Don’t we just all love secrets, the juicy kind, especially those that are not ours to spread . . .
. . .but what I’m about to tell you now is more than the average gossip about your next door neighbour.
These secrets will change your life in ways you can never imagine.
Applied meticulously and intentionally, you will have the power to achieve your goals, and become the person who gets what you want in this life.
I’ve been around the block a few times, experimented with all sorts of things, blew it and lived to tell the tale.
I don’t recommend you do all those experiments just for the heck of it.
But, you do you, of course.
What I have is exclusive intel, secrets that all successful men in history have in their arsenal at some point in their lives.
Ready?
1. DANCE . . .
. . . or sing and be silly, laugh at yourself.
And before you raise your eyebrows, ask Warren Buffet who goes “tap dancing to work.”
I know it’s a simplistic view, and rightly so, because the simplest concepts often have the most profound message.
Trust me, I’ve tried them all and this one is a game-changer. . .
This is the number one secret for a successful life, and my number one prescription for anything . . .
. . . in the same breath as paracetamol, aspirin and space cakes with cannabis.
If you can only care to remember one thing from this entire article, just remember, DANCE is the secret sauce.
Don’t judge, but I have “Gangnam Style’ and Ricky Martin’s “Livin La Vida Loca” in an endless loop in my playlist. When I’m feeling the midday slump and when I think no one is watching, I hop around like “Korean Psy”, sway my hips, put my hands in the air “like I just don’t care”.
I never really fully understand it, and by all accounts there is nothing cool about a hippie, wearing panty-like shorts and a flower headband, prancing around at an ungodly hour in what seems like a pagan ritual .
. . . but this act of wriggling your body literally “to the beat of your own drum”, has the power to put you on a natural high, like a trance where you are enveloped by happy feelings without much effort.
Being able to laugh at yourself and just being genuinely lighthearted for no special reason is a super power that only the wisest acknowledge and recognize.
The cells in our bodies operate with a certain program, a set of instructions, and being happy or sad has a lot more to it than you would care to think.
If we’re happy and lighthearted about life, every cell in our body gets the instruction and does what they do best. You feel better, make more sound decisions, are able to think clearly and just have an overall positive outlook in life.
So, dance, laugh and be silly . . .
“There are shortcuts to happiness and dancing is one of them.”
2. You are the product of your environment
Now in the same line with owning our life and being the author of our own destinies, it is important to know what factors influence us or shape us into who we are now and who we want to become.
This is not to say that you are helpless and are resigned to your fate if you’re currently in an environment that you don’t want to belong.
Quite the opposite.
Because now that you know this fact, whether you believe it or not, you can start creating opportunities that will put you in the same vicinity as the person you want to become.
In plain speak, if you want to become rich, hang out with rich people. If you want to become happy, hang out with happy people. If that’s not physically possible, no problem. Find out where they are, hang out in online forums that they frequent, find out how they think, how they talk, devour knowledge about their ways and principles in life. Pretty soon, you're going to start talking like them, thinking like them and taking the same path that led them to where they are now.
Should you leave your circle and the friends you have now?
Now, don’t go snobbing your mediocre friends because you’ve suddenly stumbled on a new ideology. This is not what this is about.
But deciding to achieve success, if this is not where you are now, will almost always entail becoming a different person. And regardless of the person you become, you will always align with people who are the same as you.
To drive this point, I leave you with this exercise from Proctor Gallagher-
“In a sheet of paper, jot down the most you’ve earned in a year. Then, take a look at your social life and the people you mix with. What kind of income do they earn? You will find that you are very much the same. This is an orderly universe and we really attract to us energy that is in harmony with who we are.”
3. Your mind is your most powerful asset.
. . .but you already knew this and just didn’t believe it
Stop and take a moment to look at all around you. If you are in a furnished room, your eyes tell you that you are looking at a number of inanimate objects.
That’s true so far as visual perception is concerned. But in reality, you are actually looking at thoughts or ideas which have come into materialization through the creative work of some human being.
Before something is what they are now, it was first a thought, an idea.
