I hope you can appreciate how emotionally raw this article is.
2017 contained some of the lowest moments of my life, oddly it had some absolutely incredible moments as well. I cried more in 2017 than in the previous 10 years.
My family moved into our new home a few days ago. It was a very intense project, we filmed the whole construction process, these videos will be launched soon, the video project and the home construction took over my life. The videos are actually apart of a secret project for a client which will be launched in a few weeks.
We lost Steve to depression in August. I didn’t sleep more than a few hours per night for a few months. Steve was my dearest friend and business partner. The silver lining in this, the thing I hold onto is my closer relationship with his family.
After Steve’s passing I inherited all his projects, clients, estate paperwork, administration tasks, email etc etc. It added added hours and hours to my day of work and responsibilities.
In 2017 I went from joyful and calm to disconnected, snappy, stressed and I gained 25 pounds in 12 months. In moments of stress I said awful things to the people around me. I’m embarrassed at how I treated the people around me. They all gave me a free pass “Allan is stressed out” admitting my shortcomings is embarrassing as well. I didn’t give my children the attention they deserve. The people who deserve the best of me did not get it. The stresses of 2017 stole the best of me and the people around me were left with the scraps. I started going to a therapist to help process things.
The juxtaposition of building our family’s dream house with all the things my wife and kids want at the same time feeling like a bad parent and husband was tough. I fought off 80 pounds in the past 4 years only to have 25 pounds quickly sneak back on me.
I don’t do resolutions, I don’t even aligning goals with the new year because it’s bullshit.
But this morning I went for a brisk walk, this is something I stopped doing in March 2017. I worked too much in 2017, not like “too many hours at a desk”, but my mind and patience was stolen by projects and work for 18 hours a day.
I felt like I was in survival mode most of 2017. I’m taking my mind and body back from stress in 2018.
If you wanted it to build a product you’d find a way to get time to work on it. If you really wanted to start that new hobby you’d sacrifice something to find the time and money to do it.
I'll define a "Wannabe Entrepreneur" as someone who has never made money from their businesses. Here are the different types of wannabes.
In the past few years I've built go-carts, built a 200+ sq ft workshop, written several eBooks. How do I create a life where I have time to work on side projects?