FOMO is why you aren’t successful
Fear will always blind you.
If you are into productivity, entrepreneurship, tech or a millennial in general, you are very much aware of what FOMO is.
FOMO is an acronym of Fear of Missing Out, or, how I like to call it, “How I made millions before I was 18 in ten easy steps”.
I mean, everyone’s seen this kind of article somewhere. And you think, well, if they can do it, so can I.
So you kill yourself with work and stress, trying to become someone with confirmation bias.
The problem with FOMO is that we get so wrapped up in where we want to go, we start to believe that the path that someone else has taken will work for us.
Well, at least that’s how my journey into FOMO started. But I’m long past that.
You see, I’m the kind of person who likes collecting skills. I greatly dislike being totally bad at something, so if something grabs my interest, I’ll learn how to do it until I’m confident that if I ever need that skill, I’d manage, and move on.
I do this for me. It gives me great joy to learn new things. The problem is that once I feel I’ve got the hang of it, I get bord and move on.
Due to the great accumulation of skills that I possess and continue to learn, my FOMO took on a new dimension: that I’m missing out on all the amazing things I could do if I only chose one and stuck with it.
And I’ve tried for years to find something that would allow me to become a specialist instead of a jack of all trades. So that I could finally focus and reach the heights I deserve.
I know better than that now, of course. I’ll never settle down for one thing. And I’m ok with that.
The problem with FOMO is that we get so wrapped up in where we want to go, we start to believe that the path that someone else has taken will work for us. And you know what, it might. But only if you are lucky enough to be compatible with the examples you have chosen to follow.
Fear blinds you
I know I wasn’t. And my mental and physical health paid a brutal price for it.
However, that doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t follow your dreams or try to be the best version of yourself. It just means that if you feel FOMO, you are not on the right path.
Take a step back and really understand what kind of person you are. What are the inescapable traits you have, and how you can turn them into your strength?
Once you know that, then, and only then, should you try to find people who have reached where you want to go in a way that plays to those same strengths, and see what you can learn from how they did it and what you can bring into your own path.
I feel silly writing this, because from a logical standpoint, this is so very obvious. But that’s the thing about fear isn’t it? Fear blinds you, even from the most obvious things. And there is always a price to pay for blindness.
I write this in the hopes of helping someone to see their way through the fear without having to sacrifice as much as I have stumbling in the dark. Truthfully, I don’t know if anyone will ever read this. But I DO hope that one day it may help someone find their way into being the most awesome version of themselves they can be.
