Here are all the things I’ve ever wanted to be:
• astronaut • teacher • rescue swimmer (shoutout Aston Kutcher) • boxer • running back at the Naval Academy (lol) • kicker for a D1 school • guitarist of a punk rock band (“Where are you?”) • pro soccer player • psychologist • business owner (#entrepreneur) • music producer • German translator • drummer • sailor • actor • father (ladies) • famous podcaster • famous YouTuber • blogger • web designer • life coach • International Master in chess • purple belt in jiujitsu
I look back at many of these and smile.
The reality is that most of the things we’ve ever dreamed about being or doing in life won’t come to fruition. NOT because we don’t have what it takes, but because we only have so much time and energy to expend in one lifetime.
For many of these, I liked the idea more than doing the actual work it took to make it a reality.
I enjoyed learning how to keep a beat on the drums, but in order to become great, I would’ve needed to practice all the time. Since I had no drum set, no money to pay for lessons, and had a full course load in college…becoming a drummer at that time didn’t feel like the right move.
And there’s the main point:
If the Resistance of the thing outweighs the value we get from it, it’s okay to strategically quit.
We’re not failures for cutting off the energy we’re putting into something. By saying no to one thing, we’re saying yes to something else.
Last year, I tried to do a daily vlog—posting a video of my life and thoughts every single day for four months…
I made it two months before I completely burned out. It became a chore I dreaded; not a fun and challenging creative pursuit.
So I quit.
I said no to a thing I set out to do. But in turn, I said yes to giving more time and mental energy to building my business, making it one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
There’s a stigma against jumping around from hobby to hobby. People say, “I don’t really know what I’m passionate about. I can never really stick to one thing.”
Who said we have to?
Why can’t we just do what feels exciting and challenging at the moment?
If we do that, two things will happen:
1) We get to experience a bunch of cool shit by trying new things, and
2) We up our chances of finding something we’re willing to keep putting time and effort into.