I loved this piece Eren! And I love Alan Watts too.
The thing I had never heard of was "the water let its own weight guide it down the path."
All of a sudden, it clicked for me. Allowing has been so confusing to understand, but now I remember all the good things in my life that happened bc of just allowing a bigger weight to happen. Naturally, the hard work never stops, but it's more the path that matters.
Several years ago, I published a book in a topic that I had no passion in, merely interest, and I did it for the money. When it did well, I wrestled for a long time with building an entire business around this thing that I had no passion for, just for the money. All the business gurus said "get the reps in" and "it will suck" and i believed them... only in hindsight do you realize it was all suffering. Square peg in a round hole, as you said.
Needed this article today, thank you Eren. I love your take on mindfulness.
I love that story Renee. Yeah, it's so tricky to figure out what suffering is required and what is unnecessary. But the trick is to think about the big picture --> is this something you care about? Like running up the hill - that's hard, and will suck, like the gurus said. But you should only run up the hill if that's what you want!
I'm interested, what was the book you wrote/business you started, and what are you pivoting to now?
Totally agree. Now when I listen to podcasts, I hear people talking about being careful of pursuing things only for the money, and now I know whst they mean. In some ways I was grateful for that experience, bc I never would have understood until I learned how deep that pain can go. Part of the human experience, I guess.
When I built my first version of a business, it was in publishing high-demand books on Amazon. There was a blue ocean niche in rainwater harvesting at the time, so I created the best book on it at the time, from tons of interviews and research, but never having done it myself. I really wanted to travel and just wanted the online income to do it. Unfortunately (and fortunately) it took off in ways outside of my control, such as people thinking I literally spent my life devoted to this topic, when I was just curious about it, but not passionate enough to talk about it all day err day.
I hemmed and hawwed about creating a Youtube channel and selling products and stuff about it bc I wanted to grow the business, but the suffering really occurred in the exact way you described Eren.
Pretty embarrassed about the choices I made, but glad that's over. :)
Losing integrity for money is one of the worst feelings ever.
Pivoting to helping other people sell a lot of books in topics they are passionate about - and have it explode their business in ways outside their control :)
What an amazing story. The fact that you could come up with a successful book on such a random topic is so impressive! 😂
I also loved how you pivoted into the same thing, but slightly more zoomed out. Makes so much sense and it aligns with my idea so well (I couldn't have come up with a better story to illustrate the point than yours!).
I bet your new business is way more fulfilling :) I'll definitely come to you when it comes time to release my book
Very well written Eren! I enjoyed this piece & how you integrated your personal experience with health.
Thanks for reading and for your kind words Jillian.
My weight-loss journey taught me a lot about life - discipline, emotion management...the list goes on.
But cresting sustainable processes was such a major part of it that it just popped into my mind when I was writing this article :)
thanks again!
Thanks for sharing. You got me through a dull lecture about philosophy...
Haha. My pleasure. I'm glad you enjoyed it --> and that proves my philosophy is not dull! So thanks
Much needed 😅
I'm glad you liked it!
I loved this piece Eren! And I love Alan Watts too.
The thing I had never heard of was "the water let its own weight guide it down the path."
All of a sudden, it clicked for me. Allowing has been so confusing to understand, but now I remember all the good things in my life that happened bc of just allowing a bigger weight to happen. Naturally, the hard work never stops, but it's more the path that matters.
Several years ago, I published a book in a topic that I had no passion in, merely interest, and I did it for the money. When it did well, I wrestled for a long time with building an entire business around this thing that I had no passion for, just for the money. All the business gurus said "get the reps in" and "it will suck" and i believed them... only in hindsight do you realize it was all suffering. Square peg in a round hole, as you said.
Needed this article today, thank you Eren. I love your take on mindfulness.
I love that story Renee. Yeah, it's so tricky to figure out what suffering is required and what is unnecessary. But the trick is to think about the big picture --> is this something you care about? Like running up the hill - that's hard, and will suck, like the gurus said. But you should only run up the hill if that's what you want!
I'm interested, what was the book you wrote/business you started, and what are you pivoting to now?
Totally agree. Now when I listen to podcasts, I hear people talking about being careful of pursuing things only for the money, and now I know whst they mean. In some ways I was grateful for that experience, bc I never would have understood until I learned how deep that pain can go. Part of the human experience, I guess.
When I built my first version of a business, it was in publishing high-demand books on Amazon. There was a blue ocean niche in rainwater harvesting at the time, so I created the best book on it at the time, from tons of interviews and research, but never having done it myself. I really wanted to travel and just wanted the online income to do it. Unfortunately (and fortunately) it took off in ways outside of my control, such as people thinking I literally spent my life devoted to this topic, when I was just curious about it, but not passionate enough to talk about it all day err day.
I hemmed and hawwed about creating a Youtube channel and selling products and stuff about it bc I wanted to grow the business, but the suffering really occurred in the exact way you described Eren.
Pretty embarrassed about the choices I made, but glad that's over. :)
Losing integrity for money is one of the worst feelings ever.
Pivoting to helping other people sell a lot of books in topics they are passionate about - and have it explode their business in ways outside their control :)
What an amazing story. The fact that you could come up with a successful book on such a random topic is so impressive! 😂
I also loved how you pivoted into the same thing, but slightly more zoomed out. Makes so much sense and it aligns with my idea so well (I couldn't have come up with a better story to illustrate the point than yours!).
I bet your new business is way more fulfilling :) I'll definitely come to you when it comes time to release my book
s :)