The last 6 months or so I’ve had to really focus on paying my bills. Over the following 6 months my social life will be nonexistent, but by the end of 2024 I plan on being debt free (Everything you’ve seen from me thus far has been done with like an 800$ minimum to the credit card pimp daddies).
I’m not going to participate much in live events as I manage debt and it will look like I’ve ghosted out the scene. This isn’t the case at all, in fact the whole time I’ll be going through FOMO.
Last year, I did a lot. I tested a lot of boundaries and got a sense for how expensive the next tier of the game is for me. I have a clear sense of where I want to go and am going to be working on a bunch of music on the low. Unfortunately that comes with seeing a lot of people participating in things I wish I could be at.
Therein lies the trap of FOMO, something that I believe keeps a lot of people down in life.
Everyone’s life has a unique set of blessings and problems
Sometimes you get these patches, they can last months, where you just go hard. Life feels like a movie. The dopamine hits are constant and the world feels surreal. Then one day it just kind of ends.
In my case it was financial reasons that “sobered” me up. It could be a plethora of different things that appear to change your momentum. I spent a long while trying to figure out the direction of the next 5 years of my life. It became clear that for me to really hit my goals I had to finally deal with credit card debt.
That means a lot of sacrifice. My weekends have turned into hours of me driving around. My days are filled trying to balance my sales gig, chores and any other commitments. Meanwhile I’m watching people drop music, perform at shows and otherwise live a version of life I’d rather be living.
Since I learned the world was pay to play, I realized it's advantageous for me to start paying to play. To do that I need to sacrifice immediate rewards for the bigger picture. It may take me a whole ass year to get where I need to be, but if I focus and hustle, next year I can be doing bigger and better things. Even if it takes 2 years, there is the rest of my life to pursue goals.
That still leaves me with the here and the now.
Watching the world through social media’s lens
Now that I’m less connected to certain communities, I’m left to watch what happens through the view of social media posts and stories. Even though I’m doing what I feel I should be doing there is a part of me that feels like I’m making the wrong choice. This impulse to sacrifice what I’m working so hard for to go jump on the next shiny opportunity.
Meanwhile I am figuring out how to pursue bigger and badder cheques. Once you start closing deals it instils a different level of confidence. Still I am left with this longing and temptation to go jump into the midst of the culture we have. But I can’t, my money is based on how many hours I work. I need to max out those hours so I can clear the debt.
After a certain critical mass of debt reduction, my minimums will be way down and the entire task becomes more manageable. I can afford to work a little less. But taking my foot off the pedal now would be a giant mistake. Instead I’m left to watch others live the life I wish I was living now.
Investing in health will lead to wealth
I’m learning to live healthier again. I feel my clothes getting tighter. I 100% use food as an emotional crutch and stress eat. It’s a bad habit. Can’t be Mr. Lose Weight and ignore my health, am I right?
Slowly but surely I will work at dealing with my bad habits. Improve the diet. Make sure exercise stays a relevant part of life all year round. It’s taken a long time but a new routine is finally starting to form.
I am learning new skills. There is a lot of technology to be leveraged and I like teaching people how to use it. To do that, I need to learn how to use it myself. I’m a very DIY type of person, but that takes time. It takes the kind of discipline to remember that in spite of what opportunities others are getting now, I am personally getting incredible ones myself. They are just different from the ones I used to get and the ones I will get once I can pivot back to music.
It’s also good to take time away from the opinions of other people. It can be said I acted like a people pleaser and sucked at expressing how I felt in a meaningful way. Now I’m trying to establish what my value is via the merit of my effort. I need to get my income to a level where I feel comfortable spending money trivially again.
Now my choices are, a big vacation once or twice a year or many little trips. I think I’m going to choose the big vacation option this year. To achieve that, I have to resist all that FOMO and get out there and hustle. Write these blogs and make the best of my life.
Live Long and Prosper Everyone
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