You Can Just Start Building Stuff & Rapidly Improve Your Life

The Unexpected Power of Building Things

One of the most useful realizations I’ve had over the last few years is that you can just build stuff and dramatically improve your life in the process.

This sounds obvious.

But most people don’t live like this is possible.

Instead, they wait for opportunities, motivation, confidence, circumstances, whatever to come their way.

Meanwhile, time passes anyways. Dreams become a soft “it will happen next year” promise that fade almost as quickly as they were uttered.

Living like this is an absolute death sentence for autonomy, freedom, and happiness. Yet it’s so easy to slip into this mindset and to become addicted to comfort and stability, even when we’re unhappy.

In reality, you can build the exact lifestyle you want, brick by brick, and have an absolutely amazing time along the way.

This includes making way more money. It also includes being happier, having higher quality relationships, and just becoming a fuller version of yourself who walks with purpose.

If you want to take control and start building yourself, this one is for you.

I’m covering some real examples of areas you can start building in, why they matter, and how to get started.

Let’s go!

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1. Build Income & Assets

Building new income streams and assets is a massive part of what I write about at WiFi Wealth. I think this is one of the smartest things people can do these days, especially if you’re young and are wondering what to do for a career and with your life.

The great news?

It has never been easier to create additional income streams than right now.

I’ll share a few personal stories to highlight this fact.

When I started blogging in 2018, I didn’t know anything about running a WordPress website. In my first year of blogging, I only made $1,700…After hundreds of hours of work.

Smiling despite making less than $3 an hour or whatever it was for my first blog 😅

Next year was better, and I hit about $7,000.

To me, this was already a massive success. Percentage wise, a $7,000 increase in income wasn’t too shabby considering my office job salary out of college was about $45,000 Canadian. Taking action here also beat waiting for my boss to maybe give me a salary bump.

But next year, I hit $22,000.

Then $92,000.

By now I had quit my job, was going all-in on the new asset I had built, and ended up scaling this first website to $1M+ in revenue before selling the business.

You can just build things.

Out of thin air and whatever is going on inside your brain. You don’t need an expensive degree or a business plan or a mentor; you can just start trying stuff and see what sticks.

The same thing happened with YouTube.

First year was a grind to learn how to create videos and get monetized.

About 6 years later, and the channel has passed $250,000 in revenue between ads and sponsorships. I’ve bought a niche travel channel now and am scaling some new channels as well.

You can just build things.

A few months ago I used Lovable to vibe-code a new side hustle directory website. This is now making money because I promote it on the assets I’ve already built, like my email newsletter (the advantage of building things is that they tend to help each other out as well, or give you the skills for your next project to succeed!)

I’ve also started posting content on Reddit. You can get hundreds of thousands of monthly views, just for sharing your ideas and by being a nice person. It’s insane.

For reference, this project is a few months old. And LOOK at what’s possible 👇

Smart AI tools and tech have removed all barriers to entry. The job market also sucks right now. I believe you owe it to yourself to build financial security. You can’t rely on anyone else to do this, especially not some company that would sell you down the river in a heartbeat if it meant reaching quarterly KPIs.

Now if you’re thinking it’s too hard or difficult to build these kinds of online assets, or that you need years for them to turn into serious businesses, you’re probably right.

But this time will pass anyways.

The skills you develop along the way will also pay you in spades, even if what you’re building never makes a penny. Trust me, everything we learn and spend time practicing comes back to serve us, one way or the other.

There’s also plenty of simpler side hustles that have faster payout periods. So again, you can build a new income stream and increase your financial security just by taking action.

I won’t harp on this too much 😅 Here are some of the best guides I’ve written on income generation instead so you can get started today:

• How To Become Stupidly Wealthy With A One-Person Business.

• How To Make An Extra $1,000 Per Month.

• The 4 Automations That Make Me Money While I Sleep.

2. Build Skills & Confidence

An inevitable part of building up your income is developing more skills and confidence.

Starting a new challenge and figuring things out, bit by bit, is incredibly rewarding. Making your first dollar on your own also proves to yourself that you are capable and have autonomy over your life. I swear, there’s a mental switch that flips once you realize you can make money out of nothing and can rely on your abilities.

You can extend this to other areas of life as well.

We really thrive in the process of learning and mastering a new skill. This is encouraged in kids, but somehow, it falls by the wayside for adults once we hit the job market.

Recently, I started boxing here in Cape Town. I’m pretty bad. I don’t know proper footwork and I’m pretty sluggish overall.

It was also pretty nerve-wracking walking into a boxing gym and asking for lessons. Some people there have boxed for years. You feel as if everyone is watching you as you blunder through different exercises.

Genuinely my new favorite way to spend time, aside from hiking.

But after going to just one lesson, you learn that no one actually cares what you do or how you look. Things that seem scary are actually invigorating. We can also enjoy the process of being bad at something and slowly improving.

I encourage you to start something new this month.

Start weightlifting. Try learning a new language. Actually start that one DIY project you have saved on your phone but have been putting off for months. Give a new hobby a go.

YouTube and the internet can teach just about anything for free. There’s probably loads of in-person events or classes in your city too that can teach you another skill you’re interested in. Maybe you can ask a friend or colleague to show you something new.

Mixing up your routine and proving you can learn new skills is an absolute game-changer for your mood and outlook on life. So don’t wait, take on something new and exciting this month!

Related: What To Do When You Feel Chronically Behind In Life.

