Dear reader,
This week's article will be slightly longer than my usual articles but it'll be worth it.
Let's begin.
On April 17, 2018, I wrote in my diary:
"If I don't work hard, I'll be just like them."
During this time, I was in my village (where I was born).
I had gone to a local electrician to get a house appliance repaired.
While I was there, waiting for the appliance to get repaired, I noticed a man come home from the market after selling vegetables that he had grown.
He had a wife who was a house-maker and 3 little children with barely any family planning.
Everyone in their family was uneducated.
From the market that day, he had earned NPR 250 ($1.8) by selling vegetables, enough for them to buy them a few grocery items and a few biscuits for his children.
Being uneducated and financially poor is a normal life for most people of my village.
Natively, we are a farmer family too. I still go and work in the field with my father when I'm in my village.
The point I'm making is that it would've been very normal for me to be an average villager, maybe become a teacher in a school nearby.
It was at that moment when I watched the guy come home and his kids welcome him that I realized, I couldn't walk that path.
I couldn't be like him or like most people in my village. I couldn't do that to myself.
I wanted to have a better life.
I had sometimes romanticized having a simple life, but at that time I knew I wanted to have options.
I wanted to have the option to do incredible things and live an incredible life.
I had heard of people who have built extraordinary lives out of nothing, so I knew it was possible.
And if I am going to live, why live the average life?
Why live the life that you know is filled with struggles and regrets?
Why not let your future self have the option to live an incredible life and do anything you might want?
That is what has kept me going this entire time.
And it is a simple idea that I often remind myself when I'm struggling:
"If you only do the things everyone else does, you'll live the life that everyone else does."
I have grown to understand the power of taking small action steps every day.
The thing that you have to realize is that to get ahead of 90% of the people or to have a better life than most people, you don't have to turn into a robot that works hard all the time.
You just have to do a bit more than most people do.
In simple ways, it can be:
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Reading a non-fiction book every month or every two month.
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Listening to informative podcast rather than entertaining songs/videos.
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Joining clubs or communities that help you try new things and get outside your comfort zone.
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Learning a skill from YouTube.
In fact, I made a video about how to achieve everything in life (link) which follows this principle.
If you simply work a little harder than other people, you can have a much more lucrative career and a much better life than most people.
Here's what you should remember:
Takeaway: Build a life that gives you freedom, a life that gives you options. That will come from working slightly harder than others.
Question for you: What do you think about the life of mediocrity vs the live of freedom with options? Which one do you aspire for?
If you read this far, you are already doing better than most people.
Let me know via a comment down below.
See you next week.
Warmly,
Suraj