THE LUDICROUSNESS OF FOLLOWING THE RULES
Don’t you think it’s just SO weird how many areas of life we blindly just follow the rules in and don’t question? If you stop and think about it, if you were to observe from the outside looking in, the way most people live their lives and even the way WE do, you’d have to wonder if this is some kind of robot species that doesn’t know how to take action without being told how, has no power of choice, is programmed to live a certain way, and die a certain way.
I guess for most people that’s REALITY, and I also think that most people would not WANT it any other way – think for yourself? Scary! And WHY? Why would you do such a thing when you can just follow along?!
But for us? Seriously. We need to lift our game. There are too many areas where we DO just follow along blindly, and I’m happy enough to speak for you as well as myself in that. I feel like I’ve broken the rules on just about EVERYTHING the past decade or so but yet still so often I find myself sucked back into the endlessness of CONFORMITY.
And it happens in every area, as well!
Take food, for example. I just got back from a beach walk with my friend Kelly (hustle sister!!) and she ordered her first meal for the day, at 1pm. I myself rarely eat before 3pm, and it’s not uncommon for me to fast until 5. If I really want to I’ll eat in the morning, but that’s rare. Fasting keeps me mentally honed in and focused, which I love, firstly. I know that might seem hard to be true, but it’s true nonetheless … the whole explanation of that is a story for another day, and in fact later this week I’ll be launching my new program Badass With a Hotass, which’ll cover it. Fasting also keeps me in the shape I want to be in, so THAT is fucking important, being HOT is fucking important, but also –
At what point did we stop QUESTIONING?
At what point did it become normal to eat because it’s 7am, 12.30pm, etc, rather than eating because you actually fucking need to? Flying home from the US the other day, the attendant was shocked when I said no to breakfast. I mean – it’s business class! It’s all fancy! There’s real plates and everything, PLUS it’s essentially FREE FOOD at that point. Why would you say no?!
Well – I wasn’t hungry. I thought about how I’d feel AFTER if I ate for the sake of eating, and how I WANTED to feel instead, and I chose accordingly.
Why is that so strange? Don’t you just think it’s BIZARRE that we do certain things just because we always have done so, or because everybody else does?
And I can bet that in business this is costing you SERIOUSLY.
I know that when I first started my online journey, back in the dinosaur-esque age of 2007, there WAS no online marketing world the way it exists today. I couldn’t find a business coach for love nor money, believe it or not, and I definitely tried! So, I figured things the fuck out by myself.
I listened to my tiny little community.
I wrote posts for them based on what they asked for, and based on what I thought genuinely would be helpful.
I asked for feedback all the time.
I asked for interaction all the time.
I engaged constantly.
I did NOT do any of this for any sort of tactical reason! I did it because it made SENSE to me, logically, to engage with the freaking people I was trying to help, plus it was also just more FUN to have a genuine back and forth conversation with my community.
Eventually that community grew, organically (had never heard of FB ads back then!), and I started selling things to them.
Do you know why I did that? Yes I wanted to make money, but to be honest it was a response to people asking me for more in depth help on certain things. Every product I launched online was a simple response to what my girls asked for or to what I thought would be super cool and helpful for them, and so then I asked THEM, just like asking a bunch of friends, really, whether they thought it would be cool and helpful, what I could add to it to make it MORE cool and helpful, and then I would launch it accordingly.
One day I looked up, and this little community online, which I led by blogging and making little PDF info products and homemade videos based on request, was making me over 35k a month.
I wasn’t selling a single thing that cost more than $99!!
I wasn’t following a SINGLE rule about how to make money online! Because I’m such a rebel?? Nah … I just didn’t know the rules! They didn’t really EXIST back then!
After that I kinda fucked the whole thing by trying to rebrand under my own name and do it PROPERLY. Aka I started to follow a bunch of rules, since they existed by that point.
Long story short … I ended up over 100k in debt, nearly went bankrupt, started to hate my business, and almost broke it! Longer story short … I learned the most important rule of ALL the rules in business or life.
FUCK THE RULES AND JUST DO YOU.
The thing is …
The way I had CREATED my success in the first place was just be listening to myself! What felt right? What did I feel called to do? What were people asking me to do? What FELT right?
In fact, I gotta tell you –
The way I’ve created ANY success in my life has been when I’ve listened within! Even back in the days of following the dieting rules and being teeny-tiny whilst competing in fitness stuff I wasn’t happy or healthy.
I’ve broken the rules over and over again, since that day, with my fitness and diet and I couldn’t look or feel better now!
I’ve broken the rules a fuckload in my personal life as well, and even though THAT can definitely cause its share of mess it is ALWAYS for the better in the end.
And in business.
Honestly.
HONESTLY now –
Tell me if there has EVER been a time in your business when following the RULES was the right thing to do?!
I believe it just inherently CAN’T be, because to believe that the way to succeed is to follow RULES is to essentially believe that somebody OTHER than you knows what is best for you!
It makes no sense.
And the only reason we do it?
Fear, I suppose.
Or perhaps it’s just that we don’t stop and fucking THINK!
We eat at a certain time because hey! That’s what everybody does.
We make our websites and about pages and headshots look a certain way, because hey! We want to fit in with the other cool girls and guys.
And we create content and engage with our audience like fucking FEMMEBOTS (sexy ones, but still!) because THAT’S JUST HOW IT’S DONE.
Well, I’m calling enough.
Enough with the BULLSHIT of conformity.
Enough with not QUESTIONING.
DOWN WITH THE FEMMEBOTS!
The truth is you’ve ALWAYS known you have the power inside of you to create a business and a life fully on your terms, and you KNOW that if you’d only get the fuck out of your own way you’d not only unleash your true WORK but have a helluva lot more of a fun time doing so, than what you are now.
Business is supposed to be FUN.
It’s supposed to be about CREATING.
It’s supposed to be about CONNECTING.
It’s supposed to be about following your CALLING.
It’s NOT supposed to be about following a bunch of rules so you can build a pretty little membership site with pretty much no fucking substance so you can help pretty much noBODY, not really, not the way you were born to.
So here’s what I want you to do.
COMMIT.
Commit to YOU. I know you’ve done it before, but are you LIVING it!
Commit to saying fuck YOU to the rules, and YES to what you feel inside.
And here is the really scary part but OH so awesome:
Commit to flying blind baby.
To listening within.
To acting afuckingcordingly.