What does "write your own ticket" mean?
I see this discussed online mostly in the context of how you earn your living. An example is from the tweet below:
Yeah being drafted into Vietnam was a joy. Double digit mortgages. Gas shortages. Factories closed. Pensions went broke. Now you’re 50 and then what?
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) November 29, 2023
Meanwhile you idiots can learn any skill online, meet mentors, and write your own tickets. https://t.co/LYs8gP4ulP
Mike Cernovich is one of my favorite guys to follow. He always has interesting ideas to share. He makes the point, that things were a lot worse in the past than they were now, even though now could use some help. Having a great memory and actively thinking about what older generations had to endure is a great way to express gratitude.
After I read Mike's tweet I made this video to discuss how I like to think about the write your own ticket idea.
Because earning a living is critical to your well-being, I have written quite a few article about it:
If you aren't happy and satisfied at work, get busy and make changes.
In addition to being able to "write your own ticket" in relation to how
you earn your living, it also means crafting and creating all aspects of
your own life in a way that makes the most sense to you as all element of your life are crucial also.
You aren't "stuck" where you currently are. You can move away from, or the better frame, move towards what you truly desire.
While this sounds simple, in practice, most people struggle with this idea. I think looking to your past as a way to shape your future is one of the most massive mistakes anyone makes.
I prefer the method of thinking of what you'd like to happen in the future, focus on that, think from that perspective (as Neville Goddard brilliantly explains) and let your present unfold toward your imagined future.
Since I realize this is a hard concept to grasp, I like to help people make baby steps with this idea. Develop a positive attitude to keep moving towards your dream life.
One of the best ways to stay positively moving forward is to look backwards at your life to see how far you have come. This also works for the world at large. It's difficult to stay negative if you just look back into your past or the world's past and see how much worse things were.
You should feel a lot of gratitude thinking of how far you have come.
Of course, if you look back at your past and see that it was tremendously better than how you are living now, that is your wake up call to make changes.
If something has gone the wrong way, the sooner you decide to make changes, the better.
This is a critical strategy to use to ensure your life is always getting better and better. If you examine your life today and find that it sucks compared to how you were living before, you would spend time and massive energy to get your life moving back to a better state.
This is basically how I determined I needed to leave my wife. My thoughts at the time were - I had a good life before meeting her, I should be able to have a good life after I find a way to get away from her.
It is also how I determined to leave a high paying job. I did have some good jobs in the past. Since the one I am in now, I hate, I can leave it for something better.
Physically writing is important. Write out exactly what experience you would once your goal is accomplished. This is where the magic happens. You think and plan and plan and think. You go about your life. At some point, the experience you wrote down show up in your life as long as you are focused on receiving those things and you truly believe they should naturally occur for you. This is a more or less step by step process. Think about a small or medium-sized goal rather than a massive goal to get you started.
The more you write things down, goals, missions, plans, experiences wanted, the more you accomplish. This can be done in a variety of ways. I use paper notebooks, scratch paper, moleskin journals, Word documents and spreadsheets.
I don't think keeping all this just in your mind is helpful, unless you are exceptionally brilliant. But most of us are not. The time involved in planning in your mind and then planning and listing on paper (or computer or both) is key.
You become serious about your life by writing.
Spreadsheets are a great tool because you can quickly get your ideas down electronically and then use the power of easily manipulating (moving stuff around) the spreadsheet to refine and adjust your plans.
It is also a great tracking tool. Once I "do something" on my spreadsheet, I highlight it and make a few notes about it.
I love this simple saying - "write your own ticket." Believe it and live it.
The only way I could become the happier man I am today was by leaving my wife. You might be in the same situation I was in. I suggest you take a look at my book - Leave Your Wife & Become a Happier Man with the 3 Step System.
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