Saturday Success: overrated action, why people stay poor & 4 ways to use reciprocity
Making life & money work for you.
Welcome back to the Saturday Success Series email!
This week we have:
Master Yourself: Bias toward action overrated?
Master Your Money: Why people stay poor
The Weekly Special: 4 ways to use reciprocity
The goal here is maximum value, so let’s get to it.
Interested in building your online writing into a 4-5 figure business? Get The Medium Formula for less than you’d pay for dinner.
Master Yourself
Sometimes the best thing you can do is sit still while everything speeds around you.
There’s something to be said for valuing calm.
You won’t hear this advice often though. Everyone is going to tell you to hustle your ass off 24/7 or everything you want gets further away from you.
They’re partially right. But balance is your best friend.
Let me ask you a question.
If a grizzly bear attacks you, what do you do?
Run.
That feels right, right?
It feels like the right answer.
But it’s wrong.
The right answer is, you play dead unless and until you absolutely have to fight.
When it comes to investing, my action is buying in regularly. But then I leave everything alone.
When it comes to my day, I work hard up until about 5pm, then I relax the rest of the evening. Spend time reading, watching TV, journaling, playing games with my family, etc.
I balance the calm with the hustle.
Master Your Money
You’ll hear a lot about why people are poor. How they can’t build wealth. Life is rough. And a million other things.
But the bottom line isn’t that complicated, so let me simplify.
The cost of living + poor choices.
That’s why most people never build wealth.
When you go into debt for an art history degree in a city that costs minimum 5k/month to live…you’re setting yourself up for failure.
When you can’t say no to your kids so you go into debt buying them designer clothes, the latest iPhone and a new car…you’re setting yourself up for failure.
When you can’t say no to yourself, to your dining out, your bar tabs, etc... you’re setting yourself up for failure.
If on the other hand you…
learn how to live below your means
increase your income
invest
build high income skills
find a high paying remote job while moving to somewhere low cost
delay gratification
…you set yourself up to win.
Make better decisions. Find better cost of living areas.
Control what you can control. And stop making excuses.
Excuses cost too much.
Weekly Special
4 Ways to Use Reciprocity to Change Your Life
Humans are reciprocal creatures because we think fairness matters. We want to make things “even”.
You can use this psychological setting to your advantage. In like “I’m a good human, here to help” sort of way. Not some weird, wicked way.
When you do things for people, they’ll want to return the favor and help you. It’s that simple.
Here are four ways to do that.
Compliments
The easiest one! People love to hear nice things about themselves (and their children, just to note that).
This is so simple. Make your compliments sincere and shower everyone around you with compliments.
Don’t overdo it with people you see frequently. Make those more sporadic but full of deeper meaning.
Sharing
Pay for dinner, send an article on a topic you know they’re interested in, share your umbrella. You get the idea.
I let our neighbor know to come on over if she lost power and we didn’t (different power grids) during the last snowstorm.
Look for ways to share your resources with someone else.
Free knowledge
Share your best insights publicly. Social media is the perfect place to do this.
Don’t be a hoarder. I saw someone recently “stole” one of my headlines (it’s a unique one, which is how I knew). I didn’t get upset. I’m glad she liked it so much that she wanted to use it.
I have faith that I’ll never run out of ideas, so I don’t worry about unloading them as I go.
Gifts
Important to note- they must be personalized and meaningful.
Over the course of a year, at work, I practiced this with clients. Here are some examples.
Spoke to a cancer survivor who was dealing with round 2, sent him the wonderful book Resilience with a note inside.
Sent a Steelers Funko Pop to one client’s son who was a diehard fan but could never find Pittsburgh gear or toys in local stores.
My former manager’s cat passed away unexpectedly and we donated to a rescue in her cat and family’s name.
It’s okay to do things that don’t scale. Things you can’t measure. Things you don’t keep track of.
It’s always a good idea to be a good person.
Thanks for reading! If you found this valuable, please share with someone who could use it. See you next Saturday!
FREE resources to 20x your life. Updated periodically. Grab ‘em here: CAIT MACK.
Here’s a picture of a fun night out last week. Have a great upcoming week!