You know by now that one drop of poison really kills you.
Boy you don’t wanna go to the doctor!
But what about in other ways that you might not have realized?
Let’s see what we find!
But first, I must ask you, who’s up for an adventure?!
And are you ready to answer the question “What are Poison Pills?”
I know you are, you are so craving it 🙂
Here’s the deal: You are going to be doing some bizarre things. Before proceeding, I want you to grab a pen or pencil and a sheet of paper.
Do you have them? Yes, great! No, well then, the tribe has spoken and it’s time for you to go. No redemption island for you! Au revoir!
For the yeses, and yeah, the no’s to :), I want to you to do this with your sheet of paper and pen or pencil. Write down what you do on a normal day, even while at work or school. Take as much time as YOU need; you’re gonna need it! Ready, set, bananas!
Note: If you went already, get ready to write and then some!
I hope you didn’t go; don’t lie to me. I double dare you.
Ready, set, GO!
Ok, are you done? Great! Let’s see what we find.
Some Nasty Habits
I will list some potentially bad habits, which we will now refer to as Poison Pills, and you will be able to identify for yourself if you have them. Here they are:
– Constantly playing or wasting time on the iPhone
– Binge watching TV every day when you get home
– Not reading books
– Not producing material
– Consuming your thoughts on things that you can’t control
– Having a negative perspective on your situation
– Saying “I can’t” if it’s not for a well-thought out reason
– Not focusing on the task at hand
– Arguing with your boss or customers
– Not Smiling
– Not investing if you could
– Not doing your homework when you should be, even if you’re NOT attending school
– Not solving problems, primarily your own
– Not exercising if you could
– Gambling
I’m sure there are plenty more that you wrote down, so if you feel that the poison pills you wrote down would fall on this list if I saw what they were, they will be included in the next activity that we will do. Please don’t lie to yourself. I triple dare you.
The Punishment
So, now that you have made your list, count how many poison pills that you have and write down the number anywhere on your sheet where you could easily identify it.
With that number, here is what you are going to do. For every poison pill that you wrote down, you are going to take cold showers. Each cold shower will increase for the number of poison pills that you have. For example, if you have 5 poison pills, you will take 1 cold shower for 1 minute, the next for 2 minutes, the next for 3 minutes, the next for 4 minutes, and the last one for 5 minutes.
That’s 15 minutes total for all 5 showers. But note, if you have more, you are taking more!
So, before continuing this post, begin your punishment. Go!
Okay, so you did your punishment. Now, you might be asking, “Evan, what is wrong with you? That’s freaking nuts man! You should get a punishment for putting us through this pain!”
Well, I must say that 1, you won’t punish me, and 2, you just added another Poison Pill of yours in that you blame and criticize others for your shortcomings and your consequences. Go take another shower following the Island’s Laws for Dealing with Poison Pills!
The Briefing
Let me explain what these poison pills are. Poison pills are pleasantries or distractions or excuses that give you instant gratification. It could be a defense mechanism or an urge or craving. What you are doing is that you are borrowing time from the future that you could be using to maximize your lifetime return on investment (ROI). In other words, you are investing in the incorrect things and they are costing you big.
Let elaborate this with a magic wonder: Compound interest.
Compound interest is defined as the increasing time value of money that builds itself off principal AND the interest accumulated.
What this means is that if you invested, say, 1000 dollars at 8% interest, and it compounded yearly, it would grow to $1080 after year 1, $1166.40 after year 2, and $46901.61 after year 50. With larger numbers and larger interest rates, you could imagine that this force is a lot more powerful than what I just elaborated here.
And so it is. With respect to time spent, if you spend time doodling around with whatever poison pill you are handling, the time value of your money is going down, your potential goes down since you have less time to maximize your circumstances, and you are paying a hidden cost that you could be earning if you had invested elsewhere, hence why I made you do the cold shower activity.
