Your Life Purpose Isn't What You Think
Life changes like the wind — so should your goals
Okay, so you wrote the book. What comes next?
That's the tricky part about the whole, “one-life-purpose” thing. Artists will eat away at themselves after creating their magnum opus.
Look at J.D. Salinger. He wrote one (overrated, in my opinion) novel and then didn’t do anything else “memorable.” He just defended his novel’s good name.
Do you want to be remembered for one thing?
The secret is to be known by few
I'm learning about the vlogger economy.
Believe it or not, people document their lives 24/7 and are willing to do things for the camera that they normally wouldn't do.
I’m not usually one to give a rat’s ass about just any vlogger on Youtube, but people eat that kind of content for breakfast. I mean, David Dobrik gets millions of views every time he breathes.
He’s just a regular dude living a not-so-regular-life. There’s a lot to hate about a person like him. But what people don't get is that this act is a full-time job. It's a way to make a living, so before you hold a stone, hold a mirror.
I mean, what am I doing right now? I'm writing to people I'll probably never meet. In a way, I want to be known, except I want to be read, not seen on Youtube.
There are some key differences, though. One is the medium by which I’m putting out my content. The second is the number of views I need to be happy.
Read that again.
I didn't say "successful,” I said a word influencers don't usually say.
Happy.
It's a strange word because everyone's definition of happiness is different, but it's easier to identify than everyone's version of success.
Happiness is the real version of success.
You want to do what you love, with the people you care about and have time on your side. It doesn't take a million Youtube subscribers to find it.
It takes a core following to get you there.
Less is more
There's a millionaire Youtuber who doesn't have furniture in his home.
He has a bed, a desk, a chair, and a computer. That’s it.
The reason: living an extremely minimalist lifestyle forces him to work and accomplish his goals. There's nothing to do besides work on his computer or sleep.
It's ingenious but extreme.
I look to nature for situations like this, and it always tells me balance is best. So while a minimalist mindset in various aspects of life is ideal, there's room in life for even a little entertainment — even a friend or two.
So how is less more?
I don't want people stopping me on the streets. I don't need anyone saying, "Hey, you're the guy from XYZ."
I once saw a very well-known Youtuber in a Best Buy, but I held back from saying anything to him. He looked busy and didn't want to be bothered, so I let him be.
Live in Los Angeles long enough, and you’ll see someone famous eventually. You learn that major figures are just regular people too.
But most people file into a regular job to make a regular salary to be an average person. How can you do something meaningful but also something you're passionate about while also not being a viral internet megastar?
Think big where others don't
I'm bullish on Substack.
It probably isn’t, or won’t be the best email platform ever, but it works for me. It simplified everything about the email newsletter game for me. I use it as a free service to convert followers. I can't ask for much more.
I know there are endless click-funnel business options — but take all the bells and whistles away, and you have something honest.
Email isn't talked about in most social circles anymore. TikTok and Youtube shorts get all the press (don't sleep on those either, though).
When markets get saturated, that's when a new opportunity is around the corner. Substack, for example, is how I plan to grow, and it’s a part of the trend that will take writing by storm in 2022 and beyond.
Email famously is a way to have complete control of an audience. I mean not in an evil-mastermind kind of way — more in a leverage safety kind of way.
If you rely solely on one platform to reach out to your followers, the same business could pull the rug from under you and wipe out your entire lively-hood.
That's why I want free subscribers. No one is going to pay for access to me. It sounds like a big dumb waste of time, but there’s a big-brained reason behind a free newsletter.
Working for free historically has a positive impact.
The trick to finding today’s purpose
The key is to install a software update into your routine.
I call it Routine 2.0, better known as a process. A process isn't rigid like a routine. When we break our routines, we crash hard. We think we're failures and search long and far on the internet for a new one.
A process is more forgiving. If I don't write when I'm supposed to, that laziness is built in. I can make up for it the next day. I don't get mad because I've made writing a habit.
When you mess up, pat yourself on the back and try again tomorrow. There's no need to worry over the past when it's already history now.
So here's where I'm going with this…
We all start with a job. That job becomes one of three things:
- Ideal: We love it and keep the same one for life. This is rare.
- Mediocre: We tolerate it. We keep this job to pay bills.
- A Barrier: We realize we're capable of more. You work on the side to discover your dream life.
Barriers are meant to be broken.
Finding the balance between pressure and mindfulness is the real goal. We need pressure to develop. Diamonds don’t pop out of thin air.
We need mindfulness to know when to slow down. There are moments when you should take a break from your side hustle to catch up to your real life.
I think work is a vital part of life. A job teaches us much about ourselves. Most importantly, it shows us our ideal future.
While I don't want to work my entire life, I'm happy doing work I enjoy while learning something new every day, knowing I can take this knowledge and buy my time.
However, you have to work 1% harder every day to do this. You have to monetize your time instead of doing activities without any ROI. This looks like many things. For me, it's writing, but writing something I enjoy at the same time.
Find the intersection of work and passion, do it for free for at least a year, and you'll find traction.
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