When the results came out, I was happy, and surprised: I passed, and I even got a mention.

I didn’t feel like I worked hard for it, and I even skipped 75% of the classes during the last semester of High School.

Yet I passed.

I was only 16 years old, and a few months later, I entered the Medicine University (which I dropped out from after 2 years).

Why am I telling you this?

Because this is the kind of things that led me to not take things so seriously.

“Why should I work hard if I can do good enough to pass by doing almost nothing?”

I often was just smart enough to figure out stuff without much troubles,
without working so hard.

Without taking it seriously.

The problem is I avoided things that actually required me to take them seriously, and work hard to achieve them.

I have never been disciplined or so serious about things that mattered.

So I created this bubble in which I would just pretend that everything that seemed hard for me, didn’t matter anyway.

And I’d focus on things that seemed easy or doable without any intense effort.

It made me complacent, and entitled.

People often see those who have facilities to learn, think and do, as lucky people.

Because there is a lot of things we can do fine without putting too much effort into it.

However, because of those facilities what I never had before is a strong mindset and values of working hard, facing my fears or pushing myself to go beyond my limits to get what I really want.

Because I could do OK without it.
I just didn’t know I could not thrive without it.

I started to have this mental shift a few years ago, when I quitted everything and started to travel the World on a bicycle.

I wasn’t prepared, and thought I’d figure out on the way.

And the way poked me out of my bubble right away, to make me face a different reality.

For example, I learned how to fix a bike, find safe places to pitch a tent, face strong winds, rains and storms, socialise with random people met on the road, push myself physically, cook out of a small stove in front of my tent..

.. And hundreds of other things I wouldn’t even imagine I’d have to learn one day.

I cycled 12,000km in total, and crossed close to 20 countries.

Above all, I learned how it feels to do one same thing (cycling) every single day, no matter what, and getting considerably better at it.

Since this life changing trip, I had other times when I learned how to take one thing seriously and work hard on it.

But I overlooked the importance of some of the most important (yet simple) things that matter the most in life as a human being:

  • Sleep
  • Food
  • People

Those are the 3 basics I decided to focus on for the next 30 days.

And I commit to take it seriously enough to make it my priority.

I believe that when you get your foundations right and strong, it makes it easier to build whatever you want to build on top of them.

It’s an easy trick to navigate through life, not taking anything seriously. Because then when you fail, you’ll just reassuring yourself saying you were not doing your best anyway.

But when you decide to take one thing seriously, and get better at it, you can’t blame it on anything else than your competences.

You force yourself to face your lack of skill, practise or experience.

And that’s when you take control on it and allow yourself to actually progress and thrive.