Mohsin Cheema

Transcript

I'm not good at this I don't know what else I like what if I fail I mean I don't like my life now but I guess it could be worse right what can I do that used to be my negative self-talk on a daily basis for the last few years so how to get that way you see the last eight years of my life were devoted to getting my CPA designation I was becoming a chartered professional accountant yeah at the beginning of that Journey it was everything I wanted money overall success but as the years went on I became more and more disconnected with my

work doing my job and getting promoted it just wasn't bringing me the feelings of fulfillment I thought I'd get I thought I was crazy I thought something was wrong with me that having a good job wasn't making me happy so who all felt this way well I tried reaching out to my peers it was no secret most of us didn't really like it to me it seemed like the vast majority of us were so afraid of trying to spend some time figuring out what we actually wanted to do but we were okay spending our lives spending dedicating years of Our Lives building up a backup

plan we'd hoped we'd never have to use not a bad strategy but not a great one we were making decisions out of fear and finally I couldn't take it anymore the anxiety was getting to me and I thought the best thing to do was to take a break from my career 32 hours before becoming fully qualified as a CPA what would have marked the end of an eight-year Journey I decided to leave my job I knew what I needed to do next was the exact opposite of what I'd been doing for the past few years instead of being afraid and thinking about what could go

wrong and being paralyzed by my anxiety I made it my mission to expose myself to all of my fears this is my version of The Road Less Traveled and I think there are five fears that are common to all of us hopefully in sharing my experience you'll conquer your fears as well fear number one the fear of uncertainty I don't know what my passion is I don't know what to do with my life well the worst thing you can do is nothing one of the first things I did after leaving my job was to seek out a coach to maybe see if he could help

me understand myself a little bit better and I was super skeptical especially after all the self-development books I'd read but in our first meeting in the first two hours he was able to help me develop my values and a plan for how to live them every day fast forward can you guess what my passion is I'm doing it right now fear number two the fear of making no money or little money and it's true during unemployment I made a grand total of zero dollars and I couldn't live the lifestyle that I was used to but making less money was kind of a blessing in disguise

it made me realize how little I actually need for the things that bring me the most amount of Joy like having a cup of coffee being able to buy a book plus I knew if money ever got really tight I could always get a job again no big deal fear number three the fear of losing your friends or your connections your network trying to hold on to all of your relationships is a really painful experience you have to let people go I've realized that all the important people in my life have stuck around and you gotta realize that all that you're going to meet wonderful

new people as well that are probably way more aligned with what you want to do that's something you can look forward to fear number four the fear of disappointing others your parents your colleagues your friends whoever what are they gonna think well you can't control how other people are going to feel but you can control how you feel so I'm very okay with disappointing people now judges will probably disappoint you a little bit at this point you it I'll disappoint everybody if I have to but at the end of the day I'm gonna be proud of myself and you should too because I've realized that

when you do something that you're proud of yourself that feeling it easily outweighs the fear of disappointing someone else number five the biggest one of them all the fear of failure you see after two months of unemployment I found an opportunity where I could and would probably fail every day I got a job in direct sales it was 100 commission no guarantee of success and I gotta tell you the last few months have been filled with daily acts of failure and daily acts of courage see it was inevitable that I get way more no's and rejections that I'd ever get sales or yeses but encountering

failure so often helped me to push me to live a lifestyle where I was performing at my very best every day why because I was learning from my mistakes all the time so it turns out all the things that I was afraid of exposing myself to them actually helped me to live a happier life so The Road Less travel is not about quitting your job or doing something else extreme it's just about conquering your fears and choosing to live an authentic life so I want to leave you with some thoughts believe in yourself you are capable of doing anything you put your mind to do

your best to give yourself the time and the freedom to understand your strengths and your most valuable contribution to this world I promise you if you choose to fight your fears it'll be the most fulfilling thing that you do and there's only one way to do it be brave thank you

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.