Advice to a young engineer considering moving to San Francisco: "Do you want to leave your friends behind? Or be the one left behind?"

-Short excerpt from "The Almanack of Naval Ravikant."

In a time when we can fly anywhere in the world to find our own truth, how many people actually do it?!?

I just did a quick quick google search, and it shows that 70% + Americans live in, or close to the city/town they grew up in.

Lets say that data is wrong, instead the stat was lower...more around 50% ... that still means 50% of the population still revolve their lives around similar people/information/experiences/etc.

There is no way they can know the entire truth of their being if this is the case.

Lets get this straight, I am not knocking the people who have remained close to where they were born/raised/lived. It is possible to surround yourself with new people, new experiences, new education/information, all through times of travel/etc.

I am only planting the seed to the simplest thing someone can do to find themselves and their TRUTH...leave the safety of the nest that they have created for themselves.

In July of 2015 I moved to Nashville from the east coast, I only knew 3 people...and they were all co-workers.

Then in January of 2016, I moved to Houston from Nashville, I only knew Erin.

Lastly, in August of 2017 I moved to Austin, and again, the only person I knew was Erin.

Each time I had to shed an old version of myself, and at the same time ask myself...

"Who do you want to be CJ? Why do you want to be that person? Who do you want to be surrounded by? What do you want to learn? Why do you want to learn it? What path do you want to take? Why do you want to take that path?"

Because I didn't know anyone, I was able to avoid being pulled into directions that were not chosen by me. The noise was gone. I could point my arrow wherever I wanted it, and fire it off.

What this all revealed was that I was highly anxious and depressed with the path I had lived up until that point.

I wanted to make a larger impact on the world, and the choices I had made were not aligning with that.

I didn't give a shit about the engineering degree that I sacrificed 5 years of my life to get.

I didn't give a shit about the rat race and leveling up "jobs" in the corporate world.

I realized how stupid it was to sit at a desk for 8-10-12 hours a day and slowly kill my mind, body, and soul. Just so I could sound cool on the weekend to whoever asked me about "my career or my job."

I slowed down a lot of my negative habits revolving around alcohol, weed, and other substances...and today many off those habits are completely cut out.

I refused to hang around negative people who suck energy out of the world.

What did all this lead to?

My truth.

The one where I value my personal health and wellbeing over everything else.

Why?

Because if I am healthy, I am happy.

And when I am happy...

I make better decisions in all areas of my life.

I am a better husband.

I make better financial decisions (no longer spending $100's a month on alcohol and fast food)

I am able to handle stressful business decisions with grace.

The list goes on and on.

I became a better me, and every day moving forward I strive to improve.

So what is the purpose of this email?

To convince you not to be the person that gets left behind when it comes to finding your own truth.

Don't go your entire existence on this planet without at least trying to find who it is you truly are.

And to do that you need to block out all the noise.

You need to start with a blank canvas of some sort.

Who would you be in this world if you had the ultimate choice?

I'd love to know!!!

Don't tell me though.

SHOW ME.

Happy Friday!!!

#thriveon

CJ

p.s. today there is a lot going on for me. Lunch & Learns, fundraisers, a news segment about Erin and I (THRIVE)...on top of day to day business operations... I am grateful for the abundance. I worked my ass off for years for days like today. Now it is time to just love today and love this process even more.