The Fastest Way To Ruin Your Life

I believe in showing the negative.

Just like the rat in the tube experiment — who pulls away from the smell of the cat behind him, there's a version of yourself you must pull away from too.

The fastest way to understand what you want from life is to become intimately familiar with what you do not want.

Unfortunately because of the nature of the universe it is far easier to ruin your life than it is to improve it.

Today, I am going to show you the fastest way to ruin your life. Because once you know what not to do — you can avoid the common pitfalls.

Ready? Let's ruin our lives.

How to make yourself depressed

Decoy

If you do not have a plan — If you do not have clarity on what you are doing and where you going, by definition you are lost.

Overthinking, stress, worry and chaos build in your mind.

Sedate yourself with harmless and not so harmless amusement. It helps you take your mind off the mind.

Consume more than you create. Don't build towards anything but instead allow entropy to destroy you from the inside.

Dissonance

Your actions are inconsistent with your words:

Tell people your goals, get that little spurt of dopamine, and never follow through.

Break all the promises you make to yourself. I will go to the gym tomorrow you say — but you don't. This will be the last time I watch porn you say — but it's not.

There is no reason to trust yourself.

Lie so much you begin to believe your own deceits. Now, you have reasons to not to commit, not to change and not to start.

Distortion

Spend countless hours on the internet.

Skew the expectations of yourself and others. Install the dysmorphia into your software.

Believe you are fatter than you are. Believe you are less muscular than you are. Believe you are dumber than you are.

Carry beliefs that don't serve you tightly. Under no circumstances can you be wrong. Under no circumstances can you take responsibility. It is always someone's fault.

Despair

Become jealous of those who have "it". Convince yourself you don't and nor do you deserve it.

You know it's not too late for you but you secretly hope it was. Now, you don't have to try.

That would be uncomfortable and you would hate that.

How to Guarantee Loneliness

Disconnect

Close yourself off.

Keep your head down. Headphones on. No eye contact.

Looking approachable increases the risk someone may talk to you. That would be awkward and messy — best to avoid it.

People can't let you down if you never let them in.

Look down not up. Make checking your phone your default. It would be weird to look unoccupied for even a second.

Besides, what's on your phone is far more interesting than anything in front of you.

Disinterest

When in conversations, talk more than you listen, only listen to talk, and only talk about yourself. You've got to get your validation from somewhere, right?

Never showing interest in others decreases the number of friends you make. That's good because you didn't want to see them again anyway.

Always wait for the invitation. Never go first. The invitations, of course, never come. Good, now you don't have to go out. You can escape into any virtual fantasy you like.

Be late. Never follow through.

You wouldn't want to be seen as a reliable, dependable person — they might want something from you. Worse, they might do something for you. Never under any circumstances should you owe anyone anything.

Deception

Convince yourself you need to work harder to deserve the acceptance of others. Keep pouring yourself into your work until they think you are enough. Prove to the world they were wrong about you.

Use people for instant gratification. Feels nice getting the girl (or guy) in your bed doesn't it? Makes you feel wanted, doesn't it?

Avoid anything meaningful. That's a recipe for inevitable heartache. You wouldn't to be betrayed. Sooner or later you know that is inevitable.

I'm better off alone, you convince yourself.

And when you can't bear being alone any longer, marry the wrong person.

But at least your not fat…

How to Fuck Your Health

Decline

Begin to believe you are beyond redemption.

Eat highly processed, high sugar and high fat foods. Do so as punishment, comfort or just plain old convenience.

Watch the numbers on the scale climb while your energy levels go to rock bottom.

Use the excuse of tiredness to not exercise. Tell yourself you can't hit the gym. I don't know what to do, the people there will judge me, it's too hard, I'm too busy.

Work inside under artificial lights all day. Don't take walks in the sun. You wouldn't want to set your circadian rhythms. That might mess up your irregular sleep patterns.

Forget regularity and quality; you can't even get enough quantity. 6 hours of sleep becomes your norm.

You are too busy amusing yourself with endless content on social media. The psychological state of tired but wired becomes your default — procrastinate going to sleep.

You wouldn't want to sit with yourself for even a second.

How to Stay Poor Forever

Dogma

Close your mind.

Believe what you were taught. Don't question the stories you were told. Never learn. Don't think for yourself.

Have opinions about things you do not understand. Be influenced solely by what your team believes. Defend the position like you are at war. You're vulnerable of course.

See impossibilities in place of opportunities. Never venture out into the unknown. Never learn high demand, high leverage skills. Stay where you are because it is safe and comfortable.

Perceive money as a dirty word. The root of all evil. Condemn those who have it. And show pity towards those who don't.

Dreamless

Tell yourself you don't deserve better. Don't assign financial goals or aspirations. Falling short would only make you feel worse. It's better to have no dreams to begin with.

If you have no goals, you have no reason to be organized with your money. Overspend. Overindulge. Buying everything you like may fill the void in your empty life.

You can't save money you don't have and investing would be far too risky for you.

Never invest in yourself — what a waste of money that would be.

The comeback

That is the fastest way to ruin your life: the common pitfalls most people (including myself) fall into for the mind, body, relationships and finances.

Let's be real for a moment. This letter was depressing. That is intentional. Showing the negative in the exaggerate form is powerful to highlight the point.

I would be surprised if any of you are ruining your lives in all the ways described above. But we can definitely be sure that we're doing at least a couple of them.

In the next video we are going to talk about how to do the exact opposite.

That’s all for this letter.

Enjoy the rest of your day,

Josh