A thought I want to share with you to see what you think--I know the title is vague but I think it will make sense.
Some of us (and maybe most?) did not make it as indie-hackers yet, creating profitable side projects that result in us achieving freedom is something I suppose a substantial amount of us still strives for.
I am also relentless on building products, services, or something that will enable me to be free and exempt me from the 9-5 paradigm.
In a way, that fiery drive to succeed as a maker made me toxic about anything else that I have been doing. Specifically, while obtaining a full-time job as an engineer and working as such, my approach has been that none of these relate to my real dream or goal, so a toxic feeling slowly started to creep in that made me demotivated and even depressed. As if my life before I achieve what I dream of is full of hard work, suffering and a desire to get to some point, and only after succeeding I can actually enjoy life. In retrospect, I think it is an illusion, with that mindset the only reason that one goes a day by day is because one thinks achieving something will turn the happiness switch on. I think that there is nothing that special, it is just our sophisticated mind fooling us and trying to give us a reason to persevere.
I just realized that, even though I might not be doing something that is directly correlated to my dream of becoming a successful indie-hacker, it does not mean that I cannot enjoy the progress, the learning, the earning, the colleagues you befriend, and anything else that comes with the situation that any of us is currently going through.
It is true that we might have a goal or a dream we deeply desire, but it doesn't mean that it should blind us from appreciating what's in the moment--and if we have nothing to enjoy in the moment then we are doing something wrong. Often, it is a result of having the wrong perception because we hadn't taken time to think of what could actually be interesting or substantial in what we are doing since we are so fixated in future goals. We should not think of the end goal that comes merely from achieving an ideal, as the single source of happiness, because that will make us depressed and will prevent us from enjoying positive aspects of what we do until we get there, and ultimately hinder in our ability to succeed in our endeavors. On top of that, if we can also incorporate things we deeply enjoy on a weekly or daily basis, that makes everything even so much better.
While ambition is not the root cause for the matter, it is a side effect as being ambitious can result in a future oriented perception that does not allow us to find substance and meaning in the present. From today and onward, on top of having an end to-be-achieved and indulged in the future, I will look at the present as a moment that can be indulged and that is an end to itself, not merely a sacrifice for an end in the future.
All I want is to work in a company where I have equity and stake in the outcome, and not be a robot in a giant company
Great post and its 💯. I'm very ambitious and notice with every milestone and achievement, i immediately look for the next. There is no done. Constant desire.
I try to change that with a journal in which i note things I'm thankful for.
Enjoy the ride!!! The destination doesn't exist. It's moving with you.
Great post @JKazama. It resonates with my current state.
I believe success is a preference: 'I prefer succeeding to failing' but neither is a bad outcome. I believe ambition and effort are the cause of feelings of laziness and demotivation not counting guilt and procrastination. I'm not ambitious at all and I dont think it's a bad thing.
Needed this today!
I totally agree with your thoughts.
When I was younger, I thought having this or that would switch on the happiness light. It didn't do it. So I focused my desire on something else. When I had it, it didn't switch it either.
I understood that there were a problem in the way I was "working". This lead me to read a lot of philosophy, and I'm so grateful for that. What I think now:
You need to define what happiness means for you. For that, you need to experiment and observe what you like, what you don't, what give you joy or peace.
The path is (to me) more important than the goal. I know that even if I'm successful and rich, I will continue to follow the path I'm building for myself. Because it's how I want to live my life, and this concept is way more important than any other goal.
We don't always have the choice to do everything we want, and I think nothing will give us the complete freedom people seems to pursue sometimes. That's how I keep myself as grounded as I can when I need to do something which is not totally what I want. To be more concrete, I would love to teach and pass on my knowledge for example, and I already do it to some extend; but I need to work for companies which don't perfectly match my values. That's a bit sad for me, but that's fine too. On the long run, I just hope everything I'm doing will bring me as close as I can to what I want to do.
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