Do you ever wake up and wonder: What would it be like to love life?
People can tell you “follow your dream,” but is anyone really doing it?
Not someone in a TV show or movie—a real, living, breathing, human, just like you?
Is it possible?
The Depression
Three years ago I couldn’t sleep. Night after night, I’d lie awake at 2am. My heart would pound in my chest.
The anxiety overtook me. I welcomed it. If I fell back asleep, the next time I woke I would head back to that place. The place I despised.
Fifty hours a week to a job that was slowly, inch by inch, sucking the life out of me.
I was twenty-six years old, but I didn’t feel twenty-six. I felt old, tired, and overwhelmed.
As I write this post, I remember that night. Staring in the mirror. I could barely look at myself. The breathing in my chest pushing in and out rapidly. Tears rushing down my face. I was a grown man, or at least I was supposed to be.
Allowing Fear to Stop You
I was so scared. I’d put all my work experience, degrees, and life into my career. Yet, I hated it.
I had gone all in—and I was losing.
I couldn’t argue with the tears flowing down my cheeks. Something needed to change.
Follow The Dream
I know what it’s like to feel depressed, lost, and burned out. But I also know what it’s like to follow a dream.
I’m now thirty years old, and my life is a lot different than it was four years ago.
Soon after that experience, I made a commitment to discover and follow my dream.
What’s my dream? I want to become a ninja.
Not a ninja in the traditional sense. It’s a childhood dream.
Over the course of four years I quit my job in America, moved to Japan, and now I train extensively in martial arts.
I arrive at the dojo at 7:30am Monday through Friday. Over the next year of my life I will train over 1,000 hours in Aikido (a martial art).
I’m living, breathing proof that it’s possible to follow a dream.
I’m thrilled to wake up each morning. I love my life in a manner I never knew possible. But this post isn’t about me—it’s about all of us. More importantly, it’s about all of our dreams.
I hope with all my heart, today is the day that you begin the journey to turn your dream into a reality.