​If you want to be a PRO-crastinator, if you want to be lazy and get away with it, you have to have a little Couch Ambition.

No, you’re not a go-getter, you don’t want to work one of those  JAAAHBS. You just wanna lay around on the COUCH and do what you want.


That doesn’t mean you can’t be ambitious. That just means you don’t want to exert more effort than necessary in moving toward your ambition.

Last week, in my blog we covered how ambition itself is just focus and does not necessarily need to be tied up with working hard. You can be focused on a goal, but find the easiest way to get there, rather than nonsensically driving yourself forward and working your ass off.

You minimize effort and maximize results.

The "couch" can be literally lying on the couch, if that’s what you want to do, but the couch is more of a metaphorical state of mind that brings you comfort and satisfaction. When you’re lying on the couch, you’re cozy and comfortable. You're satisfied. The idea of someone’s “couch”, metaphorically, is completely subjective, of course, and one person’s idea of Couch Ambition may be Desk Ambition for another.

Desk Ambition is that in which you feel takes a lot of effort and is not in line with what you actually enjoy doing and find comfort & satisfaction in.

If running marathons gives you comfort, then by all means, by being a competitive runner, you are in fact embracing Couch Ambition. Most of us of course would consider that sort of thing to be Desk Ambition because running anything more than across the hall to bathroom is insanity (and a lot of physical labor to accomplish).

The idea is that you are putting in energy into doing things that you actually like to do, and even then, you’r e not putting a whole lot of energy into it. You'r e doing just enough to get by.

But we’re not going to dive into difference between Desk Ambition and Couch Ambition today.
If you want, you can read the basics of lazy/couch ambition in this article though.

Today, we’re going into a deeper dive. We’re breaking down what it means to have that Couch Ambition and how to use it, to support your lazy lifestyle. You see, C.O.U.C.H. is an acronym, which stands for:

Calculate  

Outsource  

Understand

Create    

Halt     

We'll break it down and analyze each part of the module individually, one step at a time.


Calculate



 soon

The first part of the module is to calculate your goal. You need to know realistically, where you’re headed and logically create a path to get there.

Don’t just rush into things. Take the time to procrastinate and figure out the best way of getting there. You’ll waste a lot of energy moving around aimlessly when you could just sit and think about things first before heading in the right direction.

The work hard mantra will scream at you the opposite:

“Don’t hesitate. Just go. No holds barred.”

“Act now. Think later.”

This is literally what got early caveman hunters killed. Who survived? The caveman that charged a wooly mammoth down with a spear or the one that learned to calmly and slowly stalk his prey and hide, not out of fear but out of tactical planning because he learned to build a trap instead, which was not only less physically exhausting but also more effective (and not to mention safer).


You can’t just rush toward your target or else the hunter might become the hunted. You can’t just run across a field or you might end up in quick sand or a swamp or poisoned by a snake. I'm not saying you should be totally risk averse, I'm saying you should be risk strategic and only take risk that make sense. It doesn't make sense to grind for a hundred hours a week when you can definitely automate or delegate a lot of that workflow, as we'll get to soon.

I’m sure there’s probably some hardwired fight or flight shit in our brain that’s like “ME ORG. ORG WANT GOAL. ORG GO TOWARD GOAL NOW. NO WAIT. ORG GO. ”


But the rational part of our brain, the LAZY part of our brain, is like “Hey, slow it down, buddy, let’s think about this first.”

Sometimes, of course the part telling us to wait is actually hardworking anxiety and is NOT to be confused with laid back and calm laziness. You must learn to know when you are being lazy and when you are being irrationally anxious.

Anyway, the evolution of procrastination as well as the difference between procrastination and the fear of moving forward are perhaps another topic we can cover....#later.

We’re not cavemen. We’re evolved procrastinators. We have the ability to stop and think, wait and procrastinate, rationally, instead of just acting on instinct.

You have to Calculate and analyze the situation. Take your time and procrastinate.

What are you facing here?

What advantages do you have?

What can your opponent (competition) do better than you?

What are some possible solutions that already exist?

What are potential dangers and risks?

What are some opportunities available?

Is a new solution possible that is more efficient than current ones?

Can you improve upon something yourself or encourage others to do so?