Some Perspective
So, let’s take this into perspective. Let’s say that you voluntarily choose to spend 90 minutes on your cell phone for a day, let alone every day. You’re hanging out on Instagram or Snapchat posting pictures of your day at work to friends.
Now let’s look at an alternative way that you could spend those 90 minutes and the results from that.
Suppose that you read a book called “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie for those 90 minutes and you gained knowledge from that book that you could implement immediately in whatever you are doing.
For instance, thoroughly understanding that you must get people to see things from your perspective in order to get what you want.
Now, those 90 minutes have potentially turned into a sales pitch that lands you a promotion or allows you to keep your job.
Or, maybe, you are able to use this piece of knowledge acquired in 90 minutes and build the foundation of a social network that could yield you $1,000, or $10,000, $100,000, $1,000,000, $10,000,000 etc.
All with just 90 minutes.
You can pick up your copy of “How to Win Friends and Influence People” here on Amazon which I will receive an affiliate link for, but the price that you pay won’t change.
You see, the 90 minutes turns into not just money, but endless wealth, which allows you to acquire power and influence, hence people will be psychologically forced to work for you.
And the best part, for the most part, they don’t even realize it or care.
That’s the beauty of the island.
Here, we don’t engage in activities that prohibit us from creating these systems.
We get in, get the job done as quickly as possible, and get out. Under our control.
And once we’ve built the foundation of our systems, we don’t stop.
We repeat the process again and again in whatever we desire.
Hence, this is why we are able to live and own the island, while everyone else vacations on the island.
Talk about capitalizing on weaknesses.
You, our future islander, have come upon your lucky day. You now know the pitfalls of poison pills and why they cost you BIG!
YOU have the power to change that right now.
YOU can turn 90 minutes and make into timeless wealth and influence.
Required Reading
Do yourself a great favor. Go to your nearby bookstore or library and pick up a magic book called “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie.
Or click here and buy from my affiliate link!
Don’t read any other book for now.
Do everything that Carnegie says in the book and in the preface and I will ensure you that everything that follows along will make a whole lot of sense when you read it.
Once you finish that book, do what he says and I promise you, everything about what was done here will come in full circle.
My future islander, I will close this by saying that you are a champion and a conqueror.
You are someone who can bring change to a world full of pessimists and doubters and naysayers and dream crushers who drag dream chasers down to soothe in their misery.
YOU are a brilliant powerful mastermind who has groundbreaking influence on those around you, the island, and the world.
YOU are literally the force on this planet that dictates which way the tides turn for everyone, including those on the island.
YOU are unstoppable.
YOU are unbeatable.
YOU are invincible.
YOU are unbelievable.
YOU are awesome.
Just know that the Future Is YOU.
And together, we will turn the impossible into the inevitable!
Until next time,
This is Chief Islander Evan signing off.
Evan Cruz
Evan Cruz is the founder of Join the Island, the website committed to helping young adults become massively productive and reach their full potential.
He has been featured on Vox, OnlineU, and UpJourney. He has also a cited human relations expert and college expert.
He graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering.
Read more about Evan and Join the Island here.
Great article. You have to check yourself. Today the world is full of distractions and a lot of time gets wasted. people need to read this and put their priorities back in order.
Thank you,
David
Thank you David for your comment and please do apply this and report back the results that you got from implementing this.
Hello there
Thanks for this great article. Truly there are a lot of poisonous habits we all have in our daily lives. Your article is like a wake-up call. I like the one you mention about compound interest. As an investor, I couldn’t agree more that time can be wasted by not getting involved in investments. But I would say this has to be prioritized and NOT just when we want or we can. Because we can if we want. It is a choice.
Have a great day.
God bless.
Che
Absolutely Che and thank you for reading the blog post today. And don’t forget to come back for more; you are more than welcome!
Interesting article Evan! You`re totally correct in your perspective! There`s so much distractions in life – never realizing that those are decreasing your potentials to much better interest in life! Thanks for sharing! All the best!
