No system will save you

The promise of fast returns with little-to-no effort is a powerful bait to reject. The worst part is that what most of these courses are offering is actually not wrong.

You do need a system, you do need a funnel, you do need traffic. You do need many many things. But what I don’t see anyone talking about is the one thing that won’t sell: the realistic amounts of time and energy you must be willing to invest and sustain — specially at the beginning of the journey — without seeing a reward for months or even years.

It might seem obvious, but I’ll spell it out so we’re clear:

Doing something of value — anything, anywhere, no matter how big or small — takes real time and effort. Doing things on the Internet is no different.

Learning all the hacks and tricks from the gurus does not exclude you from doing the work you’re supposed to be doing.

For me, that’s making sure that I sit my ass down and write at least one essay a week. It’s been the one thing I’ve been wanting to do for years yet, for many different excuses, I avoided it like the plague. Sticking to this routine as my job has forced me to rethink the way I approach everything, from how I take notes to how I go about my day.

For you, it might be something else. The only way to find out is by doing, testing, and noticing what works and what doesn’t, what energizes you and what drains you.

If you’ve never done this, it might be uncomfortable at first. I know it is for me. Something about exposing our inner worlds can be both terrifying and exhilarating, but this is the game we’re playing whenever we sign up to be our own boss.

The only shortcut is: there are no shortcuts.

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Now, it’s easy to fall into despair when we look at the mountain of ToDo’s towering above us. Tick one off and three more appear. An endless sisyphean struggle indeed, my friend.

Which denotes even further the importance of being clear with the time and energy we invest into making things work.

I’ll be the first to admit that many times I’ve pushed myself to an unhealthy degree, hoping to be done, only to find out that the rock I was pushing upwards had rolled back to the bottom of my mountain.

If you’ve ever felt a burning dread under your eyes after spending an ungodly amount of hours in front of a screen, you probably know what I’m talking about.

And though its true that there are periods of crunch time that require this sort of dedication, for those of us not dealing with matters of live or death, working in such a way is not only unnecessary — it is detrimental.

The way I think about it now is as follows:

This is my life’s work. As such, it doesn’t have to be finished today nor tomorrow, and definitely wasn’t meant for yesterday. I got a whole life to finish it, so why do I rush?

I’m aware it’s a privilege of mine to be able to even think in this way, but I’d dare to bet that most people reading this are in similar positions, to a lesser or bigger degree.

Even if it’s not, internalizing the fact that not everything has to be done today, releases the pressure off our backs and help us see the bigger picture.

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After all this, I must say, systems aren’t the enemy here.

When done right, systems keep you from burning out, make the boring stuff automatic and let you focus on the work only you can do.

But to say that one system is better than other, or even worse — to imply that it is the system that will save you from all your problems rather than you doing the messy work of figuring things out — is, simply put, a lie.

Buy into the systems, do the courses, get all the help you need. But at the end of the day, don’t take somebody else’s path — as valuable as their insights and experiences might be — over your own.

The beauty of building your own thing is tapping into that creative source inside of us, that allows us to bring forth our own little universe.

Tap into it, cherish it, nourish it.

Revel as it unfolds.