The Proudest Moment of My Life
I have returned to the United States after quitting my job and moving to Colombia. These three months have been the most transformative of my entire life. I wanted to take some time to reflect on this experience in hopes that it serves as motivation and inspiration for you to take massive action in your own life.
Now, a lot of people are afraid of taking action because they are scared of the uncertainty that comes with doing so.
I think the real underlying reason they are scared is because they don’t truly believe in themselves. The reason they don’t believe in themselves is because they’ve never had to believe in themselves! They’ve never been put in a situation in which believing in themselves was the only option…
Most of us live very comfortable lives for the most part, which means we don’t need to expose ourselves to uncomfortable situations. Instead, many of us just go through our lives in the safe lane, never deviating too far from the path that has been laid out before us.
In the words of Jim Carrey: So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality.
If you aspire to be more than average and actualize your potential, you need to expose yourself to the situations that are uncomfortable. Because these are the situations that will allow you to truly believe in yourself. Further, this is exactly what I was told by 75+ top performers…
When you truly believe in yourself and your vision, there is no limit to what you can achieve.
The Ambition-killing Safe Path
Before I quit my job and moved to Colombia, I recognized that I too was heading down this ‘safe path’ that had doomed so many others before me..
I was trading my time for money and spending the majority of my waking hours working in a job that didn’t fulfill me. It just didn’t make sense. How could I consciously make the decision to put my dreams and aspirations to the side and waste the precious time I had been given on this planet?
I couldn’t delay any longer. For me, losing my grandpa and witnessing my brother lose friends under the age of 20 were sobering reminders of the fact that our timeline is running out.
More recently, the same can be said for the Orlando shooting. How can you witness an event like that and not be more motivated than ever to do something meaningful with the short time you have in this life?
I HAD TO make a change. Not a half-assed change though (like taking a new role at a different company and going through the same cycle all over again)…
I needed a massive change. So, I made the decision to quit my job and pursue a life on my own terms.
The Massive Change I Needed
My parents told me not to go. They told me that I didn’t have enough money. My friends and family didn’t understand why I was leaving.
Could I have waited a few months until I saved up several thousand dollars more? Yes, absolutely, that surely would have made things much easier.
But I wasn’t looking for easy. I wasn’t looking for safe. I wanted to FORCE my success (or failure). I knew that whatever the outcome was, I would learn from it and grow. I wanted to force myself into an uncomfortable situation that would result in 1) me figuring things out or 2) again, falling flat on my face.
Well, it is now three months later, and I am thrilled to tell you that I’ve done it. I embraced the uncertainty of my decision to pursue my dreams and I now can tell you this is the proudest moment of my life.
I didn’t settle for a half-assed job or a half-assed life. I didn’t just talk about living my dream or achieving my goals someday, like so many others I’ve heard growing up. I lived it. I went after it. I recognized that my timeline is running out and I went after my goals, full board, without knowing whether I would achieve them or not.
I now can proudly say that believe in myself and know that I can achieve whatever it is that I set my mind to.
But here’s the thing, I don’t view this experience as a success because of the fact that I didn’t go broke.
I view this experience as a massive success because ten, twenty, thirty, forty years from now I can look back and be proud of the fact that I went all in on pursuing the things that mattered most to me.
The simple fact that I pursued a life on my own terms is the success.
The outcome is not, and never should be the success.
Because when we focus on the outcome and use that as the determinant of our successes, we lose sight of the growth and progress encountered along the way.
Further, if we focus on the outcome and we fail (as I have many times before), then again we discredit the learning and growth we experienced.
Learning to Embrace Failure
For example, in January my business failed. Hard. I lost thousands of dollars. But when I decided to break up the business, and call it quits, something really weird happened…
Instead of feeling like a failure, I felt empowered. I was more motivated than ever before. I had come away from this experience with an incredible sense of clarity as to what we did wrong and what we could improve upon. I learned to truly embrace failure.
Most importantly, I realized that I was the only person that I could hold accountable for achieving my goals. It was liberating and it was a feeling that I had never felt before.
I found the POWER of taking MASSIVE ACTION, falling flat on myself, but learning from it.
These are the types of experiences that allow us to really believe in ourselves.
How to Fix Your Perception of Failure
When you encounter experiences in your life that don’t result in your desired outcome, you have a choice in how you perceive this situation…
Option 1: You can view your efforts as a failure and/or identify yourself as a failure.
Option 2: You can view your failure as an opportunity to learn and improve.
Option two is always the best option. Learning, improving and growing is the success that we should all strive for.
Adapting this mindset takes time and practice, but it will change your life, forever.
If you have big plans for yourself and your life, get comfortable with the uncomfortable.
I still have a long way to go, but I know that whatever happens, I will learn, grow and ultimately, succeed.
