Is it crazy to think that everything you’ve experienced, everything you’re experiencing, and everything you’re going to experience is a result of what you’ve been thinking and feeling?
The thought gives me pause.
It would mean that everything I like reflects some part of me.
Likewise, it would mean everything I don’t like reflects some part of me also.
Everything I experience is a feedback mechanism, reflecting to me what I’ve been thinking and feeling.
And that reminds me to look closely at what I’ve been thinking and feeling. Because my view of the outer world is often limited. It often doesn’t look how I want it to look either.
Change is possible. But I can’t force change on the outer world. It doesn’t work that way.
What I can do is engage in inner work. Be in the discovery of what is having me see the world as I see it now. Declare completion over past events. Seek out opportunities to heal.
Trying to change others is a waste of time – they are reflecting you. You are meant to observe and be in the discovery of what part of you they are reflecting.
Forcing a change in yourself is also a waste of time. There is always an impact, and you end up adding to the baggage you’re already carrying. The question is what you’re going to do with that baggage.
You can lovingly and gently engage in inner work. This will change the outer world. But not by force. It will change because you’ve changed.
In a video published yesterday, I shared that I’d spent over $100,000 on personal development:
Those numbers are quite conservative. As I thought about it, I realized I must be well beyond that figure at this point.
But I’ve noticed people like to call B.S. on this, so let me break it down for you. And I can’t emphasize this enough – all figures that follow are conservative!
Books & Kindles
I own roughly 300 personal development, leadership, marketing, entrepreneurship, and spiritual books, mostly paperbacks or hardcovers, some Kindles. Some books cost more, some cost less, and some were even gotten for free, but if I were to average it out, each book cost roughly $20.
300 titles x $20 = $6,000
Audiobooks & Audio Programs
I have not invested huge sums of money in audiobooks and audio programs, but I have spent some.
20 audiobooks x $20 = $400
4 audio programs x $40 = $160
Courses & Memberships
Courses and memberships (some of which came with personalized coaching) is one of the greatest costs I’ve incurred in growing myself. I don’t think of it as an expense so much as a necessity, mind you.
Fizzle (now ZenBusiness) – $720 (for a combined two years of membership)
James Schramko – $2,400 (for a combined two years of membership)
Landmark Worldwide – $5,450 (for seven courses or programs and three seminars)
I have also invested in some one-offs at Udemy and elsewhere, so the above should not be considered comprehensive.
Network Marketing
Everything in life can teach you something, and I learned a great deal about business in network marketing, where I ended up spending a good chunk of money. I can’t say I lost my shirt, but I also didn’t earn a lot of money in the business. Thus, a business education.
Products – $28,800
Training organization membership – $720
Training resources – $720
Communication tool – $720
Business Investments
Business investments also ended up teaching me a great deal about life and entrepreneurship and I would count them towards my personal growth.
Let’s remember – the above figures are conservative. I have not covered everything I’ve ever invested in to grow myself, and since I’ve been investing heavily into my growth since 2009, some of the above figures would look very different (much higher) in today’s money.
In creating content, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds without ever finding your path.
Here’s the surprising truth no one tells you about content…
It’s Not About the Type of Content
We are often led to believe that content is, first and foremost, about the type of content you produce.
Blog posts, infographics, podcasts, videos. Pick one.
Picking one and sticking to it is good advice. Choosing one that’s matched to your preferences is even better. Even with a team, it can be very difficult to publish blog posts and make videos, as an example.
But you will not automatically be more successful because you publish a certain type of content…
It’s Not About the Platform
Secondly, we are told, publishing is about finding the right platform to publish to.
Facebook. Instagram. YouTube.
All things being equal, it’s a good idea to go where your audience is. And there is no mistaking that you’ve got to tailor the right kind of content to the platform you’re publishing to.
But publishing in the right place will not guarantee success. If you’re delivering the right kind of content, people will come to you.
It’s Not About When You Publish
Having figured out what type of content we want to publish and where to publish it, we start looking at when to publish it.
It’s funny because it’s mostly replacing one obsession with another.
Emails should go out between 9 AM and 12 PM EST on a Thursday. Facebook posts should be published between 8 AM and 12 PM EST on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Or whatever it is.
Look, you can find this information anywhere, and nowadays Facebook will even help you schedule your posts at a time they are more likely to be seen.
It doesn’t matter anywhere near as much as you think it does, though, because people will still tune into their favorite show at 1:00 AM on Monday if it’s the only opportunity to catch it.
