|
You want to start creating content online because you hear it’s such an easy way to make money from the couch. But you don’t know where to start or maybe you’re just stock in a rut with writer’s block. Or maybe, just maybe, you’re too lazy to make anything content-wise because it seems like too much work. Well, luckily for you, I’ve composed a list of lazy topics you can cover that don’t actually take much effort to write or produce at all. Last week we covered the rules for creating great content, while still being a lazy ass, and now let’s dive into the specific topics we can cover as Procrastin8rs... 1. Make a list of top things related to your niche Yup, Let’s get this out the way. I’m writing a “Top List” here because it’s easy content to make and I don’t feel like doing much today (or ever, really). But point is it’s just something you can slap together without really much effort or thought at all. It’s just a matter of curating things you like (or hate for that matter). And that’s really it. I mean you can choose to be a bit more objective and do some research, but when creating a list, it really comes down to your own opinion and what *you* think. You could be wrong, People could disagree. But whatever. As long as the list Entertains, Informs, or Persuades your audience, you’re good. This list here, for example: I’m no guru or expert, I’m just a lazy dude with an opinion and these are things that I personally find to be easy. Some may disagree with this list. That’s on them. I ain’t too upset about it. But this list here does teach you a thing or two about content creation, or at least I hope it does. Whatever if it doesn’t The only criteria you need to have in your own list is that it does have to be something RELEVANT to your niche. It should also either Entertain, Inform, or Persuade, as I mentioned,but it can’t be stressed enough and this idea really applies to all content in general, not just Top Lists, so staple it in your brain. No one likes boring content or at the very least can’t even provide any sort of value (like learning a thing or two) You can make a “Best of” or “Worst of”, depending on whatever mood you’re in. Feeling like shit? Make a list of things that pisss you off (in your niche) Feeling awesome? Make a list of things that excite you (in your niche) Here are some examples you can bounce off of to get some ideas: Top Ranged Weapons in Old School Runescape Best NPC dialogue lines in Outer Lands Worst and Cheesiest Jokes in Star Wars Best Fall Recipes with Rum Worst Glitches in Resident Evil You get the gist. Make it something simple yet interesting. You can also add a bit of a twist and combine the “best of” and “worst of” in one list to create a concoction of criticizing and appreciating at the same time. You can use a little “tough love” Most Annoying Pop Songs (That We Secretly LOVE) Most Frustrating Board Game Mechanics (That Actually Work Well) Basically set it up so that you can talk about why you hate said thing and also why you love it at the same time. Lists are also something that a lot of people like to read (or watch or listen to, depending on the format of the content you are producing.) It’s not a lot of work and people like it. So BOOM! That’s ProcrastiN8r approved. You can even Google or look on Youtube for other lists on the same topic you’re covering, in case you’ve got something like eight out of ten and are a bit stumped for the last two or just need an idea for your own. Mix n’ match from other people’s lists to create one of your own. Borrow from others. Just be sure to not copy/paste verbatim. Google punishes you for that in the rankings. Mix up the wording a bit too. Or you could just do it the real lazy way and just say “Top X”, where X is the number of things you actually came up with for the list off the top of your head  2. Do a AMA/Q&A No need to brainstorm, outline, and/or write drafts for a topic when you could just have your audience ask you questions. Make an Ask Me Anything post. That way, the topic/quesiton to be answered is provided for you. BOOM! Really the only downside to this is that you kind of need an actual audience to be able to well, ya know, talk to you and ask you questions. However, if you don’t have that many subscribers, don’t worry, man, chill. It’s not the end of the world and you’ll get there...eventually. If you’re at the point where you don’t have a large active audience (who are willing and able to ask questions), you can also just take questions that *audiences within your niche* are already asking. I know see, you’re asking: Wait. What? How? The answer is simple: Take a look at the F.A.Q. section of a website within your niche. These are quite literally the Frequently Asked Questions that people in your current audience (or at the very least *target* audience that you’re trying to attract) are asking, so show you have the authority to answer them. Watch top influencers in your niche and their Q&A to see what people are asking too. Then put your own spin to the answers. Of course, obviously, you want to avoid the questions about their personal life or whatever. You can even bring it up like… Someone asked A reader asked A viewer asked A listener asked Be vague. You don’t have to mention that this particular person was from another another website/blog. This can help establish authority within your niche. And that’s really what you want: authority. You want people in your niche to come *to you* with their questions, and you do that by showing that you can answer questions to begin with. You don’t necessarily have to be *too* thorough and detailed. Provide an answer that’s “just good enough” and long enough to answer the question. As a matter of fact, the simpler you break it down, the better, because, no offense, but a lot of the audience you want to come read your blog or come watch your videos are noobs (assuming they are asking questions and trying to search for answers of course) But they’re noobs. They really are. They don’t know the basic ins and outs. Like any good veteran player, you can help them get started with the game by answering their questions, and avoiding unnecessary detail. Take a look at the ELI5 (Explain Like I’m Five) Subreddit A lot of these are general questions, but you’ll get an idea on how to break down complex answers to complex questions and make them consumable. Also, take a look at relevant subreddits to your niche and see what people are asking there. You could even comment your answer and repurpose that comment for a paragraph in blog or part of a video script. Experts aren’t the ones asking questions, especially basic ones. Noobs are! Of course, you could write for a more expert audience, but that seems like way too much work for me, man. Maybe, eventually, I’ll write more advanced content. You do have to grow with your audience and “level up” if you want to keep them around, otherwise they’ll move one once they feel you’re “below” their level of knowledge, skill, or expertise. When starting out, it is recommended that you make your content “Noob Friendly” Experts already have the people they trust and the information sources they go to. They’re not going to be as welcoming or open to hearing from “the new guy” It’s easier to target people who have not a fucking clue what any of the shit (within your niche) means. That way, as long as you’re helpful, they’ll stick around. You can help cultivate them and build them up. Then when they are experts themselves, you’re still the guy/gal they go to.  3. Review a product, service, or app Easy. This is just like a Top List, but instead of giving a brief commentary on a bunch of things, you’re going to slow down and take the time to go into a bit of depth with focus on one thing. Just be honest and tell what you think about something. That’s really all. Although, note that it’s important you actually know what the fuck you’re talking about and can provide RELEVANT and interesting feedback and aren’t just saying “yeah, it’s good” or “nah bro, it suck” Include information your niche would want to actually know and that they would find important, If you’re pulling it out of your ass, your audience will know. So don’t review cars if you don’t know anything about cars. I can’t stress enough how important it is (especially if you’re trying to do this the lazy way) it is to create content for a niche that you find interesting or better yet, that you are a part of. It’s much easier to talk about something, or review something for that matter, if you yourself are part of the niche and alreadyunderstand what details the niche wants to hear about in your review. Your review should touch base on things your niche actually cares about Furthermore, no one wants an agenda shoved in their face. So just stick to the review/content and don’t spew out political or ideological viewpoints (unless of course your niche is a specific religion or something, but in general, unless your content is actually political or religious, don’t include a sermon) This is why a lot of game and movie quote on quote “journalists” receive a lot of criticism because they are so concerned with pushing a social or political agenda instead of actually focusing on substance. A lot of these people don’t even play games as a hobby, at least that’s how it comes across. What’s it like to play the game? What do the graphics look like? How smooth are the animations? Again, the content here is based entirely on your views and opinions but be sure to also include a bit of information on what your niche actually came to see. Don’t surprise them like a Jahova witness dressed up like a pizza delivery guy. Give them content and value to their hobby, not a moral lesson. That’s not why they came here. If the title is “Days Gone Review”, then talk about the game, not how toxic masculinity is ruining society and the game is part of it, for example. Also, keep in mind the types of things your niche likes and don’t show any feelings of resentment towards them. If you’re writing about fishing, for example, don’t complain about the “nastiness” of gutting a fish. Fishers love gutting the fish and getting their hands dirty out on the boat. Likewise don’t complain about how something like Call of Duty is “too realistic” If you can’t help but feel uneasy about a certian aspect of your niche, keep those feelings to yourself. ...Or just find a new hobby/niche. Take a look at a company, product, or website and dive into a little case study. This can either be a best or worst case study. Examine a specific company (or their product/service), then talk about why it’s kick ass or why it sucks ass. Books, comics/cartoons, videos, articles are all possibilities in what you can review. You can give it a score or not. Personally I always found numbers to be arbitrary though. I like what Acorn Films does with his scoring system on game reviews, where he gives an “award” by comparing a specific game to a celebrity.  4. Behind the Scenes Show people a “Day in the Life”, like how you’re just laying on the couch watching Netflix and eating Flaming Hot Cheetos. Show what you do outside of your content. This is a good way to show that you’re an actual...person, and not just some Internet star. Get off the stage and show people you’re a procrastin8r IRL. This is easy to post about because well, you’re not really changing your routine very much, or setting aside time to work, other than the fact that you’re now sharing what you do on a normal basis with other people. You may value your privacy and not want to Good. Don’t Don’t share too many details. It’s the Internet, not a personal scrap book or diary. But do share a little so people see the “off stage”, “real” you. You can also talk about how that content is produced in the first place, like they used to in the bonus sections of DVDs. This again, pretty easy, and is just a matter of walking your audience through your production flow. When you’re first starting out, going behind the scenes is actually NOT recommended though. This is because, well, quite bluntly, no one cares about you. They don’t. No one even knows who you are. You’re a nobody when you first start out, and people want content, not insight about a person they never even heard about. Your first step in content creation is to build authority. Build notoriety. Become a trusted source within your niche. Theeeen you can start getting personal. But until you actually have an established brand and actually have an established trust with your audience, then you really shouldn’t talk about who you No one would watch a person on the street in an interview talk about his life, but people love celebrity interviews (and maybe even obsess over them). I mea Take note. Notoriety is the resource you need for your Behind the Scenes content to be valuable. I mean heck, if you’re famous enough, people will literally stalk you (paparazzi) and force you to make “Behind the Scenes” content. You can start dropping Behind the Scenes” stuff into your *ther*content, after building a bit of rapport, like maybe sharing a personal anecdote or two, but really as a content creator nooby, don’t go overboard with the BTS stuff and keep it minimal.  5. Conduct an Interview Speaking of celebrity interviews, this is one of the best (and of course laziest) content you can create. Interviews. Instead of making content yourself or doing all the talking, let someone else do it for you. Quite easy. Interviews are just a matter of asking questions that you (and further, your audience) want(s) to learn about It's really just a conversation, an exchange of ideas. There are always going to be people that know more than you do in your niche. Rather than trying to compete, let them talk on your channel, let them be featured on your website. This gives them exposure for their own content (to your audience) and also takes a lot of the grunt work off your back by letting them share their expertise. Your audience learns something, which is most important. You may even get yourself exposed to *their* audience as well. It just an all around win for everyone involved. Reach out to influencers within your niche and grab them for an interview. And better yet, go after book authors. Influencers make AWESOME interviweees because they... 1. Want to expand their reach and influence as much as possible (and could 2. Have a large following of people in your niche (which you could attract) 3. Already produce entertaining/informative content (that they could bring to your audience) Book authors make AWESOME interviewees because they..
