This is a powerful post Sam. Thanks for sharing your journey with us.
I have friends who have taken a similar path. Living someone else's life and goals, no clue of what their's we're. The military did that to me as well. While I enjoyed my time in service, I always felt I could do and be more. My work, ambition, and identity were certainly not in alignment.
That's why I'm doing what I'm doing now. No specific plans. Discovering my evolving identity as I build my business.
It's crazy though. I probably work way more than I did when I was in the military, but my ambition is greater and my identity much more visible to me and those that I encounter online and in person. Seems like you're walking a similar path. Keep going brother!
Thanks Keith! Cool to hear you've had a similar journey. The observation on working more now is a super interesting one. I would have expected a shift like this meant working less but that definitely hasn't been the case. Excited to see what continues to emerge in your work and life.
Glad to hear you were able to get out of the corporate greed, pride and envy machine. It can be a brutal place, and it's sad how default of a path it has become.
Sounds like you've found a good medium in terms of a job that pays the bills, and lets you focus on your own embodied health. I definitely hope we can get more people into that space, and I'm curious to see what other advice you have on that topic.
Love this post! I went down a very similar road with the "impressive" job and then starting a couple businesses. Appreciate you sharing it.
This story hits on two things for me:
1. Ambition is great, but ambition for ambition's own sake is a rudderless ship, one just as likely to take us into the rocks as over the next horizon. Usually, we just end up sailing in circles trying to impress others and never in tune
2. The power of pursuing dharma for dharma's sake. You talk about pursuing writing and podcasting without knowing where they will go. That's powerful! That's the work. We do what we're called to do, without worrying about what fruit will be produced and that's the process that leads us to places we could never imagine.
Definitely inspired to write about these themes, thanks! I'll make sure to tag On Renewal!
Ahh just saw this. Thanks Ben! Look forward to reading your writing on these themes.
Sounds like you've read some of the Gita as well. Have you read The Great Work of Your Life that was inspired by it? It's become one of my favorite books to gift people that are interested in wrestling with some of this stuff.
I love this line "I saw how my ambition can be unleashed not just in work but as a husband, father, friend, gardener, writer, citizen, and whatever other components now make up my fluid and evolving identity."
I was literally talking to my friend yesterday over the fact that us being in corporate world/holding knowledge jobs is one of the easy ways to lose touch of reality and how what we do contributes meaningfully to the world. My friend is thinking of switching to healthcare eventually for that line of thinking.
Thanks Minh! Appreciate you sharing your experiences. I just checked out your writing and really enjoyed your essay on "How to Life Your Own Life". Felt like there was a lot of overlapping themes. Sharing it here so others can discover it as well:
This is a powerful post Sam. Thanks for sharing your journey with us.
I have friends who have taken a similar path. Living someone else's life and goals, no clue of what their's we're. The military did that to me as well. While I enjoyed my time in service, I always felt I could do and be more. My work, ambition, and identity were certainly not in alignment.
That's why I'm doing what I'm doing now. No specific plans. Discovering my evolving identity as I build my business.
It's crazy though. I probably work way more than I did when I was in the military, but my ambition is greater and my identity much more visible to me and those that I encounter online and in person. Seems like you're walking a similar path. Keep going brother!
Thanks Keith! Cool to hear you've had a similar journey. The observation on working more now is a super interesting one. I would have expected a shift like this meant working less but that definitely hasn't been the case. Excited to see what continues to emerge in your work and life.
Glad to hear you were able to get out of the corporate greed, pride and envy machine. It can be a brutal place, and it's sad how default of a path it has become.
Sounds like you've found a good medium in terms of a job that pays the bills, and lets you focus on your own embodied health. I definitely hope we can get more people into that space, and I'm curious to see what other advice you have on that topic.
Love this post! I went down a very similar road with the "impressive" job and then starting a couple businesses. Appreciate you sharing it.
This story hits on two things for me:
1. Ambition is great, but ambition for ambition's own sake is a rudderless ship, one just as likely to take us into the rocks as over the next horizon. Usually, we just end up sailing in circles trying to impress others and never in tune
2. The power of pursuing dharma for dharma's sake. You talk about pursuing writing and podcasting without knowing where they will go. That's powerful! That's the work. We do what we're called to do, without worrying about what fruit will be produced and that's the process that leads us to places we could never imagine.
Definitely inspired to write about these themes, thanks! I'll make sure to tag On Renewal!
Ahh just saw this. Thanks Ben! Look forward to reading your writing on these themes.
Sounds like you've read some of the Gita as well. Have you read The Great Work of Your Life that was inspired by it? It's become one of my favorite books to gift people that are interested in wrestling with some of this stuff.
This is very powerful Sam.
I love this line "I saw how my ambition can be unleashed not just in work but as a husband, father, friend, gardener, writer, citizen, and whatever other components now make up my fluid and evolving identity."
I was literally talking to my friend yesterday over the fact that us being in corporate world/holding knowledge jobs is one of the easy ways to lose touch of reality and how what we do contributes meaningfully to the world. My friend is thinking of switching to healthcare eventually for that line of thinking.
Thanks Minh! Appreciate you sharing your experiences. I just checked out your writing and really enjoyed your essay on "How to Life Your Own Life". Felt like there was a lot of overlapping themes. Sharing it here so others can discover it as well:
https://minhwrites.substack.com/p/how-to-live-your-own-life