Not long ago, there was a devilishly self-centered boy. The only thing he could think of was becoming wealthy. He was blinded, deceived, and a slave to the mere thought of poverty. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but he started to lose himself in the idea of “the grind.” Perhaps, he misunderstood the philosophy. Or perhaps that philosophy was ambiguously portrayed by those who defined their own success.
This impolitic boy believed that the only method to achieve some type of success was to “grind” 24/7, 365.
He politely declined many outings with friends. He sacrificed precious time with family. All in the name of success. But at the time, he couldn’t even define success in his own words.
There is a lot of pressure, especially in these times. Social media has given new generations the corrupt idea of what being successful means. We, by default, correlate success with money. And success, at its core, is exceedingly more than that.
The boy grinded for more than a decade. He managed to be a soldier, a personal trainer, a graphic designer, a bodybuilder competitor, a songwriter, and ultimately an author of three books. All because the boy had to grind. But to what extent? And at what cost?
He was inebriated with the words of his idols. Idols that lacked the balance in their own life that now he craves and fights for. For a decade, he lived as a dreamer on top of clouds of ego, lost as he would look down and see life pass before his eyes.
Siblings and parents growing older.
The boy found himself adding zeros to a checking account. He found himself trading stocks and crypto currency. He forgot about the small things that aggrandize life.
Today, the man accepts gatherings with friends. He skips a training session to see his brother play his favorite sport. He visits his mother as much as he can and takes his siblings out more often. Today the man cuddles with his wife at 5 a.m. and skips another day at the gym. Today, he says yes to a piece of a sweet snack, plays and walks the dogs and day by, he becomes less self-centered.
Today, the man doesn’t regret his grind, he regrets his approach. He lacked balance.
He realized that heaven’s franchise isn’t by the clouds but at home, surrounded by those who support him, and are genuinely happy by him accomplishing his goals but most importantly, by those who love you.
He learned that life is more than grind. Life is balance. Life is short and money will never buy the time he missed. And he didn’t want to regret that on his deathbed. And that is one of the reasons that there was no blog last week.
Today, he still works hard and grinds. With a different approach. A different mentality. Defining his own success and not letting others influence his philosophy.
He will keep writing books even if his books never become New York Times best sellers, because writing an entire book is a success in its own right.
He will keep lifting because breaking PRs is as personal as it gets to building character, discipline, and success to battles against oneself.
He will keep writing songs just because it makes him happy.
And that is success for him. Being happy by doing what he loves, surrounded by those who he loves, it doesn’t matter what the outcome.
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