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1 Year
1 year ago, I sent out my first ever Monday Motivation email newsletter. It only went to a handful of people (many of which were my alternate email addresses), and the subject was “New Things.” I talked about how I always struggled to start new things because I would get wrapped up in all the unknowns in my head. But thanks to a good friend, I was somewhat forced to just start, and I am so incredibly thankful for that.
At the time, I had never really done anything like this. And to be honest, I’ve never really been a huge fan of writing either, so this was definitely out of my comfort zone. But at the end of the day, it served two purposes really well. First, it filled a slot in life for me that I call ‘passion projects.’ Things that aren’t really necessary, and also don’t provide much immediate benefit, but you do them just because you want to. I think these types of outlets are extremely healthy, and before starting this newsletter, I didn’t really have any. The second purpose that this newsletter really fulfilled for me, and the one I am most proud of, is that I proved to myself that I could do something like this.
As I said earlier, I never do things like this because I get too wrapped up in my head trying to think of all of the possibilities. But 1 year ago, I just started. I had no clue what I was doing, or where I was going, but I took the first step anyways. And that one step changed everything. Now this isn’t some crazy story where my life totally changed course after I started this newsletter, because it didn’t. However one key thing changed in the way I looked at life. This newsletter was not hugely successful. It didn’t garner millions of subscribers, or launch me into stardom, but in my eyes, it’s one of the best things I have ever done because it gave me the confidence to continue to pour into other passion projects - it gave me a better understanding of what a passion project is, and having an outlet for something like this has proven so incredibly healthy for me.
So with all that said, things are about to change a little bit around here. At least for the near future, this will be the last weekly email you will get from me. I might keep up a monthly motivation newsletter, or something similar, but I think Monday Motivation as you have experienced it thus far, has run its course. Now that I have proved to myself that I can do something a little out of the usual, I think it is time for me to take a step back and dream a little bigger.
So that is my challenge to you this week: take the first step. Take a step to do something you would put in the ‘passion projects’ category. At the end of the day it might turn it to a hobby, or if you’re really lucky, that passion might turn into a career. But either way, I hope that first courageous step, followed by a few steps of confidence, will teach you some of the same lessons that I learned. People always say to “follow your passion.” But I always heard that to mean something really aggressive like dropping out of school or quitting your job to pursue some weird niche hobby that you have. What I have learned through all this, though, is that following a passion doesn’t necessarily have to be an aggressive or monumental act, it can be baby steps on the side of whatever else you are doing. For me, it started with a single email just 52 weeks ago.
So although this is the last weekly Monday Motivation, it definitely won’t be the last email you get from me. If you want to go back and read any of the emails I sent out over the last year, they are all on my website danlaff.com. So thank you so much for following this journey with me. And as my dad writes in his email signatures, I’ll E-ya later :)
Stay Motivated,
-Dan
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