“Hmm…. what’s this?” I say, holding up the artifact I discovered while fossicking through my digital attic.
“Oh… it’s a book cover!”
“Strange,” I say, “there’s no pages inside. And looks like there never were any.”
As I shake the dust from the cover…
The picture of a smiling anime character begins to appear.
“What’s this guy doing?”
I dust a little more.
“He’s… he’s… taking out the garbage?”
I pause.
This is starting to feel VERY familiar.
I wipe some more to uncover the title.
It reads…
The Lazybones Method for How to Recover from Freebie Addiction
“Ahh,” I say, as the bell chimes, “I’d forgotten all about this.”
“I wonder if my subscribers remember?”
Then it clicks…
I’d only ever shared this cover image once in the comments of my LinkedIn article about “How To Recover From Freebie Addiction.”
After that it would have been lost to the mists of internet time. So probably very few people have seen it.
I originally created the cover for a laugh.
It was after someone read my article and they cheekily ended their comment with…
“But I’ll get to that after I download the free e-book on how to recover from freebie addiction 🤣”
So I thought it would be a bit of a chuckle to whip up a cover for it.
The funny (or not so funny) thing is…
Freebie addiction is a REAL problem.
You know? … Stockpiling things that people offer as “lead magnets” or “free resources” on websites. Things like checklists, ebooks, and whatnot.
It’s probably not far removed from the hoarding mindset.
Digital hoarding, in this case.
My take on this kind of thing… of chasing after freebies and new things that people feel they “need”…
Is that it falls within the same realm as imposter syndrome.
It’s a lack-of-confidence thing. Feeling like having the free resources on hand is a safety net.
And oh how I’ve been there too.
After I made this joke cover, I also seriously considered writing that “lazybones” guide.
I probably have a thing or two to share from my own experiences.
And, who knows?… I may still write it.
But for now, I point people in the direction of one of my favorite books.
One that helped me stare down… and get past… these sort of mindset hurdles.
It’s called The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield.
I get no commission for promoting this. I just do it every now and again because it was such a help to me.
You can find it here…
https://stevenpressfield.com/books/the-war-of-art/
And… if you’re ready to build your email list… go here…
EmailForTheWin.com
Chris Milham