F*ck My Life - I just woke up and I have really slept in!!

[Brewmacker]

As the title says, "F*ck My Life - I Just Woke Up and I've Really Slept In - Time to Hustle'

"F*ck My Life"
Okay okay, its really not that bad haha and I am pretty sure many of you people will relate to this introduction.

I am a Mechanical Engineer working in the Industry now for 10 years. I am 35 years old now, and in this time my career has blossomed from engineer, to team leader, to design manager for multi-million € industrial projects.
1.5 years ago I quit my managerial job and moved back to a more technical position again. Due to lack of poor design management and my 5 years of experience, upper management my new company requested that I fill this role.
Design Management is a role that is heavily technically and leadership based with a primary focus on safety and quality of design processes and final the product.
So okay, happy to help and with a position getting closer to a 6 figure € salary, I took on the role again.

I work 40 hours a week, usually more, and still get a sense of job satisfaction after the struggle of development, design and construction is over and the final product is complete. I also know my job is contributing to the world in terms of green energy, medicine and research so I am proud of my employer and stand behind their values (and also challenge them if a decision is not inline with my personal core values).

After years of just spending my cash having fun and traveling and with no significant pension pot (started way late) i realized, holy shit, I need a plan B.
I have owned my own apartment for 8 years so i knew I was saving some cash and last year I invested in a new house to peruse my hobby and passion (beer brewing and building a brewery). After many negotiations with finance guys and banks (who all said it was not possible) I finally entered into negations with a bank that allowed me to have two mortgages. One for the house and one for rental. The apartment is now rented and just paying for itself which is great.

As you can see, in terms of entrepreneurship I have not been completely idle but:

"I Just Woke Up and I've Really Slept In"

At the end of 2018 I was really over-weight, exhausted from work, single without kids, working too hard, drinking at least a bottle of wine a day and was just not happy with my life.

My employer, 6 months before Christmas, very kindly invested in the staff and hired a company fitness check. We all had a body scan and blood test which resulted in a "metabolic age" based on your condition. At 34 years old my metabolic age was 49. Shit!
Fortunately the company also started a 12 week boot-camp program (once per week), combined with tennis training (also once a week) and a strict diet (haha - what a joke) I thought okay I am on the right path. Due to the positive feedback from the boot-camp the course was extended a further 12 weeks up to Christmas.

At this point our bodies were again measured. I was so excited to see the improved results. This excitement was short lived when I saw the results: 90.1kg and metabolic age of 50. I got worse. I went home for Christmas depressed and beaten.

With the promise of a new year I started to get angry, angry at myself, angry at my delusions, angry with my decisions, angry at my self pity. I know, i know the bullshit of new years resolutions and all that. I think it is a powerful moment in the year because of the scale of time. You set a date in the future which is 12 months and focus on that goal. Maybe it is just me but it gave me the strength when I needed it the most.

So when I arrived back in Europe in the new year I started to read, started to study, started watching you tube videos about exercise, nutritional science, the human body and metabolism, insuline resistance, fasting, calisthenics. I became obsessed. Eventually just at the right time (around March) when all this knowledge was coming together I found an online course which promised belly to six pack in 5 weeks. I watched all the videos and it was perfectly inline with everything I was studying.

So for the first time in my life, i paid the money, invested in myself and my health and started an online course. Of course i was up to me when I started the five weeks and for someone who likes a party and drink few beers (occupational hazard of a beer brewer) I ALWAYS found something in the way (a vacation, a party, a beer festival) that delayed the start. In April 2019 i looked at my agenda, i saw all the things that were planned in April, May, and June and said "F*ck It! F*ck it to all the parties and holidays. I would just not eat the shit food, I would not drink beer, I knew I would not be myself anymore to those around me and F*ck anyone who did not accept that!"

I set a start date: 23 April 2019 and I stuck to it!

