New Year Skill Development: Internalizing Motivation
Level 2- NGMI
Welcome Avatar! As long-term readers know, the New Year is the time to stay in. Instead of coming up with some singular goal that must be achieved in one year (which people quit by February), instead we suggest creating a protocol you will follow for life. This sounds daunting but it’ll create internal motivation. You won’t need to blow money going to some Tony Robbins Seminar (Michael Jordan/Lebron James never attended one before the NBA finals).
You want to create inevitability.
If you limit yourself to a single year or a “timeline to success” you’ll end up quitting before the big win comes. Anyone successful that is honest with you will explain that they know hundreds/thousands of people who simply gave up too early. They didn’t hit their specific one year goal or their “make it all in one cycle” goal. They anchor themselves to a specific day to make it which just results in an early exit.
If This Meme was accurate there would be 1,000 people leaving at the bottom and one person breaking through at the top. Every few years.
Again. We recognize the vast majority of people will end up making it within about 3 years of true grind/effort/eating glass. This doesn’t mean there is a magical door that opens at the end of year three. Maybe your breakthrough is 3.5 years. Maybe it is 1.5 years. Maybe you hit it "giga rich” at 42 when your goal was 40. Does it matter? No.
The objective is to create a system that makes success inevitable.
The NPC Majority
Instead of starting today, they wait for some specific time to start “New Years Day”. They need some magical new idea (instead of iterating on something with real demand now). They make excuses. The excuses include the perfect: 1) idea, 2) time, 3) market conditions, 4) competitive advantage or 5) brain chemistry hack.
Next thing you know it is January 15, 2026 and they’ve done nothing.
This isn’t just a problem, it is a catastrophic failure. A level 10/10 emergency stealing their most valuable asset: time. Time is the most expensive thing in the world and burning it waiting for January 1 is simply for NPCs and NGMIs.
Adding fuel to this fire? The next decade is going to be transformative. You will see individuals become completely sovereign. Running 7-9 figure businesses with less than a handful of people. The Jungle already has multiple public examples of this. We’re not aware of a single different community that does this. The other groups simply have some guy yelling about how $10M is not a lot of money and you’re all poor relative to him/her. A load of unhealthy non-sense.
Everyone starts at the bottom, everyone cross the finish line at a different time. The key is making sure that you are always *in the race*. “Quitting” isn’t a option. Losing isn’t an option. Your process and system makes it inevitable. The only question is when not “if”.
The New Economy
Due to AI and other technology advances? You are no longer shackled by the annoying and untrue statement “need to know someone to make it”.
Fact is, you already have access to everyone you “need to know” via the internet
Instead, the next decade is entirely about execution. People will spend all day outsourcing their thinking to AI models, you’ll be taking the same models to remove overhead and free up time to be a producer/operator/executor
If you’re constantly iterating (attempting to improve) your WiFi business, personal life, fitness etc. There is nearly no chance that you fail on a long time horizon. Least we haven’t seen it.
Luck isn’t needed when you create it yourself.
Why You’re Not Where You Want to Be (Yet)
The vast majority of people reading this have the capabilities to make it. We’ve got too much data on the type of people who read us and have too many success stories to back it up as well.
The real difference is that it doesnt *feel* like you are compounding as fast as you expected. Perhaps your first product launch did well, the second one did worse than expected and suddenly you just “assume” the third will be even worse. This isn’t how life works at all.
The world doesn’t reward equally. The only thing we know for sure is that it rewards follow through and iterations.
If you continue to follow through with new iteration (over and over again) we can tell you that you’ll wake up one day and say “that s**** idea worked?!”. Cannot tell you how many times this will happen in your life. You will try a few things and the one you assume won’t work ends up being a homerun. You just never know. You only find out when you follow through.
This is structurally harder to engrain into the human psyche. Largely because school and your life was designed around some timeline. 4 years graduate, 4 years college, 3 years first promo at job, 3.5 years next promo… so on and so forth.
