Make Contact with Reality
A cheat-code of the universe
I’m going to let you in on a secret.
The universe contains many cheat codes. Some very successful people know some of them - but no one knows them all.
Some people publicize these cheat codes; hopefully you consider this blog among them. But even when you discover these, they often still need experience to be used effectively.
I’d like to give you a master cheat code right now - a code to help you unlock every other code out there. Are you ready?
The cheat code is simple: Make contact with reality.
Bash your plans against the cold hard blade of results.
Do what you’re telling other people works, and prove it actually works.
Come up with the best plan you can - and even when it seems like it should fail - test it. Put it out into the universe and see if there is any light.
Consider two people:
James wants to start a lawn mowing business, so he spends a week thinking of a name - ‘Mowers R Us’ doesn’t sound right, hmm… ‘24h Mow’ doesn’t either.
He spends the next week talking up how great the company is going to be - “Jen, everyone needs their lawn mowed. Everyone. It’s a guaranteed business model.”
Julie also thinks starting a Lawn mowing business would be a good idea. She googles the local ones in her area - ‘Your Garden’, ‘Lawn Art’ - and settles on an early name: Lawn Architect. She’s not sure about it, but she can change it later.
She calls her parents and asks if they know anyone in the area who’d be interested in her business. They do - apparently Jane down the road has been talking about hiring someone for ages but has never pulled the trigger. She gets Jane’s number and schedules a call for later.
In the meantime, she finds a service online that will print leaflets for her. She goes for one of the template designs and sticks ‘Lawn Architect’ on the front. A couple days later, she receives the leaflets and hits the streets.
You should be able to feel the difference between these two people. One is a person who likes to imagine the conquest, and the other is a person who likes to engage with the world, gather real information, and make lots of tiny but real steps towards their conquest.
If you want success in this world, be a Julie, not a James.
But. Sometimes people know they should be like Julie, and still end up being like James.
Why? Perhaps they feel fear - making contact with reality can be scary.
Or maybe they know they have the motivation to get started, but find they lack follow-through.
These are problems well worth considering, and yet we find we can apply the concept recursively. Feel fear? Get stuck-in and start trying things to get rid of your fear.
Lack follow-through? Leap on moments of motivation and use them to test out new and promising techniques to help your follow through.
Make. Contact. With. Reality.
If you’re stuck for ideas on how to do that - you have this blog, or this, or this to get you primed with ideas.
One more thing
Every action sows the seed for every next action. So get started now - and figure out the details as you go. You won’t regret it.
See you next time.