Adapting time

Life is not short.

I used to consider myself an ambitious person though I never knew what it really meant. And what is ambition without action?

The real damage happened in the 80 percent of time. After a few lost opportunities, you stop trusting yourself. I would gradually circle down to self-loathing. But being brutal with yourself never helped anyone. I recommend Tim Ferriss’ podcast with Tara Brach and her book Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach. This helps addressing negative thoughts towards yourself.

What is ambition without action?

In the remaining 20 percent, I learned to settle down and force myself to work as we all have to at some point. Doing these simple things, I achieved most of what I can show for today. But in the 80 percent of time I would obsess about things I should and would do. None of them were things I truly wanted and none of them happened. I was living life according other people’s expectations.

I never looked at what all the blessings we received. Where we have come as a family and as partners with my wife. Although I would spend all this time thinking, I would never stop and look at the road we’ve covered.

And that’s what it takes. Being aware and grateful of all the wonderful things in our lives is the one thing that changes the way you look at things. Besides, it changes the way you spend your time.

You are not special

You can be distracted easily, you can have all sorts of conditions and flaws. It’s easy to fall into fear of societal expectations. Yet the way you spend your time is your own choice. Your responsibility, your equity in the world. Accepting yourself for who you are and where you come from is how you take that responsibility.

When I took responsibility for myself it became clear that I don’t care about most of the objections I would create in my mind. ‘I can’t because this and that’ is now ‘why don’t I do that?’. Life is easier and way more exciting. I create my own opportunities to grow. Time slows down relative to that guy who used to think about growing and wouldn’t do anything about it.

Only action inspires motivation.