you already know this (but you still won't listen)

life is hard.

but if you want it to be easier, you can make it easier.

you just have to do all of the hardest stuff up front so that you can do the easy stuff in the future.

• go to the gym now so you can still play with your grandkids when you’re old.

• ask that girl out now so you can avoid the ‘what if?’ feeling on the ride home.

• learn the skill now so you can get paid for it in the future.

it’s a pattern that stays true across all aspects of life:

anything worth having is worth working hard for.

but let’s be honest — you already knew that.

so the question isn’t ‘what should i do?’

(answer: work hard on something that matters)

it’s ‘how do i get myself to do it?’

luckily, there’s a simple way:

look to other successful people to see what works for them, & just copy that.

steal their morning routines, workout plans, journalling prompts, playlists, etc. — whatever it is, eat that shit up.

but there’s 1 big problem with this strategy:

when we see people with lives that look easy, we don’t know what we don’t know.

we see the comedian selling out arenas & getting rich from telling jokes.

but we don’t see the thousands of half-empty dive bars they performed in, got booed at, & spent gas money to get to.

we see the rich businessman driving his Porsche & buying $1000 bottles of wine for his girlfriend who’s, frankly, way out of his league.

but we don’t see the thousands of hours spent putting out fires & missing out on social events because the market never gave a shit about work-life balance.

the list goes on & on.

you only see the tip of the iceberg, & that’s why you get stuck in no man’s land.

it goes like this:

1. you see something that looks like it can get you what you want without it being hard

2. you try it

3. you realize how hard it is

4. you see something else that looks like it can get you what you want without it being hard

5. you start over again

i did this with my content.

i made videos, & for 2 years, none of them got more than a few hundred views. i had 76 subscribers.

then, i uploaded a video that just crushed. 350k views. 10k subs. got monetized.

& what did i do?

first, i froze. i didn’t upload for months & blamed my perfectionism.

then, i uploaded & didn’t get the same results.

then, i uploaded again & still didn’t get the same results.

i did that a couple more times until i decided: “you know what, i’m just gonna try something completely different.”

so last month, i started a public interview format called ‘Big Red Telephone,’ intending to do it full time as my ‘way out.’

i filmed for a few days, & it was a big success.

but then thought to myself,

“wait a second. i’m starting from the bottom again. did i just do the switching-from-shit-that-works thing that i told myself i wouldn’t do?”

i did.

but i know where this constant flip-flopping is gonna get me (nowhere), so i’m sticking to the original plan: building my newsletter & YT channel into a resource that i wish my younger self had.

BRT is still a good idea.

just, not right now.

because one of the hidden costs of success is all of the other good ideas you have to ignore along the way.

our brains are like supercomputers with 1mb of ram. we can only do 1 thing *well* at a time.

‘you can do anything you want, but not everything you want.’

& even if you can somehow manage to juggle multiple priorities at once, you’ll never beat the person who’s all-in on one.

simply put, there’s just a shit-ton of work standing between you & every big goal you have in mind, & if you want any chance of getting there, you have to go all-in.

trust me, i’ve been in denial for years.

but it’s the truth.

& i think this has been such a hard lesson for me because it’s the opposite of another truth that i’ve been rewarded for in the past:

‘if something isn’t good enough, there’s probably a better way, so take the leap.’

that’s great advice when you haven’t started yet.

it’s terrible advice when you already have something good & just realized how much work it’s going to take.

so here’s the truth:

life is hard.

if you keep chasing new opportunities every time it gets hard, you’re just running from the work & getting nowhere.

run towards it.

solve the hard problems now so you can afford to solve the easy problems later.

this is the only way.

some things i learned

1. the creator of Fortnite just bought 40,000 acres of U.S. wilderness for the best reason ever
   Tim Sweeney, founder & CEO of Epic Games, owns a ton of land that he never wants to build anything on. the whole purpose is to preserve nature permanently. honestly, what a great use of Vbucks.

2. women’s periods are lowkey synced up with the moon??????
   i know, i thought this was a load of horseshit too. but there’s actually some solid evidence supporting this. just read the abstract (summary) of this study:

   

3. learning new skills is easy, actually
   you’d be amazed at how fast you can become competent enough at a skill you know nothing about right now. in my experience, it only takes ~10-20 hours of dedicated learning (& doing) to become ‘good enough’ at anything — sometimes, less.
   
   some recent examples in my life:
   (1) chess (didn’t know how the pieces moved —> holding my own against good players within ~12h of gameplay)
   (2) new video editing software (never used Da Vinci Resolve —> made a ‘successful’ YT video with it after ~1 week)
   (3) deadlifts (avoided deadlifts because i didn’t have good form —> learned solid form in literally 2 workouts (~1h each))
   
   you can just do learn things.

cool stuff i found

1. i’ve been enjoying videos big songs being performed before they were big
   here’s Nirvana’s first-ever performance of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. or another good one is Bastille playing ‘Pompeii’ at an event called Sofar Sounds, where people offer up rooms in their house for artists to perform. cool stuff.

2. maybe the dumbest movie i’ve ever seen
   i just discovered the movie Brothers Grimsby, which was made by the creator of Borat, Sasha Baron Cohen. it’s stupid, the plot isn’t anything special, & it has the most ridiculous scene in any movie i’ve ever watched. i don’t even want to recommend it, but the fact that i’m talking about it here says enough.
   
   btw, if you’re trying to watch movies for free online, DON’T go to FMHY.net & DON’T click ‘streaming’ & DON’T use the websites they list on that page.
   
   seriously, don’t even think about it!

3. my favourite shoes ever
   i can’t believe i haven’t plugged these on my newsletter before. they’re the New Balance 576, & they’re the ‘premium version’ of the 574s i used to wear. don’t be alarmed by the $500 price tag online — i got mine new for $150 on eBay after searching for a week, & they’ve been worth every penny. this colourway is the ‘35th Anniversary - Elephant Skin’ edition.

   

i just think they look so cool lol.

anyways, that’s all i’ve got for you this week!

thanks for tuning in, & thank you to those of you who have already watched & commented on my latest YT video, ‘the hidden cost of changing your life.’

i hope it’s helpful!

this is coming out a day (or 2) later than usual, but fuck it.

better late than never, right? haha

go make yourself proud this week.

~ liam (:

PS — none of this is sponsored & if that ever changes, i promise you’ll know about it ASAP. i just like sharing cool stuff with you.