Why I started this blog

Take two.

I started my first blog in 2018. At the time I was trying to find my way into the right career. And having a pretty tough time of it. While working in mind numbing jobs I began to work on what I hoped would be my escape plan, a blog. It didn’t pan out. I realised that earning any kind of living wage from writing would take years. And I knew that I couldn’t stick it out that long. I enjoyed writing though and generally got good feedback from people who read my posts.

Since I wound up that first blog I’ve continued to write almost every day. As has been my habit for almost 20 years. And in quiet moments I would feel that pull to write not just for myself, but for others.

In the intervening period I have managed to find a career path that I’m suited to. Finally! It took me 10 tortuous years of searching. As my peers progressed in their careers, I languished. Jumping from job to job. Staying in each one only as long as I could bear it. But through determination and a bit of luck I found my way into finance where I work currently.

I start this blog not in the hope of any material reward. In fact I really don’t expect it to gain much popularity. But I have the urge to share what I’m learning as I journey through life. If it makes a difference to even one other person, then this blog will have been a success. It seems a shame to confine all the amazing things that I discover about people and the world to my journal and not share it with anybody. So here it is then.

I’ve kept very much to myself these last few years. Partly due to the pandemic that locked us away, but also because I felt the need to. I needed to work out exactly what I wanted out of life and how I was going to get it. And also because I had to acknowledge that so far I had failed too often and what the lessons were.

There is perhaps one key to my being in a much better place in life than I was while writing the first blog. I prioritised learning. After acknowledging I wasn’t where I wanted to be in life, I had to figure out why. It wasn’t through lack of effort. I had tried my absolute heart out. I realised then that I just didn’t have the right information. So I doubled down on reading. It seems clear to me that every problem we encounter today, people have faced before in some form. Amongst those that faced the problem, some succeeded. And from that group some wrote books about it.

The pandemic was as difficult for me as it was for everyone. But I was determined to come out the other end a better man. I read and read.

Gradually things started to come together. I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. At the end of 2021 I quit my job, resolute that from that moment on I would determine my own fate. So far so good. In the posts that follow I’ll explain exactly what I do now and how you might find what I learnt useful.

To my returning readers, it’s been too long, I missed writing for you. To new readers, a warm welcome.