I recently stumbled across a couple of podcast episodes that I did two to three years ago and it offered me a precious and previously unforeseen insight: my thinking around a lot of things remain largely the same and yet the reason why my life looks so different to what it was back then was because I gave myself the opportunity to indulge in what I believed in.
The key decision was taking time off of my career and opting for a year of exploration and of travel. The model I had in my head, however, that I became progressively more liberal with my views as the year went on with regards to my perspective on work, life, and everything in between. But what surprised me the most re-listening to what I said, is that these seeds were firmly planted even in 2018. What prevented my from acting on any of them in any significant manner was the fact that I was sucked in the whirlpool of striving for prestige through university and in a career.
I thought I underwent a lot of personal growth this year with the risk that I was taking, but on reflection, it just seems as that I gave myself the permission to live in a way that was more aligned to what I believed best. I recognise that actions speak louder than words which is probably why I thought the way I did. It gives me a lot of hope though now, that if I haven’t altered my position too much on a lot of these things, it must mean that I really do believe them.
The thing I take away from this is I should do more podcasts, or even start one of my own. There is something quite remarkable about being able to document our thinking. I don’t think I’d have this reflection if I hadn’t said yes to those two podcast episodes at the time.