2020 started with a BANG. At least, it seemed that way for people on Facebook. There were many posts about eating healthy, saving properly and also books to read for 2020. In the posts that was shared, I realised something in common. They were all very positive!
I have been a fan for positive messages. I like reading articles that are motivating because I get motivated just by reading them (Let’s do it people!). However, I noticed that while it works. It only works in a while. (Damn. Don’t you wish it lasted longer?)
Meet Adam (you probably know a version on him in office). Adam is an average office worker who goes to work from 9am to 5pm. After Christmas, Adam folded his arms and realised to his horror that his stomach has gotten bigger. He don’t remember it being that big the last Christmas. Looking at the calendar, Adam sees that it is just 7 more days into the new year and decides that he will start to exercise ONCE the new year begins.
As the year begins, he is MOTIVATED. He starts eating at salad joint. He finishes his work at 5pm and go for a run at night. He tells his colleagues that everything is working well and he has just lost 2 kg in the last 2 weeks. If he is on track, he will reach his fitness goal by the end of June.
In February, work starts to pile up and he starts to do overtime (OT). He barely have time for lunch so he eats chicken rice as it is a quick fix. When he goes home, he feels so tired and just want to sleep.
Guess what. By March, Adam has given up on his fitness goals. (I hope he has done his reflections)
Adam is motivated. However, it is only for the start of the year. Sometimes, life throws us a spanner and things get out of control. Today, instead of talking about positively like all other posts on Facebook, I want to start the year together with you by telling you TO QUIT.
Yes. I want you start the year by QUITTING. I want to share you 3 things to quit this year so that you can improve your life for the better. The below 3 tips are my personal experience and I hope it can be valuable and relevant to you.
Quit Finishing Books
This is massive. I’m an avid reader. I practically eat books for lunch. However, this has been one of my most painful lessons that I had to learn last year. I had to QUIT FINISHING BOOKS.
Imagine this: you start watching a new TV show. It has four seasons and nearly 50 episodes of content. You get four episodes into the show and are not enjoying it. Would you force yourself to plow through the show, finishing all four seasons? Or would you just quit?
Most of us quit. Yet, when faced with the same situation with a book, most of us feel as though we should POWER THROUGH and finish 500 pages. This makes no sense at all! Last year, I bought several investment books that I wanted to read. I was all excited when the books arrived from book depository. It has take 3 weeks to arrive and I practically rip the package to dig out the book. After reading for 5 minutes, I felt that there was this huge disconnect between the author and I.
Did you think I gave up?
NO! I POWER THROUGH ALL 500 PAGES SPENDING 3 MONTHS OF UNPRODUCTIVE READING.
Our ability to read quickly mostly depends on FOCUS. Our ability to retain information mostly depends on memory. Humans focus on things they enjoy. They also remember things they enjoy. Therefore, the first and most obvious rule of reading and retaining more information is to be ruthless and only reading books you truly enjoy reading.
My personal guide is to give a book a chance. I will give it 10% of its length to win me over (500 page book means I read the first 50 pages, 250 pages means I read the first 25, etc.) If I’m not won over by 10%, I check the table of contents to see if I want to skip to a later chapter that looks interesting. If that chapter doesn’t grab me, then I QUIT.
Quitting books goes for chapters or even sections. Investing books repeat themselves a lot (A.K.A Definition of PE Ratio/The power of compound effect etc). If I’m reading a book I’m already familiar with that chapter… I QUIT that chapter! No regrets. Books are meant to serve you, not the other way around.
QUIT CHASING RESULTS (OTHERS)
At the start of the year, I saw many of these results on Facebook. 39% is an respectable return on investment. If we take the rule of 72, it will just take slightly less than 2 years to double your money! That’s incredible. Imagine you have $100,000 and it becomes $200,000 in less than 2 years. For someone new to investing, this might seem like the holy grail to your financial freedom. That’s fantastic results. Before you get light headed, let’s look at a research done by Bank Of America.
This shows that in 2019, the entire stock market is expected to be up 30% to 40% anyway! If you see their ROI is 39%, it doesn’t mean their results is exceptional and in fact it is expected! To be a great investor, he should have to perform ABOVE the market norm.
We might be seeing people chasing a 39% return this year as people already feel that they can get it last year. QUIT CHASING RESULTS (without knowing the context).
This could apply to many things to life as well. I know people who are chasing after a nice Condominium, a nice Mercedes Ben or a nice trip to U.S.A. It is usually all over Instagram. Personally, I believe that life is short and we should enjoy every moment of it. However, CHASING AFTER THINGS WON”T MAKE YOU HAPPY.
If you are chasing after what other people have, if you are chasing an unrealistic goal which you set for yourself, QUIT CHASING THEM. Find out what truly make you happy.
QUIT SIDETRACKING
I woke up this morning and plan to go for a run. This year, my fitness goal is to get GOLD in my IPPT. I then decided to go to the kitchen to fill my bottle up. 2 hours later, I’m out meeting my clients.
Did I run? NO.
Why is that so? Because, my mind was occupied by other things. (I need to fill my bottle up now)
Have this happen to you before? You wanted to do something but then life suddenly takes over and the opportunity to do is gone. I was having a chat with my friend, Christina Ho (who is obsessed with productivity) and we were sharing on things that we plan but DID NOT DO. If you meet Christina, she’s one of the most enthusiastic person who will scrub all the seashells on the beach to prove her point. We were frustrated and sometimes discouraged when we were unable to achieve what we set out to do. We don’t have the lack of motivation. But why does this happen to us?
From a corner of Yakun that I met her, a young father blurted out to his son “You have to pull up your sock“.
Whatever context the young father has said it in, the phrase “PULL UP YOUR SOCK” was stuck to me. I decided to experiment on myself and that experiment helped me achieve my fitness goal last year. It is very simple. When I want to run, I will PUT ON ONE SOCK. That awkward sock on my feet helped me remember that I have to go running and it kept me from constantly being sidetracked!
It worked so well, that I decided to use this in various aspect of life!
If you have goals this year that you really want to achieve, QUIT SIDETRACKING and PULL ON ONE SOCK!
Conclusion
I QUIT! Today, make it a point to quit 1 of the above.
If you read until here, thank you again for your patience and your support over in 2019. I hope that in 2020, Wealthdojo can continue to value add you. Let us know what you think in the comments below.
By the way, we are having the first Wealthdojo Seminar in 2020. We hope to see you and your friends in this seminar. Seats are limited and available on a first come first serve basis. You can find more information regarding the seminar here.
-> R.E.V. v2: Create Passive Income without Financial Knowledge <-
We will be having a 16% discount for readers of this post. Simply quote “IQUIT” to be eligible for the promotion price for the seminar.
I hope to nurture genuine relationships with all of my readers. Please feel free to contact me on my Instagram (@chengkokoh) or Facebook Page!