In life, the absolute worst thing you can do is cheat yourself. That’s when it comes to productivity, success, and achievement at least. Cheating yourself is dangerous, and it can create the slippery slope to your demise. I’ve cheated myself in the past. I set my standards low and tried to get away with doing the bare minimum. This was mostly in high school, back when I didn’t like my school and school curriculum. I would wing it when I studied, and was often satisfied with Bs when I should have gotten As. This level of self-deceit has had consequences. I’m technically two years behind “in life” as a result of my mistakes. Noticing this and looking back on my early 20s, I’m only glad that I didn’t cheat myself more. I learned lucrative skills and have set about applying them and putting them to good use. I have a budding website, and it looks like Rising Current is going to survive well after this Google update. This only happened because I didn’t cheat myself. I worked constantly and consistently, and I did exactly what I set out to do. I have more work to do, but it appears as though the work I’ve already put in is set to take me very far in life. So please, if you’re reading this. Do the work and don’t cheat yourself out of success.
What does it mean to cheat yourself?
You cheat yourself whenever you have the opportunity to make yourself or others think or feel as though you’re working or achieving more than you actually are and take it. This usually occurs in professional settings, but it can also occur within the context of exercise or physical activity. We all know that one person who goes to the gym and pretends to work out, but really, they’re just on their phone the entire time. Cheating yourself is the ultimate form of self-deception, because you make yourself feel as though you’re being productive when you’ve actually done nothing. This can get really dangerous if it transfers to other areas of your life. The last thing you want to become is a delusional man. You want to be delusionally confident but grounded in reality. This only comes when you combine effort with results.
Working hard on the front end is the key to success
I didn’t do much more work than the average Canadian or American on the front-end. I’ve written a lot and created a lot of online content. But I don’t have that many skills, and I don’t have a formal degree. All-that being said, I’ve still achieved more than about 80% of guys my age in my country, when it comes to content production. Most people don’t have blogs, and I have well over 200 articles. In a country where the average citizen only earns $500 per month, it means I’m doing pretty well. A bit more writing, and I should reach or double the average wage in my home country in recurring, passive income… at least. Even if Google decides it hates risingcurrent.com and doesn’t want to index it, I can still put my articles on Medium and start a YouTube channel. It’s not immediately apparent to people living in first world countries, but I’m building wealth. Two Blogs, each worth $27,000, are far more valuable than $100,000 in home equity if you live overseas. The former buy you time freedom, while the latter keeps you tethered to your 9-5. This is why earning location independent income is so competitive. You don’t need a lot of it to buy your freedom.
In order to get to this point, I had to avoid cheating myself. Every article I wrote had to be real and well-reasoned. I could have used AI to fill my blog with content, but that would be cheating myself. I could have counted my about page as a post when counting how many I’ve written, but that would also be cheating myself. I could write short, insubstantial posts. Lots of writers and newspapers have no problem posting 300-word snippets to the internet, it seems. I write rich, detailed content because I want people to actually spend time on my site and read what I have to say. As a result, I now have a very big website, and it seems to be gaining traction on the Google search console. I’m only 25, but this will likely buy my freedom in the future, while my peers suffer and struggle with low wage jobs. I’ve been given lots of advantages in life and have luckily been able to use them all properly.
Never, ever cheat yourself. It’s really tempting to do it, especially when you’re young. Just don’t. Trust me on this one. Life can get really ugly, really quickly if you don’t do the work. Adulthood rushes towards you and before you know it, age 30 is staring you in the face. I can’t imagine being 29 and trying to get my blog off the ground. The returns on my efforts would be far less valuable too. $750 per month in a poor country is great when you’re my age. Not so much at 30. The harder you work, the more money you get. The sooner you start working, the longer you have for your money to compound. You don’t need to dream of becoming a multi-millionaire, but when it comes to what you actually want out of life, don’t cheat yourself. I’m young, but I’m sure you will live to regret it.
Thanks for paying attention.
