The “Effortless Illusion”—Why So Many People Make Such Little Progress

And what to do instead.

A client of mine shared his thoughts as he walks the wealthy streets in his neighborhood.

That’s the house I’ll buy when I’m rich, he tells himself.

“But here’s the thing,” he said on our call. “That house has mold. It needs a new roof. And a bunch of other issues I’m blind to.”

He caught himself in something we all do.

I call it the Effortless Illusion.

It’s the false belief that if we just pick the right thing…we’ll be free from struggle, problems, and pain.

Uncle Alex Hormozi ​calls it​ the “perfect pick.”

It’s the fallacy that somewhere out there, something has it all. We only have to make the right decision to find it.

There’s a woman out there for you.

She’s gorgeous, hilarious, and witty. She knows all about entrepreneurship but has a stable job and income. She has the fertility of a 20-year-old but the wisdom of a 40-year-old. She wants to travel the world but also settle down and have children.

So rather than meeting a woman you really like, then discovering her flaws and working around them and learning how to communicate and compromise…

Just need to wait until you find the woman who meets 100% of your needs.

Genius.

There’s a city out there that’s perfect for you to live in.

It’s affordable, clean, and close to all your friends and family. The weather is incredible. There’s tons of stuff to do that you love. The traffic is mild. There are loads of opportunities there, too.

So rather than choosing a place with some of the qualities you want in a location, then building a community and family and making the most out of what it offers…

Just wait until you find the city that meets 100% of your needs.

You get the point.

Ideas and opportunities present themselves to us constantly. They sound great, but then we learn the truth…

“This is harder than I thought.”

So we don’t do it. Or we give up right when we have to solve our first problem or experience our first hurdle.

The catch?

Everything has hurdles.

“There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.” — Thomas Sowell

Every idea, person, opportunity, pursuit, place, and decision has shit about it that makes it difficult, complicated, and uncomfortable.

We can either accept that or keep hopping from thing to thing, hoping that the next thing will finally be effortless.

Here’s how the cycle goes:

Stage 1) Blind optimism.

Whoa, this thing sounds cool. Other people are succeeding at this thing. I bet I’d crush it. It’ll be sooo easy.

Stage 2) Informed pessimism.

Oh fuck. This is way harder than I thought. There’s all this stuff I didn’t know I had to do. I have so many problems to solve.

Stage 3) Valley of Despair.

I’m working so hard and achieving so little. Why did I start this? Maybe this just isn’t my thing.

**This is where most people give up and start a new opportunity. They switch to something “easier” and restart the process back at Stage 1.

Stage 4) Seeing the Light.

Oh my god. Things are starting to work. I finally see noticeable progress and improvement. I’m getting more and more wins.

Stage 5) Success.

I’m in flow. This is a normal part of who I am and what I do. People are asking me how to get started and think I’m a natural at this.

If they only knew….

Everything has shit.

Behind every opportunity, there’s a mountain of garbage to sift through and clean up.

Don’t avoid the garbage. Eat the garbage.

PS —

I’m not saying we have to finish every single thing we start.

It’s crucial to quit things that aren’t serving us.

I left a door-to-door sales job because it sucked the soul out of me.

I could’ve pushed through. But I didn’t want the end result anymore.

Use that when you’re deciding whether to push or pivot.

If I gifted you tons of progress in this thing, would you still do it?

If yes, then you just want to give up because it’s hard. And that’s not a great reason.

If you want to follow my journey to $50,000/month, get lessons from top 1% creators, and join me as I travel the world with my laptop…

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