This terrible mindset creates the following doom loop. Most go through these steps in order: start grinding early —> get overly excited about potential —> hit reality of first iteration being quite bad —> get disgruntled and emotional high wears off —> they think it over then do the same process again with some “new idea"
This feels like a good idea. It isn’t. They are simply restarting from zero again.
The problem: they never found out the why. Why didn’t it work. What was the actual issue. Is it actually solvable?
As you can see, if you follow through over and over again you will figure out the why.
Maybe the ad was just bad → congrats the biz is still viable
Maybe you targeted the wrong people → congrats the biz maybe viable still
Maybe there is legitimately no demand → ta’ da’ now you can actually move to a new idea because you are certain there is no real way to make the numbers work
If you quit on iteration one or two, chances are slim that you found the root cause. In other words, follow through consistently. When you find the why/how come… now you can decide the path forward.
Why This Kills Compounding
Novelty Addiction Loop
Something new feels like you are progressing. What you’re really doing is regressing.
You see this on the internet all the time with investing as well. There is always one stock, one market, one sector that is red hot for a year or two. This shouldn’t bother you if you are convinced the in the long-term outlook of your sector of expertise. Do you really care if the oil and gas sector is booming while 99% of your time is focused on tech investing? That’s right, you don’t.
The masses reward what is hot. Your brain is naturally drawn to the next shiny item. Your friends will even laugh at you for not knowing the latest hot topic for that year.
Your net worth will not reward the process of novelty chasing.
Identity Bias
In the beginning you want to be the investor, CEO and major decision maker. We get it, that is the goal and you can certainly get there. The catch? You won’t get there without putting in the necessary reps. On a comical side note, we have met people in corporate days who tried to act and dress like Elon Musk because they thought this would make them similar. Even had a guy who wore the same color t-shirt because Zuck was trending for only having one style of outfit to save brain power (of course later he became more of a bro-style and it hasn’t negatively impacted his cognitive performance).
Anyway.
If you want to be a decision maker it means you need to *stick* to investments, *stick* with building ideas, *stick* to the KPIs and *stick* to your plan of action. Ignore what everyone else is doing and just focus on you. Your plan. Your genetic advantage. Your data sets/feedback loop.
Once all the reps are done, you’ll naturally find yourself into a bigger decision making role.
Autist Note: this actually applies to personal finance as well. If you’re young and low on money, being a bit more frugal makes sense until you have an emergency fund made. If you’re sitting in line for free ice cream and clipping coupons with a $5M net worth, you’re actually harming yourself (loss of time - the most valuable asset you have).
Social Feedback Issue
By constantly switching gears and juggling, you’re on this never ending treadmill of hype. Your next idea is “the one”. Everyone pretends to be excited for you and cheers you on. Your first attempt was a flop but “you got it this time bro”
You’re not living for results in this case, you’re living for attention. Not a good strategy.
In the real world, results require long and painful lull periods. It looks like nothing is happening. That’s ironically where everything is happening. Lots of nothing then a step function up. Improvement isn’t linear.
This is the price of compounding. Many people hear “7% CAGR” for the S&P 500. They visualize every year is +7%. In reality it is more like +3%, +12%, -5%, +18%, +3%, -10%, +25%, 0%, 0%, -5%, +15%… so on and so forth. After 30 years of this the eventual CAGR is about 7%.
Time Preference is Your Advantage
Quick dopamine hits are being commoditized at an alarming rate. Even today there are people who sit on AI apps and just “talk to it” all day. They feel like they are learning something but they are really just wasting time.
So Who Comes Out Ahead? The person with low time preference. The person who chooses a clear niche, runs in that direction, iterates a billion times if needed and continues to follow through based on results/information. No emotion. No need to “ask AI”. The real time data is being given to you. Nothing to “ask”.
More doing. Less asking.
No excuse of not having the right “connections”. The only connection you need is an internet connection. That and the guts to continuously get feed back even if a lot of it is negative at first.
