How to Bet on Yourself – Commit Yourself to Success

If there’s one thing that I promised myself this year… it’s that… I’m gonna GO ALL IN and BET ON MYSELF.

I have been playing it safe for so long and it didn’t take me closer to where I want to be.

Living in my comfort zone for so many years got me so complacent to the point that I’m even afraid to try something new.

I’ve told myself so many lame excuses why I can’t do this, why I can’t do that, why I shouldn’t do this, and why I shouldn’t do that.

My average life was so normalized that I forgot to celebrate being alive. I forgot to celebrate the talents and skills given to me by the lottery of life. 

Sure, there’s nothing wrong with living an average life. But, somehow, something inside me is asking for more. Part of this feeling is having people around me who I know I can be of further help if only I have more.

And I think the time has come for this phase to end now. It’s time to bet on myself again and continue winning in life.

It’s time to push harder and play smarter so I can build more, so I can give more.

Photo by Matt Palmer on Unsplash

I Won the Lottery of Life and I Took it for Granted

Even though I’m not from a rich country, I have always felt when I was younger that I’ve won the lottery in life.

I have a loving family (though they can be terrible sometimes LOL! I love you guys!).

I grew up with a house even though we’re just renting it out and even though it’s just one small room with a bathroom that we shared with our neighbor.

Despite not always having food on the table, I grew up without any malnutrition issues or any severe illness.

I was able to get a college education even with the lack of money, thanks to scholarship grants.

I’ve always had stable jobs prior to choosing the life of being a Solopreneur.

I believe that I’ve excelled in a lot of things that I did (except sports though – you can’t have it all I guess).

But I took it all for granted!

All these gifts that I won from the lottery of life… I’ve taken them all for granted.

I’ve chosen to live a life on the sidelines. I reached the point in my life when I’ve chosen not to go any further because it’s beyond my level of comfort.

I set a limit on myself. I told myself that I can only go as far as this point, which I know was a very stupid thing to do.

However, as time goes by, for some reason beyond me, that feeling is slowly fading away.

This feeling of containing myself inside a small box just to feel safe and just to feel secure is slowly breaking apart.

I honestly don’t know what’s happening, but I’m going to trust my gut feel!

Photo by Jeremy Perkins on Unsplash

It All Started When I Chose to Become a Solopreneur

I’m pretty sure that becoming a Solopreneur was not the catalyst, but rather, it was just an effect of what was already transpiring in my life. 

Before I left the comfort of my high-paying job, I spent months contemplating.

I didn’t rush my decision.

I’ve been working for years and at the back of my head, I’ve always wanted to become an entrepreneur. But I’m holding myself back.

What if I don’t succeed?

What will my friends say?

What will my family say? 

What will the other people say?

All of those nagging thoughts kept repeating themselves over and over again every time I was about to make a decision.

However, something sparked one day.

I asked myself… if I can help all of the companies that I’ve worked for… achieve and exceed its targets consistently, can I also do that for myself on a smaller and manageable scale?

And so I jumped. I started an online selling business.

Even though the income is just enough in most months, there were months when I was exceeding my target. And also, I was lucky to be living in a low-cost country.

Thus, I’ve had so many chances to scale it up, but, then again, I found myself being afraid to take bigger risks.

My brain created a new but familiar song, with different lyrics but, with the same tune.

You don’t have enough resources…

You don’t have the needed manpower…

You won’t be able to scale this up…

Bad habits don’t break easily. 

And so I found myself back to living life on the sidelines, but this time as a solopreneur.

Back to square one, again…

Photo by Quinten de Graaf on Unsplash

What Changed

I crossed paths with a catalyst that I think made a huge difference in my life. I came across the Personal Finance world. I encountered people (virtually) who are living a variety of life and it opened my eyes to a whole new world.

At the onset of the pandemic in the Philippines, I found myself with so much time in my hands because my online selling gig is quite slow. I used this time to build this blog.

I built this blog primarily to have a platform where I can interact with the PF bloggers, digital entrepreneurs, FIRE people, etc.

The more I interact with them (directly and indirectly), the more it became clearer for me what to do. I got the chance to compare various strategies and chose the one that I think would fit me the best.

And so, the wheels started turning…

How to Bet on Yourself – H0w I am Betting on Myself

Be Clear with What You Want

It’s hard to target something if you’re not sure about what you are targeting. I finally realized this ‘something’ that I was lacking over the years.

