I am a Delusional Workaholic

36 Comments | Category: Business


Alright, so this is another one of those “half in jest/half shine a light on your foibles” type of posts.

I’ve always followed the 5 Friends Rule, and I’m constantly surrounded by super successful people. It definitely pushes me to reach my potential, yet at the same time, I’m always the least financially well off compared to everyone I hang out with.

Haha, I guess I have other areas of expertise to offer, but it annoys me at times. I know I’m intelligent enough to be as successful as any other dude out there, offer more value, resulting in more money, and I work my damn ass off!

Or do I?

I feel like I’m constantly busy, with never any free time, and I’m always trying to stay productive.

Hit the gym, reading books, hitting the club hard, and making sure to keep on top of all the latest instructor articles and…

Oh, hold on a second. I’m pretty sure most of you guys do that to. AND HAVE REAL JOBS.

It’s a weird by product of the extreme self love mindset, in that in most situations, this mindset is highly beneficial, but when it comes down to pragmatism and getting shit done, I can see how it’s gotten in MY way, as well as distorted many guys perspective of what they’ve actually accomplished in life.

Shining the mirror on myself, I FEEL like I’m always working hard, but when opportunities come up to move in other career directions, usually involving heading back into the 9-to-5 world, or moving to Nebraska for a few years, even though I’ve had opportunities to TRIPLE my yearly income, I don’t even think twice about turning them down.

I love this job too much. And the lifestyle I live, the ability to constantly be growing and move towards the things I’m inspired about is worth more than almost any price.

Well, they say one of the main reasons new business owners fail is because they start a business THEY WANT TO, as opposed to looking for a competitive advantage in the market place, or a specific need that a potential customer needs.

When you do what you LOVE, don’t expect to make serious cash doing it. That’s why teachers, or personal trainers aren’t rolling in the big leagues, because everyone wants to do it, so they’re willing to work at a discount.

Too bad being an elite player in the ILSS isn’t comparable to the PGA or NBA. I don’t think Converse is going to be sponsoring me anytime soon, even though I wear their sneakers to the club all the time.

Especially with guys that have a lot of success with women, if you’re getting laid all the time, your self image inflates to epic proportions, you feel like you’ve made it in the world. Especially with the RSD side of all this and the effort most people put into getting girls, when you’re on top, you’ve felt like you’ve found the shortcut to happiness.

But going out 6 nights a week doesn’t directly offer lots of value to the world, so why should I actually be rolling in cash just hitting up the club every night?

Time to Shine the Light On YOU!

That’s just my weird delusional life, yet I see this all the time. Especially with guys that run their own businesses, and think they are working all day every day.

Is trolling RSDN really that productive? Sure, I can spread my brand by answering a few questions, but I’d probably accomplish more working on my email autoresponder, and sending an email off to hundreds of subscribers, compared to the 30 guys that will see that thread.

Or scrolling through my newsfeed on Facebook to “see what the competitors are up to,” instead of finally fixing that opt in box at the bottom of every post for Chrome users. Yeah, finally fixed that one dudes! (Please hit me up if you see any other problems that need fixing on the site.)

I’ve noticed how easy it is to rationalize low priority tasks into relevant and “important job related” tasks, and when I let this organically happen, I never get around to the really important, bang for your buck activities that are going to impact the bottom line.

So I’m starting to track EVERYTHING I do in a day, from when I take a shower, to how long it takes me to cook lunch. See where this time really goes.

I’ve only started this week, so it will be interesting to see where the majority of my free time actually goes, and how I’m delusionally thinking certain activities are “productive.”

Then the next goal is to create a to do list each day, and prioritizing, not on what I’m inspired to do, but first what NEEDS to be done to get the ball rolling for bigger, more long term projects.

Where in your life are you hiding behind rationalizations where you think you are productive, but in actuality, you’re just putting off the real important things?

Would you benefit from getting dirty in the details and actually writing down your activities minute to minute and see where your time is spent?

You might find ways to drastically increase your productivity. Or finally start that project always on the back burner. It could be related to work, it could be your diet, or it could be that you “need to get your finances handled before you start hitting up girls hard,” it’s all a comfort zone thing from another angle, and usually when you put it to paper, it puts things in perspective.

Jeyah.