It was someone’s thought or idea that created the tables and chairs that we sit on, designed the window glass, gave form to the draperies and coverings, the posh car, the great planes that sweep the stratosphere, your mobile phone, the tiny pin, AI, a thousand and one things, yes! . . . .millions of objects.
Where do they come from originally?
Only one source , from that strange force. . .
. . . thought!
As we look further, we realize that these achievements and all our possessions came as a result of creative thinking.
Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries and inventions and of all achievements.
With that in mind, it becomes easy to understand that a man’s thoughts make or break him.
Many people feel that success comes with hard work. It's what we hear our parents often say, and their parents before them. Hard work is key, and is a common theme in the office.
However, I would like to point out that hard work alone will not bring success. The world is filled with people who have worked hard but have little to show for it.
Something more than hard work is necessary.
It is creative thinking and firm belief in your ability to execute your ideas.
The successful people in history have succeeded through their thinking. Their hands were merely helpers to their brains.
It has been said that thought attracts that upon which it is directed. Our fearful thoughts are just as creative and just as magnetic in attracting troubles to us as are the constructive and positive ones in attracting positive results.
"So, no matter what the character of the thought, it does create after its kind. When this sinks into a man’s consciousness, he gets some inkling of the awe-inspiring power which is his to use."
4. Work in your zone of genius.
Who knew we all had it in us, that gene for genius.
I did not come up with this one. Gay Hendricks did.
According to Gay Hendricks, we all have that one area or aspect of our lives where we are an expert on, our zone of genius so to speak.
And if you want to be among the greats and successful dudes in history, you absolutely can for as long as you do that which you are best at.
This simply means creating opportunities for yourself in areas where you personally can really shine.
We all have different skills and different personalities.
Ideally,the place where we want to spend our time working is where it feels like play rather than work.
For example, creating travel itineraries, going through the nitty gritty of budgeting for a trip, listing down to-do lists or documents for travel, browsing through hotels and scouring the map for destinations - that to me feels like play rather than work, most of the time.
Whereas, for me, looking at numbers and going through spreadsheets really feels like a lot of work. I know some people just love spreadsheets and they love organizing things, keeping their business finances meticulously organized, and for them, that feels like play. Organizing is the thing they would do even if they were not being paid for it.
And so, you just have to figure out that zone of genius for yourself.
What is that area where you can personally thrive and flourish?
And, if you have a sort of competitive attitude towards the world and you want to be better than the 99% of the people out there, it’s way easier to be better than the 99% if the thing that you’re doing for work is also the thing that feels like play to you.
Because, as Naval Ravikant says, “You cannot compete with someone who is having fun”.
5. Know that you own your life and you create your own destiny.
Just like everyone else, I went through life watching the fates take their turns on me, blame parents, blame the system of education, and the government, most of all.
It’s always the government’s fault, ain’t it?
I’d be one of those folks who prayed to all their gods and the gods of other people whose names I can’t even pronounce, asking them to protect me from whatever evil there was in the world.
But the years add up and there is some merit to getting older, some clarity of purpose if you will. I got to meet many powerful thought leaders of this time and some of the truths that once were are suddenly myths, and I’m all the better for it.
Myth no.1, the biggest lie of all time - "Life is hard and I am at the mercy of unseen forces.”
The second I stumbled upon this truth that turned out to be a myth, I started to feel like I really owned my life now and my destiny was in my hands.
Now if you’ve had the lifelong belief you have no say in your destiny, making the decision to own your life and your choices can be daunting. Because, let’s face it, it’s always easier to blame other people for the bad things in our life, right?
But what if we play a game, just for a day, where you take time off from the usual routine of playing the victim of fate and consciously plan how you want your day to be?
What would that look like?
The mere act of asking yourself how you want your day to turn out can have a massive impact on the small decisions you make throughout the day.
We absolutely own all of our time.
This is a big one.
When I first had this realization, my life genuinely changed, because I used to think that I don’t have time to do stuff. And I don’t remember where I read it, but I probably came across this fortune cookie somewhere which said something like, “at any given moment, you are doing what you want most to be doing. . . “
. . .and, this was a very empowering thing for me because it made me realize my time was entirely within my control.
