Life Happens For Me, Not To Me (Part One)

Great Morning Ya'll!

Today, I want to share the story behind how I learned to view life through a lens that allowed me to regain my power.

Seeing life as it is, not the stories I created in my mind for years.

Part One of Life Happens For Me, Not To Me shares my story, leading into the lesson for the next few days.

PREFACE

Let me start out by saying, I've had a privileged life.

Not only did I grow up without any real struggles, but I've always woken up believing I deserved to have a good day.

As a result, I've had a good life.

But I'm still human. Not everything has been perfect.

It hasn't all been roses.

Even a rose has a handful of thorns.

I've experienced a handful of things that have been pretty damn undesirable.

Some of which I've told close friends and family,

others I've decided to keep to myself.

Today, I want to share the beginnings of a story that only my inner circle knows about.

It will serve as the much-needed context that will lead up to the big lesson.

A story that has completely altered how I choose to see the world.

An event that truly happened for me.

THE STORY

My mind told me I had it all figured out.

I loved making money more than anything else, and I was good at it.

I made some big moves in the finance industry while finishing my business degree.

Despite being 22 at the time, I was the top sales agent at a small financial services company.

I helped build and train the entire sales team, a group of older men and women who all had kids or grandkids my age.

It became obvious that the company leaders were grooming me to become the sales director within the next few months,

and eventually the CEO a few years later.

In America's most profitable industry, I was set to make hundreds of thousands a year for the foreseeable future,

and probably a few million a year, less than a decade down the line.

I thought I had it made...

I was driving my dream car.

A Jeep Wrangler with big wheels and all the other modifications,

the same car we see in every summertime beach movie.

Dating a lot of women at the time, always having fun and partying on the weekends.

Finishing calls early on a Friday and heading to Lake Tahoe's beach in summer,

or driving to nearby states for the best snowboarding and skiing in winter.

It was an absolute blast.

Until it wasn't.

I began to get really sick...

like, all the time.

I'm not just talking about the common cold...

Despite eating relatively healthy and exercising,

my body felt like it was breaking down.

After having attended a Tri Delta Formal, I came home with Mono (the kissing disease).

Little did I know, it would result in severe tonsillitis, making it nearly impossible for me to eat.

I lost over twenty pounds in less than a month.

Mono persisted for nearly 5 months.

The biggest challenge was the inconsistent fatigue.

Some days, I'd be able to go to school, do my sales calls, and live life like normal...

Other days, I didn't have the energy to get out of bed and walk to the kitchen.

After my mono began to go away, other little illnesses found their way to me.

At this point, my mind was telling me to keep going,

But my heart was throwing up the white flag.

I needed to stop,

I needed to make a change.

I began to have this agonizing gut feeling telling me,

"Bro, this ain't it. MAKE A CHANGE NOW."

But I wasn't listening. I couldn't listen.

I was on track to make a quarter million dollars at 22.

I'm in college, I'm supposed to party all the time and eat Top Ramen.

But that gut feeling wasn't shutting up.

So, like many others, I chose to numb it.

This is when I started drinking and smoking weed alone.

Coming home, going straight to the Xbox, taking a marijuana edible, and playing video games until 2 am.

Then repeat the next day.

I've told this part of the story many times before...

This continued for nearly a year.

My ways of pacifying myself evolved into dreaming of a different life...

One in which I quit my job, moved out of Northern Nevada,

and move to Bali, Indonesia.

This thought came to my mind, because now that I had money of my own, I began to search "Cool Vacation Spots" on YouTube.

All that came up were videos about Bali.

I became obsessed with the island.

I researched exactly where I'd want to go,

all the gyms, beaches, and coffee shops I'd frequent.

I had it all mapped out, but knew that it would stay a pipe dream.

I would never have the balls to actually quit this golden opportunity that I had in business,

along with this life that seems to have everything someone my age would want.

And then....

I was flown out by the company to the headquarters,

where I was able to meet many of the business partners who built and invested in the company I helped grow.

I was sat at a round table,

surrounded by these men who were each worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

They were fascinated by what I had done at 22 years old,

asking questions as if they were grooming me to take over the CEO position of the company a few years later.

Then they hit me with a line that I will never forget...

With a smirk on their face, they said,

"Cameron, if you keep doing what you're doing, you're on track in the next decade or two to be just like us."

This scared the living shit out of me.

These men, despite being good people, many having hundreds of millions of dollars...

were immensely misaligned.

Many were on their third or fourth wife,

they had a few kids that refused to talk to them,

and shared the same bad habits as myself, numbing themselves to sleep every night.

This was my wake-up call.

It was time to listen to my gut.

The very next day, we had a mastermind-type event for the entire company, in which I played a large role in leading.

I presented on how to serve clients by understanding their emotions.

Although I liked the way I approached this business,

my heart was still telling me it wasn't right.

So I listened.

Right after the day was over, I went up to the founder of the company and told him that I'd be quitting.

I told him that I'm walking away from the company,

selling parts of what I own,

and giving away the vast majority of my book of business.

He took it relatively well, assuming that I was just burnt out.

He offered to pay for me to go on a vacation for a few weeks and come back fully refreshed.

But I knew that wasn't happening.

I went home that day and booked a one-way ticket to Bali.

CONCLUSION

This wraps up Part One of the story.

Part Two will continue, getting to the juicier part of the lesson.

Then there will be a Part 3 and 4, if needed.

All of this will tie together that everything has happened FOR me, not TO me.

That's it for today.

I hope you know that you are loved, and enough.

See you tomorrow,

I unconditionally love you all.

-Cameron Hogan