 



36 Comments

Rad

Isn’t that a limiting belief that you can’t do what you love and still make lots of money at the same time? and another random question, since you mentioned the opt-in box not working for Chrome users. For most blogs it’s pretty standard to allow people commenting on the blog article to also leave the url to their own website. Why isn’t that enabled on this blog? I’m not writing this to be mean, I am just trying to be honest here.

Reply

    Brad Branson

    Yeah, it’s something in the theme for overriding the links, and I just never figured out how to change it, and like being a link whore. :) As for the limiting belief aspect, I definitely think you CAN do what you love and make lots of money, but you have to figure out how to do it in a way that differentiates you from the rest, and truly offer the type of value to be rewarded for your efforts…

    Reply

Todd

You opened my eyes, man. Thanks.

Reply

    Brad Branson

    Glad to have helped :)

    Reply

Josh

Hahaha Brad thanks for the articles each week. They always have some nugget of wisdom in them. I was out at a restaurant with my family last week and totally skipped the bread basket! I also love the anti booze revolution movement and have been participating in that when I go out. Not to mention the minimal carbs diet lol you’re just a plethora of value. Keep up the good work…as soon as I have the cash I want to take a program with you.

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    Brad Branson

    Awesome!! Sounds good man :)

    Reply

Andre

Look into the author, Larry Winget. Two awesome books by him are, “It’s Called Work For A Reason” and “You’re Broke Cause You Want To Be.” I used to be insanely anal, and still am about tasks and priorities until I finally took a step back and reassessed my execution tactics. My inability to execute well is what ate up most of my time. Kinda like being in the club being a chode instead of going out in a full out romp!

FYI, check out Tim Ferris’ article he spit out today. There’s another sweet solution for residual income. I’m already on it :)

Reply

    Brad Branson

    Nice, I’ll check those out. I gotta get to CHi soon too! Summer time. :)

    Reply

Bigfoot

Something really weird I have noticed.

I almost always get super productive after taking a shower.

On days where I just don’t take a shower I usually don’t get much done. I just lay around watching Netflix and Dragonball Z videos.

But after a fresh shower, I’m quite productive.

Reply

    Brad Branson

    Haha, hot showers are my favorite thing IN THE WORLD. You might be on to something here…

    Reply

      A

      Hot Showers? I went to the urologist… because well… erm. Anyway, one of the things he said was taking cold showers, or at least turning it cold at the end can have a massive effect. That, along with keeping my cell out of my pocket, has me all cured!
      Give the James Bond shower a try — and as you walk out the shower, kill the hitman that’s been hiding in the closet using nothing but a towel and a Scotch tumbler. http://artofmanliness.com/2010/01/18/the-james-bond-shower-a-shot-of-cold-water-for-health-and-vitality/

      Reply

        Brad Branson

        haha Ferris talks about using cold showers to expedite fat loss…don’t know if I can give up the hot shower :(

        Reply

          A

          lol. Urologists are dong specialists — cold showers will help you pack more punch in bed, and help you perform well on Bukkake Tuesdays. BIGTIME! haha

Bill Rey

Hey Brad-
Always enjoy you’re posts.
Would be interested in hearing how the initial stages of you transitioning to the No Drinking when going to the club worked out for you.
Was it business as usual, or did it take sometime to adjust by having to consciously bring more energy without relying on the sauce?

Reply

    Brad Branson

    It took some getting used to, but I quickly realized that I had to do more approaches to hit a state of momentum, versus drinking a beer and a shot and immediately feeling good.

    Reply

nathan

hehe, if i were to do that, the bar graph would say 25% of the time i’m writing down what i did.

Reply

Alexander

How do you stop yourself becoming an asshole with people worshipping you? I thought as the saying goes absolute power corrupts

Alex

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    Brad Branson

    Absolute power corrupts weak-minded individuals. I don’t rely on external feedback to validate myself. Sure, I appreciate when someone compliments me, but I don’t value that compliment above how much I already value my own self. It is the same when someone says my writing sucks or the video I posted blows. I don’t identify with that either. I know I am putting out my best effort, and some people will love it, but others will not. People become an asshole when they get too much attention when they rely on that attention to validate themselves.