Is there a negative behavior you can eliminate to increase your progress?

Create REALISTIC goals based on your own strengths and weaknesses as well as the strengths and weaknesses of your team (as we’ll get to later in the Outsource module). Take into account and Calculate the cost compared to the resources you have (financial, emotional, social, mental, etc) and plan how to obtain more resources you need.

Look at what skills and knowledge can be learned, that you want to learn that’ll be helpful towards your goals and those that you don’t want to learn you can get someone else to (again as we’ll cover in fuller detail under the Outsource module)

Don’t overestimate your potential (or underestimate it for that matter). It’s easy to set impossible standards for yourself and others. It's expected in our hardworking society to strive for live above your means. Live within your means. Break it down (your goal) into smaller steps, tiny ass goals that seem insignificant.

Have you ever read a book, like the Divinci Code where the chapters are only one or two pages? It makes you feel freaking smart because you're reading through chapters so fast. The same goes for any goal, really. Construct your goals in such a way that every step feels like progress. Every move feels like a "level up".

You’ll overwhelm yourself if your goal is something like “become a pro-gamer and make a living off competitive gaming”. You have to take it one match at a time and get better. Calculate a way to break down your BIG goal into tiny fragments.

It’ll feel like way less of a work load when you decide to do it, and you’ll feel less pressure to start it in the first place. If you try to start the next BIG project, you'll never do it. But if you try to start a "oh I'll just do this little incy wincy tiny task", you'll make better progress.

Break your goals into fragments where you can do “just enough” to make some sort of progress. Be “productive enough”.

In the Calculate phase, you’re not working. You’re just day dreaming. You’re thinking.

Consider it the party maintenance part of a good old school JRPG, where you’re equipping gear, preparing spells, and optimizing skills for each of your specific party members as well as gathering the most effective items to take down the next wave of enemies or boss.


Even more recently, Red Dead Redemption 2 has you equip certain gear depending on the climate. You have to wear cooler gear in the desert and warmer gear in the mountains. You have to bring food and ammo. You have to prepare for your journey out in the Wild West in order to survive. Lack of prepartion will result in a Game Over.

Likewise,in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, you have to cook recipes and stock up weapons so they don't all brake and you don’t wind up unarmed out in “the wild”.

Basically you’re just doing a bit of prep before your quest begins.

When it comes to making decisions, you do take the time to Calculate the pros and cons, but you make a decision confidently. You do NOT hesitate.

It is okay to procrastinate; it is not okay to be afraid of moving at all through hesitation.

Procrastinate with purpose; don’t avoid out of fear. Take your time to use your judgments in making the right decision. Calculate your odds of success and compare it to the alternatives, but don’t try to escape the decision making process completely.

Hesitation is emotional fear. Procrastination is rational purpose.

As a matter of fact, don’t worry so much about making the right decision. Make a decision and then make that decision right.

The amount of mental gymnastics involved in worrying over making the perfect choice, is way too much effort for a PRO-crastinator.

You’re better off saving that brain activity for something else, like gaining rank in Overwatch or writing fan theory, or maybe even something more productive like a blog post, if you so choose. You could of course stream/make a blog post out of those things you do for fun and kill two birds with one stone.

Calculate. Procrastinate. But do NOT hesitate.


















Outsource



The second module of Couch Ambition is to Outsource.

If you do not have the desire or the knowledge or skills to do something and you are not interested in learning said skills or knowledge, put the work burden on other people or find a product or service that can automatically do it for you. Outsource the things you don’t want to do or can’t do to automated systems or qualified people.

You don’t need to be the hero that actually goes out on this adventure (your goal). You just need to make sure the objective is complete. Just because things get done, doesn’t mean you have to be the doer that got them done in the first place.

The hero is always running around performing tasks, slaying things, and gathering items for other people. That’s a lot of work.

He’s like a little errand boy (or she’s an errand girl). He’s the reckless caveman charging toward awooly mammoth  (or perhaps dragon in this case)

You want to be a Non-Player-Character. I don’t mean in the sense of repeating the same lines and tasks over and over again. You don’t want to be boring. I mean in the sense of getting your objectives fulfilled without even trying.

