On Lord Of The Rings and Roadblocks: Systems For Personal Growth.
While you make plans, they make progress
Hello friends, and welcome to Day One.
I will be sharing a lot of profitable resources this year.
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The Lord of the Rings is a powerful franchise.
It tells a lot of stories
But most important to me, is the story of Bilbo Baggins.
A hobbit who was dragged from the comfort of his home into a world war.
He went through a lot of personal transformation,
But there was always that yearning to go back to the comfort of his home all through.
You and Biblo are alike in more ways than you know.
Let’s be real.
You know that those things that you dream about will take transformation to achieve.
If it was easy, it wouldn’t be a dream or a vision.
My goal for today is not to motivate you.
But to spur you to action.
The best form of motivation is that which comes from taking action and seeing results.
One of the things that I committed to this year was writing this Newsletter.
It’s not easy to sit and write, but during the week, I checked the stats from last week's episode.
And my heart was filled with Joy.
Over 1000 people saw my content as something worth reading.
In this internet age of multiple views, that number might not look big.
But I closed my eyes and imagined myself on a stage talking to 1000 people who were happy to hear me in a hall.
That felt so good.
So here I am again this week, writing to you again.
Before I talk to you about the systems that you need to set up.
Let me talk about the two biggest issues people face.
Fear and Ego
Fear and The Future
On October 2018
After two years of blogging.
I decided to build a personal brand on WhatsApp.
I sat down and created a content plan and a way to grow my contacts.
As of then, I had less than 150 contacts and was averaging 70 status views daily.
The starting point was a status series on building a personal brand.
Below is a throwback of the flyer and post I made.
I got my current contacts to spread the word and more than 40 people DMed me to be a part of my WhatsApp community.
On the day I was meant to start the series, I was paralyzed with fear.
I was thinking of all the things that would go wrong.
I sat there as the time for the session slipped by
A friend of a friend walked in and asked me what the matter was
I explained what was going on to him.
He encouraged me to start and told me he believed that I could pull it off.
So I started and have not stopped until today.
I currently have over 7400 WhatsApp contacts and get thousands of views monthly.
Over 90% of the big opportunities that I have gotten over the past 6 years is as a result of the brand that I have built using WhatsApp.
Without it, this Newsletter wouldn’t exist.
What I write here, gets refined on my WhatsApp first.
I chose to tell you this because fear will always meet you at the point of action.
The only time you will not encounter fear is if you are doing something that doesn’t add positively to your future.
Remember to Just do it.
Ego Is The Enemy
Ego is less visible than fear.
But it does way more damage than fear.
Fear meets you at the point of action.
Ego blocks your plans, so you don’t even have anything to act on.
There are times when you get a great idea, but you don’t act on it.
Simply because you don’t want people to have certain thoughts about you.
The graphic by Jack Butcher perfectly illustrates things.
People’s minds are filled with their goals and desires.
Not You
You fail to push your skill because you think your output is not good enough
You fail to push your business hard because you don’t want people to think that you are broke (but you are broke)
You fail to send in that application because you feel that you are too big for that deal/job ( but you aren’t)
I am not saying that you should belittle yourself.
I am sharing this so you have an honest conversation with yourself about the real reason why you are not acting on some of your ideas.
When I started learning product design in 2019, the first design that I did was ugly.
I still posted it and asked for feedback.
I was more concerned with getting better than what people thought about the design.
Yes, some people laughed, but where are they now?
By posting my work daily, I put it in the mind of everyone that I could design apps and websites.
I got my first job after five months.
How fast did it take you to monetize your skill?
How many people even know what you can do?
Pause and think
A System For Personal Development
One of my favorite quotes on growth goes like this:
Go to bed smarter than when you woke up - Charlie Munger
One thing that you are very good at is making entertainment a core part of your day.
You always know the accounts to get the best skits and clips.
I want you to put that same level of energy into educational content too.
Here is what you need to do
a) Figure out what kind of learner you are; Don’t tell me that reading books makes you sleep, have you tried audio or video?
b) Subscribe to those channels
c) Make learning a part of your daily routine
There are books that I call foundational books.
They help you break huge mental roadblocks in a particular area.