    Reply

VD

Yeah, this is very important. I’m aware of this constantly. Moving forward sometimes involves very high risks, it is easy to get caught up in the waiting for a more safe start.

Reply

Hotdog

lol, This is exactly my mind state right now. Every moment of every day is scheduled in outlook, running, breakfast, shower, meditation, sourcing new clients, web project, lunch etc etc :)

Its amazing how all those problems with ‘game’ can be solved by just living a productive life to the standards you are proud of. All the outer game stuff is really simple and can be fixed in a weekend when you are making life progress.

Reply

    Brad Branson

    Nice! Once you establish a healthy rhythm, it becomes an unconscious habit to work hard and make new accomplishments.

    Reply

Amilo

“need to get your finances handled before you start hitting up girls hard”

Ooouch..

Reply

    Brad Branson

    That is a specific example. Some guys need to take that advice to heart. They are procrastinating on handling finances and using pickup as their excuse. It can also work the other way. You need to establish what is most important for you in your current situation.

    Reply

reino

Hey guys,

Completely off-topic, but any tips on how to get into talkative/unstifled state?

This has been quite a big problem for recently now that I’m going more out solo, and without alcohol. Makes it really, really, tough. It seems that I don’t get enough momentum from the approaches I make, maybe because there’s very often too much time between them.

I don’t know, I’ll keep going out and try different things. It’s just a bit frustrating and feels like a negative feedback loop that I can’t get out of.

Reply

    Brad Branson

    You answered your own question. Allowing too much time between approaches gives you an opportunity to get inside your head and question your own intentions. Eliminate the time between your approaches! Don’t exclusively approach women you find attractive. Talk to everyone. When you are clear in your intent and being completely authentic, you’ll be offering value and building momentum. Then when you hit up that hottie, you’ll be in that prime state.

    Reply

Mountaineer

yeah, i find myself in this situation every now and then. too busy doing things that are not really contributing to my overall progress.

thx for reminding me about it!

Reply

Bigfoot

How’d the latest Google Update hit your Adsense sites?

One of mine dropped quite significantly but it was something I had given up on anyways. No effect on the others(One of em went from no.11 to no. 8 but I did do some recent linkbuilding.)

Reply

    Brad Branson

    It didn’t hurt much, just giving me more incentive to focus on my own product development instead of relying on keeping Google happy for income. ;)

    Reply

      Alex Becker

      Wait what?!…There are other ways to make money online than doing SEO?!

      Lol..Good post Brad

      Reply

      Bigfoot

      Good move.

      Creating brands and value is far more valuable than a bunch of adsense sites.

      But the adsense sites are good training for the big league(in terms of learning IM skills).

      Reply

Diego

This has helped me to check my productivity when i´m online http://www.rescuetime.com/

Reply

    Brad Branson

    hmm that’s neat

    Reply

Anton

“Is trolling RSDN really that productive? Sure, I can spread my brand by answering a few questions, but I’d probably accomplish more working on my email autoresponder, and sending an email off to hundreds of subscribers, compared to the 30 guys that will see that thread.”

Skimmed through the post.It’s a bit apples and oranges in the quote above.With the things you mentioned you can retain people who’ve found you.

On the other side,by answering questions and being personal,you build a stronger connection.One time you’ll reply one dude’s twitter,the other time he’ll text you on facebook and you’ll get in a short conversation,the 3rd time he’ll PM you a question on the forum and you’ll give a non-automatic response,the 4rd time he’ll ask you a question about your book/articles and you’ll reply.Then he’ll come to a free tour you’re doing and may potentially become your customer.All of the above things are probably under 10 minute in effort TOTAL.

Even if the person doesn’t become your paying customer,he’ll potentially think very highly of you and recommend you to all his friends and their fathers.But you should do all of the above things,because you actually care about being of service to others and helping them improve their lives.I believe that’s the approach to win in business.

Then again,I sent you a short email some time back,you didn’t reply.My thoughts were “Douché” and since have visited your blog no more than once a month

Reply

    Brad Branson

    Hahaha, thanks for the feedback I guess. This is also why I have someone monitoring all my “contact points.” Between facebook, email, twitter, PMs, comments on the blog, comments on rsdn, threads on RSDN, and me traveling around the world with shotty internet, it gets overwhelming at times…

    Reply



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