A colleague took this photo yesterday.

Yes! I did just say that. Life is going great and it’s all because of me.

Me in the past would have never said a thing like that let alone write about it on a public platform. I want to write this story this morning because I just feel fantastic and I want to put this feeling down on paper. And, when future me ever feels bad he can come back to this and realize he should grab life by the balls again.

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Controlling my life!

It started around 4 years ago when I finally realized nothing will ever change in your life if you don’t grab life by the balls.

I had just come out of the hospital where I had to stay for a night. They needed to monitor my heart because they suspected I might had a heart problem (which I don’t have). The next morning I was released and I was being picked up by my family. The first thing they did was handing me my smokes. I smoked one in the car and all the while I was smoking I could only think one thing. What the fuck am I doing?

I decided to stop smoking right then and there! Previous attempts had failed because my mind wasn’t in the right place but this time I stuck with it. Life felt pointless for about 6 months. I felt like I couldn’t enjoy many activities I enjoyed before. Simple things like watching a movie or going to a bar (you could still smoke in bars) were dull. Quit smoking is not fun at all!

But slowly I was gaining control over something that was previously controlling me. And it felt great. This was the beginning of my transformation. I wanted to do more good things for my life.

Getting in shape.

The next thing I decided to do was work on my body. I was very skinny and I couldn’t do more than 1 pushup.

I had no idea where to start so I googled some exercises. I came across this fitness program called P90x. I decided to set myself another goal. I was going to finish this 90 days program. I bought some fitness equipment I needed for the exercises and just started.

Now! If you are not in shape, exercise is brutal. This shit hurts. These people on the video your watching are jumping around like a madman and here you are on your knees trying the squeeze out a third push up. It’s hard work! But I had my mindset in the right place and a with a strong will I kept pushing myself. I did the maximum I could do every day.

I slowly got better. I slowly got stronger. I slowly was gaining a little bit of muscle. Every week I improved somewhere. It felt good. And 90 days later I was in much better shape. It felt so good finishing it that I did another round of 90 days.

On the left I was about 3 weeks in the program. The one one the right is 11 months later.

It was such a great decision to start exercising. And I did it all on my own. People started to comment on my physique in a positive way and this boosted my confidence to levels it never was before.

Growing a beard

I was born with a baby face and unlike others, I never lost mine. I wanted to do something about this because I felt that most of my clients didn’t see me as equal but rather as a child.

When people feel that they are talking to a child rather than an adult they won’t take you seriously and they will question every decision you make. Simple because they feel they can.

I got lucky on two fronts. I work in IT and a beard is not frowned upon (unlike finance for instance). And second I can grow a decent beard.

Growing a beard is a journey I feel every man should take once in their life. It’s epic and fulfilling and will test your willpower to the max. Growing a beard itches. O man it itches! There will be many occasions where you just want to shave the damn thing off. This is one part of the journey.

The second part is dealing with the judgement of others. People would comment on my beard all the time. ‘It doesn’t look good’, ‘you look like a hippy’, etc. Dealing with this judgement and sticking to my project gave me a great feeling of pride and even more confidence.

These pictures are only one year apart

I have kept my beard and noticed a huge difference in the way clients deal with me. What’s most funny for me is that I’m still the same person I was before but now they don’t question me much and new clients treat me as equal.

The stage was set for happiness.

Stop smoking made me realize I could control things in my life. Exercise boosted my confidence and growing a beard tested my willpower. The stage was set for happiness. I felt good and more good things were about to happen.

End of part 1

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