Vol. 25 - Love the Craft, Life on Pause, Finding Inspiration

Happy Friday :)

Good afternoon :)

I just want to thank you all again for continuing to read this personal blog and giving me feedback when you feel a calling to. It helps me a lot, and I’m glad I can maybe give somebody a 5-10 minute read they enjoy every Friday.

Love the Craft

I was reading more work from Marcus Aurelius this week and came across a thought I haven’t really noticed before.

“Love the humble art you have learned, and take rest in it. Pass through the remainder of your days as one who whole-heartedly entrusts all possessions to teh gods, making yourself neither a tyrant nor a slave to any person.” - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.31

This was interesting to me because I noticed a few things this week that reminded me to focus on what I’m good at and what I enjoy doing. There are too many things that happen in life and in this world that make us humans feel shitty.

Why not do what you love to do? Sometimes, doing what you love to do can work out and become a beautiful career. So many people don’t give up and become successful doing exactly what they love doing. Passion leads to success more often than not, I believe.

I am going to try to focus on things I enjoy doing. I have more thoughts about what makes it hard for me to do that later on in this blog, but I am going to really try to work on that.

It’s very hard to trust that anything will work out nowadays. All we see are the bad things that happen in life and all the issues in the world. That can really impact our minds and make us think nothing is worth working hard for or even give us issues trusting things will actually work out in the end. At least, that’s the case for me.

Life on Pause

This is how I’ve been feeling lately. Like my life is on pause, and I am waiting for something to give me the green light to resume. The last handful of years has been a series of events that have brought me to a halt. That isn’t anybody’s fault, and I know everybody experiences those issues as well.

I need to figure out a way to be stronger to get through these hiccups in life and to trust that it will work itself out. I have experienced more fear in the last few years than ever. I am scared to fail, I am scared to get my hopes up for anything, and I am scared to be myself.

This has led to a lot of issues personally. It has strained friendships, relationships, and many other things. I am so grateful that my girlfriend is literally the best person I have ever met and could see the kind of person I was deep down, even though I met her at the lowest point of my life. I am also so grateful that many of my best friends would still do anything for me even though I haven’t been a great friend over the years.

I am at the point where I am done letting this internal struggle impact the way I live and enjoy life. I need to let myself trust the process of life and roll with the punches better. I can’t control anything besides how I react to the events that happen in life. That is the core idea of Stoicism, something I preach every week on here.

I don’t want to make this more dramatic than it should be. I am okay, and I have so much to be grateful for. I just hold myself to a high standard, and I really can’t believe how much I have let slide by with myself over the last few years.

If any of you feel like you put life on pause and are waiting for a clear sign to resume it, take this as the sign. I am always open to talk about anything and I hope I can be a friend for you, even if we don’t know each other well.

Finding Inspiration

This week’s talking points are all connected pretty well. Usually, I am just ranting and typing whatever has been on my mind the last few days.

I have been on pause and have had issues finding inspiration to change the areas of my life I don’t enjoy. This week, I felt inspired by some content I saw on social media.

Today, a lot of adults are quick to shit on the new generation of kids and teenagers. I think that those are just angry people who are nostalgic about a happier time in their life, and pissed off that the world isn’t the same as it was when they were happiest.

Anyways, I saw a few videos I really enjoyed that showed how incredible kids can be. One was a kid mic’d up playing in a baseball game. I don’t have the link, but what I saw was a kid empowering himself through an at-bat. He was reminding himself what his approach was at the plate, telling himself what he could do, and then congratulating himself and celebrating a great swing and big hit for his team.

Of course, the comment section was filled with grown men judging a kid who probably has more talent than they ever had. But I digress.

Another video was of a young athlete competing in a golf tournament. The kid was 7 years old and made 9 consecutive birdies. If you don’t know much about golf—that is incredible.

In such a big moment, this kid was as focused as I have ever seen another human. It inspired me to figure out how to be that passionate and that focused on something in life. That is how you succeed in something.

And, you guessed it, the comment section was full of adults complaining about how long this first grader took over the putt.

The coolest part was that the kid dropped his glove during his pre-putt routine and had the presence of mind to pick it up, take a breath, and restart the routine. I, as a 26-year-old, would have probably tripped and fallen, then rushed my putt because I felt embarrassed. So impressive to see anybody, especially a little kid, keep such a high level of focus.

Okay, that’s all I have this week. I’m tired from writing a bunch of content for UFC 313 coming up next weekend and just zoomed through this. So, I apologize for any spelling or grammar mistakes but my brain is fried, and I never edit anything on this blog.

Thanks to all the readers!! Have a great weekend :)