What Is This Life Thing All About? (Introduction Post)

Greetings Steemers!

I am very excited to finally join this amazing community and experience the incredible platform that is Steemit. Before I jump in and let you all know a little bit about myself I just want to express how thankful I am to have found a platform like Steemit and what it means for me. As a writer, I am constantly searching for new ways to express myself and the ideas that are lodged in my head. When I had discovered Steemit, it almost felt too good to be true but I guess time will tell whether that is the case right?

There are many topics I wish to talk about here on this account and hope that as an audience you will share in many of my discoveries, thoughts and views on life itself. I suppose the best way to break down what I am all about will be through a bit of a story, of where it had all started for me and the journey that I am now on.

Is This What Being an Adult is All About?

We can start back in 2015, when I was still in university and just around the corner from graduation. This was quite a stressful time for me. I was working part time while overloading on my classes to get my degree over and done with. If I hadn’t done this, I would have another year left of study due to a massive fuck up of my scheduling some years earlier, I was left with classes that could only be completed in semester 1 of each year and failing just one class would mean I had to wait till the start of next year to go through it all again. Having enough of studying at this point let me to take the option of taking extra classes while also balancing a part time job.

The part time job in question was no walk in the park either. It was with an property investment firm which I was now long past enjoying due to the internal conflicts, office gossip and managers who seemed to know just about as much as I did. They were all nice people, don’t get me wrong but it didn’t make going in everyday easy when every minute there was a new drama or someone breaking down in tears. Anyway, amongst all this, I began to become very curious about the world around me. Why was it that I was living the life that I was living now? Sure I had made all the decisions that had gotten me to this point and through a mix of luck and doing the right thing at the right time, I was hurtling towards a future I thought I wanted. Right? I started to really get into my own head a bit here and you will soon come to realise, I am the type of person that enjoys the thought that the universe is unlimited, that we ourselves are unlimited and imagination is one of the most creative forces us humans posses.

As I was preparing to take my final exams, ridding me of the university life for good, my girlfriend was settling into our new graduate job as an assistant graphic designer. It is interesting the way things turn out because if she hadn’t told me certain things about her job and the clients she was working with, I would have been on a completely different path. She came home one day and starting speaking to me about a client she had worked with who had a successful life coaching business, made over a million a year and spoke a lot about the law of attraction. Now, most of us have heard about the law of attraction at one point or another. Some of us believe it, some of us think it is complete bullshit and others don’t seem to care or have an opinion. By this point, I had heard of it but never really paid much attention. I saw the secret some years earlier, thought it was pretty cool but didn’t give it much of a second thought.

She showed me some of what this woman was saying and it was actually pretty inspiring. Not so much for the law of attraction stuff but the way she approached business. It wasn’t the kind of hustle and grind stuff you see from entrepreneurs like Gary Vaynerchuk but instead it was more of an effortless, creative and inspired attitude towards overcoming limiting beliefs and doing things you might have thought impossible. Me being 22 at the time, I blew it all up in my head and decided I wanted to start my own business and do this whole entrepreneur thing. Like any 22 year old these days. This was good and bad for a number of reasons which we will get to a little later. Firstly I decided to be more conscious of what I was attracting in my life. What did I think about most, how did I feel about money, am I really living the life I want to live?

Young and Stupid

Once I had finally graduated, I started to really hate that part time job even more. I realised I didn’t want to be stuck around a toxic work environment and instead wanting to start a business of my own. I worked just three days a week following graduation and on those days off I would be looking for new full time jobs and jotting down the millions of “great” business ideas I would have. Again, like every 22 year old, I wanted to start the next Uber or AirBnB...or even the next Facebook. It had to be something no one had thought of and it had to be fucking cool. This only led to me having about 50 new ideas every week and the old ideas were never followed through with so they ended up scrapped after just a few days of research when I discovered I was not as original as I thought.

Fortunately, I wasn’t stupid enough to completely think I didn’t need a full time job and I instead received a graduate position with a property valuation firm. This was pretty exciting for me and soon my business goals were tossed on the back burner. I think I had really just wanted a change of scenery so I was more than happy to focus on my career. It was pretty funny how I landed this job. Remember the law of attraction? I managed to land two interviews on the same day. One for a body corporate management job and the other for the valuations job. I couldn’t really decide which I wanted more but I was pretty chuffed to have two interviews so I attended both, looking super professional in my new suit. The first one, I felt went really well. The office was located in the middle of the city up on the tenth floor. The view was pretty impressive and I felt a connection with the interviewer. I went back home afterwards pretty set on the job so I decided I would take a nap before my next interview. Now, I barely even checked where I should park, what time I should get there or even where the office was located. Looking back this was pretty irresponsible but I felt like things would simply work themselves out. I left at a time I had randomly chosen, walked out of the house, got in the car and drive to one of the backstreets I felt like would work well for parking. I got a spot that wasn’t metered which was pretty rare in the area and was also 20 minutes early for the interview. I simply strolled into the building and was right on time, about 10 minutes earlier than I had to be.

