“Fear is the mind-killer” – Frank Herbert, Dune
I think I was depressed. I’m not sure exactly. I just came out of a period where I lost motivation to pursue my personal interests. It definitely felt like a fog that put me in a place where I was discouraged entirely about my personal projects. All except for going to the gym, which I’ve been doing three days a week consistently since mid-August. But even that felt like a partial victory because I kept telling myself, “yeah, but you’re not doing enough cardio!”. I need to think more about how I got to that place mentally. Identifying the triggers can help me avoid going back there in the future.
Three events helped break me out of that place and brought me clarity. The first I’ll just say was taking on something for no other reason but greed alone. It took me less than seven days to realize this was a misstep and the wisdom of my mother. When I told her of the venture, she simply said, “don’t burn yourself out.” She was right. She knows her son. And I know better than to pursue anything for strictly financial gain. The second was a book by Eric Jorgenson called The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A guide to wealth and happiness. A good friend of mine, who I consider one of the most intelligent people I count as friends, recommended the book to me. I added it to my long list of books to read, but then he started sharing passages, and I moved it to the top of the list. I’m forty percent done with the book, but it is by far one of my favorite books of ever read. I believe the period of my life I’m at today plays a huge part in why the book resonates so much with me. This post isn’t a book review, so I won’t dive into details. I will say before the book I had never heard of Naval Ravikant before this book and have yet to Google him or look up his social media accounts. However, his words, perspective, and philosophies on wealth and happiness are something worth at the very least hearing/reading and at best implementing. It’s up to the individual to decide what is best for them. The third thing that lifted me out of my fog was a business opportunity presented to me to generate passive income by another good friend who I call the last new friend I’ve made. This wasn’t a money play as opposed to the first of the three items on this list. This was a freedom play. We’ll see how it works out.
All of these things happened within two weeks. Before which I felt I was going through the motions of the typical rat race with no plan to even attempt to break out of it. I’m not one of those people shouting WORKING A 9-5 IS BAD! However, I am one of those people shouting, make time to pursue what makes you happy. If those pursuits happen to gain your freedom financially, bring you peace mentally, and allow you to take care of your physical well-being even better!
I find pleasure in simply following a path in pursuit of a personal passion project. I learned this about myself after having an idea for a mobile app and sitting on it for months simply because I was scared to try. Ultimately, I realized the regret I would feel for not even trying, or worse, seeing someone execute my idea later with success, would be far more painful than trying and failing. Don’t be paralyzed by the fear of failure. Failure in pursuit of something that is fulfilling to you in ways no one else can understand is not a failure at all. It’s a lesson you can apply when you regroup and keep going.