Eventually this all compounds and the next thing you know? You’re able to have high time preference. The big joke in the end is that you won’t enjoy it and will be back to low time preference projects to keep sane.
Anyway. Competition is getting easily distracted by the day. Don’t let this be you.
Create a Follow Through Protocol
The best quote on this topic is here: “Done is better than perfect” ~ Anne Mollegen Smith
It is actually profound if you understand it. By completing the task you get access to information. This makes the next attempt at being “done” closer to perfection anyway.
Follow through, again and again and again.
Here is a simple program to prevent you from wasting time and energy.
One Mission Only
If you’re struggling at all with progress, this means you’re allowed only one major mission. If 80%+ of your free time is not spent on that? You should be stressed out beyond belief.
Make it trackable: 1) number of ads tested, 2) number of units sold, 3) number of products launched, 4) number of outbound calls made… so on and so forth. We don’t know your specific starting point but it should be measurable.
Since we’re big on 3 line basic journaling, this means your main objective should be one line.
“The main goal is WiFi money and I will demand test every X days until Y result”
Two Deep Work Blocks Per Day
Make this non-negotiable. You will block off two time periods every single day to produce. Produce does not mean watch a youtube video or ask AI some obscure question. You need to be producing something to get to that main goal.
Your free time *outside* of this window can 100% be used to read, research, watch videos etc. The deep work period is for work = output
If you need an extra rule of thumb about 75 minute is a good block period without drifting and getting distracted. This adds up to 2.5 hours per day of no excuses output.
Turn on a timer if you have to. Go to a library if you have to. No distractions allowed. Phone is turned off.
No “thinking of ideas” excuses. The 21.5 hours of free time can be burned on thinking/researching etc.
Daily Minimum Prevents Quitting
By setting up like this, you are training your brain for two things: 1) you’re seeing tangible long-term results and 2) each day the goal isn’t to “win” it is to complete the full 2.5 hours of real intense work.
You are tracking a KPI and you’re tracking follow through. Soon enough it is 30 days of deep work. Next thing you know it is 5 years and you’ve already sold something.
The Tricky Part: Life is always going to throw you a curve ball. You might catch the flu. You might have a family emergency. So on and so forth.
In this case you still need a *minimum* output amount. For fun we will call it 30 minutes. Feel terrible and sick? Still put in those 30 minutes. Emergency? Cool still need to do the minimum.
The reason for this is both psychological and momentum based. You will feel stronger and more accomplished by getting through it. Also. You won’t stop the momentum you’ve built up the past month, year or years before this wrench got thrown in.
Now your identity is “No matter what happens I still get things done some how some way”
This is where long-term confidence is built.
Bonus No-Go Structure
If any of this sounds like “too much work” (it isn’t), you can go through and find all the stuff you do waste time on. Do you waste time talking about politics to people who won’t change their mind. Do you burn time trying to fix a relationship you know won’t be fixed? Do you take open ended meetings with no real objective?
If you do a reality check on your time, you’ll find that a lot of it is lost through leakage. The leak is entirely in your control. Once the leak stops, you will suddenly “have time”.
People lack priorities. They do not lack time.
Journal Review
Now you have your basic journal: 1) sentence mission and objective written in their as achieved or not - add in a number for hours of deep work, 2) what you need to implement tomorrow and 3) current assumption on what the root issue is
There will not be a “Eureka!” moment. This isn’t Disney. What you will find is hat you slowly make tweaks based on the changing view of the root cause. Eventually all those small changes lead to increasing speed/momentum. Then you’re just increasing more and more speed/momentum and you will look back and say “wow there is actually no day to pinpoint when this started to take off”. All you know is that the step function happened. That’s how the real world works.
You don’t adjust the hours of effort. You are only going to adjust the direction of that effort. If you need to focus on ads then focus on ads. If you need to focus on fixing the product packaging… switch the hours to fixing the product packaging.
The only constant is the follow through. When it’s done, ship it and move on. No need for perfect or another excuse about some 50th business idea.
