Edge Newsletter #19 - Two ingredients to break through your plateau

What I’m listening to

A very rare BBC interview with the wife of one of the Issa brothers. If you’ve never heard of them, it’s because they are notoriously private. Their story is nothing short of fascinating. They started by buying a single petrol station in 2001 for £150,000 now, they have a global empire of six thousand forecourts, a majority stake in Asda and much more on their journey to become billionaires.

This is the case in point of the quote from Rich Dad Poor Dad: poor people buy liabilities, rich people buy assets.

Resource of the Week

I think most people use credit cards nowadays, but if you don’t, you really should. There’s no interest to pay if you pay everything off at the end of the month. It helps build up your credit score. My favourite features are that it has a lot of additional protections. For example, Amex gives you insurance against theft and accidental protection on electronics (which I had to use when Apple didn’t accept responsibility for a dodgy keyboard on my Macbook), and of course, it gives you a layer of protection in the case of disputes. I’ve always been a fan of the Amex cashback, which has no annual fee. If you use this link you get £10 cashback to get you started.

Quote

"Many problems are minor when you solve them right away, but grow into an enormous conflict when you let them linger.  As a rule of thumb, fix it now."

James Clear

Thoughts

So I’m currently working on a TikTok Skillshare class, and for some reason, these projects I take on always take much longer than I thought at the outset. At times it’s pretty hard to stay motivated. It was like this when I wrote my book last year. I try to remember two words: consistency and direction.

When we take on something, we are always optimistic about it at the outset and sometimes have over-ambitious expectations. When in reality, there will be challenges, setbacks and heartbreaks, life just gets in the way. I like to think back to this chart I came across:

It shows the real GDP per capita growth through history. We see that major, major events like the great depression, the world wars and COVID are just blips in the overall trend.

I like to think this is analogous to our personal life progress. Outside of rare cases like debilitating illnesses, nearly all setbacks we face will seem much more serious when we are living through them when compared to the overall trajectory of our lives. How many annoying setbacks will really still be affecting you just one year from now?

I count every small step, every little bit of progress, a victory now. As long as I’m consistent and going in the right direction, it’s a win. It's helped me be much happier while still working on things that are meaningful to me.

So if you’re at a stage where you feel like you’ve plateaued, don’t settle. Keep pushing through.

Hit reply if you want to get in touch, or feel free to drop me a DM on Insta. Hope you have a good week!

Hans