I could tweet out my margin notes from the first 100 pages of “The Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth”, but it would take a really long time and my Twitter hand would shrivel up into a gnarly case of de Quervain’s tendinitis.
So, if you’re not yet familiar with James Altucher, you need to change that.
There are few modern writers who will challenge your old ways of thinking and spur you to improved outcomes better than Altucher.
Discover if you’ve caught a dangerous strain of “Pretty Good Syndrome” and how his latest can help you begin to cure yourself…
Fact: We’ve all numbed, ignored or put at least one key area of our lives on auto-pilot.
Doubt that?
Tom Rath’s wellbeing research shows that only 7%—7%!—of people are thriving in all five areas of career, social, financial, physical and community wellbeing.
Put another way, 93% of your co-workers, friends and relatives (you’re probably in that 93%, too) are not thriving in all five areas of wellbeing.
They may not realize it, but they’ve surrendered to “Pretty Good Syndrome” or “PGS.”
“PGS” = death.
Death of your spirit. Death of your essence. Death of your unique talents.
It’s a big picture, life-sized trap we fall in.
Technically, you’re alive, but that’s only because you still have a pulse.
You’ve chosen to put a large part of yourself on life support.
Congratulations. You’re one step closer to earning your SAG card because you now meet the same criteria as a pie-eyed zombie extra shuffling around the set of The Walking Dead.
For example:
- Our health seems “pretty good,” so we put it on auto-pilot. Yeah, we’re not running the Boston Marathon, but isn’t that a bit extreme? One week turns to two. Two turns to four. Four turns to…well, let’s just acknowledge there’s a reason diabetes rates are soaring. (Physical Wellbeing)
- Our job/career seems “pretty good,” so we numb ourselves from our true passions and interests and slip away into Career PGS.
Five years turns to 10, turns to 20. All of a sudden, you’re 65 and realize you’re Warren Schmidt. (Career Wellbeing)
- Our finances seem “pretty good,” so we keep blaming our lack of rainy day funds or retirement savings on the kids, the new Canyonero, the 10,000 square foot house.
Enjoy ramen noodles in college? Mmm. They’re even tastier at 65! (Financial Wellbeing)
PGS is tricky, nasty little thing.
It’s tricky because we’ve been trained to think a title on a business card is a worthier goal than it actually is.
We’ve been trained to think that material stuff will provide us joy.
We’ve been trained that our kids will love us more if we can buy them cooler stuff.
Your kids don’t want a better bike. They want more of you.
Yet, millions of people–just in the U.S. alone–have dismissed four of Rath’s five areas of wellbeing for a rung on a ladder of a career that may not even exist in a few years.
We’re entrenched in old thinking, old attitudes and a scarcity mindset.
Consider a garden with five different plants.
You must care for each plant differently, yet simultaneously.
Ignoring one plant means you’ll have no tomatoes when it’s time to harvest. Ignoring another means you’ll have no flowers for the dinner table.
You can’t isolate and ignore one or two areas of wellbeing and think they won’t affect the others.
It’s a simple concept that most of us can grasp.
However, as with much of life, moving from knowledge to application is the crux of the matter.
But…
…we’re scared.
Scared to break from the herd. Scared to deviate from the crowd.
Why?
Because there’s comfort in the herd. Lots of comfort.
Sinister, slithering, soul-crippling comfort.
You know, ‘ol Bob Frost was onto something with “The Road Not Taken.”
How many times have you read that poem and admired it?
Yet, the road you’re going down is so well-traveled the ruts are three feet deep.
The desperate need for millions of people to understand how to heal themselves from PGS deserves its own book.
Hey, there’s an idea…
Consider this your first of a series of inoculations against PGS.
Our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health is vital to our existence.
Altucher will prime the syringe, but you have to inject it.
Here’s to the Death of PGS and three quick ideas from Part One of “The Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth” to help you live a better year:
1. Altucher: “True wealth occurs when you don’t have to bow down to any gate-keepers—regardless of the money involved. Money is just a by-product. You are out of prison. You are free.” (pg. 39)
Action Item: “…focus on the actual problems in society instead of the fictional ones the news proposes every news cycle, every 24 hours.” (pg. 39)
2. Altucher: “…your other choice is to stay at a job where the boss is trying to keep you down, will eventually replace you, will pay you only enough for you to survive, will rotate between compliments and insults so you stay like a fish caught on the bait as he reels you in. You and I have the same 24 hours each day. Is that how you will spend yours?” (pg. 58)
Action Item: “It starts the moment I wake up. I ask, ‘Who can I help today?’ I ask the darkness when I open my eyes. ‘Who would you have me help today?’ I’m a secret agent and I’m waiting for my mission. This is how you take baby steps. This is how you eventually run toward freedom.” (pg. 59)
3. Altucher: “Many employees…get their paycheck working nine to five, or longer–working on the bad ideas of others. This is not a natural state for human beings. We need to explore. We’re curious…But, a century of corporatism has fooled us into thinking that if we just pay our dues and climb the ladder, we’ll find a pot of gold at the end. Such loyalty on behalf of companies toward employees never existed and is now gone forever as people slowly adapt to a new world.” (pg. 19)
Action Item: Become an Idea Machine. “When you are in the Idea Machine, nothing can stop you. This is where abundance is. This is where seeds are planted. This is where you dip into other dimensions not yet created.” (pg. 22)
For the rest of your treatment regimen check out the whole book.
There’s a reason Stephen Dubner says, “James Altucher is scary smart.”
If we’ve helped grow your perspective or can help you crush PGS, please drop us a line at hello@strengthslauncher.com.
We’d love to hear your story.
Cheers,
DW
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