My biggest misconception about following my dreams #4
Why things will often get worse before they get better and how a simple concept can help you to #makeadifference. PLUS: Free resource!
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▶️Find my last post here on what can happen to your life after quitting your job.
❓You asked some cool questions. Most of them evolved around how I tackle the fear of the unknown and how I figured out what I want in life.
Today´s content:
My biggest misconception about quitting my job and following my dreams
How I figured out what I want in life (and how you can as well + free tool)
What we can learn from it
Summary
Life gets more complex before it gets easier. Yet, this is a good thing if you know the direction you are heading.
Figure out what you want and where to put your attention and focus. I did it via the Big Five for Life concept but there are dozens of other ways.
Once defined, face the challenges head-on. My experience: It will be worth it and you do not want to go back to your old rhythms and routines.
☃️Last week was a rare occasion. Brussels was covered in snow. At least for some hours before it melted.
It changed the city. Made it calmer. Quieter. I went for a walk. The thoughts during that walk formed the basis for this article.
📝Quick side note: I drafted many articles in the past 2 weeks. But published none of them. I did not press the send button. Something was holding me back.
✅Lesson learned: Press the send button, do not overthink and act. As Winston Churchill said, “perfection is the enemy of progress”.
1. My biggest misconception about quitting my job
📆It is 4 weeks since I quit my job to follow my dreams. 4 weeks without a structure. 4 weeks of unlearning old routines. I figured out one thing for sure: Life got more complicated.
Why?
Problems or challenges I had before did not miraculously disapear. On the contrary. I have more time to think about them and…
…it is harder to run or hide from myself. In a 9 to 5 job life, there is always something going on.
Old daily rhythm
Alarm clock.
Cold shower.
Breakfast.
Personal time.
Commute or log on from home to my laptop.
Work.
Quick lunch.
Work again.
Log off.
Personal time.
Dinner.
Workout (or not).
Clean house or flat (or not).
Sleep.
Repeat.
It was easy to push things away.
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.“
(Neale Donald Walsch)
New daily rhythm
Alarm clock.
Cold shower.
Breakfast.
Workout.
Thinking about my problems and wrapping my head around challenges.
Solving my problems and enjoying new challenges.
Long lunch.
Thinking about my problems and wrapping my head around challenges.
Solving my problems and enjoying new challenges.
Workout.
Clean house or flat (or not).
Dinner.
Sleep.
Repeat.
Pushing challenges or problems away is not that easy anymore. Now, there is more free headspace to think about these.
“It will always be you vs. yourself”
(no source)
You can call it naive that I thought mine would disappear after quitting my job. I tend to agree, now 😉
✅Lesson learned: Things will get more complex first. You have more capacity to think about them. At the same time, it is a great opportunity to act. To solve unresolved things and make progress towards your goals and dreams.
Speaking about dreams: Let us take this thought one step further:
Challenges or problems often arise once you figured out what you want in life and do not know how to get there. Or, you do not know what you want in life and are going without direction.
You can also be perfectly happy. But then you did not make it that far in this post anyway I guess.
2. How to figure out what you want in life
Let me introduce the system that helped me to direct my focus. The Big Five for Life concept. I wrote about it in my previous article.
1️⃣ Your Big Five for Life are the 5 things you most want to do, see or experience in your life.
2️⃣ We should use all our energy to follow these dreams. It is the inner compass we follow. Because there is nothing more tragic than a life that does not meet the expectation of the one that lives it.
3️⃣ John Strelecky. created it.
“Without a purpose, life is motion without meaning, activity without direction, and events without reason.”
(Rick Warren)
This is it. The concept is simple. The question is how do you define them? Big Five for Life should be aspirational and are much more than a bucket list.
If you are curious about the origin of the term “Big Five for Life”, here’s the story: As John and his wife were backpacking around the world, they spent considerable time in Africa. While on photo safari, John first learned about the term “African Big Five”. It’s a reference to five specific African animals; elephant, lion, buffalo, leopard, and rhinoceros.
For many people, seeing all of the African Big Five is the metric they use to gauge the success of their safari. John drew his inspiration from that, to create the concept of the Big Five for Life.
What are my own Big Five for Life?
1) Be adventurous - every day 🗺️
2) Live by the water or the woods (nature) one day 🏞️
3) Stay mentally and physically fit and healthy (never overwork myself again) 💯
4) Build and run my own business ("make a difference & give something back") 🗃️
5) Swim across the English Channel from England to France 🏊
🦝I do not have things such as my relationship, family or friends in them as they are embedded in my life already. I wanted to create focus on things I struggled with in the past and to guide my decisions for the future.
Do you have dreams? I created the below tool to save you some time and get you going. It is not a shortcut and requires some effort but it gives you a jumpstart 🚀
⚠ ⚠Free resource ⚠⚠
It is a first version of a framework to help you figure out your Big Five for Life dreams. Defining my Big Five for Life was a game-changer some years ago. If you are curious, take 10 minutes, press the button and do the same!
Or click on the Twitter post below.
Adding a new section (still without a name - do you have any suggestions?)
What am I doing next: Packing my backpack to hike as far as I can on the GR 126 BRUSSELS - SEMOIS (214 km, 3,350 m altitude)
What I am grateful for this week? A hike in the rain, during a storm which turned into a snowstorm and then back into rain. Lovely!
A question I asked myself this week: “Why do people always complain about the weather ?”
An article I recommend is: De-Atomization is the Secret to Happiness from Nat Eliason here on Substack
Don´t forget to stay awesome!
What do you think about the Big Five for Life concept? Do you feel it is worth exploring your dreams or is it overrated?
Please share this post with someone who needs it or who might get value from it.
