I was just about to google how to start a proper and interesting blog...
Let me explain: what you need to know about me is that I try to do everything according to the "first time right" principle. I don't leave much room for mistakes or exposure of any kind that could be "embarrassing" or make me feel like a "newbie". That is probably why it took me almost 10 years to set up and publish this website... it might also have been due to some other things like work, work and work, but never mind.
After moving the Shanghai - in July '19 - I started to reflect more deeply on my life and the things I had done and achieved in the past 10 or so years. I arrived at the conclusion that I had missed out on a lot of interesting things and wanted to change that as fast as possible. I also wanted to share this process with as many people as possible to create a certain form of pressure to ensure that I keep going with this process. As a starting point I had to rid myself of above mentioned habits, of certain worries, thoughts, doubts, I had to make changes to existing habits and adopt new ones. One of the core messages I told myself was: Why worry? I have this one life and if I want to overhaul and improve it, I just have to go for it and not fear the consequences of the "what-ifs".
One of many useful steps to rid myself of certain less useful and time consuming habits included improving my social media habits. For example: I improved my Instagram feed by un-following a lot of less helpful accounts and follow accounts and people like "before5am", "financialtimes", "bloombergbusiness", James Clear, "Principles" and the brain behind it: Ray Dalio. Other feeds such as "readingforgrowth" and "Blinkist" helped me to identify good literature that could support my efforts to focus more, be less distracted, set the right goals... Overall they do share some good insights on how to live your life more meaningful and happy.
As a result of that I can honestly say that de-cluttering my life in every possible way feels extremely good. And it didn't stop with my social media habits. I de-cluttered my wardrobe, my phone, my workspace and many other things - not only to the delight of my wife, but also to the improvement of my own mental health.
But why this blog? I enjoy the fact that writing a blog allows me to process and de-clutter my thoughts on a regular basis. I am sure that on the long run it will bring a lot of benefits to my mental well-being not only to do it in a structured way but also to make it public to others. This is a bit similar to what I've done in my professional life as a management consultant and the blog makes it possible to continue doing it. Making it public also helps seeing other people's reaction to my perspectives and reflections and thereby enriching my view on certain topics that really matter to me. Doing research for new articles requires me to dive deeper into interesting subjects and helps me to broaden my knowledge in different areas of life. While being a consultant I never appreciated learning as much as I do now. My "know-it-all" attitude kept me from learning and improving my skills by reading and doing other research. Now that I have the time to do it, I came to appreciate and cherish this opportunity given to me.
I will post new entries to this blog every week, probably every Monday. I will try to create articles that will take you about 4-5 minutes to read. The main goal is to self-reflect on what's going on in my life and to share these reflections with you. I will also share my thoughts on what I think is a good read, an interesting video on YouTube, a good audio book, etc...
I will most probably create blog entries about topics such as psychology, health, self-development, productivity, etc. since these are important to me at the moment. I might dedicate a separate space to those things in the future, depending on how much time and effort I can put into these topics and how much valuable content I can create.
For now, let's get started with completing my website, adding some blog entries and sharing some more details on my life, especially on what I did in the past and what I strive for in the future. Please share your thoughts and input on my website and my blog. Hope you'll stick around.
Cheers,
Marcus