If you’re an entrepreneur or working on a project, it’s easy to get distracted. Whether it’s by busy work or stuff that’s not work at all, we often tend to fall down rabbit holes that we shouldn’t, and that distracts from our goals. Getting rid of distractions is what helps us win. In this article, I’ll give you a short guide on how to eliminate all distractions from your life, and put yourself in the frame of mind necessary to win and get what you want.
Figure out what your goal is
If you don’t know what exactly you’re doing, you’ll never have clarity of mind when pursuing your mission. You need to have goals that are simple and easily broken down into steps. Mine is to be living in southeast Asia and to get married and have kids and be reasonably well off. I don’t need to be super rich, but joining the top 10% in the Southeast Asian country of my choice would be nice.
Become obsessed with your goal
The only way to get rid of distractions is to create a high level of focus. If you aren’t focused, you’re going to be more tempted than otherwise to do things like look at your phone and watch TV instead of working. If you are focused, “fun” things start to seem like lame distractions. I became obsessed with my goals by really just dreaming about the future in as idealistic a way as possible, while still maintaining a grip on reality. I learned about the best neighborhoods in Vietnam, watched house tours in Thailand, and checked out fun things to do in Japan. I started to envision the potential of my future lifestyle, and that made it very easy to do the work required to get this website off the ground. No other work really seems all that appealing to me on this front.
Come up with a repeatable process
You want to create systems that can easily be repeated, and that inch you closer to your net worth goals. All I do is write, study, research, and build. I have a certain amount of writing that I get done each day, and then I spend the rest of my spare time learning about computer programming and information technology. The process is simple because it’s only split into two parts: 1) write and 2) learn. This way, there are only 2 things I need to spend the day doing. I used to get some entertainment on social media, but I’ve cut all of that stuff out as I win more and more.
Organize your environment so as to make that process as easy as possible
This step is optional, and if you’re really starting from the bottom, you’re going to need to skip it altogether. It’s hard to optimize everything. But make it so that it’s easy to get to work, you have a decent and reliable roof over your head, and that you have a system for eating that makes cooking very easy. I am lucky to be living with family, but if you need to live alone, I suggest looking into slow-cooked meals and learning to love rice. I suggest that every young person live with their family members until their mid 20s or 30s. This way they can simply build skills and work. Living alone in your 20s is awesome, but it’s not going to pay dividends in the long run. Put your head down and work while living at your parents’ or grandparents’ house for 3–5 years. It will pay off.
Learn to tell who is and isn’t intelligent
This is something that gets easier as you age. In the past, all it took for me to make you my business partner was enthusiasm. Now, I’m firmly against business partnerships. I’m also against having stupid friends.
Identifying stupid people is an art before it’s a science. A lot of stupid people like to talk a lot, and a lot of them are hardworking. A lot of them are also blank, easily impressionable slates. This means they can get fairly successful by adopting good principles (such as reading the bible). In my experience, the biggest indicator that someone is or isn’t intelligent is their vocabulary. The second is their ability to empathize. I am apt to believe that empathy and IQ are correlated. If someone seems unemphatic to you, they’re either way smarter or way stupider than you. Check their vocabulary and compare it to yours to see which scenario applies.
Cut off all idiots
Don’t judge your family members by their intelligence. Family members are the only people who should be able to be a little stupid without being judged. But cut off all the stupid “friends” and colleagues. Be ruthless about it. If people use too much flawed logic around you get rid of them. It’s cold, but you don’t want to end up like the wrong people. Even absorbing their twisted thought processes will trip you up. All the successful people I’ve met are ruthless about curating their spaces, and don’t allow unnecessary intrusions. Spotting low IQ people is tough when you have a high IQ, but once you start figuring out the tells you need to go hard about getting rid of them. These people are destructive as hell, whether it’s intentional or not. Avoid like the plague.
Cut off all naysayers, doubters, and undercover haters
This is where you may need to distance yourself from certain family members. But you need to be sure that you know what you’re doing, and that you work hard. This is tough, because a lot of people are lazy, and even more of them are dumbasses. But if you know you’re up your alley, you can’t have stupid nonsense in your ear. Get rid of anyone who you think is so much a sneak dissing you. At least while you’re getting your work done.
If you work with no distractions for a few months, your life will change. If you work with no distractions for a few years, your life should be unrecognizable. I’ve been working with no distractions for about 8 months. I have a wealth of knowledge and am ready to monetize this blog, making myself reasonably well off considering the country in which I live. Living with the right family members made it easier for me to reach my goals, but with a similar amount of determination, someone living in the West can also get far. I live in a 3rd world country, and everything I know is self taught. If you get a good job and put your head down while living in North America or Europe you should be able to get what you want.
