not attract which they want, but that which they are.”

Has the age of social media and flashing exotic sports cars, revenue numbers, mansions, and jets - buried the real formula for success and happiness?

I don’t know. Be-do-have is one of those things that I’ve been intuitively following for the past year and a half. I just couldn’t articulate in words what I was doing.

Now I know. (and another reminder that what I’m searching for is probably in a book somewhere)

But I only have myself as a case study and I’ve been doing things lately are “unlike” a past version of myself. I’ll explain later in the updates section.

I can also extrapolate from this formula to why people suffer from procrastination or never start anything.

They suffer from Have-Do-Be-itis.

They need to have the answers, a great business idea, lots of money…

So they can do what they want like building a business, traveling, trying something new…

Ultimately, so they can be happy or successful. Or so they think.

I know the idea of becoming somebody who feels happy or successful before having certain things can be weird.

I get it, because that was me.

To get over that false belief, I’ve accepted that happiness is a skill. We can learn to be happy, it’s not just something that comes about.

And like any skill, it takes time to get better. There needs to be optimization. And it needs to be constantly worked on.

The only question is, will you be open minded to happiness being a skill?

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The Best “Hack” I Know For A Good Day

I read something pretty ironic in a book recently.

The author of the book was talking to a sleep researcher and the researcher was explaining that the key to looking young is sleep.

Well, then why did this sleep researcher look 20 years past his age?

Because sleep researchers never get any sleep, they study people sleeping.

OK anyways…

I’ve never been able to consistently sleep well. I’ve tried remedies for it.

Melatonin gives me some weird hangover.

Cannabis definitely helps, but it’s hard for me to use it only for sleep.

And I just don’t like sleeping.

The idea that we spend 1/3 of our lives asleep never sat well with me. Like I’m 31 now, so that means I’ve spent 10 years sleeping. (assuming I get the 8 hours every night but I don’t)

But even despite my reservations, I can’t deny the power of a good night’s sleep.

I get my work done easier and faster than a terrible night’s sleep.

And I just feel a whole lot better. My energy and mood is on a high frequency.

Again like earlier, I’ve been fed the idea that to get more done and be more productive…

Sleep needs to be sacrificed.

And I’ve been through that already. Not fun.

I wish I could feel the same with 4 hours of sleep or no sleep at all. But as of right now, there’s no solution for that.

Just like happiness, sleeping is also a skill.

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P4P Week 38 Updates

Momentum building.

More volume, more shots on opportunity.

It’s fight week for one of my clients! I won’t lie, I’m sort of nervous for him haha. But I’m confident he’ll get the job done.

And to continue from the first section, I did do something miles outside my comfort zone.

So I’ve never been great at in-person networking events. I always used to be the person who hangs out by himself at a table or only talks to people who initiate first.

But there have been times where I sucked it up and started approaching people to strike conversations.

So there’s evidence there, I just haven’t done it often.

Well, I’ve been sitting behind a computer screen trying to get clients for the past 2 months with little results. And I know it works, but I saw an opportunity to really make a huge jump.

International Fight Week in Las Vegas July 7-8th.

It’s something I’ve always wanted to go to, but I didn’t know anyone who wanted to go.

There’s going to be a ton of fighters there doing pop-ups and random activations.

So instead of sending cold emails, I can go shake hands in person.

I’ve been ruminating on the idea of going for over a month. And this week…

I’ve jumped in.

I bought my tickets to the event so I’ve pre-suaded myself to go. Just gotta get the flight and hotel.

This is a big step up for me. Traveling alone to an event for the first time and meeting these fighters in person.

Even detailing the event right now is making me nervous. But it’s time to level up!

That’s my only real exciting update for this past week. Other than that, we’re still growing:

1,573 (+44) = 1,617 subscribers

Getting little bumps in momentum the past couple weeks. That’s fine with me, momentum is momentum.

Mastering this messy middle and we’ll get our dopamine high soon.

That ends this week’s issue. As always…

Trust the process, love the process.

Kevin