It never hurts to ask, and worst case scenario they say No. Whatever. Rejection happens, move on. If you don’t get a response right away, you can follow up later. Have a bit of patience and persistence. You don’t have to book them today. Heck, let them procrastinate their yes. When requesting an interview, don’t focus so much on the numbers. Focus on the value, trust, and connection you have to your audience and how the potential guest would be a perfect fit for them. Say something like “I know my audience would LOVE you and likely follow you and seek more content from you.” Also, be sure to make it clear that the interview will NOT be an infomercial, and while they can of course give their plug (for their website or new book or whatever), the conversation will be geared towards providing value. That’s what you need to provide your audience is value. How can they (your audience) benefit from this person being a part of your show? What can they learn from this person? Let them know you want to pick their brain, not create an advertisement. Be sure to say the more value they can provide, the more likely your audience will be to follow them as well (and create potential leads) Again, your audience trusts you (or is learning to trust you) and the last thing they want is a half hour long commercial smacked in their face. When reaching out to your potential guest, make it abundantly clear that it won’t just be a promotional pitch to buy something, but a real and riveting conversation. Then just talk and have a good time. Even if you’re writing a blog, RECORD the interview. That way you have quotes you can find and use for writing purposes (and maybe even social media posts with a block quote and their picture) You can use free software like OBS to record Skype or Discord. Always confirm permission before recording them though. Not only are interviews quite easy and low effort to do, they’re also a great way to network and meet important people and strong influencers within your niche and that creates much more opportunity than a simple blog article or video or podcast episode. By interviewing people within your niche, you are building relationships and potentially exposing yourself to a new audience and of course, producing content for your audience at the same time. Maximum efficiency. Minimum effort. Now if you’re feeling shy or nervous about talking to other people: Don’t feel pressured to get everything right or ask all the right questions. Don’t worry about being judged or gaining their approval. Take the attitude of “They’re lucky to be on MY show”, not the other way around. Adjust your mental attitude that yes, you deserve this. You deserve to have this person on your show. Interviews are just conversations and you can always edit out the bullshit banter or nervous later or awkward pauses later. And no matter how “big” the person is, even A-list celebrities, they’re just people. Relax, man. You got this interview shit. It’s cake. And that is NOT a lie.  6. How Tos You have the knowledge. You know how to do shit. Just write it down or record it (on the mic/camera). Share your knowledge and be that lazy genius expert you are. Teach something and make a simple step-by-step guide that’s easy to follow. Keep it concise and valuable. Make a guide that people want to watch/read/listen to. Be entertaining but not over-the-top. Get to the point and don’t trudge on too many details. Be short and practical at the same time. Not only is it more work to be detail-oriented, it’s also not actually effective Imagine trying to learn Calculus after you first earn numbers. Of course, it may be appropriate to dive into Calculus for an advanced mathematics lesson. So perhaps it is inaccurate to say avoid telling details, but make sure the amount of details you include is matched the level of knowledge and experience your core audience has. Include RELEVANT details. In other words, don’t get to the nitty gritty if your audience doesn’t even have a basic foundation of what it is you’re talking about. Also, make sure your guide is ACTIONABLE and include something your audience can DO right now...or later, whenever they feel like it. For me, it helps to ask myself: “If I was learning this as a noob, how do I wish someone explained it to me?” I always try to teach something in a way I wish someone had taught me and hence that’s why i started teaching these lazy tactics towards financial and personal success - I explain it in a way that I wish someone told me.  7. Respond to someone else’s content This, again, literally, not even your own stuff. You’re just taking someone else’s work and putting your commentary over it. The easiest content creation can get, frankly. And there are entire YouTube channels dedicated to people just reacting to things (music, videos, speeches, etc). Literally these quote on quote “video creators” don’t create a goddamn thing in their life and just watch other people’s shit and record their face over it. Some of them are making bank too! You should probably have an interesting personality or at the very least interesting reaction to things if you’re gonna make this sort of content work though. Boring or emotionally unresponsive people need not apply. I mean I would say it helps to not be boring, unless you’re going for the super ironic meme kinda weird shit humor people have nowadays, I’d say you should have a charming, genuine reaction. At the very, very least be genuine in your reactions. Don’t fake an emotion just because you think that’s the way you *should* react. People can sniff that out like a hound. Besides,a real procrastin8rs express their own true emotions and don’t dance around for other people. Don’t be a jester eliciting emotions in a slapstick way, unless of course, that's in your nature. However you react, it shouldn't feel forced. Just be real with what you feel. True reactions are funnier and more entertaining than exaggerated ones that don't come from a place of authenticity. Watch something and see how you react. Record it and share it with a few friends. If they like it, then you can scale it up a bit and go public with your “reaction channel”. If even your friends find you to be a bore in reaction to things, then you probably want to find some other type of content to produce. You can also rant about something in particular that a person said in an article they wrote or video they made. This usually involves a lot of the pause, comment, play cycle, where you show a bit of the content, react to that specific portion of it, then continue on to the next section, rinse and repeat, instead of reacting to the whole piece in its entirety. That’s the main difference between a “Review” and a “Reaction” A Reaction is more live and in the moment. A Review is a reflection and afterthought. A Reaction is more of a break down piece by piece. And a Review is more of am “overview” of sorts. Basically, Reactions are more improvisational, or at least they can be. A lot of times the top Reaction Videos are totally rehearsed and pre-planned. As cheesey as it might be to rehearse something, it can be a decent way to iron out lackluster comments, jokes, and puns in your reactions. On the other hand, it kind of loses that genuineness. A good way to combine the genuineness of improv and the polish of rehearsal and sort of balance the two is to record your genuine reaction (with no script) at first, and maybe even a few times after that. Then make a reel of the “best of” moments. That way you get *real* reactions but don’t sound like you’re just reading lines from a script. Play Devil's Advocate Another way to react to react to content is to play Devil’s advocate and look for the flaws in their arguments and critique them vigorously, even if you actually agree with them. Armored Skeptic on YouTube and Penn & Teller’s Bullshit are great examples of “debunking” ridiculousness.  8. Copy & Procrastinaste And finally, last but certainly not least on our list is the good ole Copy & Procrastinaste. In case you don’t know what that means or forget, it’s basically just recycling your old content or rewriting the content of others. I already covered this topic in detail before. Quite a few times actually. And I never received any complaints for repeating content. As a matter of fact, people appreciate it! People love hearing a review or getting further insight. And that’s exactly the point. I’ve done this content before. I just sort of re-worded it and re-purposed it now. Once you have enough content written, there comes a point where you’re just pulling it up again. And that’s completely okay. You don’t have to cook a pizza that’s already cooked. Just add different toppings and spices. In case you want something a bit more fresh, you can always use someone else’s content for inspiration. When you do Copy and Procrastinaste, make sure you do one of the following: 1. Add further insight 2. Re-purpose for a different format (eg. a blog to a podcast or vice versa ,a newsletter to a blog, etc) 3. Take a different angle (ie.offer a different opinion, if you were more critical, be more praising and if you were more praising, be more critical) 4. Relate it to a current event Wrapping Up And there you have it, the laziest topics you can quite possibly cover for your blog, vlog, or podcast. Remember it's not about how much you say, but how you say it. Quality over quantity. Do less with more focus. Make less content with more focus. You shouldn't put too much effort into producing content. Anyone that tells you "OMG content creation is a lot of work is LYING." Lying. They are kidding themselves. I mean yeah, go tell that to industrial workers. That shooting a video or typing a few Google doc pages or tlaking to a microphone is quote "a lot of work" Content creation doesn't require a lot of work. It just requires a lot of focus. Take it easy, N8 P.S. Speaking of lying, next week, we'll talk about the importance of being honest in your content creation and in your life and how much easier it is than lying. Subscribe to the newsletter so you don't miss it.
0 Comments
So you want to make money from the comforts of your own home and you read somewhere that maybe you should start a blog or YouTube channel or Podcast...
