The first of April will be a day forever etched in my mind.
It was the day, four years ago, after twenty-one years of working for the same corporate organisation (aged sixteen to thirty-seven), I said yes to an offer of voluntary redundancy and walked away from all I’d known for my working life.
I’m not saying what I did has never been done before. Plenty of people quit their job and start a new chapter. People throw it all up in the air and do something different all the time. And people do a lot more extreme things than me!
But I always thought my situation was unique. Not because it started on April fools day, but because I was the most ‘conditioned’ person I knew. That’s what happens when you work and live in the same place your entire life.
A lot has happened since then. Some big, and some small.
I faced a fear of travelling on my own – first to Europe in Morrocco in my campervan, and recently to Nepal and India. I minimised my life, moved out of my home, and sold most of my material belongings. I wrote and published my first book. I started practising regular yoga. I made new friends and I let old ones go. I set up a small landscape gardening business.
Some of these things were planned (and some of them were not) but it’s fair to say, along the way, I’ve learnt a thing or two. It’s also fair to say I’m interested in personal development and growth, and some of what I’ve embedded I’d like to share back here.
I hope you enjoy them.
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Ten good things.
1. If you are thinking of doing something and it feels scary / you’re nervous about the outcome, it generally means you are on the right path.
I wrote a blog post on this called This is what I’ve learnt.
2. Good relationships are everything.
3. Yoga (or similar) is a tool for life. Taking all spiritual connotations out the equation, a regular practice invokes your parasympathetic nervous system (your rest and digest system). It is literally a mental and physical healing process.
I wrote something on this called The science of yoga, and also – Body lazy, mind crazy.
4. Too much comfort kills you slowly. And small adventures can keep you alive.
5. Chasing happiness is a fools errand. Chasing vitality for life is not.
I wrote something on this called What if the opposite of depression isn’t happiness, but vitality.
7. Life opens up once you have decided what you are doing and put effort toward it. Sometimes in the most bizzare way.
8. Consistent small changes are as important as bigger shifts in life. There is much to gain and little to lose.
I wrote a post about it called The power of consistent small change.
9. You probably won’t get rich writing a book. But it’s still a hell of a process to go through.
10. Over-thinking is a waste of energy. It is a also a way to make you mentally ill. Sometimes you have to make a decision. Even though the fear of missing out is real, so is the joy of missing out.
I wrote someting on that here called The joy of missing out.
11. You are way way WAY more capable than what you give yourself credit for.
12. Travel, change, and adventure will give fresh perspective, make you adaptable to people and situations, and broaden your horizons. This is one of the things I allude do in my book Adventures In Happiness.
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OK that’s twelve but I hope they are enjoyable and of some use. If you would like to read more please take a look through my blog.
Or, if you would like to read the full story and support a self-published author, please take a look at my book Adventures In Happiness. There are different versions: A Kindle eBook, and a paperback.
It’s not a ‘how to’, more of a ‘how it was along with what I learnt,’ and it seems to have been well received so far.
Have a good day.
John.
John Alex Clarke 