Almost 10 years ago, I went to a tropical paradise for 10 days, I had nothing to do but learn to vacation.
Bored on the plane I watched the only movie that was available…Life of Pi. An incredible story and I recommend this movie. What made it amazing was the dictation of the journey, it sparked me to start thinking about mine.
I had an adventurous youth and so much had happened that shaped me into who I became that I didn’t want to forget it, and when I began writing I realized how much “baggage” I was carrying.
Travelling through nostalgia and emotion I felt a lot of things being reconciled in myself.
When writing out your life story you notice certain things repeat in different places with different people, it’s really eye-opening and you learn why some things always go the way they do. This wasn’t my objective, I didn’t know why I began writing… probably just inspired by the movie I just watched. As I continued, I realized my goal was to give my life an intermission, a moment in time to give it a good review (my version of vacationing I guess).
As I dug into my past I realized that I have a large hard drive filled with memories I had long forgotten and people that were way more impactful than I thought. After writing 64 pages of describing my life, the vacation was over. I returned home and haven’t continued the story since, but will someday, perhaps on my next vacation.
Here is the crazy part, before that vacation, I was incredibly business minded, stressed, and running around like an insane person, when I got back I was completely relaxed. I went golfing with a lifelong friend and his first comment was “are you smoking dope?, I have never seen you so chill”. Everything about my life began to change, I met my wife, I chilled out and my business grew. I pursued different things and changed my way of doing things just enough.
So ya, the next time someone tells you to “write it down” please do, it changed my life and remains one of the best things I ever did in my 20s.