Do what you love...?

Actually, this is my first blog on LinkedIn. Ever..! I like writing blogs, as a matter of fact, but somehow never get around to doing it. There are more things that I like, but don't do. It has come to the point that I don't really know what I like to do anymore, or do I?.

I do a lot of things and I must say I do them all very well. Most of the things I do are: the things that have to be done, things that I used to like but not anymore and things that I do because others expect me to do it. There is a lot of things you can do, which are not necessarily bad, but not necessarily good either. It's what Roosevelt called 'The Gray Twilight'

In fact Theodore Roosevelt said the following: "Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."

The 'gray twilight' is what scares me the most. I don't want to be doing things in the twilight of my life. However, I don't want to be 'checkered by failure' either. I don't like failure! In fact I avoid it like the black plague. In fact I postpone a lot of stuff that possibly could involve any part of failure. And that's the simple reason 'I just don't do it'

Fact is you can do something different and you can do something you really really like. However it does not necessary have to happen over night and it is not easy. Maybe you are skeptical towards all the gurus out there who tell you that you can just "Take control of your life" with their "Make it happen" mentality. The alternative however is to simply do nothing. So in the end it's up to you.

Giving up stability is hard to do. It takes energy to do something different then the usual. Habits grow on you and you have to actively break them down by deliberately doing something different. Most of all you need other people who believe in you, who encourage you and support you. And finally give yourself some time.

I shared a lot of my doubts and fears with my friends and family. I stopped listening to the naysayers and complainers around me and started actively looking for positive people, stories, movies and books. Basically reshaping my mind about how I perceived the world. This philosophy finally became something that sank down and became habitual.

I recently changed jobs and started a new company as you can seen on my LinkedIn profile. What it doesn't tell you is that I took me about 4 years to get there. A lot of internal change was necessary to make room for the new. I had to overcome my fear of change and I had to reshape my thinking and perception of what a I actually liked.

In retrospect I should have done this years ago. I am glad I made those changes, I am doing much more of what I like and I have learned so much in the process. I love running my own company and I love my new challenges at TMC. I am still not there and I have to take more risks and 'dare mighty things', but I have a lifetime to do it and will enjoy every moment of it.

Enjoy the video.