Living an intentional life is making the tough choice to not follow the herd, and choosing to live on your own terms.
It's not for everyone, as it's much easier to eat the first marshmallow instead of delaying gratification for a better life outcome.
Never reaching your potential and being a sheeple, remaining one of the crowd until the day you die is what happens to most people. Some of you won't even make it to retirement age in fact. You can see I've set a cheerful tone already with this post, but stick with me you'll see I mean well in the end.
I've personally eaten many a first marshmallow, and know what I'm talking about.
I've opted to have it now instead of being clever and having much more later on plenty of times, but luckily I broke the trend, and ideally can help you avoid some of the same mistakes.
Firstly today let me cover the no sayers, these are people we meet along our daily barrage of distractions. They will oppose your expressions of wanting to do things your own way, and tell you it just can't be done.
They will expel more energy being negative looking for reasons to make you doubt yourself and the thing you want to do, than it would actually take getting up off their ass and doing it themselves.
These people are A holes, time vampires, and will consume your entire life until the opportunity to achieve your goals has gone for good if you let them.
You'll eat the first marshmallow forever and always regret not putting a plan in motion. The no sayers are your constant background noise that you can decide at what volume you'd to like to listen. You definitely have a choice.
They can be close friends, family, or business clients, and in every instance you're best option for an improved life is to distance yourself as far as possible, or even better cut ties altogether.
Letting go of toxic relationships is something they should teach kids in school, it's possibly the most important factor in getting you the success you desire.
In my line of work having a positive clear thought process is essential for uncovering innovative ways of extracting profits from Betfair. I need time and space to think it's that simple, to look at things objectively with a technical mindset. Also the time to work with people who want to learn, and help them as much as possible.
Which means deflecting negativity is something I can do very quickly nowadays, I don't waste the time I need elsewhere like I did when I first began. Having a thicker skin to be able to still get on with what matters is partly why I'm doing better than ever.
People who genuinely need my attention will receive it in abundance, and those who abuse it either get it rationed or cut off completely.
This may seem harsh or a tad brutal, but if you consider the amount of people who do not value your time and will consume your day with negative nonsense, this is time you will never get back, and should be used toward helping you reach your goals.
The goal is the thing your heart is drawing you towards. You work hard now so you don't have to later, it's simple stuff. Which means giving your time to people who do not value it will not help you achieve your dreams, I think we can all agree on this.
I will go the extra mile for people who really want to do well and learn, for people who appreciate my time and effort. This is what gives me a buzz running this site the most, the sense of achievement taking someone from being potentially clueless with where to start, to running multiple betting or trading systems making money.
This will be amplified once Expo Bot is available, as the software will help me get people started a lot faster than I'm currently able. It's an out the box solution, so recommending what strategies to run using this will be simple in comparison, but I digress off topic.
The same applies in most other roles in business when it comes to wanting to put your time in to the people and things that deserve the attention, but unfortunately their are people who will pick holes in everything, nit pick, procrastinate, and then look to blame everyone but themselves, and I get my fair share of these people whom I always do my best for, but I obviously have a limit like every other business owner.
I don't always get it right, but I'm getting better at stopping the negativity in its tracks and focusing on things that matter. My initial approach is to always try and address the root cause of the mindset or flagged issue when I spot this now, which often catches people off guard, but like I wrote time is precious so why piss about pussy footing around.
If you want softly softly I'm not your guy, if you want a straight talker who's running this site with a genuine purpose, get in touch anytime.
If I was the sort of person who gave up at the first obstacle, or folded at every person who said it can't be done, I'd still be working managing sales teams or in property investments, and I wouldn't be self employed doing something I enjoy, earning enough to put toward to my own life goals.
When employed I was able to do jobs that paid at a decent level, but still a slave to the monthly pay packet, instead of plotting my own course which is far more rewarding.
I'm doing this work now because I enjoy it, and my natural instinct is to always want to improve on what I did the previous day, but I also do it because I'm good at it. Which is why anyone should be doing any work. The better you are at something the more money you make, and the happier your life will be.
I can make more money working in the gambling industry than I can doing something else in an employed capacity within another sector. It's something I've ten years experience, and I feel confident in what I do.
To pick up and drop what I do right now and start something else would be the worst decision in my life, as it would require leaving something I can do very well, moving to something I can at best do to an average level. I may be able to come back to this later on, but it would be a struggle and not necessarily guaranteed. I'm just using this an example btw, the thought hasn't crossed my mind.
It's like Michael Jordan playing baseball instead of basketball. He wasn't the worst player at baseball, but he was never going to be the best as he was at basketball. He realized this at some point in his life, and diverted all his attention on becoming the best basketball player.
Point being, if you're good at something stick at it.
Make the most of it while you can, and save as much money as possible during this time, while avoiding the no sayers and time vampires as they will slow down the process of achieving your goals.
Then as soon as you can afford to live off the work you've put in with your short and long term savings, begin doing things with your life people usually only dream about.
This is possibly the best advice I could ever give anyone by the way, and makes a solid mantra.
If you're using this site as part of your investment portfolio, then stick at it and be organized. You'll have some ups and downs, but it's a long game and worth the effort as the results show. The fact I'm using this as one of my vehicles to early retirement, means you're in good company.
