Thanks for the energy you bring and the kick in the ass. This is the energy and effort I want to bring to my audience. I’ve spent a long time building an app for families to track their travel adventures. It’s time to focus this same effort on connecting with the people I want to serve. Building the product is the fun, easy part…it’s the writing and promotion I struggle with but what I need to do to have success.
Wow, this one was brilliant and really resonated with me!
But I found the following paragraph a little paradoxical - under "Don’t Do What You Love":
"An “interest” is even weaker.
A hobby is just as bad.
A passion is even worse."
You instead suggest being obsessed.
But how do you even become obsessed with something unless it starts off with some type of interest?
I know for myself that my obsessions are also what I’m the most interested in - i.e. that’s where it all started.
I wouldn’t say that I’m "passionate" about it, at least not anymore. I sometimes even hate it.
I’ve been pursuing my field (health, training, nutrition, mindset) for almost 3 decades and it’s all I know. It would be highly uncomfortable to transition into something else, and if I wasn’t even vaguely interested in it, it would be impossible.
I could probably make a lot of money if I was obsessed about the stock market.
Or real estate.
Or green juice detox cleansing, yoga and perineum sunning.
I’m obsessed about figuring out the "unfiguroutable" with the mind and body. It sometimes drives me nuts that there is so much contradiction in research and so much disagreement between experts, and that in turn drives me deep into rabbit holes, where I share my findings when I eventually manage to zoom back out.
What you said about it going beyond liking or enjoying resonates deeply with me, though.
So it’s just about picking something with a large audience and committing to it?
Building a new life after accidental death of husband, which includes: the novel about my sociopath mother which has turned into a memoir of my childhood and life experiences in relation to my sociopathic mother instead, using A Moveable Feast by Hemingway as inspiration on how to configure the chapters (no plagiarizing, just HOW he wrote each chapter), planning to mount it on Amazon Vella. What do you think of Amazon Vella for non-fiction? I found a course which lauds Vella as a fairly non-competitive untapped market for NON-fiction.
I got serious about my writing this year when my son confessed he’d never read anything I wrote. But he added, “but someday I’ll have time to read and even if you’re gone I’ll have all those words you wrote waiting for me.” Powerful stuff. Yes I can relate.
“Don’t do what you love like a fairy princess…” - brilliant but so opposite what career self help books have been panning to us for 2 decades. I’m inspired and numbed at the same time. So much to noodle on. Great post - thank you.
As usual you have a talent for clicking the right buttons.
I write about anti-patterns - I am writing a book Bob and Alice - anti-patterns in love, life and tech.
Am I obsessed?
F-k yea.
I'm obsessed with anti-patterns. The things people do that make them fail and they know it with the certainty of a man jumping off the 70th floor
My failures over time have changed me from a mostly-positive person to a uber-positive person that says f-k you to clients that annoy him and distract me from the mission.
I'm writing on my substack 1x/week and on Twitter and LI 2-3x/day
I'm building an offer for first-time founders - Push founders to success faster.
I am preparing of a job for a specific profile I like (In IT) , as for now I am just a fresher and from your posts I learn to put myself fully into my preparations and now I am going to quit being an average mediocore person. Thank you
Great post, Tim. You really do have a knack for informing and inspiring.
I related to so much here, but this line did it for me: “When you tie what you’re building to your mortality, it’s a gut punch that’ll knock the wind out of you.”
I write Money Talks for my 10-year-old daughter. It’s the blueprint I’m leaving her for how to be smart with money. I write two columns a week there and am forced to go deeper as you’ve described with every attempt. It makes a huge difference in my writing when I must think about my words she’ll be reading long after I’m gone.
Thanks for starting my Wednesday on a good note. Please keep it coming!
I only made it a few paragraphs in when I "needed" to write something down that resonated with me: "The words that resonated... need to use in my writing and my thoughts ... “obsession” “energy” “inspiring” this one trite" ... I keep a file for "inspiring thoughts" on my desktop to open at a moments notice to write things down to come back to when I need thoughts!!!
It is what I am doing and showing them that people comment about all the time. The painting in-progress shots and words telling them the small changes I made and why! This is my obsession and I believe energy that makes my work what I love.
Now I can go back up and finish reading your post.
I’m creating whatever I feel called to in my heart. Right now that’s on creativity, consciousness and self-realisation. Soon it’ll capture all that and be injected into a focus of complete Boundlessness. I know it’ll help people one day. How? The how doesn’t matter. The obsession matters more.
I needed this today.
Thanks.
On point, again.
You piss me off, in the best way. More depth to aspire to. Keep it coming.
Thanks, Tim.
Thanks for the energy you bring and the kick in the ass. This is the energy and effort I want to bring to my audience. I’ve spent a long time building an app for families to track their travel adventures. It’s time to focus this same effort on connecting with the people I want to serve. Building the product is the fun, easy part…it’s the writing and promotion I struggle with but what I need to do to have success.