The interview went incredibly well. Same as before, great connection, nice office with a view and the job sounded like it would be really good. I went home after now unsure of what I wanted to do if I was offered both, so I decided I would simply wait and see.

I received an offer for the second one and this marked one of the most exciting times of my life. I moved out of my share house to live with my girlfriend and felt like I was fitting well into adult life. My girlfriend was still focused on starting our own business and was strongly suggesting I read the four hour work week. I was more focused on my career and didn’t care too much about working for myself at this point since I felt I found my calling. By the end of the year, 2015, I decided to finally read the book and it blew my mind. I started to open possibilities of working and travelling but also living a life of leisure. This was all possible with just a bit of work building a business and this reignited the flame that would burn over the next year or so. Remember when I mentioned that this was a good and bad thing? Remember my last job? Turns out when you had something you really want, everything around you starts to look pretty stale in comparison. My focus at work dropped, my motivation to be there dropped and my career that I was so excited about just a few months earlier, gone.

Same Old Patterns

When I returned back to work after the Christmas break, I felt I didn’t really want to be there. I felt trapped. The cubicle that I thought was so cool when I was back in university now felt like a prison cell. I know this sounds pretty cliche but I am glad I came to this realisation so early on in life. I was now 23 and knew there was much more to live. Both my girlfriend and I embarked on our entrepreneurial journey. We started doing more and more research into business, law of attraction, making money online and also travelling while working. This lead to some spectacular failures, a lot of confusion and bad attempts at getting things moving. I was feeling depression creep up on me each and every day I went out to work and knew it was because my focus was off on another planet. I was running through a million ideas again, none of which I could get to stick in my head let alone in reality. I realised I had a passion for writing but faced a lot of resistance actually doing something about it. It would often always come back to a belief I have had since I was 12 (when my dreams of being an author died) that you can never make any money writing. I overcame this belief just a little bit and tried to start a blog. The blog wasn’t unsuccessful, we managed to have 150 subscribers in a short amount of time but for some stupid reason, I lost motivation.

Breaking Free

Before we do get to that, let’s go back to March 2016. This was when I had basically had enough. I knew this job wasn’t my future and I knew I didn’t want to be stuck there any longer than I had to. The plan was to take some time out, work on some business ideas for a bit or take up a casual job. I realised, if I don’t quit now, I may never get the courage so before February came to end I had my resignation letter all written up. The day I was set to hand it in was a Monday. I was so fucking nervous, I could barely concentrate. I kept saying, just another hour I will meet with my director. Maybe after lunch. Maybe we close. Then it got to the point where he was ready to leave and walked out the door. I did nothing. I was so angry at myself I couldn’t believe it. I went home that night feeling defeated but then I realised this was going to be harder than I thought and again, if I don’t do it now, I may never get a chance before I become complacent and my early 20s yearning for freedom will die just like the rest of the workforce. The next day, I made sure I didn’t get out of it. I sent an email first thing to my director who for the record was an extremely cool dude. The email said “can we have a chat later this afternoon.” By this point, I am sure the directors noticed something wasn’t right with me. I was making more mistakes, my attitude was becoming sloppy and I had already been told to lift my game. My director agreed to meet with me and that was it. I had no choice now otherwise it would just be an awkward meeting with no purpose. By the time the afternoon rolled around, I grabbed my letter and strolled into the office and delivered the message “I feel I am not the right fit for this job”. He was more than understanding. I felt a wave of relief wash over me. I had no idea what the fuck I was going to do but I knew I had made the right choice.

What the Hell Do I Do Now?

The next few weeks were a bit of a blur. I struggled work on the blog or do anything productive for the business. I took a stab at freelancing but couldn’t get my head in the game or overcome some of my own limiting beliefs. I was now unemployed, had no source of income other than my girlfriends job and I had no idea where I was heading next. I was a little terrified but I also had the feeling that everything would work out well. I applied for a few new different jobs, very casual stuff that I could do on the side while focusing on what was important to me, building a business.

The jobs I took were funny now looking back. Door to door sales which I lasted a week but realistically gave up after 2 days. I received a $400 retainer after working 6 days so I took that and bailed. I felt a little guilty but I needed the money to pay rent so, I just had to do it. Next I worked delivering pamphlets to mail boxes. I think I did bout ¾ of my route before handing them all back. Not even sure if I got paid for that at all thinking back to it. The next was stocktaking for retail stores. This one was good. I got paid pretty well and worked flexible hours. By this time, I was starting to get some small freelance jobs in writing so my confidence and motivation was building and I started learning more about the law of attraction, what makes it work and how we actually use it every single day of our lives. This is where things really started to change.