Yet you’re intimidated by the amount of work involved in doing so. See, too many other blogs out there tell you to do this and do that. They tell you content creation is a lot of hard work. Like it’s gonna be a whole other full time job. SPOILER: It’s not. Look, I’m lazy af and I hate work. I’m not gonna do something that requires busting my ass to get done. Fortunately, content creation is actually one of the easiest ways to make money online. If you want to make content, but are too lazy to do it, here are some tips to make it as easy as possible You can apply these tips to writing a blog, making a video, or even recording a podcast. By no means am I an expert marketer or anything. I’m just a lazy dude, but this is what works for me. Without further ado let’s dive right into it. Lket's learn the lazy way to write and produce content... 1. Don’t be original Yup, I said it. Don’t be original. Don’t do it. Luckily for you, as a lazy content creator, originality is overrated .The secret is most top content is actually based on someone else’s work and isn’t original at all. I mean heck, even in literature, great works like Lord of the Rings were based on fable stories that pre-dated it. We’ve reached the point in human history where nothing is truly original and we’re just kind of...tweaking things, at this point. That’s all you’re going to do when you write content -- tweak content that’s already written, not make anything brand new. All these other marketing websites out there will tell you “be original” and “make something unique”. But they’re WRONG. They don’t understand that people want to read what is popular or helpful, not what is necessarily original. Being original unfortunately doesn’t always lead to capturing attention (and very rarely does, quite frankly). Look there’s need to reinvent the wheel... or come up with an original idea for content, for that matter when it’s more effective to sort of “steal” from others. What's working is working. Take content that’s already working and make it your own. Content is already out there that is gaining attention, the thing you want as a marketer and content creator. Instead of trying to find something else to attract the eyes and ears of viewers, listeners, and/or readers, just re-make the same thing that’s already a success. Search Google trends for trending articles or find popular articles (liked/upvoted) on Facebook or Reddit. Then put it into your own blog, video or podcast. It’s as simple as that. But don't make it look like you're a complete copycat, either Now, to be clear, I’m not saying you should copy everything verbatim. That just won’t do your website any justice. Reason being is that Google actually punishes websites that copy content word for word. You have to re-word it a bit and trick the algorithm into thinking that your content is quote on quote “original” (although it’s really not because all you’re doing is copying other people’s content...with tact) So in pulling off a little c&p, don’t just paste it into your blog (or video/podcast script) and call it a day. This includes using a bot to scrape content and re-order iit or even asking permission to a website owner to re-post content. Google now analyzes your content to see how much of it is copied from another source. Don’t copy directly, but copy...strategically Don't be the kid that copies homework word for word and gets both ya'll caught! Make it original “enough” and copy with a bit of lazy tactics. The easiest way to re-write the article and avoid any punishment from Google is simple: Pretend you’re telling a friend about the article. This will accomplish two things
You can record on your phone and upload it to a site like Scribie, where you can get a FREE automated transcript or even use voice to text on Google Docs. Note that this is AI and may not be completely accurate, so you’ll want to double check everything for correct grammar. You can also use the good ole handy dandy Thesaurus and replace some words and cut out some sentences then change the structure. You’re not really being original at all, you’re just dissecting and rearranging things at that point. Easy. You can also backlink to top tier sites, which actually boosts your rankings. Linking to high quality popular sites does mad good for your website rank. 2. Don’t put it in your own words While you want to re-word the content in your own voice (without being too original of course), you actually don’t want to use too much of your own verbiage either. What you do want to use a lot of though is SEO, Search Engine Optimization. SEO is basically “shit people are searching for” and you want to make sure you’re using those key phrases in your content, especially written content because that’s what the search engines like Google analyze. This means a lot of the content you quote on quote “write” is really just catering to what people want to find on the Interwebs. Use SEO and use SEO a lot. That’s literally what gets people to find you and consume your content. You put shit, the exact words and phrases, that people are searching for in your content. That’s it. That’s what SEO is in a nutshell. You’re using words that are already typed out for you. Easy. Lazy. Awesome. And keep it SIMPLE. Really Simple. As a general rule of thumb when creating SEO rich content, you’ll want to keep your language simple. Quite frankly, using fancy schmancy elaborate vocabulary isn’t the best for SEO. Use simple words and common language because it’s often more in line with what people are actually searching for (no one searches “methods to prevail when you are a lethargic human being” but they will search “how to be successful when you’re lazy”) Search for the phrases that people are typing into search engines and put them in your article. Keyword Tool is useful in searching Amazon, eBay, Google Trends, PlayStore, Instagram, and Twitter all in one place. Likewise, look at trending hash tags (within your niche) on Twitter and Instagram Don’t just add key phrases in your article just to fill up space, with no context. That really isn’t effective (and not to mention a boring ass read) As a matter of fact, Google again comes in and hits you with the punishment hammer if your website is just a list of keyword phrases. The algorithm searches for content that “just so happens” to cover those keywords. So instead of making a grocery list of SEO friendly terms, make the keywords “flow” seamlessly within your content. Insert key words and phrases in sentences where they would fit and try to fit it into as many places as possible. You again need to cleverly trick the algorithm and make it think you have quality content that people are searching for. 3. Don’t say anything at all They say a photo is worth a thousand words. Yep, that sounds good to me. That means less writing is involved in the content creation process and more finding juicy memes. If you can say a lot with a photo, then do it. It’s much easier than trying to write more. Use images, gifs, videos, and block quotes in your content (or in the case of video/podcast use clips or music). Not only does this look aesthetically appealing to the eye(No one likes to look at a giant block of text), it also can help communicate the message you’re trying to convey without rambling on and on in a lengthy paragraph. It saves time and effort and looks good. Nice. That’s the ProcrastiN8r way - minimizing effort and maximizing results. WATCH OUT for copyright! Now unlike copying the written content, you can’t just change it a bit in Photoshop or Premiere then call it yours. No. It’s not like re-writing articles. You have to either make original images or use ones that are licensed under Creative Commons and basically let you use for free, without paying royalties, as long as you give the author credit. Copyright-free sites: I recommend sites like FreePik and NeedPix for free images. Kevin Macleod is my man when it comes to Creative Commons music at incompetech You can browse by genre, tempo, and even “feels”. It’s very easy to find the type of sound you’re looking for. Soniss offers a FREE (25 GB+) library of sound effects every year after the Game Developers Conference. I use those free sound effects in my podcast ALL. THE. TIME. They’re great quality too. You can also just search “creative commons”. Be careful not to confuse “royalty free” with “creative commons” Royalty free doesn’t necessarily mean “100% free. It just means you’re not paying a “subscription price” each month or year to continue to use the content, but there’s *usually* an upfront fee involved to gain permission to use it. Creative Commons lets you pst it *as long as* you give attribution to the original artist. Giving attribution to someone does NOT automatically grant you permission to use a graphic or audio freely; that applies ONLY if it is Creative Commons. As a rule of thumb.... DO NOT use copyright material. Ever. This includes but is not limited to photos, videos, and music. Posting someone else’s content as your own is very, very illegal. You risk de-monetizing your content, getting it shut down, or worse, facing a lawsuit that could cost you up the wazoo in legal fees and penalties. If you didn’t make it, or you didn't get permission, don’t post it. But can you post memes? There’s sort of a grey area when it comes to memes. Technically the copyright owner has all the rights and you’re NOT allowed to post any memes unless you get permission. Though, there is some debate as to whether or not posting a meme constitutes as “fair use”. Know Your Meme has had to taken down some posts due to receiving a few cease and desist letters from the copyright owner In 2013, the owners of the cats featured in Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat won a suit against Warner Bros. for using the images of their cats in a video game. While using memes are sort of iffy in terms of copyright, they definitely are NOT 100% protected and you should be aware of this when choosing to post a meme. I would back link the source from MemeCenter or 9Gag or whatever site you find your memes on, that way it’s “on them” in terms of any copyright issues. But either way, the image source may be broken. (assuming you use the original meme’s link and don’t re-upload it to your own website yourself) Be cautious in choosing your memes and always, always, ALWAYS cite your sources and keep whatever watermark you can. NEVER REMOVE A WATERMARK! Of course, citing your sources doesn’t mean you are allowed to use it (unless it’s under the Creative Commons license as mentioned, but the standard copyright does NOT grant you permission to just wheely neely post anything you want) You can also simply ask the owner of the site permission to use the graphic. Describe what your blog will be about and how it will be used within the context of the blog. I’m a bit of a procrastin8r and usually write my content last minute though and don’t have time to reach out, and I imagine you’re in the same boat in your own content creation. So I follow the rule of “do it first then apologize after” instead of “ask for permission and get turned down” I site the image and back link to article in which I originally found it. I then e-mail them and say: “Hey, I used your image on this page [insert link to original article] on my blog [insert my own blog link]. I put a link to your site, crediting you for the image. Let me know if that’s cool, otherwise I’ll just take it down.” If they tell me to take it down, I take it down. If not, then I keep it up. I always keep the backlink active just to be safe. Graphs and charts are usually okay to re-post as long as you cite the source, but again, it’s best to check with the owner/original publisher. The safest way to avoid any copyright infringement is to just not post anything copyright all. Post your own shit. Pretty straightforward. Heck, you can draw stickmen if you’re not much of an artist to “get the point across” or make your own silly skits in a video or podcast. Sometimes this is actually easier to just make something rather than “finding the perfect meme” because rather than combing the Interwebs for the perfect match (to your blog/video/podcast), you create the perfect match for yourself. 