Wow, this one was brilliant and really resonated with me!
But I found the following paragraph a little paradoxical - under "Don’t Do What You Love":
"An “interest” is even weaker.
A hobby is just as bad.
A passion is even worse."
You instead suggest being obsessed.
But how do you even become obsessed with something unless it starts off with some type of interest?
I know for myself that my obsessions are also what I’m the most interested in - i.e. that’s where it all started.
I wouldn’t say that I’m "passionate" about it, at least not anymore. I sometimes even hate it.
I’ve been pursuing my field (health, training, nutrition, mindset) for almost 3 decades and it’s all I know. It would be highly uncomfortable to transition into something else, and if I wasn’t even vaguely interested in it, it would be impossible.
I could probably make a lot of money if I was obsessed about the stock market.
Or real estate.
Or green juice detox cleansing, yoga and perineum sunning.
I’m obsessed about figuring out the "unfiguroutable" with the mind and body. It sometimes drives me nuts that there is so much contradiction in research and so much disagreement between experts, and that in turn drives me deep into rabbit holes, where I share my findings when I eventually manage to zoom back out.
What you said about it going beyond liking or enjoying resonates deeply with me, though.
So it’s just about picking something with a large audience and committing to it?
Building a new life after accidental death of husband, which includes: the novel about my sociopath mother which has turned into a memoir of my childhood and life experiences in relation to my sociopathic mother instead, using A Moveable Feast by Hemingway as inspiration on how to configure the chapters (no plagiarizing, just HOW he wrote each chapter), planning to mount it on Amazon Vella. What do you think of Amazon Vella for non-fiction? I found a course which lauds Vella as a fairly non-competitive untapped market for NON-fiction.
I got serious about my writing this year when my son confessed he’d never read anything I wrote. But he added, “but someday I’ll have time to read and even if you’re gone I’ll have all those words you wrote waiting for me.” Powerful stuff. Yes I can relate.
“Don’t do what you love like a fairy princess…” - brilliant but so opposite what career self help books have been panning to us for 2 decades. I’m inspired and numbed at the same time. So much to noodle on. Great post - thank you.
Hi Tim -
As usual you have a talent for clicking the right buttons.
I write about anti-patterns - I am writing a book Bob and Alice - anti-patterns in love, life and tech.
Am I obsessed?
F-k yea.
I'm obsessed with anti-patterns. The things people do that make them fail and they know it with the certainty of a man jumping off the 70th floor
My failures over time have changed me from a mostly-positive person to a uber-positive person that says f-k you to clients that annoy him and distract me from the mission.
I'm writing on my substack 1x/week and on Twitter and LI 2-3x/day
I'm building an offer for first-time founders - Push founders to success faster.
I have no idea how to go from here to there
Tim - to me, it's all about your consistency and above all else your relatability. Very simple, but very true.
Thanks, I always draw inspiration in its many forms from your writing.
Damn, this is great. I'm inspired and motivated to to figure out this writing business! No quitting, no excuses. Thanks.
I am preparing of a job for a specific profile I like (In IT) , as for now I am just a fresher and from your posts I learn to put myself fully into my preparations and now I am going to quit being an average mediocore person. Thank you
Great post, Tim. You really do have a knack for informing and inspiring.
I related to so much here, but this line did it for me: “When you tie what you’re building to your mortality, it’s a gut punch that’ll knock the wind out of you.”
I write Money Talks for my 10-year-old daughter. It’s the blueprint I’m leaving her for how to be smart with money. I write two columns a week there and am forced to go deeper as you’ve described with every attempt. It makes a huge difference in my writing when I must think about my words she’ll be reading long after I’m gone.
Thanks for starting my Wednesday on a good note. Please keep it coming!
Loved this!
I only made it a few paragraphs in when I "needed" to write something down that resonated with me: "The words that resonated... need to use in my writing and my thoughts ... “obsession” “energy” “inspiring” this one trite" ... I keep a file for "inspiring thoughts" on my desktop to open at a moments notice to write things down to come back to when I need thoughts!!!
It is what I am doing and showing them that people comment about all the time. The painting in-progress shots and words telling them the small changes I made and why! This is my obsession and I believe energy that makes my work what I love.
Now I can go back up and finish reading your post.
Real men cry, and own it. Love it Tim.
I’m creating whatever I feel called to in my heart. Right now that’s on creativity, consciousness and self-realisation. Soon it’ll capture all that and be injected into a focus of complete Boundlessness. I know it’ll help people one day. How? The how doesn’t matter. The obsession matters more.
💜
I love your inspiration and encouragement to keep showing up and doing better.
I write about resilience, resistance, joy and beauty in our troubled times on Moordays at Substack . Thanks Tim 👏