What Compels You?
You’re at a fork in the road and you know there’s only one choice to make.
There are moments in our lives when we have to make a choice. It’s the red pill, blue pill moment.
Take the blue pill and you carry on with your life in the same old way and know where the path is going to lead you.
Take the red pill and you’ll confront the truth with who you are and who you could be.
The red pill is scary and most people don’t take it at any point in their lives. The red pill has a massive upside to it but it also means abandoning a lot of the comforts that you have today.
The blue pill is safe. It allows you to blindly follow your impulses and get cheap dopamine hits. However, something about the blue pill feels empty. You know someday you’ll wake up and think, “Is this all there is to life?”
Deep down, you’ll know one day that you’ll regret taking the blue pill and there won’t be anything you can do about it.
Part of the thing that makes us human is our ability to make this choice. No other animal forgoes instant gratification for a better future. Dogs are pretty smart animals but if you give them a week’s worth of food, they’ll attempt to eat it in one sitting.
To become the best human you can be, you must forgo the instant gratification. However, forgoing instant gratification isn’t our default setting. To forgo instant gratification, you have to understand why you are doing it.
What’s Compelling vs What’s Easy
What compels you can seem like a dream. It’s the Walter Mitty fantasy where we wish our lives would be different than what they are.
What holds us back?
Humans are complex and if there was one reason that held us back, we would all be able to identify it and move on with our lives.
In some cases, we might have responsibilities that we have to take on in our lives. Maybe something tragic happened to us that we weren’t prepared for. Sometimes tragedy can harm us in ways we didn’t realize and can create a ripple down the path of our lives we didn’t know was possible.
When I was in high school, my father passed away. I knew it would be tough losing him but I wasn’t prepared for the subconscious choices I would make from that point forward. I played life safe. I took a major in college that was safe. I worked extra hard to make sure that I graduated on time while working full-time.
It made me have to grow up fast. However, during that time, I didn’t see how my choices would ripple down the road.
Fast forward many years and I’m living life like I took the blue pill. It’s a routine that I’m used to but it’s not the routine that I want.
The more vulnerable you are, the more likely you’re going to get caught up in cultural conditioning. Our society wants you to be a cog in the machine and carry on with life in a way that convinces you that this is what you want.
Most people usually don’t start asking themselves the right questions about this until it’s too late. The discomfort of stepping outside your comfort zone may be too uncomfortable and scary so you’ll retreat back to the comfort of your old life. When this happens, you can either start your own hero’s journey or stay home where nothing happens.
The Real Path of Least Resistance
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things..” - Henry David Thoreau, Walden
What we think is the path of least resistance is often the path of most resistance.
Taking the shortcut tapers with our soul and what compels us. Eventually, we will forget who we are and come to find out that if we made the right choice years ago, the old path of most resistance would have been the path of least resistance.
Thoreau was right when he said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
The quiet desperation he speaks of is that quiet sinking feeling in our stomachs at all times. It’s that feeling that we know that we are not doing what we were born to do but we feel trapped and helpless.
Research shows that over half of the population would quit their jobs if they won the lottery.
That tells me that there is a large portion of the population that isn’t satisfied with what they are doing.
What we do for a living seems to define us as who we are. When you meet someone new, what’s the first thing they usually ask you? It’s what you do for a living. This question often serves as a reminder about who you are and what you never became. There are some people out there that are proud to answer that question but that isn’t the case for a majority of us.
Beginning The Heroes Journey
I’m not sure how we find what compels us but when we know what it is, it’s hard to keep that out of mind.
How do we know what compels us? Open up your search history on YouTube or look at what kind of books you’ve purchased. Right there should tell you what compels you.
We live in a world today where there is more freedom to break free of the societal trap than ever before. If you’ve always dreamed of being a writer, all you have to do is write, post it online, and find a way to get your writing some views. At first, it may seem frustrating when you get no immediate feedback but this is where it’s important to remember to not chase instant gratification. Our brains today are wired so hard to chase instant gratification, we have forgotten what the feeling is like when we accomplish something without it.
The path begins with a fork in the road. One path goes home and the other path goes on your journey. Which one will you choose?
Strategizing
Chasing what compels you isn’t going to be easy if you’ve been stuck for years. That’s where some strategy has to come into play.
The first thing that you should do is create an actions-oriented system instead of a results-oriented system. Do one thing a day that gets you closer to that goal regardless of the outcome.
If you want to be a writer, this could be as simple as writing 300 words a day.
If you want to be an artist, it could be as simple as spending 30 minutes a day to work on your drawing skills.
Another key to it is practicing in public. Don’t be afraid to post what you love. You have nothing to be ashamed of. You don’t need to tell people what your goals are with it but putting yourself out there can help you reshape how you think of yourself.
Have you ever looked at a famous YouTuber’s early videos? I’ve made it a little hobby of mine to see where they all started.
All of the videos and I mean all of them, are not good.
MKBHD, Ali Abdaal, Nick Bare, Mr Beast, etc.
The list goes on and on. The thing that separates them from the rest is that they never quit. Heck, a lot of them slowly switched niches overtime on what they were creating content about. Sometimes it takes time to figure out what compels you.
Just Start
What compels you? Have you wanted to chase something for years but never knew how to get there? At first that inkling that you have immediate success will not be easy to overcome. It will be discouraging. This is where creating a strategy for yourself will come into play. You don’t need to have a complex strategy at all.
Sometimes the strategy in the beginning needs to be getting started. After you do it for a while, then you can start adding layers to your strategy to become better.
What’s holding you back from getting started? If you’re interested in working with me for a free consultation. Check out the link here.