The Worst Advice

I was 24 years old graduating from a small college. The only thing on my mind was to fulfill my dream of playing professional basketball.

Coming out of a small NAIA school, no agent, and with a marketing degree in my hands - a guy comes up and asks me right after graduation, what my next plan is.

My answer was “sign with an agent and start my pro career”.

Then, he gave me advice that went against my whole existence. Since a basketball career is a pretty short career, he said “Stick to doing one thing”, meaning that I had a marketing degree and I was able to get a pretty good job right after college. It was a safe option.

This is where the problem arises in today’s society and most cases it only gets worse from there.

Losing the world around you

In my opinion, the traditional education system conditions the youth to lose the world around them.

Let me explain.

From an early age, kids are trained to perform tasks and then are graded based on their performance.

Some may do well which may spark interest while others may perform badly and therefore lose interest. No matter the result, they will have to continue to follow this type of system throughout the entire high school and college (if chosen to attend).

This leads to one picking a career at 17, 18, or 19 years old to perform for the rest of their life.

Some are lucky to find their passions at a young age while others discover it in their later years.

Regardless of when you find your passion, the worst thing that can happen is to lose sight of the world around you.

If I had decided to stick to my marketing degree and get a job as soon as I graduated, I am certain that I would have never traveled as much as I have because of basketball, I would have never made connections with people from different parts of the world that now I call my friends, I would have never found my passion for creating videos and editing, and I can confidently say I would have never learned much as I have about myself because I spent most of my hours outside of training focusing on self-growth.

Find a good-paying job. Get a mortgage. Buy a new car.

These are different traps for people to stay stuck. Maybe that’s not you. Maybe you figured out how to play the system and use it to your advantage.

However, that’s not the case for most people.

Young kids are not encouraged to explore different parts of their own lives but are forced to pick a career at an age when there is still so much they don’t know about themselves.

And I’m not even going to get started on what kind of debt that causes people to get into to only later find out they don’t enjoy their work.

Yes, maybe I am taking this to the extreme. Maybe you are a happy lawyer or a doctor feeling like you are doing what you are meant to do.

Let me ask you, is that what life is about?

To perform one task and one task only for the rest of your life.

The fundamentals of living life

I love ancient philosophy. If we look at the fundamentals of how ancient people lived their lives we can see that they never identified themselves with one thing.

Hunters. Builders. Strategists. Artists.

Then we advanced to a more civilized world and still people performed many different tasks.

Farmers. Soldiers. Politicians. Philosophers.

It was a normal thing for people to transition from one thing to another. That is how you grow as a human being. That is how you expand to become the best version of yourself.

Even if you think about your childhood, you performed different tasks. You played different sports. You engaged in different extracurricular activities.

But now, as we get older, we are conditioned to pick one thing. To niche down. To stick to doing one thing.

That is when you lose the inner child that cries out in the adult body.

All of a sudden, you lose sight of what truly drives you, doing things that excite you.

You slowly lose that energy until it is no longer there. Work becomes monotonous. The things you once enjoyed are no longer part of your life. Years go by and you start questioning your whole existence.

Live creatively. That’s your true nature.

You don’t need to be a painter, singer, or poet to live your life creatively.

Your life in itself is creative. Your existence. Your being.

All you have to do is listen to your inner child that is within every single one of us. That inner voice that tells you what to do and not to do. Things you want to try and experience.

I remember the first time I picked up my phone to make a video. Something was itching within me to make a video. I was excited and curious just like doing anything else for the first time.

I quickly caught myself thinking how silly it was. I thought to myself - I don’t make videos. What are my friends going to think, my parents? My mind was searching for reasons why not to do it while my heart was screaming to try it.

I listened to my heart.

3 years have gone by and now I have a YouTube channel. I found a passion for sharing stories through videos. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that was going to happen.

The only advice you need.

It’s not the advice that you are looking for but confirmation.

As human beings, we want to be accepted, appreciated, and connected. However, no one can really tell you how to live your own life.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with listening to others’ experiences, scanning them through your own life, possibly applying thoughts or ideas that work for you, and discarding anything that doesn’t connect.

However, the only advice you truly need to listen to is your own. Connecting with yourself internally and learning how to listen to yourself.

In yoga, the word atman translates as self or the universal self. Disciples of the great masters are often reminded that the only master is the one within, the atman.

You are the atman.

Be free. Trust yourself. Live your life and let the heart be your compass.

Announcement

If you got this far, it means you are serious about growth. Also, it means you support me and this means the world to me.

I’ve found joy in sharing things that empower me. Tools, ideas, and concepts that help expand oneself for the better.

I am grateful to those who share information that allows me to improve my life. Simply put, I want to do the same.

In the near future, I will be hosting a talk with someone near and dear to me and who had a huge effect on my life.

The talk will be about Psychological Triggers and how to understand them.

This will be free of charge.

My goal is to simply share powerful tools that will enhance your life. If you want to know more about this click here as it will take you to the waitlist with more details.

From there you can join the waitlist and you will be the first one to receive the link to the talk.

I am choosing to live my life creatively. My wish for you is to do the same.

That’s ChitLife.