The NPC is the lazy procrastinator who gets what s/he wants done, without ever leaving the same spot or just going about their day. Keep in mind that more often than not,the King or Queen in the game is an NPC. Just sayin’.

You want to lead and take charge. You don’t necessarily need to be nasty or commanding. That’s not the Lazy way. You must remain calm and laid back.




But you want to inspire others. You want to encourage them.

You want to give them vision.

The best people you can outsource are the people who are genuinely interested in what you assign them (or hire them) to do: a sound designer who loves music and sound, a programmer that loves computers, a graphic designer who loves photos, drawing, and art, etc. The ultimate team to “work” with is a group of people who feel like they’re not working at all. The most productive team is those of lazy procrastinators.

You can also outsource the workload to machinery or software. Use automation in any way you can. Part of the Calculate phrase will be figuring out what technology is available; the Outsource Phrase is actually setting up the (automation) machines and running them, or getting someone else to do the initial set up for that matter.

Even if they are not passionate about the task or job itself, you can get them to do it, if you have a vision.

As long as you have a vision and a hope people can strive for, they will willingly follow.

They need a “faith” to hold, something to believe in, a clear message to abide by.

Speaking of faith, everything you ever want to learn from marketing and influence, you can learn from religion. Indoctrinate the young, create a compelling message, create a sense of being part of an exclusive community, the list goes on.

The takeaway here is that you don’t need to do much other than be a visionary who can Calculate, Outsource, Understand Create, and Halt. You don’t need to (and quite frankly shouldn’t) micro manage others.

This is not only insecure, but also something a hardworker does, not a procrastinator.

Some bosses burn the scent of the back of their employee’s necks to their memories; it’s disgusting. Back away, point in a direction but don’t tie them on a leash.

It takes so much effort to go for the “hands on” approach and it does absolutely diddly squat for your employee’s morale if you’re constantly checking up on them and leaning over their shoulder. Lean back and give them space, especially with creative people. Creative people work best when they have freedom to express.

If you have completed your Calculate phase correctly, you should have found party/ members who have the same quest/vision they want to complete, and like I said, as long as that overall vision exists, then the team will continue to move forward.

Furthermore, you can Create systems that you outsource the work flow to. A system is a structure built either communally or mechanically, and it is designed to enhance the productivity within your group. It is an organized manner of tasks or lines of code that stream line any given effort to be done.

Procrastinate. Automate. Delegate. and you will move forward.

















Understand



You have to not just look at goals and especially people objectively through a microscope, you have to have a bit of compassion. You have to Understand.

This applies to your target audience, your team (you can also apply this to perhaps personal relationships as well), and of course, yourself.

Calculating and Understanding are rather similar in nature. They both involve analyzing details and selecting the best course of action before moving forward. But we will discuss the differences between these two particular modules and why they are important.

The main difference is this: Calculating is rationally focused, while Understanding is emotionally focused.

One is focused on reason and logic, while the other is bond to feelings and sentiment. One is objective, the other subjective, accordingly.

While it is important to Calculate and know what is effective and how to obtain the goal, it is equally as, if not more so, vital to Understand why that goal is important in the first place.

Why does your audience want or do this?

Why does your team member want or do this?

This is no doubt a deeper level of Couch Ambition and depending on your level of laziness, you may not be ready to lie down onto it quite yet.

Which is fine; do what you want. But if you really want to minimize effort and maximize results, you must know that the most effective and profitable brands out there pitch to your emotions, not your mind.

People are rarely, if ever, convinced to buy or try something new through logic and reason, rather, they are convinced if they are charged up emotionally, either positively or negatively. A "tingle" in emotional response can directly effect their (consumption) behavior.

Unless of course they are a procrastinators, because we procrastinators know better than to react to our emotions immediately. We’re calm and laid back, in control of our emotions.

Recently, there was the whole controversy of Nike putting up a quote that read:

“Belive in something, even if it means sacrificing everything” over Colin Kaepernick’s face in one of their ads. Kaepernick started the whole “Take a Knee” movement, where NFL players would kneel during the National anthem.

