How to Ruin Your Potential

Here is a quick tutorial on how you can ruin your potential.

Part One: Be Scared

Fear is useful.

It keeps you safe, and it keeps you comfortable.

There is no need to take a risk,

no need to try anything unconventional.

Why would you? What if it goes wrong?

What if those people laugh at you?

No, use that fear and anxiety to keep you in the exact same position

for the rest of your life.

Why be brave?

Why strive to live a life that you

and your future family will thank you for?

Forget that every success story that has ever touched

this planet started with fear.

Prioritize being safe because avoiding failure and judgment

is far more important than fulfilling your dreams. Right?

Part Two: Disconnect the Future

View the “future you” as a completely separate entity

from you today—a person who has it all figured out,

someone who is successful, does the work they need to do,

and has no problems at all.

Don’t connect today’s actions to tomorrow’s outcomes.

Keep living as if today doesn’t really count.

Forget that the life you are living today is simply a result

of what you have done for the past one or two years.

That would give you accountability.

Instead, view your future as this magical,

faraway place that someday you’ll arrive at.

That way, in six months’ time,

when you’re in the exact same spot, you can shake your head,

blame everything else, and wonder why nothing ever changes.

Part Three: Be Reactive

Live your life with no real control.

Let things like people, situations,

and problems dictate how you think, feel, and act.

Follow whatever feels right in the moment.

• If you don’t feel like doing the work, then don’t.
• If you’re angry, act on it.
• Just let life happen to you.

Let life influence everything you do,

just like a feather in the wind letting every single thing control you.

Only do things that you want to do or absolutely have to do.

Don’t live by your own principles.

Don’t take control of your own life.

Doing that is painful; it takes courage and discipline.

Just follow your impulses.

This way, when things inevitably go wrong,

at least you’ll always have an excuse.

Part Four: Ignore Your Flaws

If there is something in your life that continues to bother you,

whatever it is, never admit that you’re struggling with it.

Instead, protect your ego.

Convince yourself that there is not really a problem.

• If it’s a bad habit, convince yourself you can stop doing it anytime you like.
• If it’s laziness, convince yourself you won’t be lazy tomorrow.

Never face the issue head-on.

Never break it down and look at why it’s happening,

because doing that requires humility.

It requires you to admit that you’re not as perfect as you think you are

and that you’re not currently capable.

That is for sure going to damage your ego.

So just ignore it.

Convince yourself there are no problems.

The downward spiral might continue,

and it might prevent you from ever reaching success,

but hey, at least you get to keep your ego.

Part Five: Believe Them

If you have an idea that you genuinely believe in,

make sure you take other people’s word over your own.

If someone says you won’t succeed,

or if someone says it won’t work, believe them.

They must know better than you do.

Forget that it’s your life.

Forget that you’ve probably spent a thousand times more energy

and time thinking about it than them.

Their opinion, which was formed in seconds based

on their own insecurities,

must be more accurate than yours, right?

Don’t take the word of those who have done it.

All of them are lying; all of them are scammers.

Only trust those who are being “reasonable.”

Surely the ones who played it safe, never built anything great,

and quit on their dreams are the ones with the answers.

Listen to them. Conform to what they conform to.

And when you end up in the exact same position they are in,

at least you won’t be let down.