How To Play The Long Game.

Imagine your sister gets turned into a demon. Now you're on a mission to find the demon that was responsible and get him to turn her back into a human.

"What the fuck."

....you may be thinking. 😂

But this plot isn't that outlandish if you've seen the anime "Demon Slayer".

It's about a kid named Tanjiro who is training to become a demon slayer so he can find the demon responsible for turning his sister into one. 😅

He starts training with a Demon Slayin' Master... for a year... a year! Until the master says that he cannot teach him anymore. He takes him to a boulder and says that he will only allow Tanjiro to enter the Final Selection* (*an entrance exam to being a member of the Demon Slayer Corps) if he can cut an enormous boulder in half. Another 6 months passes before he is able to take what he's learned from the Master to slice the boulder.

Geez, so a year and a half has gone by and this kid still isn't a Demon Slayer. He's only just about to start the entrance exam.

And that's how it goes.

Anyone who wants to be a master/expert at something knows that they have to play the long game.

Tanjiro is playing the long game.

The Action Plan

It takes time to get good at something — to acquire the skills and knowledge to reach a level of mastery.

Life is a video game — and the players that find success are the ones that are playing the long game.

They skip the instant gratification and do what needs to be done consistently over a long period.

"Rome wasn't built in a day."

Cliche, but it's true.

I'm currently growing an audience and that starts with a focus on growing my Twitter account.*

*(I was originally attempting to grow on multiple platforms.)

Then funnel some of the Twitter audience over to my newsletter, so if you're reading this from Twitter...hey!

In my 4-step framework for achieving goals, I talked about creating process goals for your goals.*

*(Process goals are the actionable steps that you take to get to a goal.)

So if I want to grow an audience on Twitter, I can't just show up here and there and hope for the best. I have to have an action plan.

So what are my process goals for growing on Twitter?

• Tweet at least 3x a day

• Genuine engagement with at least 10 other accounts similar to mine 1x a day

• Thread 1x a week

• Atomic Essay 1x a week

• Slay at least 1 demon a week and get a lead on the head honcho (jk 😆)

This tweet inspired my list. 👇

I would ideally like to write as much as is recommended by this tweet, but I created a list with the bare minimum needed to mark my day/week as a win. It's about moving the needle forward a little each week. I'd rather be consistent with a little instead of trying to do too much at the start and burnout.

Think I can get 52 wins in a row? Let's find out.

Dickie doesn't mention engaging with other accounts on Twitter but in Dan Koe's 2-Hour Writer course he says 20, minimum 10 engagements. I've seen other accounts say upwards of 40 if you are a beginner with a few followers.

That seems excessive to me.

I won't get too woowoo here, but I understand the energetic laws of the universe and the energy behind the action matters. Inspired action has a greater ROI than action taken to force (or manipulate) something to happen. (Not saying you can't make things happen this way, but it's wasted energy.)

So the list I made feels good to me — and if I feel inspired to do more on any given day then that's cool — but I'm not tryna force it to happen from a place of desperation.

Consistency Compounded

What if I stay consistent for a year?

Aaron Doughty, a Youtuber I watch on and off, inspired this. I remember in a video he said that when he started making YT videos, he would make them every day for a year.

Every day for a year.

He made a promise to himself. Then committed to it. He knew if he did it for a year, something would change. I remember in the video he said that in the beginning he'd have around 15-20 views — stating that 1 view was his mom and half of the rest was himself. (lol, I feel you bro.)

Eventually, one of his videos took off, and he grew. When I first started watching him in 2017 he had less than 100,000 subscribers* *(or somewhere around that. I can't remember exactly.) He now has over 1 million.

Absolute consistency compounded.

(He doesn't do daily vids anymore. I believe it's weekly.)

What if I stay consistent for a year?

I recently came across this dope ass writer named Jason Levin on twitter. When I found him, he said his newsletter "Cyber Patterns" had just hit 5,000 subscribers.

Quote is from his newsletter on being weird.

What if I stay consistent for a year?

The plan for the newsletter is this: it goes out every Sunday at 7:00am CST.

No excuses.

If I want an audience, then I need to act like the person who already has it. I can't be inconsistent with my energy.

Manifestation 101.

Navigating Peaks and Valleys

I know there will be peaks and valleys on the journey. I am mentally prepared for it.

The Danny Miranda Podcast now has over 330 episodes. I remember Danny saying somewhere that what kept him going was that he genuinely enjoyed having conversations with people. Whenever the lows hit, he reminded himself of this.

I enjoy writing. I enjoy creating. It's quite exhilarating to create something out of nothing. To munch on concepts. To connect ideas. To allow the expression of those ideas. (Like this newsletter, for example.)

My English teachers always complimented me on my essays.

In middle/high school, I thought I could be a rapper and I would write raps in a notebook almost every day. (😂) I later tried songwriting. I thought I’d write songs for other people because I was too socially anxious to entertain as myself. After that, I wrote poetry for a brief period.

I don't think any of this stuff was that good because I never stuck with it long term, but the point is, looking back, I can see that I was always into some type of writing.

Even more recently, I would share short stories on my wins (running races or losing weight, etc) on my personal social media accounts. I had a co-worker tell me I am the most articulate writer he's ever known ("in real life" lol).

Bro, seriously?

HUGE compliment.

I plan on keeping that in the back of my head. I love doing this.

I know I can be better.

I know there is still much to learn — which is why I'm playing the long game.

Even if I don't grow this newsletter in a year, I know that I will learn so many new things about consistency, goal-setting, writing, marketing, personal branding, etc, to compound on.

But it's also hard for me to believe that I won't grow (to some level) in a year if I stay consistent AF with it. It'd be like going to the gym 4x a week and staying on top of your nutrition consistently without faltering for a year and not seeing a change in your body composition. It's highly unlikely. Some type of change will occur and it's likely to be a big one.

What if I stay consistent for a year?

The outcome is inevitable when you stick to the process.

Play the long game. 🕹️

— your friend and teammate, Player 2

Do you want to continue playing? 👇

(Things that inspired me this week.)

🎵Song: The Hive by Waveshaper

(I listened to synthwave music during a walk this week. Bro, endless creativity. Ideas were flowing to me like a river. I got so much cool shxt planned for this newsletter. This song is one of many that I was vibing to.)

📓Notebook:

(I started carrying around a notebook everywhere I go, like all my favorite digital writers say to do. I found this notebook, and I thought it was hella cool. I've been going on walks and writing ideas down like a madman.)

📝Newsletter: Cyber-Patterns

(I linked it above already but this is easily my favorite newsletter. The design is impeccable. It inspired me to re-design the aesthetic for this newsletter. (See thumbnail for more details). I appreciate good design. ✌️)