After this ad aired, people were burning, literally tearing up and setting to flames their Nike branded clothes from sweaters to shirts, hats, shoes, and even backpacks. (which quite frankly made absolute zero sense. I mean you’re free to use your freedom of speech however you want, but damn, ripping up clothes? Really? How about donating those clothes to, I don’t know, one of those homeless veterans you seem to care so much about?)

Another onset of people, from the other side of the spectrum, who perhaps typically don’t or maybe even haven’t ever purchased form Nike, went out and purposely sought after buying their products to support their political stance.

Both sides were emotionally effected and both sides changed their consumption behavior because of it.


By the way, little tangent:

A VETERAN actually suggested Kaepernick take a knee.

Not a single person protesting during the National Anthem was doing so because they were dishonoring the troops.

I always sort of thought the flag represented the many different aspects of the country: the politics, the economics, the philosophies, the religions, the businesses, the social structures, the cultures, the food & health. The “troops” are certainly part of the country, but not the only part of the country.

The reason you stand is not the same reason someone else kneels. All you have to do is ask: Why are you kneeling?

The troops didn’t die for you to be forced to stand during the National Anthem, they died for the FREEDOM to choose not to.

And finally,kneeling is a true sign of respect, kind of like how you, ya know, genuflect and kneel before God every Sunday at Church. Are you saying you’re showing disrespect toward Christ by kneeling?
But anyway, I digress. I realize I’m putting my opinion out there and some of you may disagree with it and that’s fine. I remember a time people could have different opinions and not hate each other.


Either way, I hope you see where I’m going with this: the point is emotions influenced people’s purchasing behavior (or just behavior in general) and it is through Understanding that we can tap into people’s emotions, thus influencing their (purchase) behavior.

You must understand your target audience’s wants, needs, and desires. If you don’t then you can’t offer them a solution or a product or service that they would actually appreciate yet alone purchase or support. Likewise you must understand your team, or the type of team you would ideally like to build, otherwise you’ll attract the wrong sort of people or you’ll attract the right sort of people but they’ll get lost along the way.

This is why I always stress that the easiest and best niche to target is a niche that you are personally a part of.

Why?

Well then the “market research” does itself. I mean you’re already reading articles, you’re already browsing the subreddits, you’re watching the YouTube videos, you’re following the posts -- all about the stuff you like.

So...you understand exactly what other people in the community of the thing you like want and what they want to hear (or read, or watch) and even why they want those things.

And you might as well monetize that!

You might as well profit off enjoying your hobby. I mean you’re obviously spending time doing it, and time is money. So value you’re time and put a price sticker on it.

Hell, you’re probably already even commenting on Facebook groups, forums, and subreddits.

BOOM!

You have content. Already. There’s no further work involved. Just copy and paste your own comments into a blog post or record a podcast or video of you saying those thoughts out loud.

The point is though, if you target a niche that you are a part of, you know what they value, you know what they like, what they dislike, their habits, and their fears. You Understand them. You can relate to them. You are part of the community and likely share similar philosophy and belief.

Blair Warren is famously quoted saying:


“People will do anything for those who encourage their dreams, justify their failures, allay their fears, confirm their suspicions and help them throw rocks at their enemies.”


See, the most effective marketing, the most effective sales, is not a billboard or a sales pitch, it’s a relationship and a conversation. If you understand your audience, you’re not selling them anything, you’re offering them a solution, you’re providing them value, and this all comes natural (lazily without further effort) if you’re doing it in a niche you are a part of.

You can of course research a more profitable niche with very little competition and dominate it (one in which you are NOT a part of). You can learn all about the type of people within that niche.

But that just seems out of the way. It’s gonna feel like Labor and not the Laziness.
You want to be on the Couch, not on the Desk.

In Understanding, you too must understand your team. You must understand their strengths and weaknesses. You must have not just vision, but insightful vision that speaks not just to the minds, but to the hearts of your followers.

In understanding though, you do NOT want to be a manipulator nor a push over. There’s a difference between being empathetic having compassion and being cunning & manipulative. You have to genuinely want to provide value for people and care about their well being and not just use them to siphon their wallets. Otherwise you just become the villain of a corporate enslaver yourself.

Furthermore, you can't just people please and do everything asked of you just because you "understand" what they are going through. Understanding someone does not necessarily mean you agree with them or will let them push your boundaries. 

