Self-Mastery Nº29
My End of Year Reflections - 2020
Welcome to Self-Mastery — a place of timeless ideas to become the architect of your mind, create yourself, and do less, better.
The year's dawn has begun to set. And this is a time to finally sit down, exhale, and flick the "off" switch for our mind and body for a short while.
It is also a time for important introspection—a moment to self-reflect on this year. Because wow, it has been an absolute rollercoaster. So much has happened. For myself and the world, so many things have gone wrong. But also many good things, things beyond our dreams, have worked out.
A year ago, almost exactly, I never considered becoming a writer. I didn't even know it was something people did online. And I was lost just a few months prior. Life was stale. My mind was empty, and my heart had no desire. I couldn't remember I was doing because life, since leaving university, was a blur. It's not possible to recite to you what meaningful things I achieved, work-wise. But it's a funny thing—without digressing too much. I did travel more than I had ever done. It was like I knew Covid was coming. Or maybe it was to start fresh.
Then in late 2019, I delved into working social media. I chose that over writing, in fact. But after a few months, It was clear social media wasn't for me; I found it boring and uninspiring. I don't want to manage social media posts for companies; it is so tedious.
But I don't exactly know how writing caught my eye either. I didn't know where my love for writing came from. It just drew me in. Piquing my interests more than anything I else could think about. It was a brewing obsession in my cauldron that was starting to ferociously bubble and boil.
And it made sense. I was interested in grokking the English language since the early days in school. I almost pursued it almost intuitively through to university but replaced it for sports science. And now writing is back in my life, with more prominence than it has ever had.
This year, my love for words and sentences and stories has flourished. My dream and journey to blend eloquent writing with aesthetic and important topics have now set course. I went from no idea with what to do in my life to never feeling more sure and confident in what I want from myself.
And not only that, amazing things have happened. Writing has:
Taught me how to self-reflect: I learned more about myself in the past year than the past twenty years. Because writing was my favourite way to open up, voice myself clearly, and embody the person and story I wanted, rather than waste time trying to find myself in someone or something outside of myself.
Trained my mind to think better: without writing, I wouldn't think as clearly and easily as I do now. It enabled me to lay my thoughts on paper, decipher and break them down, and keep what matters. Clear writing became clear thinking for me.
Helped me develop better habits: on a fundamental level, I didn't just love writing stories, I loved writing, full stop. It could be texting, writing notes on my calendar or an app, or tweeting. The art (and science) of writing strong and beautiful prose was to die for. That alone gave me the dopamine hits I lusted for. I am probably one of the very few people that care about how nice a sentence looks in a text message.
Made me a happier person: I've never felt happier about who I am, thanks to writing. One other thing: cycling, is what I attributed to as an almost life-saver to the struggles I had growing up, feeling isolated and angry. Writing then became the second layer of my cake. It consolidated that I can be what I want, that I can have the confidence, wealth, well-being, and relationships that I want. It makes me know I am capable of one hundred times more than I think.
These four things are life-defining for me, but what has been even more life-defining thing writing has ensued is the opportunity it gives me to help others—like you.
I started writing on Medium in late January: my first time writing to try and help random people; I then created this place, Self-Mastery, half-way through the year. And it has been the most wonderful thing that's happened to me. Even writing this now, I am filled with great emotion.
Since Self-Mastery began, there are now 20 of you wondrous readers who read what I have to say each Sunday. Interestingly, many of my editions have higher views than current subscribers, so, some of you must really enjoy what I write. And this elates me. At the start of the year, I wasn't confident enough to think I'd be able to write interesting or high-quality content. But here we are. My Medium content now receives half a thousand views a week, and I get to share valuable and actionable content to you, my favourite reader.
2020 affirms my place in the writing sphere. And so my only goal for next year is to double down on everything that worked. I want to write better, be more consistent and specific, and write more valuable and visually pleasing content for you.
I want to achieve just one thing: help you to think, move, and live better. To create less, better means you can do things that matter with more efficiency while retaining happiness and peace. It means you can create yourself and reach the life you want faster. And it means I can make use of everything I've learnt and hopefully make a positive 1% difference in your life.
So, thank you for starting this journey with me in 2020. There is a long way still to go—a lot more for me to improve on to make your experience with Joxen and Self-Mastery more sublime. But hey, it means what you read will get a whole lot better.
What's on My Mind
Something happened recently that made my month—and quite possibly my year.
I received a Twitter DM from a reader. And while I've had a few nice messages before in my Medium articles' comments, this one felt personal.
A reader had written to me directly to offer kind words about this newsletter and my articles on Medium. And I realised that this is exactly what writing is about for me.
Writing online can be lucrative and very profitable. While that's nice, it's not something I care much about. Seeing that what I write helps people is what matters most to me. Because it tells me everything, it tells me I'm doing something right, that I'm doing what Joxen should. And it motivates me to continue and go even further for you.
To be successful in life is about focusing on other people: how can you help others? How can you solve their problems? How can you make them happier and life easier? What do you offer that will change the way something thinks, moves, or lives?
I had nothing to strive for less than a year ago, and I managed to answer these questions. Helping others is what makes matters, and being able to do that all week is a success to me.
Explore
I think all we should explore during this time is finding happiness within ourselves. It's a difficult time for us this year, and all I want you to do is do what makes you happy, find peace, and keep going.
Here is one question to take away: if you could stick to doing just one thing every day for a year, what would it be?
Merry Christmas, and see you in the new year.
—Jelani
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