Clarity!

My mind was all over the place trying to achieve multiple things. However, once I have realized and decided on the singular ultimate goal that I want to achieve, everything that I do now is in alignment with the ultimate goal.

Sure, I still have short and medium-term goals and even if some of them look like a totally different thing from one another, all of them are aligned to my ultimate goal.

Related Post: How to Take the First Step to Achieve Your Goals

Work, Work and Work Consistently

Dreams do come true… but only if you act on them. Even people who won the mega jackpot in the lottery acted on it. They wouldn’t have won if they didn’t buy that winning ticket.

Based on my observation of my past self and with the people that I have interacted with, we spend so much time thinking about our goals and planning on how to execute our plans. But, we often lack the actual leg work in order to make the plan realized its goals.

Aim for Balance and Sustainability

Life is not a race, it’s a marathon.

You don’t want to lose steam when you’re near the finish line. This is something that I have learned over the years of trying a variety of things in life. I realized that the one thing that I should always be mindful of is balance, in order to achieve sustainability.

Keeping yourself healthy and calm will help you improve your stamina in running this marathon.

Surround Yourself with Like-minded People

This is something that you will see over and over on my blog. I believe in the power of influence and it doesn’t matter if it’s a direct or indirect influence, whatever you expose yourself to will surely have an effect on your life.

This is why this is one of the core foundations of my plan. This is the reason why I built this blog. I wanted to be surrounded by people who are doing what I want to do and have achieved what I want to achieve. And I want to use this blog to have a platform where I can interact with them.

I want to be influenced by them. I want to make an active choice on who I want to be influenced by.

Don’t Drown in the Noise

Whether you admit it or not, drowning in the noise is a choice. It’s your choice to be distracted. And realizing this fact is the first step in removing the distractions in your day-to-day life.

The internet has provided us with so many opportunities to change our lives, our family’s lives, and our community for the better. However, a byproduct of this is noise, an addiction to this noise, and an addiction to distraction.

Internet is just a tool. Don’t let it take over your life.

Internet is not the only source of distraction in this modern era. Identify the things that distract you from achieving your goal and learn how to distance yourself from those distractions.

Keep Your Eyes Open to Opportunities

When I started this blog, my main goal as I have said above is to have a platform to interact with like-minded individuals.

However, as months go by, and in my pursuit to keep on improving myself and my blog, I keep discovering new things that I think could help me reach my goal sooner than later.

Some of those things include SEO, Affiliate Marketing, Crypto, Blog Monetization Strategies, and more.

I am slowly experimenting with each of these new things in my life to see how I could incorporate them into my overall design.

Keep your eyes open to opportunities because sometimes, your current project will turn out to be just a stepping stone for something bigger.

Reflect on Failures and Successes

Whenever I reflect on my past actions, I don’t dwell on just the failures, and I don’t dwell just on the successes as well. I think about both of these things and I try to understand the driving force behind my results.

Sometimes, depending on our personality, we have the tendency to just focus on one thing. When I was younger, I tend to only focus on the successes and disregard the failures.

But as I grow older, I realized that the real success lies in understanding the reasons behind the result. Once you know why and how a particular result happened, then it’ll be easy to replicate the positive result (success) and it will be easier to avoid the negative result (failure).

Continuous Improvement

I’m sure that we’ve all heard of this quote before:

“Don’t try to reinvent the wheel.”

Personally, it’s something that I have mixed feelings about. In certain situations, I will agree with it and in other cases, then I will have to disagree.

One of the things that I’m glad I have learned early in life is continuous improvement and continuous improvement is not always about reinventing the wheel. Sometimes, it’s just improving what is already existing.

If you put this as one of your core competencies, then regardless of what industry you work for or what kind of business you indulge yourself in, success will surely be right behind you.

The world keeps on changing my friend… if we don’t improve and if we don’t adapt to the changes, then we will be left behind.

Final Thoughts

I have never been so excited for such a long time. And I feel so blessed that I can indulge in things that I have chosen for myself and not do the things that were just dictated to me by someone else.

I’m betting on myself this year and I’m gonna bet big! Wish me luck!

If you’re gonna bet on yourself too starting this year, I’m wishing you all the best too!

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