You understand how they feel and all that, but won't go out of your way to help them, unless it also benefits you. You do not people please because there's just way too much work involved and very little, if any benefit in return.

You must understand yourself. While you must be empathetic towards other people’s wants, needs, fears, and failures, you must know your boundaries. Don’t be a suck up because not only does that take a lot of work, but also it shows that you clearly don’t Understand yourself.

If you understand what you truly actually want, you will be able to make decisions to effectively get you there.

Know that it’s not any sort of wealth or anything materialistic is not what you actually want; those are just complications. Think like a procrastinator, simplify it. Break down to the core of what you want. Write it on a sticky note -- that’s how short and simple it should be: that it fits on a sticky note.

You don’t need to write a whole compendium of business plans to Understand the direction you and your business need to go.

If you know what you truly want, you can Understand why you are doing the things you do, and you can remind yourself that it is not work you are doing, it’s relaxation. This will make accomplishing your goals very easy.


















Create




Once you have Calculated your own and your team’s strengths and weaknesses, you have Outsourced the things you don’t like to do to others, and have built a solid Understanding of your audience, your team, and yourself, you are ready to move on and Create.

At this point, you have a stable foundation of the ideas of what your lazy on the Couch business is set out to accomplish and how you are going to go about doing those things. The next step is to Create and actualize those ideas into real value and efficiency.

Obviously the thing you Create can be the product, service, or content that you are selling, but it can also include the system(s) that deliver said product or service. Your ultimate goal is to Create freedom for yourself, but there are other things you will need to create in the process.

When you Create you are doing one of three things; you are either:

a) forming a piece of stimulating craft (artwork, writing, music, etc)

b) innovating a new & more effective way of doing things (improving upon an old or broken system with a helpful invention)

c) establishing uniqueness (as a brand, person, or artist)

In the first, you are just combining a mix of influences from others who have produced masterpieces in whichever craft you choose.

In the second, you are simply tweaking ideas and technology that already exist to improve upon it or develop a new practical function.

And in the third, you are just exuding a presence that stands out among competitors by doing things a little differently.

See, the key to creativity is to take two opposing or seemingly unrelated ideas and combining them together, like this Spider-Man and Ninja Turtles combo:


Now that is creative work! Cowabunga!

Steal like an artist. Take something that exists already and add your own brush strokes to it -- give it your own (brand’s) personality, insight, or unique benefit.

Musicians take influences from other artists and play it in their songs all the time. Many famous guitarists like Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton were heavily influenced by B.B. King and Muddy Waters, for example.

Even the original iPod followed this strategy of combining two things, like let’s take a wheel and put it on an MP3 player to let people smoothly scroll through their music libraries and not push clunky buttons.

Or GPS: let’s take a map and compass and put it on a TV screen.

Or even SmartWatches: let’s take a phone and put it on a wristwatch.

You get the gist. All you’re doing is taking something and spicing it up or mixing it together with something else.

Now in regards to Creating a system, you will be designing an effective means to an end through a series of processes, either run by computer code, human labor and communication, or a combination of all three. This involves having different departments for specific tasks run throughout the team or organization as well as a power structure that keeps people “in line" and focused on the vision.

An effective system solves problems and runs through tasks in a Creative way with maximum results and minimum effort. It can be inspired by systems that historically perform well, for example: a corporate structure or hierarchy with different departments, but the goal is to Create a system that is customized to suit the strengths and weaknesses of your team and catered toward your target audience or niche. This varies on a case by case basis.

You eliminate unnecessary steps and iron out the kinks. It can be a bit of a trial and error process, but ultimately when you discover a more dynamic system that you have custom-made from the “ingredients” and inspiration as well as your own testing and experience, you will be able to pursue larger results than if you choose to stick to the initial system as if it is orthodox.

Essentially, you take a recipe from a cook book, then after learning what ingredients taste best and what the customers who eat it enjoy about it, and what your chefs int he kitchen, are good at cooking, you create a more delicious recipe that is also easier to make than the original.

The system (recipe) is ever-evolving, or at least should be. You can create it and you can change it. You can of course also choose to “stick to the books and “follow the protocol” of what “works”, but that limits its potential of boosting its efficiency. An unchanging, conservative, system can only reach the potential of its boundaries set upon its inception, while a developing, progressive, system is seemingly limitless.

