I was being sucked into the black hole of hating Mondays, dreading Tuesdays, and waiting for Fridays to end already. I disliked the thought of a 9-5 busy culture, tasks that don’t give a sense of fulfillment no matter how many of them I finish. It didn’t always feel this way, but when it did, it was a vicious struggle, knowing that I don’t have much control over my job working for a corporate company.
I’ve always been into productivity hacks since I started working after college. I had to-do lists that I try to finish every working day, and a personal list of things I want to have or achieve say, in a year. They were effective and I enjoyed doing them, so I guess you can say that there was no way for me but to keep on looking for other things that can help me improve the quality of my life and even myself. But it was a long, lazy journey of 6 years before I made a dent to my otherwise complacent lifestyle.
One of the highlights of this journey was when Japanese organizing superstar Mari Kondo released her show on Netflix last January 2019. It was such a huge success and suddenly everyone in social media is disposing of a lot of their stuff and organizing their homes. I was one of them. A bit before that, I also watched the documentary called “The Minimalists” (also on Netflix) which impacted me in such a way that I no longer craved material things, instead I focused more on experiences and people. Their motto is “Love people. Use things. The opposite never works.” This was also helpful for me. Both of them made a permanent impact on how I see things around me, and how I feel emotions.
Now that I have less clutter in my surroundings and my head, it freed up a lot of my time. And you know when you want something, the universe conspires to give it to you. During this time, I discovered the Impact Theory channel on YouTube. It was an interview series “that explores the mindset of the world’s highest achievers to learn their secrets of success.” I mean? Take my money! Just kidding, it is free and all you have to do is spend some time and listen to their talks.
It opened up a whole new world for me. It was like the next level kind of leadership, productivity, brain hacks, health, mindset, name it. I also found my new favorite authors and people in this channel such as Timothy Ferris (author of The 4-hour Work-Week), Mark Manson (The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck), Robin Sharma (The 5am Club), Sam Harris, Jim Kwik, Simon Sinek, Brendon Burchard to name a few.
Do you know when they say you are the average of 5 people you spend most of your time with? It’s kinda sad because I don’t have a lot of friends whom I can talk to about business, leadership, and stuff at that time, so I made this experience in such a way that those people I just mentioned are the ones that “I surround myself with”.
Ok so cut to the chase, what did I learn? They introduced me to some of my favorite new habits such as meditation, journaling for mental and emotional purposes, questioning so-called reality by breaking mindsets, and creating new blueprints for thinking.
With all these people that I watched, one of the recurring themes is that they didn’t need money to start with, or tools, or connect with anyone, but it was all in their…. mind. At the end of the day, the complex and powerful brain is our greatest asset.
Within 6 months,
- I enrolled in a trading school to learn a new profitable skill
- I got a part-time job in such an amazing company with amazing people
- I mustered the courage to ask my boss to get me out of night shift after 6 years of working there
- Bought my first real estate property because finally, I learned to let go of money so it can start working for me
- I generally feel happier and lighter
- I still kept my job because of knowing now how to balance my responsibilities towards my job and myself
And even though I still get sad, scared and stressed, I just rest a lot, enjoy what makes me happy (which I should know by now), but since I learned about how these people came from rough beginnings as well, I understood that the positive and negative had to be part of the whole experience.
To be honest, as I’m writing this, I feel a sense of anxiety. What if I’m just daydreaming? What if this is just a phase? Sometimes it’s too good to be true, and then it feels difficult to keep up with myself. This is why it has to take time, and not rushed. Too much of anything, even the seemingly good ones, can be bad. When I feel this, I stop and take a deep breath. I remind myself that consistency is the key. There is no need to go big, if you can go small consistently.
ADULTING VENTURES OF A TWENTYSOMETHING 
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