The longer I glimpsed into being a “professional” (whatever that means) the more I desired to go back to being an amateur again.
http://thomasmondel.com/being-an-amateur/
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@thomasmondel
The longer I glimpsed into being a “professional” (whatever that means) the more I desired to go back to being an amateur again.
http://thomasmondel.com/being-an-amateur/
“Let’s save a life today!”
That’s what I say to myself when I start writing everyday. It puts some kind of importance onto my writing. Even if nobody is reading my blog and nobody is giving a crap about the stuff I put out there. It still feels good to think that way.
http://thomasmondel.com/on-following-through
When Time Pauses and Your Life is On Hold
There are moments which take your breath away. And with it they take away your anxiety of the future. They take away your guilt and regrets of the past. And suddenly time pauses and life is on hold.
Read on: http://thomasmondel.com/life-is-on-hold/
"Go fuck yourself." - Raphael #teamdonatello #nerdatheart #purplebandanatoogood
My new recording studio! #whoneedsatripod #spotthecat
I escaped my known and common world for three months in order to finally “discover my purpose". To find yourself. Yet, it didn't work as planned.
Read: http://thomasmondel.com/how-to-find-yourself/
When you are “faking it till you make it”, you are lying to yourself. And the worst part is that you KNOW. Your soul knows and questions your inauthentic actions.
http://thomasmondel.com/fake-till-make-scam/
You can do everything right. You can prepare for all situations. Learn anything you need. And still “fail” because an old lady (life?) feels like teaching you a lesson.
http://thomasmondel.com/one-time-failed/
It feels like I am a lone in a world of billions of people. I feel disconnected. Isolated. How is that even possible?! It’s like you live in a dull world where nobody really cares about anyone anymore. Everyone is living a dream. Not even realising they are asleep.
http://thomasmondel.com/wake-up/
Life seems pretty unfair sometimes. Especially when you are trying to step up. People seem to love to put you back in your place. It's like you get punished for trying to move forward. But here is something I learned over the years: Life won't give you anything unless you go out and get it yourself. And this also means to man up and face the oftentimes harsh judgement and criticism of others. And to deal with it and keep going. Because what are the alternatives? What are your other options? You already know where NOT growing and stepping up leads you. When you are not growing, you die. And then your past repeats itself in front of your eyes once more. You can either put yourself and your little ego on the line and go all out or simply be ignored. But the first option is way more rewarding. #chooseyourself #motivation #inspiration #quote #travel #inspirational #quoteoftheday (at Sydney Opera House)
At the end of every year I love to reflect on life for a while. Ironically this is also the time I hit my lowest lows. I am too harsh on myself. I think I achieved too little. That I could have done way more. And then beat myself up about it. But after a while I calm myself again. It's all good. Everything is fine. I have to remind myself that I do make progress. By asking better questions. Start with these four.
http://thomasmondel.com/4-questions-amazing-start-new-year/
I just want to share with you my little “trick” on how to boost your willpower in just a couple of days. Heck, you’ll even see progress already after a couple of minutes!
http://thomasmondel.com/double-willpower-five-minutes-less/
It comes down to trusting your own judgement. 💪👻🎯 The problem is we were raised to fit in. To do what we are supposed to be doing instead of what we want to do. And suddenly our life is complete and utter mess. And we have clue how we ended up there. The good thing is that your "calling" is not some carefully crafted plan, it's what is left when this exact plan goes horribly wrong. When life's struggles and challenges rip away from you everything that you think you are. It's what is left when you make it through all that chaos. Your calling is that one thing you can't NOT do, the answer to the age-old question, "What should I do with my life?" #inspiration #purpose #calling #mission #life #motivation #chooseyourself #challenge
Every single decision in my life was either based on fear or growth. My brother made me realize that a couple of days ago.
Read on: http://thomasmondel.com/make-fear-decisions-growth-decisions/
Do You Make Fear Decisions or Growth Decisions?
(3 minute read)
Every single decision in my life was either based on fear or growth. My brother made me realize that a couple of days ago.
And here is another one. Everything you do, every decision you make is either based on moving AWAY from pain or moving TOWARDS pleasure.
We are very simple creatures.
So when you are in just enough pain. When your back is against the wall. And you have no way out other than to step up and fight for what is important to you. That’s when you turn your life around.
When you are sick and tired of being “good enough” and want to be “great”. And you no longer accept giving up responsibility and control over your life to anyone other than yourself.