When you have the goal to Create, you are constantly upgrading the system -- fixing bugs, buffing and debuffing power structures, accessing & re-accessing how resources are being divided, etc. There is no fixed state, just guidelines and suggestions.

The system is malleable, like a clay, not stiff like a rock. It can change and be molded to suit the wants and needs of your team, your audience, and yourself. One system for one person, audience, and team that is effective may not be for another. It is a personal system, running based on the particulars of the aforementioned parties involved.

It is of course important not to progress too quickly. Slow down, you lazy procrastinator. Because a rapidly progressive system leads to all sorts of unpredictable glitches and malfunctions. It can lead to hysteria and total break down of the entire system (ie. bankruptcy and failure) if you insist on progressing too quickly.

You must progress the system slowly and carefully, with thought, patience, purpose, and persistence behind each decision to change it. You must not leap to changes in bounds. The pace for change must be easy and gradual over a long period of time, not rushed on the shelves within a quick span.

Being creative means also being resourceful and working with what you got and coming up with ways to solve problems with the tools you have available, then perhaps constructing new ones along the way with the ones you already have. In the simplest of examples: a caveman had the “tool” of a rock and eventually carved that rock to sharpened excellence, tying it to a branch with a animal hairs to create a pickaxe that could then mine more efficiently than the original system of chiseling a flat rock on a flat rock.

If you want to be efficient and lazy, if you want to eliminate the hardworking nature of tasks, you have to have an open mind and Create new things.

And speaking of evolving and going for the new, you also want to Create uniqueness for your brand. You want to set yourself apart from others and create a memorable (purchase) experience or setting that gets people remembering it, and more importantly,. talking about it.

Double Tree Hotel, for example, has a Creative quirk as part of their brand, where they give a warm freshly baked chocolate cookie as a welcoming gift to each one of their guests. This small little gesture, which they Created as literally part of their brand is the most talked about subject matter related to Double Tree Hotels on Social Media.

Wendy has a notoriously “Sassy Ginger” personality on social media, with charismatic comments full of brutal honesty & wit. People post screenshots of Wendy’s sassy replies all across social media and there is even fan art drawn starring her.

In the Rainforest Cafe, literally tropical trees engulf the tables and the sounds of birds chirping, tigers growling, and elephants blowing while rain trickles down and thunder claps, create an ambiance that truly feels like a wild rainforest and it’s talked about.


Just Create a memorable experience, personality or environment/setting. No further resources (ie. advertisement money, marketing budget) is necessary.

The marketing takes care of itself if you provide something unique enough to talk about. Word of Mouth Marketing spreads without you even having to ask people to help spread the word. If you Create “Talk Triggers", as Jay Baer describes in his book of the same title, within the very design of your brand, then there is nothing further you need to do. The work (what little it took) is done and you can sit back and relax.

Your ultimate goal, though is to Create freedom.

Just like in the game of Runescape by leveling up your skills of Attack, Strength, Defence, Constitution, Magic, Prayer, and Summoning you eventually level up your overall combat level, so too does creating craft, inventions, and systems allow you to create freedom.

You don’t want to be indebted or enslaved to others. You want to make your own decisions and do things on your own time. The more you Create craft, inventions, and uniqueness, the more you create freedom for yourself and perhaps others who follow in your footsteps (or more accurately, cushion squats).

















Halt



The fifth and final part of the COUCH module is to Halt.

Stop. Completely. Everything you’re doing -- just stop!

You must stop and take the time for leisure. You will inevitably burn out if you unceasingly work hard and move forward perpetually without a break. You will deplete your mental resources if you live a life of nonstop endless grind. You need rest from the grind every once in a while; you are human, not a robot.

Stop hustling those papers on your desk and start rustling those pillows on your COUCH (or bed).

You must completely and totally engulf yourself in the laziness through meditation. Again, like I say all the time, DON’T feel guilty about this. Don’t cut yourself up for deciding to skip a day of work (or class) just to relax and rejuvenate. Embrace it and love it. Love the laziness. Love the leisure. Let your mind and body recover.