The stocktaking job lasted a few shifts. Not by any fault of my own this time, the work was far and few between. Some weeks were busy, others were not. I decided it was time to look for another job if I wanted stable income. Then I got exactly what I wanted. It was a sales job but not some commission only, sell crap on the streets sales. This was over the phone, working with charities. Now I wanted a sales job for a number of reasons. Firstly, I wanted to be more confident talking to people. Second, I wanted to learn how to sell properly and third I wanted to put this law of attraction stuff in action to see some instant results. It worked like a charm. Over this period, I was able to make more money than my previous job while working a job I didnt have to spend over time doing and didn’t have to take too seriously. Everyone there was in it for the same reasons. They wanted a job they didn’t have to think too much about. It was a blast. I started to really understand how the law of attraction worked. How it is not about what we want but rather, what we are. Those days where I would have no sales, I would be in crummy mood. I didn’t want to be there, I felt desperate for a sale and I sounded like the most boring person in the world over the phone. Then there were those days where I felt I was exactly where I needed to be, I was having the time of my life and I sounded as though I was liquid gold coming through the phone lines, these were the days that I surprised even myself of what I was capable of.

Creating My Own Reality?

During the time I had worked there, I was freelancing when I wasn’t at work. I was getting enough work that made me think I could take it full time if I really tried. My beliefs about freelancing had been smashed and I started to see what was really possible. This is where me and my girlfriend had the grand idea of moving over to Thailand to live. We wanted to save up some money, see what this whole business thing was about and see what was possible for us. Here is where things get interested. Along the way, I started to realise that my ideas were shaping where I was heading next. What I thought was possible, starting to shine through in ways I never imaged and the law of attraction started to feel like my reality. I felt like I was in control of everything I was doing towards my final days in Australia. I even managed to consciously end my sales job on a high. I said my last call was going to be a sale, no matter what. Within the last 10 minutes of the shift, I had a sale. The hard part was waiting the next 10 minutes and not having another conversation. 10 minutes passed and a few calls connected but the person I needed to speak to wasn’t home or went straight to answering machine. The shift ended and I had done exactly what I was going to do.

My life in Thailand was like nothing I had experienced before. I had become obsessed with the law of attraction, the creation of reality, consciousness, manifesting and life itself. This was not always healthy. There were times where I would get stuck on a thought and it would persist constantly. For example, if my freelance work slowed down I would obsess over how I could change this which I now know is a recipe for disaster. By resisting what you don’t want, you are effectively recreating it, over and over again. I didn’t know this at the time so it was quite turbulent for me. We spent three months in Thailand, having an amazing time, living in an amazing building with a sauna and a pool. I felt like a millionaire some days but other days I felt like a poor traveller, when things were slow.

The Struggle Returns

Our travels came to an end around December 2016. I wanted to be back home for Christmas. This is where things really changed for me, for better and for worse. I had become so involved with how I can make more money, that I was actually sabotaging myself. I had a few hundred dollars in the bank at the time and would be staying with my parents for what was meant to be just a month or two. The freelance work was still coming in but I also felt like I simply wasn’t making enough get by and began to feel a bit trapped. Following Christmas we went on a trip up the coast to the city where we had lived before to stay with friends and catch up. This time, while I had a lot of fun, was also incredibly stressful. I became deeply trapped in my own head and my money problems felt like they were almost inescapable. We had just enough to scrape by during this time and the last thing I wanted to do was let me friends or my parents know that we were almost flat broke. I wasn’t working over the next 3 weeks by choice which while should’ve been relaxing and enjoyable, felt like I was making a stupid mistake.

We arrived back home with just $100 in the bank. I had no idea what to do next and felt I was going to be trapped in my parents house forever. I was reading a lot during this time. Some of the classics on law of attraction and money and this helped. Then towards the end of February, it all clicked. Remember what I mentioned earlier? That the law of attraction is just a reflection of yourself? I realised my money problems were all created in my mind. They were a problem that I felt I had to overcome and this was what was keeping them around. I let it all go. I stopped thinking about money altogether. I instead focused on silence. You can’t consciously stop thinking about something. Because you are still thinking about it. Instead, I became present, quite and silent. This changed everything. My business went from making just $50 - $100 each week to $600, $700 and $1000 in just a few weeks. We were being smashed with work where there was none before. We started working every single day and it felt incredible. Within just a short amount of time, we booked new tickets back to Thailand, ready to start round 2.

Creating my Own Paradise

Within just a few short weeks, I managed to save $3,000. We flew back to Thailand in April of 2017. The work has been non stop and we have been living a pleasant existence. I discovered the true nature of reality. It is not that we are people living on a tiny bubble floating through space. We are life itself. We are the consciousness that allows everything to be. By understanding this, I discovered I am able to observe the creations around me, without having to challenge them mentally. If there is something bothering me. I just need to let it serve it’s time and dissolve without having to force it out of existence which will only give it negative energy to torture me even more. For those who are unsure of what I am talking about, stick around. This is something I want to be able to teach the world. You don’t need to do anything to live a life of abundance. Your reality is a part of you and you a part of it. What you see on the surface is just a accumulation of what you have brought into existence and by turning away from it, you are creating further suffering for yourself.

I want to share more of my story through Steemit and I hope that you enjoyed this one and will join me for more to come. Let’s dive into our world and see what is really behind the curtains!

- Zeydo