3. Build Better Self-Talk

One of my best friends is on a mission to do a million push-ups.

This sounds insane, and it sorta is. But he basically does a 500 push-up workout, twice a week, alongside his other workouts. In about 20 years, he’ll hit his million push-up goal.

He’s actually documenting the process on YouTube, alongside his weekly thoughts and journal entries.

Currently, he’s at 171,000 push-ups.

When he started this project, a lot of people thought it was crazy, or a bad way to workout, or just thought he wouldn’t stick with it.

Let me tell you, he’s stuck with it. The guy doesn’t miss a workout. It doesn’t matter what crazy stuff is going on in life, or if he’s tired, or if it’s the weekend; he doesn’t miss.

And what’s interesting is this dedication to his weekly push-ups has helped transform how he speaks and thinks.

Now, he’s the most positive, self-believing individual I know. He is full of energy, has goals, and genuinely brightens the room whenever he walks in. You feel great after spending just a bit of time hanging out.

When I’ve asked him about this project and the impact it’s had, so much of it boils down to self-talk and the voice inside his head.

According to him, the push-ups are really just a challenge that has to be overcome each week. Along the way, he tells himself he’s capable of doing them and just about anything he sets his mind to. It doesn’t really matter if it’s push-ups, or landing that job, or trying something new and difficult.

For years I assumed confidence and optimism were personality traits.

Now, I think it’s largely a construction project. You can literally build this into your way of life and how you operate.

In other words, the voice in your head is trainable.

If you repeatedly tell yourself you’re lazy, unlucky, behind, or incapable, eventually your brain starts accepting that as fact.

In contrast, if you repeatedly tell yourself that you have skills, you will figure things out, and that you can achieve great things, you accept this as fact.

Call it self-affirmation, manifestation, or whatever you want. The stories we tell ourselves become the foundation we build on. They set the pace and energy for every waking moment of our life.

Many people are accidentally constructing a mental environment that works against them. They begin planning with anxiety and worst-case scenarios. The voice inside their head sabotages them from the start.

If you hear this doubt creeping in, kill it. You can train yourself over time to picture the best-case scenario and what it feels like when you get there. Do this for long enough, and I swear how you operate on a day-to-day basis changes for the better, and visualization turns into reality.

4. Build Better Relationships

Relationships don’t magically stay strong. They are maintained. It takes mutual effort, and consistent effort at that.

I’m appreciating this more since moving to Cape Town. I haven’t been in Canada for over one year now. While I love the digital nomad life, I miss the close relationships I have in North America.

I do love some Cape Town hiking though!

I’m starting to call close friends more, at least once per week. Same with my family. Even with the distance, it makes a massive difference for mood and quality of life overall.

This is an underrated habit. Even if you live in the country you were born in, I encourage you to call a friend or family member at least once per week.

Make plans too! Time is precious, so use it while you have it.

Plan the trip, go grab that beer, send the first message. Resist the urge to become more isolated.

Technology is pushing us farther apart these days, but following someone on Instagram isn’t the same as maintaining a real relationship. Do the work.

5. Build Better Habits

I’m not a fan of the over-optimization of life and endless self-improvement routines. We’re human, not machines.

That said, there are some pretty basic habits you can build into your daily routine that have massive upside for quality of life. Some of these include:

• Drinking enough water

• Waking up at the same time

• Going to the gym 2-3 times per week

• Walking to the grocery store, or after meals, or just more often in daily life

• Reading a few pages before bed

• Eating whole foods

Again, it sounds simple. But it’s important to be intentional about building these kinds of habits and then maintaining them as well.

After all, it’s so easy to let these basics slip when life gets busy. I do this all the time; I’m busy with work, I end up skipping two meals, downing 4 coffees, and then I wonder why my head and body are a mess by the time 5pm rolls around.

Stick to the basics. Build them into your daily routine. Don’t overcomplicate things.

The Real Superpower - Build Delusional Optimism

I’ll wrap up this post by saying this: building delusional optimism is a superpower.

The news makes it seem like the world is going mad. Things move faster than ever. Times are changing.

Amidst all of this, it’s easy to feel discouraged or uncertain. This is why it’s more important than ever to instill a sense of optimism and autonomy in your life in whatever way you can.

This could be as small as making your bed every morning and ironing your shirt.

Or, maybe, it could mean starting a side hustle, or learning a new skill you’ve been thinking about for a while.

Whatever you do, you’ll start to believe that you’re capable of making change. You can then analyze areas of your life, pick out things you like and dislike, and start building towards the version of life you actually want.

Stack enough bricks with positive momentum and it’s impossible not to become incredibly optimistic. You start setting larger and larger goals, you dream bigger, and you feel way more alive. When you start operating like this, you think and perform better too, so you’re actually increasing the chances you accomplish what you desire.

Since starting my business in 2018, living on 6 continents, and having some massive wins and fails along the way, I genuinely believe we can turn our life into whatever we want.

It will take heaps of work. You’ll probably end up with a much different version than what you had in mind at the start as well. But this journey is the only one worth taking with the time we are given, so start dreaming and start building!

Anyways, I’ll be heading out from Cape Town for a bit soon. I am keen to return here, but I’m also itching to spend some time at home and to explore new parts of the world. I don’t really know what comes next. This used to frighten me, now it mostly excites me. Time to do some building of my own!

Thanks for reading all.

I’ll catch you in the next one.

Tom from WiFi Wealth.

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