That’s when your circumstances finally forced you to move away from where you are right now (pain) and closer to where you want to be (pleasure).
But what if you are right somewhere in the middle of these two?
What do you do when you are too afraid to move towards pleasure because you are still scared SHITLESS of what might happen next. And not quite in enough pain to finally take the leap and step up?
When you are in this weird “my life is OK, I really should not complain and just be happy about it” grey zone.
In this weird and mild mixture of comfort and discomfort. You are not the best that you could be. But you are quite fine.
“I am fine.”
That’s when the pain is not pushing you yet.
And the pleasure is too far out of sight in order to pull you.
And you are stuck. Living the mediocre life.
But here is the kicker. Deep down you (your soul) knows that you are not stepping up. That you are taking the easy way out. It actually freaks out about it.
Because whatever is not growing, dies.
And suddenly a slight feeling of discomfort creeps in. Getting stronger and stronger every day. An alerting signal from your body that something is off. That something should actually be different.
But you can’t put your finger on it yet.
It’s still in a blur.
And that’s also the point where you have to make a decision. Based on FEAR or GROWTH.
My brother was right on this one.
I was thinking about every major decision I did in the last couple of years.
Taking on a new job in the gaming industry with way too little practical experience in this field.
Running a triathlon.
Breaking up with my “perfect” girlfriend.
Starting a blog in English although it’s not my first language.
Sending thousands of dollar (I didn’t have) to an Indian app development team and hope they will not run away with my money.
Cutting down sleep and tearing my body down in order to become “successful”.
Spending all my savings while trying to start a business.
Saying “NO!” when I actually wanted to say “YES!”. And the other way around.
Not saying what I really thought because I was too afraid of hurting somebody’s feelings.
All of these decisions were either based on fear or growth. The big decisions. And the small ones.
And all of them are either moving you further away from pain or closer to pleasure.
And the sad thing here: my fear-based decisions never worked out of for me.
My relationship with my past girlfriends never became better even if I “waited it out”. Every time I didn’t say what I was truly thinking it haunted me for months and years.
Fear-based decisions turn into regret. Grow-based decisions on the other hand turn into little miracles.
You feel them in your body. You feel stronger. Mentally. And physically. You are ready to take on the world. You feel it in your chest. You expand it proudly. Taking deep breaths. You dare to take up space. You sit, walk and talk in confidence. New ideas suddenly arise in your mind. Your feeling of competence increases.
I could have quit my job six months earlier. With the exact same result. Maybe even better ones. But I was scared. Fear was overruling my decision-making process.
So I waited. And went the “safe” route. I hoped it will get better over time. But only the pain increased. My body was sending signals that something was off. It knew.
What was I scared of?
I will be broke. I can’t survive a month without my income.
I am disappointing my co-workers. They have to do my work load afterwards.
They will hate me. And call me names.
I am throwing away a good job.
I risk too much.
It won’t work. And I will come crawling back begging for another chance.
And yet. Here I am. Still alive.
Also, another tricky part. Sometimes we opt for the fear-based decision and tell ourselves it was the growth decision.
We put a lot of energy into making us believe it. Energy we could have used elsewhere. And now is occupied with the lie we came up with.
Because we were afraid to face the real growth decision (and the challenges that come with choosing this path).
But when we finally do…
Miracles happen.
Do You Make Fear Decisions or Growth Decisions? was originally published on
When I grew up people started telling me that I am not special. Or maybe it was just me who started to buy into this myth. Here is what to do about it.
Read on...
What to Do When You Are NOT Special
(4 minute read)
When I grew up people started telling me that I am not special. Or maybe it was just me who started to buy into this myth.
I found myself in a job I didn’t like. Doing work for someone who was not following my ideals and values. And I didn’t know what to do to change it.
My individually got buried in a dead-end job. By being only a small cog in the machine. And I didn’t even like the machine. Neither did I enjoy being a “cog”.
People love to tell you that there can only be some super villain. But they have a lot of minions. Just like in that movie “Despicable Me (2010)”. You can be one of them.
These minions are also not very special. It’s the villain that gets all the attention and fame. The minions are just doing the work behind all that marketing bullshit.
They can be replaced instantly too. And it happens all the time actually. One of them got hurt doing the job (or even died?). And they immediately replace him by one who looks just like him.
Yep. Minions are not special.
I feel like a minion a lot.
But then again. What do you remember when you think of this movie?
It’s the minions. Nobody likes that french guy that much. “The small yellow minions simply adorable and so funny. The entire hall was laughing throughout the movie.”
