A Change of Perspective [Week 7]

Back to old heights

I was quite the busy bee during Week 7 on The Nomad MBA. After taking a step back the week before, this week was for hustling. And I was quite surprised how much you can actually get done in one day when you are really focusing on your work. Or maybe it’s simply that I work better in cafés with inspiring people around me. Luckily there are more than enough places to choose from in Cusco. Anyway, I managed to finish my nanodegree that week and also create my very first video ‘A Day in The Nomad MBA’.

However, I was still able to keep it fun and do many other things besides work. After all, it’s about balance, right? I spent a day hiking to ‘El Balcón del Diablo’ a bit outside of Cusco with some friends. The way there was so much fun. There was no real trail to lead us (or maybe we just couldn’t find it) so we ended up walking cross-country. That led us through small villages, meeting locals all along the way, and a flock of llamas. When we finally made it to Devil’s Balcony, it was beautiful and serene. Because it was still quite early in the morning, we were the only people there for the first half hour or so. We sat down, enjoyed the sun, had breakfast and talked. That’s exactly how I like to spend my weekends.

The other day, I explored the near town of Pisac with a friend. We took a local bus from Cusco, strolled through the Sunday market and all the narrow alleys and then decided to hike up to the old ruins overlooking the town. I totally underestimated how challenging that would be! We never made it all the way to the top but we had a fun day nonetheless. And it’s always good to mix it up every once in a while and discover more than just the city you are staying in.

A change of perspective

I also made an effort to spend time talking to many different tribe members that week. I love hearing other people’s perspective on things. It was during one of these conversations that I had another big breakthrough. Haha, anyone surprised? It seems like I am having at least one of these per week lately. So I talked to a friend the other day and told her about the rough time I had had the week before. How I was frustrated that I still hadn’t really figured out what I wanted to do with my life after The Nomad MBA. How annoying it is to have all these ideas for the future and not being able to decide on one and just run with it. And then she said something, just two short sentences that might not have meant anything to anyone else. But for me, they completely changed the game.

‘Maybe you are not meant to do just one thing. Maybe you are meant to do all the things.’

You have no idea how liberating this realisation was for me. I was so busy finding that one thing that I was supposed to do. Finding my passion. My purpose. And I would get so annoyed with myself because I pretty much came up with another idea what that might look like every 2 weeks. Just ask my best friend, she has heard them all haha. And the worst thing about it? For me, it is almost impossible to choose one. I can genuinely see myself doing all of these different things. They excite me. All of them in different ways and for different reasons, fair enough. But if I had to compare them based on how much they excite me, they score equally. Furthermore, I genuinely think I would be good and succeed at all of them as well.

No rest for the wicked

Maybe I should also mention that I am writing this at 4.30 in the morning from my bed. That’s just the weird way in which my brain and my inspiration work sometimes. My latest idea came to me pretty much out of nowhere right before going to sleep. After spending an hour or so awake, thinking about all the details, I got up and grabbed my notebook. I jotted down everything that came to my mind and suddenly found myself sitting there with a whole business plan at 2 am. Over time, I simply learned to trust these sudden bursts of inspiration and run with them. I also noticed that they are getting more frequent the more I meditate and do yoga. Allowing time and space to connect with your Inner Self gives it the opportunity to connect to you more often, too.

It’s no different this time. I am glad that I accepted the fact that there is no more sleep for me at this point and that I gave in to the urge that has me writing this post right now. I just became aware of this ongoing pattern throughout my life: When I wrote that I can genuinely see myself being good at every one of my ideas, I stopped for a second and asked myself why that is. And I basically just realized that I simply succeed at whatever I set my mind to. This is not meant as bragging. For the last 10 minutes I tried to come up with something that I failed at that I had really wanted but I can’t think of a single situation. Unless I had decided that something wasn’t for me and then made a conscious decision to not pursue that thing anymore. One might define that as failing, but I believe it’s just a natural part of growing and evolving as a person.

Focusing on strengths, rather than weaknesses

Even back in school, I was good at everything. Well, music might be the one thing this isn’t true for, but even at that subject, I was doing okay. Most people I know don’t have that. They are either good at languages, or science, or arts or whatever. I won’t say that this limits them in their options, but it usually guides them in one direction or the other when it comes to what to do after school. I, however, had all the options and literally could have done anything. Some of you might consider this a luxury problem. And although I am grateful for all the possibilities this offered me, it also made it incredibly hard to pick one. The more options you have, the harder it becomes to make a choice. You start comparing all the alternatives, weighing them, listing pros and cons until you completely lose track and give up overwhelmed. Or you pick one but constantly wonder if you made the right choice.

Here is one amazing Ted Talk on this topic if you are interested to learn more:

The conclusion I came to through all this, is that my key to happiness lies in accepting that I probably won’t find that ONE career I’ve been looking for all this time. The saying

‘A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.’

is especially true for my case. Yes, I am interested in a ton of things. And yes, I am good at most of them. But I also get bored easily. It’s not that I can’t commit to one thing. I can, at least for a couple of years. But there comes a point when it doesn’t excite me anymore and I feel the need to reinvent myself. I admire people who have the endurance and passion to stay in one job or field of work their whole lives. Who become a master of their profession. But that’s just not me. You can call that flaky or indecisive, I don’t care. I simply believe that I can be of far greater service to the world by pursuing many different things during my lifetime. That I have all these ideas – big and small – for a reason. And that limiting myself to just one thing would be a waste of so much else.