4. Don’t write a lot Quality over quantity. More words in a blog or video script or podcast does NOT mean better content. Make it concise and get to the damn point. Don’t beat around the bush and make more effort for yourself. There’s no need to dance and do acrobats when you’re just trying to put a Hot Pocket in the microwave. Say what you want to say. No more, no less. There was a study that found that the optimal word length is 2000+ per article, as that is the minimum number of words the top rankings on Google tend to have But I wouldn’t focus so much on numbers as much as the VALUE you can provide. Give your audience enough to feel satisfied but at the same time... Make people want more! Don’t leave them so hungry for more that they feel like their appetite wasn’t even satisfied a little but. But don’t feed them so much that they over-eat. Give them “just enough” and like a good chef, make it taste good! The content you write (in a blog or script) should have IMPACT. An easy way to do this is to make your content ACTIONABLE. Give your audience something to do and change their lives for the better (or become better at a talent or skill relevant to your niche) The second most important thing your content should have next to quality is consistency. It doesn’t matter if you post on late night weekends or mid afternoons on Wednesdays. Whenever you decide you are going to post, post, but keep it consistent and never deviate from that time. You can’t really build an audience unless you are consistent. And again it doesn't really have to be a lot. Just consistent. When should people expect to get new content from you? You pick the time, whenever you want dude. You’re your own boss. But do make sure you always do it on that time that *you* choose. Create consistent quality content, not a whole bunch of it. It doesn’t need to be a lot of content or even be the first site to “break the news”. While breaking a story or being among the first to report it may help boost your SEO temporarily, in terms of building a loyal fan base that keeps coming back to read, watch, or listen to your content, it does pop diddly squat. It doesn’t do shit. It’s better to procrastinate and wait for your “Content Posting Day” before telling the “news breaking” story so you can remain consistent for your audience. In his interview on the ProcrastiN8r Podcast on lvl 60, Sam Prisetly described how a video of him playing table tennis for an entire year and tracking his progress (physically) went viral. But that video paled in comparison to the sales that came from his loyal fan base and newsletter subscribers that followed his consistent quality content. In other words, going viral is overrated and consistency trumps virality all day every day. 5. Don’t Edit We tend to have this terrible habit of trying to edit while writing. This is a lot more work intensive and stress inducing then just focusing strictly on the writing part Just write stuff, even if it’s shitty. Just. Write. It. Out. Get your thoughts out on paper. Record your words on the mic. Make the content first. THEN edit it. Edit later. The problem is we’ve been trained to work hard and edit WHILE writing and this holds us back from actually getting shit done and quite frankly, makes it a lot harder than it needs to be. I mean how many times have you tried to write something and you’re like: “oh wait, that doesn’t sound right” or... “hold on, it’d probably be better if I said something else” That’s the editor in your mind! Tell him to shut the fuck up. You’re not editing. You’re writing. A lot of time the thing blocking you in your so called “writer’s block”is really just the internal editor. It’s not writer’s block at all. It’s editor’s block. The editor is doing all the blocking! Procrastinate the editing for later, man. Right now, it’s time to relax and just get your thoughts out there. It’ll feel less stressful too, compared to the crazy multi-task mental gymnastics you’ve been trying to pull off for who knows how many years. Procrastinate with Purpose and choose not to edit right now. Just let your thoughts flow through ink (or keyboard for that matter) Before writing, you may want to meditate or take a nap, maybe smoke if you got ‘em just to ease your mind Remember, writing is about putting your thoughts to words. It’s NOT about finding the right words. That’s what the editor does. Heck, you don’t even ever have to edit yourself once you’re finished writing. I mean your content should be edited, but you can find someone else from Fiverr or something to do the sweaty work for you 6. Don’t put much effort in writing anything except the headline And in case you needed another reason not to worry too much about finding the right words, most people don’t read the entire article or watch the entire video. Yeah, as a matter of fact, if you’re reading these words right here, you’re in the (awesome and sexy) minority. The fact is, most of your audience isn’t going to read, watch, or listen to most of what you write or produce. They may skim a few paragraphs at best. But the most important thing is that your headline absolutely NAILS IT! This is the part of your content that everybody sees. At least people who manage to stumble upon your content in the first place, see. You could have the most compelling written article, the most epic video, the most amazing podcast ever. But none of that matters if you have a boring ass title. You have to get people to CLICK. Make the headline/ title and maybe the first paragraph (or first 10 seconds if you’re making a video or podcast) the most interesting and well-written, or at the very least, most emotionally captivating. Your first goal is to create something that grabs attention. You can dive into the nitty gritty details later down the line, but you must first get their attention. Attention is the first step toward getting people consume your content, the first step toward making a sale. A lot of sites use Clickbait to achieve this. Clickbait is a tittle deisgned to well, get people to click for the sake of gaining traffic and attracting advertisers, but usually doens't have any substance to the content. People are becoming more aware of what makes a title “click bait” and the days of just getting someone to click for the sake of clicking are coming to an end. People aren’t easily fooled by clickbait much any more (but sometimes they can’t control their curiosity and intrigue). I wouldn’t say to avoid writing click bait entirely, though, because it can work if done right. Only make “click-baity” titles if you can follow through and provide the promise that the title makes within the content itself. Don’t disappoint your audience. Never make a title you can’t follow through with. 7. Don’t worry too much about the content Now once you’ve captured and lured them in, you’re going to want to get them to stay (and hopefully subscribe for more content). But this isn't necessarily done through content. It's done through presentation. If your content is not that great, at least make it look great. And if the content itself is great, then it will get people to actually read it. The fact is people aren't going to even look at poorly presented content. Don't bore people with your presentation. Writing lists is a great way to at least get people scrolling through your article or watching several clips of your video. Even then, they aren’t reading the article or watching the video or listening to the podcast in its entirety. They’re simply looking for bullet points. Now if you follow the rule of “Don’t write a lot”, you make consuming the information much easier. People will skim it So make your content skimmable. But knowing that the people that do tune into you don’t tune in all that much, you should be less worried about the content itself and more concerned about the presentation Focus on the design instead of the content itself. Ideally, the design should support the content and vice versa. Use design (or production in terms of video/audio) to enhance (and perhaps even supplement) your quality writing (or lack thereof) Add bold font or increase the size to highlight important points. • Use bullet points and write short paragraphs And implement lots and lots of… White space. And of coruse, as already covered, add photos or video. In terms of video and podcasting you can add reverb effects to create an echo, and createa “camera shake” for impact. Use quick cut zooms ofr humor (like the Office) or slow zoom/pans for dramatic effect. You can play around with the editing to create a different message. Check out this Doctor Who “Horror” Trailer for a good example on how editing can change the entire mood of a video. It’s not what you say, but how you say it. She didn’t sleep on her couch. That sentence has very different meanings depending on which word is enunciated. Which is another thing -- you can use italics for expression In terms of audio and video, you can use a pause or inflection in your voice. You see, it’s not so much the content itself but how the content is presented to the audience. Present it in a way that connects to your audience. Are they looking for something serious or a bit more silly? Do you want them to feel a certain emotion? Choose tactful edits that make your message to your audience stronger. It’s much easier than trying to explain things in elaborate detail and looks professional af. 8. Don’t create something you wouldn’t actually read, watch, or listen to yourself Seriously. This. Remove yourself from the equation, take a hard honest look at yourself and ask: Is this something I’d actually read, watch, or listen to? Is it? And you may say “Of course it is. I made it. It’s mine.” But you need to be sincere in this analysis and ask “What if I didn’t make it myself? Would I still want this content?” If the answer is “No” then how can you expect anyone else to want to? You can’t. Make content you would actually enjoy. That’s a principle that has helped me, but I can’t say this is effective for everyone. I don’t record a podcast unless it’s something I’d listen to. I don’t write a blog unless it’s something I’d read. Now of course, don’t let this self criticism hold you back. I’ll admit, sometimes I’m my own biggest critic, but at the end of the day, the whole purpose of this blog, the whole purpose of the ProcrastiN8r Podcast was to make content that I would enjoy (even if I wasn’t the owner/host) and find like minded people with similar goals and interests. See, if you can create content that you yourself would love, then you’ll find people that not only love it too, but are a lot like you and you are easily able to relate to them. This really kills two birds wit one stone, because not only are you creating content that you love, but you’re also building your audience and finding the type of people you want to talk to. And once you start making money form it... Now that is what we call living a lazy lifestyle! Content Creation is really just taking the things you’re already looking up and talking about, then putting it in front of an audience and monetizing it. Don’t let anyone convince you that it’s “hard work”. They’re probably just trying to keep competition out. The tips I offered here are very contrary to the mainstream, but nonetheless effective for the lazy man. Take it easy, N8 P.S. Next week, we’ll take a look at the top (ProcrastiN8) type of topics to cover, so you’ll never run out of ideas. Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter so you don’t miss it! Image Source: Various images by Freepik  Fortnite is shut down! Oh no! What are the kids going to do in their free time now? Following an in-game event that ended in a universal catastrophe, namely the entire world exploding, Epic Games shut down their award winning game Fortnite. The map is gone. The login servers aren’t working. Everything -- gone. Players are left staring at a black hole. Literally. But is Epic games really living up to the Season’s name “This is the End” and ending things *for real*? No doubt .Fortnite servers are down right now (as of writing). But could this really be the end? Is Fortnite officially over? “This is the end” was what Epic Games said in a Tweet after the conclusion of the game’s season in-game apocalypse, along with an in-game message that thanked players for their patronage upon trying to login. This was followed by a livestream of a dark hole graphic.  