The course involved a combination of factors; keto diet, fasting 18 hours a day, working out 5 days a week in a fasted state, no snacking, not even mint tooth paste (potential insuline spike) and a vast combination of multiple dietary supplements. To workout in a fasted state I had to do this in the morning and because no gyms are open until 8.00, my living room became my gym. I woke up every day at 5.30 and by 08.30 i was finally walking out the door to work.
My kitchen became a kitchen for the first time in years with 15 grams carbs allowed for lunch and 35 grams for dinner I had to get very creative with my cooking skills which had been sitting dormant for nearly four years.

"Time to Hustel"

SO, you are probably wondering, "what the F*ck does this have to do with this forum?" and I am getting to it I promise.

You see, this 5 week course did not just give me my 6 pack back, it made me fundamentally change my life. Instead of playing computer games, watching TV, drinking beer and eating shit I sat at my table every evening and studied and read with a clear mind. I went to parties and did not get drunk with everyone else, haha you really see who your friends are when you do this! I lost a fair few. I was able to get up at 8.00 on a Saturday and Sunday and hit the calisthenics park and work out in the sun while my friends were at home sleeping their hangovers off.

The first book I read was the Power of Now (actually i had already read it twice over just before the diet began). This has now become a daily ritual for me to listen too (audio book) on the drive to work. It is a daily reminder that we are not our mind and emotions and has taught me to remain present (of course as much as i can) but also helps me in the relations with people in work.

Being single I started watching game videos, this developed into real social dynamics (RSD) and eventually natural game. RSD is in no way perfect but watching their videos every night for hours and applying the techniques everything was coming together nicely.
So yes the 5 week course was for my health and body (and thus also for self confidence) but I was no way expecting it to change my mind, to let go of inhibitions and to develop my social skills.

Why in F*ck's name am I here today??

If you have go this far, I would sincerely linke to thank for your patience and for reading. I havent really shared this story to anyone in such detail, it was very therapeutic.

I have finished this 5 week course nearly 4 weeks ago now. The result, I got a six pack and a very very different out look on life. Since the end date I still cook low carb, still as little gluten as possible reaches my lips in the for of beer (prefer cider these days weirdly) and I still havent watched TV or netflix. My evenings consist of me working out, eating and sitting at my table with my laptop and a shitload of videos on TED, RSD, Social Dynamics and Health & fitness.

So yes i was on a great path towards being the best that I can be (or so I thought) until one day I was watching a RSD Max video. He listed his favorite books which had made the biggest difference to his life. One of these books "Unscripted "by non-other than MJ de Marco. So i downloaded on Audible and started listing to it on the plane to Mallorca. I knew that self-development would never stop. But really!!!

@MJ DeMarco F*ck Sakes MJ!!

You woke a fire inside of me, something that the corporate world smothered to near death these last 10 years. This was the reason i became a Mechanical Engineer with a focus on product development and design. To create things that people value, that make the world a better and/or simpler place and to give something to the world instead of taking. F*ck F*ck F*ck! I spent this weekend in a dark room in a combined state of semi-depression, anxiety attack and a panic attack.

I feel like your words have liberated me from slavery and as a slave to the system I just want to go back to my cage because its all i know. That makes me feel really ashamed hence the combined state of negative emotions this weekend.

I am learning so much from your book and it is really F*cking me up but I think in a very very good way. How did they condition us so good!? haha

Conclusion:

The most important thing I have learned during my 5 week program and after was:
"There is rarely a perfect, never mind good, time to take action, and once the process is underway only then do we grow (please ignore the irony wtr. to my waste-line) and when we finally reach the finish line and achieve our goal let the tears of happiness flow."

I seriously had to pull the car over to weep for joy on the last day of the diet.

So you see why this all rolls into one big story now?
If I can take what i learned in the first six months of this year and apply this to entrepreneurship in the next 6 months with the same determination and sheer will, I will break free of this "Scripted Life" and I will add value to this wonderful world in the best way I can.

MJ thank you for the kick up the a$$, thank you for giving me a new "challenge of a lifetime and most of all thank you for waking me up! I hope to learn a lot from your forum and your community and I hope someday to repay in kind.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

NI ot e hsiev tqidoemobevoup og zua'si muuloph vu fitohp/fiwimuq tunivjoph!

Ximduni ecuesf, eqqsidoevi vji opvsu.