Become a Ghost: The Art of Leveling Up

Everytime a superhero levels up in a movie it comes after a period of being alone. For those of you have seen Naruto you can clearly see this when Naruto went to train alone with Jiraiya and when Sasuke left the leaf village to go and train with Orochimaru.

Being alone makes you uncomfortable.

Being uncomfortable makes you adapt.

Adaptation unlocks new skills.

This is how you level up.

Your Biggest Distraction

When I wanted to keep up with med school and writing this newsletter I thought that going to the university library will make me more productive.

The problem is that most of my friends would also be there and when I would see them take a break I would want to go with them to not miss the opportunity to meet new people at university.

A 10 minute break would turn into 2 hours — I wasted a lot of time.

People focus too much on the importance of networking.

Yes, it’s an important skill, but too much networking takes a lot of time — and you might get addicted to it, which will make you spend more time on it.

I fell into this trap and stayed in it for two years, focusing all of my attention on being around new people. I became dependent on being surrounded by people and that’s where I spent most of my time.

You need to find a balance of being with people and also having time alone.

The Solution: Become a Ghost

Your goal should be to develop a set of skills with ultimate focus by eliminating distractions from other people because when other people are around, you get FOMO and the chances of you being disrupted from your work increases.

When you’re in solitude your focus is only on one thing so you can direct more energy on your work.

To use myself as an example:

I did this by stopping going to university to study because all of my friends would be there.

I studied and worked on this newsletter at home or at a coffee shop.

My productivity doubled because I wasn’t constantly thinking what my friends were doing whilst they were on their break because I did not have the option to join them.

After 2 years of trying to work on myself, after this little change most of my growth happened in just 4 months because this decision removed all the noise and now I had much more focus.

Bill Gates also has his own version of this — the Think Week.

He takes two weeks out of every year away from technology and society to have time to think and work in solitude.

It's during these periods of isolation that he experiences immense personal growth and breakthroughs.

7 Habits to Level Up in 6 Months

If you want the universe to reward you, you need to put in the work.

Follow these steps if you want to become a new and improved version of yourself in the next 6 months:

• Delete all social media apps — only check messages for 10 minutes after you have finished all your other tasks.

• Gym — 1-2 hours; 6x a week

• Learn a high income skill — 1 hour everyday

• Read — 30 minutes everyday

• Meditate — 20 minutes everyday

• Daily Journal

• Sleep — 8 hours

If you follow these religiously you will become unrecognisable to those around you.