Millions of people tuned in, watching, waiting, hoping for some sort of announcement, for some sort of redemption of their beloved game, or just some sort of answer to satisfy their curiosity and see what all the huff was about. But no. The only graphic that ever entered the screen was the same exact dark hole graphic with a swiling animation, they showed at the very beginning of the stream. Nothing changed, and this lasted several hours. One long stream of a dark hole for hours. That’s it.. With hundreds of thousands oh did I mention, HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of viewers?? Look this is nothing but a lazy, yet charmingly clever and effective marketing campaign to get viewers and ATTENTION. Attention is valuable. The guys at Epic Games know this and man are they pulling in some major attention right now. And the craziest part is... Yes. It’s working. It’s actually working. See, it’s one of the easiest campaigns to actually implement. Streaming a graphic of a dark hole then announcing that for Fortnite it’s “the end”. Not that hard. And definitely not expensive or time consuming. It’s cheap and requires very little effort to actually do. This is actually similar to the stunt they pulled last season where they streamed a graphic of a meteor inching closer and closer over the span of hours. And in the same vein, people tuned in. It doesn’t take much work to animate a meteor or dark hole for that matter. That could get done in less than a full time work shift by one employee and they had a whole team. But here’s the thing despite being really not that much to look at: it’s creating “buzz” and getting people to talk about their brand. Everybody is talking about it. The news, social media, everybody and their mothers are talking about how Fortnite is shutting down. Heck, I’m even talking about it and I am by no means an avid Fortnite player. Just not my cup of tea. But what I can tell you as a lazy dude who makes a living from the couch doing things in the easiest way possible, it is that it’s my speculation that Fortnite ain’t going no where. Wait, that’s a double negative. Allow me to clarify: Fortnite is here to stay. Despite the universe of Fortnite exploding and all. They just designed an inexpensive marketing campaign to raise brand awareness, as if there are people who haven’t heard of Fortnite by now, c’mon. But to be fair, I’m sure the game has been off the radar for a lot of people, besides the die hard fans and active player base. It was off my radar to be honest. I mean I knew it was still around, but it wasn’t at the top of my mind. But here it is: Fortnite...at the top of everybody’s minds right now. Anyway, like any massive online game, especially on the scale as this one, Fortnite requires some “down time” and server maintenance. What they did here, the team at Epic Games, is they basically transformed this uneventful down time into one of the most lazy genius promotional campaigns ever! Now that’s something at-home entrepreneurs and online marketers alike can respect and look up to. Awhile ago, I actually used a similiar tactic and told people I was done writing this blog for good. I can tell you from a personal standpoint that was one of my most read and clicked newsletters. It's great to see bigger guys using the lazy tactics I talk about in "the real world" and making it a success. Without further ado, let’s take a deep look at why this actually NOT “the end” of the competitive first person shooter and how it makes for a great (and procrastin8r approved) marketing gimmick...  1. They wanted to take a break While I have no evidence to confirm this, I bet they’re sitting there in the Epic Games headquarters like: “Yo man, we’re making billions.. Profits are off the charts. We deserve a break. We should just have a day or two where we just come in and eat pizza and drink beer all day” “That sounds awesome, but how are we going to pull that off? We have to start a brand new season and right now, we have to focus on getting public attention. Plus there’s server maintenance to do. “I got it! We end the whole season with a black hole. Then shut down the servers. We’ll convince people that we’re gone for good and get them talking about us while we enjoy beer n’ pizza in the mean time.” “Sounds like a plan. And how ‘bout we stream a black hole just for added intrigue” “I like it! Let’s do it. And by do it I mean let’s take a long ass break” Epic Games hasn’t released any official statement regarding the next season (as of writing) and the only thing we have so far is that they Tweeted “This is the End.” (but we know it’s not!) (update: they announced a "Chapter 2" with a whole new world) Whenever a big company like this stays silent to questions or remains vague in answering them, we (as a society) like to assume people are “working hard” to “prepare” for the “next course of ACTION and that they’re hiding a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT. While the latter might be true and they may have a big announcement that they’re keeping behind the curtain, this tactic is nothing but a psychological manipulation. Manipulation by the way is not necessarily a bad thing, but it comes down to how you use it. Of course marketers want to manipulate you into buying (or at least thinking about) their product. They’re just playing on human psychology and the natural desire to satisfy curiosity and intrigue. And they aren’t necessarily working hard right now. Heck, the work could already be done or if there is any left, there probably isn’t much to do. They are Procrastinating with Purpose!  In this specific case, sure, there’s a brand new season around the corner (although not officially announced yet as of writing) and sure, there’s some development work to get done before the big (re) launch. But goddamnit, if they really were focused on “working hard” and “getting it done now” they wouldn’t even have this whole “wait a minute take a break” thing. They wouldn’t shut down the servers and seemingly “disappear” off the face of the planet. No. You know what they’d do if their goal was to work hard instead of ya know, actually take a goddamn break for once? Share their plans with the public, in detail. Write developer blogs. Share concept art. Make “behind the scenes” videos, including interviews with artists, developers, and managers. They’re not doing that. They’re not doing any of that shit. They are relaxing and enjoying their time off. They put up a goddamn screensaver and called it a day! I’m telling you, there is probably beer and pizza in that office, but I don’t want to throw accusations. I’m just saying. IF I were them, it would happen. It’s like as a society, we can’t accept people actually sitting on their asses and enjoying their lazy leisure. Leisure is seen as such an immoral thing, like the worst thing ever. (Billionaires hoard billions to offshore accounts and dodge taxes. But I’m the evil one for suggesting that grinding our asses off for 40+ years of our lives just to put food on the table is unfair. I’m a lazy deadbeat. Go figure.) If you tell people you’re going on vacation and where you’re going, what do they ask at that point? “How long are you going for?” Know what I say to that? As long as I fucking want. What they’re really (subconsciously) asking is “When are you getting back to WORK?” People get so focused on keeping up with work that they leisure as an interruption, not vice versa. On the contrary...  Work is an interruption to leisure! Enjoy your time off and let Epic Games (or anyone else for that matter) do so without any rude judgement. If you can’t let people relax (or relax yourself) then you need to take the stick outta your ass. Seriously. Epic Games wanted to take a break. That’s it. It’s no big deal. Taking a break is an okay thing to do. Sometimes ya gotta be like “ya know what? Enough is enough. I’m logging out….for now” Too much hard work leads to fatigue. Fatigue leads to depression and depression, well, doesn’t usually end too well. They wanted to take a break and make everyone miss them in the meantime. And boy, do people miss Fortnite (or at the very least, notice that it’s gone).  2. They didn’t want to spend a dime on marketing Advertising can get costly I mean the average SuperBowl ad is around $5 million.. Facebook is a multi-billion dollar company that literally just sells ads. This just shows the sheer amount of dough people are willing to put down for advertising. Advertising is basically just “paying to get attention” And getting attention is mad expensive. See, the average person will see a brand name at least three times before choosing to interact with said brand. Interaction is the only thing that can lead to sales. You can’t make sales if people aren’t interacting with you or your brand. Putting your brand name out there and capturing the attention is the first step in attaining that interaction, and hopefully sale later down the line. And that’s why there’s such a pretty price on attention...because it’s the first step to gaining profits. It’s more like an investment, if you think about it. You have to spend money to get money. ...Or do you? Because, I don’t know about you, but if I can skip the first step of “Spend money to get money” and just go right to “get money”, then you know damn straight I will! Epic Games found a way to skip over the whole part where they pay advertising costs to a network or ad agency and dived straight into the part where they got the attention of hundreds of thousands of people. BINGO! They created the “OMG” factor and got people talking, got them curious. I’m sure not all of those hundreds of thousands of viewers were active players. Some of them were likely non-players (maybe even non-gamers) who were curious just to see what the fuck was happening, like “How in the hell can it *really* be over? Or better stated: “OMG it’s gone!”(SPOILER ALERT: It’s not!)  While you’re building your own business, from the comforts of the couch, and you’d rather order more pizza or buy more beer than pay for a goddamn ad, just remember... Controversy sells Put the wallet away and instead ask... How can I shock people or piss ‘em off? You'll stir up a conversation and make people aware of your brand (and what it's about). That’s the cheap and lazy way to advertise and lure in potential leads! Of course getting them to spread the OMG emoji everywhere isn’t enough. Not only do you want your brand to gain attention, you want to be remembered It doesn’t matter if you get their attention if they won’t remember you anyway. There are dozens of Superbowl ads (the ones they paid millions of dollars for) that I laughed at, but can’t remember the brand name or what they were trying to sell. That’s why it’s so vital to not just do something over-the-top to get attention but to also be able to *relate it back* to the product, service, message, or idea you are trying to promote. Don’t get attention just for the sake of getting attention. Don’t be a marketing attention whore. You want attention either to make a sale right away or be remembered for the next time (that person needs/wants something from the product/service category you’re selling from) Just because you get a girl to say hi doesn’t mean you’ll get her number and just because you got her number doesn’t mean she’ll remember who you are. You must create a memorable experience and it must relate back to your brand and who you are. People still remember Fortnite’s last stunt, with the giant meteor and still talk about it to this day. They will likewise probably remember the deep dark hole of despair and “the end”. Why? Because having an in-game event where the universe explodes then streaming a black hole really does make it seem like “the end” Again, it relates back to the product, message, or idea they are trying to promote, which makes people remember it.  Plus, when Fortnite does actually come back, they’ll be able to swing the story and OMG factor of “OMG it’s back!” and that’ll give them the opportunity to make something like the “After Life” or open up an entirely new dimension/universe Epic basically set themselves up to “start from scratch” and have it follow their marketing campaign and branding. (which, update by the way, they actually did now in a brand new chapter). They are using the power of buzz marketing, word of mouth. Word of Mouth is one of the cheapest, laziest, yet most effective marketing strategies. It’s basically like “how can I get people talking about this shit aaaand make it memorable?” One person tells two or three of his friends then another tells three or four of hers and then. BOOM! Like goddamn Pay it Forward, it’s a national sensation. While as a ProcrastiN8r, Drama should be avoided in your personal life, but when it comes to marketing, people love to talk, so make some juicy ass gossip and get people talking. Word will spread quickly if your brand is doing something just crazy enough. Advertising is not so much about how much money you’ll spend but at how effective you are at getting other people to talk about your brand. In doing this, you save yourself money in advertising cost, time in trying to pitch the sale yourself, and energy in running around making phone calls, sending e-mails, and handing out fliers. Money, time, and energy - the three things I’m too lazy to spend much of in the first place. Basically, with Word of Mouth marketing, other people do the work for you, and that’s the only way a procrastin8r gets any work done, by getting other people to do it. If you get other people talking, the marketing does itself. Epic made an Epic example of how buzz marketing should be done.  3. They’re already running a lucrative game and don't need to do much more
