One year ago, my life took an unexpected turn. It was there that I decided I had enough with my ordinary life and that I wanted to do something new. I didn’t really know what to do, but I couldn’t wait anymore.

Since then, many things have changed, like creating this blog, start to working part time (now from home), and moving to London (I will move this summer). It’s nothing particularly exciting, but I feel good about it, and it motivates me to do even more.

Below are a list of things that I didn’t know before starting this journey. They may be common sense for many, but it’s only when you apply them that you can feel the difference.

Stress is only a state of mind

For many years I was victim of nervousness and stress. I would feel very sick every time I had to do something out of the ordinary. Didn’t matter what I tried, I wasn’t able to find a solution.

Until I finally decided one day that no matter what I was going to do, I couldn’t possibly be in charge of everything that would happen around me. So I decided to let go.

No matter what was going to happen, I was finally free to react as I wanted as opposed to let fear and stress take over me.

This has been on of the best decisions in my life. From that moment I experienced virtually no stress and I now feel more secure of my action. It was only a matter of consciously deciding that there was nothing to be worried about, yet it took me many years to realize that.

It’s not about you, it’s about how other people feel as a result of interacting with you.

Before starting blogging, I thought that to be great online you had to be someone special. This was a problem because I was neither someone special, nor someone with good leadership skills. Plus I knew nobody.

It’s only when I tried to validate my beliefs that I discovered the truth. And the truth is that it’s not about being special, but it’s all about doing your best for making your visitors feel special.

Unfinished projects will get you nowhere

This is important. I’ve always been the kind of guy who loves to try new things. If it was for me, I would probably try to learn 4 languages in a year, practice a dozen different sports, and then start ten different projects per day (no exaggeration). Yet the only things that did work out in the last year are those that I continued to work in.

When I first started this blog, I had 0 readers and I was writing in a language that I didn’t really know well (I’m Italian). It took me a while to get the first readers and probably a couple of months before making a post that would become very popular. It wasn’t always easy to be focused on the big picture, but it paid off. For me the biggest lesson I learned through blogging has been to stick with something until it works, to learn from what worked before, but most importantly to believe in what you are doing, otherwise every single difficulty will be a reason to quit, and when you quit, nothing happens.

The same has been true for learning new things. I’m currently in the process of making my first iphone application, but it took a while to get to this point. Although I had a few years of programming experience, when I first picked up objective-c programming and the cocoa framework (this is the stuff we use for making the wonderful apps you use in your iphone) I was very confused by how much there was to learn. It took me a while to figure out how to create some basic stuff from myself, but I’m starting to feel comfortable now.

The moral of the story is that it’s easy to quit, and everyone can do it. But those who succeed are those who persist and move forward when difficulties arise.

Conclusion

It’s amazing how simple things like these can make a huge difference in our life. Now it’s your turn, what are the things that changed your life for the better? Even simple things matter. I’d love to hear your experiences.