You bet Hanna and please do apply this blog post to your life and report back the results that you got out of it.
This article wasn’t what I was expecting when I first clicked onto it but it was a really interesting read! I think some things we do are less ‘poison pills’ and more ‘tranquilizers’! We just become lazy and lose motivation to work, which can be just as bad! Great post.
Thank you Benji and please do apply this post and report back the results that you got out of it.
Hey Evan, another great post as always. I remember that I used to always stay on social media all of the time, and had no interest in reading. I have finally made the decision to educate myself, instead of fooling around on the video game all of the time, knowledge is power!!! I will have to read “How To Win Friends, and Influence People” very soon.
Correction: Knowledge is potential power. Knowledge + The Correct Action = Limitless Power. Thanks for reading Ahmad and yes, give the book a read and tell me how it affected your life somehow. It should if you do what it says.
Wow,
That’s pretty scary to look at the things you’re damaging your lives but that’s a real reminder. I think the most common mistake we make is thinking too much while doing too less!
Bruce Lee actually said something along those lines. Thinking is a very static activity; it must only be done when the appropriate time comes for it with a proven ROI. Action is the thing that keeps everything going. Be dynamic, not static. Otherwise, the engineer will figure you out and you’re toast! Thanks for commenting and please do apply this post and report back the results that you got out of it.
I must admit that I have a few of the poison pills written down and I must do something to change that but taking a cold shower is not one of them lol. Persuasion can be a powerful tool I like what you are doing here. How did you know I was awesome lol
What can I say, I’m psychic with the hidden powers that can penetrate your mind and see what’s in that brain of yours! If you want those hidden powers, come back to the island for more! I’ll be dropping more nuggets of gold very soon! Now get in that shower for your punishment and report back the results in how it impacted your life somehow.
Hi Evan, this is the second engrossing article I have read from you and I love it! You have a real talent for motivating people and you are for sure going to be a powerful force in the world 🙂
I only had one poison pill fortunately, which was consuming thoughts on things I can’t control. I do this occasionally (usually after I have watched the news, or accidentally seen something on social media that I didn’t want to see). I try to stay away from ALL negativity, but sometimes things catch you off guard.
I have read the book ‘How to win friends and influence people’ many years ago and you have inspired me to read it again. Have you ever read ‘Think and Grow Rich’ by Napolean Hill? It is the book that literally changed my life and set me on the path to everything I am doing now. Please read it if you haven’t as I know you will love it!
Thanks for your awesome posts 🙂
Hi Stefanie, of course I’ve read Think and Grow Rich; it’s literally the success bible! Yep, the news is something that should be ignored (unless it’s for a hurricane if you’re here in South Florida) and it will consume all of your energy. Not good, AAAHHHHHH!!! Here’s a challenge for you: Don’t watch the news, BE the news. Interpret it, implement it, and report back the results that you got out of it. You’ve got this!
Interesting article. But a cold shower may not work for people like me who are living in this part of the world – in the tropics. A cold shower is a welcome respite from the heat, the hot and humid weather. So, what would you recommend in its place to help people over here?
At first, I was really questioning where this article was going. However, the quirky amusing way that you wrote it had me sucked in and wanting more. Once I understood what these poison pills can be, I actually began to self reflect upon my live’s goals and actions. I think you just made me a better version of well, me.
Thank you for that.
Russell
You’re welcome Russell and please do implement this blog post into your life and report back the results that you got out of it!
Hi Evan,
Thanks for encouraging me to write down what I do in a day and to identify my poison pills. With better awareness we can make better decisions. Funny things is that I actually take cold showers to get my day going. So I guess for me the “punishment” would be taking hot showers. 😉 Great article have a great day!
You bet Carmen and please do that and report back the results that you get out of it!
Another great post, there is so much more that we could be doing with our time. All the best Evan!
Thank you Catherine and please don’t forget to apply this post to your life and report back the results that you got out of it!
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