They raked in $3 billion profits last year. That’s over $8 million a DAY. A company kneading that much dough DAILY isn’t going anywhere any time soon. I mean most companies are literally shooting for an ANNUAL gross income of what these guys are making in a single day, from a single game (product) they have. That’s insane. And I’d say definitely enough to call it a day. Look, sometimes there’s really no need to push any further or take it to the next step or believe for a second that you should “shoot for the stars” because the sky is NOT the limit. Sometimes the sky is the limit. I don’t mean in a negative way like “I just suck. I can’t do it” You shouldn’t limit yourself to the point of complete self debt and self loathing. Remember, the sloth is our spirit animal and the sloth climbs upwards, very, very slowly, but eventually gets to the top of that tree. The sloth doesn’t give up just to give up. It moves. Just really slowly. But sometimes, it’s enough to call it a day and for at least a second, take that break, and appreciate how far you have come and look at how far you can go. Sometimes, ya gotta stop climbing that tree to eat some leaves, man, as the spiritual sloth. It’s okay to be just “good enough”. There’s no reason to excel if you’re already happy with what you have. I’m not saying settle for less than you want or less than you deserve. I’m saying aim to have “enough” to be happy, no more and no less. You can say “that’s enough for now. I did good enough” “Not just good. Good enough.” Now to be fair I’d reckon a ten figure profit margin is a little wee bit more than “good enough” but you get the idea, don’t strive for more if it’s not necessary. Don't wear yourself thin just to excel. Overachievers burn out. ProcrastiN8rs get there eventually. --- Wrapping Up: When building your business from the warm comforts of your bed or couch, don’t worry about building the perfect marketing campaign or spending an arm and a leg on your budget in advertsing. Be that cheap, lazy bastard you are Also, take a break once in a while and don’t work too hard. Work just enough to achieve happiness. Make that break a promotional tool when you can too. I’m on a constant break, a permanent vacation if you will and literally made that the ProcrastiN8r brand. Take it easy, N8 --------------- Update: by the time I finished writing this, Epic Games has already announced a new "chapter", complete with 13 new levels, including "water" combat mechanics (fishing, swimming and motorboats) -- basically an entirely new game with brand spanking new features. Called it! I knew this whole "shutting down" thing was just a way to promote their game. But now I'm sort of posting this in "the after math". Ah, the gripes of getting things done last minute  You ever ride “the Lazy River” at a water park? Ya know the one -- the one where your lie on back in a tube and let the flow just take you. My favorite ride, as a ProcrastiN8r. You lean back and relax, despite all the upcoming obstacles, like waterfalls, rapids, people shooting water guns, and whatever. It’s a chill time. That’s sort of a metaphor for how you should approach life. Go with the Flow. “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” – Lao-Tzu You must be able to embrace your laziness and relax, stay cool, calm, and level-headed, no matter what sort of shit hits the fan. No matter what life “splashes” at you. Just keep moving forward, slowly, very slowly, but also very surely as well. Just pick an interesting river and ride it out. Today we’re gonna take a look at the benefits of just going with the flow and how it fits into the entire mental frame of the Lazy Mindset.. Before we get started though, let’s first clarify what it is we’re talking about when we say “Go with the Flow”. We’re NOT talking about tossing your hands in the air and saying “aw well, let’s see what happens” without any sort of plan or practical means of doing things. We procrastinate with Purpose. We’re Lazy, not indecisive We, ProcrastiN8rs, make a decision and make plans to find the easiest way to get there . So going with the flow for the purposes of this article does NOT mean just “hoping for the best” and “seeing how things work out”. Going with the Flow is a purposeful motive, in fact. It is choosing to remain composed instead of getting worked up and upset by negative emotions. Going with the flow is also not a matter of “putting it into the hands” of God or Satan or Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy or unicorns from outer space. It does indeed involve taking accountability, but not feeling excessively guilty and anxious over decisions made, even if they were wrong. Basically when we’re talking about “going with the flow, we’re talking about “taking it easy” in everyday circumstances as well as during impactful life changing events, both good and bad, instead of just rolling the dice and relying on luck. Now that we have a clear definition out of the way, let’s dive into the benefits of Going with the Flow. We’ll then wrap up with HOW to actually accomplish this “flow” state of mind.  PROCRASTIN8 BENEFITS OF GOING WITH THE FLOW: Going with the Flow quite simply puts your mind at ease. When you go with the flow, you are less burdened by unnecessary obligations, impacted by stress, defeated during times of strife, or swayed/discouraged by the opinion of other (especially when it’s negative) 1. You enable more confidence, more freedom, and stronger self reliance. You don’t get shaken up easily because you’re just “Going with the Flow” and feeling the currents pull you forward in the direction you want to go. 2. You have a clear place in mind, tangible goals, that you look forward to, but don’t get so caught up into thinking of them that you become nervous or anxious. You’re positive you’ll make it there in the end (of this flowing stream) 3. You’re free of self-doubt because you already know what you want to achieve and how you’re going to get there. 4. You take criticism lightly and not to heart and see it as an opportunity to improve yourself, rather than wallow in feelings of unworthiness 5. You live a life of desire, rather than obligation. You do what you want, rather than what you are forced to do. You are not a people pleaser. You are flowing down *your own* river, not someone else’s 6. You learn from mistakes and don’t let them define you or prevent you from getting better. You adapt, adjust, and move on. 7. You live in the present. You relax in times of stress and don’t worry about what “could be” or “could have been”. 8. You feel like you’re part of a sitcom and not a drama. You don’t take life too seriously (no one gets out alive anyway) and don’t sweat the small stuff and usually just embrac eit with a smile or a big laugh. Now that we know what Going with the Flow actually is and how it can be beneficial, let’s dive even further into this topic and look at HOW to actually Go with the Flow so you can start riding the lazy waves in your own life today. HOW TO ACTUALLY GO WITH THE FLOW: Don’t be a control freak! Accept that you can’t control everything or everyone. Both people and the environment are unpredictable. You can’t change what happens, but you can change how you react to it. You Go with the Flow not by flowing into a pit of rage or crying spell, but by letting things slide by and accepting the way things (or people) are with poise and grace. The only thing you can ever change and control 100% of the time is yourself, your own thoughts, your own words, and your own actions, so start there.  Don’t play the victim card! Some people wake up every day and ask themselves the question “How do I be a professional victim today?” Not you. You’re not easily offended and certainly don’t go out of your way to look for ways to be offended. That’s a lot of work to do and for what benefit? Feeling like you’re oppressed in some obscure fashion? Lazy means only doing work when necessary and when it brings about an extraordinary GOOD benefit. Feeling oppressed may be extraordinary but certainly isn’t good, and certainly isn’t worth the work ethic to try and obtain. Don’t search for ways to feel like the world is pit against you. Don’t comb around for a scapegoat for your problems. Take (at least some) accountability for your own misfortune, but don’t be so bogged down by it that it stifles you completely. If you do feel triggered, you don’t throw a temper tantrum by screaming and yelling, but instead relax and express your concerns calmly and politely, yet firmly.  Don’t Name Call. Just Disagree. First, name-calling doesn’t really get your point you’re trying to make across to the other person Second it demonstrates you’re intellectually weak and instead of addressing the points made in the debate you resort to school yard tactics Go with the flow and just LISTEN to what the other person is saying. Try to understand, rather than label them. We’ve become so divided as a country (yet ironically still call oruselves the “United” States) mainly because everyone’s shouting names at each other (biggot, libtard, tradcon, incel, femanazi, etc, etc) instead of having a *real* conversation. It’s OKAY to disagree with someone without hating them or insulting them. No, really it’s okay.  Laugh it off When something unpredictable happens, don’t let it get under your skin. Stop taking life so seriously. Remember, everyone dies at the end. “All we are is dust in the wind” It’s a short trip too. So at the very least, make it entertaining. Always look for the humorous side of things, even when things are at their worst.  Don’t try to make things right. Just make it fun. Similarly to having a good laugh, try to make your life goal to have fun. Instead of asking yourself how can I say the right words, do the right things, make the right moves, be the right guy/gal... Instead of asking asking all these self-doubting questions. Ask just this one: How can I make this fun? That’s all. Enjoy your time here, in every instant. Go with the Flow and don’t worry about a certain outcome. The “right” outcome might not happen anyway. It’s whatever. Have an “entertainment” mindset and think to yourself “It’ll be interesting to see what happens. Either way it’ll be fun” Take a break and just relax. Embrace leisure. There’s more to life than just grinding at work all the time and living pay check to pay check. A lot more, actually. Flow into your leisure and find what it is that makes you truly relaxed and carefree. I’m not too religious but even the big magical sky daddy of Christianity made it a rule to “take a day off” as one of the Ten Commandments in the Bible. I mean I’m not a cosmetic being or anything, but the so called “ creator and ruler of the universe” says that taking a break is one of the top ten moral things your should do. So if you’re not gonna take it from me, a lazy dude who sits at home all day, then maybe you’ll take it from an All-Mighty Being.  