Challenge your fears and dive in is a nice tagline for papers and blog posts. It takes guts to bring that philosophy to daily life. The opportunities come in little ripples and big waves. Similar to acclimatizing to cold water, sometimes it’s good just to jump in. Despite being a fan of Adidas’ three-stripe design, when I was on the slopes today I was only thinking of their competitor’s tagline.
JUST DO IT
Nike Trademark
Waking up this morning I didn’t really want to do anything, but I started with reading a book, making a cup of coffee, and then sitting down to play guitar. Despite being a holiday I went at typing another post for my blog. I had little traffic on any of my side hustles, but I believed one day I would make it. As detailed in my last post, believing in change is the first step to making change happen. I played my recently discovered anthem in my head.
I was down bad
Project Dreams- Marshmello x Roddy Ricch
now on I’m on a jet for real
Got all this ice on me baby told my patek to chill
The song is a rags-to-riches story. Although the song isn’t new, I only discovered it at the end of last year. The fusion between an EDM producer and a Rap artist made me feel that maybe I could carve out a space for myself in the music world one day. Following listening to that song I felt that one day I could make enough disposable income to buy designers, cars, and ice. Conversely, I’d probably use my wealth to buy nice equipment and fixing up junky old JDM cars.
Challenge Your Fears and Dive Into Your Greatness.
Does this guy think he deserves designers and a fleet of cars? I’m not in that position in life yet, but why not think that one day I could earn my way there? Why not be open to that possibility? Diving into your own greatness might be difficult, hell I struggle with it all the time. The only time I open up about my life decisions is three beers in with my best friend and cousin After930.
You moved to Japan all by yourself, not many people can say that. Not many people have the courage to do something like that. I got here through the military, but I don’t think I would have done it alone, but you did it. When I talk to people about you I talk you up. People think it’s so cool that you just did it on your own, be proud.
After930
I almost tear up when I type because as some of you know man these last five years in Japan have been tough. Why not be proud of that and challenge the fear and dive into being great too. It’s given me a little confidence to share, my thoughts, feelings, photos, art, music, and stories. Even more than that it’s given me some momentum to start sharing this life, the laidback life.
I’m Going To Share More
Social media is a weird thing, people share their lives, but share too much and people accuse you of oversharing. I’m okay with being called that because according to Mark Shafter the more known you are the more doors you have open for you. One of the reasons the Kardashian empire started was because of a scandalous video. . . but don’t expect any footage that spicy from me 😏. Growing up with YouTube and Twitch makes you realize even if your hobby is a niche, you are not alone.
Why is it that we are afraid of showing the world who we really are? I’ve made it a point this year to upload more content. I’ll be experimenting with what books I’m reading, what VODs I find helpful, and which music and anime are popping. And of course, I’ll be sharing my attempt to “make something” of myself. These blogs might help other people find their own path. If anything else, the poor kid who has to do a history report on a randomly selected dead guy 300 years from now will thank me.
Challenge Your Fears and Dive Into Scary Things
A single question inspired this post.
Should I Go Snowboarding?
The poll on my Instagram was a resounding yes, so I went out on another snowboarding adventure. Going on a solo run isn’t as bad as it sounds, conversely because I’m still a beginner going alone is relaxing. When I go with others I usually worry about slowing them down or my inability to do more challenging courses. Alone, I was able to let get lost in the flow of life.
After a warm-up run on the bunny hill, I took the lift to the top of the mountain. Usually, i was restricted to the easy courses, which were marked in green on the printed map. However, today was different. I had already decided that today was going to be a day of expansion and growth. That meant today I would be tackling the intermediate and advanced courses.
Walk the Talk
Nervousness and Excitement have the same effects on your body
Simon Sinek
The body stimulus of nervousness and excitement are exactly the same, it’s only the mind that frames things differently. I was aware of this fact, but I found when life gave me the opportunity to flex my knowledge I ended up hesitating. It was like some self-improvement staircase wit. As the gondola ascended my body tensed, my heart raced, my hands began to get clammy. Oh god what I get myself into was the first thought that popped into my head. I caught myself and let out a small laugh, This is exciting. The view before me was enough to warrant my journey to the top of the mountain.
People usually wait until they know they are ready for things, but the trick is you’ll never know when you’ll be ready.
That’s all it is Miles, It’s a leap of Faith
Into the Spiderverse
Battling the nerves I thought back to the times when I had been scared to do something, to the time I finally dropped in on a skateboard. Strapping my boots in, I took a deep breath. Challenge your fears and Dive In.
It Was Worth It.
The advanced courses had speeds unattainable on the smaller hills. I had gone in the morning so the powder was untouched in most of the areas. Describing the joy that surged through my body as I lived in that moment is impossible. I had been afraid of what other people would think, but in the end, it didn’t matter. The most important thing is to just do it. I only fell once during my run of the advanced course.
Similar to the Rocky Speech above, it’s not about how many times you get hit or fall, it’s how many times you can dust yourself and get up afterward. The only reason I was able to go from beginner courses to advanced/intermediate courses in such a short time was because I was willing to let go to the process and eat shit to get there. It’s not like there are any secret videos, lessons, or techniques I had access to. I would like to thank my parents for giving me the opportunity to learn about how to move my body through all the sports I did growing up. And I’m glad my human flesh vehicle is a sporty model, but anyone can do what I did with a little courage.
Dive In and Move Forward
It gets easier to surrender to the flow of life, challenge fears, and get up when making mistakes the more you do it. After writing the above section I was able to go snowboarding twice. Each time I fell multiple times, but every time I fell I was pushing the boundaries of what I was capable of. A trek through some deep powder here, an attempted jump there, and riding switch all had me eating powder. To challenge my fears and dive into falling meant growth and enjoyment. Laughing as I slid down on my ass or lay on my back, life was great.
When you’re feeling good it becomes easier to stretch your comfort zone in other areas of your life as well. I want to be a YouTuber, Gamer, and overall content creator, but making a name for myself has proven quite difficult. Let me get this straight, I’m good at Apex Legends, I’m pretty decent at making music, editing, and even art, but I have failed to make a name for myself in the space. Before I adopted this new “white belt mindset” my entitled attitude stunted my growth.
After learning into lean into the flow of life and accept falling down, my capacity for growth has skyrocketed. Now when I upload content, my ego doesn’t get damaged when it doesn’t do well. Instead, I access what skills I can improve on, how can I make this more entertaining, or what are other people doing that I’m not?
Challenge Your Fears and Dive Into Making Content
My friend Minibeast told me, it’s hard to get good at editing, have you seen what some people are capable of? As Mini is younger than me, I understand his sentiment. But just because people are good at something, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to create content unique to you. The fact is you’ll never see what you’re really capable of unless you try. All the lessons I had learned on the mountain came pouring into the rest of my life. I started to study things I thought I knew and as a result, I learned more.
I started a new channel centered around gaming because I knew that people liked the consistency of a channel. My main channel, LaidbackMarco, was all over the place. When I watched my gameplays it was no longer about, wow I did that cool thing, for YouTube purposes those were the parts I uploaded, but what I saw were the areas I could improve at.
The next week I was feeling particularly creative, so I made a music video.
Of course, I was afraid of making music and the video to go along with it, but I was afraid of going down that mountain too. What will always scare me more, is living a life of quiet desperation.
Much Love 💖 LBM