Yes, you might have a boss. You might have a spouse telling you to do this or that, but fundamentally you are in control of your own time, and you can choose to do whatever you want to do with that time.
Whatever we have decided not to do at the moment is simply not a priority.
‘Nuff said.
6. When you act and set things in motion, serendipity happens.
When you do something, you stir the pot and introduce possibility and seemingly random ideas, people, and places will collide and form new combinations and opportunities…
I am not a fan of “doing” just for the sake of doing.
I am, however, an advocate for acting intentionally, and doing things purposefully.
Now, it will seem like magic at first when it happens, but serendipity is very much a scientific phenomenon. And when you decide to do something with a definite purpose, people, things, places and opportunities that you did not know you were looking for come across your path.
Some of the wonderful turns in our lives may have been, at one point, not really part of the original plan.
There’s a story I often like to tell, because the lesson merits repeating.
I was sent to the UK a few years back for work. And for some reason that seems really absurd to me now, I was vehemently against it. I did everything to sabotage the trip. I hated the cold and told myself the London skies will always be grey and the air will be damp.
But as fate would have it, I went, and my life has never been the same since.
I discovered a passion for travelling the world, something I never knew I had in me. And this passion led me to quit my corporate job and live a digital nomad life, but that’s for another day and story.
As for the UK, it was beautiful beyond telling. The cold was surprisingly welcoming (after living in Asia for most of my life), and the people were all fair and eloquent. Being a wordsmith, I thoroughly enjoyed my conversations with these intelligent people
Fast-forward, four years and a dozen countries later, I became a “citizen of the world” carrying a laptop in my backpack while working remotely from any part of the globe.. . .
. . . all thanks to that one event that led to one thing and another.
I have been living a life of freedom and always, always. . .
. . . taking purposeful actions everyday, setting meaningful goals but leaving room for serendipity and wonderful discoveries.
7. The power of one percent
“1% better every day for a year will compound to nearly 38 times better”.
This year, I came across a book about how tiny actions, done consistently everyday, can have a profound impact and change the trajectory of our life.
Yeah, I know. I’ve been reading a lot this year, helps with clarity, purpose and all that jazz.
In this book by James Clear, he describes how atomic habits are powerful because they focus on the compounding effect of small, consistent actions over time just like making deposits in the bank.
His philosophy is grounded in the idea that making tiny changes to our habits can lead to remarkable results. The power lies not in radical transformations but in the consistent, incremental improvements we make each day.
To apply Atomic Habits in our daily lives, we must first identify the habits that align with our desired goals and values. It is important to make these habits obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying.
By making habits easy to perform, we increase the likelihood of consistent execution.
Now, deciding to do something consistently everyday is amazing on its own. However, it's not just about what we do, it's about who we are.
When we decide to make particular actions a daily habit because they represent the identity of a type of person we want to become, then they are more likely to persist, creating a sustainable foundation for long-term success.
This approach requires a mindset shift from being focused on a goal to embodying the identity of the person we aim to be.
In essence, Atomic Habits empower us to take control of our lives by acknowledging the power of small, intentional actions.
Now I share these seven secrets with you because they work, and also because I’m superstitious. The number “7” is a number of great power, intuition and intellect.
I had “10” in mind but let’s go with “7”, easier to remember.
I guess the short version of the entire message is that the physical part of you is finite.
You might as well use every advantage that is available out there.
Netflix is filled with zombie movies or movies of the apocalypse where the world ends with everyone becoming a zombie. I don’t really watch but come to think of it, this may not be too far from happening.
Most people live on autopilot, getting up at the same hour everyday, mindlessly going through the same motions of brushing and bathing, getting ready for work, commuting, staring at the computer, mindlessly scrolling through social media, going home, sleeping, waking up the following day and doing it all over again. . .
. . . much like the zombie apocalypse if you ask me.
But to wake up each morning and intentionally plan your day, to do and act purposefully and know you are moving towards something everyday, now that is a life worth living.
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