Embrace the mindset that Mistakes are Meh Mistakes are going to happen. That much you can’t avoid. We all make mistakes and we will continue to make mistakes until the day we die. Say mistakes are “meh” and see them as an opportunity to learn and grow, rather than a definition of who you really are. Mistakes don’t define you but how you handle them can. Go with the flow and let go of your mistakes. Learn from them, remember them, but don’t hold on to them like they are part of you. Learn to forgive yourself.  You ain’t gotta be perfect. Just “good enough” Don’t strive for perfection. Human beings evolved to survive, not be perfect. Even machines aren’t perfect (though they are better than humans in a lot of things performance wise) Look at a diamond close enough and you will see the scratches and dust. Even those most pristine have flaws. So don’t beat yourself up about making a mistake or doing something less than perfect. Striving for the impossible is not something a lazy person does anyway.  Don’t get caught up in the details (Look at the big picture) It may not always go the way you want to. Things don’t go as planned. There might be little things that get in your way, but keep in mind that the BIG thing, the big body of water moving toward a goal isn’t going to stop. Sometimes boulders create rapids, but don’t stop the stream from flowing. Looking at the nitty gritty details is too much work anyway, man. Keep it nice and simple.  Give yourself Small simple “unpredictables” Train yourself to handle these little “rapids” by purposefully putting yourself in situations that break you out of your routine. So many people become creatures of habit, doing the same thing every single goddamn day. Day in and day out they work the same shift, drive the same way to get there, eat the same foods. I don’t know about you but I’m here to LIVE NOT EXIST. I want to experience all the things life has to offer, and not just go through the notions of the same redundant set of tasks, like a mindless machine. Go to a different restaurant (or order from one if you don’t wanna leave the couch), play a video game you never played before, take a different walking route while playing PokemonGo. Do simple little things that are different and a bit unpredictable. Just like a DnD campaign, you can’t ever kill dragons if you don’t start killing rats first. Death of a loved one or a huge dental bill might be a “Dragon Unpredictable”, a tough boss battle. There’s no way you can handle that if you can’t even handle say...ordering a different topping on your pizza tonight, the small low level creatures. Go with the Flow and set yourself up to handle whatever life throws at you and always try to actually live life, instead of become a lifeless robot with a set of predictable routines.  Clear your mind and meditate If you didn't blow out the dust of your old NES cartridge, what would happen? The game *might* load but it would be a pixelated mess and you couldn’t really see the game to play it properly. Or, more likely than not, it just wouldn’t boot up at all. That’s sort of a good metaphor for your brain when you don't meditate. It’s like not blowing out the “dust” and trying to play the game. Say hello to glitch haven. (Lack of meditation may be a small factor into all these mental helath problems we see rising up. That’s not the only thing of course but it is important) Our brains pick up all this fog or “dust” and if you don’t take the time to clear it out, it’s either not gonna function properly or isn’t going to be able to boot up/wake up in the first place. You just need to take the time to “blow the dust out” and clear your head of any gunk that might be clogged up inside by...doing nothing. See, meditation is of course just a fancy word for “doing nothing”. You sit there doing nothing and think of...nothing. It’s relaxing as fuck and seriously one of the most rejuvinating experiences. Go with the flow and clear your mind, instead of letting your brain rot with negative shit. Pick your battles and Procrastinate your problems. Don’t argue or nag As mentioned earlier, you can’t control everything and little things that go wrong don’t affect the overall Big Flow all that much. While you shouldn’t just let things slide so much that people walk all over because you fail to ever stand up for yourself, you shouldn’t let every little thing that bothers you become an issue or argument. You have to be able to differentiate between what’s worth fighting for and what’s worth laying down your sword (for now). Put off the minor gripes and focus on solving the bigger, more important ones.  Recognize your feelings without reacting to them. Remember just because your feeling a certain way doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the truth. For example you may not *feel* loved because your partner forgot to do the dishes when s/he promised they would, but that doesn’t mean s/he doesn’t. S/he may have just got caught up with something else or simply forgot. You may *feel* like your friend hates you just because they forgot to invite you to a movie, but that might not be the case. S/he may have other things on his/her mind as well besides just your friendship (kids, stress at work, family problems, etc) Don’t cry, pout, or yell. Your feelings are valid. What’s not valid is reacting to them like a toddler.  Stop fucking censoring yourself and say what you mean, damnit! Say what you mean and mean what you say. Don’t beat around the bush or dip your toe in the water. Be honest, bluntly so. I mean you can cuss or not. That's up to you, but the point here is that you don't hold back your true and honest opinion. Kids do this naturally. They’ll tell you if your sweater is ugly. They’ll tell you if your voice is annoying. Or if your cooking sucks. They’ll tell you. Now it may come across as mean, but they’re not being assholes. They’re just being honest. We sort of (metaphorically) beat them into submission by teaching them politeness.We value politeness (and political correctness for that matter) far too much There’s a fine line between being polite and being dishonest just to make other people happy. It’s okay to respect other people. It’s not okay to lie to their face just to make them smile. If someone makes you cookies and they’re too salty and tastes like shit. Then tell them. Don’t be like “oh, they’re pretty good.”  Live in the present. Focus on what’s happening now. Be in the moment. Be in the room. Go with the Flow at the current pace it’s moving at. Don’t lagg behind it and be stuck in the past or try to rush it to move faster. Look ahead to where you want to go, of course. Reminisce nostalgic experiences also. But stay flowing in the present and don’t be so caught up in other parts of the timeline that you forget where you are. Right here. Right now.  Don’t force. Just abide. Do your own thing regardless of what other people expect or want. They don’t have to follow your lead and that’s fine. That’s whatever. The Dude abides and does his own thing and doesn’t force his will upon others. He makes requests, not demands, and isn’t afraid to just keep doing his own thing (or find another way to do it) if his requests are denied Lead through inspiration, not pressure. Let others flow into you and ride the waves with you. Don’t hit ‘em with a hurricane to try and make them submit. Let it Go Get rid of your toxic relationships (romantic, platonic, family, business). Remove people that drain you and don’t give them the energy or time of day. Know when it’s time to walk away (and float on). You’re too lazy to deal with bullshit. Don't hang on to garbage, keep it in the trash.  Be adaptable but not a sucker. Adapt to changes and play by the rules, but have your own set of rules that you abide by and don’t ever break them. Bend but don’t break. Be flexible enough that you’re likeable. But not much that you’re bending over backwards and people are walking all over you as a doormat. Be rigid enough that you don’t let people fuck with you. But not so much that you’re unapproachable. Go with the Flow and be willing to make minor adjustments to small preferences while keeping your stronger (more vital) principles in tact.  Wrapping Up
There you have it, a solid list of ways to get started in your own flow. As a general rule of thumb, just don’t get caught up in the intricacies of life and don’t attach yourself to a certain way of how it “should” be. “Flow with whatever is happening and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.” – Chuang Tzu Ride the lazy river of life and take unpredictable happenings as a fun part of the ride. Take it easy, N8 P.S. Now if you disagree with me that’s cool, but hopefully we don’t hate each other. We’ll talk about how to be lazy and not to care about someone’s different opinion next week. Subscribe to the newsletter so you don’t miss the post! Image Source: Name Calling (bullet politics) from Psychology Today Temper Tantrum from VeryWell Family  We’re always told that hard work is the way to accomplish our goals, that we should “do it NOW” and do it hard and fast. We’re told to not sit around and be lazy. We’re told if we’re lazy, then we can’t achieve anything. We’re told being lazy makes you a quitter. Well contrary to popular belief, lazy people are NOT quitters. ProcrastiN8rs are not quitters. Nope. Well unless it makes absolutely no logical sense to keep going, then yes, they aren’t afraid to call it quits, but for the most part... Lazy people are some of the most persistent motherfuckers on this earth. They get shit done. Eventually. They don’t give up on their dreams. As a matter of fact, a lazy person is probably more likely to achieve their goals than a hardworking person. You read that right.Lazy people are better goal achievers than hard working people. For one, being hardworking means they’re not pacing themselves correctly and are just jolting forward haphazardly, without any plan. They take no time to strategize the next step and move forward just for the sake of moving forward, even if they don’t choose the best or most efficient path. They continue trudging onward without rejuvenating themselves with the necessary rest they need and become fatigued or just tired of pursuing a goal. When they make moves, they use methods that require the largest amount of effort and investment So these hardworkers burn out easily. They give up because they’re not moving towards their goals as fast as they want or expect to, and their effort to reward ratio is significantly imbalanced. Us Lazy ProcrastiN8rs, on the other hand, always keep the amount of effort to reward ratio perfectly balanced. That’s key. We never put in more effort than necessary to get what we want. And we don’t burn out, because we move forward strategically. One. Step. At. A. Time.  Hardworkers want the instant gratification of achieving results. ProcrastiN8rs, we don’t care about instant gratifcation, we don’t care about getting stuff now. We put things off until “later.” See being lazy means you are patient. You’re not in a rush to get shit done. You take your time and get it all done, when you feel like it. And with patience, comes persistence. Patience is the ability to accept not getting things right away and Persistence is the ability to keep going, knowing that you won’t get the thing you want right away. They go hand in hand. It's like pizza needs cheese. Persistence needs Patience. That's a recipe for success! Whereas patience is the mental fortitude to accept that you have to wait, Persistence is the slow, steady actions you take while “waiting”. And yes, sometimes it is not only acceptable but also highly encouraged to take a nap while you wait. I mean heck, studies have shown that napping after working a few hours increases productivity. We’re in it for the whole game, not just the first quarter. While hardworkers will hit it and hit hard with all they got, they’ll soon fade out and lose focus. ProcrastiN8rs don’t lose focus. We will get there...eventually. Now let’s dive into how to remain Persistent as a ProcrastiN8r.  