Emotions as a compass, not a navigator

I’m going to start with a short Neiko history lesson. When I was younger, I grew up suppressing my emotions. I was dealing with a lot of mental issues and I decided, the best way to deal with everything was apathy. While I was in high school, everyone was deciding on their futures and I was more focused on just making it through the day. I eventually met my girlfriend (my now wife) and she gave me a space to express my emotion and feel confident with them! I started enjoying things and tried finding my own interests! I tried Youtube, writing, drawing, and I soon realized I suck at all of them. It was disheartening to realize all the effort I realized I needed to make, how much time I needed to commit, and I think amongst all the different things going on in my mind - I dropped all of these things. It just made me too sad to work on. So, why am I talking about all of this?

I used emotions as my navigator, the pilot of my ship, the captain of my boat, etc. After years of becoming more in-tune with my emotions, I realize the value of emotions - I also realized it’s power. Emotions can make us rationalize things we shouldn’t be happy with. It’ll encourage addictions, gluttony and whatever gives you short-term distractions from life’s day-to-day monotony (if you’re in the head-space of viewing life this way), which would lead you down the wrong path. But on the other side, if you ignore your emotions, it’ll create resentment and have you lean towards these vices anyways. Emotions should be listened to, but not obeyed. Use them as an indicator of the direction you should be going - but sit back and think if that direction will help you long term. Yes, I’d rather play Super Mario Sunshine at 11pm instead of writing a blog post that requires me to critically think. But then I’ll wake up the next morning wish I wrote this. I’ll think back 5 years from now, wishing I wrote more, filmed more, and did more. I’ve been neglecting my other interests due to my shifting work schedules and taking care of my dog Spotz while he’s sick. This is the one thing I consistently do, once a week - write.

Writing is going to be the ultimate pillar that I’ll need across all my bucket list items. I want to make a movie that’ll make it to theaters, I want to make a game with my own team, and I want to write my own book one day. My emotions may take me away from everywhere else (for the time being), but I won’t let it navigate me away from where I want to be for long. Life isn’t always perfect, but we need to have faith in ourselves that we’ll get ourselves back on track