The Surprising Truth – It’s About the Personality
Personality, or what marketer Russell Brunson calls a certain “attractive character” in his book, DotCom Secrets, is what creating content is all about. This is a foundation on which you can build.
People will still occasionally stumble across your content if it’s valuable and optimized, but if there’s no personality in it, it’s unlikely you will be remembered and be able to get people on your list and create long-term engagement with them.
Think about it. Oprah can draw an audience and sell to them any time she wants. You can probably think of plenty of others – Adam Sandler, Jerry Seinfeld, Howard Stern, Craig Ferguson, Jimmy Fallon, or otherwise.
If you were to pay attention to your own consumption habits, you’d notice that large chunks of it are based on people you know, like, and trust too.
I have only been in Penticton, BC since February, but I have traveled to the coast (Vancouver, BC) three or four times already (usually for a few days). In fact, I spent this week in Maple Ridge, BC.
Penticton has yet to grow stale for me, though it certainly isn’t a large city, and it doesn’t take too long to get acquainted with it. Even so, I’ve been finding value in getting away from the status quo.
A change of environment can:
Give you a fresh perspective.
Inspire new ideas.
Offer a change of pace.
Give you the opportunity to interact with different people or visit friends or family.
Give you the opportunity to eat different food.
Offer the chance to see new or different sights.
Give you time to think and reflect.
Offer you the chance to reset your habits.
If you’re not getting away at least once every three months, consider making changing your environment a part of your quarterly routine.
In a recent conversation with Marie Forleo, Seth Godin (love you both) said it won’t be long before there will be A.I. generated podcasts personalized to the individual:
A.I. will be so efficient at the task, says Seth, that podcasters will be made irrelevant.
I think he’s right.
But I don’t think it will be any good.
Here’s why:
Misinformation
People made a big fudging stink about disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic, many not realizing that the mainstream media was one of the biggest proponents of propagating and perpetuating blatant lies.
(If you haven’t heard of controlled opposition, look it up.)
Were we dealing with a lot of bad information? Sure. Were we panicking and scared of a potentially fatal virus? Absolutely. Did we have all the facts? Not even close.
And I mean no disrespect to people who were impacted by the pandemic (realistically, though, everyone was impacted in some way, shape, or form).
But remember – we were also dealing with a man who self-appointed himself the god of “Science” and claimed he was right regardless of what you believed (and he was verifiably and quantifiably wrong many times over).
Do you really want to trust Artificial Intelligence to deliver accurate, timely, relevant information to you? Even if it knows your preferences, likes, and dislikes, guaranteed it will deliver what it wants you to hear, not what you want to hear.
Media is already the most powerful form of indoctrination there is. Custom, personalized content stemming from the same branch? That’s brainwashing.
Lack of Creativity
We’re still NOT dealing with sentience. And I wonder why people are constantly glossing over this fact. We’re quite loose with our interpretation of “Artificial Intelligence” currently.
So-called “A.I.” is an article compiler, voice generator, image masher, etc. It’s not self-aware, and it’s not creative. It can’t think for itself. It can’t bring you fresh, innovative, life-transforming insights. All it can do is draw upon the information that’s already out there, which might give the impression or illusion of being valuable or transformative.
That might be fine for the daily news, which we know is the best propaganda and fearmongering machine available, but I don’t even like the idea of A.I. pretending to know things and interacting with it as though this were true. All it’s doing is taking from other people’s blogs and papers, summarizing them, and passing them off as its own.
I find other people’s content useful because it brings fresh perspectives to the table. There are many things I would have had trouble learning, such as the pentatonic scale, if I didn’t have a tribe of mentors.
Boredom
I have no reason whatsoever to read or listen to A.I.-generated content. I’d rather throw a pickle at the neighbor’s fence (at least that way I might laugh, and laughing is good for you).
I don’t care how well-written the article is; I don’t care how enthusiastic the voice is. If it wasn’t created by a living, breathing, human being with real emotions and a soul, it’s all a counterfeit experience. And I did not sign up for a counterfeit life.
With so much A.I.-generated content, the internet will become a very boring, stale, pointless place. No one will make things, because they will be crowded out by A.I., which can generate moderate (and that’s being generous) quality content at a faster rate than a human being.
It’s too bad – I rather enjoyed this thing we had going with the internet. Now I have a better idea what the search engine guys were so excited about at the ground floor…
Final Thoughts
Unfortunately, I know most people won’t exercise this degree of critical thinking in choosing what they listen to.
So, if Seth is right, human-hosted podcasts will be made redundant regardless of my opinion. It doesn’t change the fact that it will be crap.
