How To Be The Best You

Since your birth, you've been baptized to compete in the race, the rat race. Everybody is constantly trying to do better than others, the general public tries to get ahead of others by consistently monitoring the progress of others, not themselves. I think this is not the best way as it shifts the focus to what others can do rather than what you can do.

I can state unequivocally that time is the most important thing in your life. With only 24 hours in a day, we can't even squeeze every single drop of the juice. Let us assume that you sleep 8 hours a day, this single activity is stripping away one-third of your time. This leaves you with 16 hours, and this is without accounting for other activities such as bathing, eating, commuting, exercising, and random idles. This leaves us about 12 hours to complete our tasks (I'm being very generous here). Don't forget, most of us also have lectures and jobs. Sometimes, we might ponder, "Where did all my time go?" This can be tracked with a simple table shown below.

Well, this is important to get a bird's-eye view of your day. The steps then involve...

1. Identifying necessary and unnecessary activities.

2. Eliminate/Minimize unnecessary activities.

3. Fill up the free time if needed.

4. Leave some room for entertainment (Of course!).

From the example above, it is obvious that watching Youtube took approximately 3 hours. To remedy this, one can either cut down the hours or eliminate it completely. Personally, I believe in cutting it instead as it is still crucial to leave some time for relaxation to reward yourself.

Common unnecessary activities include...
• Video games

• Playing with your phone

• Browsing social media

• Pointless and long conversations

Now, this is not to say that these activities are terrible, you should still leave some time for it to relax but do keep it at a minimal level so you can have more time to hopefully, do better things.

Why are some people rich? Why are some people physically fit? Why are some people, overall, better individuals?

These questions can generally be answered with 2 words: Good choices. For instance, John and his brother, Jay, are 2 people with similar abilities. They both have the same level of education, same IQ, and also, the same growing environment. John understands the importance of managing his finances, he would consistently invest his money in stocks and bonds, save up by living below his means, and continues to learn through books and seminars. Meanwhile, Jay continues to spend his money on Italian suits, collectibles, and other unnecessary stuff, he has little to no savings as he believes he contributed to a retirement scheme so it was unnecessary.

In the end, John will be in a better financial position than his brother. Why? He made a string of good choices which led to that. You are in your current state of life because of your decisions in the past. Your present merely reflect the choices you've made. Mediocre choices lead to mediocre lives.

Accountability

The key is to take responsibility. Focus on yourself, and only yourself. Sure, you can blame others for mishaps but would that really help you? Most would blame others and that's the end of it. If you take responsibility and find out what you could've done better, you will make better choices in the future due to your experiences. Find your faults, correct it, but you can choose not to admit it publicly. As this may make you look weak, and thus, it may hurt your social status.

For instance, an acquaintance of yours told you about an investment opportunity that will make a return of 12% in only 3 months without any risk whatsoever, you invested in a heartbeat. A few weeks later, you discovered that he took your money and ran away. Now, many people would blame the scammer but what could you do better?

You could've...

• Do your diligence by checking the authenticity of the investment.

• Question your acquaintance to poke holes in his statements.

• Took some time to consider, you may soon find it suspicious that such a high return can be earned quickly with no risk.

Upside-Downside Analysis

This works well as a pre-decision screening. It weighs the upside (benefit) vs the downside (consequences). For example, you're running late to a seminar. You drive past the speed limit. Then, you would perform this analysis (When you constantly analyze it this way, it becomes a habit).

Upside

• You'd reach there quicker and save 10 minutes.

Downsides

• Major injury upon yourself

• Death

• Prison time due to involuntary murder and reckless driving

As you can see, the downsides far surpass the upside. Therefore, it is a bad decision. However, when the upside is more than the downside, it is a smart risk to take.

It is funny, isn't it?

The fact that it is in human nature to look to what the crowd is doing and just follow it, sometimes disregarding facts and logic. This is so common that in finance, they call this 'herding'. People who are merely following the herd.

Well, think about this. If the crowd is making great decisions, why aren't all of them successful? Great decisions should lead to great successes so what gives? It is simple, their decisions are mediocre. Hence, they perform at an average level. To break the tradition, people may doubt your sanity but as long as your decisions are backed up by clear thinking and facts, you will win in the long-run. By making one correct decision while others make a bad decision, you're suddenly so far ahead of them.