One thing that has been consistent throughout all of my recent ventures has been writing. It’s what allows me to get ideas on the page and out of my head.
This process allows me to flush out ideas — good and bad. This is necessary for me, since I am not one to talk much.
The other thing it is good for is documenting. Documenting the journey that I have been on to completely change my mindset about the world and my role in it.
That’s not an easy task. I am still intimidated by the freedom associated with choosing the lifestyle you want. I was always brought up in the system, I was a purebred employee that knew how to obey.
Luckily, I always had rebellious side and never liked to be normal. After fulfilling the ‘dream’ of going to college and getting a real job, I was stuck. My options were finally limited. I was suffocating.
I Don’t Know How It Started, But I’m Glad It Did
Actually, I somewhat know where it started — YouTube.
I discovered that there were people who put out daily content, and that you could subscribe to it. It stared as my form of entertainment, but then it turned into an obsession.
How were they able to make a living doing exactly what they wanted? The concept never dawned on me. I thought you needed an education for that.
I had never realized that you could pick what you wanted to do, stick with it for a few years and get really good at it and then begin to thrive on that alone.
“Show up everyday for two years, watch what happens.” — Sean McCabe
My first real obsession was Casey Niestat. Watching him hone his craft and crank everyday was inspirational and made me want to have something like that in my own life.
I have no desire to be a YouTuber, but, that doesn’t mean that work ethic couldn’t translate to me.
Fast Forward
Fast forward to today — about 8 months later. Where am I at with this whole thing?
Ashamedly, not too much further along. And it’s entirely a mindset thing.
My mind is 100% the thing that holds me back. It tries to keep me safe. It tries to justify living the way I always have, working a safe 9–5 job and staying in the system.
That’s been the hardest thing to change. But it definitely has changed.
The other hardest thing to change is work ethic. It’s funny how it’s called work ethic, because it’s more about being honest with yourself about how much work you are getting done and less about actually getting a lot more done.
I’ve learned that consistent daily output is essential to living a lifestyle that you want. That takes a lot of discipline. Discipline that I definitely did not have.
Working a 9–5 is easy; do what your boss says in a reasonably quick amount of time and stay out of trouble.
Working for yourself is much harder, because your success is directly predicated on the amount and quality of the work you produce.
My mind also likes to try and distract me. It makes me think about other things like social media and browsing the internet. It’s terrible how distracted an undisciplined mind can be.
It’s terrible how unproductive an addicted mind can be.
It continues to be a struggle, but it has gotten better. I am able to sit down and write without distraction, and also read.
But when it comes to work — like developing an app or working on a website for a client — the last thing my mind wants to do is focus on that.
Producing is greater than consuming. That’s a concept I have to remind myself of daily.
The people that consume all day are not successful. It’s the people that produce the content that is consumed that are successful.