A Chronic Condition You Know and Love to Hate

If you’ve been around the block in the “solopreneur” movement that exploded onto the scene with the pandemic, then you know what I’m about to say.

It’s the new self-help category in the post-information age.

Yes?

No?

Look at your bookshelf or your Kindle.

Don’t tell me it doesn’t look like your Steam account (IYKYK).

I bet it’s loaded with great titles such as “Very Good Copy”, “The Alchemist”, “Purple Cow”, “Sapiens”, “Range”, and many other literary delights.

At least those are what I see in mine, and I’ve only finished half of them as of this writing.

I’m not even going to start in on the digital courses that I’ve squirreled away to nibble on and now implement.

It’s a universal love-hate relationship we all know and love called GAS.

Whatever you do, don’t hold it in…

As you’ve probably guessed, GAS is an acronym, one that I’m borrowing from the Youtube creator space.

It stands for “Gear Acquisition Syndrome”.

“Gear” is anything that you think you need.

While it could be just what you need at the moment, there’s nothing except your wallet stopping you from getting another one similar to it.

And you know what?

There’s nothing wrong with this condition. It’s part of our programming.

The key is to know when you’ve reached critical mass for yourself.

It’s your “enough” as described in “The Psychology of Money”.

There, Morgan Housel describes the phenomenon as the point when you have all the means you will require to live the life you define to be contentment.

Money is potential.

Until it’s used, it’s just a number in a bank account.

GAS is a temporary condition that ebbs and flows depending on our situation.

But the truth is that you really only need one piece of equipment at a time to get the job done.

• Why would you need 25 of the same type of screwdriver?

• Why would you need 48 subscriptions on how to grow an audience on your social media platform of choice?

• Why oh why oh why would you need 1000 bottles of baby oil??

(If you know the reference to that last one, please let me know what you think of that situation.)

When I was learning the ropes on short-form writing, every single thing I read on Money Twitter sounded like a revelation, and I devoured it and followed people with wild abandon.

Now, when I see the same platitude repeated verbatim by someone else, it just seems shallow and tacky.

I know it’s part of the progression, but I also know that I was vastly oversubscribed and overwhelmed there.

While I suffered similar gung-ho enthusiasm in subsequent platforms as I expanded outward, it was curtailed by the realization of experience and knowledge.

I knew my “enough”.

Which brings me to the final principle of prismatic thinking:

Too much of a good thing

It’s not that you need to learn every single thing about a discipline before you take the first step.

It’s knowing when you’ve got enough to be dangerous.

Children require frighteningly little to reach this stage, and it’s our job to rediscover that ability as adults.

As a parent, though, it’s our job to survive the process as we raise our kids.

So yeah, buy that book or that course or subscribe to that writer who has fantastic stories and tips on how to grow your audience.

Just remember that hoarding all that material doesn’t make you their equivalent.

You need to absorb what they offer by putting in the time to absorb, apply, and assess.

In truth, the best teachers all present the same material in an accessible and relatable way.

From personal experience, one day, something will click if you stick with the process long enough.

Everyone’s “enough” is different, though.

The sad part is that most get lost on the way to finding it and burn out before they do.

Know yourself

Prismatic thinking is a flexible and evolving system that enables you to cultivate a strong and resilient approach to life mentally, physically, and spiritually.

Knowing where your limits are and operating within them opens up room for expanding beyond what you initially thought was possible.

It’s that self-awareness that gives you the opportunity to grow and thrive.

It’s a presence that you achieve.

Make no mistake, this process takes a lifetime and is hard (like whoa, AF, or whatever your generation uses to emphasize the difficulty).

You are at the boundary of the finite physical self and the infinite cognitive space.

Life comes at you fast.

I offer to be a guide and to share what I’ve learned so far.

I’m doing this for my kids…someday this digital footprint will be there in case I’m not.

Now that I’ve introduced the seven prismatic thinking principles, I’ll be going through different aspects of them and sharing how I handle each.

I hope you’re enjoying this dive into my mind!

P.S.

I’m going to put what I’ve shared into a little eBook as a first effort. It’ll be the first effort at this movement and serve as a reference both for me and for those who are interested in improving their lives.

I’m excited to have reached this point as there have been numerous times when I thought this would never happen. If an overloaded 9-5 parent can shave off enough time to get to this point after a few years, what’s keeping you from getting there?