#5 – Be your own hero: My story

Unlike most of my other posts – this will be a very personal one where I’ll share with you my life story, my past experiences and explain one of the main reasons I started this blog.

My previous 4 blog posts were all related to one topic: dreams and a sense of purpose. The main reason why I chose this theme is because I have noticed something that is incredibly saddening: people aren’t making full use of their potential.

You may think I’m being melodramatic or just want to capture your attention but bear with me while I share my story.

Primary school – I was a bright kid, always working hard and getting good grades. I had the habit of finishing my classwork very quickly which led to me being quite the troublemaker for the rest of the class as I was often bored. Life was good haha. Now comes secondary school, a whole new environment. At first, I was still the same hardworking kid and got excellent grades at the end of my first year. Then, as from the second year, I felt that school didn’t challenge me enough and got fed up with learning about things that I deemed useless and I started only doing the bare minimum to pass my classes. Fast forward a few years, the disinterest in school had grown so much to the point that I was barely going to school anymore because I felt that I was not gaining anything from it, instead I spent all of my days playing DotA 2, which was my main interest and my form of mental masturbation at the time. Apart from that, I had a few other weekly hobbies like chess, scouting or kickboxing that I enjoyed very much. After noticing my disinterest in school, my parents offered that I attend another school. The change in environment was pleasurable but soon enough the same disinterest for learning came back. Eventually the same lack of motivation to go to school showed up and instead, I preferred skipping school to go play FIFA at my best friend’s place.

Next step of my life was university. I went to a whole new country where I had to start being independent and live on my own. I learnt many things, had an amazing time, met great people but there was still something missing. All of the spare time I had at uni (you have a lot if you don’t study much) was spent on games, TV shows or playing pool. They were enjoyable activities however I wasn’t going anywhere or making any kind of progress in my life. Now, don’t get me wrong, i thoroughly enjoyed my teenage years and certainly made the most out of it. I had the opportunity to take on different hobbies, travel to different countries and make great friends wherever i went. The only problem was that I had no idea of what I wanted to do in the future, no long-term goals, no dreams – therefore I only did things that were pleasurable to me at the time. I needed an end game.

“You can have the best ship or plane in the world but if you don’t have a specific plan of where you want to go and when you want to get there, you just drift around and you never get anywhere.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger

Then comes the start of my second year at uni. I started getting into self-development. I mostly spent my days educating myself by reading books, watching videos, learning new things, etc. And the one thing that I noticed is that EVERY successful person has a set of goals or something that he/she wants to achieve and all his/her actions are geared towards that.

This is the first step to a better life.

And in these first few months, I switched my mindset from short-term thinking to long-term and it changed my life. I changed my lifestyle. I got back in touch with goals and dreams I had when I was a kid, I cut out anything that negatively affected my life and I am working and learning every single day with the aim of achieving my goals  in the near future. I make sure that everything i do is bringing me closer to where I want to be. The best part is? I wake up and go to sleep happy every day; because when you are working towards your dreams, the time and effort you put in isn’t work anymore, it’s an enjoyable process, it’s fun, it releases dopamine (also known as the happy molecule) in your brain that makes you exuberant. And the best thing is? I’m only getting started. Big things are coming up soon because hard work always pays off!

And this is what I want you to realise. You only have ONE LIFE. Don’t let people tell you what you ought to do, don’t let society pressure you into following the same path as others, go out and do your own thing. Do the things that make you happy, work for YOUR dream, work for the things you wanted to achieve when you were a kid, do that one thing you were always scared of, travel to that country you always dreamt of visiting – be your own hero and make yourself proud.

Life is so much better when you are working towards something you want.

Stop living for that next big event coming up, stop living for the weekends, stop waiting for holidays and instead start enjoying every single day that comes along. Stop wasting your time on all the useless stuff you do to kill time and go make the most out of your time. Make sure that in 30 years you can look back and be proud to say that you didn’t settle for what life gave you, you created your own destiny.

Now I want to clarify a few things.

• If you are already happy (and I mean truly happy, you don’t need some object or activity to make you happy) then this post won’t have much to offer you. This post is for anyone that has some kind of dissatisfaction or discontent about their life, some area of their life that they want to work on or those that have that goal/dream in their back of their mind since they were a kid but have no idea how to achieve it. This post is for all of you who know that you deserve better, those who want to unleash their potential and make the most out of their lives because I believe in people, I believe that every single one of you have something to offer to this world and that every single one of you can do so much more than they think. What I don’t believe in, however, is how society dictates that you have to conform nowadays. Our education system is killing creativity and dreams, and as a result, people think that they should stop dreaming big or that success in life is for the lucky ones and that instead they should settle for what they get. Start believing in yourself again.

• All that I share on this blog are my own beliefs and opinions, you don’t have to agree with me on every point (if you do, I’d be very surprised). I do not judge your opinion, nor do i think that I am always right and you’re wrong. I believe that everyone has a different mindset and my aim is to share with you the knowledge that I have acquired after countless hours of reading books and learning about this topic.

• Having hobbies or activities is a good thing. What you need to be careful about is that they don’t become a form of escapism and a way for you to kill time. If your ‘hobby’ is the only thing you look forward to in your day, something is wrong.

• Get to know yourself. I didn’t come up with all of this self-awareness in a day. It took me a long time to realise these things about myself, some of them, I might not like or be proud of. However, what is past is past. I learnt from my mistakes and I’m now working on building my future and pursuing my dreams. But it all starts with YOU. Get back in touch with yourself, find out what you are good at and start noticing what makes you happy and get to know what your passions are. Find out what makes you a great person, what you can bring to society, where you want to be in 10 years and what things you want to achieve in your life. Self awareness is key.

As a conclusion, I hope this article helped you get a better understanding of why I write about this topic and how it can positively affect your life. Thanks for reading, especially to those of you who have been supportive and encouraging. Now go out and make things happen!

BE YOUR OWN HERO – MAKE YOURSELF PROUD. 

As always, keep sharing your thoughts with me in the comments section below! And SHARE this post with anyone you believe should read this!

P.S: I have set-up a mastermind group with the purpose of acting as a platform to interact and share useful information and experiences with other like-minded people and have a community of supporting individuals that are interested in self-development and improving their lives. If you would like to join the group, send me a message on facebook or instagram (@parapixel).