Removing Emotion and Friction
The vast majority of people cannot take the emotional roller coaster that comes with success. Some days you feel like you’re the next billionaire, other days you wonder if they accidentally mixed your name up with someone else for college admissions.
This is all caused by two things: emotion and friction.
No In the Moment Decisions
Could be high, could be low. You do not want to make any decisions in a big moment. Don’t go house hunting if you just sold your business. Don’t give up on your idea just because an ad you worked on was a total flop.
The best way to prevent this is by training your subconscious. When you wake up and are barely functioning, drink some water and just jot down the first 2-3 things you’ll do during the deep work time frame “open ad 1, check KPIs” “Open ad 2, check KPIs” “Look at snapshot comparison”
It sounds silly at first, however you’ll find yourself doing *exactly* that the moment you sit down. Your brain was working out the details during your day. (seriously, this does happen)
If you want a real old person analogy, it would be like warming up the heater on an old car before driving it.
No Money Timeline Goals
“I will make it by age 30 exactly”. This just creates anxiety and depression. The reality is that it “takes as long as it takes”. Once you accept this you will see better results.
We’ve already given you a rough outline. You’ve also already seen a ton of people follow through (there is that phrase again) with a typical inflection around year three.
Again. Around. Maybe it takes you five years! However. Maybe the payout is 10x bigger. Would you really be upset if your “number” was $2M but you ended up at $20M a few years later than expected? Yeah. We didn’t think so.
It takes as long as it takes. You will not expect your life to follow some perfect linear step by step pattern. There is no graduation ceremony. That is not how the real world works.
Terrible Day Minimums
We do try our best to set the standard here even with this fun website. We don’t really take time off. We’re consistent. We follow through.
That said, we do have “bad days” and “life events” just like you. In those cases you want to have back burner items you can get done in a shorter amount of time. This will keep momentum going for you. Perhaps you only have 1 hour to commit instead of the usual 3 hours. That’s good enough.
Make a minimum and consider it a win since you didn’t break the “win streak”. Use professional sports ball as an example. Maybe you only play 20 minutes that game because you were sick. Well good enough. If the win came through, that’s more than enough.
Consistency creates a new identity. New identity creates momentum. Momentum creates inevitable results.
If your score board is following through and repetitions, you remove the emotion from the entire equation. Every single day some one-hit wonder will show up. Every single day someone loses everything as well. Don’t stare at the one-hit wonder and say “why me” if you’re ignoring the levered degen who just lost everything in one trade.
Consistency creates a new identity. That identity is forward progress on your main one objective (later on you can do about three).
No need for calendars beyond the reminder. If it’s a holiday maybe it is a minimum work day. Maybe it isn’t. However. Work will be done. Not going to use a random day on the calendar to change your emotions and impact your life.
Your results will look “lucky” to people who continue to move from idea to idea… banking on hope.
Hope isn’t a strategy.
Follow through and KPIs are.
“Maybe I’ll Start in 2026…”
Sorry. This is an “already lost” point of view.
Instead, start immediately. No one needs to wait for some magical calendar to read 2026. Start now. Today you decide what the main issue is. Tomorrow you start moving into the direction of solving that main issue.
You can do all this right now: 1) main goal in one sentence, 2) when you will do the deep work, 3) what the specific task will be and 4) how you will measure it.
Add this time block to your calendar on “repeat forever”. Clock starts ticking and your iPhone will remind you for good.
The notification will hit you 100x harder than any random app you’ve got!
Repeat, repeat, repeat.
If you’re interested in seeing what we’re researching, what’s being built in the jungle and having people keep you accountable. Suggest signing up. We’ll be around while all the “coulda woulda shoulda” people drop off as they always do.
Disclaimer: None of this is to be deemed legal or financial advice of any kind. These are *opinions* written by an anonymous group of Ex-Wall Street Tech Bankers and software engineers who moved into affiliate marketing and e-commerce.
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