If you remember life before the pandemic (only a few short months ago), there were common excuses for being out of shape: 1) they have long commutes, 2) they don’t have the time and 3) they are forced to eat bad food due to client meetings. Fast forward through the pandemic and what we learn is that people (in general) have gained a significant amount of weight. This weight gain is so common and talked about that you can visibly see it if you look at videos of the general population online (protests, COIVD-19 parties or otherwise).
No Excuse for Weight Gain: During the pandemic there is quite literally no excuse for gaining weight. This is the first crystal clear example of lacking prioritization. Even if you lived in an apartment and didn’t move you could spend a significant amount of time doing pushups, lunges, jumping jacks, sit ups, pull-ups on the door, tricep dips and even lifting heavy furniture/items. “Where there is a will there is a way” is a classic saying for a reason. Instead what we’ve seen is that people drink more, do more drugs and generally decline in terms of physical fitness. The ones who are getting in better shape were the ones who didn’t need the extra time to stay in shape in the first place! Crazy how that works.
The most interesting part about the weight gain? It appears to be related to alcohol and improper nutrition. Which is even crazier since you can simply drink water the whole day and eat healthy meals without leaving the apartment/home. In fact, it is much easier as you don’t even need caffeine anymore. No one needs to be wired and on edge since there is no one else in the home/apartment.
Online Sales – Another Example: This is also the best time to learn copywriting. The chances that anyone is doing this? Slim. Instead the common excuse you’ll hear is “this unprecedented times” or “in these difficult times”, it isn’t possible to get ahead. When in reality, this is the best time to get ahead. You know that the vast majority of the population is drinking.
They are getting lazier. You can work while they relax.
What happens when 6 months of effort meets 6 months of laziness? A wide separation in skills.The picture is not pretty for people who sat on their hands.
The conclusion here is also pretty clear. If you have a friend or colleague who has stated that he is interested in starting an online business, learning copy writing or any sort of online sales… You know he is full of it at this point. If a world wide global pandemic where businesses were being disrupted left right and center didn’t cause a change in behavior… Nothing will. Again this is good news for you. It means that the vast majority of people won’t try which also decreases the competition by definition.
Creating a Positive View of Any Situation Creates Correct Prioritization: When you look at any situation there is always a good and a bad side. Even if you win a million dollars in a local lottery, the bad side is that people will know who you are and hit you up for money (or worse). The key is to always look at any event and focus on the positive outcome and steer your actions in that direction. This is a extreme version of black and white where we analyze something and take a stance so the prior few sentences are likely “SHOCKING”. And. The point stands. There is a good and bad to everything. It is up to the individual to decide which decision is superior.
While average people focus on the inability to go out and “rage with their friends”… You can’t really change the laws. So instead of complaining about the laws it’s time to take action and focus on the positives. You now have time to read, write, work on a project you’ve been neglecting, eat healthier, kick out bad habits and improve all intangible skills that were unimportant pre-pandemic. If none of these items apply to someone, what they are really saying is they don’t want to improve their lives.
So think about it simplistically, if you try to look at the positive of any situation, you will naturally move in the correct direction. If the we remain locked down, you can focus on reading, fitness, copywriting and other indoor activities that are productive. If the world partially opens up a little and say restaurants are “good to go” then you can say “great, i can now skip out on cooking X days out of the week and free up time for project Y”. The key is to look at the positive productive angle based on the environment. Productivity will drive your long-term individual value to society.
Don’t Burn Your Time with People Who Lack Prioritization: After a certain age you realize that giving advice is largely meaningless. People have already made their decisions most of the time so you’re better off creating a platform to voice your opinions. This allows you to reach the 1-2% of people who are actually interested in improving their lives and you can resort to the old “Smile, Nod and Agree” for your real life interactions.
You can gauge a person’s character by simply seeing how dedicated they are to improving. If they tell you they are going to do XYZ, figure out what happens over the next month or so. The vast majority (again 98%) will give up on what they said they would do. In fact a good rule of thumb is to find out what someone “doesn’t have time for”. This will give you the answer. If they don’t have time for XYZ it means they don’t value it and they will not take action any time soon. If someone doesn’t have time to create a second form of income, it means they don’t care enough and are content with the risk they are currently taking.
This is an important concept to keep in mind. If you know the person doesn’t prioritize correctly, it *does not* make them a bad person. It just means you shouldn’t personally invest your time in their future. You can hang out at parties but you won’t mix anything performance oriented.
Lack of Skills is a Lack of Prioritization: Since everyone has heard of someone who got lucky (won the lotto, got hooked up by someone with a stellar career/job), the human mind then wanders to looking for shortcuts. This is a death sentence as the person will spend the majority of his or her time looking for an escape versus building any sort of internal skill set that cannot be replicated.
How to see this in real life? Just look at the work place. For those that have been involved in the workplace, they will know that performance does not matter as much as politics. If the right person likes you, you’re better off in that situation vs. being the best performer. The starry-eyed ideals die very quickly after college. After all, who is going to battle it out with the CEO’s cousin? No one smart, that’s who.
Want to figure out who the inefficient people are? Just look for the guys attempting to “help the winners”. If you are in a large office environment and you notice someone is constantly trying to attach themselves to a particular person you have learned two things: 1) the person is trying to take credit for the work of the successful person and 2) the successful person is of political or business importance to the firm. It is much harder to become a winner and drive value as an individual, so the vast majority resort to fictional (sometimes real) support roles for the important revenue generators.