I like to think of the brain as an old school NES cartridge. After a while of battling hard bosses, making impossible jumps, and running to beat the clock, you'd try to boot the game up only to be greeted by a wasteland of destroyed pixels. But all you had to do was turn off the system, take the cartridge out, and blow into it.

After clearing out whatever dust, debris, or nanobot was inside, when you put it back in, it booted up like normal and you could press start to play again.

Our brain is the same way.

Sometimes after hours of fighting the IRL boss battle and jumping between platforms to get things done, our brain gets all pixilated, fogged down. You have to blow it out to clear what's inside so you can keep on playing.

That's what meditation is: blowing the SNES cartridge of your brain to restart it and get it back to running normal again. Do nothing or whatever relaxes you.



Also, take the time to celebrate your accomplishments, reflect on your failures, and plan for your newbound goals.

Halt your productivity all together and lie down, soften up, unwind. Procrastinate to Rejuvinate.

The heroes all celebrate by drinking at the tavern or eating shawarma after a long hard day's battle ends in victory.

So be the hero (or ya know, heroic NPC that gets the real heroes to do all the work)

And that’s it.

That wraps up our COUCH Ambition module. You now have the very foundation of how to lie down in your own comfort while simultaneously achieving your goals

DESK Ambition is the opposite though, and while a viable means of achieving your goals, it will also lead you to burn out and sacrifice way more resourced than necessary. It’s not worth the headache, and we can talk about why and how in a future blog. It'll help you understand the types of behaviors and thoughts you should actually avoid with the Lazy Mindset and Couch Ambition.

Next week though, we have a little holiday special since it’s the end of the year and it’ll involve why you should skip out on New Year’s Resolutions.

Be a procrastinator and do just enough to get by with your Couch Ambition.

Take it easy. Take it reeeeaal easy.

​A good question and one that is often answered with a simple “no”. You can’t be lazy and ambitious at the same time, or so it is commonly believed within our corporate labor and consumer driven culture.


It is indoctrinated into our minds that:

Being ambitious means you’re goal-oriented and have positive drive to create a better future.

Being lazy means you’re not actually motivated to attain any goal in the first place.

Right?

Right?

WRONG.


The inspiration to succeed is NOT bond to your ability to work hard and be a go-getter. The inspiration, rather, is bond to your ability to create success and it possible to instead of working hard, just think in innovative ways (laziness is the mother of innovation) or get other people or machines to do the work load for you.

I mean...

What if I told you that if you spend your day sitting on the couch, playing video games and watching movies, you can also be ambitious?

What if I told you that ambition, contrary to popular belief, has absolutely nothing to do with a good work ethic?

What if I told you you can be “lazily ambitious”?

You can be COUCH Ambitious

​Going to school and getting an education is a waste of time and you’re better off just dropping out.

Uh oh! He said it. He said the thing that’s completely opposite of what we’ve been brainwashed into thinking is the pathway to success.

Seriously though, there is no secret fountain of knowledge behind the closed doors of a school or university.


Everything you’ve ever wanted to learn is available, FREE, in your pocket. Plus any “networking opportunity” you would have at a Uni is easily attained through LinkedIn, Groups on Facebook, or messaging boards.

The only good a  college degree does for you is if it can be used to directly earn you a job. But even then, all it is is a piece of paper that says “Yes, I showed up to class and learned how to pass tests.”

There’s really no amount of knowledge or experience that a degree itself holds and many of the things you learn in order to obtain a degree is learned OUTSIDE of the classroom and AWAY from your professor, anyway.

As a Broadcasting major graduate myself, I can tell you most of the audio production and voice skills I learned was something I taught myself, not from homework or class work or lecture.

If you want a degree, just show up for class and pass exams; it’s quite easy. You don’t even need to excel in your grades to get a job, as long as you hold a degree (with some exceptions in  a few fields). You can do just enough to get by -- study just enough, write just enough.

But that’s an awful large waste of time and money. Yes, the cost of education is insane right now. As a matter of fact, the interest rate to get an education is HIGHER than the interest rate to purchase a new car or own a new house.

And it’s probably around the same cost too.

Like you can either pay thousands of dollars for information freely available online...
...or you could own a freaking house of your own, or maybe even business.