How “Bottom-of-the-Barrel” Thinking Affects Your Mindset and Destroys Your Wealth and Success
A 4-step strategy to get out of the trap and achieve your wealh and success goals
What is “Bottom-of-the-Barrel” thinking?
I wasted many years looking for shortcuts to making money online.
Whenever I saw claims like “50 ways to make money quickly” or “Make money from home for free”, I would fall for the trap.
It resulted in money spent but not money earned.
It was the worst thing I’ve done.
I was looking for quick and easy.
I was being lazy.
I was thinking hard work is not required.
I was waiting for free lunch.
And for money to drop from the sky.
My mindset of using shortcuts to earn money was “Bottom-of-the-Barrel”.
It was destructive and devastating when there were no results.
Negative results even.
Having fallen to the bottom of the barrel, I was determined to get up and try again.
This time with a different mindset.
Do not ever think that shortcuts are the answer to long term success.
You may ask, what about “quick wins”?
When we think “quick wins”, we think of
small tasks that quickly achievable
less effort and more results
immediate and tangible impact
Quick wins boost morale, build momentum, demonstrate progress.
They charge us with the confidence for tackling complex challenges ahead.
It’s the opposite of “bottom-of-the-barrel” mindset.
Every time you hit publish, you feel a sense of achievement.
You wrote a great article and you want to shout for joy.
Someone likes your post and that heartens you.
Those are your quick wins.
Are quick wins your final destination?
They shouldn’t be.
“Quick wins” are little pats on our back for achieving a milestone.
They are checkpoints to keep us on route to our big goals.
They are the pit-stops for us to recharge and continue our journey.
Reward ourselves with quick wins, but remember to stay in the game.
Achieving your wealth and success goals
Let’s break this down into 4 steps.
Straighten your primary mindset
Get out of the disastrous bottom-of-the-barrel trap
If there’s no clear path ahead, seek clarity by:
Reading
Journaling
Writing
Set smart goals for achieving wealth and success
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound
Use goal setting tools and resources to help.
Determine the various “quick-win” pit-stops.
What fuels you?
What energizes you?
What pushes you forward?
These are your motivators and your rewards for the pit-stops.
Now I’m focusing my journey on Substack and the pit-stops look like this:
Write every day
Post notes every day
Engage with substackers every day
Get better at writing
Publish every week
Caution: Detours ahead
A majority of people experienced this trend.
Start-stop-start-stop-start-give up-start-stop-stop-start…
You may start a new project with fire and passion.
But then things happened.
Laziness sets in.
Excuses pop up.
We succumb to failure.
If we have no game plan, this will happen.
With no goal in sight, success will not be in sight.
But if you are determined to make this work, get your mindset straight.
View these as detours and not the end.
View these as challenges to overcome.
View these as obstacles to strengthen your mindset.
If you are with me on this journey
Let’s:
Get out of the start-stop trap
Set smart goals
Set pit-stops
Be prepared for detours.
Achieving big goals like wealth and success is no easy feat.
You can control the “bottom-of-the-barrel“ thinking.
Should you (or me) ever fall, get out quickly.
Thanks for reading.
Share if you like this or you’d like to encourage someone else.
Yes, and if we should need to rest and reset, get back up again. Just get going, keep going, rest consistently so you can stay recharged to continue! Awesome plan!