When I was growing up, I had this theory about life. GRIND it hard through your teens and 20s. DO WHATEVER I WANT in my 30s and beyond.
Ever since I was young, being an immigrant kid from Bangladesh, I saw how hard my parents worked.
And so from a very early age, I had this mental goal that I just want to GRIND IT HARD through my early years, bank as much cash as possible, get as many skills as possible, do WHATEVER was necessary, so that in my 30s, I could get to doing WHATEVER I WANT.
This episode is not about how to do that. We’ve done prior episodes about how to think about your career in your 20s and 30s, go check that out if you want to learn about how to actually get to DOING WHATEVER YOU WANT IN YOUR 30s.
What this episode IS about, is a struggle and an obstacle I face today at 35.
Over the last 9 years, I’ve started and sold my own company, I helped sell the company that bought it, and I’ve gotten to hitting my goal.
I quit my job last week, and I’m taking complete down time to do WHATEVER I WANT.
I made a pact with some friends that I wouldn’t start any new companies, I wouldn’t jump into a new project or job, and I wouldn’t just keep working on stuff. I’d go and enjoy. And have downtime. And go explore the world. Maybe even put myself out there outside of my home city and find the love of my life!
The problem is, I can’t.
I just can’t sleep in.
I can’t just lay on a beach.
I can’t just turn it off.
I feel like a retired bank robber and there are banks everywhere and I just want to go on ONE MORE HEIST.
Here’s the thing though.
If you truly grinded it out through your 20s and even your 30s….
It becomes EASY to get another job.
It becomes EASY to hop onto another project.
You know enough people and it becomes EASY to start another company.
But that doesn’t mean it’s the right move for you. The right project for you. The right job for you.
Things that might’ve been hard and a gift for you 10 years ago, may be easy now, but that doesn’t mean they are worthwhile.
Ironically, even though I GRINDED IT OUT through my 20s and even my early 30s to get to a point of being able to do WHATEVER I WANT — I’m still not ready to get out of the game. I literally CANNOT get myself to just go to the beach and lay there.
I FEEL LIKE I’M JUST GETTING STARTED.
I think this is why serial entrepreneurs exist.
I think this is why billionaires exist. Long before they become billionaires they had more than enough money to just go to the beach — but they wanted to do more for the IMPACT.
And so I got to thinking…. How can I get down time, take some time to reflect, and yet still work on something that will have IMPACT and make me feel fulfilled?
I got to thinking about our goal here at Unstoppable to impact 1K people.
I got to thinking about one of my favorite tools that I learned and utilized through my 20s. The 45-day challenge. And so I decided, while I take my downtime, I’m going to spend about 4-hours every day and work on making Unstoppable even bigger so that we are more likely to hit our goal of helping 1,000 people be more proactive in their lives.
And so I got to sending out a tweet.
The tweet led to a number of people interested in doing a 45-day challenge.
I set up a spreadsheet to track it.
I emailed the people interested in doing a challenge with me and got them all locked in to our system for this 45-day challenge.
And… off we went!
It’s funny. I grinded through my 20s so that I could do whatever I want in my 30s.
And in my 30s, what I thought would just be leisure and hanging out on the beach, I find myself wanting to DO MORE. Take on BIGGER challenges. Work with GREAT people. Have an IMPACT.
And so, while I don’t want to jump into starting my next company right away, or taking a job right away, I figure it’d be good to have a challenge to work on! With people!
So I’m super pumped for all the people on our 45-day challenge. And I’m super pumped for putting int these focused 4 hours every day to grow Unstoppable while I take some downtime.
If you’re interested in kicking off a challenge of your own with your OWN friends, use my spreadsheet template to get organized with your friends, track your progress, and go into beast mode together!