Try to think about all of your skills, abilities, habits, characteristics, etc., as your “income arsenal.”
Within this arsenal, your focus could be the steady sniper that seeks out the target from afar. Your perseverance could be the unapologetic shotgun that gets you through the gritty, tough, close-quarters combat of everyday challenges.
You get the idea. So what’s the biggest gun in your income arsenal? It’s definitely not what you think…
Ignorance. Please allow me to explain…
But let’s first address the obvious question you have right now – “isn’t ignorance a bad thing?”
Yes…Usually. Ignorance can keep you from being self-aware. It can make you miss out on a brilliant opportunity that’s staring you in the face. And it can be the very thing holding you back from success if you let it.
Think of ignorance like the Blackhawk helicopter of your income arsenal…
When you don’t understand how to pilot your ignorance you’ll undoubtedly struggle to maneuver such a powerful weapon, and the end result will be you parachuting to the ground as your helicopter crashes.
But if you can properly pilot that ignorance you’ll be able to control one of the most powerful and agile moneymaking weapons in the world!
Selective Ignorance
It’s all about being selective about your ignorance…
You see, human nature tells us to consume as much as possible: news, movies, shows, books, emails, phone calls, texts, and on and on.
What you don’t realize (and won’t be able to realize until you stop) is that those things are holding you back by an incredible amount. Most of the information you’re consuming is irrelevant to your goals, outside of your control, and (perhaps most importantly) time consuming.
The life you create for yourself is a consequence of input and output. The more unnecessary input (like the above examples) that you experience, the less output you’d achieve. It’s a basic principle.
The goal is maximum efficient output in order to be taking action to reach your goals, financially and otherwise.
So answer these questions:
- How much time each day to you spend looking at emails?
- How much time do you spend taking in the news through the newspaper, television, online, etc.?
- How often do you find yourself aimlessly surfing the web?
All of that unnecessary input is keeping your from output, and output means money in your pocket…
So this is my 2-part challenge to you now:
1. Reduce that sort of input completely for 1 week.
That means NO unnecessary web surfing. NO television, expect for an hour each day to unwind. NO news through newspapers, magazines, radio, etc. And NO unnecessary input of any other kind. NO email, except for the absolutely necessary amount – try to go for once a week, but once or twice per day is allowed IF NECESSARY.
You’ll be amazed at how simple it is to get caught up on the most important news by catching headlines as you walk by a TV or through word of mouth.
2. If something doesn’t need or deserve to be finished, don’t finish it.
If you find yourself reading a nonfiction book that you thought would be able to help you, but it isn’t providing you with any valuable information, put it down. Don’t feel like you have to finish it just because.
The same goes for anything boring, unhealthy, etc. Basically anything that doesn’t add value to you can be cut off immediately.
Instead of playing the game by the normal “More! More! More!” mentality that we all have adopted, understand that gaining selective ignorance towards the unnecessary input in your life will become the most powerful weapon in your income arsenal…