You shouldn’t read them as a PDF if what you have a soft copy.
Print them out and read them over and over again.
I discovered a book like that recently on Success.
It’s a very powerful book.
I am printing it out this weekend and will read it from beginning to end every Monday for the next three months.
I will share it in next week’s newsletter.
Newsletters
This is a powerful way to build a reading Habit.
The average newsletter episode takes 5 Minutes to read.
And if you are subscribed to the right ones, you will build up insight on that topic over time.
For newsletters to work, you will need to clear out all the old ones that you don’t read.
Then enable notifications for your Gmail/Yahoo Mail App so they are top of mind.
I have access to a directory of the best newsletters on diverse topics.
Like this post and drop a comment about the topics that you are interested in and I will respond with a Newsletter.
Podcast
Do you prefer to learn using Audio?
Then podcasts are the best bet for you.
I have learned powerful things via the podcast that I am subscribed to.
Podcasts are also a great way to learn passively.
You can listen while doing other tasks like house chores or while you are in transit.
If you live in a city like Lagos where people spend 2 - 6 hours in traffic daily.
Listening to Podcasts and taking notes is a great replacement for mindlessly scrolling on social media.
Like this post and drop a comment about the topics that you are interested in and I will respond with a Podcast
Video
YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok are great for this.
But you need to minimize distractions.
My rule here and for social media in general is to only follow people who have achieved what I am trying to achieve.
And not just that, they have to be people creating educational content.
This means I will see more of educational content when I open the App.
Like this post and drop a comment about the topics that you are interested in and I will respond with channels to follow.
Daily Routine of Champions
It is either you run the day or the day runs you - Jim Rohn
Like I said in last week's newsletter,
My work day starts at 4 AM and ends by 10 PM
I have things planned for every hour that falls under this time frame.
It doesn’t mean that I follow it 100%.
Things always come up that make me adjust the tasks.
But there is never a day I wake up without knowing what I need to do.
I have five major goals this year.
And my weekly routine accommodates every single one of those goals.
Here are things that I believe you need to add to your daily routine:
Devotion - time spent studying God’s word and praying.
Learning - time spent reading books, courses, podcasts, etc.
Building - time spent creating things that move you toward your goal
Relationships - time spent talking with family, friends, business partners, etc
Rest - time spent relaxing, movies, sleeping, etc
Determine how much time you want to spend on these things weekly.
Set alarms to notify you for each period.
You can move ahead of 95% of the people in your industry if you show up daily.
The ball is in your court.
What are your goals for this year?
What are some roadblocks that you are facing?
Do you need resource/people recommendations?
What is your takeaway from today’s newsletter?
Share any of this in the comments below,
I respond to every comment
Offers From Me
I am giving out some amazing offers this January.
The first is free consulting sessions for the three highest referrals for this newsletter.
I can help you build a profitable career Roadmap for any skill you are learning.
I can also guide you on how you can monetize your business using social media.
Get full details in the post below.
I put a lot of work into this Newsletter.
So do well to subscribe and share.
I have so much to share this year.
And I am releasing a free book next week on creating a profitable routine.
Subscribe so you don’t miss the announcement.
Thank you.
Let’s chat in the comment section 👇🏽
This content is rich.
I love the way you sequence your thoughts, laced with captivating relatable stories that will make one's eyes glued to the latters to the very end.
Highly professional and very impactful.
Following your thread from the beginning of this year quoting your first few words into this Newsletter has "not only inspired me, it has spurred me into action" that is yielding results.
Over the weekend, through some of the insights and instructions drawn from you, I was able to host a virtual Webinar where I and my team were able to engage an online audience, up to seventy (70) in number for the first time.
Thank you so much Sir
Keep up the good work.
Am ready to learn more from you.
I'll always be grateful for the gift of you Sir Ajulu.
My biggest takeaway was on Ego, this has to be the biggest limitation to growth. You don't take certain steps cause you feel you should be above that level when in fact you need to take that step to get to that level.
I think the best way to beat this as mentioned is to always self analyze and recognize your current state, where you want to be and then figure out what you HAVE to do to get there irregardless of how petty or down grading it might be.
Thank you again for this read💜