“If you wanna change the world, start off by making your bed.”
—Admiral William H. McRaven
My Dreams
When I was little, I wanted to be a superhero.
When I was in the junior high school, I wanted to be famous.
When I was in the high school, I wanted to be rich.
When I was in the college, I wanted to start a business.
And here I am, not having achieved any of those dreams.
My dreams changed. —superhero, being famous, rich to entrepreneur.
There is, however, something that hasn’t changed a tiny bit.
“I want to change the world”
It was just my “how” that has been shifted.
From the immature and childish way to the more efficient and pragmatic way.
How my dreams have changed?
When I didn’t know anything, I thought only the superheroes could change the world. But in the reality, so many things are interconnected to one another, it makes it almost impossible to identify the clear-cut solution. Fighting against a villain with the super power sounds cool. The problem is, however, whom world is the superhero trying to change? From the villain’s point of view, superhero is the villain. And the villain is, too, trying to change the world, as a superhero in his world.
Then, as I grew up, my view of the world changed. I came to realize that superheroes, and also being famous or rich couldn’t change the world. The only thing they could do was to show off their power and fill up their egos.
The point is, these dreams are all based on objective values; power, money, social status and etc. We all crave for the recognition from others, everyday.
Everyday, we are more convinced that we are not enough. There’s always someone better than us. How much power we get, how much money we earn, and how hot your girlfriend/boyfriend is, it will never be ENOUGH.
‘Entrepreneur’ is a tricky one though. We see so many entrepreneurs who are doing innovating things here and there, and that made me think maybe I could do the same thing. The truth is, however, those are the ones in millionth or billionth. Will I be able to be one of them? Obviously, NO. Probably I’d end up working day and night just looking for more money.
Pursuing those dreams is really unhealthy. It is like getting blood from stone. It’ll break me down at some point. Instead, I have to focus on something more definitive and meaningful.
So, what’s now?
Now I know the only thing I can change is my world. By implementing small changes everyday, I can transform it into something much better over the years. And when my world rises above others, it will start influencing others’ world.
When I started studying in the college, I couldn’t speak English even a tiny bit. I wanted to change that. I wanted to sound like a native. So I started listening to podcasts everyday. At first, I couldn’t understand a thing. But 5 years later, I have become to be able to understand the every single word.
And now every one of my friends asks me how they can improve their English skills just as I did. My world starts influencing theirs.
Here’s another example. I started taking working out seriously just over 2 years ago. I couldn’t bench even 60 kg back then. But I kept doing it for 6 days a week (the gym is only open for 6 days a week). I showed up in the gym everyday, even when I was tired to the bone. And now, I can bench 110 kg and deadlift 180 kg. And I still hit the gym everyday.
Obviously, whenever I go to the gym now, everyone asks me and says that they wanna know my secret, except there isn’t one. But it’s just what happens when my standard gets higher than others. It starts influencing others’ world.
Just after a few years, I’m seeing these results. I can’t wait to see what I could achieve in 10 years.
The each step seems so small and sometimes it makes me wonder if I’m making any progress at all. But this tiny step is the only thing that counts. It’s the only thing that can make me better. In other words, if I can’t make even a tiny step forward everyday, there’s no chance that I could change the world.
Keep living.
“If you wanna change the world, start off by making your bed.”
—Admiral William H. McRaven
Nobu’s blog 