Have a vision. Vision is an important thing to have when you’re practicing persistence as a ProcrastiN8r. You must first find out what you truly want, with a bit of self reflection. Go meditate and do absolutely nothing. Don’t even think. Clear your mind completely. Engulf yourself in the laziness and discover what you desire deep inside. Then stay focused on it. Yeah, it’s pretty far away. Yeah, It’s gonna take a while to get there. But that’s alright, you’ll make it to that finish line, one step at a time. It’s better to run the race slow and still get there at a snail’s pace, than to run swift like the rabbit and never reach the finish line to begin with. Look where you’re going, where you want to be, and know that you’ll attain it by doing “just enough” today. Maybe you want to be a professional guitarist. So play guitar for just 15 minutes every day. This is better than the dude who practices 6 hours one day then doesn’t pick up the guitar for weeks. When you embrace goals, it’s far more effective to make your progress easy and consistent rather than hard and sporadic. Persistence is more about consistent small steps as opposed to scattered large leaps. When you keep your vision in mind, you’ll understand how the step, no matter how small it is, fits into the bigger picture and be able to continue moving forward. Embrace the Lazy Mindset. You go from thinking “I have to reach this goal as soon as possible so I should do a whole lot to make it happen quickly” to “It’ll come in due time. I just need to do this one simple thing and it’ll all come in place eventually.” Just decide and abide. Make the decision of what you want and abide by specific habits and behaviors that lead you there. It’s like grinding an RPG. You don’t get max level right away. It takes time to level up, but you will get there with a bit of patience and persistence. “If you can’t fly, then run, if you can’t run then walk if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward” - Martin Luther King, Jr. The sloth barely moves, but can climb the tree Be the sloth...or maybe the lazy panda!  Don’t Give a Single Fuck Be so persistent on getting what you want that you simply don’t give a fuck what other people think. People will try to criticize you. People will hate on you. People will try to tear you down. But you’re too lazy to give them the time of day or even consider it for a goddamn second. You’re too lazy to give a fuck. People that are persistent are often described to be“Marching to the beat of their own drum” Yeah, they don’t give a fuck. They do their own thing regardless of other people’s comments or expectations. They don’t fall in line with society’s views or give in to external pressures. Look, you want to make money from the couch. Don’t listen to the people that tell you to “Get a real job.”  The Only Place You Should Fall is on the Couch Don’t fall down a spiral of negative emotions and don’t get caught in a web of drama. Remain unfazed (in NGAF mode) when shit hits the fan. Blindly following emotions is not the Lazy Way. Don’t let bullshit make you jump up and start panicking or acting irrationally. Lay on back down and sleep on it before making a big decision. Play some video games to blow off some steam. Procrastinate handling your problems so you can approach them with a cool, calm, rational approach.  Remember Mistakes are Meh. You’re gonna fuck up. It’s going to happen. That much is inevitable. Success is not so much about avoiding fuck ups entirely but being able to handle fuck ups with poise and grace. Remain cool, calm, and collected when things don’t go your way. Mistakes are meh and they’re no big deal, man Don’t worry about what might go wrong and don’t hang on to them when they do. “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated” - Maya Angelou Persistence is about accepting mistakes and not working yourself up tirelessly to try and avoid them (or fix them for that matter after they happen). It’s being laid back and lazy and saying “Whatever man, I learned my lesson. I’ll do better next time.”  Wait and try again. When you make a mistake or you get rejected (in your sales pitch or date proposal or whatever), don’t let that failure be the end all be all. Give it some time. Procrastinate. And try again. World domination will come later. In the meantime, don’t think about them or worry about whether or not they’ll say yes the next time around. Get back to doing whatever. Then nonchalantly give it another try. Ask for that date again. Strike up that sales pitch again. Take the attitude of "Let's see what happens." and don’t get so attached to one person’s YES.  And know when to QUIT cut your losses. After getting a NO three times, it’s time to just say NEXT. If your efforts into the (business, personal, or romantic) relationship are not reciprocated or appreciated an a fair level, it’s time to say GOOD BYE. Some people just aren’t worth the effort. A ProcrastiN8r NEVER puts in more effort than necessary and is willing to quit, and contrary to popular belief, it’s sometimes better to be a quitter. Look you can’t win ‘em all. “Some will. Some won’t. Some are Waiting.” Find the people that are waiting (to buy your product, to date a person like you, to watch your vlog).  Know the difference between Persistence and Desperation. Persistence is fueled by desire. It must come from a place of want, not a place of need. You don’t need a damn thing. You want to lay on a nice comfy bed, but hey, you’ll sleep on the floor. You just want to sleep. Apply the same mindset to any situation. Focus on what it is you actually want and don’t get attached to the specific details (or to a specific person). Hunt down your goals, slowly and deliberately. Don’t chase them with an adrenaline rushed sense urgency. Urgently trying to get what you want reeks of desperation and no one likes a desperate salesman or desparate dude in general. Take the attitude that whatever happens, happens. You’ll be fine either way. Relax. Don’t beg or plead or get on your knees. Lean back, nod, and smile no matter what. You’ll keep trying, thinking to yourself “Well, I’d like for this to happen a certain way, but it’s cool if it doesn’t go exactly the way I want. This should be interesting either way. Let’s see where this goes” But you’re not gonna put yourself in the weak mental frame of “I NEED this to happen so bad. I don’t think I could LIVE without him/her. I can’t afford my bills if I don’t get this sale.” Don't give up. Just do it...later. Don’t give up writing your blog because you’re not getting any readers. Don’t give up recording your podcasts because you’re not getting any listeners. Don’t give up trying to sell your product because you aren’t getting any sales. Don’t give up on love because you aren’t getting any dates (or are getting disastrous ones for that matter) Success is for ProcrastiN8rs. Success is for those who can wait for later. Take it Easy. Slow n Steady. The longer the goal takes, the more likely you are to lose motivation. There are three type of millionaires. Those that won the genetic lottery. Those that won the actual lottery. And those that took the time to slowly grow their wealth. Now unless your born in the right place at the right time or have a super buff in your luck stat, your best shot at being a millionaire is to well, build your wealth slowly over time. Most people expect success to come quickly, but you, as a ProcrastiN8r, understand that it takes a long ass time to be succesful and your patient and persistent enough to make it happen. Take your time. There's no need to rush. Break the one BIG ASS goal you have into small, simple, and achievable goals. Make small steps of progress, rather than trying to reach the finish line in an instant. Ignore Instant gratification. Our society constantly pushes this notion that when you want something, you get it right away. Want to go on a date? Just Swipe right. Want social approval? Just posting a filtered photo and see a red bubble Want to hold a conversation? Just chat with emojis and meme reposts Want a fully cooked meal? Just press a few buttons in an app Want a new gadget or toy? Just tell a small little speaker what it is you want and get it delivvered to your door within 24 hours. This is all cool tech, but... Unfortunately, this gets our brains addicted to “the NOW.” Real goals take time though. Real progress must be done later. Much later. Anything actually meaningful takes time to grow. It’s tempting to expect to get things right away, but we as ProcrastiN8rs know that it must be put off until “tomorrow”...at some point in the future. Eventually. (probably not “actually” tomorrow because tomorrow is just an arbitrary word to procrastin8rs) “Now” is an intoxicating timeline to get used to, but isn’t reality when it comes to self improvement or building wealth or growing business or even creating strong relationships with both friends and lovers. All of the things worthwhile in life take quite a while to attain and aren’t just something you can swipe right for or get One Day Delivery for. Patience is knowing that you won’t get Instant Gratification. Persistence is moving forward slowly despite that fact.  Always Learn Learning can save a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Reading and Learning allows you to see other people’s fuck ups so you can avoid them and see their successes so you can take the same path. Hardworkers keep trying hard with the knowledge they have and rarely learn anything new, unless they are specifically instructed to do otherwise. They expect “work hard” to be the solution to every single dilemma to come across. But there’s no point in working hard (or at all for that matter) if you don’t have the knowledge to figure out what you’re supposed to be doing in the first place. You can work hard to fix cars but if you have no fucking clue what you’re doing then you’re just wasting time (and might even cause more damage to the car than initially present). Knowledge is easier to obtain and more effective at solving problems than plain old hard work. You won’t waste energy working tirelessly using inefficient methods to overcome issues and that allows you to persist further down the path of your goal You must evolve If you’re not learning, you’re settling and that makes you a noob. No seriously. If you played any online multiplayer game and you don’t learn the updates, if you don’t learn the meta, you’re gonna fall behind. You constantly have to learn new items, weapons, moves, buffs and debuffs, and even entirely new areas and skills if you want to be able to compete. Apply the same principle to IRL.  Adapt and overcome Welcome change with open arms. Just roll with it and don’t get so “set in the old fashioned ways” that you can’t handle change. Don’t work to try and keep things the same. Most times your efforts will deem unsuccessful and even if they are, change will be inevitable. Laws that are written, technology that is released, societal views, a close one’s personality -- these are all things that can change that are *outside of your control*. Adapt your approach to “play by the rules” and effectively communicate in a way that gets heard and stimulates impact. Things are going to change and you can’t always control that. You can control your reaction to it though and use it as an opportunity to move forward and grow, rather than stifle you and hold you back. Just go with the flow and accept changes with an unfazed and laid back attitude. Just like a GPS will “re-route” when you make a wrong turn or there’s a change like construction or a road block, so too must you re-route your path to success when things go off course or you’re thrown a curve ball in life. It’s not a big deal. You’ll still get there. You just won’t get there in the way you had originally intended.  Appreciate How Far You’ve Come. Maybe you haven’t moved that far from the couch, but so what? Take successes as they come. Focus on the end goal of course. Focus on your vision. But don’t get so caught up in it that you forget to celebrate the small successes along the way. And remember to be thankful for the little things, like bite sized pizza. Apperciation for little things is an easy way to boost your confidence and keep you moving forward on your way to get the BIG things.  Wrapping Up
You can get where you want to be eventually. Just remain patient and persistent. Procrastinate your success and don’t expect (or try) to take it right away. Success will happen tomorrow, or eventually, or whenever. But don’t give up on it just because it’s not happening today. Impossible is just a word for those who are impatient and not persistent. Impossible is a word for those who aren’t ProcrastiN8rs. “Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in” - Bill Bradley Take it easy, N8 |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
March 2022
Categories |
RSS Feed