People love these “useless” little creatures. Even though they are not special at all. They love them so much the creators of the movie even had to give them their own one in 2015.
So maybe this means that even if you are NOT special. If you make a lot of noise in the world. And enough people begin to like you. That eventually you will get your own movie.
There is hope that eventually I will become more than a simple “cog”.
Yes!
So what do you do now?
When you realize that you are not special at all?
REFLECT
Ask yourself why you think that way. Are you comparing yourself to someone and then feel like you lack skills and individuality? Could be. I love to do that a lot.
The problem is that media loves to cloud our minds. They present us images of photoshopped models and overnight success stories. They show us the 0.01% of the top. And make us believe that we INDEED can be just as successful like them. Everyone of us.
But they don’t tell us how.
And then we feel like crap. Because we are clueless. And frustrated. And we desperately try to find ways to get there as well.
Because society sells us the idea that if you buy Wonderstruck by Taylor Swift you will eventually smell like her. And be a little bit like her. And feel a little bit like her?
We believe all that bullshit. And it robs us of our individuality.
It makes us feel less special.
Don’t buy into that stuff.
THINK BACK
I believe kids do a lot of stuff right. They just follow their emotions. Or better said, they listen to them. As you grow older you shut them out more because there are “more important things to do”.
You have to realize that whenever we don’t feel special. Lacking fundamental and individual skills. We forgot what makes us special in the first place.
Kids know that. But they don’t call it “being special”. They just behave like they naturally behave.
When I was a little boy I enjoyed learning and reading. I learned every “useless” information I could get my hands on.
I drove around my little town with my new bike and learned and remembered every street there was. Every day I discovered a new corner and learned a couple of new street names.
I memorized all the cheats of my favourite Game Boy games and recalled them proudly in front of my friends at school.
I learned all major cities in Austria and their associated license plate tags.
I once borrowed a lexicon from our local library and tried to remember all the words in there. And then I beat myself up about it because I only reached the letter “S” and couldn’t finish it in one week. And my parents had to pay 5 Schilling (roughly 40 cent) to extend it for another week.
I was weird like that.
There was no purpose in doing all this though. But I enjoyed the process of it. And then you grow up and realize that this “process” does not help you in the real world.
At least that’s what they are trying to tell you.
How would you make money off of being crazily addicted to “learning new things”?
(Yeah, like being adaptive and curious about finding out new ways of doing things is worth spending your energy and time into lol… how dumb of me!)
“That’s not a real job.”
“You can’t make money with that.”
“Put your time into something useful.”
And then soon you start to adapt.
And with these changes also your fulfilment and happiness decreases.
Because you did something you enjoyed when you were carefree.
But now stopped because you were told that “that is not a real thing”.
TAKE MONEY OUT OF THE EQUATION
“What would you do you had one million dollar?”, I asked all of my co-workers one day I was depressed at work and tried to waste a couple of minutes of my work day.
“I would do the same I am doing now. Making computer games. But better ones. Games I would really enjoy myself as well.”, said one of them.
(Sad story actually when you are working in a company making computer games, and you know that you would NEVER play these games if you would not get paid to do so… but then again, isn’t it even more sad when you are working in the same field and don’t even like the industry at all? Aw screw me!)
“I would work on my own projects. And spend more time on them. These are the things I really enjoy doing.”, said another one.
Whatever it is you would be doing.
You could be doing it already. When you don’t have money. You usually have a lot of time. And if you use this time to do what you enjoy doing. Money eventually comes naturally.
Or not. But it doesn’t matter. Because you enjoyed doing it, right?
And time you enjoyed “wasting” wasn’t wasted time.
TRY A LOT OF THINGS
Let’s be real here. A lot of people out there are very lucky.
They found something they like. And they were pretty young when they found it. So all they had to do was keep doing the things they enjoyed and become even better at it. Which is pretty easy because you love what you do.
But others are a bit unlucky. Or actually pretty darn unlucky. They might have wasted a lot of time trying to FIGURE OUT what they might enjoy doing. And sadly they still not have found it.
I am still trying to find out what I am naturally good at. Every day I try new things in order to eventually make it. Someday I will know what I can do best. I believe.
So when you now think that you are not special. Try something totally different. Try something new. Maybe you are one of these poor unlucky guys who has not yet found his true calling.
Could be.
Try a lot of things. Something will eventually stick.
And suddenly you get your own blockbuster movie.
Which is your life.
What to Do When You Are NOT Special was originally published on