This is a personal email and there’s a good chance it won’t say anything to you.
Take that as a warning and only read on if you’re not looking for marketing tips or copywriting hacks today.
I’m sitting in a cafe as I write this, my usual refuge on Thursday afternoons when Flor the cleaning woman takes charge of my apartment.
Since I have a laptop, I am required to sit at the big table of computer-bound immigrants, next to the espresso machine, along a window that faces the street.
On Thursday afternoons when I sit here and work, more often than not, I see an old woman walking down the street, who comes to the cafe window and knocks.
The barista then opens the window.
The old woman and the barista chat for a couple of minutes.
The barista then gets ready a coffee and hands it out the window. The old woman takes the coffee, smiles, waves a farewell, and walks away.
I don’t know the agreement or relationship this old woman has with the cafe, but one thing that’s clear is that she is not paying anything for her coffee.
I’m telling you this because I recently caught myself thinking about success, about things I want in my life.
The phrase that popped up in my head was, “A price needs to be paid.” When I investigated a bit more, I found that I believe that in order to have the things that I want, I have to pay a price, and the currency must be something that is dear and valuable to me — time, comfort, my own self-image.
It’s a kind of grocery-store metaphor of life. “You can have whatever you want — if you can afford it, and if you can stomach to pay for it.”
No doubt, this metaphor of life works to an extent. It’s gotten me to where I’m at today.
But grocery stores are only one kind of thing you can see while walking down the street. You can also see, say, playgrounds, trees growing in the park, couples walking hand-in-hand.
If you’re anything like me, and if you think a price needs to be paid, maybe this is something to think about.
Maybe another metaphor of life might serve you better?
Maybe another metaphor might allow you to get what you want sooner, hold on to it longer, and enjoy yourself more along the way?
Maybe, rather than “a price needs to be paid,” it’s possible that “toys are there to play with”… or “a gift is there to be accepted”… or “it’s a free and voluntary exchange”?
I don’t know. But I’ve been thinking about it.
Anyways, all this popped up in my mind while I was doing “The Work.”
I’ve talked about The Work in these emails already. The Work was working for me when I wrote about it, and it’s working for me still.
Plus, right now, I’m in the middle of putting together a new offer. I also recently promoted my biggest course with some success.
So rather than trying to get you to send me money today, I will tell you the best thing I did this year was to read the following book, and to start doing what it says as soon as I got to chapter 2: