Exactly 1 year ago, I was going through one of the lowest points in my life. I have been quite an ambitious and self-driven person all along but this time it felt different. It was not like I was facing some financial crisis or had no friends. Everything was fine, but still, I was not happy. I tried many startup ideas but there was no substantial outcome. All my life goals felt like falling apart and nothing was moving. I was self pitying more than I would like to admit and got into a very toxic mental state. Procrastination became the way of life and just couldn’t get over my fear of failures. I was so scared of failures and embarrassments that I just stopped trying.
Then one day, while scrolling through Instagram, I found this video from an old lady who was asked “What is the one life lesson you will give to your younger self” And her answer moved me to my core. She said “I will tell myself to have more confidence and take more risks. I will be more fearless. That’s the way to live. Otherwise, you are just a scared person” (I still go back and watch that video).
Watching her video gave me an idea. I quickly wrote done what she said and pinned it right across my work desk. My pinned note says “You will die soon. So risk it all. Noone cares. Otherwise you are just a scared man”. Now whenever I was scared of doing anything new, I use to see this and instantly remember the right way to live life is to do things that scare you. It is what makes life worth living.
After this, I started collecting my negative thoughts and prepared a very solid argument against them and pin them on board. This way whenever any negative thought blocked me from trying something, I had a very strong argument against it.
One of my favourite pinned notes is about fighting self-pity. It says “You are not entitled, Society doesn’t owe you anything”. More than often we tend to think, just because we are doing good stuff we deserve something, which is so not true. To achieve anything we need to put efforts in the right direction. This universe, this society ain’t gonna do anything for you. This universe is too big to care about your puny existence and only you can help yourself from getting out of the tough situation. So put in the efforts for it.
And man, I love my new system. I realize now that I have built a system for my mental strength. It is exactly like going to the gym and working on your physical body. Here you diagnose your thought processes and build solutions to grow mentally and emotionally strong.
Things aren’t always good now also. I go through really bad days and still get negative thoughts. I am nowhere close to where I want to be. But looking back, I have come quite far. I am a bit less scared of new and more daring to take action. I am excited about tomorrow.