Being proactive, positive, strong minded, and working to your strengths can only serve you well. Listen to what your heart is telling you, not other people. It's just their opinion of what they think about you after all, and not actual facts in most instances.
Also know when enough is enough, and at this point do the things you feel you should be doing right now. This is the best motivation for getting up each day and working hard right now, and it's what I use to give me that constant kick up the ass.
When my financial trigger is flicked I'll still keep a client list from Exponential Bet to continue working with, but pass over the day to day running of this site. I'll then devote most of my time doing what I truly want for the rest of my natural life.
I'm certain you have an idea in your mind what you'd rather be doing with your days, so if you haven't started already my advice is begin making a plan for how this can happen as quickly as possible, and just get going.
The way things are moving now with the site automation at Exponential Bet, by the time I retire I'd hazard a guess 100% of the sites activity will be set and forget, which will free up my time completely. I have a lot more I want to do and focus on with my life, so the sooner I can reach this point the happier I'll be.
I've set a timescale, and currently I'm on target for being able to make the switch in good time. While I'm still relatively young enough to appreciate it, although I do wish I'd started this twenty years ago.
To be self employed requires a specific mindset that I didn't always have, and not being on the payroll means how I spend my day directly impacts my ability to make money.
Anyone who tells you money is not important really hasn't thought about life long term. It's a minimalist trend at the moment which I like on one hand, but think for the most part overlooks the fact money is required later on in life.
The sort of people that tell you to live minimal and you don't need money, are the sort of people who would tell you to just be yourself when dating, which as we all know is the worst advice you can ever receive.
As we get older we won't have the same energy to devote to making money, so we must do what we can now to bolster our short term and long term saving pots.
This is a strong motivator for the automated software being introduced to the site. It's an additional income stream using end to end automation, because as we crack on in life we don't have the same level of time or concentration to devote being at the PC all day trading or betting.
Mistakes can creep in, so to avoid human error and the fact as we can't dodge aging, automated betting and trading gives us that set and forget income.
With so much dirge out there professing to create these solutions, I wanted to create my own based on my own betting and trading activity, which I can rely on and share to a limited number of people during my time running the site.
How you spend your time now is vital to getting you to where you need to be later in life, I think I've made this point. Yet most commonly overlooked as something to deal with later seemingly with all the time in the world. It's a much simpler option to grind and live pay cheque to pay cheque, never really saving as much as you need to get off the merry go round.
It's simple math, spend less than you earn and reap the reward later in life. Also, make as much as possible, as you're not going to be able to achieve anything long term waiting tables, so find something that pays well you're good at. It takes some effort, but we all have some skills if we've the confidence to pursue them, and don't listen to the people saying always take the safe option.
When you give importance to a no sayer it doesn't mean you are always free and available, it just means you've made yourself available for them, but they will just always think you're free for them to unload their crap on to you.
They will hold you back and give you the worst advice, or take up all of your time with negativity, so before you know it you're too old and exhausted to make the changes needed to get you to where you want to be.
If you feel you've a toxic person in your life consuming your time and making you feel bad, think if it's possible to do something to change the situation with them, and if it's not, just cut loose as I guarantee a better life is waiting for you.
Sounds harsh...
Well in reality I don't give up on people easily, I have a very straightforward strike system where I'll try and resolve a situation first, but if this fails numerous times I will not hesitate to just let them know the relationship is not working for me, and wish them well, in the nicest possible way of course. After all it never pays to be spiteful or nasty, it only makes you look and feel bad.
If you think about yourself right now as one version of yourself, and the younger versions of you all queued up behind you, and very different to the version you are today in this moment. The version you are now is capable of directing the path in any direction, and if you could tap in to the minds of the previous versions, would you be where you are right now, or would you have changed direction many previous versions ago...
What stopped you, was it lack of confidence or direction? I would wager it would have at some point to do with someone in your life giving you bad advice. We've all been there and listened to these people, and it's one reason we're still correcting the path to the reach the version of ourselves that we envisage becoming.
That person you see yourself becoming is achievable, but because we listen to the no sayers we end up pushing down and not believing it.
Well if like me you now realize this fact, and since been listening to your own advice, or people you trust and consider mentors, then you will be making rapid progress toward your dreams, and my advice is never look back at the previous versions, look to the version you aim to become, as every person, even the no sayers deserve to live an intentional life if they decide to make the right changes.
We all deserve a break as we've made the same mistakes in some form or another, but it's down to them to realize this, and your time is precious to use right now to reach your own targets.
This Sunday Slant has been me just thinking aloud, so a little less structured than I had in mind to publish, a bit all over the place at times, and much longer than expected, but the point of seizing the moment, the benefits of not taking the easy route, and definitely not listening to the no sayer I feel has been made loud and clear. You know my opinion on the subject I'm guessing by now.
I had a quick read through after typing, so please excuse bad grammar or typo's, it's straight off the cuff stuff.
I'd hoped to be more succinct though, so I'll roll over my next slant post on the sunk cost fallacy to next Sunday.
Tomorrow is a day off, so my monthly tidy up what I have left on my head and beard trim is booked, as I'm starting to look like wild man Bill (no offence meant if your name is Bill and your wild). Also keeping up my new fitness regime, which I'm still in the honeymoon period.
Next week according to BHA reports racing looks likely to resume, so we'll be back in business ideally before the weekend.
Thanks for reading.